Marketing Nov 3, 2014
Marketing Gets Personal
Leading executives explain how technology is changing the field—and who will lead the charge

With the ubiquity of smartphone and tablet technology, stepping away from the desktop, or even snapping shut the laptop, no longer takes us out of the digital sphere. And so we feel like we are always available: to our bosses, our clients, our friends and families.
As much of a game-changer as this has been for individuals, it has also brought a huge disruption to the marketing world. Digital offers new opportunities to find, attract, and retain customers on unprecedented levels. It has also exposed the difficulties inherent in maintaining constant availability and responsiveness to customers and stakeholders. It seems individuals are not the only ones who have to be “on” all the time.
So how can this lead to deeper brand engagement for customers? And what skills will be necessary to take marketing where it needs to go? Leaders in the field, gathered at the 2014 Marketing Leadership Summit at the Kellogg School of Management, recommend realigning how marketers think about customer experience and brand relationship, as well as how executive talent can be identified to excel in the industry.
What Makes Digital So Different? That’s Personal
“Digital manifests itself differently in how you can get into the day-to-day rhythm of your customers,” says David Edelman, a partner and co-leader, digital marketing practice at McKinsey & Company. “You can really get into a segment of one… to define a different brand journey for each of your customers.”
But creating and optimizing a system to “make personalization work” puts a premium on certain functions not traditionally associated with marketing, says Edelman.
As before, marketers must understand who their customers are and how the customers relate to the marketing. But now more than ever, they must also gauge how responsive the company can be to changes in that relationship. The goal is to react to customer data as it comes in and to respond in real time with tailored content that anticipates customers’ next moves, both online and offline. This in turn requires beefing up analytics and creating rapid testing of the customer experience.
Take, for instance, the Visa transaction processing system. “Everything we do must be human-centric,” says Adrian Farina, senior vice president of marketing for Visa. “We embrace data to understand our customers’ passion and attachment.”
“Visa has more accounts than Facebook and Google combined,” Farina says. “It provides unique insights into attitudes, interests, and values.” This more nuanced customer knowledge can readily be turned into responsive offers when it is enriched with client, marketing, and media data.
Let Your Customers Create
Nike’s global marketing campaign for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil took a different, but equally personal, approach to customer engagement. Chief Marketing Officer Davide Grasso envisioned the campaign—crafted from the belief that Nike exists to serve athletes, and everyone who has a body is an athlete—as an opportunity to both create and serve demand around a singular event.
By combining scale and brand attachment with a 1-on-1 relationship with customers, Grasso says, Nike can encourage customers to create content for the company that can be shared globally. Nike built a platform that allowed viewers to post their own short videos in response to the action on the field—so when Tim Howard made save after spectacular save, fans had a place to share their excitement. The videos (and brand engagement) rolled in.
Look Differently for Leaders
But the newer emphasis on personalized, responsive targeting and customer-created content means that the calculus for identifying and evaluating leadership talent is changing. With the parameters of digital marketing still being defined, traditional metrics like experience in an industry or past excellence in similar positions are no longer seen as effective barometers to future performance.
Claudio Fernandez-Araoz, a senior advisor at global search firm Egon Zehnder, argues that identifying potential is a more useful tool than recognizing competencies in candidates. For his Egon Zehnder colleague Dick Patton, that potential is a balance of curiosity, insight, engagement, and determination. Marcy Shinder, chief marketing officer at Nielsen, agrees. “Engagement and insight are two outcomes,” she says, “if you can hire people with curiosity and determination.”
Steinway & Sons executive vice president and CMO Darren Marshall adds sensitivity and flexibility to the list. “You need to sit, listen, and know how to ask provocative questions instead of telling people what to do,” Marshall says. “If you’re not engaging people in the way they want to be engaged, your determination will get you nothing.”
But even potentially perfect candidates will do a company no good if it does not have the guts to hire them. Without past performance or readiness to point to, says Patton, “identifying the potential of those on your team means sticking your neck out.”
About Kellogg’s Marketing Leadership Summit: The Kellogg School’s annual Marketing Leadership Summit, cohosted by partners McKinsey & Company and Egon Zehnder with Kellogg faculty Gregory Carpenter and Eric Leininger, brings together more than 100 prominent marketing executives for two days of presentations and discussions on topics vital to the industry. This year’s theme was “Exceeding Market Growth through Digital Disruption.”
-
3 Things to Keep in Mind When Delivering Negative FeedbackFirst, understand the purpose of the conversation, which is trickier than it sounds.
-
Podcast: Workers Are Stressed Out. Here’s How Leaders Can Help.On this episode of The Insightful Leader: You can’t always control what happens at work. But reframing setbacks, and instituting some serious calendar discipline, can go a long way toward reducing stress.
-
What Went Wrong at Silicon Valley Bank?And how can it be avoided next time? A new analysis sheds light on vulnerabilities within the U.S. banking industry.
-
How Are Black–White Biracial People Perceived in Terms of Race?Understanding the answer—and why black and white Americans may percieve biracial people differently—is increasingly important in a multiracial society.
-
Will AI Eventually Replace Doctors?Maybe not entirely. But the doctor–patient relationship is likely to change dramatically.
-
Leaders, Don’t Be Afraid to Admit Your FlawsWe prefer to work for people who can make themselves vulnerable, a new study finds. But there are limits.
-
Which Form of Government Is Best?Democracies may not outlast dictatorships, but they adapt better.
-
What Went Wrong at AIG?Unpacking the insurance giant's collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.
-
What Happens to Worker Productivity after a Minimum Wage Increase?A pay raise boosts productivity for some—but the impact on the bottom line is more complicated.
-
At Their Best, Self-Learning Algorithms Can Be a “Win-Win-Win”Lyft is using ”reinforcement learning” to match customers to drivers—leading to higher profits for the company, more work for drivers, and happier customers.
-
When You’re Hot, You’re Hot: Career Successes Come in ClustersBursts of brilliance happen for almost everyone. Explore the “hot streaks” of thousands of directors, artists and scientists in our graphic.
-
Why Do Some People Succeed after Failing, While Others Continue to Flounder?A new study dispels some of the mystery behind success after failure.
-
Immigrants to the U.S. Create More Jobs than They TakeA new study finds that immigrants are far more likely to found companies—both large and small—than native-born Americans.
-
Take 5: Tips for Widening—and Improving—Your Candidate PoolCommon biases can cause companies to overlook a wealth of top talent.
-
Why Well-Meaning NGOs Sometimes Do More Harm than GoodStudies of aid groups in Ghana and Uganda show why it’s so important to coordinate with local governments and institutions.
-
How Has Marketing Changed over the Past Half-Century?Phil Kotler’s groundbreaking textbook came out 55 years ago. Sixteen editions later, he and coauthor Alexander Chernev discuss how big data, social media, and purpose-driven branding are moving the field forward.
-
How Peer Pressure Can Lead Teens to Underachieve—Even in Schools Where It’s “Cool to Be Smart”New research offers lessons for administrators hoping to improve student performance.
-
How Much Do Campaign Ads Matter?Tone is key, according to new research, which found that a change in TV ad strategy could have altered the results of the 2000 presidential election.
-
Take 5: How Fear Influences Our DecisionsOur anxieties about the future can have surprising implications for our health, our family lives, and our careers.