April 2023

From Content Creator to Product Manager, I have spent a little over 6 months as a cog in the machine that is Integrated Marketing Communication. In the next 3 months, I will be tackling a new role in IMC as Managing Director. Being a Managing Director has been a position on the Executive Team that has seemed to elude many students. For the first 2 weeks of being in this role, I was very lost myself, not knowing which duties fell into my lap and which duties were my peers. However, from listening to my past peers, current peers, and professor I have begun to define my responsibilities as Managing Director.

The idea of cultivating a personal brand was a task that seemed almost insurmountable to me when I took IMC in the fall. I knew that I wanted to be a marketer but had no idea the amount of work that went into developing a brand. As the quarter progressed and I began to work on my personal creative strategy, I was forced to sit down and think about how I wanted my brand to reflect who I am. I’m writing this blog with the purpose of helping you gain some ideas as to how you may want to develop your brand! Before the actual inception of your brand elements can be made, there are a few questions that you should ask yourself to aid in the ideation process.  

1. What is unique about me that can help me differentiate my brand?  

Just so we’re clear…what exactly is a creative brief?

A creative brief is a document that is created by marketers or project managers to plan a campaign or creative project. It serves as a blueprint for your project. This type of creative brief is important in gaining a clear understanding of your process and goals of a campaign, yet creative briefs can also serve as a tool to help define your own brand. Creating a personal branded creative brief for your brand ensures your organization knows its customers, recognizes the needs that it can fulfill, and understands its true mission and goals.

One thing that I have always struggled with using effectively and efficiently is technology, which has been extremely evident in my struggles to utilize technology to become an effective and competent creator. One such example of my technological blocker becoming an issue was in the fall when I had to build my own professional website on WordPress. While this task is challenging enough on its own, my struggles were only deepened as a result of my blocker when it comes to using technology in an efficient and effective manner. Because of this, I think it is pertinent that I explain my journey in building my own professional website, and how I overcame the obstacles that WordPress and my own perceived technological inabilities presented, which I believe will help content creators overcome similar technological blockers.

As my quarter acting as the Managing Director for the applied IMC class comes to an end, I would like to reflect on the lessons I have learned and what I would have done differently. I am writing this with the hopes that the next executive team can learn from my mistakes and start their journeys more equipped with the knowledge of how to best execute their role and lead the class to success.

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.