Guest and Episode LinksPatrick Ward https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickjamesward/ https://highspeedexperts.com/ Books:The 4-Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss: https://amzn.to/31SO9rZ Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing! www.marketingstudylab.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ https://twitter.com/cousinp81(@cousinp81) Intro What type of company do you work for and what does this actually mean? Not what you may think, but more about that later. Let’s meet Patrick Ward, currently the Editor-in-Chief at High Speed Experts, a broadband connectivity search engine and IT industry education platform. Patrick is a writer by trade and has worked extensively across the insurance, real estate, finance, travel, and tech industries, with notable clients including Allianz and Cathay Pacific and is currently a member of the Forbes Communication Council. The main reason I invited Patrick on today is because of his rise through the ranks within the Marketing Profession, to provide you with an insight into the how, what and why of a career in Marketing.  Takeaways - When starting or in the middle of your career you need a path. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but what do you want the next 10 years to be like and do you have a plan to achieve this. It’s like most things – failing to plan, is planning to fail! - When considering career progression, Patrick pointed out that there are three things that will help you, always – people, communication and interaction, which kinda makes sense as these are the three things that are essential when implementing a Marketing Strategy - And finally, Partick reminded us that learning on the job is so important, but…. Don’t forget that your Marketing qualification will form the bedrock of this learning, which you then can apply to your daily duties. This will not only assist you in becoming a better marketer, but also help you find out what type of Marketer you want to become.   Top Tip - Which company are you? It’s important as a marketer that we understand what type of company we are marketing. At its core it can be a number of different types. Here’s a rundown of these types and what this may mean: Selling Orientation: This focusses on the actual selling of what exists rather than satisfying customer needs and wants. Usually comms are focused around short term promotions, rather than long term stability. Production Orientation: This process looks to maximise output and thus profit, which is all about economies of scale. Quicker, faster, cheaper. An internal approach. Product Orientation:Whereas production concentrates on economies of scale, the focus here is on the product / service itself, designed to what is ‘thought’ to be the best solution. This however may ignore actual customer tastes and needs and you may end up focusing your efforts on features and benefits that are not important. Marketing Orientation:  As you would expect, customers requirements are embedded into all activities. Customers are at the core of everything that is done. The trick here is to understand your market. If this isn’t correct, the orientation may fail as the strategy will be incorrect. There is one more type I want to cover here and that is Societal Marketing, which means a company is looking to balance the needs of its customer, society and the company itself which means a more ethical stance on your strategic approach.  Music Featured on this Podcast: Sleepy in the Garden Lobo Loco www.musikbrause.deCreative Commons License