Brother UK is a supplier of technology solutions and helps businesses deliver greater productivity and efficiency through documentation, digitisation, collaboration and mobile working.
Responsible for a team of 30 at the business’s Tameside HQ, Head of Marketing, Mike Anderson, lets us into the highlights of a typical working week.
Monday
It’s easy to pick up where you left off last week, but I always plan the week ahead before getting stuck into my first task. We’ve got copy and artwork deadlines to meet, customer presentations to prepare and deliver, and agency input to manage – and that’s only scratching the surface of the external-facing activity. Shortly after 9am, we have the daily ‘studio stand-up’, where our designers provide an overview of their schedules, before I hold one-to-ones with my direct reports to make sure key projects are on track, our agencies are delivering for us and to catch up on internal developments within the department. I take an active interest in the progression of everyone in the team, and it’s important to make sure their personal and professional development is on track.
Sitting down to review a lengthy tender document is another key focus today. Even though tenders are lead by sales, input from marketing is critical to ensure everything we say is on-message, not only so we do ourselves justice in an increasingly competitive selection process, but also to articulate our position as a responsible, ethical business partner.
Tuesday
Our mission at Brother is to grow our business through growing others. We sell most of our products through our reseller partners in the IT channel, which is why we share our marketing output and expertise with them – and I think that’s what makes our marketing team different. We’re not there to produce content on request, and instead, we join our sales teams in customer meetings, advising customers directly on their own marketing programmes and contributing to the standout service they expect from Brother.
Sales and marketing go hand in hand and on days like today, I meet with category heads to discuss live activity and plan the weeks ahead, as well as reviewing customer presentations. It’s essential that we effectively communicate the value that marketing can bring to our customers’ organisations – combined with a strong product line-up and compelling sales incentives, this should make us their partner of choice.
Wednesday
A key part of my role is to act as a conduit between the front line and the boardroom, which means regular sit-downs with our MD, Phil Jones MBE. As a marketing function, everything we do must add value to the business and for this to be possible, we need the latest insight and views from senior leaders, as well the opportunity to report back on our achievements and learnings. Two-way dialogue is valued at all levels of our business – everyone has something to contribute.
After catch-ups with Phil, I communicate the outcomes to the team. It could be that there’s a business area in need of more support, or maybe there’s a new opportunity we need to assemble credentials for. I like to bring the team on-board quickly so that everyone is bought into what we’re doing and why, and to gather their feedback so that I can share it the next time Phil and I meet.
Thursday
A key area for us at the moment is supporting our market-leading range of business printers, specifically designed for larger enterprises. Our integrated Designed for Business campaign is helping us to engage with both reseller partners and end-users, and our regular all-agency meetings enable us to come together with our creative, PR and media buying partners to evaluate and plan new activity.
This morning’s meeting reflected on phase one, which honed in on the opportunities and threats associated with IT security, and how we, along with our resellers, can support and encourage businesses to adopt strategies that will protect them from cyberattacks. The results look great across our owned and earned channels, and there’s plenty of insight we can feed into phase two.
Later in the day, I make time to sit down with one of our apprentices who is currently working on the market development team that sits within marketing. We’re proud of our trainee programme, and one of the many reasons behind its success is the encouragement we give our apprentices to feed back regularly on their experience and ask questions of people at all levels across the business.
Friday
Today, I’m reviewing new copy and ideas for Spark, our end-user content hub. Engagement with Spark has gone from strength to strength since we launched it. Alongside articles from our in-house specialists, we regularly invite leaders from other industries to contribute their expertise, which provides us with a great opportunity to share thought-provoking content that goes beyond our own sector.
While smaller groups within marketing get together regularly, we tend to meet as a whole team once a month on a Friday. This is a chance to share best practice and update on recent and upcoming activity, and it provides an opportunity for us to agree the community or charity initiatives we’d like to get involved in.
Our recent projects include redecorating the Denton Community Centre and creating the artwork for a local nursing home to use on its fundraising posters. We also use these sessions to invite nominations for anyone on the team who’s gone above and beyond, and we reward them with Amazon vouchers. Employee recognition is a great way to boost confidence, encourage best practice and retain talent – and it means we go into the weekend on a high.
