This is a job for the brave – you can certainly say it is about marketing. The courage may be seen in the way of thinking about the marketing itself, its role in the implementation of the business strategy, as well as the attitude, because the times for this type of activities are highly demanding. However, it is worth making the effort, because building a strong and visible brand has never before had such an impact on the purchasing decisions of the customers.

New year, new decisions, and new challenges. Can 2023 surprise a marketer, for whom working in a changing and extremely dynamic environment is a daily routine? Will the new year bring new trends or will it be a continuation of already chosen directions?

Regardless of the time of the year, the work of a marketing manager was and is full of contrasts. Creativity and humanistic imaginativeness is combined with strict analytical skills. Curiosity and temptation to follow new paths made by technology and the variety of formats clash with a conservative approach to the consistent implementation of the already adopted strategy.

How to find a balance between courage in going beyond the limits and the company’s financial calculation? The art of doing so is as inspiring as it is risky. That is why the jury of the most important marketing awards has no doubts – the winners are those who are good observers of the surrounding reality, who follow trends (and often even create them) and are not afraid to build brands that proudly present their values and express a specific worldview, something that customers can identify with.

Jury of prestigious competitions such as Effie or Marketing Director of the Year emphasize that this year’s winners were awarded for their attentiveness and sensitivity to social problems, understanding of the geopolitical context and courage in creating campaigns that promote values that are important to the public.

Multitasking level hard

It should be remembered though that marketing is an incredibly broad category in which, apart from having visionary ideas, you have to be effective in action. Therefore, a successful marketing manager, having access to advanced data, must be able to process it and to draw conclusions based on it.

“We have been working with marketing people for the last 20 years. We know that knowledge of trends, curiosity and the right intuition are particularly important features in this profession. In these exceptionally difficult times, these skills are worth their weight in gold, as the socio-political context is extremely demanding. The trick is to build a team that will follow customer expectations and be able to manage the brand in the context of the entire business strategy. That is why we constantly show our clients how important it is to select the right candidates for employees,” says Elwira Kostka, Partner at GE Hunter.

5 qualities of a successful marketeer:

1. COURAGE – which makes challenges become a driving power for implementing even more effective marketing activities
2. FLEXIBILITY – which allows you to adapt to changes and be open to new solutions
3. EMPATHY – in expressing brand sensitivity and attentiveness to the needs of co-workers
4. EFFICIENCY – that is the ability to analyse and draw conclusions from the actions taken
5. CREATIVITY – which allows you to break patterns and build distinctive brands

From story-telling to story-doing

No doubt, the world of marketing is changing and it’s not just about digital transformation. Not only those with gigantic budgets stand out from the crowd of brands, but also smaller ones, that have something interesting to say. Brands are stepping out of the role of narrator and taking action. They win the hearts of the public not only by what they say, but also by what they actually do. Consumers of the youngest generation are particularly attentive to brands. For them, the words about sustainable development and care for the natural environment must be followed by specific ESG solutions. If not, they will choose someone else who will “buy them” with authenticity. On the other hand, we cannot forget that the needs of customers from the Silver group, i.e. 60+, are significantly different from those of Gen-Z.

Regardless of age, there is a more conscious approach to shopping, which makes customers choose more carefully. This in turn causes stratification and even brands that have been famous for their products accessible for everyone, are more and more boldly reaching for the premium category. And again we return to flexibility and openness to change.

New roles in the marketing

There is a lot of talk about the key role of marketing in business development, and yet it is the employees of this department who are most often hit by the first wave of redundancies and it is so, because marketing, as an activity supporting sales loses clash with the trade department. However, taking into account the diversity of competences and the role in determining the direction of development, it is difficult to justify such personnel decisions. A modern and effective marketing department is like a jigsaw puzzle where every piece matters. The best data is useless if it is not translated into good content. And what is content these days without eye-catching visualisation?

“As always, there are two sides to the coin – one is the specter of redundancies, which are heard both in marketing departments and advertising agencies. The other one are increasingly demanding candidates who openly communicate their needs and expectations. These are not the only phenomena we observe as head-hunters. This wide range of competences in marketing means that people from other departments – IT or Legal – also find their place here. We can also see the impact of the pandemic on the blurring of borders. For marketing managers, it opens the door to international transfers. All these factors have an extremely important impact on the shape and building of future teams. Therefore, it is crucial to introduce an employee with the right profile to the right employer. We call it a perfect match” – Grażyna Żywot-Ciecierska, Partner at GE Hunter.

A good marketing leader should be able to build an interdisciplinary team, members of which form an inseparable and intersecting system. Behind this lies another extremely important feature. The empathy. In addition to managerial skills, the leader must demonstrate emotional maturity that will allow him to maintain and unleash the potential of representatives of four different generations that are active on the market. Therefore, marketing managers should remember about inclusiveness and diversity also in the context of building their own employer branding.