Seth Godin has an interesting post where he compares marketing professionals to architects. To me, it clearly defines the job profile of every marketing professional in any organization. Be it at a junior, middle or a senior level, if they are not doing things like an architect, then they move from campaign to campaign, job to job, ultimately making no difference to a customer's life - which is the real reason why marketing departments exist in companies!
Here are some excerpts from that post:
What does an architect do? She reinvents the very nature of what's delivered and how it is delivered. She reimagines the inputs and outputs of the organization, as well as its story, to create an engine of revenue that grows while benefitting all sides.
The reason we hear about google and apple and jetblue and starbucks all the time is that these are poster children for re-architecting existing business models into something very different. The marketing is not slapped on. Starbucks is not Dunkin Donuts with a clever sign. If Dunkin Donuts goes out to hire a "senior marketer" and gives that person traditional senior marketer duties, not much is going to change.