Top 10 Tips to Becoming a Rockstar Brand Builder

I used to write in my diary a lot as a kid. It was my way of making sense of the day, working through what I had felt in the moment and ultimately, in hindsight, developing insights from observations — observations on places I had been, people I had met, dialogue I had witnessed, and thoughts or perceptions I had personally developed as a result. Somehow, the act of reflection allowed to me to parse away the pettiness of any given situation and focus on what truly mattered. It’s a skill or habit I’m grateful to have developed and has helped me tremendously in my career. That being said, I think it’s safe to say this year has been a year of reflection for a lot of people — thank you, Corona. For myself, over the last couple of months, I’ve been taking the time to reflect on where I have been in my career journey of 11+ years, what matters most to me, and the legacy I want to leave as I continue to march on forward.

Part of my personal purpose lies in teaching, coaching, and mentoring. Another part of my purpose lies in building powerful connections with people and leveraging the business of building brands as means to do good in this world. So, as I work on a project that I’m extremely excited about (more on that later), I thought I would share some key takeaways and lessons learned over the course of my career in building and managing brands (much of this, I credit to 2 incredible organizations I was fortunate to be a part of — Procter & Gamble and The Hershey Company). If you are entering the field of Brand Management as an Associate/Assistant Brand Manager, especially in the CPG space, I hope you’ll find these tips helpful in building a rewarding career in this incredible field:

1. Be an incessant learner.

If you don’t enjoy learning or aren’t passionate enough to be curious about your business or brand, truth is…you won’t go far. Cultivating a habit of learning and a desire to know more will allow you to outpace others who think they already “know it all” or aren’t taking the time to learn. Brand management in CPG traditionally is the path to a General Manager and/or CEO position, and that means you need to operate an extensive wheelhouse and understand how different functions of an organization connect to one another to produce outputs. To be successful at this, you must stay curious and humble yourself to stay open to learning. Also, there is truth to the phrase knowledge is power…but know that there isn’t only one source to acquiring knowledge.

2. Focus on educating your gut.

Brand management is an art and a science. Too often, in my opinion, organizations and educational curriculums focus more on training future brand builders on the science side of the house and forget about the artistry that is involved in connecting with consumers’ hearts. Frankly, even when it comes to creative execution, our industry is famous for trying to derive some form of process or playbook, akin to a mathematic formula to “get it right.” Yes, you need to know when to rely on the numbers (see point #5), but numbers alone don’t always tell the full story. Perhaps one of the best pieces of advice I received when I was an early ABM at P&G was from a mentor who said to me, “Learn to trust your gut. But in order to trust it, you must first learn to educate it.” We tend to forget that while some instincts come to us naturally, other instincts are derived from experience and exposure over time. So, take the time, especially when you are early in your career, and educate your gut. Expose yourself to projects outside your comfort zone, take chances and risks and keep learning along the way. Doing so will keep your mind from going on autopilot later in your career. It’ll help you know when it’s time to listen to data and when it’s time to take a chance and be, what I like to call, smart bold vs. stupid bold. (Trust me, there is such a thing as stupid bold).

3. Stay true to your word.

Do what you say you will. Every. Time. There is no discount to reliability and consistency — these are good old-fashioned values that will serve you well. It will also give your management confidence that they can trust you to get the work done, and ultimately grow your set of responsibilities.

3. Have a POV and be ready to back it up!

This was perhaps one of the first things I was taught as an ABM Intern at P&G. Always have a point of view (POV). Care. Have a perspective. Have an opinion. Most importantly: if there is a problem, don’t just state the problem…have a recommendation! Now, just for the sake of clarity, there is a difference between having a point of view and being a know-it-all who feels the need to hear themselves talk all of the time. Don’t be the latter. Having a point of view shows you are engaged and you care about your business, brand, company. But it’s not enough to have a perspective. You must be able to provide rationale and back up WHY you think that way. What is driving your perspective or recommendation? Being able to articulate this will not only show that you are leader, but that your views are grounded in valuable thought and insight.

4. Know the difference between activity & progress.

Just because you’re working doesn’t mean you’re getting work done. By focusing on gaining progress, your work gets traction and is recognized. Try to separate the work on your desk into work that is needed to solve a problem or deliver a recommendation vs. work that is “nice to know” or “nice to have.” Put your time and effort into work that will move the needle. I say this a lot to my teams, so I’ll put it here for all you readers: you don’t need to analyze 80 pieces of data when you can get to the same decision or recommendation in 4. The other 76 pieces are “feel good” pieces, but don’t change your recommendation. Learn to figure out what pieces of data you actually need to build your recommendation or solve your issue first. Also, we live in a results-oriented world, where your walk better match your talk. My advice? Talk less. Walk more.

5. Master the data.

As an ABM, one of the most important skills you need to master is knowing the data on your brand and business better than anyone else. Why? Because while numbers don’t lie, they can be manipulated. Mastering the data will enable you to make informed decisions and recommendations. When you have mastered key metrics across your consumer, brand/ company, category, and competition, you will speak with authority and people will give you more space to make decisions.

6. Work hard not long.

Anecdote time: As a young college graduate, I believed that by being the first one in the office in the morning and the last one to leave at night showed my boss that I had a strong work ethic and that I was a hard worker. Even though I’d have my work completed, I would sit at my desk re-checking emails and spreadsheets until my boss would leave the for the night. I felt compelled to sit there until he left. Yet, every evening, one of my senior team leaders would stop by my desk on his way out the door, see me stare blankly at my Outlook, and say “Go home, Shilpa.” One evening, he stopped by my desk and said, “let’s go for a walk” and so we walked the halls. They were pretty dark and empty as most folks had gone home for the night. But then he stopped by a colleague’s office whose light was on and I could see this person working diligently at their desk. “Don’t be this guy,” he told me. He explained how this particular individual was known around the organization for being the person who stayed late into the night every night, never took lunches, and “always had work to do.” What I learned from my team lead that evening was that working hard meant getting your work done during the workday as fast and accurately as possible, while still having time to build relationships with colleagues. By doing so, you showed your superiors that you could balance delivering results and having a life. There was no extra credit to be gained for taking longer to do your work — in fact, he helped me see how developing this pattern could be seen as a reflection of incompetence. So, the moral of my story: Work hard, but when you’re done for the day: LEAVE.

7. Learn to play chess.

I should start this paragraph by admitting that I don’t actually know how to play chess… but the tip is subtext for leading with strategy at the forefront of your ideas and recommendation. A strategic thinker is someone who leads with vision and thinks 3–5 steps ahead. Your recommendations and ideas will more easily be aligned to when people know where you are headed. Be clear about your vision when giving a recommendation and internalize this lesson: the whole point of brand building is to focus on the long-term. We build brands to deliver value to our consumers over a sustained period of time. Executing this successfully requires long-term, consumer-focused strategic thinking and a keen desire to outpace the competition. And with regard to competition, as one of my favorite professors once said, “…always remember, in the game of chess, the other side gets to move.” Be ready for their move.

8. Be the client your agency partners WANT to work with.

You don’t build a brand alone — there is an entire team that is responsible for that. Internal team members, and external team members alike. Your agency partners are an extension of your team. And as such, it is your job as the leader on the brand to build a strong foundation to the relationship, develop trust and understanding, clear communication, and then empower your teams to do what they do best — create magic! As a future brand executive, you must understand that the creative process works best through inspiration and passion. It’s difficult to get great work from a team that is uninspired to work on your brand…or is uneducated about your brand. Take the time to onboard your team and give them the information and tools they need to be successful, learn the art of writing an effective brief, delivering feedback, and encouraging ideas to flourish while helping them take shape. There’s probably a whole separate article that can be written on this subject (a different project for a different day), but for now, nothing can replace the value that your team members bring to the table. The earlier you learn how to be a good client partner, the better ideas you will get to help you solve some very big and important challenges.

9. Lead courageously but humbly.

Human values play a large part in effective brand building, but also in effective leadership. As an ABM you are on a career path toward leading the vision of a business and leading multiple team members and stakeholders to execute on that vision. A mantra I have found helpful for me, personally, is this: Lead with courage, lead with integrity, and lead with humility. By doing so, your cross functionals will become your allies and the respect you gain will be earned vs. given — earned respect lasts.

10. Have high expectations — for yourself & for your teams.

There have been studies that have been conducted by reputable firms in psychology that conclude that the level of expectations one has for a person or group of persons has a direct correlation to the potential that is then realized and awakened in that person or group of persons. Net: set the bar high, you and your team may be surprised by how well you all deliver against those expectations. Delivering high quality results will not only feel good but will also enable your brand to outpace the competition and demonstrate your leadership ability as you progress in your career.

I hope you found these tips helpful and try them out as you navigate the brand management world! There is of course, much more to discuss about building great brands and I look forward to engaging with you on that in the near future. For now — good luck and keep me posted on how these work for you!

*Disclaimer: the content in this article are my own personal views and opinions and do not reflect or represent the views of any of the organizations mentioned in this article*