As I wind down my blogging responsibilities, it feels appropriate to announce that I’m finishing up as Pharmacy Sales Analyst and will take on my next challenge as Assistant Brand Manager for Pest Control -uber excited!

Seeing as  this will be my last blog post, I thought it would be fitting to revisit some of the key points in my first blog post, which was about my reasons for working at RB and how it would help me achieve my goal of having a fulfilling marketing career. Let’s see whether these points still stand true 6 months on…

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Strong portfolio of brands – No doubt this point still rings true. My Sales Analyst/Account Manager role has put me at the forefront of promoting our RB Powerbrands to my customers to ensure support and promotion within their stores. Massive launches of the past 6 months in Australia? Strepsils Cool, Nurofen for Children relaunch, Dettol No Touch Systems and Veet Suprem Essence just to name a few…

My job is certainly made easier when we’re promoting and selling in market-leading brands, which is why I’m really excited to be tackling Mortein in my next role, which has really big brand presence in Australia, as well as Brazil and India. Can’t wait to get my hands dirty and learn how to manage one of RB’s global Powerbrands!

Real ownership and responsibility –I definitely feel that I have had ownership and responsibility in a range of projects and tasks since starting 18 months ago – being able to present our business strategy to the CEO of my account, organizing and managing a stand in a retailer’s staff conference, convincing my buyer to adopt our shelf strategy in their biggest category – just some of the achievements you can also have as a RB graduate!

Challenges are the norm at RB; it’s up to you to decide how to tackle them. It might be tough initially, but it’s only when you retrospectively review your accomplishments after finishing the task that you realise how much you have learnt both personally and professionally. Certainly the experiences gained in the Sales component of the RB Commercial Graduate Program will help me tackle my next role in Marketing.

The Aussie graduates! – Well, what can I say…we’re like one big family! As we’ve gotten to know each other in the office, its great to know that I can always rely on a fellow graduate when I’m stuck in a rut with a project or just need someone to bounce ideas off. Getting the motivation to push yourself to the next level is difficult, but knowing graduates who have been in your situation and ‘broken through the pain barrier’ to get to the next level is certainly encouraging.

We still catch up outside of work, we’re planning a graduate dinner soon but before that, we’re all going to do participate in the City 2 Surf 12km run in a few weeks time…should be fun!

And that’s it folks, I certainly don’t think my reasons for choosing the RB Commercial Graduate Program have changed, in fact, they have merely been reinforced.

Whilst I’m sad to be leaving here, it is with great pleasure that I announce that my fellow graduate, Natalie, will be taking over my blogging responsibilities.
Natalie and I started the graduate program at the same time and we have shared many great professional experiences. She’s coming along to Marketing with me as Assistant Brand Manager for Nurofen, so please welcome Natalie as she shares her experiences and insights in her new role!

If you were about to purchase a Clearasil product, would it matter if you knew they were manufactured by the same company that owned Airwick, Veet and Finish?

Perhaps you might not pay particular attention to the parent company when buying a branded product, but when you’re looking for Marketing Graduate Programs in the FMCG industry, it important to understand who produces what and which company has a portfolio of strong brands to work for…

Think back to before you started Marketing 101, would you have known who manufactured Pringles or Dove? Why is it that most consumers are familiar with Nestle and Johnson & Johnson’s portfolio of products, but generally draw a blank when we’re asked about Reckitt Benckiser or Henkel?

It boils down to whether a company’s strategy is to individually brand or umbrella brand their portfolio of products – and both strategies have their own merits. We may have strong, recognisable brands amongst our 17 global power brands, but I’m sure our name does not come to mind when you’re planning which marketing/sales job to apply for, even though RB is one of the top performing FMCG companies in the world and just recently, our RB UK Marketing Director topped the list of UK’s most influential people in the Marketing industry. 

As a graduate, what resources do you have to find out about FMCG companies? When I was in my penultimate year at university, I went on Wikipedia.org and typed in ’FMCG’, firstly to see what it meant (!), but secondly to find out which companies fell into this category. From there, I went to each local corporate website and had a look at which ones were offering internships, graduate programs or entry level jobs.

Alternatively, you can go to your local supermarket or department store and look at the labels on recognised brands to find which parent company they belong to…you may be shocked to find that there are only a handful of key players in the market!

I think it’s important to research and investigate which company culture suits you – from reading their company brochures to attending career fairs where you can ask the graduates themselves, its vital to know what you’re getting yourself into. As mentioned most recently in my colleague Chris’ blog post, RB is not for everyone but if you share our cultural values of achievement, team spirit, entrepreneurship and ownership, you will thrive at RB.

What is RB doing to increase its corporate profile? In 2009, we updated our corporate logo to the high performance, pink kite display to better reflect the fast, direct and strong nature of our business and our brands. We have a strong presence on social network websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube –do you remember last year’s Facebook campaign where RB challenged users to upload videos of their suggestions for innovative products that would meet the needs of people going to music festivals?

Given that there are only a handful of global FMCG companies operating in Australia/New Zealand, you need to do your homework early or risk missing out some great opportunities that can take your career to the next level. Mind you, not everyone has a graduate program or positions in your country but at least you can have peace of mind know about any opportunities that do exist.

I don’t need to tell you that Marketing is a well sought after career and that the applicant pool is competitive, but do your research and you might just end up on top!

Like many Australians, I love my nightly fix of MasterChef on TV, a competitive cooking game show which is currently the top rating series on Australian TV. So imagine my delight when we were told we would be facing a cook-off challenge after our Quarterly Sales Meeting! 

The sales department was split into 3 teams and we were each put to the test of creating a 3-course lunch consisting of entrée, main and dessert. Chefs were brought in from Bar-be-School, a BBQ cooking school, to teach us all the secrets of a good BBQ. We beat, chopped, sieved, marinated and tossed for the title of best cooking team…who would have thought that whisking eggs would be so tiring?! 

‘Core values’ isn’t just a term found in company recruitment brochures at RB; I saw them in full force today even though we were outside the office. Team Spirit was definitely present, as we worked together to prepare our dishes whilst protecting our respective cooking territories from potential sabotage such as egg throwing and utensil stealing – all in the name of friendly competition of course! 

Then there was the Achievement in creating not only great tasting, but aesthetically pleasing dishes with the clock ticking down quickly, it couldn’t have been achieved without everyone’s input. I guess it’s true when they say we RB’ers live and breathe the RB core values! 

.And the best thing? 

Being able to eat all the food we collectively worked so hard to prepare and cook! My favourite was the succulent, lightly salted BBQ salmon on skewers our team prepared, no bias of course! Perhaps today’s lessons on how to cook a good BBQ might inspire me to actually cook something more exciting than spaghetti bolognaise at home! 

Aside from all the cooking, the Quarterly Sales Meeting was a chance for the sales team to come together and hear about what’s happening in other channels within the sales stream. It was great to hear how other teams were tracking and to hear about the focus areas for Quarter 3, such as Finish Quantum launch and Germwatch. 

It was also a great opportunity for the RB Graduates to get up in front of the business to present, as we were each given the task of providing the sales team with an update on what’s happening with our respective channel and action plans for next quarter.

As an RB graduate you might often feel as though you’ve been thrown in at the deep end, but looking at it from another perspective, it’s also reassuring to know that RB has enough confidence in you as a graduate to present something as significant as the sales results.

Yum! 

I was given total Ownership of the project. My team was extremely helpful when I asked for guidance; I was able to pick their brains whilst piecing together my presentation. Sometimes presenting in front of your peers is more daunting than with external customers! The best thing about presenting today, other than the practice, was that people were genuinely interested in what I had to say and I got some great feedback, which is always nice to hear after putting in effort and time in preparing and practicing! 

All in all, a great afternoon filled with great laughs and good food, what more can you ask for?

It’s easy for a large organisation to just donate a portion of profits to a charity organisation and call it social responsibility. But at RB, we like to get actively involved in the process when raising funds and make sure we have some fun along the way – what better way to learn about teamwork and achievement than a day on the golf course?

In April 2009, RB Australia organised a Charity Golf Day at Ryde Parramatta Golf Club to raise funds for its global charity partner, Save the Children. We invited customers/suppliers to partake in the charity event, which saw RB colleagues teaming up with members of each sponsoring company to play 18 holes.

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“It was a bloody fantastic day, the weather was perfect and there was great cross functionality…with people from sales, marketing, IT and supply backgrounds participating…it was good to mingle and chat with people from different organisations,” said Joel Mann, RB National Account Manager for Coles.

In the end, 18 organisations participated and we managed to raise $27,000 AUD and we couldn’t have done it without the collective efforts of RB colleagues getting behind this great charitable cause, giving up their time and energy to make sure the event got off the ground.

The best bit?

RB is committed to match dollar for dollar the amount raised on the day. That’s a total of $54,000 AUD! Fantastic job to all who participated!

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As you can see, it’s not just global headquarters in UK that get involved with corporate responsibility, each RB office has an ability to make a difference and we are actively encouraged to organise fundraising initiatives for Save the Children.

If you haven’t had the chance to catch up on some of my colleagues’ postings about their country’s involvement with Save the Children, have a scan through Joanne, Idoia, Eva and Oriane’s blog posts…

As you may know, the role of internal communication is a key driver in the research of excellence within organisations.
At RB, planning and structuring our internal communication allows us to strengthen our our unique culture and engage all our employees into our mission, so we are all heading in the same direction.

But, what is internal communication really about? Isn’t it just paperwork or e-mailing our colleagues?

No! In general terms, internal communication consists of formal and informal communication depending on the channel we receive it (formal sources vs rumour or the “grapevine”).
And we can also distinguish between horizontal communication (between employees with the same hierarchy) and vertical communication (from the top to the bottom of the organisation or from the bottom to the top)
So when you develop an internal communication plan you must ensure that:

- The communication flows throughout the organisation
- The channels from where the information flow are multiple: electronic, print, face-to-face etc…
- Messages are consistent and clear
- All employees are included on it
- A diversity of tools is used: meetings, noticeboards, newsletter, intranets,

But why am I explaining all this to you? Well, first of all because I think that, in general, internal communication is sadly forgotten in some organisations and secondly because this is my main focus inside the HR department in Spain: developing and implementing an effective and engaging internal communications plan.

In this job I take advantage of the things I have learned in my master degree in corporate communications (that I have just finished) together with previous experience I had in this arena.
And at RB things are done with speed and efficiency; I think about our CEO Bart Becht, in the article Building a company without borders “You have to stand for something, no matter how bluntly you communicate it”.

RB recognises how vitally important internal communication is to the success of a company.
So, having the RB style in mind (“keep it simple and straight to the point”) we’ve developed this plan:

* Ensure all information about the company is shared on time: Updates sent via e-mail, monthly meetings prepared, ensure managers meet their teams monthly to talk in general terms about the company, etc.
* Promote communication between employees and engage them in CSR projects such as our support for Save the Children (you can read my post about it too, RB Spain’s Save the Children success): organising events where they can communicate to each other in a more relaxed environment than the daily one.
* Engage them with the company: allowing more participation between different areas
* Hear what employees have to say: increasing feedback requests or having follow-up interviews, etc.

My daily work then comprises actions like identifying all the information that needs to be communicated, and deciding how best to communicate it.
In short, it has a lot to do with creating positive communication synergies across the organisation.
And it’s great to know my job is helping to drive RBs success.