Introduction
In this era of internet of things (IOT), one cannot live
without internet. This is more so in case of marketing. Modern marketers are
increasingly making use of internet and web based technologies for their
marketing activities. Hardly there exists
a company without its presence in the internet or without a digital marketing
channel. Websites, emails and apps to name a few that are intended to influence
customers are all up and running because of certain soft wares and codes
written by somebody. Should then the marketers too understand the software and
coding? How important is the knowledge of soft wares to them? This article
attempts to analyze as to what extent a marketer needs to know about computer
technology.
Modern Marketing
Marketing has come a long way from selling to content
marketing and is moving on. Digital marketers find that their knowledge
requirement is increasing every day. Omni channel, from an augmented level of
service is evolving to be an expected level of service; some marketers have
even embraced 3D printing for reaching their customers. Marketing and marketers are now overwhelmed
with a deluge of ever increasing soft wares to increase both their
effectiveness and efficiency. Increasingly, marketing is becoming IT driven and
is taking much of digital space. The present marketing department has now grown
to include other non-marketing people like IT professional, technical
consultants, etc. A marketing professional will gain competitive advantage if
he can understand the technologies behind the tools that he uses instead of
just using the tools. If one wants the best out of something, one should have
an understanding of how that something works. Since all these tools are founded
on code and run on code, some knowledge and understanding of code would be
useful.
Need of the hour
Marketing is progressively becoming technology run. As
mentioned earlier, hardly there exists a marketer who does not use any digital
technology. The job of a marketer is becoming more interdisciplinary with
knowledge of internet and digital science being essential. This is where
computer technology comes in. Marketers need to know what it takes to build a
webpage, an app. Only if the marketers have this knowledge can they be able to
communicate intelligently with the technologists such as web designers in their
own parlance. This will make their brief clear and reduces the risk of
miscommunication. Even a little knowledge and familiarity can produce high
gains in productivity and take advantage of the information at their
disposal.
It is common knowledge that in every school children are
taught to read and write. We don’t expect all of them to become poets and
writers. They go off to pursue their chosen profession. Similarly, looking at
the present trend in digital growth and the tale of internet of things, the
children in the school should also be trained beyond the basics of computer –
may be programming. Therefore it is now becoming imperative particularly for
the marketers to be trained in computer technology such as familiarity with
soft wares, programming etc.
Think of a situation where the marketer needs to resize an
image or change a word in an internet page for which he has to go over to
different people and wait for them to do the needful. With some basic knowledge
of HTML, the marketer himself can do these small changes on his own. This will
not only save time for all concerned but will also be inspiring and boost the
effectiveness. Learning programming and understanding how digital products such
as webpages, apps will give a marketer a better understanding of what is
possible and what is not.
It is not necessary for the marketer to learn to programming
to be at par with the professional coders. It should definitely be left to
those who are specialists and who know better than the marketers. In fact,
professional coding requires a very different kind of skill set than
marketers’. As a marketer, one needs to concentrate on the returns of the
marketing campaigns and other strategies and it is best that the professional
coding is left to the others. Every marketer need not become a technologist but
should develop above average level of comfort with technology. Though marketers
don’t need to build sites from the scratch, they need to understand how it
works to take intelligent decisions.
Conclusion
Modern marketing, in the digital era, is no longer a
discrete process but continuous. Speed is the key and with ever changing
customer preferences and competition, it is of utmost importance. In order to
keep up with the emerging trends marketers need to acquire newer skills to
enable them function with accuracy and speed.
In an article published in McKinsey Quarterly ( Jonathan
Gordon and Jesko Perrey ‘The Dawn of Marketing’s New Golden Age’, FEBRUARY
2015, pp 4), “One CEO believes it’s time to create a position—marketing
technology officer (MTO)—that’s rooted both in technology and domain
knowledge”.
IoT’s impact is already extending beyond its early and most
visible applications. It can usher in changes in the business models. With IoT
come significant changes in management activities and skills. IT will not
remain as a support or staff services and will join with the line manager to
oversee IoT which will be essential for the survival of the firm. Managers would need new skills as they would
require to be more analytical and be data driven. In such a scenario, computer
knowledge will definitely play a vital role.
