I got some emails asking what I meant when I stated "marketers reinvent themselves."
Well, let me expand on this. Marketers must possess several critical skills. They must:
- be comfortable counting beans (metrics/accountability)
- they have to know who their customers are and how to effectively reach them and
- most importantly they must help point the company in the right direction.
Marketers I believe must also ask fundamental questions:
- What needs to be done?
- How do we get what needs to be done most effectively and efficiently?
The bean counters and researchers are experts at telling us how good our investments were or who are customer is, but they do not have the knowledge, skill or insight necessary to build a focused team able to work within today’s complex, multi media environment – unless of course we don’t fill that void. Then they will gain those skills and we’ll be left out in the cold.
We marketers can no longer be generals – rallying the troops to storm a beachhead; using overwhelming force to conquer the enemy. Instead we need to think like maestros leading an orchestra. Organizations consist of many parts, each with their own sounds, capabilities, ability to add to or detract from the music the marketing department can make. As the head creative/teacher/big picture seer (what can be done if everyone is playing the same tune), we have to be flexible enough to accept the input from a any section of the orchestra, yet innovative enough to help everyone see why playing together makes beautiful music.
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