The Next Marketing Genome: Mastering Cognition, Influence and Impact

In a hyper-connected world, marketing professionals are grappling with an array of challenges that often hinder their ability to create sustainable value and foster meaningful relationships.

Fragmented media lead to fragmented teams where many marketing professionals find themselves trapped in silo thinking, causing overload campaigns and initiatives that fail to resonate with customers on a deeper level.

Compounding this issue is the proliferation of tasks that consume valuable time and resources

Many departments struggle with an exaggerated focus on short-term sales goals, sacrificing long-term brand building and customer loyalty. This operational overload not only strains internal resources but also complicates relationships with external agencies, often leading to friction and suboptimal outcomes.

Through the lens of the next Marketing Genome, industry professionals are encouraged to challenge conventional norms, rethink their approach, and break down operational barriers, adopting a holistic mindset that drives both short-term results and long-term growth.

This mindset can be conceptualized on 3 levels – Cognition, Influence, and Impact – each represents a distinct aspect of the marketing process, deeply interconnected that guides the marketing professional journey from perception to value creation.

By integrating cognitive insights with strategic influence and focusing on ecosystem-wide impact, marketers can transcend traditional silos and forge stronger connections with their markets and audiences.

Level 1: Cognition – The foundation of sensory and perceptual insights

Cognition forms the bedrock of the marketing role, encompassing the sensory and perceptual processes that inform understanding and strategy development. This level is all about how industry perceive the market environment, interpret data, and derive insights that drive their actions:

• Sensory Input and Data Collection: Engaging in an extensive data collection through various sources such as market research, consumer feedback, social media monitoring, and competitive analysis, that involves gathering quantitative and qualitative data that paint a comprehensive picture of the market landscape;
• Perception and Interpretation: Identifying patterns, trends, and insights that reveal consumer behaviours, preferences, and needs;
• Strategic Thinking: Aligning business objectives with market opportunities and crafting compelling value propositions. Strategic thinking ensures that subsequent actions are grounded in a thorough understanding of the market dynamics

Effective cognition allows industry to discern the underlying motivations of their target audience and anticipate future trends

Level 2: Influence – Responsible execution and Decision-Making

Building on the cognitive foundation, the next level is where strategic plans are translated into action. This level focuses on execution, decision-making, and the ability to shape market outcomes:

• Execution of Strategies: Effective execution on integrity is crucial for transforming insights into reality. Each tactical experience is carefully designed to ethically influence consumer perceptions and behaviours;
• Decision-Making: The ability to make data-driven decisions ensures that marketing efforts are agile and responsive to changing market conditions;
• Communication and Relationship: Marketers must understand the nuances of consumer communication preferences and tailor their approaches accordingly.

Level 3: Impact – Generating value in the ecosystem

The final level is about the broader value created through marketing efforts that encompasses the tangible and intangible outcomes that benefit not only the business but also the entire ecosystem, including consumers, partners, and society at large:

• Value Creation: At this stage, the effectiveness of marketing is measured by the value it generates – with tangible and mostly intangible marketing assets – ensuring that their efforts contribute positively to the bottom line;
• Contextual Value: This involves understanding how marketing strategies impact the consumer experience, influence societal trends, and contribute to the broader cultural and economic environment;
• Ecosystem Impact: Recognizing the marketing role within a larger ecosystem. This includes collaborating with partners, suppliers, and stakeholders to drive collective success. Marketing initiatives that prioritize sustainability, ethical practices, and social responsibility contribute to a positive ecosystem impact

Time and Human vs Martech effort allocation – The Prime Challenge

The allocation of time and resources, balancing human versus Martech efforts emerges as a prime challenge for industry. Siloed teams often operate independently, focusing narrowly on their specific tasks without considering the broader strategic goals. This approach results in inefficient use of time, where too much focus is placed on immediate, operational tasks at the expense of strategic planning and long-term value creation.

Additionally, the fragmentation makes it difficult to integrate emerging technologies effectively, as different teams may have varying levels of access to data, tools, and expertise. Consequently, the potential benefits in automating routine tasks, providing data-driven insights, and optimizing actions are not fully realized, leading to duplicate efforts, inconsistent analysis, and missed opportunities for synergy.

Addressing this challenge requires a new Marketing Genome, where teams collaborate seamlessly for cognitive, influence and impact purposes, leveraging both human creativity and All-tech capabilities to drive holistic marketing success.

Example of allocation: 30% for Cognition, 50% for Influence, and 20% for Impact, to reflect the practical demands and priorities of specific marketing roles:

• Cognition is crucial but requires less constant attention once a solid foundation is built;
• Influence involves the most intensive and ongoing activities, justifying the largest share of time;
• Impact is critical for long-term success but typically involves evaluation and strategic adjustments, which can maybe require less frequent intervention

Level 1: Cognition (30%)

Reasoning:

• Foundational Insights: Cognition involves gathering and interpreting data, which is the foundation for all subsequent marketing activities. Without a thorough understanding of the market and competitive landscape, marketing efforts are likely to be misguided;
• Strategic Planning: Developing a strategy requires significant cognitive effort. This includes analyzing data, identifying trends, and aligning marketing objectives with business goals;

Bottom line: While critical, the activities at the cognition level can often be performed more efficiently with the right tools and methodologies. Once a strong foundation of insights is established, it doesn’t require constant, extensive time investment.

Human Efforts:

• Strategic Thinking and Interpretation: Humans excel at synthesizing complex data, contextualizing insights, and making strategic decisions. Professionals should focus on interpreting Martech-generated insights, understanding market nuances, and aligning findings with business goals;
• Creative Analysis: Analyzing data with a creative lens to uncover unique consumer insights and market opportunities

Automated Efforts:

• Data Collection and Processing: AI can efficiently gather data from various sources, such as social media, web analytics, and market research reports. Automation in data collection ensures accuracy and timeliness;
• Pattern Recognition and Basic Insights: AI algorithms can identify patterns, trends, and anomalies in large datasets, providing initial insights and freeing up human marketers to focus on higher-level analysis.

Level 2: Influence (50%)

Reasoning:

• Execution Heavy: This stage is where the bulk of marketing activities take place. Executing campaigns, managing content, and engaging with customers are time-intensive tasks;
• Dynamic Decision-Making: Marketing professionals need to continuously monitor and optimize their efforts in real-time, requiring constant attention and quick decision-making.
• Direct Consumer Interaction: Building relationships and communicating effectively with the target audience demands substantial ongoing effort, as it involves creating content, responding to feedback, and managing brand presence across multiple channels

Human Efforts:

• Creative Execution: Crafting compelling content, designing campaigns, and creating engaging advertisements rely heavily on human creativity and understanding of brand voice;
• Decision-Making and Optimization: While AI can provide recommendations, human judgment is crucial for final decision-making, especially for nuanced or high-stakes adjustments;
• Personalized Engagement: Building authentic relationships and handling complex customer interactions require human empathy and communication skills.

Automated Efforts:

• Execution of Routine Tasks: AI can handle repetitive tasks such as scheduling social media posts, sending email campaigns, and managing PPC bids;
• Data-Driven Adjustments: AI algorithms can optimize campaigns in real-time based on performance metrics, making adjustments to bids, targeting, and content recommendations;
• Customer Interaction Automation: AI-powered chatbots and customer service tools can handle routine inquiries and provide initial customer support

Level 3: Impact (20%)

Reasoning:

• Outcome Evaluation: Measuring the impact and value generated by marketing activities is crucial but typically less time-consuming than execution;
• Strategic Adjustments: Based on impact assessments, marketers may need to make strategic adjustments, but these are generally periodic rather than continuous;
• Broader Value Creation: While essential, fostering broader ecosystem impact and contextual value often involves longer-term initiatives that do not require daily attention

Human Efforts:

• Strategic Assessment: Evaluating the broader impact of marketing activities on brand equity, customer loyalty, and market share requires human strategic thinking and contextual understanding;
• Relationship Management: Building and maintaining relationships with partners, stakeholders, and the broader community is a human-intensive activity that benefits from personal touch and empathy

Automated Efforts:

• Impact Measurement: AI can automate the collection and analysis of performance data, generating reports on campaign effectiveness, ROI, and other key metrics;
• Trend Analysis: AI can continuously monitor market trends and consumer sentiment, providing insights that inform long-term strategy adjustments

The next Marketing Genome blueprint

This holistic approach drives success in the marketing landscape by ensuring that every action is informed by data, ethical-driven effectively, and evaluated for broader impact.

By strategically allocating time and balancing human expertise with “The Marketing Brain” capabilities, professionals can navigate the complexities of the market with informed decisions, and create lasting value that resonates with customers and stakeholders alike.

The next Marketing Genome highlights the importance of aligning teams, optimizing agency and other partner relationships, and prioritizing meaningful measurement that really capture the full spectrum of marketing impact.