1. 4 pm | February 2017
opinion
M
arketing has often acted as a
catalyst for change but with
large numbers of professional
firms putting greater emphasis
on their employer brands and the current
fashion for corporate narratives, has
marketing’s role shifted into the driving
seat in bringing about cultural change?
Or are we simply getting more savvy
about the skills we are required to
demonstrate in order to sit at the top
table?
Who owns the brand now?
Of course, marketing’s involvement in the
employer brand is nothing new, it has
long been part and parcel of delivering on
the brand promise. In many firms HR
and marketing work closely together to
ensure the employee and prospective
employee’s experience is as consistent as
the client experience. However, a recent
report from global creative and tech-
nology agency Omobono goes even
further in proposing HR and marketing
teams’ traditional responsibilities are
shifting, with the lines especially blurring
when it comes to digital marketing. HR’s
increasingly digital practices and use of
technology for both recruitment and
employee processes easily explain this
change. The 2016 report, produced in
partnership with Winmark, into ‘What
Works Where in B2B Marketing’ revealed
that marketing has lost overall responsi-
bility for external communications, with
brand ownership now being shared
Who’s driving
the change?
Cultural and behavioural change has previously been
solely the realm of HR however Samantha Bisson
believes that marketers’ roles are increasingly covering
this area too.
The ability to be the
voice of the client in
the midst of what can
be an extremely
introspective exercise
is unquestionably
valuable.
diminishing?
I think not. On the contrary, shared
ownership of a brand gives it more of a
chance to become embedded in the
culture of the organisation and this can
only improve a marketing team’s chance
of success. After all, an HR team success-
fully consistently communicating the
brand to an external and internal audi-
ence has got to be a good thing, and if
that means they have a better under-
standing of the digital tools available to
them to do so, that’s no bad thing either,
surely? So if ownership of the brand is
being shared, how can marketing adapt
to ensure it’s still at the heart of defining
culture and playing a role in driving
organisational change?
Use your marketing skillset
The fact that roles are changing presents
an excellent opportunity for marketers,
never before have we had such an oppor-
tunity to demonstrate our ability to facili-
tate collaboration. Marketing is, by
necessity, a strategic and big picture view
function, making us perfectly placed to
connect the dots and ensure everyone
feels heard – particularly important for
those projects concerning narrative or
employer brand. Proving that we are able
to look beyond functional boundaries
positions marketing at the centre of the
collaborative culture that the Omobono
report promotes. Despite this, it is still
essential to be clear about communica-
tion responsibilities and accountability,
even if they are shared.
across the business. The report tells us
that “HR has overtaken both sales and
customer service, and is now the second
most powerful voice when defining what
the company stands for.” The report then
went on to suggest that ambitious organi-
sations should potentially look to break
down barriers between teams and create
a people focused brand, with HR driving
strategy and marketing acting purely as a
tactical department. According to the
same report marketing has nonetheless
retained its top spot in defining what a
company stands for, so should marketers
be concerned that their influence is
This article originally
appeared in PM magazine.
For further details go to
www.pmforum.co.uk

2. pm | February 2017 5
opinion
Understanding culture
Although brand ownership may be
shared, it is abundantly clear from the
myriad of research on the topic, that to
become a leader in any organisation an
understanding of an organisational
culture and its importance is required.
Might this just be the driver of this shift
in emphasis? Just as brand is no longer
the domain of marketing, culture is no
longer owned by HR or internal commu-
nications teams. To go further and lead
successfully, being able to drive cultural
change becomes ever-more important
and to do so requires an in-depth under-
standing of the various stakeholders
concerned. So who better to drive that
change than a function which under-
stands both the internal teams we work
with, cajole and persuade every day and
the external audiences we sell to, partner
with and, most importantly, listen to on a
daily basis? Perhaps marketing’s broad
understanding of, and requirement to
empathise with, the full range of stake-
holders is at the core of our shifting role.
After all, the ability to be the voice of the
client in the midst of what can be an
extremely introspective exercise is
unquestionably valuable.
The importance of commerciality
Marketing’s success in leading change
cannot only be due to stakeholder insight,
I believe commerciality also plays a role.
Marketers have long been grappling with
how best to demonstrate the value of
what we do, to such an extent that most
marketers I know now have a near obses-
sion with demonstrating ROI. This,
coupled with increasingly easy ways to
get hold of, analyse and report on data,
means marketers are more commercially
minded than they are perhaps aware. One
might even argue that this commerciality
remains a major differentiator for
marketing amongst other internal
support teams, few of which scrutinise
their external markets, client feedback
and financials so frequently, or at least so
frequently together. For marketers
looking to develop their careers there can
be no better advice than to take the time
to understand the financials of both your
organisation and the sector, if you are
working in a partnership this can go a
long way towards understanding some of
the internal dynamics and, more impor-
tantly for cultural change, the motivation
behind specific behaviours.
Leading for growth
But does the marketing leader of today
play more of a role in cultural change
than previously? Possibly, but I suspect
much of this is down to our profession as
a whole gaining credibility, we are all
standing on the shoulders of those before
us. What I do believe is, with marketing
professionals being ever more present at
the top table, that the average marketer
must broaden their skillset, or more accu-
rately, put their existing skillset to use in
a broader business context and, as senior
marketing leaders, we must dive head-
long into driving organisational change
where it is needed to bring success and
growth.
The CIM, it would appear, agree. In
October this year they launched a new
marketing qualification, equivalent to a
masters degree, the Marketing
Leadership Programme. The programme
was apparently developed in response to
industry demand and is “designed to
provide the platform senior marketers
need to drive meaningful change and
business growth”.
Maria Heckel, Marketing Director of
CIM goes so far as to say “now marketers
need to understand how to lead from the
front… Businesses more critically need
them to lead change, manage people and
projects, and have the skills and ability to
collaborate, innovate and influence
across the business – no matter how chal-
lenging the climate”. And why do busi-
nesses need marketing specifically to do
this? Because “professional marketing is
a vital driver for business growth.” Not
news to most of us, I hope, but a reas-
suring reminder of the potential level of
organisational influence that a career in
marketing permits.
Samantha Bisson is Director
of Marketing &
Communications at
Buzzacott where she heads
up the team which shapes,
advises on and implements
the firm’s marketing,
communications and BD
strategy.