Making a Marketing Org: Kardashian-style
By Greg Jung, Chief Growth Officer for Seven Corners
Putting the best team on the field - your marketing team - is one of the most important responsibilities of a marketing leader. Honestly, I would argue that the single most important factor to your success as a marketing leader is having the best talent surround you. Smart and successful marketers work tirelessly to recruit talent that far surpasses their own abilities in key functional areas. The better the team performs, the better you perform.
What is the optimal marketing organization? What roles are important to have staffed on your team versus outsourced to an agency partner? A lot of that honestly depends on the nature of your business but more likely on the amount of money you have dedicated to spend on internal versus external resources. Regardless of your personnel budget, there are a few key functions that you should consider staffing in order to be successful.
My last two roles leading a marketing organization have presented very different challenges.
At Civis Analytics, I inherited an incredibly talented internal PR resource that had skills and ability beyond the role. In the first six months we added (in this order) a marketing operations specialist, a digital demand generation lead, a content marketing specialist, an event/sponsorship resource and finally our first inside sales/business development hire.
At Torqeedo, I inherited a marketing generalist (who really led Americas marketing), an event/sponsorship lead, a content specialist and a graphic designer. Not having the budget to add additional resources to the team, I looked externally to bring on an agency to lead digital demand generation as well as leveraged the existing PR agency relationship.
Now at Seven Corners, I have been fortunate to have an internal team that consists of a UI/UX lead, a graphic designer, content marketing manager, social media specialist, integrated marketing campaign manager, channel marketing manager, and a digital experience/marketing operations lead. I work with external agency partners for digital demand generation as well as PR activities. It's the first time in my career I feel like we have the perfect mix of internal and external talent to tackle the market.
To help you with context and to give some perspective into how my brain works, I wanted to build a marketing organization by leveraging the unique skills and abilities of America's most famous or infamous....reality TV family - the Kardashian/Jenner's. See if you can keep up ;)
Vice President/Director of Marketing - Kris Jenner
The VP/Director of Marketing is the most crucial role in the marketing team. Not only does this person need to be a strategic visionary, but they also need to be adept at tactical execution. Kris embodies these characteristics and then some. From a camcorder (allegedly) to running a multi-million dollar enterprise, so has unequivocally proven to be the master momager in getting the most out of her family's 15 minutes. From product endorsements to TV shows to the hottest parties (and weddings) in L.A.
Public Relations Manager - Kim Kardashian West
Although this role is often a candidate for outsourcing to an agency, my preference is always to have someone skilled on the team to manage press relations and the public persona of the company. No one is as skilled at PR than Kim. You might have thought she would be better suited for the social media role, but her skills far surpass just social media. From getting a woman who was jailed set free to getting Kanye a visit to the White House, Kim knows how to work the media, open doors and sell her brand.
Product Marketing Manager - Kylie Jenner
Did I mention that her net worth is allegedly $900 million. Yep...you read that right! Why? Easy....Kylie Cosmetics. A brilliant product marketer (thanks Kris), who in 2015 launched Kylie Lip Kits which is now projected to make her the youngest self-made billionaire ever. A product marketer needs to know their demographic, personas, competition and have a unique product introduction strategy. By limiting the initial availability of the Kylie Lip Kits, she did just that. Products that are limited in availability are often the most sought-after.
Content Marketing/Social Media Lead - Khloe Kardashian
Khloe is killing the Snapchat game. Her social media skills are on point. She has done a terrific job of using social media to promote her Good American line of jeans. She has 26.2 million followers on Twitter, 84.8 million on Insta and millions of people follow the tales of Tristan Thompson's baby momma on Snap. She has the important skills of the right curation of content, timing and growing her following on social channels. All important skills for social. Social isn't all...you need to be a content production factory and no Kardashian does it better.
Creative Director - Kourtney Kardashian
This one is a no-brainer. She has a beautiful home, gorgeous children and was the power behind Dash - the Kardashian's clothing stores. She can curate beautiful design and knows what visually appeals to not only viewers but those who purchase clothing. Not only that, but she dates models...young ones too. Have a great design eye, knowing what's in fashion and on trend are powerful when managing creative. All skills Kourtney has down to a T...um...I mean K.
Marketing Operations - Kendall Jenner
Not going with social media role for her after this week's fiasco with her "raw" and "brave" announcement....that she suffered from acne and is the new face of Proactiv. Snooze. Boy how the twitterverse turned against her for that stunt. She is better at the behind the scenes operations. As such, she is better leveraging technology rather than being the face of it. Turn her loose on Salesforce, Hubspot and a good content management system and watch her really shine. I can only imagine the customer nurture journeys she could build!
That's a lot of Kardashians. Hope you were able to keep up with 'em and my new marketing team. If only ;)