Predicting the Future of Marketing
Very few people 10 years ago predicted that marketing strategy would be as interactive and consumer-controlled as it is now. Advances in technology and communications have allowed consumers to participate more in how they marketed to, and allowed marketers to get deeper understandings of their customers. So what will the next 10 years bring?
1to1 Media surveyed members of the 1to1 Xchange panel on what they think 1to1 Marketing will look like in 2020. By far panelists said that there will be positive improvements in how companies interact with customers.
This means significant improvement in the ability of organizations to capture and share information, understand customer needs, calculate customer lifetime value, improve the customer experience, and provide customers with relevant messaging in their preferred channel. We detail more findings in the 1to1 Weekly article, Executives Predict What Marketing Will Look Like in 2020.
What do you think? What do you see as the biggest trend that will propel us to the next decade?
Related Entries
Hi John
Thanks for responding so quickly.
I did read Cluetrain all those years ago, but in my mind I hadn't thought of the authors as marketers. Not marketers in the CMO or VP of Marketing sense anyway.
The transcript of your conversation is revealing. Your obvious passion for customers and support of your much lower-down colleaugue is to be greatly admired. Particularly in a company that apparently instilled fear in those lower-down staff and disciplined middle-ranking staff for taking part in a newsgroup! It was a sad sign of things to come; the Sprint 1,000 debacle for example.
But 'one swallow doth not a summer make' as the Bard said. Visionary as you obviously were back in 1999, I think that most of our colleagues were not so visionary and are not today either. They are mostly looking for better marketing mousetraps, rather than new-fangled marketing tools. For better ways to meet their marketing objectives, rather than to reinvent marketing. The record short tenure of the modern CMO somewhat enforces this short-termism. But it doesn't help marketing to make the necessary steps required to escape its own chains. To correct the marketing warfare that has lead to today's Advertising Commons.
From your LinkedIn profile you do appear to be a genuinely visionary marketer. I would very much like to hear what you think marketing will look like in 10 years.
Then we can discuss that little wager.
Graham Hill
Hey Graham,
Did you ever read "The Cluetrain Manifesto"? It certainly predicted a more direct and forthright communication style between companies and customers. Where corporate spin would die. That book was published December 1999 - nearly 10 years ago!
In 1999, we had social networks - they were called Newsgroups.
Just to prove that some of us were thinking differently back then, refuting your comment "Look back 10 years ago and nobody predicted the hyper-competitive, always-on, socially-connected world of marketing we find ourselves in today. So why should we fare any better?", here is a newsgroup post I participated in on February 24th, 2000:
[BEGIN]
Me:
I think you are doing an awesome job! By your postings, I am assuming you are employed by SPCS [Sprint PCS].
Anonymous Participant:
It's public knowledge within the newsgroup that I'm a SPCS employee in Customer Care, in a call center. I've deliberately never said which division, or which call center. Speculation abounds, and I will say that some folks at my office have approached me privately, but... well... my identity is not public.
Me:
At the risk of spooking you, I would like to spend some time with you to understand what you have learned. I also may have a position that would interest you in the eCommerce side.
Anonymous Participant:
I'm interested in hearing more about it. What's the position? What's required? I'm way short on education, befitting someone who is stuck in call centers, but certainly willing to look.
Me:
My name is John-Scott Dixon. I can be reached at 816.559.5700. I am the VP of eCommerce for SPCS.
Anonymous Participant:
I'll check you out via PinPoint [intranet] and Exchange tonight, of course, but I won't be contacting you through official channels for at least a while.
The spook factor is reall, and I appreciate your concern. Please remember that, from my perspective, "VP" starts at six levels of management above me. (me - Team Lead - Manager - Unit Manager - Call Center Director - VP Call Center Operations) From my perspective, you do not antagonize a VP because they can Make You Miserable. =)
The primary issue is one of company policy. The following of the the newsgroup within SPCS is apparently pretty wide-spread, and I've received word that I've developed a clandestine following among folks at the Manager/Director level. While flattering, I've also been told by some of these same people that they've been disciplined for participating in the newsgroup. Thus, I've been at least moderately careful in protecting my identity, because while I enjoy participating in the newsgroup, I value my paycheck more. I'm willing to accept the consequences of my actions, but I see no reason tomake it easy for someone on a crusade.
Thus, were I to ever fully identify myself to you , I'd need a guarantee (in writing, Ive been down that road too) that I would not be disciplined for activity in the newsgroup, for messages prior to whenever I've been officially informed of what company policy is (and I never have seen documents about it, although I have looked).
Me:
Also - I read The Cluetrain Manifesto - I think you will love it and identify with it.
Anonymous Participant:
Will check it out.
[STOP]
She and I eventually met, although she never had an opportunity to join my team as I accepted a position at another company in June of 2000. Later that day, after my exchange with this brave, articulate customer care warrior, I sent a transcript of it to Andrew Sukawaty, then CEO of Sprint PCS. Here is what I said:
[BEGIN]
Andy,
I think you might find the attached document interesting. It is an e-mail exchange I had today with a customer care advocate.
Context:
Yesterday, I was lurking in some external online discussion groups focused on Sprint PCS (customers/prospects post questions and comments around a specific subject seeking responses from others). The postings typically dealt with coverage or phone issues. I noticed one person engaging the others with well-drafted, honest, caring responses (over 700 such responses). And, in most cases, satisfying otherwise dissatisfied customers.
The Point:
These market conversations are going on without us. It is my opinion that the eMarketplace is demanding our participation. Perhaps we should provide support, so that our people can respond with accurate information while maintaining their human voice. If so, we are going to need more people like the one I met today!
[STOP]
Anyway, yeah Graham, I'm willing to make a little wager!!!
Elizabeth
If truth be told, nobody has a clue what marketing will look like in 10 years, least of all marketing executives insulated from the cut and thrust of the company-customer interface.
Look back 10 years ago and nobody predicted the hyper-competitive, always-on, socially-connected world of marketing we find ourselves in today. So why should we fare any better?
If I were to make one prediction, it would be that marketing will still be as disfunctional as it is today. We may get better at targeting customers through advanced analytics, mobile-based suggestion engines or breakthroughs in harnessing social networks, but customers will still resent not being in control of the marketing off-switch, just as they do today.
Want to make a small wager?
Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant
Interim CRM Manager
I'm just back from quite a saturated European business trip including some key emerging markets, so I have definitely a sharper eye to see what happens to marketing in 2010-20. It seems, positive customer experiences and data-driven processes securing the 1:1 model will dominate the field though with internal and external constraints. I don't worry about the B2B part simply because people there value two-way knowledge and long-term partnership. So, I pledge that B2B will come out as the ultimate 1:1 winner getting the most of close relationships and data processing technology. B2C is another story. It's more sizable, chaotic and thus more complex and unpredictable. Too often there, emotion beats rationale. The proliferation of gate-keeping technologies also works toward sort of a disconnect. The vast variety of choices and seemingly eternal demand elasticity fed by lower prices will present a clear danger to loyalty status quo even across the luxury brands. To cope with that, the emphasis will be on the experiential side of marketing rather than its data processing part. The then sophisticated customers will put a hand on plain functionality and performance in things they buy rather than foggy points programs that don't work for them.
Context... Meaning... Relevance... These three words describe the future of marketing in slightly different ways.
We are just now bridging the gap between self-selected content and content that finds you in the right context (the circumstances and conditions which surround you), with meaning (rich in significance for you) and relevance (applicable to a given matter). This is easier with an example.
Today, I spoke with the managing director of a large online vendor of Digital Cameras in the UK. We were discussing how my company's semantic marketing technology - Semanticator ( http://www.semanticator.com ) - might improve his conversion. For argument, we created a representative persona: an expert photographer located in Northern Ireland. We also imagined that this photographer was partial to black and white photography, and prefers Nikon cameras.
Now, imagine upon arrival to this website, the Irish B&W photographer is welcomed with a selection of Nikon cameras (applicable to a given matter - his preference), a dynamic zone dedicated to a case study of a B&W photographer using one of these Nikons (rich in significance) and a notice that indicates next day shipping to Northern Ireland (the circumstance and situation that surrounds this photographer).
While we are capable of acting on this marketing scenario today, we are really just scratching the surface. Especially as companies begin to articulate their commercial ontologies (standardized vocabulary that describes objects and the relations between them in the context of each company's market). We will be more able to understand context, meaning and relevance! The days of the one-size-fits-all home page are near the end.
Creo que el marketing a futuro logrará interactuar de mejor manera con la sociedad, dejando de lado el individualismo de las organizaciones , será pilar, es decir debería ser base para difundir la identidad de las naciones, no una creación con un sentido meramente económico, sino social también, se hablará a cerca de Marketing social.
As the decision processes accelerate, what is becoming more apparent is that “Pattern Recognition” is beginning to be a critical factor in making important marketing and business decisions. This means the Marketing Executive will need to have a deep portfolio of experiences from which he can rapidly assess probable outcomes in any situation. The Executive must be capable of looking at a problem or opportunity and saying… “I remember a similar situation like this when XY&Z happened.” Whether any automation can assist in this will depend on how rich and searchable any market data or in particular, customer specific information, can be modeled to provide similar patterns and related results from actions. Probability theory will become more important in making choices.