A SKILLS CRISIS IN THE AGE OF QUANTUM MARKETING
Implications from the Latest Must-Read Book for Marketers
Brian Dolan April 27, 2021
The new book, Quantum Marketing, by Mastercard CMO, Raja Rajamannar, quickly joined the WSJ best-seller list after its release 2 months ago. Its the best synthesis I’ve seen of the emerging technology that leaves many Marketers in a cold sweat. I’m convinced that the book will go down as one of the cornerstone assessments of this time of rapid change and felt compelled to capture 4 key reactions about the implications for Marketing practitioners, students & educators. If you consider yourself a Marketer and haven’t read this book yet, drop everything and read it now. I’ll wait.
----------------------------------
Good. Now that we’re on the same page, here are a few aspects that made me stop and think. Let me know what I missed:
1 - Lack of trust in Marketing: The trust gap between consumers and organizations is longstanding and well-documented. What floored me was the trust gap between CEO’s and their Marketing teams - 73% of CEO’s say Marketers lack business credibility. So what’s driving this? One factor Raja writes about is that traditional Marketers haven’t been able to keep pace with dramatic improvements in tech & data. With the rise of mobile tech and social media, smaller players can now take on giants and a new breed of technologists have overtaken traditional Marketers, who have been overly focused on the creative side of the house.
POV – A Recruiting Crisis: The statistic about CEO trust in Marketers was from a 2011 survey, which made me wonder whether the chasm in credibility has grown worse over the past decade as the media & retail landscapes grew more complex. In my conversations with MBA & BBA career advisors through CPG Camp, they report a gradual shift of candidates away from Brand Marketing and into Consulting, Investment Banking, Healthcare & Tech, suggesting that the erosion in trust & glamour may have a meaningful impact on organizations’ abilities to attract top talent – and for that talent to rise through the organization. While there is no shortage of jobs in a $2T CPG industry that represents 1 in 10 American jobs, there is a recruiting crisis underway for organizations that have long-relied on plucking the best talent. A recent McKinsey report noted that “most large CPG players are just starting to revamp their talent and processes to adapt to this shift and therefore are ceding most industry growth to young, digitally native start-ups. Catching up is a top strategic imperative.” 2021 will surely be a year of recovery and transformation and, while large CPG organizations have long stood out as the best training ground for future CEO’s (Forbes, 2019), there is a significant test ahead to attract and develop top talent.
2 - Fragmentation of Marketing Roles: The implication of this lack of trust is that many companies have taken steps to fragment & reduce the role of Marketing. CMO roles have been replaced by Chief Growth Officers at some companies. Looking at Marketing’s 4 P’s, innovation or product management teams more often manage Product & Pricing. Sales and/or eCommerce teams play a heavier role in Place (distribution) than in the past. And some organizations have carved out Performance Marketing teams as a separate element of Promotions, with full autonomy and budget control. What’s sometimes left for the Marketing team is Brand Equity and campaign development, a critical role, but one that draws scrutiny, due to high budgets and an often indirect or delayed connection between Brand Health & sales.
POV – A Band-Aid Solution: I personally believe that this high fragmentation is destructive to organizational efficiency in the long term, but that leaders had little choice, as Marketers lacked the skillset to lead in today’s world. There is so much talk in the news about coal miners and assembly line workers requiring re-training to compete in the age of renewable energy and automation. But in today’s story, Brand Managers are the coal miners – we have a dearth of well-rounded Marketers. But even Performance Marketing specialists may fall by the wayside in time if they don’t build out a more robust marketing skillset. The question now is whether organizations and universities can develop a generation of multi-talented marketers that can excel in both the Art and the Science of marketing…the Leonardo DaVinci’s, as Raja calls them. If you are a student evaluating different career options, be sure to inquire about the scope of your role and think about whether it sets you up to be a Marketing specialist or generalist. You may find great career paths down either road, but mismanaged expectations are a common source of frustration for new hires.
3 - Tension in the Fourth Paradigm: The Quantum Marketing book describes 5 paradigms of Marketing with great historical perspective (back to 79AD!), capturing the logic of product-centric marketing (1st paradigm), the power of emotional marketing (2nd paradigm), the rise of digital & data-driven marketing (3rd paradigm) and the ‘always on’ nature of today’s social media & mobile (4th paradigm), all leading into the new Quantum Marketing phenomenon of emerging technology.
POV – Upskill Urgency: I think what’s scary for many that will read this book is not the proliferation of new technologies that are poised to upend Marketing as we know it – but that many brands & Marketers are still behind when it comes to the 4th or even 3rd paradigm. Raja jokes about how many Marketers’ eyes glaze over when you probe into the details of how programmatic media-buying works. It’s a relatable anecdote. The emergence & growth of so many new podcasts, industry news sites, digital marketing resources from Facebook, Google and others, as well as wider Marketing training through Udemy/Coursera and our own popular Brand Management Boot Camp just reinforces that continuing education has never been more important or more in demand. What’s changed is that what was once a proactive career-development nice-to-have or resume booster is now an imperative for survival.
4 - The New Fifth Paradigm: The crux of the Quantum Marketing book is a synthesis of emerging technology trends in layman’s terms - and in a more succinct & straightforward way than I have seen before. The Top 10 that I counted are – Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, 5G, Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality, 3D Printing, Connected/Automated Cars, Internet of Things, Smart Speakers, Wearables, Robotics & Drones.
POV – The Overview You Need: If you have a superficial understanding of any of these technologies, the book does an excellent job of breaking it down, trend-by-trend, with proposed applications and some helpful frameworks. It’s a little scary because it raises many ethical & privacy questions. But it’s also exciting, because this generation of Marketers has an opportunity to change the entire landscape of Marketing as we know it. While effective as a primer, one book can only go so far. Marketers must continue to close the knowledge gap and stay ahead of these new opportunities before being left behind (one helpful book to go deeper is called 77 Building Blocks of Digital Transformation). What is particularly urgent about the 5th Paradigm is that many of the technologies are not really new. Machine learning applications in chatbots, SEO strategy, targeting and media buying have already reached the mainstream and will only get better. The proliferation of smart speakers in the Alexa age has not yet had far-reaching Marketing implications but as consumers expect more from these devices and marketers adapt to a world of audio content & short(est) form videos, topics like Sonic Branding (e.g. Netflix, HBO, Intel brand tones) become even more critical.
Now What?: It seems like there is always someone screaming that Marketing is at an inflection point. Whether the sky is falling or we are raising the collective ceiling remains to be seen. But one thing is clear - We need more well-rounded marketers. And for this we need rapid upskilling for established marketers and focused coursework for business students. The book suggests that universities work more closely with marketers in the industry to keep pace with the rate of change – and to help inspire the Marketers of tomorrow. So what are you doing to upskill and contribute to this symbiotic relationship? As an educator, reach out to Marketers on the front lines. As a student, devour podcasts, articles and resume-boosting accreditations. As a Marketer, seek out training and give back by speaking with students or creating mini case studies. There are some helpful embedded links to podcasts & training in the text above and we will update this article as we learn about more - we’d love to hear about some of your favorites. If CPG Camp can help facilitate this journey for you, please reach out at info@cpgcamp.com or comment on LinkedIn.
——————————
ABOUT CPG CAMP
CPG Camp is the premier Brand Management training program for aspiring Marketers at the Undergraduate, MBA and professional level. The company was founded by several brand leaders who noticed that even the most talented prospective marketers are often unprepared for the Marketing interview & day 1 of an internship or full-time role.
Our purpose is simple: teach the next generation of Brand Marketing leaders what we wish we'd known. We offer real-world training & recruiting services to land your dream job & accelerate your career in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry and beyond.
TRAINING: Our signature offering is an online Brand Management Boot Camp with 16 modules & assignments to simulate Brand Manager life, addressing top blind spots for interviewees & new hires. Grads receive a LinkedIn certificate & entry into our Recruiting Database. We also offer a live version of the boot camp and various online mini-camps & corporate trainings. After training thousands from 150+ universities & organizations in 10 countries, 90%+ would recommend.
RECRUITING: We provide services like Resume Reviews, Mock Interviews and our Brand Interview Playbook, the definitive guide to mastering the Marketing interview. Our step-by-step guide includes downloadable prep templates plus our Case Frameworks Cheat Sheet. This service is free for out-of-work professionals and military veterans.
CONSULTING: If you’re interested in hiring one of our Camp graduates or a Brand Marketing Consultant, you can provide us with some basic information so we can see if there’s a match.
CAMPFIRE BLOG: We would love to hear your hot take on a Brand Marketing topic you are passionate about. To contribute, please contact us at info@cpgcamp.com.
LEARN MORE: To learn more and see over 50 testimonials, visit our site: Home, About, Services, Testimonials, FAQ, Contact.
