We are living and breathing an information or creative era today and the ability to capture and manage peoples’ feelings have never been more crucial to the success and sustenance of brands and relationships both internally as well as externally, demanding marketers to possess emotional intelligence at their best possible self. This is well reflected on the growth and importance of intangible assets which today makes up a significant proportion of all corporate value.
Empathy is the keyword here – the ability for marketers to dive deep into neutrally understanding the constantly changing paradigms of not just their consumers but also every stakeholder involved in the value creation chain, and actively seek to learn the many influences and underpinning reasons and undisclosed feelings in a world where the context keeps highly evolving. In many cases, marketers tend to just focus on the relationships with consumers and that too on a more quantitative surface level – labeling them as segments or groups – than an individual focus. A majority undoubtedly still follow those strategies and actions that belong to the industrial revolution, knowing very little that everything around them has already changed. And this could be why men still largely dominate the leadership positions in marketing. But not for long.
We have witnessed that women are naturally able to empathize more than the male counterparts, even though neurologically we are all born with a very similar ability. Many studies show that women score higher on EQ tests than men but there are no genetic biases for these differences. This could also be due to the biological differences, for example Oxytocin is found in higher levels among women, making them more empathetic than the higher concentration of testosterone among men where the brain is tuned into systems than emotional relationships. However, research on these areas is still at its infant stage.
Women are also very likely to be taught about empathy by their female role models when growing up from their childhood, and these socially nurturing roles have been on and around them for generations making it a learned awareness and shared skillset. They can quickly capture and understand various non-verbal communication to include facial expressions, tone of voice and body language. People feel recognized – seen and heard – when they are actively listened to, with the right posture and in turn they share some of the most deep, insightful insights that couldn’t have been known otherwise.
It is not that men are naturally pruned to other way around; it is just that they do not take the initiative to learn empathy from all walks of life. The industrial age probably made them, and in many instances continuing to do so, even more analytical, and systematic. Though this is just as important, it should never surpass or compromise the importance of empathizing with all stakeholders. Rather this numbers-driven skillset should be applied to quantifying and justifying future marketing strategies and its risks associated, the time value of money and capital costs, to create shareholder value, an insightful point I found on a blog post of Prof Malcolm McDonald, and not just narrowing down to traditional marketing analytics.
Men undoubtedly have a lot to learn from the women in marketing. They should develop abilities to see the world through the eyes of others, breaking away from the long association of their own paradigm. They should listen actively to their colleagues, superiors, consumers, suppliers, and partners, gauging both verbal and body language, and ask more about what and why does he or she feels so. The more one does this, the more this would increasingly be a natural response. This is very important to break the ego-centric mindset among marketers, as thinking that they know it all is a very vicious cycle to be in. Today, as marketers, we are dealing with the ‘heart’ than the ‘mind’ of consumers, which is very challenging as many of the problems brands and organizations face today arise from this aspect, yet we approach it like we know what the problem is.
In many academic studies, it shows that women score higher than men in coaching and mentoring others. They can meticulously choose words and language that positively impacts workplace engagements, for example they repeat and rephrase back to people what they have said, and this gives one the reassurance they are being heard, encouraging deeper levels of trust and connection.
Women are entering and progressing up in the marketing profession than never before, though there is still a huge gender inequality at the leadership levels. But it is so much reassuring to see many women already leading marketing in numerous local and global startups, organizations, and institutions, and we should not only support them and give them every possible resource, opportunity and position but also learn a lot from them as the world is experiencing declining levels of empathy across all societies, causing many detrimental social issues. Together we can make a big difference.
(Thanzyl Thajudeen is a senior marketing and design consultant. He can be reached via thanzyl.thajudeen@gmail.com)