Background
Beginnings
I qualified as a chemical engineer and worked as a process engineer in the food industry for around 8 years, designing and developing production processes and new products.
Why am I telling you this, if I'm selling myself as a marketeer? - because it's relevant to what I offer my clients:
- Process engineers are pretty thin on the ground in the food industry - so you learn to be self-reliant.
- There's usually no published data to help you, because foods tend to have unique properties and so no-one's ever done any basic research. So you have to work out what information you need and find ways to get the numbers you need and apply them.
- You have to be numerate - not just able to add up and take away, but to understand how to interpret numbers and use them.
- I spent plenty of time working on new product developments, through all the different phases of projects. There aren't many marketeers who have worked on both the commercial and operational sides of development projects. It means I can see projects in the round, and see opportunities and problems that may not be obvious.
- I learned how to choose and manage contractors - as much an art as a science.
Marketing roles
I moved into marketing because it's really the centre of consumer industries - and I wanted to be at the centre. Marketing is the only function that has to pull together all the different experts in a branded marketing company to make things work. You need everyone's input, but no-one reports to you - so you have to work with them and win their cooperation.
I've been a brand manager, a category planner, a department head and a board member. I've worked on brands that the company owned, and on brands that our customers owned. I've worked on totally new developments, and on improvement and relaunch projects. I've managed agencies of all types and sizes to get what I needed, while keeping a good working relationship for the future.
Throughout I've had to be completely commercial, and manage projects to time and money, and deliver profitable business. To do this I had to understand the fundamentals of marketing, and how to apply them.
I've worked for businesses of different sizes, and businesses owned by different nationalities - which makes a difference. Here are the businesses I worked for before setting up my own business:
- Cadbury Typhoo Ltd
- Quaker Oats Ltd
- Moy Park Ltd
- Leaf UK Ltd
I had a variety of roles in each business, but I stayed with each of them for many years - so I got to know them very well, and understand how they made money.