My next pick for "emerging" roles in Marketing.

It’s not too hard to see that within large organisations, there is fragmentation between teams when it comes to a consumer’s experience. Let’s look at Qantas as an example. There’s one business unit that looks after domestic travel, another for international, destinations and their frequent flyer program. And within these business units, there are even more teams in charge of their own specialised area.

And don’t get me started on the breakdown between these teams in offline verse online.

It’s made me start thinking about future roles for our industry, and what the answer might be particularly in the wake of digital transformation and personalisation. Some CMO’s believe digital transformation is about efficiency, beating competitors to market and wooing customers with fancy apps and tech bling. I don’t agree with them. It’s about going back to the fundamentals of good customer experience and clear messaging, enabled by tech.  

So what’s my pick for what the next role in digital marketing? Consumer Experience Managers.

Why?

Because it makes sense. With so many teams creating their own communications with their own objectives, how often are we stepping back to see the whole customer journey from start to finish?

If you Google Consumer Experience Managers, you will find some articles that define the role as predominately digital, sitting within the team in charge of transformation. I can see how it is has been lumped under digital, but I think you are kinda missing half the picture if you don’t include offline communications as part of the role. Providing outstanding customer experience is everyone’s job. But someone needs to help align everyone’s efforts.

Just don’t confuse digital transformation with customer experience.

I’ve made mention that customer experience walks hand in hand with digital transformation, but please do not mistake this as an indication that they are one in the same. Digital transformation is looking at companies and how they can evolve using data and tech to enable greater communications and efficiencies. Customer experience is about creating strong relationships with customers. One just enables the other.