Most Important Skills for an Associate Marketing Director at NAMM
Luke, Associate Marketing Director at NAMM, emphasizes communication and "thinking on your feet" as crucial skills, honed through past improv and acting experience. The ability to understand customer needs, cutting through "BS" to advocate for them internally, is paramount to success in this role.
Communication, Creativity, Problem-Solving, Customer Relations, Strategic Thinking
Advizer Information
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Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
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Traits
Luke Walton
Associate Marketing Director
NAMM
USC 2013, SDSU 2020
MBA, SDSU
Fine Arts, Music
Arts, Entertainment & Media
Communication and Marketing
Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. Strong communication skills are essential, including the ability to think on your feet and clearly convey ideas to both internal teams and external customers.
2. Creativity and the ability to generate innovative ideas are highly valued. This involves understanding the product, the customer, and market trends.
3. Direct customer interaction is crucial for gaining insights into customer needs and preferences. This may involve sales calls and other forms of direct engagement to gather firsthand feedback beyond what surveys can provide.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
Fundamentally, it's just communication and being able to think on your feet. When I was in high school, I did improv, like "Whose Line Is It Anyway," and I also did acting. I think both of those things really prepare you to be a marketer.
It's so much about communicating, both to your customer and, even more importantly, to your internal team to advocate for your positions. That is probably the primary skill in terms of getting your ideas across.
But then you have good ideas. In order to have good ideas, I think you just need to be creative, think on your feet, really know your product, and really know your customer. Don't be afraid to get out and talk to the customer and join sales calls.
Hear what the problems are, see what the body language is. All these things that, sure, you can capture some of it on surveys, but I'm a little bit skeptical of surveys because sometimes they don't even know what people believe.
When you talk to somebody for an extended period about your product, they can really give you some feedback, especially four or five questions in. It's basically, I think what I'm trying to say is one of the most important skills is to be able to cut through the BS, understand what the customer actually wants, and then be able to advocate for what the customer wants at the organizational level.