Sunny Cervantes

I am an accidental marketer.

On my “What do I want to be when I grow up?” list, being a marketing strategist was never one of them.  At the top of that list was detective because I fancied myself as the next Nancy Drew.  I went through a period of figuring out how to color my hair, titian, except I didn’t know what titian was.

Then, there was secretary.  That was a product of my Mills & Boon obsession where all the ladies were secretaries whom Arab sheiks whisked to exotic lands to live a life of luxury, romance and high drama.

Finally, a teacher.  In grade school, we taught catechism classes to public schools as part of our community service.  I always felt so powerful each time I stood in front of the class.  11 years old and already power hungry, what can I say?

I never became any of those.

After college, I needed a job pronto.  My first job was being a marketing officer for a fast food giant in the Philippines.  I didn’t have a lot on my plate at that time so I grabbed the offer.  I thought I’d do marketing for a while until I found something better.

Instead, I fell irrevocably in love with Marketing.  After 18 years of solid marketing experience, I am now a marketing consultant who remains blissfully in love with marketing.

As a marketing consultant, I think of myself as a Marketing Director for rent.  If a company or business can’t afford to hire a marketing head, they come to me, The Marketing Girl.

I conceptualize their marketing strategies and, should clients wish to, I implement it as well.  For some clients, I manage their marketing departments until they can hire a permanent marketing director or vice president for marketing.  For other clients, I do brand management.  I conceptualize and develop their marketing and communication tools alongside their advertising and PR agencies.  I also conduct marketing seminars and training workshops.

In a nutshell, I do marketing management.

My career as a marketing strategist is a merger of my What-To-Be-When-I-Grow-Up list.  Detective work entails a lot of investigation and analysis.  Possessing an analytical mind is a must in the marketing world.

Secretarial work, on the other hand, calls for organization and attention to detail.  A marketer should have those traits in order to create a coherent, effective and efficient marketing campaign.  Sadly, being whisked away by dashing and fabulously wealthy sheiks is not part of that deal.  Still, hope springs eternal.

As a marketer, I help educate the people I work with on the principles and concepts of marketing management.  To me, this is the most fun part of my job.  Someday, I hope to be a real marketing professor ala Philip Kotler.

I do have a life outside of marketing.

I’m a single mom to a future artist whose aim in life is to hang her paintings at the Louvre.  Preferably, while she’s still alive and breathing.  I’m passionate about writing and I dream of the day I can win a Pulitzer. Hey, if I’m going to dream, I might as well dream big, right?

I go scuba diving in my spare time.  I like to dabble in black-and-white photography.  However, in this age of digital film, I’m a purist.  I prefer to shoot on film because I enjoy developing and printing my own photos. Other than the fact that I can’t cook and I’m missing a sheik, life is pretty good.

They say life begins at 40.  I say life gets more exciting at 40.  Being an author on All the Single Girlfriends, alongside some of the world’s most amazing women, definitely makes being in my 40’s intense.

From Manila to the world, Mabuhay!

For a regular dose of my marketing brains, you can go to my marketing blog or connect to The Marketing Girl on Facebook.  Ask me about marketing and brand management on Quora.  My resume can be found on my LinkedIn profile.  Snippets of my daily life are shared on my Twitter, @SunnyC

And my posts on All The Single Girlfriends begin here…