Winnie | Marketing is also a profession
Winnie, an experienced marketer, is one of the executive committee members of Hong Kong Marketing and Sales Professionals Union, which strives to provide support to fellow marketers who require assistance during this difficult period of pandemic.
“We are knowledgeable professionals with an acute sense of the market, and we could help dissect and define where the marketing direction could be. Through achieving that, I believe it would be an outstanding marketing campaign for “marketing”, ultimately uplifting the image of the industry.”
Journalist: King Kenny
Translator: Whatever1Takes
Photos: Silver Wolf
Being the linchpin
I’m Winnie, one of the executive committee members of Hong Kong Marketing and Sales Professionals Union. I worked in many industries, including exhibitions, public relations, trading, before settling with marketing for a decade, currently working as a marketing manager in an IT firm.
There is a general sentiment that marketing could be an industry for anyone, as long as you have basic language abilities and decent communication skills. Compared to other professions, it’s considered a job for laymen. But us insiders wish it were that simple. Very often, marketing communication is not the only job responsibility. Some of us have to take care of sales concurrently, others might have operations responsibilities. The broad range of responsibilities means that any good marketer would need to understand the full picture of both the internal factors of the company and where the company stands in the market. It requires strong analytical skills and sharp market sense to set up suitable marketing strategies. The marketing team is basically the linchpin of a company, tying together all functions to form into a more solid structure.
A sneak peek into marketing
Marketing is a very popular function anywhere outside of Hong Kong. Companies attach great importance to these roles, often with strong internal backing from management, allowing great freedom in creating marketing materials and communication strategies.
On the other hand, marketers in Hong Kong have to endure a working environment that is a lot less supportive. The role of marketing has a much lower importance in Hong Kong companies, with an incredibly low starting salary yet an overburdening workload. In my first job my initial salary was HKD $8,500, with a limited increment; my current salary is around HKD $12,000-$13,000, which is significantly lower than the average salary of other industries, but I spend much longer hours at work. I probably have more days working overtime than not.
My story is not atypical. I have even heard of fellow marketers getting sent to work on tedious assignments that are not on their job description, such as being on reception duty to serve clients, doing secretarial assignments like photocopying or couriering, or even being part of the IT or design department. It is as if the companies are trying to bundle everything into the same headcount, turning marketers into multi-functional machines.
Standing hand in hand to weather through the Covid storm
Since the start of the pandemic, many companies were struggling to stay afloat. The more unfortunate employees were let go, some took a pay cut or a salary freeze. Some employers used every tactic in the book to entice employees to leave voluntarily to save on compensations. Many members sought help from the Union, and we tried our best to help out via different channels. Despite being a newly established union, we encourage members to actively seek help from us in order to reflect the situation of the industry. With wider connections and tools at our disposal, we are better equipped in helping members fight for their interest via our network.
We conducted a survey on the measures our members’ workplaces deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite marketing often being considered as one of the more flexible industries, the vast majority of our members found their companies underdelivering in protective measures. Only 40% had work-from-home policies in place. A whopping 70% mentioned that their companies did not provide sufficient sanitary products such as masks or hand sanitizers. What’s most alarming was that only 30% of the companies requested mandatory quarantine for colleagues who visited China, risking the chance of spreading the virus across the office.
We designed a guideline[*1] for employers on COVID-19 to educate companies on the best practices in protecting their employees and adjusting workplace policies. Along with that, we drafted a plea letter[*2] for our members to kickstart discussions with their employers or their HR departments, while also to recommend them to wear masks at all times and to take care of each other.
The struggles setting up the Union
Back in August or September 2019, where the social movement is actively ongoing, there had been talks on organising a general strike. Several fellow marketers found one another on public groups in social media, and lamented on the lack of a union representing the marketing industry. That is how the idea of forming one ourselves came around. I joined the organizing committee last October and had since been working on putting our names on the Registry of Trade Unions. We are an employee union, welcoming any members who are working in the marketing or sales-related industry, regardless of whether they are working in-house, agencies, or B2B sales departments.
The journey to getting registered was not a smooth sail at all. We filed all our paperwork in late-November, but the progress was rather slow. Some unions who applied later than us got approved while our status got stuck in pending for ages. We were even wondering whether we were being targeted as we had some presence in protests. We made many enquiries to the Registry of Trade Unions, and after all the effort and wait, our union was finally established and appeared on the Government Gazette.
Fighting for our members’ rights a step at a time
Going on strike is a rather rare instance in Hong Kong, as there is virtually no protection to their job security. Employers could deploy disciplinary actions afterwards or even fire anyone who participated. This is why our union is formed, to give members a safety net via employee rights consultation and financial assistance in preparation for any future strikes.
Legally, employers have the final decision on whether to fire an employee, but it does not mean that employers can fire anyone purely based on their participation in strikes. The key difficulty in protecting our members is that there is no protection in Hong Kong’s legislation for strikes on political causes. In the past, strikes that occurred in Hong Kong focused on labour-management conflicts within the same company. Our members, on the other hand, work for multiple employers. Employees have no bargaining chips to negotiate with employers as collective bargaining is not a viable option, making it very hard to organize an industry-wide strike.
Despite our best intentions, we may not have enough resources to make sure all rights of our members are protected in the event of a strike. We have hence modified our development direction, aiming to group as many talents within the industry as possible, giving all of us a louder voice to fight for our basic labour rights, raising to employers issues such as overly long hours and low starting salary.
Marketers unite for a brighter future
Reflecting on what has happened in the past year, what strikes me again and again is the importance of each player towards our collective goal. You might be a frontliner, a backend support, or even one sitting in the office, but we all have our role in this movement. We have many experienced designers in our circle and are well-equipped in helping with designing promotional materials. Those experienced in digital sales can come up with tactics to promote messages across social media, helping us in reaching out to more people.
We are not alone in this pursuit. There are more and more trade unions getting set up recently, representing different industries. This is a great opportunity for us – no matter what industry or company you are in, you would need marketing. Our vision is to be the bridge between different trade unions, to facilitate interactions between industries, while also allowing our members to learn more about career opportunities in other industries as well. We are knowledgeable professionals with an acute sense of the market, and we could help dissect and define where the marketing direction could be. Through achieving that, I believe it would be an outstanding marketing campaign for “marketing”, ultimately uplifting the image of the industry.
“I am Winnie, I am a HKer.”
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[*1] Link to the guideline: http://bit.ly/37wkAPu
[*2] Link to the plea letter http://bit.ly/2uJnKBV