We use a capability and maturity model for assessing organisations’ marketing capability. It is a matrix overlapping the well-recognised planks of strategy, people, process and technology with capability maturity columns we call emergent, intermediate, and advanced.

To support this framework we conducted research into how organisations were treating digital marketing from an organisational design and team structures point of view.

It was clear from the results that organisations went on a journey, relating to their digital maturity, where the organisational model most suited to their stage of transformation changed over time. Hence the many ‘re-orgs’ we see happening.

One obvious question, in the quest to create the ‘future-fit’ marketing function, is whether organisations can leap-frog from ‘beginner’ to ‘advanced’, to go from digital novices to integrated marketing excellence in one big step. In our experience this is very hard to achieve without very significant personnel change, particularly at the very top to drive it through.

Usually it is a journey which takes years. At least if this is recognised by senior management, and that journey has a clear roadmap, it can help the frustrations otherwise experienced at the apparent lack of speed of change.

Marketing function nirvana, certainly when it comes to integrating digital into the organisation properly, is achieved when the function excels at digital but where there is no-one left in the organisation with ‘digital’, ‘e’, ‘online’, ‘internet’, ‘new media’, ‘interactive’ in their job title.

There are very few organisations who have achieved this state of enlightenment yet and those that have are typically either smaller companies or internet businesses. Most organisations are still scrabbling to hire specialist digital talent.

On people

We used to talk about T-shaped people. That is, marketers with a broad set of knowledge and skills across marketing but with a deep specialism in a particular area. I’ve recently started talking about pi-shaped (π) people. Marketers with the broad base of knowledge but capabilities in both ‘left brain’ and ‘right brain’ disciplines. Marketers who can be analytical and data-driven AND understand brand, storytelling and experiential marketing.

It’s asking a lot but these people do exist and represent the future of (integrated) marketing. Witness the growth of ‘Creative Technologists’ or the ‘Chief Marketing Technologist’. You want people who focus on the customer, focus on data, like change, who are curious, passionate.

Watch News International CMO, Katie Vanneck-Smith, exhort marketers to ‘marry the technologist’ or read what the Nordstrom innovation team want in a teammate to get a better idea of the marketing people fit for the future.

On process

There is a big move to more agile ways of working. This should impact marketing as much as it does project management or IT. We have to move from highly linear, highly specified, rigid ways of working, to more fluid, reactive, dynamic approaches.

Social media is ‘on’ 24hrs a day; your customers are interacting with your brands all the time. Marketers have to become like conductors of an orchestra: bringing together the many disciplines (instruments) to create harmony in a dynamic way.

Watch Coca-Cola talk about its ‘liquid and linked’ approach to future creativity through content excellence:

Whilst Agile as a way to manage projects is rightfully gaining a lot of traction, it is not the silver bullet. It is not always the right, or only, way to do things. Culture is much more important for the future-fit marketing function than the specific process chosen.

The right culture embraces testing, fails fast, focuses on the customer, recognises that data beats opinions, embraces change, prototypes and iterates quickly.

Government may have a big challenge to become a future-fit organisation but I’m very encouraged by what I see happening within the Government Digital Service and would encourage you to look at its Design Principles.

On technology

If you think technology isn’t as much the realm of marketing as it is IT, then you’re probably not future-fit. The world of data, APIs, responsive design, and what is made possible by cloud-based services is the engine that drives the future of marketing.

There is a danger currently that too many organisations are going out and buying technology in the hope that it will somehow make them future-fit marketers. It is much more important to have a smart vision for the technology and data architecture that will enable a future of marketing that is efficiently and intelligently ‘omni-channel’ and personalised.

The CMO and CIO need to jointly own this vision. Watch this presentation from the FT for what I think is a very smart way to think about technology from someone who is arguably more marketing than IT:

The journey towards digital transformation, and marketing excellence, is not an easy one but it is exciting and full of potential. And it should propel marketing as a function into an increasingly powerful role within organisations.

This article was orginally published in Marketing Week. 

Econsultancy regularly works with global brands to tackle their own digital transformation head on. Contact us to learn about how this is affecting businesses, including yours, and how our approach and experience can assist you.