Why the industry is in dire need of generalist marketers

Remember the last time you went to a GP? It was probably when you had flu and needed basic medication to get through the day. For anything marginally serious, we seek specialists - an ENT, an orthopedic, a plastic surgeon, a dermatologist. This specialist syndrome is rampant in the marketing industry too.Over the years in our capacity as consultants we have noticed that client marketing structures are getting almost as complex as their agency counterparts.A typical marketing team now could cover these various roles:Brand Manager: The quintessential marketer who has most likely graduated from business school and is well-versed with marketing and brand essentials. He or she has exposure to sales, distribution, pricing and thus knowledgeable about business plus marketing.Digital Expert: Some years ago clients started setting up their digital divisions within their marketing teams. So they lured away the hot rising star from his or her digital agency. This person understands the digital environment, technology platforms, social media monitoring, Google analytics and may have superficial knowledge about business and marketing.Media Manager: He or she talks the language of GRP, CPRP and calculates everything in terms of reach and frequency, and works closely with brand manager, especially on campaign specific work.PR/Corp Comm Manager: Is responsible for internal communications and press relationships. He or she would have been a PR agency person in a past life and usually has limited exposure to consumer marketing.In this environment of over specialisation, the consumer still needs to receive a single minded message. Someone within the complex marketing structure needs to be responsible to ask these key questions:1)      Is every consumer touch point communicating the single-minded message?2)      Is the brand tone and voice consistent in traditional and social media?3)      Is the PR and Social Media content calendar aligned?4)      Are all channels being leveraged for digital amplification?5)      Can social (virtual life) and in store (real life) offer the same promotions?6)      Is on-ground activation (real life) driving traffic to the digital space (virtual life)? And vice-versa?Most marketing companies are grappling with such questions and are trying varied approaches. L’Oreal, for instance decided to create a media team working alongside a consumer insights team to link efficiencies back to the business unit from a digital investment perspective. The business unit is tasked with identifying what the organization’s battlegrounds are as well as emerging business areas.Marketing in a digital worldThere may be multiple channels to communicate to the consumer today, but the fundamentals of marketing have not changed.  Today, the specialist marketer needs to be a generalist when it comes to digital. (See the chart below.)[gallery link="file" ids="77121"]Desperately seeking generalistsWhat marketers need today are integrated thinkers who have foundations in marketing and understand the digital landscape. This sought after ‘combo marketer’ is not found off the shelf. He or she needs to be developed, nurtured and constantly up skilled to stay relevant.Clients need to invest in training both the newbies and the old timers. Electrolux went through a change management process during the past years to become a more consumer centric organisation. With this transformation they decided to end the silos between functions and established “consumer experience teams”. These teams included consumer insight, brand, product, retail, digital, social, and consumer care specialists who now closely work together to create integrated consumer experiences and launch plans.It’s critical for organisations to break their internal walls. They need to almost force the specialist marketers to come out of their sacred spaces and work closely with each other. Specialists should share learnings and leverage each other expertise better to become more well-rounded marketers.As Unilever CMO Keith Weed pointed out it very eloquently, “Too often today, marketers need multiple partners in a room to come up with a solution. What I’m really concerned about is in that room, you have mobile specialists, social specialists—and we need to, it’s a specialist world. However, they are trying to deliver 110% solutions for mobile and 110% solutions for social - well, I want a 110% solution for the brand, even if it is a 85% solution in mobile and a 90% solution in social. And that is a real challenge. I think too much now our channels are driving what we are doing.”It looks like the time has come for all specialist marketers to inject bits of generalist in them.Seema Punwani is a senior consultant with R3.