THE ART OF MARKETING LEADERSHIP: A Head of Marketing´s Perspective on the Industry

What is Marketing?

Let's start with a simple (?) definition: Marketing is a multifaceted business discipline focused on creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. It involves understanding customer needs and preferences, identifying target markets, and developing strategies to effectively reach and engage with those audiences. In essence, Marketing is about building and managing relationships, fostering brand awareness, and driving customer satisfaction. It encompasses a wide range of activities, including market research, product development, pricing, promotion, and distribution.

Successful marketing not only leads to increased sales but also builds brand loyalty and enhances the overall reputation of a business.

As a business grows, building a Marketing Team becomes essential for expansion and revenue. Deciding when and which roles to prioritize is where hiring a head of marketing is crucial. This leader not only drives ROI but also ensures the cohesion of your communications team. Recognizing the importance of marketing leadership is key for organizations looking to establish an effective communications team.

The Head of Marketing holds a senior position within the team, often reporting directly to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or, in some instances, both roles are assumed by the same individual. The arrangement depends on what suits your company's structure best.

This role has various responsibilities across the company, including creating customer personas, overseeing messaging, assessing market positioning, and managing the marketing team. The Head of Marketing plays a pivotal role in guiding other marketers towards overarching business goals.

While marketing heads may engage in some hands-on creative work, their primary focus is coordinating the efforts of the marketing team, crafting and refining strategies, and establishing success indicators for the brand.

Typically, there are two types of roles:

1. Regional Head of Marketing: in a multinational company, as a regional Head of Marketing, you ensure regional goals align with organizational strategies. Key responsibilities include developing performance indicators and reviewing plans for revenue generation;

2. International Head of Marketing: as the Head of Marketing for an international group, you collaborate to unify marketing efforts across regions, ensuring campaigns align with customer needs.

The Requirements

Becoming a Head of Marketing requires specific education and academic experience. A Bachelor's degree in fields like business management, marketing, or communications is essential, providing foundational skills in advertising and statistics. A Master's degree, particularly in communications or a related business field, can enhance employment prospects by imparting strategic thinking and leadership skills.

In addition to this qualifications, practical experience in entry-level and middle-management roles is crucial. This hands-on experience is indispensable for gaining insights into the marketing process and understanding the company's customer dynamics. In summary, a combination of relevant education and work experience is key to ascending to the role of a Head of Marketing.

In the role of a Head of Marketing, the cultivation of specific skills is imperative for success, regardless the industry sector. Communication stands out as a crucial skill, given the necessity to deliver multiple presentations to the board and executive teams. Strong communication skills are essential to engage with stakeholders professionally and effectively convey the company's goals to the marketing team.

Another vital skill is problem-solving. The Head of Marketing frequently encounters challenges such as declining sales or limited growth, necessitating strategic problem-solving abilities. Addressing these issues requires the development of well-thought-out strategies to navigate the complexities of the business.

Teamwork is equally vital in excelling in this role. Collaborating with others demands strong interpersonal skills, fostering the ability to listen to diverse ideas and interact effectively with team members. Success as a head of marketing often hinges on the capacity to work seamlessly within a team.

Analytical skills are indispensable for a head of marketing, particularly when relying on statistics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to gauge the effectiveness of marketing strategies. The ability to ensure that decisions and strategies are data-driven is crucial in steering the marketing efforts toward success. In essence, a comprehensive set of skills, ranging from communication and problem-solving to teamwork and analytical proficiency, forms the foundation for excelling in the dynamic role of a Head of Marketing.

And what about the Responsabilities?

As the overseer of all Marketing sub-departments, the head of marketing shoulders numerous responsibilities, primarily centered around elevating brand awareness. This encompasses fostering collaboration among team members to ensure consistent and effective output. The head of marketing collaborates closely with various teams, contributing to competitor assessments, idea generation, sales margin enhancement, and more, including:

• Devising strategies for Digital, Advertising, Communications, and Creative teams.
• Formulating, managing, and overseeing monthly, quarterly, and annual budgets for the Marketing department.
• Establishing, monitoring, and reporting on team goals.
• Crafting branding, positioning, and pricing strategies.
• Ensuring a strong, consistent brand message across all channels and marketing efforts.
• Analyzing consumer behavior and creating customer personas.
• Identifying opportunities for market expansion and new market segments.
• Developing quarterly and annual hiring plans.
• Monitoring competition, including acquisitions, pricing changes, and new products/features.
• Coordinating sales and marketing efforts to enhance brand awareness.
• Participating in the quarterly and annual planning of company objectives.

I asked few questions to Francesca Mori Head of Marketing at Babaco, so we can contextualise what we just saw:

Hi Francesca, and thank you so much for taking the time. Please introduce yourself and tell us more about your background and experience. 

My name is Francesca and I come from Milan, Italy, I am a brand and marketing professional with over 13 years of experience in digital companies, start-ups and scale-ups.

I graduated in 2010 in foreign languages applied to corporate and media communications. After my graduation I started my career with an internship in a digital market research company in Paris where I realised that I was really keen on digital communication and e-commerce services. From that moment on I worked on different projects  such as online newspapers, classified websites, launch of new apps and  international services. My latest experience is the launch of a new grocery e-commerce in Italy.

Tell us a bit more about your role as Head of Marketing Communications in e-commerce companies. What are your main tasks and responsibilities? 

As a Head of Marketing in e-commerce companies my main responsibility is to define and execute the marketing strategy to build brand awareness and drive business results. Of course I could never do this by myself, I work with a team of experts and specialists. We can divide the objectives of our team into three main areas of competence:

• Build brand awareness and credibility on the target audience. This includes activities such as media planning (TV, OOH and Radio), social media, PR and CSR projects. The most important thing here is to assure consistency in communication topics and visuals. 
• Acquire new customers and increase the active user base. In digital services this is usually done through performance marketing campaigns. The most common channels are google adwords, meta and tiktok.
• Retain and re-engage previous customers through CRM. We always have to make sure that our customers are happy and that the products we sell are relevant to them. This is usually done through email marketing and community management. A key aspect here is a reactive and efficient customer care.

All this has to be supported by a constant analytical and data driven approach.

What are the biggest challenges you have in this role? 

I think the biggest challenge in this role is to conjugate a long term strategic vision with a problem solving attitude and an hands-on-deck approach that allows you to grab opportunities and take quick turns in direction if needed.

In this industry you always have to be updated about new trends and keep up with the fast paced environment which is also what makes everything thrilling, new and never the same.