Marketing teams need generalists and specialists | WARC | The Feed

Marketing teams need generalists and specialists

Marketing teams need to contain some generalists with broad skills and some experts who focus on areas like data and user experience, a leading executive from Unilever has argued.

Aline Santos Farhat, Unilever’s chief brand officer and chief equity diversity and inclusion officer, discussed this subject in a LIONS Marketers Series event held by LIONS, which, like WARC, is owned by Ascential.

The state of play

• “I think that one main difference from the past, compared to today, is that in the past we had the luxury of being generalists,” she said.
• In the past, these marketing executives typically knew “a little bit about everything in marketing” and applied these skills to a broad range of activities.
• Marketing teams of today, however, need some members with these broad-based skills, and a range of “new professions” based on deeper knowledge of certain activities.

The role of expertise

• One of the specialisms that is vital to leading-edge brands involves data, with expertise from acquisition and visualisation to privacy.
• Some other capabilities that also need a deeper focus are consumer experience, user experience design, social commerce, and working with influencers.
• “There's so much that we need to know now that it is impossible for one person to understand everything with the depth that is required,” Santos said.

Insights still matter

• Even as capabilities evolve, however, a few traits will remain consistent in the marketing world.
• Santos suggested that a “passion” for understanding consumers and society is integral, as is the ability to translate data into insights.
• While it is easy for marketers to get distracted by new technologies, they still need to focus on “exactly what is the job to be done”.
• Equally important is the “craft” of marketing, an area where the industry has perhaps been “losing focus” over time.

Thinking bigger

• At the broader level, marketing leaders must drive the inclusion agenda. “I think it's very, very important that you understand how to represent underserved groups,” Santos said.
• It is essential to be “change-makers” – a position that will require bravery and fortitude. “Without guts, there's no glory,” Santos said.

Sourced from LIONS