October Q&A Recap

Written by: Jonathan Tick

On October 27th, we were joined by Ben Hendricks in a Q&A session talking about his journey to become a Chief Marketing Director.  During the session, we asked him for any advice he might have for high school or college graduates who were considering a career in marketing, as well as any pitfalls new grads might want to avoid while searching for job positions.

Ben is currently working as the Chief Marketing and Communications Director for Kiwanis International, a non-profit organization that supports less fortunate communities worldwide with service clubs that host educational and recreational programs.  Ben also handles the marketing and communications for Circle K and Key Club, two other organizations that work under the Kiwanis International umbrella aimed towards students and younger children.  

Landing at Kiwanis International

When asked about his journey of what led him to Kiwanis International, Ben stated that his career had started when he was still in high school.  At that time, he  wanted to pursue something creative in nature.  But because he couldn’t sing, draw, or do theater, he turned to pen and paper as his outlet for creativity.  As a result, he pursued a public relations and journalism degree at East Carolina University hoping to get into sports journalism to report on soccer and basketball.  After graduating, Ben found that he was better suited for the marketing field. He later took a marketing position within the sports field for a company that required him to spend 49 weeks of each year travelling cross-country.  

As Ben states, he found this job incredibly rewarding, as he was able to meet so many people in different communities across the United States.  Despite that, Ben said that he wanted something different, and because he was getting older, the extensive amount of traveling the job required was too much for him.  

After leaving his sports journalism position, he spent the next few years doing similar jobs in different fields.  Notable parts of his resume included being a member of the marketing team for the original Xbox and working for Coca Cola and Nascar to help with their racecar sports initiatives.  All before settling as the PR and Communications Lead for a healthcare agency for about 15 years.  And despite the healthcare agency giving him a sense of passion due to their mission, Ben noted that their ‘for profit’ attitude would lead him to leave the company due to an uneasiness he felt working towards improving the company’s stock price instead of the company’s intended mission.  

Corporate vs. Non-Profit

One of the most important distinctions that Ben made during the Q&A was between corporate, for-profit companies and non-profit or charitable organizations.  He stated the drastic difference(s) between the two and the different priorities that came from both of them attempting to accomplish their goals.  

For the healthcare group, it was all about raising their stock price and growing the company’s net worth.  To this end, the marketing that Ben had to do was geared towards improving that image; while the company’s mission was still a priority, making money was the most important thing that he had to convey as a marketing writer/lead.  

For non-profits however, the mission was the most important part of the organization’s brand and image.  For them, Ben says, fulfilling the goal or the mission was more important than keeping the company in the black.  And that if necessary, the organization would lose money in order to fulfill their mission goals.  Ben said that he preferred the goal-oriented attitude of a non-profit organization, which, he concluded, is how he arrived at Kiwanis International.

Day to Day

Ben stated that his day-to-day activities weren’t easy to explain due to the nature of his work.  Every day he said has a different list of responsibilities that needed tending to, and managing a team of marketing writers and club events at Kiwanis International worldwide results in his work schedule changing daily.  So, Ben turned the conversation towards what his entry-level marketing and communication staff would be doing on their daily schedule to give a glimpse of what the job is like under his leadership.

The first thing he talked about was branding.  Ben explained that the marketing team is the voice that explains the company or organization’s brand to the masses.  Every bit of advertising and public image is made by the marketing team, and without their work, nobody is going to know what the company or group does or is selling.  He uses McDonald’s as an example, explaining that the marketing team’s work to write commercials and strategically buy ad space is what drives customers to want McDonald’s and buy a Big Mac.  

(No one's gonna know what it is unless you’re a good writer.)

Next, Ben talked about the changes in the marketing field, comparing job market expectations from when he first started out vs. what’s required today.  The digital age, Ben says, added a lot more things needed in a marketing writer’s skillset.  Back when he started working, companies were in charge of their own brand identity and had their marketing team in charge of everything that had to do with the brand’s image.  Nowadays, social media has empowered customers via internet reviews and other communication, making it impossible for companies to control their brand’s identity when customers have the freedom to say whatever they want.  Therefore, Ben explains that just being a good writer won’t cut it anymore.  Being able to run successful digital marketing campaigns as well as being able to use search engine optimization (or SEO) are imperative skills for successful marketing or public relations writers.  On the topic of field specialization, Ben also stated that if anyone is good enough to write for tech or healthcare companies, then they have the writing skills for any other marketing field out there.

Lastly, Ben talks about communication, and how important it is to be a good communicator.  “Being a good engineer will make you look good.  But being a good engineer AND a good communicator will make you a unicorn; everyone’s gonna want you,” Ben explained.  To Ben, collaboration is just as important as being able to do good work, as applicants with the combined skills will be a stronger choice for the job.  

Advice for the Future

Lastly, Ben talked about a few miscellaneous pieces of advice that he wanted to pass on from his experience.  

First, Ben advised not to think tactically, but think smartly in relation to the problems at hand.  Oftentimes, Ben said, he would find his entry level employees working on creating new marketing strategies with no discernable explanation as to what problem they were trying to solve.  When Ben asked what the employee was trying to solve, hoping to understand their intentions, the employee came out short beyond just wanting to ‘try something new’.  “Figuring out and then solving problems, Ben says, “is far better than simply trying something new in order to pursue the company’s goals.”  This way, strategies can be built to see if solution XYZ works to help with the organization’s mission instead of doing something blindly and hoping it works.  

His second piece of advice was about global cultures.  Previously, the world was separated into their own little bubbles and societies.  Nowadays however, the world is a lot more interconnected, and companies from different parts of the world come together to collaborate and help each other achieve their goals.  For Ben, learning about other cultures from around the world helped him better understand the intricacies of their society and figure out what path to take to best help them.  This way, better communication and connections can be established, and improved public relations will benefit everyone as a result.

Finally, Ben’s last point was about not necessarily finding enjoyable work positions, but instead, finding enjoyable people to work with.  In a work environment, people are constantly talking and collaborating with each other to achieve the group’s goals.  If you don’t get along with the people you work with, the enjoyment you experience at that position will be far less than you anticipated.  In his own anecdotes, Ben recalled his own experiences where the people he worked with increased his sense of fulfillment at his positions. Additionally, he told of how helpful his superiors were when he asked them questions to gain a better understanding of his position.  Ultimately, these encounters equipped him with the experience and know-how to become the Marketing and Communications Leader he is today.

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