Any child of the 1970s (or beyond) who’s ever watched the sci-fi television series Star Trek knows how first officer Spock could connect the brain of any species to his own simply by placing his hands on the head of a partner and performing the Vulcan Mind Meld. I tried it on my twin sister a few times as a kid, but never unlocked where she’d hidden my Hershey’s chocolate bar.
In spite of my own failure, I think there’s a lesson in this cerebral practice for marketers and communicators. As the w
alls between the disciplines of marketing and communications have decidedly collapsed in some organizations, they remain more fortified than ever in many others. And the trouble is that lots of professionals who believe they need to invest in this kind of integrated development don’t know how to start building their own bridges – the mind meld applied to corporate and agency life, if you will.
And it’s not just individuals who need help. More often than not, I see marketing and communications functions that acknowledge every marketer needs to think and act more like a communicator, and every communicator needs to better understand the discipline of marketing.
Whether the two functions already are integrated into the organizational structure of an institution, or they’re on separate organization charts, there is no mistaking that each must know more about the other if the enterprise is to grow. How do they come to this state of self awareness?
It usually starts with a question: who owns social media? Is it owned by the brand? The corporate communications team? The answers usually signal a real need for change, and the demand for new integrated skills. Progressive organizations have figured out who owns it doesn’t matter, as long as marketers and communicators are developing skills together, and they’re talking all the time.
I’ve blogged before about the need for employee comms and PR professionals to knock down the silos of internal and external; this is equally important. Communications and marketing pros have to build their intellectual capital on both sides of the house.
So here are a few reasons why the Vulcan Mind Meld in the world of marketing and communications may be just what CCO and/or CMO should be ordering, and a few words about how to get started making it happen.
Concise narrative: Communicators often have solid writing skills, but the nature of marketing and advertising communications has thrived on the “less is more” concept of tighter, clearer messaging to engage a target. It’s not that communicators can’t be concise, but the practice of 15 seconds, a single image or 3-5 words to either make or break success is a good thing in an age of scanning, clicking and tweeting
.
Multiple stakeholders/segmentation: Communicators are traditionally the wizards of multiple-stakeholder engagement, and as marketers continue to experiment with social media, they could learn a lot about 360-engagemement from multiple stakeholders that extend beyond a customer or consumer target. It’s a way of thinking that comes with experience, a strategic mindset, and relationship management prowess that PR/Comms professionals often develop over decades of practice. Conversely, marketers often are well schooled in segmentation of their targets, and have deep capabilities in gathering insights about how their targets think, and what they’ll respond to – and engage with. Not a bad thing for communicators to know, right?
Research and analytics: Truthfully, marketers AND communicators can benefit from getting more into some numbers to help drive decisions. Yes, going with the gut can be a great thing (if you’ve got a great gut), but having the ability to source data, aggregate it, analyze it, and use it to make decisions isn’t a bad thing either. A number of senior leaders I’ve come to know say surprisingly few professionals from marketing or communications disciplines are really good at this, yet it can yield consistently better decisions and results.
Let’s get practical. If you’re buying into the need for integrated marketing and communication skills, how do you build that bridge between the disciplines?
More companies are crossing the great divide through the identification and articulation of competencies – or set of competencies – that allow marketers AND communicators to work off the same page in terms of skills. They specify what the skill set(s) looks like, and how people progress through them, they identify work assignments and/or formal training that improve those skills sets, and they rinse and repeat — a lot.
If you don’t have them, get them. If you do have them and nobody’s paying attention to them, it’s time to focus on why, and re-ignite the effort to grow or change. It’ll help people and full functions deliver more with the same headcount, and – sorry Spock — save you from having to touch other people’s heads. “Live long and prosper,” indeed.
