By nickjohnson - January 5th, 2013
This is the second in our series of blog posts on the big marketing themes that emerged from an in-depth period of primary research with over 100 CMOs and other senior marketers. The first is ‘Customer-Centricity’, and the third is the revolution in corporate-consumer relationships.What do I mean by ‘the accessible consumer’?
Over the last few years, the ways a company can engage with a consumer has increased exponentially. Social, local, mobile, augmented reality, QR codes - all these new channels have come onto the scene, while the importance of email, digital advertising, TV, direct mail and other more traditional channnels is not in question.
There is a huge opportunity here - for more complex, tailored, and - above all - engaging, marketing from brands to customers. However, there is also an enormous challenge - complexity. And it’s a pressing challenge. Currently, mass marketing has a 2% response rate, and that’s declining. And there’s a knowledge gap - 70% of CMOs believe marketing complexity will be ‘high’ or ‘very high’ in the next 5 years - but less than half of them are prepared to cope with it.
So what are the key issues that CMOs are wrestling with when dealing with this change?
- How do they work internally to shift traditional thinking regarding campaign management, channels and approaches - to catch up with the new consumer
- How can their company leverage the fact their consumer is more accessible than ever. Specifically, how should one manage multiple vertical campaigns through social, mobile, local and other channels
- Is it possible to finally crack the age-old problem of creating consistent local messaging for a global business