Marketers will emerge tougher!

If you’re a marketer, you’re probably finding things pretty tough at the moment. Actually I would argue that its probably the toughest time ever for a marketer. Don’t get me wrong, there have always been challenges that marketers need to deal with but has there ever been a time when so many different forces have hit at once.

The discipline of marketing has changed more in the last 5 years than all the years preceding it. It was relatively easy to just roll out a consistent strategy that kept the consumer, trade and internal stakeholders happy. As long as you showed 10% growth, you didn’t need to change too much. Then came concepts like ‘ideas’, ‘integration’, ‘consumer experience’, ‘ROI’, ‘CRM’ & ‘fragmentation’. All of a sudden the communications planning process became complex for both marketers and the agencies that were meant to deliver it.

Marketers now have to reach out to a greater number of rostered agencies who are more qualified to provide specialists services rather than relying on broad service traditional agencies. What has come with this is the complexity of managing multiple agency relationships. Marketers have had to develop a set of counseling skills that keep everyone working nicely together.

Technology is now so fundamental in consumer’s daily lives, that marketers can’t simply rely on their historical media schedule. This requires a much deeper understanding of various technologies and the needs they are delivering to. It is no longer enough to just be across the output of the schedule but you need to understand the inputs.

Consumers are looking more and more to peer opinion and recommendation to inform their purchase decisions rather than simply rely on the word of marketers. Instead of preaching, marketers have had to play more of an influencing role as any overpromise is see through.

Internal stakeholders are now much more involved in the questions of effectiveness, measurement, ROI and efficiency. Being able to judge the relative ROI of a $1m TVC versus a $200K search strategy is essential in the internal sign off process. Marketers are not only judged by their creativity but also their understanding of the data.

And while all this is happening, the economy has crumbled and people stopped spending money. How can a marketer think clearly about a response strategy when they are fundamentally worried about the security of their role?

There is no doubt it’s a tough time for marketers at the moment but looking at the positive, this training ground will produce the most competent and resilient marketers in history. And that should result in some of the best marketing work ever. As an industry, we should all look forward to the spoils!