The Capabilities that make a Marketing Professional

A while ago, I was asked to create and run a strategic marketing workshop, which was to be followed by a coaching module for marketing teams of different SBUs in a company.

The mandate began with enhancing strategic thinking leading to the creation of strong marketing plans. Further discussions led to a twist – the marketing coaching/facilitation was to help enhance specific marketing capabilities.

Why I found this complicated (now & even earlier – for myself as well as when I managed teams) is because I consider marketing both an art and a science. In fact, many may also call it a “craft”.

So, the goal was – to identify the major “capability areas” for a marketing individual or team to work towards. This had to be over & above the usual analytical thinking, creativity, communication & delivering results which we often use as the KRAs for our marketing teams. 

I was not certain if a single strategic marketing workshop & follow-up marketing coaching module would do the job, but we could certainly identify & work towards concrete, meaningful areas which are important to building marketing talent.

Based on my analysis at that time, for the current discussion, I have put forth 3 buckets in which marketing capabilities can be grouped.

I have loosely used the term “capability” here to describe various facets of a marketer. (i.e., not distinguished between skills, capabilities & competencies).

A. Astute Understanding of Current Situation: Tactical awareness of situation and skill in creating relevant programs

This is the first area that any business professional, in particular marketing professionals have to be good at. It is basic, but often this first step can make or break further thinking and action – similar to the initial diagnosis for any patient by a skilled medical practitioner.

Execution excellence, linking strategic parameters to creation of activations, thorough audit of players, stakeholders, time-lines, all these help in understanding the immediate situation to create the path ahead.

In addition, there needs to be a simplicity of activations or programs created so that everyone in the organization can imbibe and execute (if their role is execution). This is followed by a ruthless efficiency in the actual creation of each aspect of a plan and taking it to the final stage.

B. Gauging patterns to guide the brand/franchise & hence organization into the future

Marketing is at the heart of business success. In order to consistently win, there needs to be sound strategic thinking. In order to think strategically, a marketer has to be able to gauge emerging patterns.

This ability to unearth insights to understand future patterns is critical – it helps leaders to guide the ship and more often than not, this information is provided by good marketing teams.

It may be based upon – changing customer behaviour, new threats from hitherto unheard-of competition, decadence of practices within the organizations or myriad other internal or external signals.

Marketing is best positioned to do this since they are exposed to nearly all aspects of business, including the all-important customer!

In tandem, marketing leaders drive results. I have deliberately kept this separate from the first bucket which included execution excellence. Driving results includes, but is not restricted to, creating & implementing programs. It requires leadership.

The ability to strategize and create strong plans that are not just understood by all in the organization – they must believe these and actively play a role in them.

Finally, this should lead to the desired result. Marketing leadership is a blend of business intuition, sharp analysis and deep understanding of internal and external customer behaviour.

C. Cross Functional Leadership

As one moves to marketing roles which are larger in scope and higher in terms of rank, there are a vast no of functions which need to be considered for the success of any plan. At this time, managing without authority almost becomes the norm.

From individual ownership of projects, the work now requires the assistance of more stakeholders. Also, many organizations have a matrix structure, making it essential to influence a larger group of functions.

Legal, regulatory, product development, sourcing & supply all have different lines of reporting. No longer are business driving functions like sales & marketing all-powerful, they need the counsel and buy-in of other functions.

Additionally, in the future (in fact already prevalent in certain industries), many business relationships will be in geographically diverse areas. With increasing focus on collaborations – marketing will have to work across organizations as well.

All this makes for a marketing person who must be able to reach out to a diverse set of people and functions. She will have to lead other functions, often with persons who are more senior in terms of hierarchy and/or years of experience. It requires empathy, adroit handling of people and issues – while ensuring the fulfilment of the stated marketing goal.

These are a diverse set of soft and hard skills, some which can be taught, almost all of which come with time and experience. Having a wise mentor always helps, however, a willing marketing talent is paramount to gaining these capabilities.