Whenever my friends ask me ‘How is work going?’ I try to reply ‘It’s fine, same as usual’ as no one really wants to be the geek that never shuts up about their job (especially as most of my friends don’t work in Marketing so wouldn’t really get what I’m talking about)!

But, it’s actually pretty safe to say that I’m a ‘closeted geek’ and get excited about things that I work on, and I think my colleagues who sit beside me would tell you that sometimes it’s hard to get me to shut up about what’s going on. Maybe I’m trying to get all my excitement out during work so I don’t bore my friends?

My Marketing career started 11 years ago when I joined CIGNA HealthCare as a skillseeker (YTS scheme) and after leaving there in 2008, I’m now in my current role as Marketing Co-Ordinator for Percepta. So, I’d like to think of myself as an experienced B2B marketer, even though I’m still the very young age of 27!

A common area that has frustrated me throughout my career though is the misconception placed on marketing by other disciplines as the ‘flowery’ side of the business, and when it comes to budget forecasting, how it’s always the first to be reviewed if the purses are being tightened.

Although my opinion may be bias, what some people fail to understand is that without a clear and objective marketing strategy, other areas of the business wouldn’t even be there in the first place as there wouldn’t be any business coming through the door.

And all businesses need a clear marketing strategy, from the small family run to the large corporate – it really doesn’t matter.

Take the new reality show on BBC1 ‘High Street Dreams’ where Jo Malone is helping new entrepreneurs put their businesses together and pitch to buyers as an example of this. The show aired on Monday 11^th May showed 2 family businesses in the food trade trying to break into the retail market (one married couple making handmade burgers, the other a small family making chilli sauce in their garden shed). The main areas covered there was all marketing (branding, the story behind the product, packaging etc). Without these all put in place, their pitches would never have even made it on to the priority list for Waitrose and ASDA.

Suffice to say, they were both given deals with the supermarkets and will branch out nationally if their products prove to be successful.