This past Friday night, the RB US Marketing Team was wined and dined at our very own Household Marketing Awards (HMA’s) ceremony at the Morristown Museum in Morristown, NJ to celebrate a year of achievement across all of our brand teams.

Now I, and I am sure a number of you out there, tuned in to the 2010 Academy Awards on Sunday night; however, I can honestly tell you that after Friday night, watching similar events on television will never be the same again.

We all arrived at the front entrance decked out in our finest attire and were greeted by camera flashes and questions from 7 or 8 members of the paparazzi. Once we pushed our way through to the door, we met ceremony attendants on the red carpet who quickly took our coats and swept us over to be interviewed and photographed with “Joan Rivers” and “Howard Stern.”

Once we made it past the cameras and celebrity interviewers, we enjoyed drinks at a cocktail hour with music playing in the background while we awaited the beginning of the awards ceremony.

The ceremony was extremely entertaining, hosted by both “Ellen DeGeneres” and our GM of HH Marketing, Alexander Lacik.  The awards were fair and well deserved for all of the brands.  Lysol won best copy for its recent H1N1 TV copy featuring our very own Joe Rubino, Lysol Microbiologist and R&D Director. While each brand team is generally familiar with what the others are doing with their media, NPDs and EPDs and various campaigns, seeing the nominations for the various awards gave us real insight into everything our many brand counterparts take pride in doing on a daily basis and the successes they have achieved, and I believe that the ceremony really brought us all together as ONE overall marketing team. 

After the ceremony, there was a fabulously-catered dinner awaiting us and an after-party with live music.

I thoroughly enjoyed the event and have to thank the planning committee, the event coordinators, the Morristown Museum and everyone else involved in making Friday such a memorable night.

 Who knew brand managers could become celebrities?

The other day my team and I were celebrating February’s success at a non descript open air hotel just outside of town when dusk set in. This typically means the onset of the malaria carrying troops, and soon we were performing the ‘mosquito dance’ shifting from one leg to another. Five minutes, a request was shot off to the owner to do something about it. He ordered one of his workers,”Mortein jala re, Machar bahut hain” (burn Mortein <coil>, too many mosquitoes). Googling has become a generic term for search engines, Xeroxing a term for photocopying…. I am glad that Mortein is now becoming a word for pest control.

It is a part of my job description to build the equity of each of my brands in a price sensitive market. My sales officer took up this challenge and we have put up iron framed gates all over the Wholesale Market at Raipur my headquarter town, and also my largest market. Needless to say, sales have shot through the roof.

After finishing university every graduate asks himself: how do I get the job I really want? Within this blog entry I will try to give you some insights how my way to RB looked like. Maybe this can become your way, too.

1st step: the application.

Find your own style but be aware of the local formalities.

Formalities: The first look is always at the form. Take a look at letters you got from serious companies. You will realize that the format is serious as well. Take this as an example. Colleagues from the HR department get hundreds of applications. So be aware that there are no bigger mistakes within your formalities. Here is a good website for all you German readers. It gives very good insights of the formalities of applications in Germany.

Your own style: Be unique. Take care of the formalities but within those – find your own way. When I was younger sport was a big part of my life. In every application you will find something about this part of me. In addition I love other countries, other cultures. Find a way to express yourself. E.g. I always mentioned that I am a son of the sailor and that this might the reason for my passion for different cultures. Take a look at your life – what makes your heart beat faster?

2nd step: the telephone interview.

Be prepared but be yourself – do never prepare whole sentences or words for the talk.

The preparation: Take a look at the website of the company. I found a lot of information about RB and thought how I could fit in this culture. Search for press releases. Go to Youtube and watch some adds:

Waterfall

After that I made a list of things which might be important. Strengths, weaknesses, goals in 5 years, goals in 10 years, why do I want to join RB, why should RB pick me, questions.

The call: Wiebke, the Senior Human Resources Advisor, of our business in Germany called me that day. From the very first beginning I had a very good feeling. I was in the city that day where Wiebke grew up. A good start. Something like this is good to stay in mind. Maybe Wiebke had ten calls that day – but I am sure she remembered that I was the one who was in her home town when we talked. Ask the interviewer personal things. If the topic is sports or hobbies. Why shouldn’t you ask the interviewer about his passions? Maybe there is a connection. The BCG offers some good interview tips as well.

3rd and 4th Step: the personal interviews.

At RB I had two personal talks. The first one was with Wiebke and Benno, our Head of Field Sales and Head of Trade Marketing. The second one was with two Marketing Managers. That first day we had two topics: a case study with an analysis and the personal talk. The second day included “only” a personal interview.

The case: Again the preparation comes first. It was my first case study ever. So I searched the web and found this very good site by McKinsey where you are able to practices cases. Take your time and go through the steps. It helped me a lot to understand what a case study is all about. In my case the study had a lot of numbers about market shares, turnover, net revenue and so on. My first thought after my first look – ok, I will leave NOW. In this situation, stay cool. I read it again, made notes. The topic can be about everything. E.g. the company want to join a new market or want to launch a new product. How are the action steps? So, I made my analysis. I focused on the things I understood and I put my action plan up the flip chart but: I was too late. Five minutes before I finished Wiebke and Benno entered the room. My thought: it is over now. And again: stay cool. No one will cut your head off. I finished my paintings and presented my ideas. I am sure not everything was correct but I had my plan and answers to the questions. If I did not understand everything – no problem. Benno explained it to me. Everything was very fair.

The personal talk: the tips and tricks are almost the same as I wrote above within the part about the telephone interview. Most important thing again: be yourself! Benno told me afterwards that after the talk he had the feeling that he really knew who I am.

When I take a look back at the whole application process I recommend one most important thing: be yourself and always start the talk with a big…

…smile.

At the beginning of every year, we have a budget to scale every month; every quarter and for the full year. I am now ‘two months old as an ASM’ and can claim to understand the finesse of the sales business.

I am responsible for a territory that is heavily dependant on wholesale (indirect distribution). This is a reality given the demographics of my territory. The split between urban and rural areas is 20:80 and the per capita income in this region is among the lowest in the country. But the contribution that comes from the pest control category is among the highest in the country. This region has a tropical climate with intermittent rains and the use of open drainage systems makes it a breeding haven for mosquitoes.

Mosquito coils that are the primary format of mosquito pest control in India. It is a category that can be termed as hot as cigarettes. When the season sets in all you can hear is that unpleasant ‘bzzz bzzz bzzz’. Coils are sold in truckloads.

Mortein is the single largest brand in the pest control market in India. Mortein Power Booster is our most effective coil:

Its been a while since I could stand still without shifting my legs every ten seconds. I really wish I had a long tail to brush em off

It is a nice feeling being at 110% of your budget at the end of two months.

It has been almost a year with RB and I was wondering why I am so passionate about my work and satisfied with my job. After a careful analysis of my Job Characteristics I found the reason.

Let me explain this in more detail to you with the help of a model known as
Job Characteristics Model.

Skill Variety

The degree to which a job requires a variety of different activities (how many different skills are used in a given day, week, month?). As Area sales manager I have to use variety of skills that include management skills, sales and marketing skills, negotiation skills and many more to run a whole distribution chain.

Task Identity

 The degree to which the job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work (from beginning to end). As an area sales manager I am responsible for sales targets of Karachi city, so I have to plan, organize, lead and control my team accordingly.

 Task Significance

The degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people. I am leading a team of almost 50 people. My actions and decision have a substantial impact on the lives of my team members.

Autonomy

The degree to which the job provides substantial freedom and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out. As an area sales manager I have substantial freedom and discretion in scheduling my work.

Feedback

The degree to which carrying out the work activities required by a job results in the individual obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance. I constantly give feedback to my team regarding their performance and I am given feedback from my line manager that keeps me on my toes.

The model states that Jobs with skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and for which feedback of results is given, directly affect three psychological states of employees:

1. Knowledge of results

2. Meaningfulness of work

3. Personal feelings of responsibility for results

Increases in these psychological states result in increased motivation, performance, passion and job satisfaction. This is the reason why I am so passionate about my work and satisfied with my job!!

For real job satisfaction you need to know where and in which function you want to work. The RB career website might help you to make up your mind: www.reckittbenckiser.jobs