At one of my recent roundtables I eagerly listened as my marketing executives discussed how their jobs have evolved. The change is nothing less than breathtaking. No wonder marketing leaders feel stressed! Here are some of the highlights I took away from this session:
- While we used to focus on creating consumer demand and awareness, our responsibility now often is in being with our consumers through their complete online experiences-which they largely drive themselves? We have to be much more compelling in creating interesting conversation.
- We are still doing what we used to PLUS creating content? The work has doubled or more. With the increased workload and a rapidly changing and more competitive environment marketing leaders are managing more staff and more third party relationships.
- More information means greater challenges in breaking through noise. We are getting more data than we know what to do with. AND, it also allows us to serve out individualized experiences at a never heretofore experienced scale.
- While outcomes we are trying to generate are the same, the challenge for us now is how we accomplish and stay relevant and timely.
- Our jobs and marketing processes are no longer linear. Things occur in a random, less organized way. The days of thinking that we can get things buttoned down and relax are over. We need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
| OLD | NEW |
| · Build demand | · Build conversation |
| · Send message out | · Provide answers to inquiries |
| · Static marketing tools | · Dynamic marketing tools |
My favorite quotes from this session:
- The companies that break through noise successfully have editorial teams.
- The time of locking things down are over? The days of fully baked are over.
- The sheer speed of changing market conditions makes it more likely our competition will pull the rug out from under us at any moment. We need to react and change messaging on a dime.
- Paying for a white paper is sooo “has been.”
- Focus groups are a thing of the past. Now we use digital tools to test concepts and ideas.
- Amazon is Nordstroms biggest competitor…who would have guessed.
- All we have is pace and cadence. It will never stop.
Other thoughts? What else is changing?