As marketing and brand management are vital aspects of the industry, there are various careers as well as job opportunities for the aspirants. Though other companies systematize their workforce in a somewhat different way.
Consumer goods companies usually have a team of employees who have expertise in a particular brand, and synchronize the efforts of the different divisions including advertising, product design, production, packaging, sales, research and development etc.
In general, a brand management team comprises a brand manager who leads the proceedings, junior associate brand managers and also entry-level assistant brand managers. This brand management team functions in association with the above mentioned departments to increase awareness of the brand and product consumption. Brand management teams are grouped together according to region and function.
For example, all the food brands in the U.S. are grouped together, all electronic appliances brands for Europe and so on. As consumer goods companies are often big and multinational, people working in such firms need to travel from place to place. It gives them a wide range of knowledge and experience about the foreign markets.
Brand management is also a fruitful field for those consultants who would like to work with different products and firms. Responsibilities involved in brand management include market research and review, maintaining relations and managing product development, developing new products as per consumer demand. Other consumer goods marketing careers include various job positions in the departments like accounting, manufacturing, quality control, legal, human resources (HR) management, information technology (IT) etc.
Marketing departments recruit personnel directly from among fresh MBA graduates. They usually select the candidates who want to reach the post of a brand manager. If you start with a small brand or company, you will get more experience. It is important to gain valuable experience in this field. At first, the candidate is recruited as assistant brand manager and works on a smaller brand for a year before moving on to an important brand. One can also be promoted as a category manager who is responsible for developing strategies for all brands.