Using a Digital Marketing Title

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is a smart aspiration of unifying all Marketing fields, titles and activities. Have you ever encountered any IMC department in a Company or a University made up of only one person? It has become popular to deny that Digital Marketing exists as a field or Title.

The notion that Digital Marketing does not exist, and should be avoided as a Title, is tempting yet false for various reasons.

1) Digital Marketing is Difficult to Explain

So you stopped using the Title Digital Marketing because it allows the simplification of the term “Digital Marketing” by positioning it under the broader term “Marketing” to aid comprehension. Even your grandma and grandpa can understand when you say “I work in Marketing”. But seriously, this is not a valid reason to deny Digital Marketing as a field simply because you fail in explaining your job to family members.

2) I heard someone saying Digital Marketing is like saying Electrical VP

Relying on historical events to compare the field such as the moment of mainstream consumer adoption of motor vehicles or electricity. No one called themselves an Electricity VP or a Motorized VP to define their field, right? Wrong. They did, look at Wikipedia you will find historical newspaper documents that prove otherwise. The funniest part of this claim is that some professionals even today have those titles – look it up on LinkedIn!

3) There is no Digital Marketing there is only Marketing

Purists feel justified in stating that no other field feels the need to compartmentalize sub-activities into a Title. Quite the contrary, the only difference is that in Marketing we seem to make a big deal out of it! There are few Doctors that will insist that Nuclear Medicine is simply Medicine. Few Stockbrokers that will deny that Derivatives Trader is just a sub-activity of Stockbroker. How many Lawyers would you say will waste time denying that Constitutional Law as a field exists – can you really imagine any lawyer saying: “No, it’s all just Law”. Ever heard of a Physicist that would deny the title “Quantum” to a fellow Physicist?

4) Will I sound smarter by saying NO to Digital Marketing?

I agree this is a good tactic these days, it may make you sound smart, trendy. It is very popular in Digital Marketing to be counterculture and state that you know everything, that is what creates demand for you as an employee or consultant. Perception is reality today especially in Digital Marketing. The epitome of sounding good at something would it not be to deny its very existence and reduce it to a singular notion? That shows that you are the real deal in Digital Marketing, right? Wrong. Let us illustrate by using Analytics. How much notice would you pay to someone stating there are no Analytics, it is all statistics. When we speak of Google Analytics and Performance Dashboards we are really just talking about statistics. Would you be impressed, would that really sound like thought leadership? If so, why? If not, you get the point. Denying that Analytics exist as a profession is similar to state that Digital Marketing does not exist – it is all Marketing simply does not give justice to what Digital is.

5) No one in Marketing uses the Term Digital Marketing

Competing services in the industry don’t see a difference. Why is Digital Marketing so special? We finally get to the main argument of this article. Few smart Digital Marketing Professionals will objectively tell you that Print Marketing, TV Marketing, OOH Marketing, Radio Marketing do not exist. Are there Digital activities in each of those Marketing fields? Yes! Are each of those fields embracing Digital as a method to advance and complement their offering? Yes! Now why do they need to balance their workforce to infuse some Digital and why are they hiring some Digital people? BECAUSE Digital Marketing exists!

Final few words on Digital

The notion that Digital Marketing does not exist is biased and simply ridiculous.

As a final example let’s travel back in time to 1885. You are the owner in a Canadian Candle Production factory. Public street electrical lighting has been introduced in many Canadian Cities. You see what electricity is doing to your sales. You see the adoption of electricity by consumers to light their homes. You may not want to admit it but can you sincerely state that electricity does not exist as a highly specialized threat to your business? If so, it is plausible that you could easily be tempted to let emotions and self-interest take over thereby denying the legitimacy of your neighbor’s title – VP of Electricity at New Factory Inc.

In conclusion, if Lawyers, Doctors, Physicists, Stockbrokers and many other professionals can agree that there exist sub-specializations in their field, all members in the diverse Marketing family should be able to admit the same – without sounding like they do not understand Digital Marketing.

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