The Account is a marketing professional who manages the relationship between the agency and the client company and coordinates the work of the specialised departments within the agency (creative, media, production)
His/her main tasks are: the search for new customers and the loyalty of those already acquired, the study and collection of the needs and requirements of the customer, the formalization of the requests and objectives of the customer in a document, which is called a brief, the transmission of the contents of the brief to the specialist departments of its agency, the control and coordination of the work of these specialist departments (primarily the creative department and that of the media), the constant contact with the customer and the updating on the status of the work and the management of the advertising budget.
The knowledge required to practice this profession focuses mainly on marketing, the world of advertising and its technical aspects. It is useful to study the sector in Italy in greater depth and to have general knowledge of business economics (particularly useful as regards the budget and the coordination of the various company departments)
Among the transversal skills it is essential to have good interpersonal and leadership skills, excellent dialectic and negotiating skills, teamwork skills, management and organisational skills
The Brand Manager is responsible for the conception, design, presentation and promotion of a product line. S/he is fully aware of the interrelationships between the various products and is responsible for implementing the company's overall strategy. S/he generally coordinates a group of product managers.
S/he must be able to sponsor the brand, the brand, make it a symbol of quality for all the products that belong to it, making them more attractive than others.
S/he must also create a link with the brand, both as regards people within the company and, of course, as regards the consumer. S/he must have a very good knowledge of the world of marketing, communication, sales and production and have skills connected to the evolution of forms of relationship with brands and products made possible by the continuous technological innovation generated by IT.
For these reasons s/he must have multicultural skills, knowledge and sensitivity, from sociology to statistics, from marketing to psychology.
The Category Manager is an expert in distribution channel marketing, who is responsible for managing a family of products from the moment they leave the production site to the moment they leave the point of sale. This professional figure studies the purchasing behaviour of consumers towards products and provides retailers with strategic support to maximise sales of products belonging to their category of expertise.
His/her main tasks include defining the price, displaying at the point of sale and in promotional activities a category of products, monitoring sales of individual products, checking stock consistency in order to ensure the constant presence of products on the shelves, analysing the effectiveness of promotional activities and, if necessary, their modification, collaborating with market research agencies to define the methods for collecting data, changes in the assortment of products in the category, the study and summary of data on sales trends of products to be transmitted to the manufacturer
They must have marketing, administrative and market data analysis skills.
The community manager initially designs the community structure and events, based on any user requests or on the objectives of a client; then defines the methods of aggregation, chooses the tools, services, categories of discussion and if necessary, can also use moderators, promoters or other figures, who support him in the management of the community itself in order to create an environment in which members feel free and confident to express themselves, to dialogue, to communicate, to collaborate, without fear of being judged or misinterpreted, which in the end contributes to the growth and development of a good virtual community.
They must have computer skills for the management and administration of CMS, forums, social media and use of applications designed for social media, and possibly an excellent knowledge of English. They need to have marketing knowledge and skills and to get in touch with content managers in order to identify and create new topics that could meet the needs of users.
The Marketing Manager is the figure who sets the marketing policy and coordinates the activities of all those working in the sector.
S/he is responsible for market analysis, advertising, various techniques for optimizing product sales, and various price solutions. S/he manages the company's marketing area and collaborates and also deals with the product and the brand manager to better manage the teamwork, which is fundamental in the communication sector. The marketing manager coordinates the group and the means to achieve a result, acquires customers, negotiates with suppliers, deals with the conclusion of contracts and finally takes care of the technological and product aspects that affect market trends.
For this reason, in addition to marketing skills, s/he must have skills in managing people and controlling costs and investments in different media (classic and digital). S/he must be able to assess the results achieved and to assess the need for any corrective action, starting from the KPIs of performance assessment specific to each media and target.
The Media planner is an advertising expert who studies and selects the most suitable means of communication to convey a given advertising message
In a first phase, the main tasks of the Media planner are the collection and analysis of data on the main communication vehicles (data on television audience, number of listeners for the radio, circulation for newspapers, etc.)
Subsequently, on the basis of the data collected, and given a budget defined by the Media Director, the Media Planner formulates various alternatives to the media plan, the choice of the vehicles and the time distribution of the campaign;
During the development of the advertising campaign, the Media planner must monitor the actual publication of the notices/communications in accordance with the calendar and challenge any inconsistencies with the agreements signed, as well as any distortions in the publication of advertisements; check that the actual television ratings of the flights of a TV campaign have been in line with those expected and make the post analysis
This profession requires strong marketing and communication skills. It is necessary to be able to assess the costs/benefits of the individual media. It is also essential to have skills in the field of statistical-mathematical sciences and in accounting, which are useful for a correct evaluation of the numerical data collected upstream of the analysis activity. Among the transversal skills, the Media planner must have good communication and mediation skills, required by the constant management of the contact with the client and the collaborators
The Product Manager is responsible for the company's organisation and for all the planning and coordination activities necessary for the success of a product or product line. S/he defines the business objectives (sales, turnover, market shares, profits) and the best strategies necessary to achieve them.
S/he must know the needs of the consumer and the market and, on this basis, decide on the entry or possible relocation of a product or a line of products.
S/he sets the sales objectives and must be able to evaluate the advantages and criticalities of his/her choices in order to better define the potential of what will be marketed. S/he plans the cost of the products, takes care of advertising, media and sales promotion. In practice, s/he is the entrepreneur of the product.
The market researcher is a professional who analyses the characteristics, structure and evolutionary dynamics of the market in order to assess the potential of the product/service, customer satisfaction, price definition, demand segmentation, definition and control of positioning
The market researcher designs qualitative and quantitative analyses for the knowledge of the market and its development dynamics, coordinates and supervises the activities of gathering and collecting information, analyses and interprets the data collected, prepares analysis reports for the return of information to the customer and proposes diagnoses, advice and follow-up and in-depth activities
To become a market researcher it is useful to have a degree in marketing or statistics. The market researcher relates to the customer (internal and external), from whom s/he acquires the requests and to whom s/he returns the results. S/he relates with market data analysts and surveyors, taking care of their training and ensuring the respect of methodological rigour during the survey phase.