Global Marketing and PR: Innovation and Evolution in Dynamic Times: Talk Takeaways
Last week, attendees of CGB’s event Global Marketing and PR: Innovation and Evolution in Dynamic Times had the opportunity to hear from industry experts Gretel Perera and Ana Villegas on how careers in marketing and PR are transforming and what professionals must do to stay ahead of the game.
Gretel Perera, the Head of Expedia Brands PR, Americas, is a UT alumna who graduated in 1998 with a double major in Public Relations and Journalism. She has over 20 years of experience in her field working for companies across several industries.
Ana Villegas, Chief Marketing Officer at AffiniPay, completed her undergraduate studies in Industrial Engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Peru and holds two master’s degrees in Marketing, one from the Universidad del Pacifico and one from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Ana has held top executive marketing roles for some of the world’s largest companies, such as Dell, Dole, National Instruments, and AffiniPay.
Both speakers offered excellent advice and insights not only for people interested in a career in marketing and PR, but for anyone interested in how today’s business world is transforming:
Analyzing Global Trends:
· Perera mentioned that she and her team must stay updated with what is going on in different markets around the world and develop successful strategies with them in mind.
· Understanding different countries’ markets is crucial. Since each country is different, both PR and marketing strategies must be uniquely tailored to each country. What works in one place can be unsuccessful in another location.
Stay Attentive:
· Up-and-coming technological tools and advances require businesses and professionals to adapt. Villegas emphasized that to be successful, marketers need to be aware of new offerings to get and keep an edge. This includes researching how they can use them from a strategic perspective and integrating them effectively.
· Staying attentive also entails being on the lookout for what the competition is doing. Both speakers highlighted how professionals in marketing and PR need to adjust, adapt, and come up with creative solutions to stay ahead of competitors and new entrants.
Intercultural Communication:
· Besides developing strategies that will be effective in different countries, marketers need to figure out how to effectively communicate their messages by understanding each country’s culture. According to Villegas, they need to educate and immerse themselves deeply in each culture to create different approaches that deliver the intended message appropriately.
Marketing and PR professionals must not only study diverse social trends and how different markets react to those trends, but also determine how to communicate the desired message in a way that will be successful in each culture.
You can watch the talk here:
Written by Julian Gonzalez, Intern at the Center for Global Business
