Top 4 Skills Marketers Need in the Future

Do you know what good looks like?

Based on the above example, one skill set that will become increasingly important for success is the ability to understand and anticipate consumer tastes and preferences.

As markets become more saturated and consumers have an endless array of choices, marketers who can take the pulse of their target audience and deliver content, products, and experiences that resonate with them have an important would benefit.

However, it is equally important to recognize when an attempt to connect with an audience falls flat or, worse, falls flat. Take Kendall Jenner’s infamous Pepsi ad, for example. In the ad, Jenner attends a protest and gives a can of Pepsi to a police officer, seemingly resolving the tension. The ad received intense backlash, with critics accusing Pepsi of trivializing the Black Lives Matter movement and using social justice as a superficial marketing ploy.

This is a prime example of the disconnect between a brand’s intended message and the actual tastes and sensitivities of its audience. In an effort to capitalize on a cultural moment and appeal to a socially conscious youth demographic, Instead, Pepsi came across as dumb and opportunistic, This is a cautionary tale for us marketers – understanding your audience means not just knowing what they like, but also knowing what they will find insensitive, offensive or simply in bad taste.

As a marketing leader, I often encounter this message/taste mismatch in content targeted at me. Many of these ads come across as patronizing, failing to truly understand the complex pressures and challenges I face in my role. Instead of providing meaningful, tailored solutions, they often address complex issues in a superficial, general manner.

This disconnect goes beyond simply failing to resonate with me – it often actively degrades my perception of the brand. When I see content that makes me think, “They just don’t get it,” it undermines the whole purpose of the marketing effort. Instead of building rapport or establishing credibility, it creates a cognitive barrier between the brand and me, making me less likely to engage with them in the future.

As we look to the future, the role of marketers may also change from managing people to managing machines. With the rise of AI and automation, algorithms and software will take over many of the repetitive tasks of marketing, like data analysis, transactional copy creation, etc.

However, this does not diminish the importance of human judgment and discretion. In fact, it enhances it! As a marketer, your role will be to manage the output of these machines to ensure that they align with your brand voice and values ​​and the tastes of your target audience. To do this effectively, you need to have a deep understanding of what good actually looks like.

This means constantly benchmarking your work against the best in your industry, staying connected to your audience’s changing tastes and trends, and having a clear vision of what excellence and resonance looks like for your particular brand and market. It is no longer enough to simply release large amounts of content or ads and hope for the best. Marketers will need to become curators and arbiters of taste, with the ability to separate signal from noise.