Q: What are the biggest challenges and opportunities for delivering growth marketers will face over the next five years?
A: Growth, or growing the top line, in a lagging economic cycle is the business equivalent of running in a dust storm. The distance to destination is obscured and progress is difficult and slow. I’d like to see attendees at this year’s ANA Masters of Marketing Conference come away with insights in five areas.
- How marketers are adding new features to classic products to counter share decline.
- Examples of the crucial role product and service creativity play in a slow economy.
- How technology is making it possible for marketers to establish relationships with consumers before they become customers.
- New techniques marketers are employing to understand and use consumer insights swiftly.
- How the best marketers are linking marketing results to business results to gain management support for more investment in their brands.
Q: How do you see marketing organizations evolving, especially as it relates to fueling growth?
A. The biggest change in company marketing organizations will be in response to the complete fragmentation of ways to reach consumers. Historically, marketers could “paint” their plans using the three very broad brushes of network television. Today a marketing plan has to look more like a mosaic — many small pieces that fit together to make a picture. Knowing how to use all these pieces will require a specialized knowledge that many companies simply don’t have today. This fragmentation will require more specialized expertise within marketing organizations — a trend that began with the commercialization of the Internet.
(As appeared in The Advertiser)