Good Students
If you're in the marketing field, you'll probably need to learn about the distribution model for financial products. You'll have to understand the role of managing general agents, underwriters, and agencies, and the insured. That is if you are going to provide marketing for brands in the insurance business.
You'll need to know how businesses manage risk, what "certs" or certificates of insurance are used for, and what it means to be an 'additional insured.' You'll also need to know how an insured goes through the underwriting process, collecting quotes, reviewing declarations, and making final decisions on what makes the most sense for their risk.
None of this sounds like marketing, but it is a vital part of it. If you want to develop a marketing strategy for insurance, you'll have to understand insurance and the people who buy or sell it. This is not optional.
A good marketer is a good student. You need to understand everything about the business you are marketing and anything surrounding it. Like the competing priorities that can prevent someone from taking the time to shop for their insurance to begin with or what occurrences can change someone's outlook on their own insurance.
This is why kids want to test video games and college students want to get into the beer business. Because they already like these products and understand them without effort. Or at least they think so.
Good Business Models
Most marketers undervalue things like sales models, financial models, or a product's makeup. Most marketing folks don't even know what a Lloyd of London is, but they should if they are marketing around one. The same goes for beer. Beverage companies are not all booze and bubbles. There's a lot of moving parts that brings a product to market.
Marketing for beer brands means marketing that touches on distribution models, liquor laws, inventory management, and tap handles – all the things that determine how a product is sold, just as much, if not more, than how a consumer picks their favorite beer. As you can imagine, most people's choice of beer is beer, which is a choice of where they buy beer. So, if you don't understand these details, you may miss where marketing is most effective. That is, at the point where decisions are made.
If you're going to be in marketing, you have to be a lifelong student. Whether you are working for one company or for several as part of an ad agency, if you want to be a good marketer, you'll need to be a good student, too.
