Account Planner Responsibilities

The work profile of account planners are related to the advertising arena. Nowadays there is nothing that does not need advertising. The fact that you need to be known is dependent on the image you build, and it all starts with communicating with people. Communication builds a bridge across you and the other party. In the advertising field, communication rules, be it written or with multimedia. The targeted audience varies here depending on the industry you are in. Conveying the message about your product, services, etc., is the key responsibilities of an account planner.

The public relations departments, sales, consulting agencies, marketing departments, etc., have a need for account planners as well. They participate in planning, executing, conducting research, etc. These resources should be used to the fullest of their potential.

Apart from identifying the business opportunities and the right kind of audiences the account planners may be a part of some administrative duties that vary from organization to organization.

Work Profile of Account Planner

The entire job profile of an account planner is about invention, innovation and selling ideas, set targets, achieving goals, build an image of the company or the brand, etc. The account planner responsibilities are full of image building, convincing the consumers about their quality and reliability of product or services.

• Account planners are the professionals who design the strategies and plan the course of action of how a certain project should be carried out. This project is related to advertising as mentioned before
• Creative thinking is essential to perform well as an account planner
• Study the trends to judge the response and effectiveness of advertisements in different mediums, for different people
• A major part of this is done through the feedback of the customers and clients

Understanding the Client

An account planner needs to understand the demands of the clients with respect to the thing they wish to promote. It is possible that the clients have a different set of target audience and the account planners may feel that some alternative method for achieving the target is better. In that case, they have to make the client understand and suggest the appropriate module.

• Analyze the market trend, statistical data
• Conduct campaigns for collecting data and detecting market trends
• Act as the mediator between the creative team and the clients. Help them understand the way studies have been conducted
• Ensure the perceptions and expectations of the clients are clear and conveyed in the same light to the concerned teams

Creative Thinking

Thinking out of the box is the need of the hour to stand out in this field of stiff competition. The account planner responsibilities have the following things:

• Develop ideas by communicating between the clients and the management
• Instruct the team members or the different departments handling the same projects
• In the field of advertising where everything depends on just the looks and what is being shown, one should have good presentation sense

Skills for Account Planners

An account planner should have the following qualities in him to be able to survive and flourish well in this industry:

• A keen sense of business and the ability to look at the probable opportunities
• An account planner needs to have the ability to handle problems or work related issues under pressure
• He or she needs to have logical thinking power and patience as well
• Communication skills are a must for being a good account planner as he or she needs to convey messages via various media
• Be meticulous with data and trends
• Account planners should be adjustable and have a flexible personality to be able to be a team player but at the same time when given the responsibility he or she should be able to be persuasive and take decisions

In a few years time the account planner jobs will see an increase of about 14%, according to the government statistics, which assures a good employment and growth scope.

So these were the general account planner responsibilities and along with these duties one is expected to have the ability to stay calm under pressure, be able to deliver on time and have a sound mind to make use of every resource appropriately.