Anybody here work in branding? I need some career advice!

[MasterOfCaffeine]

Just finishing off an honours degree in digital marketing which I've really enjoyed. I've worked in digital marketing doing social media marketing and content creation for a few years but was surprised to find that I preferred the traditional marketing side of my course, especially branding.

I have the option of going on to do a taught masters in general marketing or a research masters, which I could focus on branding. I would love to explore branding further, but I'm not sure what the career prospects here are, and whether the narrowed focus on branding would restrict me. Conversely, I'm worried that doing a general marketing masters would be too broad.

So in short, if you have studied branding, or are working in a related job, please tell me how awesome it is, or how hard it was to get a job, or how you wished you'd studied something else. I know the decision is up to me ultimately but it'd be great to hear some real world stories

Hopeful bump

Hi, I work in marketing. Currently my role is Insights Manager in an FMCG company, but I have worked in brand management as well.

When you say you want to work in branding, what do you envision and what excites you the most? What are your personal strengths? Market roles are so varied, "branding" could mean quite a lot of things.

On the brand management side of things, some of the roles I've had have been more activation focused (eg. global brand and you are delivering the marketing plan for the local market). I've also had roles which are the opposite, ie global brand manager, so working more on the strategy, development of global assets, packaging, innovation. And roles in between. You need to be strategic, creative, consumer focussed but also very commercial.

In my current role as Insights & Planning Manager I'm focused on consumer understanding, so making sure we have the right consumer knowledge to inform decisions. I work a lot with our brand teams on both brand positioning and strategy (we have a large portfolio of brands across many categories). I love it because it's all the fun things I enjoy about building brands without as much of the commercial pressures of the above. But equally there are lots of roles that would deal with more of the brand strategy side of things if that's what interests you (eg agency side planning roles, consultancy, etc).

Sorry I also meant to add, I do think it can be hard for grads these days, I walked into a job straight out of uni but these days I think it's quite competitive. There are so many types of marketing roles though (and digital marketing is a high growth area). My advice would be to get as much relevant work experience before you graduate as possible (whether paid or voluntary). You might have to think creatively, I made some contacts via my uni with local businesses who wanted marketing help on one-off projects which really helped my CV before I left uni.