New marketing theory opens doors for women

Lara Sinclair
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
THE AUSTRALIAN

A CHANGE in marketing theory, which is moving from warlike campaigns aimed at conquering markets to long-term growth strategies built on consumer participation, is creating an opportunity for female business leaders to flourish, according to senior Twitter executive Daina Middleton.
According to Middleton, who is the global head of business-to-business marketing for Twitter, women are more likely to embody “nurturist” leadership qualities, such as the ability to build consensus and build ongoing relationships with consumers.
“I do think it is a great time for women leaders given where we are,” says Middleton, who is writing a book on the subject with the working title #gracewithgrit.
“In the past 60 years (we have used) a lot of metaphors related to war that are not really conducive to today’s environment if your goal is to get people to have a relationship with you,” she says.
But she says for women to put themselves forward may not be enough to change the status quo — particularly in the technology industry, which has been criticised for the under-representation of females at all levels.
“(Facebook chief operating officer) Sheryl Sandberg with her book ‘Lean In’ created awareness around the fact we still have a problem,” says Middleton. “But sometimes ‘leaning in’ just isn’t enough.
“There are a series of gender differences I think it would be very useful to have conversations around,” she says.
“Women, generally speaking, involve a lot of other people when they make decisions.
“I’ve seen women lose their jobs because they’ve been criticised for not knowing how to make a decision by themselves,” Middleton says.
“Also, blending family and work life — at the moment, there’s a very big gap between the two. Men would be appreciative of that too. We’re all working to support a family.”
Middleton, who is also the author of marketing tome Marketing in the Participation Age, was previously global chief executive of the Publicis Groupe-owned search marketing firm Performics, which she built from a small company with 80 employees to an international network with 1200 staff in 34 countries.
She told a crowd of marketers at Social Media Week Sydney on Thursday there are key principles of “nurturist” organisations that encourage consumer participation with brands including: create an environment that removes barriers to being fast to market; invest in testing and learning so you always have something new coming on; mix and blend things to be fast; accept you may fail on the way to success; reinvent rather than wait for the next big idea.
She says in Australia, as in other markets, the understanding among brands of how to use Twitter as a marketing tool is a “mixed bag”.
“The brands that are doing an amazing job have gone beyond using Twitter for (short-term) campaigns,” she says. “We know from research those brands who manage their customer service via Twitter have more satisfied customers,” she says.
“Some brands are active all the time,” she says, citing the example of Nestle, who ran an ad on Twitter in response to ‘Bend-gate’, in which Apple’s latest iPhone 6 has been found to have a tendency to warp.
“Kit Kat ran an ad saying ‘We don’t bend, we break’,” she says. “It’s a great example of creating a (branded) moment around what’s happening right now.”