Introduction
Marketing is currently undergoing a period of immense change, driven by the rapid emergence and adoption of new technologies that are revolutionizing the way companies engage with their customers. These technologies are enabling a level of personalization that was previously unfeasible, allowing marketers to tailor their offerings and communications to the specific preferences and behaviors of individual consumers. At the same time, these tools are providing marketers with the ability to make decisions with far greater agility and efficiency, leveraging the power of data and analytics to optimize their strategies in real-time. As a result, the successful marketers of tomorrow will be those who can effectively harness these new technologies and adapt to the changing landscape of the discipline.
Recognizing the profound implications of these shifts for the future of marketing education, the MaCuDE Marketing Disciplinary Task Force engaged in extensive consultations with industry leaders to gain a deeper understanding of the skills, roles, and educational needs that are emerging in the wake of these technological transformations. Through these discussions, the task force sought to identify the key competencies that will be required for success in the marketing field moving forward, as well as the specific roles that are likely to become increasingly important in the years ahead. Furthermore, the task force aimed to translate these insights into actionable recommendations for how undergraduate and MBA programs can adapt their curricula to better prepare students for the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.
Discipline Impacts due to Digital Technologies
The task force’s consultations with industry leaders revealed four key areas in which digital technologies are having a particularly profound impact on the marketing discipline:
- AI and Hyperpersonalization: Perhaps the most significant transformation being driven by new technologies is the rise of AI and its ability to enable what is often referred to as hyperpersonalization. Using advanced machine learning algorithms, marketers are now able to analyze vast amounts of data on individual consumers’ preferences, behaviors, and past interactions with the brand, and use this information to deliver highly customized experiences that are tailored to each person’s unique needs and interests. This represents a major shift from the traditional approach of segmenting customers into broad groups and targeting them with generic messaging. With AI-powered hyperpersonalization, companies can now engage with their customers on a truly one-to-one basis, building deeper, more meaningful relationships that drive increased loyalty and lifetime value.
- Precision, Speed, and Efficiency: Another key impact of AI and other digital technologies is their ability to dramatically improve the precision, speed, and efficiency of marketing decision-making. By leveraging the power of predictive analytics, companies can now forecast demand with much greater accuracy. At the same time, the automation of many routine tasks and processes is freeing up marketers to focus on higher-level strategic activities, while also reducing the risk of human error and inconsistency. As a result, marketing organizations are becoming more agile, responsive, and data-driven, able to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and customer preferences.
- Algorithm-based Ad Buying: The rise of programmatic ad buying, powered by sophisticated algorithms, has fundamentally transformed the way companies purchase and place their digital advertising. Rather than relying on human negotiations and manual placements, marketers can now bid on ad inventory in real-time, using automated systems that optimize for factors such as target audience, placement, and budget. This has greatly increased the efficiency and effectiveness of digital advertising, while also opening up new opportunities for personalization and targeting.
- Universality of Data and Analytics: More broadly, the insights generated through marketing analytics are becoming a central input into decision-making across the entire company, thus significantly transforming the role of marketing within the organization. This is breaking down traditional barriers and enabling a more holistic, customer-centric approach to business strategy.
Changes in the Workplace
The increasing use of digital tools for managing individual and team workflows is having a significant impact on the way work gets done. On the one hand, these tools are enabling greater productivity, collaboration, and flexibility, allowing teams to work together seamlessly regardless of location or time zone. On the other hand, they are also blurring the lines between work and personal life, creating new challenges around work-life balance and boundary setting.
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated the trend toward remote work. Like in most management roles, while remote work has brought many benefits, including increased flexibility and the ability to tap into a wider pool of talent, it has also created new challenges around communication, collaboration, and team cohesion. As companies navigate this new reality, there will be an ongoing need to adapt management practices, technologies, and organizational cultures to support a more distributed workforce.
Emerging Business Skills
Executives considered that, for MBA graduates, the top-ranked skill was omnichannel marketing, reflecting the growing importance of managing customer experiences across multiple touchpoints and channels. This was followed by a set of skills related to data analytics, including statistics basics, causal inference, and customer centricity analytics. Taken together, these results suggest that the successful marketing leaders of tomorrow will need to be adept at leveraging data and analytics to drive business decisions, while also possessing a deep understanding of how to create seamless, personalized customer experiences across a range of channels.
Interestingly, while AI and machine learning ranked lower on the list of specific skills, they are clearly seen as foundational to many of the higher-ranked competencies. In other words, while not every marketer needs to be an AI expert, a basic understanding of how these technologies work and how they can be applied to marketing problems is becoming increasingly essential.
Based on these insights, the task force identified three key roles that are likely to become increasingly important in the marketing organizations of the future:
- The Digital Strategist: This senior (but not C-suite) managerial role will require a deep understanding of marketing strategy in the digital age, combined with a solid grasp of how AI and analytics can be leveraged to drive business results. Digital Strategists will be responsible for overseeing data scientists and other technical experts, while also working closely with business leaders to identify key challenges and opportunities and guide the overall direction of the company’s digital marketing efforts.
- The Generalist Translator: At a more operational level, there will be a growing need for mid-career professionals who can serve as “translators” between the technical and business sides of the organization. These individuals will possess a unique combination of marketing strategy, AI/analytics knowledge, coding skills, and broad cultural understanding, allowing them to bridge the gaps between different functions and ensure that insights are being effectively translated into action.
- The Marketing Analyst: Finally, at the entry level, there will be an increasing demand for marketing analysts who possess a foundational understanding of digital advertising, basic analytics and coding skills, and a broader strategic context. These individuals will be responsible for executing day-to-day marketing activities, such as managing programmatic ad campaigns, while also contributing to the development and optimization of overall marketing strategies.
For undergraduate education, the top-ranked skills were digital advertising basics, omnichannel marketing, and ethics. This suggests that employers are looking for entry-level marketers who possess a solid foundation in the tactical execution of digital marketing campaigns, combined with a strategic understanding of omnichannel customer experiences and a strong ethical compass.
Ethics and Privacy Knowledge
The importance of ethics and privacy knowledge emerged as a key theme throughout the task force’s consultations with industry leaders. As digital technologies become more sophisticated and pervasive, there is a growing recognition of the need for marketers to grapple with the ethical implications of their work, particularly when it comes to issues of data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the broader social and moral responsibilities of corporations.
Many industry leaders emphasized the importance of building a strong ethical foundation into marketing education, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. They argued that as the use of AI and other technologies becomes more widespread, it will be increasingly important for marketers to understand the potential risks and unintended consequences of these tools, and to proactively address these issues in their work.
Skills Needed for Early Career Graduates
Drilling down further into the specific skills needed for early career graduates, the task force identified two key areas of focus for undergraduate education: digital advertising basics and statistics/analytics.
In terms of digital advertising, employers are looking for entry-level marketers who understand the fundamentals of programmatic ad buying and targeting, and who can effectively manage and optimize digital campaigns across a range of platforms. At the same time, they emphasized the importance of situating these tactical skills within a broader strategic context, ensuring that students understand how digital advertising fits into the overall marketing mix and contributes to business objectives.
In terms of statistics and analytics, employers stressed the need for entry-level marketers to possess a solid foundation in quantitative methods, combined with an understanding of how to apply these skills to real-world business problems. This includes a basic understanding of statistical concepts such as probability and regression, as well as familiarity with key analytics tools and techniques such as data visualization and A/B testing.
Curricular Impact of New Skill Requirements
Based on these insights, the task force identified several key areas where business schools may need to adapt their curricula to better prepare students for the marketing roles of the future:
- Omnichannel Marketing: These courses should focus on the strategic and tactical dimensions of omnichannel marketing, and should cover topics such as brand management across multiple channels, customer journey mapping, and the use of data and analytics to optimize omnichannel experiences.
- Marketing Analytics: These courses should cover topics such as statistical analysis, data visualization, and the application of analytics techniques to real-world marketing problems, and should be designed to provide students with hands-on experience working with data and analytics tools, while grounded in a solid understanding of marketing strategy and business objectives.
- Ethics: These courses should cover topics such as data privacy regulations, ethical frameworks for the use of AI and other technologies, and the broader social responsibilities of corporations in an age of surveillance capitalism.
- Digital Advertising: At the undergraduate level, there is a need for courses that provide students with a solid foundation in the basics of digital advertising, including topics such as programmatic ad buying, targeting and segmentation, and campaign optimization.
- Generalist Education: Business schools should consider developing multi-course pathways or tracks that combine marketing, computer science, and liberal arts education. These programs should be designed to cultivate the broad, cross-functional knowledge and skills that will be increasingly valuable in the marketing organizations of the future.
Conclusion
The rapid evolution of marketing in the digital age, driven by the growing power of AI, big data, and digital platforms, is creating a profound shift in the skills and roles required for success in the field. To remain relevant and effective, marketing organizations will need to develop a new generation of leaders and practitioners who can combine deep technical expertise with broad strategic vision, strong ethical foundations, and the ability to translate insights into action across multiple functions and channels.
For business schools, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity. To meet the needs of employers and prepare students for the marketing roles of the future, schools will need to adapt their curricula to place a greater emphasis on key skills such as omnichannel marketing, marketing analytics, digital advertising, and ethics. They will also need to develop new pedagogical approaches and partnerships to provide students with hands-on experience working with the tools and technologies that are shaping the future of marketing.
Ultimately, however, the task force believes that the fundamental principles of marketing – understanding customer needs, creating value, building strong brands, and driving business growth – will remain as relevant as ever in the digital age. The challenge for educators and practitioners alike will be to find ways to harness the power of new technologies in service of these enduring goals, while also navigating the complex ethical and social implications of a world in which the boundaries between the physical and digital are increasingly blurred.
As the marketing discipline continues to evolve at a rapid pace, it will be essential for academia and industry to work together closely to stay ahead of the curve and ensure that the next generation of marketing leaders is equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in an era of unprecedented change and opportunity. By embracing the challenges and possibilities of the digital age, and by grounding their work in a strong foundation of strategic thinking, technical expertise, and ethical practice, tomorrow’s marketers will be well-positioned to drive business growth and create value for customers and society as a whole.