Question

(make something up question) Give a comparison between theory (things you would learn in the classroom) and practice (things you would do at a branding and marketing company)

Answer 1

A brief comparison:

1. Things learnt in classrooms are in the form of subjects say brand management, marketing strategy, consumer decision making, etc but in real time scenario marketing decisions in a company involve a strategy or approach which involves all these to work simultaneously. High level learning like the interdependencies of brand awareness on consumer decision making or on sales strategy is not taught in much depth and mostly individual subjects are taught so it is difficult to connect the dots when doing the same in a company.
2. Even during live projects or subject projects, marketing strategies and other aspects are to be presented by the students without any substantial applicability on the market or any real time feedback. In real time marketing and branding decisions in a company have to make a substantial impact based on the target. Hence, deciding the marketing strategies in classrooms and in practice cannot be compared.
3. A lot of aspects and unknown variables are assumed in classrooms when deciding a marketing or branding strategy but in real time there is enough data to work with to arrive at a proper marketing decision. The decision making in terms of what, when, why and how can be much better strategized with the availability of data and data analysis tools.
4. Classroom marketing strategies are often one-dimensional(decided at the beginning) whereas in real time, strategies must evolve after each phase or after each marketing campaign. There is no fixed approach and one must be open to change/update the strategy midway if a certain strategy is not working as expected. Such knowledge of change in strategy is never imparted or experienced during classroom learning.
5. In classrooms, marketing strategies are discussed or suggestions are given without considering constraints like finance, human resource, feasibility and other aspects. In real time marketing efforts and strategies must be done taking care of the available finances, resources and other constraints.