Katherine Glader
This interview was recorded on September 4, 2019.
The following are some of the most notable excerpts from the interview:
Q: “Go ahead and introduce yourself.”
Katherine: “My name is Katherine Glader. I started Praxis in June of 2018, and I’ve been in a full-time role now for eight weeks. Since I actually bypassed the apprenticeship role portion of the program, kind of by accident and just how things worked out. Let’s see here… I’m one of few Praxians that loves college and has her degree, and still appreciates both Praxis and university. That’s where I come from, that’s where I got my Marketing degree, that's where that passion came from. I heard about Praxis after I graduated.”
Notes: Praxis is an apprenticeship program. Typically, at the end of the first half of the program, you are placed with a startup company to complete a paid apprenticeship for six months. Katherine was not placed with an apprenticeship, so she chose to find a full-time role on her own! It is also pretty unusual to do Praxis after earning a degree. Many Praxis participants choose to do Praxis instead of attending University.
Q: “What job do you have right now?”
Katherine: “I actually work in sales at Dispatch. It’s here in the twin cities. We’re Uber for business deliveries, if that’s of interest. So, I didn’t do an apprenticeship. I waited a long time looking for one, and then decided, actually, to leave that module and just find something on my own. So, I’m breaking every mold, including the Praxis one.”
Q: “What makes marketing vital to a company?”
Katherine: “Marketing is vital, because if people don’t hear about it, and understand it, and get excited by it, there’s no purchase involved. When I was first looking for jobs, right out of college, I always told the interviewer: my philosophy in marketing is “but you remembered it.” That goes further into purchasing, but if you can’t remember a brand, if they don’t leave something in your head, it’s not gonna work. If nobody remembers you, nobody knows to purchase your product, you can’t succeed.”
Q: “How is marketing different from other roles in a company?”
Katherine: “I guess when I think marketing, and my passion for it, I think a lot about the philosophy and psychology of it. Thinking about the branding strategy, how a brand is putting itself out there… We all have this central idea, and I think that’s been created by the marketing team, and the CEO and whatnot. They create a cohesive view of what the product we’re all selling is.”
Notes: Katherine also lists some of the typical responsibilities of the marketing team. Things like: developing graphics, slogans, and even the real life look of their buildings.
Q: “To you, what does it mean to be successful in marketing?”
Katherine: “To get people genuinely excited about a brand for a good reason.”
Notes: Katherine uses an example of a marketing internship that she did for a camp. She talks about the experience/process of using marketing to create a buzz around the camp, and make people interested in attending. She also touches on the idea that the end goal of marketing is getting people to purchase your product.
Q: “What kind of person does well in a marketing role? Are there certain skills or personality types that it would just be easier for?”
Katherine: “A philosophically inclined person, I’ve learned that that’s a huge element… Trying to understand people, what they want, and how you can communicate how you can fill that. I tend to say extroversion, but that’s a sales and marketing one. Someone who also likes numbers, to a certain extend is important. That was a lesson I had to learn as I pursued marketing.”
Notes: Katherine talks about how marketing is more than the fun, creative tasks. It is also about being analytical and looking at the response to your marketing strategies. Katherine goes a bit more in-depth on why she thinks extroversion is helpful in marketing. She says that she believes that the inclination to collaborate with others, and the initiative to do things even if they don’t turn out well are really great in marketing.
Q: “What are some attributes of a marketing campaign that make it successful?”
Katherine: “Triggers, exclusivity, being remarkable, and being memorable… but also leading to that purchase. I have looked at case studies where you remembered it and it did lead to a purchase, but I’ve also looked at ones where you remembered it and it didn’t lead to a purchase… It’s really weird how you can remember something, but if it’s not targeted right, it’s not going to help your marketing campaign.”
Notes: Katherine gives the example of the Taco Bell Dog by Taco Bell. She comments on how memorable the commercial and the campaign were, but how quickly Taco Bell stopped using that strategy. She says that even though it was memorable, it didn’t make people go out and buy their food.
Q: “How does building a good brand contribute to marketing?”
Katherine: “It makes it more cohesive, I think… When people see your brand they know it.”
Notes: Katherine uses Target as an example for this. She says that their logo has so much recognition that when you see it, you just know it’s from Target. She says that Apple has also succeeded in this way.
Q: “Were there any misconceptions you had about marketing?”
Katherine: “The numbers thing for sure… It’s not all about the branding, it’s also about what it creates and how you communicate it to your customers.”
Q: “Isaac Morehouse talks about marketing as the perfect role for a “boring creative” what’s your take on that?”
Katherine: “I have one younger sister. We grew up and I thought she was the only creative one between the two of us. She was the one who could paint, she could sculpt clay, all the art class things. Little did I know that I was creative, I just did not know that my medium existed yet… the internet, and writing, and not having a rubric. It’s a different kind of creativity, I think.”
Notes: The point is that the typical view of what is creative is pretty limited. Creativity may also mean the ability to try something in countless ways, and always having ideas of how to tweak something in order to increase its’ impact.