Building a team is of utmost important task for any organisation or any department within that. But more crucial is part is hiring right talent & making a right organisation structure.
Right hierarchy ‘MAKES’ the organisation
It is said that too many cooks spoil the dish. A pyramid like hierarchy is important for any organisation (or any department within). Don’t confuse hierarchy with bureaucracy. Both are different. Having hierarchy is must & it didn’t hamper the culture, rather it adds to it.
Having a right team structure ensures
1) Authority & unity
2) Adds to accountability in a more transparent manner
3) Opens growth path for employees
4) Increased camaraderie & satisfaction to work
But what is more important to have is a RIGHT structure (hierarchy) rather than just having a one. Founders should think deeply, take multiple examples from others and then plan this. A wrong structure leads to frustration & attrition
Does each vertical should have different structure
Well, I feel yes. The reason is each department has different nuisances, different working style, different objective & so the case with structure. A finance department working is very much different from tech department & both can’t have a same structure. Obviously there is no harm in learnings from one department & implementing in other, but both can’t have a ditto same structure.
The structure of all these department then should be stitched together to make a organisation hierarchical structure
Growth Marketing structure
What should be the ‘IDEAL’ team structure in Marketing department. First of all, there is nothing called ‘IDEAL’. Many organisations have different structures & they work flawlessly. Also what if you make a IDEAL structure is unable to fulfil talent basis on availability. Ideally you should hire a CXO first and then his/her team but the reality is organisations hire talent basis on availability & then fit them in a structure (which is not wrong & this is a practical way)
But one thing to remember is that ‘fundamental’ structure in any department should be intact. Let’s understand in this way. If you are building a house, the basic concrete structure will be the same but no two houses will have same structure as both have different designs.
Here I will try to put in my thoughts on : “ what can the be the possible Marketing structure in any digital (D2C, Marketplace etc.) organisations
The basic concept of making a structure is
1) Availability of [combination of skill sets]in market. E.g. Can a person know both SEO & designing of banners. The answer is NO, so you can’t put SEO & Designing in one bucket.
2) Marketing channels & its objective
Now, before jumping to structure, let’s understand the channels of Marketing & it’s objective. Basis on that we will decide structure
The above pic shows the entire Marketing functions & channels in one go. There are 6 important pillars (Verticals) of Marketing
1) Performance Marketing (PM)
2) Brand Marketing (BM)
3) CRM Marketing (CRM)
4) Retention Marketing (RM)
5) Strategic Alliances & Partnerships (SA)
6) Data analysis (DA)
7) Content, Creative & communication (3C)
One thing to note here is that PM, BM, CRM & RM are the core pillars while SA, DA, 3C are the supporting pillars cutting across the core pillars. Let me take an example to understand this better. SEO is a PM pillar part but content is very important strategy of SEO. In similar manner under CRM email is very important tool for engagement but here also content plays an important part. Data analysis is needed in every core pillar. So some marketeers say that SA, DA & 3C are ENABLERS of the pillars which are PM, BM, CRM & RM
Note :- Many Marketeers bifurcate Marketing function into Online + Offline and then into paid vs organic. This is also not wrong, but I would suggest the above one as this is more widely popular and one can easily find the talent matching the structure
Case 1 :- Structure in a D2C setup
Simply put, D2C setup is when an organisation is selling products/categories of it’s own or rather under it’s own brand name and not other branded products. They sell it through website, Marketplaces like Flipkart, Amazon, Nykaa etc. and offline stores. The examples can be like Mamaearth etc.
Before we describe the structure few assumptions/cautions which are important to highlight
1) I have not mentioned any designation & number of people. It can be as per the scale of organisation & changes very frequently
2) The structure described here is not a blueprint but just a guideline
In a D2C setup the structure can be
I have kept the structure like a 3 LAYER approach. The top layer is of the heads (the leadership layer). The middle layer is of the sub department heads, strategist & execution persons. The bottom layer is of the ENABLER or support.
Note 2 :- Analytics function can roll upto business head or Marketing head. Better fit would be with business head
The middle layer will comprise of 4 heads viz. Performance Marketing head, Brand head, CRM head and Analytics head. The analytics head can be under marketing or under business head (if both are different). Under these 4 heads respective team will be there as shown in chart. In this structure I have kept CRM is different function & not under performance, as I believe that since in marketplace categories (SKUs) are quite a lot and hence CRM plays a very crucial role. It should be a separate function & not under performance vertical.
Note 1 :- Partnership, a crucial function can roll up to Performance head or Brand head or as a separate function also.
