Automation or Humanisation, What Works?

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According to Scott Brinker, the MarTech guru behind the widely popular Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic, marketers must follow five cardinal rules – centralise and decentralise everything, and automate and at the same time humanise everything. And lastly, embrace the change.

In his keynote session at the recently concluded Vibe Marketers Fest (VMF) 2019 in Dubai, Scott highlighted the need to innovate and embrace changes while marketers try to woo customers and elevate their brand identity.

Scott pointed out that every organisation goes through five stages of MarTech adoption

1. Denial: Do we really need a stack of software for marketing?
2. Anger: Why does a MarTech solutions landscape exist?
3. Bargaining: How about I buy everything from one vendor?
4. Depression: How do we get this to work for us?
5. Acceptance: This is the state of marketing today.

Also Read: MarTech Acquisitions Are On the Rise. What Next?

The New Rules of Marketing Technology and Operation

“Marketing technology and operations have become a pillar capability of the modern marketing organisation. Leaders of this function sit between two layers of marketing: high-level marketing strategy and vision above, and on-the-ground marketing and customer experience delivery below,” says Scott about the new rules of marketing technology, which was the title of his session at VMF 2019.

The New, New Rules of Marketing (Operations):

1. Centralize everything you can.
2. Automate everything you can.
3. Decentralize everything you can.
4. Humanize everything you can.
5. Embrace continuous change.#MarTech https://t.co/7zWGpZE8yt

— Scott Brinker (@chiefmartec) August 28, 2018

Scott added to a packed hall that for a lot of marketers, these five rules could seem like two opposite ends of the spectrum, as pointed out by Augie Ray of Gartner.

You just put "Automate everything you can" and "Humanize everything you can" two places from each other. I can't decide if that's funny or sad.

— @augieray@mastodon.social (@augieray) August 29, 2018

“Are these ideas really opposing?” asks Scott as he points out that this is where “Some of the most exciting opportunities are available in marketing technology.” He explains that we are looking at these two seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum wrong that if we look at them as an X and Y axis of a graph, they begin making sense. Says Scott, “We take these axes of centralisation and decentralisation, and automation and humanisation and look at it as a map instead of a spectrum. Then we need to balance the scale and agility on the X-axis, and management, technology, and people on the Y axis, this is what we get:

1. Automated Centralisation: What we do for efficiency
2. Automated Decentralisation: Where often innovation arises
3. Centralised Humanisation: How we establish brand principles, identity, and values
4. Decentralised Humanisation: Where we enable individuals dealing with customers to deliver authenticity on the brand promises.
And at the centre of this all is the need for constant change,” quips Scott.

Also Read: The Second Edition of Vibe Marketers Fest Witnesses Record Attendance

According to Scott, marketing isn’t limited to the marketing department anymore. “We know that the entire customer journey across touchpoints such as marketing, sales and customer service, and the product itself. The orchestration of the experience is where marketing lies now. While we can’t automate everything that sets the great companies apart from mediocre ones, is that the great companies empower the people on the edge of the organisation to leverage marketing technology to help improve customer experience,” concludes Scott.

So while Scott’s five new rule of marketing sounds paradoxical, they’re not. Marketers need to adequately understand the depth of these five forces to bring tremendous leverage to the modern marketing organisation.