Not long ago, marketing was simple: Acquire people’s attention, and then shout the loudest. This approach worked when brands operated with fewer channels and targeted longer attention spans, but it’s ineffective in a world where consumers are assailed with hundreds if not thousands of messages daily.
Brands today are armed with algorithms that predict precisely what to serve up to customers and prospects, where and when. And while it may seem counterintuitive, the most effective brands now rely on technology — whether it’s a conversational interface or a “haptics-driven” sensory experience — to build authentic experiences and tell genuine stories. In short, the rise of technology is creating a renaissance moment for “Mad Men” everywhere, including in their careers.
New marketing tasks and new activities — in effect, new marketing jobs — are needed to create the brand value necessary today, which is based not on capturing mindshare but on building experiences that last and encourage customers to stick around. Get it right, and your brand captures unassailable mindshare; customers will return time and again, building trust and interest with each expanding interaction.
Emerging roles for marketers
We propose 21 new jobs that will emerge over the next 10 years and become cornerstones of the new CMO mandate. We based these jobs on the major macroeconomic, political, demographic, societal, cultural, business and technology trends observable today. These include the rise of circular economies; the growth of hyperpersonalization; rising populism; aging populations; sustainability; data; ethics; robots and machines; automation; AI; biotechnology; and virtual reality (VR).
We’ve positioned our 21 jobs of the future over a 10-year timeline according to their “tech-centricity” (see figure below). Marketing will also increasingly be about empathy — about understanding the emotions the brand elicits within customers, and then channeling it into empathetic marketing content, messages and campaigns, all served up at the right time. For this reason, we’ve also indicated empathy levels required for each job.
Figure 1
The marketing world has changed dramatically during the last 10 years and will change even more in the next decade as well. This is why the jobs we describe are integral to the future success of CMOs, their teams and the work done to drive customer engagement.
