Profile Piece- Taylor Kulik

WRITTEN November 2022

There are jobs out there that seem like one simple role, but jobs in marketing don’t seem to have that simplicity. Marketing is broad and could mean many different roles and responsibilities. Which do you think of? The business analysts that sit staring at the interaction to a tweet about their company’s product? Or the graphics designer that sits staring at a computer screen waiting for their next idea to hit? For Taylor Kulik, she works in a few different parts of marketing.

“There’s a lot of things under the marketing umbrella that you can go to,” said Taylor Kulik.

Taylor Kulik, who works for Tune as the integrated marketing manager, is a very hard worker that has continued to do well in her marketing career, she also has a very relaxed and fun-loving personality. Even during an interview where she had to explain quite a bit about her work, she still managed to throw in some good jokes while showcasing her insight into the marketing field.

During her college years, Taylor looked at marketing, which seemed like a good balance between business and creativity. She switched between a few different universities before deciding to complete her degree at the University of Alabama. As a part of her degree, Taylor was required to complete an internship related to her major. For this internship, Taylor decided to work at the non-profit Autism Pensacola Inc. in her hometown Pensacola. While there she began to gain a better understanding of the field and where she wanted to work in it. 

“When I worked at [Autism Pensacola Inc.] the biggest thing was communication,” said Taylor. “And really making sure that people were aware of our non-profit because we could help so many people we just needed them to know about us.” 

After leaving the non-profit, Taylor worked in a few different jobs with different aspects of marketing. As Taylor has gained experience, she has also seen how the field of social media has continued to evolve and change marketing. Social media has made way for “micro-influencers”  as Taylor calls them, or smaller influencers that can convince people to buy a product because they seem more relatable than major influencers may be. Taylor used the Kardashians as an example of prominent influencers that people no longer trust.

 “Since we know they’re going to promote whatever products pay them more,” said Taylor. 

While trends like that have changed how marketing is done via influencers, other trends and aspects of social media seem to constantly change.

“I would say that social media changes every year, every quarter really… Social media is definitely a big one [to keep an eye on] and it’s a beast,” said Taylor. 

Even as social media has changed how some marketing companies work, Tune, where Taylor works, has adapted with them. Unlike most companies that market their products to consumers, Tune works with other companies and markets their services to them. Tune uses software that can be customized for each client to show companies what methods of marketing work for them and how that marketing pays off in sales or interactions with their company.  One such marketing method is looking at what influencers may be able to help increase sales for the company Tune is hired by. That influencer is then hired by Tune to help market for the company. Since Tune works with businesses and not consumers there is a very specific group that Taylor and Tune have to market their software to. 

“When your [Business to Consumer] you can kind’ve talk to anybody, but when you’re [Business to Business] you waste your money trying to talk to everyone,” said Taylor. “You have to find these specific channels to get your message across effectively.”

Getting the message across is part of Taylor’s job. As the integrated marketing manager at Tune, Taylor works with others on her team to push out content for the companies they assist, through different formats such as newsletters, ads, and branded content. This content is sometimes made by the content manager at Tune or information that the company they are working with wants to be released. She currently works with a small team but hopes that they can grow bigger as the company continues to grow. With this hope, Taylor wants to work more on the management side of marketing, working on how they should market to the companies they want to attract and also how to better show their client’s content to the world. 

When thinking about later in her career, Taylor has considered returning to school to gain her master’s degree and work in a more HR and marketing hybrid within a company. The role that Taylor has considered working in if she gains her master’s degree would help to retain employees by giving them incentives and extra benefits at the company they work at, which works between a marketing manager and a member of Human Resources within a company.

“You bring some personal elements [in this position] to the corporate world, which I think is huge, especially with what we’ve seen over the last two years with the Great Resignation and everyone job hopping,” said Taylor. “Diving into that more and seeing the how and why seems really interesting.”

That job position would be a great way to help retain employees at a company as well as boost their morale, which could improve the company’s overall performance. At the moment, however, Taylor is content to continue building her team at Tune and working with their clients to give them the best service possible and give her all as an integrated marketing manager.