Microsoft’s Kathleen Hall: Marketing should be about simplification and distillation
The tech giant’s corporate vice-president of brand, advertising and research, shares her views on what most derails marketers today and what it takes to be a good leader.
The sheer volume of data available today can be a distraction to marketers, according to Microsoft’s corporate vice-president of brand, advertising and research Kathleen Hall.
Speaking to Marketing Week at the Cannes Lions Festival this week, she says it can lead people to think “marketing is about science rather than intuition and creativity”.
In the video above she shares this and other views on leadership and the progress the industry has made in terms of giving women an equal share of voice.
“When I started I was the only woman in the room ever. It’s awesome today to see how much the world has changed positively and how valued we are in the business.”
This certainly contributes to being successful & vital to a company, by having the ability to see through the data forest and glean the most valuable insights to provide the best solution to your customer. Bonus: This mindset stops overwhelm in its tracks.
My first Marketing Director said to me “Don’t forget, marketing is ONLY about making consumption easier and more profitable”. It has stood me in good stead as much as “I’m not here to sell to you, I’m here to help you to buy”……..
Although I couldn’t agree more with the data deluge and the need to distill actionable insights to derive your marketing strategy, Marketing is about science as is about creativity and intuition. Note that creativity results from connecting the dots (most times data points), and intuition (thinking without thinking) is not just coming with ideas out of the blue. Marketing is a science because it is a systematic and structured process.