Biggest Challenges Faced by an Associate Director of Brand Marketing at Free People
Amanda's biggest early career challenge as Associate Director of Brand Marketing was mastering profit and loss ("p&l") management, requiring long hours and developing the ability to "defend and support" creative asks with financial justification. A persistent challenge throughout Amanda's decade-long career involves navigating the complexities of working with celebrities and mitigating potential brand damage from their actions.
Financial Management, Celebrity Relations, Leadership and Team Management, Problem-Solving and Decision-Making, Overcoming Challenges
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Amanda Jimenez
Associate Director of Brand Marketing
Free People
New York University
UCLA Anderson School of Management - MBA
Communications
Apparel, Beauty, Retail & Fashion
Communication and Marketing
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. Managing P&L: Amanda highlights the initial challenge of managing profit and loss (P&L) statements, emphasizing the importance of understanding resource management and justifying creative decisions. This is a crucial skill for marketing professionals, especially in senior roles.
2. Navigating Celebrity Collaborations: Amanda discusses the challenges of managing brand reputation when working with celebrities, requiring careful crisis management and preparedness for unexpected events. This underscores the complexities of brand marketing and the importance of risk assessment.
3. Mentorship and Team Development: Amanda's experience with P&L management informs her approach to mentoring her team. She focuses on empowering her team members to understand financial aspects of marketing, providing valuable insights into leadership and team development within the field of brand marketing.
Transcript
What is your biggest challenge about being in your current role?
The biggest challenge early in my role was learning how to manage P&L. I was responsible for it at a really young age, starting at 22. I managed a crazy P&L for a multitude of different clients, and it was really challenging.
It would take me a long time. I would be in the office until one or two in the morning the nights before those types of documents were due or before forecasting meetings. It really taught me the power of understanding your P&L, how to use money resourcefully, and how to defend and support a big, creative ask with what you have.
If you can't, you learn to make the case for how you could and why. That took me a long time to figure out, and it's something I try to instill in my teams. I think everyone needs that foundation to empower their creative decisions accordingly.
I'm not as challenged by it today, but I do think many of my team members are. Another challenge arises when you work with a lot of celebrities, which I have throughout my career. This involves situations where celebrities negatively affect the brand, and you have to manage how the brand reacts.
With some comfort from doing it over the last 10 years, I've learned how to manage this. However, you never know what's going to happen. You have to prepare yourself for many different situations, which is a constant challenge.
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