MARKETING EXECUTIVE COMPETENCIES 1

Competency Mapping

Job Title

Marketing executive

Job Description

Marketing executive is required to develop and oversee marketing campaigns to

promote products and services. The candidate’s role encompasses creative, analytical, digital,

commercial and administrative responsibilities. He is required to work closely with the

advertising, sales and distribution department. Tasks would involve conducting promotion

campaigns aimed at providing a competitive advantage over rival products in the market. The

goal is to reach out to the customers in a creative way keeping in view the new trends and

consumer psychology to advertise the products.

Work will be a mix of individual and team projects. Working hours correspond to

regular office timings i.e. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Direct reporting to the supervisor would be

required. One-hour lunch break and two tea breaks are given to all employees. Normal

working conditions prevail.

Job Specification

Marketing executive is required to oversee marketing campaigns throughout the life

of a product or service. Following are the key responsibilities that need to be met by the

candidate:

• Study the market trends and consumer preferences

• Creative visualisation of marketing strategies and ideas

• Promoting the products and services via various distributions like brochures, social

media, etc.
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• Evaluate effectiveness and constantly improve the company’s marketing strategies

• Monitor and regulate marketing campaigns

• Maintaining the brand image

• Maintain customer loyalty

Competencies

Behavioural competencies. These competencies indicate behavioural context in

order to validate the applicability and the degree of expertise required to conduct the job of a

marketing executive. These have been divided into five broad categories to clearly specify the

requirements from the employee.

Intellectual. The employee must be capable of engaging in higher order thinking and

critically analyse data to draw out unobvious inferences.

Creativity. The employee must come up with creative, out of the box and attractive

marketing ideas for promotion. He must proactively engage in work and bring novel and

innovative solutions to problems.

Critical thinking. The employee must be capable of critically evaluating the impact of

marketing methods to ensure positive brand image. He should be able to analyse market

trends, consumer psychology, customer requirements and rival companies’ strategies to

maintain customer loyalty.

Personal. These competencies indicate the employee’s ability of self-management,

self-regulation and generic soft skills. These are very closely linked to personality traits.

Openness to change. The employee must be willing and accepting change. He must

have an inclination to bring about change in marketing practices to keep the product relevant

in changing times.
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Detail consciousness. The employee must be sensitive to the details from the most

trivial (eg. colours or shapes) to the most obvious in terms of campaign posters or strategies.

He must be able to make a conscious effort to understand the causes and effects.

Communication. These competencies are indicative of the employee’s ability to

convey thoughts and ideas effectively in written and oral format.

Negotiating. The employee needs to communicate effectively and convincingly, put

forth valid arguments and also compromise when needed.

Sociability. Is outgoing, connects with people, and interacts. Seeks opportunities of

social contract with others.

Leadership. These competencies reflect the skills and behaviours that contribute to

superior performance. It implies to the ability of the employee to direct and collaborate with

co-workers and subordinates.

Team player. Is able to effectively work in a team by contributing and managing

conflict tactfully. It indicates the collective approach at workplace.

Team leadership. It reflects the ability to complement others roles by leading

everyone to the team goal and working in cooperation with other departments.

Result oriented. These competencies reflect the concern for meeting the goals and

working towards success. It implies that the employee is able to visualise the bigger picture

and think in terms of result generation.

Decisiveness. Exhibits an ability to make judgements based on exiting knowledge and

taking initiative to reduce ambiguity and bring clarity at work and in projects.
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Risk taking. It reflects the willingness to get out of comfort zone and face challenges

with confidence in own skills and abilities. it is also indicative of acceptance of failure and

constant pursuit to learn from it.

Technical competencies. These competencies are specific technical skills which are

required for the job role of a marketing executive.

Tech savvy. The executive must have all the adequate knowledge about digital media

and digital platforms to be able to utilise the knowledge in reaching out to the target

audience.

Marketing planning and analysis. The executive must also have adequate knowledge

of marketing strategies, various means, repunctuations, and challenges. He should also be

able to understand and critically analyse market trends to make sure that the product is

marketed appropriately.

Consumer psychology. Knowledge of consumer psychology would be of utmost

importance so as to be able to identify what attracts the consumers, what influences their

choices, etc to market the product in a favourable manner.

Performance Appraisal

In order to appraise performance based on the above-mentioned competencies, two

different methods for both technical and behavioural competencies would be used.

To measure behavioural competencies, mixed standard scale would be used. It is an

extension of behaviourally anchored scales as it consists of statements based on behavioural

examples obtained from supervisors along with those derived from the job description. The

evaluator is required to indicate where the employee stands with the help of a rating scale

with reference to the statement put forth. These statements are mixed randomly which makes
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it less obvious as to which statements reflect effective or ineffective performance. This is

helpful in eliminating rating bias and gets honest responses.

For the technical competencies, management by objectives appraisal would be used.

In order to evaluate the performance in a comprehensive manner, MBO requires the manager

to set specific quantifiable goals that are organisationally relevant. The employee would be

evaluated on the extent to which he has been able to achieve or worked on these goals. It

would reflect the level of expertise that he has reached in terms of the technical competencies

and by feedback he will also be able to know his areas of improvement.

Strengths and Weaknesses

By using a combination of mixed standard scale and management by objectives will

give a comprehensive overview of the performance of the employee.

Using the mixed standard scale is necessary for appraising behavioural competencies

because it focuses on specific observable behaviour which is otherwise difficult to quantify.

The statements are framed such that it is unobvious to whether it is measuring the

effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the employee to get unbiased responses. But, one of the

major challenges would be to establish the meaning of rating responses (eg. what is ‘good

level’). The statements need to be formed in a tactful manner to elicit true responses which

could be time consuming and a fairly difficult task.

Technical competencies cannot be reviewed using a rating scale so MBO would help

appraise performance on the basis of concrete facts and work evidence of employee. It would

be comprehensive as it is done on frequent intervals and full record of employee is

maintained. This also gives room for the supervisor to give direct feedback to regulate

performance. The major challenge here would be to ensure that realistic goals are set.

Unachievable goals would defeat the whole purpose of MBO. Another problem may arise
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due to the fact that it is a lengthy process. Also, the manager must be competent enough to be

able to coach the employee. If the manager lacks this ability, he may fail to regulate

performance leading to unfair appraisal of the employee.