Professional Documents
Culture Documents
HBR July 2014 The Rise of the Chief Marketing Technologist, by Scott Brinker, Laura McLellan
https://www.gartner.com/doc/2652017/presence-chief-marketing-technologist-impacts
3 We
asked the community of marketing technologists recruited from the MarTech 2014 fall conference and Scott Brinkers popular Chief
Martec blog - to help us document this group. We contracted an independent market research firm Decision Analyst to execute the survey.
Our study had 280 respondents, and took place from August 15th, 2014 to September 8th, 2014. (for more details, see About the Survey at the
end of the article).
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Key Points
4 in 5 companies have a marketing
technologist. Yet, analysis of their careers
and skills reveals a profession in a
formative stage.
48% Technology
17%
Data
Divas
16%
Infrastructure
Architects
15%
Experience
Engineers
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Marketing
Skills
Technology
Skills
Business
Skills
There are alarming deficiencies in current skill sets. Advertising technology, system performance and resiliency, and several
omni-channel enabling technologies all featured in the bottom 10
of self-assessed current skills, with information security coming in
dead last.
This lack of skills is of huge concern in light of recent massive security breaches across industries, the extreme scale at which digital
businesses must operate during periods of high demand, and the
ever-increasing requirements for brands to imagine and deliver immersive and pervasive experiences.
In addition, when we examined the largest skills gaps (differences
between stated future importance and current self-assessment),
big data techniques and technologies emerged as the skill with the
widest gap. The absolute deficiencies in current skills, the gap between current and desired future skills, and the under-representation of STEM academic backgrounds reinforce our view that todays
marketing technologists must level up their technology chops with
great urgency.
The gap between marketing and technology is real, even for
marketing technologists. While 94% believe that marketing and IT
skills could be combined in a single person, respondents identified a
stark polarity between marketing expertise and systems integration
expertise.
Most technology archetypes are less likely to describe themselves
as marketing experts and marketing archetypes dont think of
themselves as systems integrators. This subtle indication of how
respondents described who they are may be indicative of the culture
gap that must be overcome for the role to attain its highest potential.
In our view, the CMT role must straddle both functions as a native,
not with a major in one and a minor in the other.
If you want to tell a story and efficiently disseminate it to your consumers this is the group you want. With
considerable expertise in content creation,
content optimization, marketing strategy
and positioning, and content and digital
asset management platforms, this group
helps your brand converse with customers.
We asked our survey respondents to rank their skills, in relative, not absolute terms. We also asked them to choose from monikers they might
use to describe themselves professionally. Analyzing these data sets,
we found clear evidence that the population of marketing technologists
is fractured around distinct areas of expertise.
We identified 6 different archetypes of marketing technologists by identifying distinct clusters of skills rank your strongest/weakest skill
and attitudes I think of myself as. Sorted by size within the overall
population, the 6 archetypes are:
Marketing
Operations
Management
Marketing
Channel
Strategy and
Connections
Planning
The Ability to
Persuade and
Negotiate
Website
Testing and
Optimization
A Marketing Expert
A Business Consultant
A Customer Experience Specialist
An Entrepreneur
A CRM Expert
Mavens view themselves as professional marketers, business consultants and customer experience specialists. They
are the oldest (43% are 45+), and have the highest mean salary ($149k).
35.0
Marketing
Operations
Management
34.0
Customer
Relationship
Management
(CRM) Systems
and Platforms
31.7
Data Science,
Analytics,
Statistics, and
Modeling
17.4
Marketing
Strategy and
Positioning
16.8
A Marketing Expert
A Database Marketing Specialist
A Business Consultant
A Systems Integrator
A Data Scientist, Statistician, Analyst
A CRM Expert
A Customer Experience Specialist
Data Divas have much stronger sets of skills in database marketing, system integration and data scientist-related
skills than the other archetypes. They were the most likely to be the primary marketing technologists in their
organization (68% reported being the CMT).
45.6
Content Creation,
Copywriting,
and Content
Optimization
39.8
Marketing
Strategy and
Positioning
17.2
Website Design
Including
Responsive
and Adaptive
Design
16.0
The Ability to
Persuade and
Negotiate
24.6
23.4
Marketing
Channel
Strategy and
Connections
Planning
21.6
Website
Testing and
Optimization
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Data
Management
Software and
Systems
A Marketing Expert
A Content Management Expert
A Writer Or Content Creator
A Business Consultant
A Customer Experience Specialist
Content Curators specialize in content creation, content management and the customer experience.
They were also the youngest, with 42% under 35.
46.8
9.0
Enterprise
Architecture,
Tech Selection,
and Lifecycle
Management
31.6
Software
design,
programming,
and coding
23.3
Content
management
and digital asset
management
systems
17.1
Software
Development
Operations
and IT
Operations
11.4
Front-end
technologies
(e.g. HTML5,
Javascript,
and CSS)
Visual display of
data (including
infographics and
dashboards)
Infrastructure Architects are much more aligned with technology. Information technology, systems integration and even a
developer/coder scored highly. They were also the most male (89%), and 40% had an undergraduate technology degree
(versus a 25.3% average for all archetypes).
33.9
13.6
eCommerce
Technologies
and Platforms
Content
Management
and Digital
Asset
Management
Systems
29.8
Front-end
Technologies
(e.g. HTML5,
Javascript,
and CSS)
12.9
Design and
Development
of Mobile
Apps and
Platforms
21.5
Software
Design,
Programming,
and Coding
17.0
GIS,
Geomapping,
and
Geotargeting
17.0
Website
Design Including
Responsive and
Adaptive Design
Experience Engineers play a hybrid role blending depth in IT and SI skills but also have breadth in the form of
customer experience. They have considerable skills in mobile app development, eCommerce technology and other
core competencies as well.
58.4
Marketing
Research,
Consumer
Insights, and
Competitive
Intelligence
47.3
Marketing
Strategy and
Positioning
24.1
Advertising
and Marketing
Communication
Development
16.6
Market
Segmentation
and
Psychographics
13.5
Marketing
Channel
Strategy and
Connections
Planning
A Marketing Expert
An Advertising Expert
A Business Consultant
An Entrepreneur
A Customer Experience Specialist
Our final archetype is also the smallest; Media and Marketing Analysts bring strengths in advertising, business and
customer experience. They tend to be younger 45% are under 35 and are the most likely to have a graduate degree
(59% have a graduate degree) and, of those, most degrees are in business (71% of graduate degrees are in business).
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The existence of the archetypes shows us that todays marketing technologists do not have
equivalent competencies. In fact, the differences in the ratio of skills between the archetypes are quite large.
One immediate implication for brands looking to appoint a CMT they must be more specific in creating a job description the term marketing technologist simply is insufficient.
Lacking specifics when casting the role will increase the odds of professional failure. For
instance, recruiting a Marketing Maven when the job situation calls for a Data Diva or Infrastructure Architect will require additional senior team members with complementary skills
to build out a capable marketing technology function.
We recommend an outline of the specific skills required, followed by a determination of
which primary, and secondary (or more, if needed) archetype fits best. Brands with stable
business models should be able to define their needs succinctly e.g. evolve and manage
the marketing automation infrastructure. By doing so, they will be able to focus on the
archetypes required, which will increase the likelihood of finding experienced candidates
who can fill the role effectively. Of course, employers concerned about changing consumer
behavior or digital disruption to their core business will need a unicorn with breadth and
depth across multiple, or all archetypes to lead the marketing technology office. In this case,
expect the candidate pool to be much smaller, and the search to take longer.
2. Archetypes are split evenly between marketing and technology disciplines, but marketing archetypes are more likely to operate as a team, while technology archetypes
are more likely to play the role of Chief Marketing Technologist.
TECHNOLOGY
In our data, we found a roughly even split between marketing and technology orientations
52% of the respondents are classified in one of the three marketing archetypes (Marketing
Mavens, Content Curators, or Media & Marketing Analyzers), while the remaining 48% are
in the technology archetypes (Data Divas, Infrastructure Architecture, Experience Engineers).
Interestingly, those with a marketing orientation are far more likely to operate with a team
rather than as the sole marketing technologist. We hypothesize that marketing oriented archetypes need additional technology support in order to realize the marketing technology
function:
48%
17%
Data
Divas
16%
Infrastructure
Architecture
15%
Experience
Engineers
MARKETING
52%
26%
Marketing
Mavens
16%
10%
Our hypothesis is todays technology archetypes (Data Divas, Infrastructure Architecture, Experience Engineers) possess more of the skills needed to align the marketing team, technology vendors, service providers and corporate IT. Our recommendation for brands? Evaluate
your CMTs ability to be the glue between these teams, including her ability to represent the
interests, viewpoints and concerns of the different stakeholders without bias, see the big
picture while not missing key details, and her gravitas as a cross functional leader.
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3. Marketing technologists most likely work for the Chief Marketing Officer. They also have marketing titles.
Our respondents report into a marketing function most frequently.
Just 8.6% of marketing technologists report into the CIO; most report into the CMO (31.4%), CEO/President (23.9%), or CDO (chief
digital officer)/CSO (chief strategy officer) (5.3%). In sum, 69.2% reported into the C-suite. Chief Marketing Technologists (CMTs) are
similar, with just 5.5% reporting into the CIO.
In our view, this distribution of reporting relationships is supportive
of our thesis that the marketing technologist is broadly the equivalent of a CIO or CTO dedicated to marketing, and the CMO or CEO
needs a trusted advisor skilled in technology and marketing on his/
her team.
PARTICIPANT JOB TITLES OVERALL AND CMT
60
50
40
30
20
CMT
OVERALL
10
33.1%
31.4%
29.9%
23.9%
CEO or President
5.5%
8.6%
e.g.
Marketing
Technologist
4.7%
3.2%
Director
of Market
Automation
Marketing
Technology
Consultant
3.1%
2.1%
CPO/CSO/Director/VP/Manager of Strategy,
Planning, or Development
Director of CRM
Marketing
Technology
Manager
21.3%
28.9%
76.3%
55.9% 48.9%
CMT
Overall
16.5% 23.2%
CMT
Overall
18% 16.8%
11%
7.1%
CMT
CMT
Overall
Overall
Marketing
Title
Business
Title
Technology
Title
e.g.
CMO
e.g.
CGO/CSO/
Director/VP/
Manager of
Strategy
e.g.
CTO/CIO/
Director/VP/
Manager of IT/
Director/VP/
Manager of Digital
Marketing
Project Manager/
Account
Marketing
Manager/Director/ Manager/
Director/VP/
VP/Manager of
Manager of
Marketing
Business, Product,
Technology
or Application
Development/
Strategist
Director of
Analytics
Marketing
Technology
Title
Market
Automation
Specialist
Marketing technologists job titles are typically marketing titles. And Chief
Marketing Technologists (CMTs) were even more likely to have marketing
titles.
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PREVIOUS JOBS
46.9% Technical/Programming Background
01 20.7% Web/CRM management/
01
Automation platforms
02
14.5%
Web Developer/Programmer/
Software Engineer
03
04 4.6% eCommerce
05 3.7% SEM/SEO/Search engine
management
04
05
Background in mobile
06
02
Management Background/
04
05 7.5%
Business Development/
Strategy/Research Strategy
Analytics/Business Analyst/
06
07
Market research/Research
EARNED DEGREES
Earned At Least Bachelors Degree
92.1%
Business and management was also a popular job category, and we observe
prior general management roles described as consulting, managing teams,
and project management.
40.7%
Advanced Degree
(Masters, ph.D)
AREAS OF STUDY
51.4%
7.9%
Bachelors Degree
Associates Degree
Undergraduate
Business or Business
Administration
14%
Marketing
11%
Communications
9%
Computer Science
Information Technology
12
Engineering
Science or Math
Vocational or less
01
Graduate
keting Manager/Marketing
41%
16%
Animation/Video/Audio Engineer
8%
%
Social Sciences
10%
31%
04
04
2%
5%
05
11%
Marketing technologists are a highly educated group, with 92% having at least a bachelors
degree - compared to 29.5% for the U.S. general population. Undergraduate areas of study
included liberal arts, and, at the graduate level, skew towards business.
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3%
4%
02
14
3.7%
80
60
62.1%
43.9%
43.9%
42.9%
40
44.3%
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System performance and resiliency, advertising technology and several omni-channel enabling technologies (e.g. in-venue, in-store experience technology, physical computing and IoT, tag management,
and geotargeting) all featured in the lowest 10 self-assessed current skills, with information security dead last. Of all our findings,
we were concerned with this one the most. In our view, marketing
technologists must envision and lead the delivery of omni-channel
experiences that are integrated, scalable and reliable. This in fact, is
a core mandate of the role. Further, the bottom 10 list also included
some core marketing topics, such as loyalty programs, internationalization, media and ad-tech.
We asked our respondents which job skills were the most important for the future success of marketing. Of the top 5 skills important for the future, two are marketing related, two are technology
related and one is business related. This supports our view that
the marketing technologist must span marketing, technology, and
business. However, the technology-oriented skills are narrower than
wed anticipated.
20
When we asked respondents for the top skills for future success, the top two skills
which emerged were traditional marketing skills, although technology skills rounded
out the next two slots.
Marketing Skills
Technology Skills
Key Gaps:
Marketing Strategy
& Positioning
Key Gaps:
Website Design
including responsive
design adaptive
Target Marketing
Identification
CRM Systems
and Platforms
Business Skills
0.6
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.1
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Key Gaps:
Ability to persuade
and negotiate
In our evaluation of the survey data, we found that a mix of marketing, technology,
and business skills were important for marketing technologists for the future.
EXCITEMENT VS STRESS
62.3% Excitement*
32.3% Stress**
10
-6
12
Among roles, those serving as CMTs report higher excitement and stress, relative
to those less involved.
-27
34
Market Segmentation
and Psychographics
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When we compared the most important skills with their current strengths/
weaknesses, we identified a set of skills with the greatest gaps, shown above.
Its notable that the biggest gaps span technology, marketing, and business skills.
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Marketing Archetypes
Marketing Archetypes
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Personality Types: In terms of personality, it appears those with a Marketing orientation and those with a Technology orientation are more similar than different. Six of
the ten characteristics were similar, although marketers believe themselves to be less
Practical, but more Independent, Original and Organized. Technologists scored
slightly higher overall, and relatively higher in Practical, Realistic. All groups believe
themselves to be Logical, Analytical.
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PROFESSIONAL SELF-DESCRIPTIONS
Conclusion
The rise of the Chief Marketing Technologist is bridging the worlds of
marketing and IT. In these data, we see a new picture emerging of
the marketing technologist. This first-ever analysis of the professional population gives us a remarkable view of six discrete archetypes,
their skills, and where in the organization they sit. Importantly, we
have a clear view of the skills and attitudinal gaps which employers
must recognize when hiring and that the profession (and, ultimately,
academia) must address.
We can logically infer from the data that marketing technologists are
growing their skills on the job. Thats great news. But, it should be
deeply concerning to both marketing technologists and the brands
that rely on them that the largest skills gaps are in areas of significant opportunity (e.g. targeting, CRM and data) and high risk (e.g.
information security, performance and resiliency).
Academia has yet to create programs for hybrid talent that must
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Hilding Anderson
Director Research & Insights, SapientNitro, Washington, DC
Hilding is a Director of Research & Insights at the SapientNitro Research Institute, which catalyzes thought leadership within the agency, and advisor to global clients on emerging digital trends and the
changing consumer.
Scott Tang
Head of Global Consumer & Industry Research,
SapientNitro, Chicago
Scott leads a team of researchers that supports SapientNitro worldwide through secondary and quantitative analysis on topics regarding consumers, industries and all things digital.
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