Ever since the science of marketing took birth, marketers have had to constantly learn new skills to keep pace with changes in consumer behaviour and the relentless march of technology. Ancient Egyptian or Indian marketers had to learn the skills of trading and barter as they traded their necklaces for perfume and sold or exchanged many other products of value. In more recent centuries, after the invention of printing, newspapers began to be read by people and press advertising became a powerful marketing skill. Yet, marketers of that era did not have to bother about creating 30-second television advertisements or generating planograms for modern retail store formats.

Then, over the past century, marketers learnt and honed new skills such as the creation of distinctive sealed packaging, popularising trademarks and brands across markets and countries, radio and television advertising and structured methods of consumer research. During this period, marketing also assumed the hues of a science taught at business schools and various theories and frameworks came into being. This is the generation that many of us grew up in and perhaps also the generation to which most of today’s CEOs, senior marketers and professors of marketing belong. But it appears that the end of this age has now finally come upon us. Because, quite suddenly, marketers are finding that they need to learn multiple new skills all at the same time, to survive and flourish.

Three new skills appear particularly important. I call them the 3-Ds of new-age marketing. These are skills in Digital, Data and Design. Many Indian marketing teams appear to be generally deficient in these three key skill sets, which makes their adoption a matter of great urgency. Here is a brief exploration of these areas.

Digitally yours With the rapid spread of digital devices, the internet and social media, marketing has now become a highly digital-dependent function. Just seven years ago, marketing managers in India could easily get by without knowing how to leverage Google or Facebook, or grasping what e-commerce means to the future of their brands.

Today, as the digital space either replaces traditional marketing media or adds to them, marketers are likely to feel terribly lost unless they have mastered a variety of digital skills. They must now answer questions such as: How does one engage consumers powerfully on digital media? How can social media be used most effectively to market your brand? What should your brand’s e-commerce strategy be? How can cyberspace be used as a tool of co-creation or consumer research? How should a brand best track and respond to consumer feedback in digital space? To answer these and many more related questions, a deep understanding of the digital space is essential.

This is becoming so important and all-pervasive that in a recent article in the Harvard Business Review , Scott Brinker and Laura McLellan have described the rise of a new type of senior marketing executive whom they call “the chief marketing technologist”. Taking forward this idea, I think every marketer in the future will have to be some sort of a “marketing technologist”, particularly as an exponentially increasing proportion of marketing budgets will be allocated to the digital and technology space. They will have to learn how to wisely invest in and use complex digital technology platforms, how to manage digital agencies, how to create special digital experiences for their customers and how to constantly view marketing through a “digital lens”.

Many senior marketers of today will need significant re-training to stay on top of all these skills, else they will rapidly cede ground to their younger colleagues who are natural masters of the digital space.

Babes in data wood Virtually every marketer I speak to these days is actively struggling with the question of how to harness a huge flood of data.

Good marketers instinctively know that deep within customer data lies a rich mine that can be the source of sustainable competitive advantage, yet most of them do not know how to extract and refine this invaluable ore. And there is more than plentiful data streaming constantly into our offices, computers and smartphones these days. With the relentless march of information technology, marketers now have far easier access to mountains of granular data on sales, customer traffic and conversion, brand metrics, product profitability, offline and online customer feedback, and so on.

However, not many marketers possess the capability, tools and techniques required to mine and analyse all such data, to quickly spot interesting or causal trends in them and to draw meaningful insights that can lead to sound and timely marketing actions. Marketers are discovering that their discipline has suddenly taken a quantitative turn. While buzzwords such as big data, analytics and data mining are being generously tossed around, not many members of the marketing fraternity in our country know exactly how to use all this stuff.

I will not be far of’f the mark if I describe many marketing managers of today, somewhat unkindly perhaps, as “babes in the thick data woods”. Like in the digital space, marketing managers also need to build extensive data skills if they are to flourish in this data-rich environment.

Marketing, by design

The phenomenal success of new-age brands as diverse as Apple, Fastrack and Paper Boat reveals an interesting insight: an increasing number of consumers love buying and using products that are distinctively designed. A decade ago, outstanding design may have mattered primarily in premium segments or lifestyle categories such as luxury handbags or cars or wrist watches.

Today, marketers are finding that the importance of design has invaded virtually every category, ranging from FMCG shampoo bottles and shaving razors to kitchen appliances and bathroom footwear.

With many more shoppers being brand-undecided until the point of purchase, superbly designed packaging (which instantly attracts consumer attention) has also begun playing a far more important role than in the past. Similarly, online shopping sites are finding that the design of their e-commerce portals and shopping touch-points is critical to prompting purchase and retaining consumer loyalty.

This means that marketers need to understand and appreciate design in the context of their consumers’ mindsets and behaviours.

They also have to learn how best to work with creative (and often temperamental) designers or design houses. And they then have to integrate design seamlessly into all touch-points in the brand experience. This, once again, requires the marketing community to develop a new sensibility and skillset which is predominantly right-brained and one that requires bold decision-making and aesthetic flair.

Only a curtain-raiser Each of the three skills - Digital, Data and Design - requires examination in far greater depth.

This article only seeks to highlight that all of us who are practitioners of marketing have to work hard and fast at developing these relatively new skills if we are to remain relevant to the future of our profession. Only then will the final products of our efforts leap out dramatically and successfully at our consumers, like the characters in a well-made 3-D movie.

Harish Bhat is the author of “Tata Log: Eight Modern Stories from a Timeless Institution”. These are his personal views. >bhatharish@hotmail.com

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