Careers: What's it really like inside - Glenmorangie

Is marketing valued? Very much so. Our chief executive, Paul Neep, was previously the marketing director. He is a great visionary, which you really have to be as a marketer in the whisky business.

When you're dealing with a product that is at least 10 years old and you can't automatically make more, you have to be more forward-thinking than in other areas of FMCG business. It sounds a bit cheesy, but here marketing is more of a philosophy than a function of the business.

What are the perks? The job is incredibly varied. One week you could be flying out to a distillery on Islay in the Hebrides to see how the sales of Ardbeg are doing, the next you could be doing a tour of the top 40 Manhattan restaurants. The next you could even be negotiating a distribution deal in Taiwan.

What are your fellow marketers like? Extrovert, ambitious, hard-working and passionate.

Are you all whisky-drinking Scots? We are certainly not a load of blokes wearing kilts sitting around slurping whisky. It's not like that at all. We're a diverse group. For example, one marketer is French, another is English and spent considerable time in Egypt working on marketing for Cadbury Schweppes, while another has a more traditional drinks marketing background.

Do you have to like whisky? You might not come in the door loving whisky, but you have to be prepared to get under the skin of it and find out why it's so special. After all, with the types of product we market, we are asking people to splash out from £20 right up to £1000 a bottle.

What is the age/gender split in the marketing department? Most of us are early-30s, and it is about 60:40 female to male.

What are the hours and salary package like? We probably work above average hours and are well rewarded, but it's not just about salary.

CAREERFILE

- Glenmorangie has 360 employees in the UK; 20 are marketers.

- Graeme Lindsay is director of marketing; Simon Erlanger is head of sales and marketing.

- Adspend for the year ending 31 October was almost £1.3m, of which just over £800,000 was spent on TV.

- Glenmorangie's headquarters are at 18 Westerton Road, Broxburn, West Lothian EH52 5AQ.

This article was first published on Marketing