Your Marketing Exec, LLC

On a wintry Friday night in Philadelphia, a group of die-hard inquirers gathered in a center city high rise to engage in an unconference entitled TrendCamp. (For more info go to www.trendcamp.org or follow @TrendCamp on twitter.) Among the dozen or so sessions held was one I moderated entitled ”The Evolution of Marketing as a Profession.”

Here’s snapshot of the Evolution of Marketing, but be sure to read further. You can click on the image to enlarge, or click here for a PDF.

Basically, the format for an unconference is that people sign up to attend based on a very broad topic — in this case “trends.” Once at the event, people who want to present or moderate a specific topic post the topic and reserve a room. So I posted this topic and was delighted that about 15 people were interested. In about 45 minutes, here’s what we covered:

A shared, general definition of marketing

We agreed that there is often confusion about what marketing is, and that there are many definitions of marketing. Here are some of the ideas shared. 

• Paraphrasing Peter Drucker, there are only 2 things in business Innovation and Marketing — everything else is an expense. Business is about great products and services, and then marketing them so that people pay money to buy them.
• Marketing is a tool for enticement. It gives people enough information to make them want to know more about something.
• Marketing is about trying to make people’s lives better.
• Marketing is the study and understanding of people and how they make choices. Then applying this to get business. 
• Marketing is targeting what person, what goal and what makes them tick.
• Marketing is about visibility – letting people know the doors are open for business.

It was interesting that the members of the group did not immediately jump into describing tactics such as ads, websites, brochures or other tactical things. There was uniform agreement that marketing is about engaging customers.

State of marketing

As part of a general discussion, we asked what we thought about the state of marketing today and how it is changing. We agreed that many aspects of marketing are evolving — probably always have evolved and probably always will. Here are some of the finer discussion points.

• Marketing changes as fast as technology that supports marketing changes. Changes in marketing are not dependent on technology to change, but certainly marketing leverages advancing technology to evolve.
• We are seeing the convergence of many aspects of marketing, such as advertising in web-streamed music, or television commercials in video streams. But to a large extent, we are probably in a state of pre-convergence — we will probably see closer integration and greater blurring of lines. Maybe it is perpetual convergence?
• Evolution of marketing depends on industry. In financial services, for example, regulation makes it difficult if not impossible for an individual sales person to fully engage in social media. Consequently, traditional marketing methods such as direct mail and cold calling may actually can stand out as unique. Many sales professionals in non-regulated businesses have moved away from those tactics. Might some “counter-culture,” low-tech marketing tactics be more powerful now than in the past? 
• Marketing no longer equals presence, but now requires meaning.
• Some channels and strategies require specialized skills. This can be specialized knowledge found in a subject matter expert or technical skill such website coding.
• As we experience culture shifts and collisions of cultures more skill is required from marketers to effectively market to diverse cultures.

Nine enduring qualities of marketing professionals

Participants in the marketing breakout session were asked to do silent individual brainstorming of what qualities marketing professionals need to be successful through the ongoing evolution of our profession. We then posted our ideas on a board and grouped them into some general categories. This list was quite impressive, and I am sure I will not do complete justice to the explanation. In some cases I am rewording or relabeling ideas in an attempt to make them clearer to those not in attendance. I will trust my fellow participants to add in their thoughts to expand on this list or correct any errors I have made.

1. Analytical: Fluent in research, measurement, strategy, science and process management.
2. Listener: Able to really hear and understand people.
3. Creative: Able to continually generate new ideas — sparks of inspiration.
4. Emotionally Intelligent: In tune with the feelings and emotional responses of others, especially customers, while remaining ego-less. 
5. Innovative: Able to generate enduring changes in a creative manner.
6. Technically Sophisticated: Smart and an early adopter of technology that will help move marketing forward.
7. Interdisciplinary: Well rounded and knowledgeable. Able to think and engage in a wide range of topics.
8. Relentless: Filled with joyful energy, persistent and motivated.
9. Extreme: Cannot tolerate the norm, cynical, and a bit arrogant.

In the end, we agreed that marketing is ultimately about how a company connects with a person to fulfill his or her need with its products and/or services. While techniques will continue to evolve, the need to understand fundamentals such as the customer and the value of the product or service will remain the same. Certainly, the pace of marketing today is much faster and the social nature of the world today and how people interact (primarily through social media) has changed the face of marketing.

We agreed that this will be an ongoing topic of interest and discussion, and hope that those who read this — session participants as well as other interested people  — will comment. We look forward to the ongoing sharing of ideas around the evolution of marketing.

Special thanks to Nelly Arnold, @NellFerragamo, for diligent note taking to help capture the ideas from this session.

–Chuck Hall