The Traditional Education System is Failing Brand Managers

The traditional education system is failing brand managers. That’s the clear consensus after we interviewed over 50 ABMs, brand managers, directors and VPs of marketing.

I suspected as much after years of watching the brand teams I worked on struggle to onboard new employees, who often came from university programs without the practical knowledge or skills to do great work managing a brand from the inside.

When analyzing the data from those interviews, we specifically contrasted the answers of ABMs/brand managers with those of directors and above. Those results are captured in this infographic. And here are the highlighted stats:

• 81% of brand directors and marketing VPs said their ABMs and brand managers do not get adequate training in school or in their new marketing roles (61% of ABMs and brand managers also agree).
• 56% of ABMs and brand managers say that their manager’s ability to train them is inconsistent.
• 56% of brand directors and marketing VPs say their ABMs’ and brand managers’ work is not up to standard, leading to rework and micromanagement.

These stats confirm the reason we started the Gurulocity Brand Management Institute in the first place. ABMs and brand managers shouldn’t have to struggle their first couple of years on the job. There’s a real need for a curriculum that specifically caters to consumer brand management, and that offers practical tools and templates to jumpstart a career in brand management.

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