CHAPTER 13 | WHAT'S YOUR TITLE AGAIN?

MARKETING STRATEGIST VS PLANNER

Most agencies call a marketing strategist a planner, mostly because they don’t know the difference.

They’re not the same.

Sector understanding and knowledge about marketing’s potential is the marketing strategist’s job. Together with the account lead, they should learn everything they can about a sector.

When a client-side person goes agency-side because of deep sector experience, they usually fail. Epically. When an agency-side strategist who has developed experience in a sector goes client-side they’re often admired for their brilliance.

It is easier to master sector understanding than it is to master marketing understanding. Truly mastering marketing, from the theoretical to the practical, takes a commitment of decades of multi-disciplinary input.

Client-side people who are promoted within to be marketing directors have a lot to learn, and are put under unfair pressure to deliver ROI. Marketing is about the outside, not the inside of a business.

“We picked this agency because they had dry cat food vs wet cat food experience.”

This is the surreal reality of the manner in which clients then judge agencies.

Is sector experience important? Depends on the sector, on how deep the “back end” of understanding of the sector is, such as vernacular, special metrics, or partnerships and alliances necessary to do business.

Healthcare, for instance, requires experience. You’re a healthcare agency or you’re not. You’re a consumer packaged goods agency or you’re not. You understand tech, travel and tourism, or you don’t.

But if you do wet cat food, you can still do dry cat food. Seriously. CPG is CPG. Dairy can do dairy. Beverage is beverage.

A true marketing strategist, who has experience in multiple sectors, with many different budgets, goals and objectives, gives clients the greatest bang for their buck.

At pace, and at scale.

Because it is true that most businesses are, inherently, the same. With the same challenges of positioning, of awareness and understanding, of long-term brand development and short-term sales/cash flow, of operational incompatibility with marketing’s potential engine.

Agency experience is the next step for a whatever sector you love, including the sector called advertising/marketing.

Planners, in contrast, are masters at understanding human behavior. Or, if relevant, cat behavior.