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Senior Marketing and Brand Specialist with Vanessa Birnbaum
10 Plays1 month ago
Unpack the dual role of a Senior Marketing & Brand Specialist with our guest, Vanessa. She breaks down how you do both jobs at once: the day-to-day of marketing and the long-term vision of branding.
With your host, Sonja Kamper, and our Guest, Vanessa Birnbaum.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Overview
00:00:00
Sonja Kamper
Servus and welcome to the World of Marketing Jobs podcast, where I'm taking you on a marketing journey of job awareness, consideration and application.
Meet Vanessa: Marketing and Brand Specialist
00:00:12
Sonja Kamper
And in this episode, we will talk about someone who I've been working with over the almost past two years, and also someone who has a very interesting job for me.
00:00:25
Sonja Kamper
Welcome, Vanessa, to my podcast.
00:00:29
Vanessa
Thank you so much, Sonja. I'm really happy to be here today.
00:00:34
Sonja Kamper
I'm really happy to have you too. So you are senior marketing and brand specialist. Is that a right?
00:00:43
Vanessa
Yes, that's right.
00:00:45
Sonja Kamper
Perfect. So let's jump right into it and cover some this or that
Vanessa's Role in B2B and Agency Work
00:00:51
Sonja Kamper
question. So I'm always going to give you two options and you choose the one that fits your job better.
00:00:58
Vanessa
Okay, let's go.
00:01:00
Sonja Kamper
Perfect. So B2B B2C? or b to c
00:01:05
Vanessa
So it's currently a job in B2B.
00:01:09
Sonja Kamper
SME or large corporation?
00:01:12
Vanessa
I would say a large corporation.
00:01:16
Sonja Kamper
Local or international?
00:01:19
Vanessa
ah Definitely international.
00:01:22
Sonja Kamper
Are you a agency or do you work in-house?
00:01:27
Vanessa
So I have to decide. So I say agency, but I would also say it depends.
00:01:34
Sonja Kamper
Why would you say that?
00:01:36
Vanessa
Because sometimes you have things you can do in-house, but also you need agencies for input from, yeah someone who is not that deep into your specific topic. So I would also always say, have a look at the topic and then decide if it's more in-house or if you need an agency for it.
Balancing Structure and Flexibility in Marketing
00:02:00
Sonja Kamper
very clear. So are you a full stack marketer or would you consider yourself more like a specialist?
00:02:09
Vanessa
I would say specialist.
00:02:13
Sonja Kamper
Senior marketing and brand specialist. I think I would have guessed that myself.
00:02:21
Sonja Kamper
Do you work in a small or a big team?
00:02:25
Vanessa
So have a small team, but we're a bigger department. So I would say both.
00:02:34
Sonja Kamper
And when you look at your day-to-day work, are you more structured or flexible?
00:02:40
Vanessa
So I think these are hard questions, because I can't say both for everything.
00:02:45
Sonja Kamper
system
00:02:45
Vanessa
So I would go with a more flexible.
Creating Brand Experience in Energy Market
00:02:50
Sonja Kamper
Very clear. So now we've got a little idea where you are in the this or that sphere. And i would be super curious to know how job slogan would sound like.
00:03:03
Sonja Kamper
So you are a senior marketing and brand specialist. What's your catchy phrase?
00:03:09
Vanessa
So I always say that I'm creating brand experience in the energy market.
00:03:16
Sonja Kamper
Very interesting. So you... are really towards, okay, I'm creating something and you also are in a specific field, which can make it more or less difficult to create this brand experience, right?
00:03:32
Vanessa
Yes, definitely, because the field is something completely different and especially B2C, but also the energy market. You have a totally different audience. The target group is different to what maybe most of us know.
00:03:47
Vanessa
And so that's why it's very special to have a role in marketing and branding there.
Branding Strategy and Operational Tasks
00:03:54
Sonja Kamper
Super interesting. So what would you say are your daily tasks? How does a day in the life of Vanessa Bienbaum look like?
00:04:07
Vanessa
And so my job covers two different or not completely different, but has two roads, I would say, or two perspectives.
00:04:19
Vanessa
One is the branding perspective. And this really covers everything from top to tail, I would say, from the brand strategy, which includes developing corporate design, a brand architecture, brand tonality.
00:04:35
Vanessa
How does the brand feel and is recognized by the outside world, but also internally. But of course you also have a lot of operational work like creating templates, graphic design, design checks, platform design, like all of these really more operational tasks.
00:04:55
Vanessa
And so I have days where I only do the smaller things, but of course in the long term we have a look at the strategy and how brand develops.
00:05:08
Vanessa
And then I also have the marketing part which covers more communication campaigns, corporate campaigns, product marketing, like more classical marketing stuff.
Brand Refresh and Digital Adaptation
00:05:21
Sonja Kamper
And so I know from her firsthand experience that last year you led brand refresh. You were the spokesperson for that for an entire group.
00:05:32
Sonja Kamper
So can you little bit tell me what your tasks were there? did your involvement there look like?
00:05:40
Vanessa
Yeah, I was, I would say, kind of a project manager, but also gave, of course, a lot of input. And the goal was not to do a whole rebranding because after an interview phase, we noticed, okay, we are in general happy with how the brand is recognized, but we need to adapt to new standards that we have. We came from a world where we printed a lot and now we are in a very digital world where the formats change and where we just have different requirements and then we adapted to that and my role was
00:06:25
Vanessa
mainly to bring everyone together to have a look at what are the needs of the different group companies that we have of the different stakeholders. But of course, also ever every time having in mind, how do we want the brand to be
Challenges in Energy Branding
00:06:42
Vanessa
recognized? Because you always have to see what is a personal opinion and what is the expertise that we have and how we want to be perceived when someone um has has a look on the website or on social media.
00:07:02
Sonja Kamper
And would you say that this is particularly difficult in the energy field or in a field where there are a lot of technical experts and the did it point of view is not particularly directed towards a good branding, more towards the message itself?
00:07:21
Vanessa
I'm not sure if it's only in the energy market. I would say the field is ah ah more special because the topic is very special and it's nothing that you can touch or that has a strong emotional value. I think this makes it much easier if you have something like this.
00:07:45
Vanessa
But still, we know how we want to be perceived. We are professional, we are close to our customers. And this is something that I would say is very kind of easy to yeah then put into a brand.
Importance of Consistent Branding
00:08:04
Vanessa
So I'm not sure if I can say that it's difficult because of the sector that I'm in, but I would say it makes a difference definitely when developing a brand and also the tonality and everything that comes with it.
00:08:21
Sonja Kamper
super interesting and super clear. So when we go back to your day-to-day work, what tools do you particularly use? Yeah.
00:08:32
Sonja Kamper
yeah
00:08:34
Vanessa
I would say one of the most important tools is the Adobe Suite. course, you do a lot of graphic design and is what I use on most of the days.
00:08:46
Vanessa
And other than that, I have to be honest, there are not that many tools. Maybe I'm sometimes a bit behind when it comes to checklists and so on. I'm and more a OneNote and...
00:09:00
Vanessa
Yeah, doing everything in Lists Girl. But yeah, I would say it still works. Of course, you work a lot with also the office programs, but I would say this is something that most of us do. Maybe we do it a bit differently because we have a different view on it.
00:09:19
Sonja Kamper
What is that particular view?
00:09:22
Vanessa
Hmm. I always notice it when I show someone something that you can, for example, do in PowerPoint that some people just don't know because they use it for creating presentations.
00:09:36
Vanessa
And we use it more for creating creating the experience that you have with a presentation. How does it look like? Because it's not only how a brand is perceived like on the website or on social media, it starts with like the small things.
Scope of Brand Appearance and Tonality
00:09:55
Vanessa
How does your presentation look? Do use your templates right? This might sound a bit picky for some, but it's being consistent over the different tools, applications that you have.
00:10:10
Vanessa
And so that's why you just have a different view and you use it differently, create stuff in Zyukajan Vizepojarvii PowerPoint, for example, differently, it's not a fancy cool task, but still it's something that I think is important.
00:11:15
Sonja Kamper
ah
00:11:16
Sonja Kamper
And we particularly see it. I think when when sometimes there are presentations and there is a ah bright green color
00:11:21
Vanessa
Yes.
00:11:25
Sonja Kamper
almost highlighted and you you're like, Oh, okay, maybe we use our corporate color here and then always instantly looks more put together and more like it's part of our company. It's part of our identity.
00:11:44
Vanessa
Yes, definitely. And it's all of the small parts that in the end make the whole company look professional. And I know I love doing like the real marketing stuff, but it's also making it available for all the other colleagues that they are also able to a presentation in the, for us, correct way to represent the brand because in the end, everyone who talks to the outside world is kind of a brand ambassador and it starts in these small pieces and then goes up to big marketing campaigns and so on.
00:12:27
Sonja Kamper
Very clear. So when I come to you, to your desk, and i have a big list of tasks for you, which one would you say are but part of your scope?
00:12:38
Sonja Kamper
And would you say happily refer to a colleague of yours?
00:12:45
Vanessa
So maybe it's not something I refer to a colleague, but sometimes it's things I say you can do yourself because we are not there there um when you have a presentation, to change colors or to change a font, for example.
00:13:04
Vanessa
We check the presentation, but you can do the small stuff yourself. This is something that I would to definitely say. and other than that i mean my focus is mainly on brand and marketing so it's not that much communication related because i think this also gets mixed up sometimes that you have the communications part and the marketing part i would say for these
00:13:36
Vanessa
you can talk to the colleagues in communication and I more have a look at how the brand appears and how right tonality is.
Creativity and Structure in Branding Roles
00:13:46
Vanessa
This is something or the tone of voice. This is something um then, for example, the content specialists can do.
00:13:53
Sonja Kamper
super clear. So if I were to apply for your job, how could a good job persona look like? What do I need to do to do your job essentially?
00:14:08
Vanessa
what I think is most important have both to be creative but also to to be structured.
00:14:17
Vanessa
And what I mean by saying this is I think when it comes to marketing um or especially branding, a lot of people think, oh, I can be creative, I can create graphics and so on. And this is something, of course, which is a big part of the job, but you always have a framework that is given.
00:14:37
Vanessa
And you have, for example, a branding guideline. And you have to split between your personal opinion and what you think would look good and how the brand would be perceived.
00:14:51
Vanessa
I think finding someone who can be both can sometimes be a bit difficult. And it's also sometimes difficult for me, to be honest, because of course you have to see, okay, the brand should look like this.
00:15:09
Vanessa
And then i have requirements for a platform, for a design, for an event. And I'm completely free, but I still need to stick to the framework.
00:15:21
Vanessa
And I think this is something that the person should bring. And then you have to, or you need to have this view a I think not everyone, as not everyone can write texts, not everyone can really see how a brand looks like to the outside world. You need to have a feeling for it.
00:15:46
Vanessa
How we want a brand to yeah be recognized?
Learning Skills on the Job
00:15:50
Vanessa
So this is definitely something. And... Yeah, you also need to be a bit in love with details when it comes to yeah creating graphics or also checking presentations.
00:16:05
Vanessa
It's, as I said, the consistency starts in the details. Is it the right copyright? Is the date right? I know for some this may sound, yeah, this is something small, just a small detail, but I think it's important for the whole professional look.
00:16:23
Vanessa
of a company. So I would say this sums it up quite well.
00:16:29
Sonja Kamper
So it's all about having in the right character, being the right person and the skills like being good at Adobe Express or Photoshop can be something that can be learned on the job.
00:16:44
Vanessa
Yes, definitely. So there are so many things that you can learn. And that's also when we are looking for someone, example, for a working student, and they say they've never worked with Adobe, we're like, okay, you can learn that as long as if you have a look on the website and can tell me how you see the brand, then everything else you can learn.
Building Brand Identity and Awareness
00:17:09
Sonja Kamper
very clear. So let's dive into the job value proposition, where I will give you like a little fill in the gaps exercise to, and would say, summarize your job a little bit and make a little more graspable for our fellow listeners.
00:17:27
Sonja Kamper
So a senior marketing and brand specialist helps.
00:17:34
Vanessa
who
00:17:37
Sonja Kamper
who want to
00:17:40
Vanessa
want to build a strong and consistent identity of a brand.
00:17:47
Sonja Kamper
by reducing
00:17:49
Vanessa
new
00:17:52
Vanessa
Now I have to have a think about it by reducing.
00:17:55
Sonja Kamper
but
00:18:00
Vanessa
Yeah, that's hard because you never think what you really reduce. It's more you think about what you create for the company.
00:18:08
Sonja Kamper
who
00:18:10
Vanessa
And so I would say
00:18:19
Vanessa
I'm not sure if I can find something now.
00:18:22
Sonja Kamper
Maybe something in the lines of by reducing graphical inconsistencies or by bye
00:18:30
Vanessa
yeah. ah That's a good point. Yeah. i Maybe it's not only graphical inconsistencies, but the whole brand recognition inconsistencies.
00:18:42
Sonja Kamper
so And now it's your time to shine by increasing.
00:18:50
Vanessa
by increasing the brand awareness and a professional look and feel the right target group.
00:18:59
Sonja Kamper
very clear. So it's it's all about making sure everything is aligned, everything is consistent across all the channels you can think of. This starts with a social media post and ends at the web website.
00:19:15
Vanessa
Yes, so it's all communication assets that you can think of and also it's digital and print. It's also how an employee, for example, represents the company the outside world. So if you have a sales colleague who talks to customers of course you also want him to represent the brand so it's not only how you in the marketing world use it for all of the communication channels but it's also creating framework for everyone in the company and yeah how do we want to
00:19:57
Vanessa
yeah, show ourselves to the outside world.
Adapting to Industry Changes
00:20:00
Sonja Kamper
And what golden nuggets will you give me on my way and also on the listeners and use if they watch with video on the way to do the job as good or maybe even better in the future?
00:20:17
Vanessa
So as I said, it's we have a framework and we are quite structured, but don't stay in your box. So we notice it with the brand refresh.
00:20:29
Vanessa
So we have a given framework and we have a design principle. We have a system for it, but the needs and the requirements always change. And, you know,
00:20:41
Vanessa
A few years ago, we used to print our annual report and we had 30 or 50 pages that were printed. And now over time, it changed.
00:20:52
Vanessa
We are creating PDFs or that's also maybe three years ago already. We are more interactive now. We have tools that we use. And so, of course,
00:21:04
Vanessa
you don't want to change the whole brand identity every two years or whatever, but you need to stay flexible with changing requirements and with the industry changing.
00:21:20
Vanessa
Also, if you have AI, for example, now, is this something um that we can use for us and that develops our brand system even more do we have yeah new requirements that come in the future and i think this is something because we like to stay where we are we like to stay in the comfort first zone and say okay We've always done it like that, you know how it can be sometimes, especially when you work in companies who have been there for such a long time.
AI's Role in Branding
00:21:56
Vanessa
But always drive for something new and try it to bring together the framework that you have with the changes that you also have in the world and also in the industry.
00:22:15
Sonja Kamper
Very clear. And you mentioned ai you have maybe an example for me how AI shifted your design, your brand identity?
00:22:28
Vanessa
I would say also there we are still at the beginning, but I think you can use it quite well. You can train it with how your brand should be perceived and then let the AI help the colleagues, for example, creating presentations, finding, I mean, that's not,
00:22:48
Vanessa
only branding related, but also the right tone of voice and it can create graphics for you. I mean, this is something that can help you a lot, but of course you need to put work in it.
00:23:01
Vanessa
And maybe also you notice, okay, my design system might not work with the way that AI works, maybe i can adapt to it. And maybe there are changes that can be made to make the system even more flexible. I mean, this is, a I think we are still at the beginning with the whole AI topic. So we have to see what is coming. But I would say this is something that can really help us and help
00:23:30
Vanessa
the brand to be perceived even better because it's more professional and it's easier to be perceived professional if everyone's able to do it.
Career Aspirations and Work-Life Balance
00:23:44
Sonja Kamper
very, very clear. so now it's already time for the question from my previous guest. My previous guest was Luka Novowska.
00:23:56
Sonja Kamper
She is my associate professor, so my marketing professor in my master's and the academic director for all the master's programs.
00:24:06
Sonja Kamper
So it was very interesting to talk to her about school systems and how that works. impacts her job on a day-to-day basis. And she left a wonderful question for you, which is, if you are about to change your profession radically, what would that be and why?
00:24:33
Vanessa
That's a very good question. So i would say if I could change like everything that I do now, i would maybe go more into sports because it's where my hobbies lay.
00:24:53
Sonja Kamper
Sure.
00:24:59
Vanessa
And think there's so much, so many interesting jobs in sports, not marketing related, but when it comes to, maybe I would be a professional athlete, but I think also like the whole analyzing systems or, you know,
00:25:24
Vanessa
Yeah, I think it's a completely different world. So this would be maybe something that I would do instead, because that's where kind of my passion and besides marketing and communication is.
00:25:40
Vanessa
Yes, maybe that's not the craziest answer, but yeah, that's what I would go with.
00:25:49
Sonja Kamper
Maybe to to tie into that, what are your tips to relax with sports after you work, to have this work-life balance? What do you do?
00:26:00
Sonja Kamper
you have tips? Curious to know.
00:26:03
Vanessa
Yes. So i would say find something that really brings you down. And I love running. I love cycling. I know that you also have a lot of trends and that sometimes you do sports because you think, okay, everybody's doing it.
00:26:24
Vanessa
And it's not about everybody's doing it. It's about what makes you really calm em down and where when you do the sports, you remember when you were a child and could play for hours and you didn't notice that the time was running up. You just...
00:26:47
Vanessa
you are just in your own world and I think this is what sports should do for you and so this would be my tip to find something that you can feel like this again if it's not sports maybe it's reading maybe it's painting something like this
00:27:03
Sonja Kamper
I will definitely be now, oh like bring a new hobby in my, uh, life and find something that calms me down or, that also excites me maybe, uh, more than just for 30 minutes. So definitely a good tip, uh, for everyone out there to, to find something, to find a passion outside work to, to start a project, et cetera.
00:27:29
Sonja Kamper
so. Now we're really at the end of the interview and the only thing left on my little list is the question for the next guest.
00:27:39
Sonja Kamper
do you have one with you here today?
00:27:42
Vanessa
and Mm-hmm. So I hope this question um didn't get asked before, but I would like to know one tip the person would give someone who wants to do something completely new in their job.
00:28:01
Vanessa
So if they would change jobs or if they want to try something new, what is a tip? that they would say, okay, this is something you should follow and then you would succeed.
00:28:14
Vanessa
Maybe it depends on the person that comes, but I think this could be interesting.
Conclusion and Future Guest Teasers
00:28:19
Sonja Kamper
very good like follow question a little bit to the question you had to get like okay I don't want to change radically but maybe I'm ready to change a little bit what tips do you have for me and I think it's super relevant because
00:28:25
Vanessa
Yes.
00:28:36
Sonja Kamper
we're constantly adapting our scopes change and maybe are ready for it but don't know yet how to communicate it or how to get started to to bring that shift into our lives so definitely an interesting question and makes me little bit excited for the next episode to see what the answer will be and uh Thank you so much for your time here to- today. it was a pleasure to get to know what you do as a senior marketing and brand specialist.
00:29:09
Sonja Kamper
And yeah, I hope you enjoyed it too.
00:29:13
Vanessa
Yes, thank you so much for having me and for letting me talk about my job, what I do every day and what i love to do. And I hope I could give some insights to it. And it was really great.
00:29:25
Vanessa
Thank you.
00:29:27
Sonja Kamper
Definitely super interesting. And to those listeners who made it to the end, thank you so much for listening or watching if you watch it with video. And we'll see. Bye bye.