Having only worked in the creative and marketing industries for a year, I’ve been surprised to see the impact it’s already having on my daily life. From seeing everyone as a potential client, to realising the significance of marketing for businesses of all sizes, marketing is a career that has several effects on your day-to-day life.

Here are a few of them: 

1. You start thinking of taglines for your friends

You’ll start to piece together each of your friend’s personal brand in your head. Whether it’s your athleisure, spirulina-juicing yogi friend, or your weight lifting, Big Night Out friend, you’ll come to designate and know your friend’s personal brands backwards. And exactly how and to whom you would market them.

2. You start seeing everyone as a potential client

From the corner shop where you buy milk that could use a re-brand to the independent gift shop that needs positioning, via your local pub that needs a desperate social media overhaul, you’ll think almost every company you come across could use some marketing help. I like to think of this as ‘creative suggestions’, although it’s probably best to keep these ideas to yourself unless they ask, for risk of being barred from your local.

3. You can communicate clearly with your eyes closed, blindfolded, upside down and tongue-tied.

Working in marketing means you often have to communicate across language barriers, time zones and creative differences. Often a client or designer will have a completely different vision for a project than you do. Or they simply don’t understand your idea. Articulating your ideas, along with the rationale behind them, is vital for the smooth running of a project. Clear communication will help you collaborate better. Trust your gut and keep the communication open.

4. Marketing is, actually, really quite important

Many people, be it big business owners or small entrepreneurs can be sceptical about marketing. ‘How do I know it will work?’, ‘Why does that cost money?’ are things every marketer has heard before. The proof really is in the pudding, and once the results start to come in from your diligent efforts, that scepticism will be replaced with a new found understanding that marketing tends to be essential for business growth. What was it Peter Drucker said? Marketing and Innovation are the only two basic functions of a business?

I think he was on to something.