Vice President of Business Intelligence And New Business Development, American Girl

A fundamental shift in the job requirements of analytical individuals is occurring across Corporate America. The shift is not positive for E-Mail Marketers, Catalog Circulation Marketers, Online Marketers, Business Intelligence Analysts, and Web Analytics staff.

Read this job description, found on the Marketing Sherpa Job Board, for a VP of Business Intelligence and New Business Development at American Girl.

This position proactively leads the identification and development of actionable consumer insights, market and competitive understanding. This person will translate information gained through the Analytics Services and Consumer Insights areas into actionable implications and assist in the application of these insights into the American Girl strategic plan. Requirements: *Bachelor's degree, Master's degree (MBA) preferred *Minimum of 10 years of experience working in Consumer Products Industry to include Consumer Research and Analytical Services or significant experience in consulting with a major consulting firm. *Direct Marketing Analytics experience at a multi-channel company preferred *Experience contributing to the strategic planning process preferred *Familiarity with multiple channels of distribution, with special emphasis on direct mail and branded retail preferred *Significant P&L experience preferred *Consulting for a major consulting firm preferred.

Notice how this position focuses on using the insights of the Analytical Services and Consumer Insights areas. Notice that this person will come from the Consumer Products Industry, or will have Consulting experience from a major consulting firm (preferred).

In the past five years, our zeal to be "multichannel marketers" caused us to scatter in a dozen different directions --- all honing our skills in different specialties, becoming experts at a tiny fraction of what matters to our customers. We failed to develop a global view of our business. Our leaders don't have confidence in having a web analytics expert do anything else than study web analytics. Our leaders don't believe the e-mail marketer can also drive a social media plan, or can manage television advertising campaigns.

To thank us for diving headfirst into a niche, becoming a subject matter expert, our companies are looking to hire leaders who know how to position eight varieties of Cheerios among potential customers, or know how to articulate opportunities to what is know as individuals in the "C-Level Suite".

If you're an individual working at a catalog, online, retail or multichannel organization, and you have less than ten years of corporate experience, this is a really good time to change course.

Instead of being the expert at working with CheetahMail to get e-mails delivered through AOL, or being the expert at getting CoreMetrics to help you accurately measure the effectiveness of various landing pages, or being the catalog circulation expert who measures the LTV of Abacus-sourced new names --- become the person who is the expert at knowing how EVERYTHING FITS TOGETHER, telling a story that helps executives know what they need to do to be successful.

Right now, your business leaders don't believe in you. They believe in a person who knows how to build a business plan for Cool Ranch Doritos, who knows how to speak to executives. This is the third job description of this nature I've run across over the past four months.

One person, working a division that is now being led by one of these "newly qualified leaders", told me that the new leader (with qualifications similar to this job description) communicated that the circulation folks "knew nothing of actual customer behavior".

Ouch.

It's time to stop talking about RFM, HTML vs. Text, Black-Lists, SEO, PPC, CGM, DMPC, Conversion Rate or Landing Pages.

It's time to stop talking about subject line testing as a "strategy".

It's time to stop talking about paid search as a "strategy".

It's time to stop talking about getting e-mails through GMail as a "strategy".

It's time to stop talking about working with Abacus or Millard/Mokrynski as a "strategy".

It's time to actually create actionable business strategies that merchants and executives understand, and can act upon. More important, it's time for us to be able to articulate our strategies in a way that executives and merchants understand.

If we fail to do this, the folks who manage the "Twinkies" brand will do this for us. I've been impacted by this evolution in job description. I don't want for you to be impacted.

Your thoughts?

Top Four Articles For December

Here's the content you enjoyed the most during the month of December. Not counting today, you participated in a twenty percent increase in traffic over November, so thank you!

Three sites tied for the fourth most popular post of December.

Fully Understanding The Traffic Your Site Truly Generates was written late in the month, yet is tied for fourth place. Readers enjoyed the comparison of traffic, links and RSS feeds. Surprisingly, tied for fourth was Kasey Casem's American Top 40. Readers apparently enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane. Finally, American Girl And Molly's Blog tied for fourth place. This was a discussion of the blog on the American Girl website.

Third place goes to our monthly review of Friends of MineThatData, a ranking of direct marketing, database marketing and analytics blogs.

Second place was a brief article that linked to LunaMetrics, titled Do You Like Your Web Analytics Software Package?

First place goes to Coldwater Creek, The Little Engine That Could, a discussion of the evolution of the Coldwater Creek business model from a catalog-centric business to a retail-centric business supported by a website.

The top four posts clearly represent the diversity of the audience. Multichannel topics, web analytics, blogging, peer sites, and an obscure reference to Casey Kasem generally reflect the mix of readers and topics on this blog.

American Girl and Molly's Blog: A Great Example of Customer Engagement

American Girl is a respected multichannel retailer, with stores, catalogs and a website.

American Girl customers can purchase a doll named Molly McIntire. Molly was conceived in books, and moved onto the big screen. To support these mediums, American Girl publishes a blog about Molly.

Look at the engagement Molly's fans have with American Girl. The post from December 4, entitled "Plan The Next Movie", encouraged 374 comments in just three days. American Girl gets free advice from their most avid fans, advice that helps shape future marketing activities. What a spectacular way to solicit feedback!

I'd give American Girl an A+ for finding unique ways to have a conversation with customers. Are you aware of any other companies that achieve this level of engagement with customers?

P.S.: I'd love to measure how this blog impacts e-commerce.