Monoculture Fails: Why Marketing Needs Generalists
There's this recurring pattern where someone declares that their type of marketing will be the future of marketing leadership, because they have this skill that other kinds of marketers don't have, and being good at this skill is what builds good companies.
And let's be honest, there's one of these every time someone with a particular background is elevated into a leadership position. "It worked for me, which means that this is the way." Look, I get it, in the words of Hugh Howey, everyone in the silo believes that their job is the most important (yes, I know I'm late to this show, but in my defense, I wanted to read the books before I watched the show), and LinkedIn rewards the hot takes, so it's arguable this particular bout of cynicism is brought to you by structural factors, not personal ones.
There's this story that I love from scientific forestry that I find instructive any time someone argues that one type of marketing is more important than others. Gist of the story is that in the 19th century, the Germans were basically like, we need wood to build ships, and we need as much of it as possible. So they went into the old growth forests, cut down the old trees and cleared the undergrowth, and planted a single species of tree (Norwegian Spruce, for the nerds in the crowd). Grew like absolute clockwork for the first generation, and much back-slapping ensued.
They go back, replant, and everything immediately goes to sh*t. The trees aren't growing at the rate they were "supposed to", there's a disease that's ravaging the trees before they can even get a real foothold. Turns out, all the unimportant undergrowth was providing lots of nutrients to the trees, and the old growth trees of diverse species provided both protection from and a hedge against disease. As the youths once said (maybe they still do, idk), congrats, you played yourself.
I'm a climber, and there's this golden rule: never shall you ever offer unsolicited advice about how to climb something, and the reason for it is dead simple. My body isn't your body. I'm a pretty short dude, and my most frequent climbing partner has about 6 inches of height on me and another 2 on arm length. What works for him, just…doesn't work for me, and vis versa. He can reach for things I have to jump for, and I can compress myself into spaces and positions that don't work for him. Neither of us is climbing wrong, just differently.
The truth as I see it is that marketing is a lot more like cooking than it is like baking, more art than science. You can follow a recipe, but I don't think you'd call yourself a cook if you can only follow a recipe, and can only follow one recipe. Season something with cumin and paprika, and you've got something in the family of a Mexican dish. Do it with turmeric and black pepper and you're headed toward something more in the Asian family of cuisine. Both are great.
Point I'm getting at from all this convoluted mess is that lots of things work. Storytelling is important, and you've gotta have it. But so is buyer psychology, and data literacy, and experimentation. You need brand, content, growth, product, and you can be successful with lots of different mixes. More importantly, the mix is going to change over the lifecycle of a business. So maybe instead of declaring one approach essential, we could all diversify our skillsets and respect that other people also do important work.