#BrandManagerMonth: Branding the teacher

For every group of successful brand managers, there is a lecturer, professor, teacher or mentor who taught them the tricks of the trade.

I chatted with Thys de Beer, senior lecturer of Brand Strategy at the Vega School in Cape Town, about his own journey through managing brands to the present day, teaching tomorrow's brand managers.

Tell us a bit about yourself, your experience in brand management and why you decided to go into teaching?

Journeys are never as simple as expected, and mine was no exception. After completing two law degrees and realising that it wasn’t for me, then spending time in London, South Africa beckoned and I completed a post-graduate diploma in brand at Vega.

This led me to my first internship (on Toyota) and position at FCB Johannesburg as an account executive on FNB Motherbrand. At the end of that year I upped and left for Gaborone, Botswana where I continued working on the FNB account, among others as strategist. (What one wouldn’t do for love!?). A year later I relocated to Cape Town and joined FCB Cape Town where I worked as a strategist on Shoprite, Distell, etc. where after I joined JWT Cape Town as senior strategist working mainly on the Smirnoff and Pfizer accounts.

I was always a bit of a closet educator, so when the opportunity arose I joined Vega Cape Town as brand strategy lecturer, and nine years later I’m still here, and essentially part of the furniture. I still do strategic work from time to time, but am at Vega full-time.

Working with young people is (most of the time) very rewarding; you’re exposed to myriad types of people and constantly learn from each other, feedback is immediate and mutual growth is guaranteed.

What is the first or most important lesson you always teach your students?

To take accountability for their studies and their lives as young adults and to stay curious (sounding a bit like Steve Jobs her, sorry Steve!).

What are some of the biggest misconceptions new students have about brand management?

Some students have the impression that the field of brand management is devoid of any creativity and innovation and that it’s the domain of the so-called left-brained people (quite an archaic concept by now).

How has social media changed the face of the brand management curriculum?

I’m a bit of a techno-peasant so my students spend a lot of time doing low-tech practical applications, especially when developing prototypes. These can then be tested via social media, especially if it forms a core part of the business and concept. If I’m boring them they of course see other people on social media while I lecture essentially to myself.

During our annual industry simulation, the Vega Brand Challenge, the integrated teams are expected to develop on-brief messages shared via the most relevant contact points. As expected, social media has played an increasingly more important role during the past number of years.

What is your favourite/'can’t live without' tool (be it a technique, site, app, program) in your teaching arsenal and why?

Design thinking. This methodology can be universally applied to complex problems and it helps students to develop a more empathetic mind-set that is more human-centred in order to find solutions beyond existing industry approaches. Design thinking also teaches students to collaborate in multi-disciplinary teams and to think with their hands (as Tim Brown from IDEO says) where they can prototype and test their ideas.

If you weren't teaching, which brand would you want to work for and why?

I love car design, so I perhaps on leftfield automotive brands like Citroën (sadly now withdrawing from South Africa). I love the way the unconventional French view creativity and strategy. That said, my focus over the past six years has shifted to the field of design thinking and how that relates to brand, so that would be another option to explore.