Maya Price is Global Head of Field Marketing at SNP Group, leading data-driven go-to-market strategies that drive scalable, predictable growth and deliver customer value.
After 22 years at SAP, she brings a wealth of international experience to her team. She champions inclusive leadership, elevates women’s voices, and prioritises meaningful human connection to build high-performing teams and marketing programmes.
It’s a common misconception to those outside of the industry that marketing is a set of functions – a team that delivers campaigns, or events, or slogans, and so on.
On the inside, we know the truth is very different.
Marketers are community builders. It’s one of the only layers in the business that interacts both with the customer at almost every touchpoint and with almost every department. There are few other layers within the business that can take a direct insight from a customer and take it right up to the C-suite.
In the right structure, this makes marketing an incredibly powerful intelligence platform. Research from data specialist Confluent has found that almost nine in ten (89%) of UK business decision-makers would feel more confident in their decisions if they could base them on data – and marketing sees more data than most. With its proximity to customers and the incredible volumes of data that marketing is responsible for, other departments should be able to rely on it as a trusted partner for almost any function.
As a senior leader in field marketing, I’m trying to foster a culture and a community that thrives on playing this role in the business. We should be able to offer the knowledge and perspective to drive constant improvement, and to support others in almost everything they do.
The human side of the data stack
It might feel unintuitive to bring diversity into such a data-centric conversation. But a breadth of cultures, backgrounds and experience in a marketing team is a crucial foundation to success.
This is because business intelligence is only as effective as the humans that are accessing it. In the same way that ChatGPT might confidently present an entirely incorrect answer, the data and insights that pass through the marketing team need to be interrogated, contextualised, and actioned. Data does not have value until we can understand and action it for the business and the audiences we want to reach.
This is more difficult if everyone on the marketing team thinks in the same way. A lack of diversity in experiences and perspectives makes it hard — impossible, in some cases — to properly interrogate the challenges that the marketing team faces. New ideas can be missed, or dismissed, in favour of what’s come before.
Cultural hegemony is comfortable and gives a sense of collective security, but at the cost of truly exceptional work. When you’re trying to act as the intelligence layer for a business, this isn’t acceptable.
The power of perspective
So, with diversity as a business critical imperative, what does a diverse marketing team look like?
Diversity of opinion
Diversity directly improves the effectiveness of marketing, full stop. More diverse opinions results in a more challenged, refined output.
In sectors like finance or technology, where — for example — the prevalence of men in leadership positions is well-established, it’s very possible that certain details or opinions aren’t adequately challenged. Perspectives that challenge the status quo are even more valuable in these environments.
It also means that insights that could inspire the team are often presented in a familiar way, making them more difficult to emotionally engage with. Which leads us on to…
Communicating openly
Diversity isn’t just about varying perspectives or backgrounds, but also about a difference in terms of communication. When you have a diverse team, you realise that the way in which you converse with each of them has to change to get the most out of them.
To take age as just one example, older or more experienced heads might need a different set of questions to properly reconsider an approach they’re convinced by. Younger members of the team might be less comfortable sharing their thoughts in a group setting, or feel pressured to think of an answer immediately. I know I certainly did!
Such considerations are part of refining the intelligence that you share. Whoever you are, and whatever your background is, you need to be comfortable articulating your opinion.
A culture of trust
I strongly believe that people perform at their best when they’re trusted to be themselves. They can’t do that if they don’t feel comfortable and trusted in the workplace.
A culture of belief in one another is hugely important if you’re going to encourage honest and engaged opinion, and so leaders need to act in a manner that broadcasts and encourages those qualities.
Authenticity is key here; allyship should happen for the right reasons. Pursuing diversity goals because they’re corporate objectives or in order to hit contrived KPIs will not get the results that you want, because they don’t foster honest conversation.
Diverse voices need an environment in which they know they can be heard, and can push the boundaries of what’s come before. Trust is a crucial foundation to that, helping to remove the stigma of feedback as a negative. This has to come from the top and be enforced by everyone in an organisation.
Where insight meets inclusion
Ultimately, the intelligence that marketing can provide to others depends on the people behind it. Data alone cannot drive better decisions; it needs diverse perspectives to question it, interpret it and translate it into action. When teams bring a range of experiences and viewpoints, they challenge assumptions and uncover insights that a more uniform group might miss.
But diversity only delivers its full value when people feel able to contribute. Creating space for different communication styles, encouraging open dialogue, and building genuine trust are all essential. When organisations combine strong data with diverse thinking and a culture of belief, marketing becomes more than a delivery function — it becomes a true intelligence partner for the entire business.
