One of my favorite parts of Luxury Interactive, which I attended earlier this week in New York City, was hearing a panel of retail and luxury marketing executives answer a simple question lobbed by the panel’s moderator, W. Joe DeMiero, managing director of digital at advertising agency Team One.

At the end of the “Heads of Marketing” panel discussion, DeMiero asked the panelists to describe, in five words or less, how their job descriptions have changed since they took their current position. The answers offered a snapshot into how the e-commerce and marketing role in the retail space has changed over the years. Check out the panelists’ answers:.

Robert Willey, Chief Marketing Officer, Spring
Merchandising. “With the [product] catalog that we have today, I find myself more engaged in not just understanding trend and style, but actually how to sell things in the marketplace, [including] unit economics, levels of inventory, customer service, call times … all those things that marketers never used to have to deal with. My role now is now very close to the actual product we sell, which is clothes.”

Mark Simmons, Senior Vice President, Marketing and E-Commerce, Design Within Reach
Construction project management. “I’ve built websites and e-commerce experiences my whole career, but the experience of building a building is much harder.”

Tara Brannigan, Head of Marketing, Book by Cadillac
Product manager. “Being technology- and app-enabled [means] we have a lot of great developers and people with technical expertise, but I need to explain our business and our consumer needs to them so they can understand and then prioritize the changes that we need to make from a technology standpoint.”

Elizabeth Monson, Director of Marketing, Rockets of Awesome
Content. “I obviously knew that content was just going to be more and more important, but I also thought it might be easier to produce. It has never gotten easier. I’m constantly making Instagram Stories, and our CEO and creative director make them as well. Being an aspirational brand and showing a lifestyle is extremely important for us, so we have narratives around that that we want to constantly share with our customers.”

How has your job description changed since you started in your current position, or even since you started your career? Drop me a line at mcampanelli@napco.com. I’d love to hear from you, and perhaps do a follow-up article!