qualifications...

I have a Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma. It sounds pretty fancy, and so it should be for a year of hard work, and lots of coursework. It was definitely a step up from my Media and Cultural Studies degree, which was basically three years of watching Eastenders. Seriously, I wrote an essay on Frasier and George & Mildred, talking about spin-off sitcoms, physical comedy and word play. I loved it.

Apart from meeting some lovely people on my CIM course, it also underlined my overall view on Marketing. It is just structured common sense, albeit with some fancy words. You know your customers, you know what they are looking for, and you know your USPs. All you need to do is ensure that your marketing messages are meeting this, that they are effective and, very importantly, that they are measured. So many companies I know randomly send their marketing materials off into the various channels, sit back and have no idea what is working for them. That Monitoring and Evaluation piece on the end of your Marketing Strategy is one of the most important bits.