Omnichannel and the evolution of the marketing role

The global pandemic dramatically sped up a move towards more digital or virtual engagement with customers. The enforced sudden pivot for customer-facing teams from face-to-face to digital or virtual customer engagement has meant that the focus of Learning & Development (L&D) has primarily been on field and field management functions.

The emergence of omnichannel, a particularly hot topic in the pharma industry, has reinforced this organizational focus on customer engagement delivery.

The marketing impact

The rise of omnichannel has already seen an evolution of the marketing role. This is something we have observed in our work across the industry and which is backed up by the findings of our 2022 Pharma Marketing Capability Development Survey.

We found that the rise of omnichannel has led to the general expectation of much greater cross-functional collaboration across Marketing, Medical and Sales. Respondents talked about marketing becoming the orchestrator of omnichannel strategy and execution, working with other functions and sharing responsibility for customer outcomes and achievement of common goals.

This evolution in the marketing role was also reflected in the immediate marketing capability learning and development needs, and in the new marketing skills/capabilities required over the next 5 years. For both there was a focus on the skills and capabilities required for omnichannel, such as data analytics, digital capabilities, agility / faster decision-making, cross-functional working and project management.

However, there needs to be a balance between these detailed tactical omnichannel skills and long-term strategic thinking capabilities, and it is not clear that has yet been achieved in the majority of companies.

Strategic challenges

There is a danger that a focus on omnichannel/digital skills is coming at a cost to strategic marketing capabilities. The fact that over two thirds of respondents agreed that a focus on tactical execution and sales alignment skills has created a strategic marketing capability gap was a striking finding from our survey.

This strategic marketing capability gap is something that we at Pharma Marketing Academy have been reflecting on for a while now, and it was encouraging to see it acknowledged by so many of the survey respondents. Hopefully, this will help to redress the balance and push the development of strategic marketing capability higher up the L&D agenda.

Whilst omnichannel undoubtedly requires some new marketing skills, it also relies heavily on good strategic marketing capabilities if it is to be successful. The best omnichannel execution in the world will still fail to deliver the desired effect, if the underlying strategy is flawed.

A continuing focus on the specific marketing skills and capabilities required for omnichannel activities has the potential to widen the strategic capability gap, which could lead to sub-optimal strategy development (including omnichannel) in the future.

Fiona is a principal training consultant with Nazaré, part of Inizio Engage XD. You can contact Fiona through linkedin.com/in/fionahirst.

Adam is a performance director with Nazaré. Contact Adam through linkedin.com/in/adam-lewin-007/.