With a love for building relationships with others, finalist for the 2023 Up-&-Coming Marketer of the Year, Jeanne Kim tells us what drew her towards the industry, and all the challenges and rewards that come with being a young marketer.
How or why did you get into marketing – what sparked your interest?
I’ve always had an interest in psychology so I majored in psychology, marketing, and management in university. I felt like marketing allowed me to continue to action my curiosity around human behaviour.
Briefly, give details of your marketing career to this point.
I started at a market research agency straight out of university and while it was exciting learning about all sorts of different industries, I wanted to find out more about marketing and the different aspects of marketing (e.g. events, content, CX, design) and joining the marketing team at Tonkin+Taylor has allowed for me to explore these areas.
What do you love about marketing? Is there a specific type of marketing you particularly enjoy, or specialise in, and why?
I love being able to talk to people and understanding their motivations and drivers. A big part of my role is interviewing clients and I love hearing about what our clients do and what’s going on in their world but I also love being able to take these insights and shape them in a way that’s meaningful for our client managers and teams and helping form stronger relationships.
Is there a specific project you’ve worked on that stands out for you?
Launching our first Voice of Client quarterly client feedback programme earlier this year.
There was a lot of stakeholder engagement involved in this process and there was a lot weighing in on the success of this project so to pull of the first iteration of it as well as it did meant that I was able to build my profile internally as not just a young marketer, but someone who is valuable to the company.
What are some of the biggest challenges you as a young marketer face in your role?
Finding the balance between exploring all the different areas of marketing (e.g events, content, design) before making an informed decision on where you want to take your career and homing in on and becoming a subject matter expert on the area I’m currently focused on (e.g. CX).
What advice would you give to other young marketers newish to the industry?
It’s daunting entering the workplace and there’s so much to learn and it can feel very overwhelming when you start out. It’s okay to not know all the answers and if you don’t, speak up and ask for help.
There’s no such thing as a dumb question and asking questions is a great way to start building relationships with your colleagues.
Where do you see your career headed in the next 5-10 years?
Who knows! Currently I don’t want to feel bound to one career path so I’m keeping as open-minded as possible and I’ll just have to see where life takes me.
