Bitmob.com

But getting to the question, video game marketers need to be good, thorough marketers with a natural curiosity first.  I've been a marketing executive for 7 years now, working with large and small brands in a variety of industries over that time (quite a bit of video game brands in there, too).  The one constant throughout every team I've worked with is marketers that are genuinely, passionately INTERESTED in their clients' business and product do a better job.  Period.

So it's certainly easier for gamers to work on the marketing team for most games.  We understand the audience and the minutia of the industry better than anyone. 

But non-gamers can market a game well, as long as they're willing to do their homework, get familiar with the title and the audience, learn to appreciate and respect all those nuances, etc.  I've worked with teams of non-gamers before that refused to pick up a controller and PLAY the game we were working on.  It was a disaster.  Conversely, I've worked with teams of non-gamers that spent a lot of time looking at the community response throughout the game's development cycle, and learning about the audience's expectations, etc.  And of course, they spent enough time with the game to play it competently and at least understand why someone (if not them) would really like it."