If you are like me, you have probably thought to yourself what does a manager even do? Doesn’t a manager just tell their team what to do? What’s so complicated about that?

As it turns out, team organization is much more complicated than I realized and there are several tools that are used to hold a cohesive team together. In my Applied Integrated Marketing Communications class at WWU, I had the opportunity to learn what it takes to be a manager. In this role, I oversaw a team of 5 other students where we rebuilt a podcast talking to alumni of the marketing program. During this time I was finally able to make use of the practices I had learned about and implement them in a real-world environment.

Taylor Thomas previously known as Taylor Phillips is a WWU Marketing Program alumni who graduated in 2013 with a degree in International Business, Marketing, and a minor in French. In 2022 Taylor went back to school and got a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Oregon. As of 2017, Taylor has worked her way up from Corporate Marketing Manager to Director of Marketing at Forensic Analytical Consulting Services, Inc. (FACS). A national industrial hygiene and environmental health consulting firm.

What does it mean to be a Director of Marketing? 

Working for a private, small-to-medium-sized company in my role means I get to wear many hats! Besides getting to strategize and work with the incredible colleagues I have throughout the organization and on our marketing team, I’m able to get my hands wet and am constantly learning new things.

As March and Women's History Month ends, the WWU Marketing Program would like to take this time to appreciate all the incredible women who are shaping marketing at Western Washington University.

Here at the Marketing Journey we have tracked the journey of two different students and their experiences in the Marketing program. But once students graduate, their journey doesn’t have to end with the Marketing department. Alumni are a huge part of our community and we have some resources that can help them continue to succeed in their life.

As I’m getting ready to graduate in a few short days, I want to reflect on my experience managing a marketing team these past few months in my Applied Integrated Marketing Communications class. Having been part of countless group projects, I knew that communication would be extremely important when it came to success, and I knew that it was going to be my job to provide my team with the motivation and encouragement to do so. Throughout the past few months, I learned just how important communication, initiative, and pull strategy is in leading a team to run a marketing campaign. The success of a marketing campaign is not only dependent on the strategy or tactics used but also on how effectively your team communicates and collaborates. The agile methodology allowed for my team and I to accomplish a lot in very little time through collaborating, communicating, and adapting effectively and efficiently.

This winter I had the opportunity to lead a team of 3 people for the first time. I continuously learned and grew my expertise during this process and gained a lot of insight on how to be a good team lead and a product owner. I will break my experience into two categories: Leading a team in running a marketing campaign, and leading a team in using the Agile process.

How I Created My Explainer Video 

Last Fall for my integrated marketing communications course at Western Washington University, I started developing my personal professional brand, complete with a creative brief, brand elements, and this website! One of the very first things I worked on was my brand elements, as I was excited to find an aesthetic identity for my brand! 

Brand Colors 

Figuring out the colors that I wanted associated with my brand was tricky. Why? Because I like a lot of colors! But the idea wasn’t to make my brand colors my favorite colors, but to make them colors that fit with who I am and what feeling I want conveyed. 

Over the past 3 months, I have been a Product Manager in my Applied Integrated Marketing Communications (AIMC) class. For those of you who don’t know what the IMC is, it’s a class where students (Content Creator) learn how to create consistent marketing campaigns/messages across business communication channels. This is learned through building a Creative Strategy for a brand. In IMC, content creators create a Creative Strategy for the WWU Marketing Program and their brand. Having gone through IMC, in Applied IMC I got the opportunity to manage a team of four content creators. I lead them in creating four products and four marketing campaigns for the WWU Marketing Program. Today I am going to walk through a review and retrospective for those campaigns.

What is Black History Month?

The History of Black History Month

Black History Month first originated as the second week of February in 1926 to honor the contributions that African Americans made to U.S history

An explainer video is an important component of your professional brand portfolio. This allows the customer and viewer to know just what it is that you offer and the value you can provide. The explainer video is a great place to share your values, your purpose, and showcase your past work and experience. Whether it be a live-action video of you talking to the camera or a "whiteboard" video you create containing just text and graphics, an explainer video offers a more personal component of your website, so site visitors feel like they know you on a more personal level.