Marketing continues to be in an era of rapid evolution. Strategies, tactics and roles are changing at a rate faster than many companies can keep up with. Last week, consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble announced it’s getting rid of marketing director and associate marketing director roles and replacing them with brand directors and associate brand directors. This week, experts and professionals in the field weighed what this means for marketing as a whole.
We’ve gathered some of the best articles on this latest chapter in marketing’s changing roles as well as two articles that look at the increasing role of technology in marketing and the need for marketing professionals who are capable of using and managing that technology.
- Is the Marketing Director Role Dead? Marketing Week: “Procter & Gamble is getting rid of marketing directors in favour of brand directors, one of a number of companies introducing new titles that they hope will better explain the role marketers do. Effective from 1 July, the move is part of wider global efforts to simplify P&G’s marketing structure and make the firm more agile, as well as giving brand directors more accountability. It follows the decision to restructure P&G’s marketing division and rename it brand management to ensure that disciplines such as market research, design and PR work more closely with marketing.”
- Industry Split on Impact of P&G’s Switch from ‘Marketing’ to ‘Brand’ Management. CMO: “Several marketing industry leaders have applauded P&G’s decision to reposition marketing leadership into centralised ‘brand’ teams, claiming the move represents a welcome shift towards marketing as the orchestrator of customer experiences. However, one former P&G staffer and respected Australian marketer has raised concerns that the decision rationalises strategy into global teams, leaves brand managers without commercial responsibility and in product silos, and could stifle local innovation.”
- Does P&G’s Reorganized Marketing Department Go Far Enough? Forbes: “The new role houses four functions: brand management, consumer and marketing knowledge, communications and design—thus creating a ‘single-point responsibility for the strategies, plans and results for the brands…simplifying our structure to free up time for creativity and better execution,’ a P&G spokeswoman said. Seems sensible enough. Who can argue with freeing up time for creativity and better execution? But does it go far enough?…I believe it’s time to give the people who are responsible for all aspects of a brand’s life and health a new title, one that promotes a more creative approach to developing a brand: brand creative directors.”
- Why is the CMO Running So Much IT? Big Data, says Ford Exec. TechRepublic: “In 2012, when Gartner famously predicted that by 2017 the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) would spend more on technology than the Chief Information Officer (CIO) — the traditional keeper of the keys of the corporate IT budget — some in corporate America scoffed at the idea. And no one scoffed more than the people inside the traditional IT department. However, this was one prediction where Gartner was right on track. In the two years since the prediction was made, the CMO has continued to gain power and influence over IT spending, and technology has continued to play a larger and larger part in the marketing department.”
- The Rise of the Chief Marketing Technologist: Does Your Business Need One? BRW: “Marketing is rapidly becoming one of the most technology-dependent functions in business….A new type of executive is emerging at the centre of the transformation: the chief marketing technologist. CMTs are part strategist, part creative director, part technology leader and part teacher. Although they have an array of titles – Kimberly-Clark has a ‘global head of marketing technology,’ while SAP has a ‘business information officer for global marketing,’ for example — they have a common job: aligning marketing technology with business goals, serving as a liaison to the information technology department and evaluating and choosing technology providers. About half are charged with helping craft new digital business models as well.”
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