Marketers: Your Industry Is Changing. Here's What You Need to Know.

In this series, professionals share their insights on the skills gaps and skills need for tomorrow's workforce.  Read the posts here, then write your own (use #SkillsforTomorrow in the body).

You’re a marketer. Things are going pretty well. You understand your customers and you know how to speak to them. But things are changing fast. Platforms, Tastes, Pricing – not to mention, People.

At Future Foundation, we’ve been looking at a couple of big topics this year which attempt to gaze into the future of marketing from a professional’s point of view. The first of these – in partnership with the IPA – looked at the Future of the Marketing World and what it means for, amongst others, agencies. In fact, we were at Adweek NY just this month presenting our findings. 

And the second looks at the skills revolution – the story of personal development in a world of app-based education and leisure time crammed with hobbies. We call it Liquid Skills. You can see our Slideshare on the topic below (and you can download it here).

Taken together, these two pieces of research tell us a little bit about what marketers will need to know and do in the future if they are to be successful.

Let’s look at the skills marketers will need to hone through the lens of the four Marketing future scenarios we developed.

Scenario 1: Brand as a seamless solution

In this scenario, consumers of the future are relying on brands to do nothing more than deliver best in class product and service. This is for brands focused on innovation and performance, leaving emotional marketing out of the picture, for now. 

Skills Required: It’s all about detail. And getting up to speed incredibly quickly with tomorrow’s data systems. Working hand-in-hand with artificial intelligence will be a key feature, as will being far-sighted enough to use the latest tools.

Scenario 2: Brand as a lifestyle coach

Brands have finally ascended beyond a lifestyle accessory to become a true partner: where brand consumer relationships are built on a necessity for emotional engagement and lifestyle management - providing advice and entertainment, unlocking creativity, delivering surprise & delight. Many brands are playing in this space today, but few are reaching its full potential.  

Skills Required: Getting your brand into this position will require heaps of creativity backed up with true strategic thinking. The ability to spot new consumer trends before anyone else is an absolute must.

Scenario 3: Brand as your stage

For the self-sufficient consumer, those who see brands as props for their ego. Brands playing in this scenario will be willing to take a backseat, but will provide consumers with the platforms and opportunities to achieve and fulfill their potential. Emotional engagement with the brand can be high, but perhaps not the most important factor.

Skills Required: A deep understanding of networks of influence, even before they fully emerge. Who are the influencers of tomorrow, and how can we use them?

Scenario 4: Brand as your toolbox

A future world of empowered, coding and tech savvy consumers who eschew the edited choice provided by brands and prefer to build not only their own interfaces and networks but also products hacked together from different sources. Brands in this scenario must constantly justify their worth.

Skills Requried: Practise what your consumers preach. Get hacking, tinkering and making to understand why these consumers rarely take marketing claims (or the products themselves) at face value.

We’re already seeing marketers start to occupy areas that are heading in these directions. The industry is moving fast. We need to make sure we have the skills to move with it.

What should you do today?

• Read far and wide: Bevan’s biography, Brewing for Beginners, The Hungry Caterpillar – disruptive ideas don’t always come from reading the same literature as everyone else.
• Try some of the new routes to knowledge – in earnest: you’ve probably tried Codecademy or Jellynote, or watched Zoella in action. But have you actually sat down and tried to learn from them? Do.
• Make sure you’re always learning: our employability in the future will be dependent on our ability to pick up new skills. So grab a camera, guitar or wok, and hone your ability to master new things.

You can read more about The Future of Agencies here. I’d love to hear what you think of our scenarios. Which one do you fall into?