By nickjohnson - August 14th, 2013

“things are being transformed quite significantly - [they] are changing and accelerating fast.”

The heading above is a direct quote from Marc Speichert. Marc is the Chief Marketing Officer at L’Oreal USA, one of the biggest brands in the world.

 

His view echoes that of the hundreds of other marketing and communications professionals we have sought feedback from in writing this report.

 

Marketing and communications are in a state of flux. Both disciplines are facing significant internal and external pressures to evolve and transform.

 

Marc expanded on the above:

 

“I think it’s an exciting time for marketing, because things are being transformed quite significantly."

 

But it means that people need to think differently about what the future looks like, and equip themselves with the right skills.”

 

It’s exciting because the rise of digital has changed the relationship between the consumer and the marketing person. Those marketing executives need to understand how they can best impact that. And yes, it does mean that there are some things that need to be done differently.”

 

If there’s not that realization that things are changing, then maybe in a couple of years you will become obsolete. Because the marketing of tomorrow will not be the marketing of yesterday - things are changing and accelerating fast."

 

In the forthcoming Incite Briefing, we will strive to highlight exactly how marketing and communications is changing, why it is changing - and how your role, responsibilities and remit will evolve over the coming year.

 

We take on board feedback from over 1,000 marketing and communications professionals, as well as more in-depth insights from some of the leading executives operating in the field, like Marc.

 

After reviewing, synthesizing and analyzing the data we gathered, we find that there are three key changes underway:

Brands are becoming more customer-centric

Whether by choice or through pressure from changing expectations from consumers and lower barriers to entry for new competitors, large companies are increasingly attempting to ‘get closer to their customer’. This happens in three main ways:

  1. Better listening and analysis of consumer data/trends/feedback - the increasing primacy of this data
  2. Internal transformation from a more traditional model where the product is the centre of the business, to one where the customer is at the heart
  3. Striving for relevancy: Be it through marketing, or through the actual products produced, companies are increasingly desperate to ensure their external output is tightly matched to consumer groups

The Marketing and Communications Landscape is fragmenting

The marketing and communications landscape used to involve multiple channels, sure. But you could count them on one or two hands. TV, radio, billboards, banners, email, direct mail. Not any more.

 

The marketing and communications landscape has shattered into a thousand pieces. Companies can no longer rely on a TV ad providing the brand recognition and consideration of previously. Display ads get ignored. Banner ads don’t get clicked. Your consumers have wised up. Unless you transform alongside them, you will lose the battle for attention and engagement.

 

When taken on board with the previous trend, however, this ‘nichification’ of marketing channels is possibly a positive. Sure, consumers no longer watch TV ads, they fast forward through them. They're savvy to traditional marketing, and actively avoid it. To be successful, your brand needs to approach the consumer in the right place, at the right time, with a relevant message.

 

New, more targetted social channels like Pinterest and Instagram; the rise of the smart phone; and location-based marketing all give the forward-thinking company new and improved weapons in the battle for engagement and attention. Unfortunately, they’re unproven. Some work, some don’t.

 

And they don’t replace, but augment, previous marketing options - it’s all too easy, and is a common mistake, for brands to focus on shiny new opportunities, and pull the rug out from under themselves in doing so, by forfeiting focus on core, proven and established techniques.

 

The dividing line between marketing and communications departments is blurring - and will disappear

The relationship between the consumer and the corporation has changed enormously - and irrevocably. There has been a significant leveling of the playing field. Engagement is now expected to be a conversation. Your customers aren’t listeners, they’re contributors.

 

When a consumer talks to a company, that consumer expects to have a conversation. For that to happen, a company needs to be able to engage with said consumer with a unified voice across a plethora of touchpoints - social networks, call centres, emails.

 

Equally, that voice must be the same as the one used when the company initiates the conversation. These different customer touchpoints were previously the domain of several functions within companies - communications, marketing and customer service primarily. This is no longer a viable model in a world where responses are demanded, and where they are expected fast.

 

No longer can a brand spend two days fashioning and getting approval for external messaging. This phenomenon in and of itself is enough for a radical reshaping of internal organisation.

 

When coupled with the drive to customer centricity, this reshaping becomes irresistible.

 

To build a deeper picture of a customer, a company must collaborate and share data internally on an unprecedented scale. No longer can a company have separate market research departments for different brands, products or areas of operation. No longer can Communications Departments track the impact in a silo, separate from the marketing team. No longer can customer data be stored in separate depositories across the business.

 

For a truly customer-centric business, this data must be unified. And to unify this data adequately, and to share it adequately, the dividing line between marketing and communications is more an obstacle than an advantage.

 

In the forthcoming Incite Briefing, we will investigate these three phenomena in more detail - providing statistics to back up our hypotheses, and detailed feedback from senior executives from some of the largest companies in the world. The briefing is being completed right now, but to sign up for an advance copy, please go here.

 

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