Stengel - Communications Specialist in Demand

By Will Waugh

We recently interviewed Jim Stengel, P&G's Global Marketing Officer, for an upcoming publication we have coming out tentatively titled Marketing Thought Leaders: Conquering the Growth Frontier. When asked for his predictions on specialized positions for the new marketing world, he only gave one - a communications specialist role. I thought the definition for this was interesting so I thought I'd share it:

It's someone who is a bit of a consumer researcher and a bit of an advertising agency planner type - someone who is an integrated thinker; someone who understands the communications world. And I think someone who also understands the content world. It's a much more complex planning skill -- strategic thinking you might call it.

There you have it. The world's top marketer on what sort of skill sets a new marketer needs to have. I have talked about content as a killer app  as well as the renaissance marketer and how these traits are neccesary components of the evolving marketing world. The challenge, of course, is finding the talented individuals with a varied skill set across this spectrum. 

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Comments

[WillWaugh]

Scott

Mr. Stengel has fantastic insight on the role and future skills of marketers.

Thanks for the comment.

[Scott]

Will - THANK you! This is exactly what I'm trying to convey to colleagues. When I present myself as a "big-picture"/strategic guy who knows the space, the traditionalists want to know about "attention to detail." While the latter is important, it's not the driving factor behind how marketers are going to fundamentally need to change - and to be seen as different - in the future.

As someone who knows the social media marketing space, this is the very type of role that I'm looking for.