Why every team member in the digital era is a marketing person

• The year gone by threw up some very important marketing lessons our way.
• Ashish Dhruva, Senior VP, Marketing and Customer Engagement, InterMiles lists down some key marketing trends that will shape the future.

The year gone by made it very evident how consumers can continue to stay loyal to a brand on account of a strong emotional connect that they share with it. Keeping this in mind, it would be a nice idea to get an understanding of key trends that will lead the future while connecting with consumers.

The Power of Purpose
Business models that clearly know WHY they exist will be better poised to face challenges and risks while being well-positioned for growth. Articulating a clear purpose helps businesses create deeper connections with their consumers, engage more with the communities that they are working in, while retaining the right talent to achieve greater results.

Smart People + Smart Tech
Even as brands continue to make investments in deploying digital tools like AI, advance analytics, machine learning, personalises customer engagement to create a seamless omni-channel customer experience, it will eventually be the collective commitment of its people to deliver an exceptional user experience. This will necessitate a rewiring of individual and team objectives and equipping them with the right understanding of and access to technological tools to create and sustain a culture of genuine customer-centricity.

Organizations and marketing teams that strike the perfect balance of smart people and technologies will enjoy a distinct competitive edge. With the customer at the centre, smart technologies can enhance the user experience and smart people can ensure the essential human connection and offer empathy. This meaningful amalgamation will power the rapid pace of digital change elevating human experience.

Nurturing Talent
Today, organisations are increasingly realizing that their pool of talent actually goes beyond the employees working for them to include brand ambassadors, gig economy workers, social influencers and partners. As a result, it is important for organizations to be cognizant that their collective workforces comprise of individuals from different backgrounds and diversities who come with varying perspectives, experiences and goals. Organisations that acknowledge every individual’s experience and build a talent model around its values to account for each person’s capabilities and goals will likely forge the right mix for these dynamic times.

Every team member is a marketer
In the digital era, every team and every department is part of the ‘marketing journey’ for its internal as well as external customers; every individual in the digital-heavy business model is responsible for marketing. In fact, the human experience goes well beyond the four walls of the organization; besides the workforce, it also includes customers and business partners. The role of the marketing is shifting as a result of greater customer participation, new organisational structures to deliver marketing campaigns and a need to manage the human experience better. Marketing professionals are now playing the role of facilitators of the user experience, ensuring that each person’s capabilities, experiences and aspirations are embedded across the organisation, aligning every stakeholder with the organisation’s purpose for the greater good.

In conclusion:
Brands that are at the cutting-edge of real-time engagement with customers are not just increasing the speed of their reaction time, but also intuitively addressing user needs. They’re fundamentally shifting their culture and organisational structure to support real-time customer engagement. This not only means reconfiguring their marketing departments, but also sensitizing each person from every function in the organisation to the concept of true customer-centricity – effectively making every person in the company a marketing person.