Failing to ‘live the brand’ as a marketing expert can really backfire, especially for those in the public eye. Celebrity brand ambassadors have famously been caught out using rival products to those they were aiming to endorse, such as Oprah Winfrey tweeting her love of Microsoft’s Surface from an Apple product  and Alicia Keys using an iPhone to tweet about Blackberry 

What can we can learn from this when applying for marketing jobs?

1) Live your own personal brand – be true to yourself and what you stand for
2) Live the client’s brand, at least when you are in public!
3) Do your research wisely – fake it and you risk being caught out

How can we apply these tips to the practicalities of a job application process?

– Be a customer or self-appointed ‘secret shopper’ for a day

When applying for a job with an online store, it may sounds obvious but do order something from the site before you apply for the job, and certainly before the interview. By living the customer experience, you will gain a good understanding and insight that other applicants may lack.

– Identify how you personally align with the brand

What is it about your experience and passion that makes you perfect for this industry? Be ready to show as well as tell the story of how your marketing skills and your own life experience combine to create exactly what the company needs. 

– Live the brand at your interview

It is clearly a no-no to wear an M&S suit to an interview with Next, or walk into a Starbucks interview carrying a Costa cup, but there are also subtler ways of nailing it when it comes to showing your marketing prowess. 

And finally, don’t make assumptions about what you think you know about a brand. If you didn’t know that Pot Noodle is no longer associated with ‘slacker’ culture and instead supports go-getters, or which fashion brand shot its spring 2016 campaign “live” on Snapchat, with photographer Mario Testino’s images lasting only 24 hours, you’ve got a bit of swotting up to do… []