I hope everyone enjoyed the semester like I did and congratulations to all that made it to
the end. First and foremost, I would like to say a big thank you to Prof. J Ruggiero for her
guidance, feedback and encouraged words during this past 10 weeks. This was such an
informative semester, and I won’t have it any other way. I will definite take all I have
learnt from this class with me into the next phase of my professional career and business
opportunities in the future.
This area of business has always been an extreme interest for me ever since I started my
MBA pathway, and I was thrilled to get into this topic. I feel as though I gained a lot from
this course with numerous topics that was of great interest to me.
One of the most prevalent for me was that of brand management. Navigating a brand
image is applicable in so many instances as it can apply to both a business and one's own
life. It's important when maintaining a brand’s image to assess the possible risks
associated and work to mitigate these before they occur. Another aspect of marketing that
I was intrigued to learning about were digital marketing strategies and inbound marketing.
These various marketing strategies were truly unique in the approach that allows them to
attract customers to them. Search engine optimization has some true benefits and is one of
the most useful marketing techniques available currently. I believe in future organization
that incorporate this into their workflow would be able to utilize this tactic to discover
keywords that would benefit the organization and its brand. Taking the HubSpot
certification, was awesome that’s another bonus gained from this course at least for now
I’m HubSpot certified. It gave me more in-depth information about inbound marketing
with specifics of where a call-to-action may be applicable.
Looking back on the course further, I truly thought that there was an easy one size
approach to marketing. This course has opened my eyes to the numerous layers that
marketing entails. Research on consumer data must be collected prior to moving forward
with a marketing strategy, and then a strategy must be crafted based upon the specific
demographics you're targeting. However, the hope is that your product or service is
applicable to a large audience so that numerous people want to partake in the service
you're providing. Looking at marketing in greater detail it seems as though there need to
be marketing specialties in every department to ensure that all strategies are implemented
to their highest potential. Having several people who are generally great at marketing is
fine, but it may be better to hire people who specialize in digital marketing, traditional
marketing mediums, or data segmentation.
Leadership can manifest itself in a variety of ways, everyone develops their own
leadership skills in their own way and on their own time. However effective leaders
typically share similar skills that imbue them with the ability to enact positive change
within an organization. Some of these are an innate ability to demonstrate empathy with
others and connect with those different from themselves. This is a critical tool for leaders
in marketing as being able to identify with someone other than yourself will allow a
marketer to target different demographics. They may also possess strong communication
skills and are very articulate. One personal brand as a leader as well is typically very
cohesive as every action has a purpose that contributes to the brand's overall image. No
one skill or attribute that is attained is random. I think this is critical for a successful brand
to a developed, creating this cohesive image allows consumers to identify with someone’s
brand easier when they see it in the future.
As for my personal brand, this is something I hope to continue to make attainable. I have
always envisioned the direction of my professional career and business, so this for me was
a gateway in understanding what can not be explained within oneself. Focusing on lifelong
learning gives professionals the opportunity to know that the growth journey never ends.
There is always more that can be done to grow one’s personal brand. I have now seen the
potential that lies within continued education, as I work through the remainder of the
MBA program, I know that my focus will be on the next learning opportunity presented
rather than knowing that my educational journey will shortly be over.
