Most companies have similar challenges such as launching products, entering new markets, repositioning, etc. However the way they go about the communication can vary depending on the organisational structure. The essence of marketing is to communicate effectively on how you can help your customer, what's the value proposition, and make a return on investment. Marketing managers have become functional managers in the organisation, for example digital managers. Others are attributed to a business unit and oversee all of the functions and comms channels for the unit, termed a segment manager.
The marketing managers job continues to become much more complex, juggling many tasks thrown their way. From the eye of an agency, campaign marketing is still alive and kicking, however, many marketeers are balancing campaigns with other “marketing” activies related to value propositions, events, presentations, sales tools, PR, thought leadership, budget, agency relationships, (takes breath) social media and online reputation. It's a significant balancing act to perform, along with keeping a business happy, the sales, product and service teams up to speed on positioning, keywords, competition and customer profiles. One of the hardest jobs for any marketing manager is to get the buy in from colleagues across the organisation on a new campaign or marketing initiative.
These demands and trends have reshaped marketing, and departments are reshaping the way they do and think marketing, and the way they value marketing. Whatever the way, it's becoming an exciting time to be in marketing. This is where the agency can help, taking on those pieces of work that make things easier from strategic positioning to marketing materials, especially as most things need to be done now and not tomorrow (heard that before?) An agency removes the complexity, boiling down the campaign to a clear message for the target customer and coming up with a great concept that resonates.
The marketing manager is now a super hero, needing a wide skill set range and knowledge base. 4 Ps have become 7 Ps (and probably 9 by the time this is posted) and segmentation has become account based focused (a market of 1) and the creation of personas thrown in to the pot. But you are not alone. A good agency has an understanding of the business, makes things seem simple, can re-energise the way a company communicates with its customers, and has a good listening ear to provide new ways of thinking.
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