The marketing industry offers a range of ways to earn a living, but one of the most fundamental career decisions you have to make is whether you should work on behalf of a brand ie the client-side or join the marketing services industry ie the agency side. I’ve done both. Here’s my perspective.
Client-Side
I started off working at Nestle, where I spend 7 years working on various brands such as Nescafe and Buitoni. It was my first proper marketing job and I loved it.
For a marketer, the client-side offers lots of opportunities.
a) You get a holistic view of a business. Not just the marketing, but all the other aspects. Sales, finance, purchasing, supply chain, manufacturing. You see everything and understand how a business really works. You’re in contact with all kinds of people - not just your marketing colleagues. You’ve got financial accountability and you get to see ideas and initiatives put into practice.
b) There’s pride in working directly on a famous brand and leaving your mark. If a brand has been around a long time, you’re contributing to its story. Equally, you could be responsible for influencing a category or consumer behaviour through something new. Even now when I walk into a supermarket I get a buzz out of seeing brands I used to work on.
c) Seeing your name on the business card of a well-known brand gives you a sense of status. Friends, families, strangers will be impressed. You acquire the reflected glory of the brand’s history and its corporate reputation. It’s on your cv forever. For someone young or inexperienced, it can be a tremendous boost to your confidence.
d) A good company should offer you opportunities for training. They should invest in you and look after you. You should also learn a lot from your line managers and your experienced colleagues.
e) Being part of a large organisation should give you a degree of security. This of course is less the case in these uncertain times, but hopefully, the robustness of a larger organisation should afford you some degree of protection and continuity.
But there are downsides
a) you’re a salaried individual, which is great. But if you have high financial ambitions, they may not be best served by staying in a corporate role. Salary bands are quite strict as are titles. If you’re a high flyer or want to move on quickly, you may have to be patient.
b) there’s also a need to adapt and conform to the corporate culture. If you love the culture, that’s great, but you may find it restrictive, having to toe the line, conform and deal with office politics.
c) the roles can get repetitive. The annual marketing cycle can remain pretty well unchanged, year in, year out. There’s a risk of feeling jaded, working on the same brand or category. If you love the strategic and creative side of marketing, you can get worn down by the day-to-day operational challenges of managing the brand and the business.
So, if this doesn’t appeal to you or you fancy a change, what’s the alternative?
Agency Side
I spent 10 years working at Added Value, a strategic marketing agency, which was eventually sold to WPP and eventually became Kantar Consulting. It was a really exciting and enjoyable phase of my career.
What does work in an agency offer?
a) the marketing services industry offers a huge variety. There are larger agency groups, more bespoke agencies. You get to specialise in the area of marketing you truly love. Packaging design, brand communication, market research, innovation, and more. You get to become a true industry expert. You may even become a guru!
b) the learning curve is rapid. You work on tough assignments, often with tight deadlines. You need to deliver to an exceptional standard and demonstrate knowledge and expertise. It can be very sink or swim. If you don’t perform well, clients won’t want you on their business. Also, you don’t want to be seen as a liability to the agency. However, if you’re up for the challenge and you perform well it can be a thrilling experience.
c) the work culture can be fun and dynamic. You don’t have the corporate restrictions of many larger organisations. People wear what they want. Being an individual is encouraged. You can bring your whole self to work. It helps if you’ve got a cool office in a nice location. There’s often a ready-made social life you can drop into.
c) I love the variety of the work challenges. Assignments can be short. You have the opportunity to work on many different categories, experience different corporate cultures, go behind the scenes and see how different businesses work. In the old pre-Covid days, you got to travel quite a lot. You’re dealing with ‘proper’ marketing. It’s a real privilege.
d) there’s the potential to earn more money. If you or your agency is super-successful, then you’ll be well paid, especially if you own / part own the agency. You may even decide to sell your agency for a tidy sum in the future.
But it’s not all fun and excitement.
a) remember, you’re working in the marketing services industry and your job is to serve clients. You have to respond to them, be nice to them, work extremely hard on their behalf and be subject to their changing moods, demands, and decisions. It can be wearing.
b) you’ll certainly work harder than people on the client-side. Short deadlines, tough briefs, demanding clients, mean that you’ll put in more hours, often over the weekends. If you work in market research, running focus groups in the evening is common practice. You live or die by the quality of your work. Unlike the corporate world, there’s no hiding place.
c) whilst there’s freedom and fun, there can also be a high degree of insecurity, The marketing services world is highly competitive and you’re always looking for that next piece of work. You’re continually in ‘sell’ mode. Sometimes you’re dependent on one or two key clients and if their work disappears, you’re in big trouble.
d) there’s also a lack of ownership. On the agency side, I’ve worked on many great brands. However, when the project ended there was a gap. It was up to the brand owner to implement and execute the ideas and recommendations that were generated. I never got to see ‘what happened’ as I was onto the next project with a different client. I found this a little frustrating. Whatever happened to that big idea that we came up with?
e) finally beware of personality dependency. The owners/leaders of agencies can be brilliant individuals, but this carries risk. They may be responsible for holding all the key client relationships or intellectual capital of the agency. If the individual disappears, then all this goes with it. Equally, you may be subject to the whims of the individual. If they love you - great. If they don’t rate you - you’re in trouble. There’s no hiding place.
So in summary
The marketing industry offers a wealth of career opportunities, on both the client and agency sides. And I’ve yet to mention freelance roles, running your own business, or teaching. What works best for you? Well, that’s your choice. People have rich and fulfilling marketing careers on both sides of the fence. It requires individual reflection, honest self-appraisal, and experience to discover your preferred role. Talk to people in marketing to help you make up your mind. Talk to a coach. And of course, seek professional career advice.