Marketing is getting older? Are we facing a crisis in the market for marketing innovation?
In December both Deloitte and EY published reports on the state of marketing and forecasts for the next year in this area. Interestingly, although at first glance the two documents may present a contradictory picture, to a skilled observer they are actually complementary. EY forecasts growth of one at the expense of the other, which is standard in business, but overall marketing may be getting a little “old” compared to digitization dynamics.
In our recent article on the Deloitte report, we discussed how the marketing world is going back to its roots, involving values and the coherence of technology and tradition in its strategies. Like EY’s study, that report highlighted the last year and a half of remodeling in the marketing sector. While Deloitte discussed the potential development of marketing, EY decided to present another aspect of this situation. One side of the coin is that marketers are indeed turning to new avenues, and growth companies have the opportunity to be even more profitable than before, but the other side of the coin will be the limited pool of investment and the increasing demise of companies that fail to adapt their management strategies in time to the pace of galloping digitization.
What about marketers?
From the report The technological transformation of marketing only 30 percent of consumers are willing to make a purchase. entrepreneurs have not made any investments in the last 18 months. This contributes to the fact that only 33 percent. considers the implementation of further innovations over the next analogous period. It turns out that institutions were most interested in development in the areas of personalization (15%), but the biggest implementations are planned in testing and optimization (45%).
CDP as an investment among leaders
EY indicates that n over seventy percent of the companies, that took part in the survey, since the beginning of the pandemic, At least one new technology has been implemented. Moreover, every third respondent implemented two or even more new tools. Personalization tools enjoyed 15%. interest, in addition to marketing automation, which passed the bar 14 percent, and right next to them were analysis of traffic in digital channels, which have implemented as many as 10 percent. surveyed.
Leaders of their market segments have often decided to CDP platforms (modern customer data administration panels), and invest in technologies using artificial intelligence, chatbots and augmented reality, as confirmed by the Deloitte report Global Marketing Trends 2022. Organizations that aspire to be market leaders were much more focused on digital channel traffic analysis and testing tools.
Let’s slow down!
In the future period marketers plan to develop the tools they already have – according to a study by EY. The top three positions were occupied by investments in systems for testing and optimization, customer relationship management and marketing automation.
Another interesting observation by the researchers is the similar proportion of industry leaders and those aspiring to that position in the sector of the biggest challenges in implementing business strategy in relation to digitization.
TOP 3 – leaders vs. aspiring leaders in the industry
TOP 3 leaders plan in 34%. develop their products compared to the TOP 3 aspirants, among whom this percentage is 33 percent. Here, however, there are discrepancies, with leaders planning at 26 percent. focus on better use of data for transactions, while the aspirational ones in 25 percent of the surveyed respondents are more likely to use data for transactions. are looking to cut costs to increase the profitability of their operations. This fact alone can create large disparities between these groups, reducing the competitiveness of players in the industry, which is not conducive to either innovation or customers. This seems to be confirmed by the third pillar of investment – leaders in 23% of. are investing in building and developing digital channels, while aspiring leaders at 22 percent. diversify sales channels. It can be seen that a consciousness has arisen among the leaders to build their own models for organizing the entire process, while the rest must focus on the greatest possible optimization in relation to the operating costs incurred.
What will influence marketing investment in 2022?
According to the report, the process of digitalization of business activities will continue at a rapid pace. The biggest impact on companies’ growth will come from a focus on what Deloitte called the hybrid experience, and here it is defined as the need to focus on the overall customer experience with the company. Attention to this as many as 63 percent. surveyed. More than half of respondents obliged their plans to develop their offerings in the future (57 percent).
Also in this document, it is detailed getting greater awareness of users about of goods and services, including digital ones, which will force companies to focus on qualitative and valuable transmission and service of.
To meet these expectations, institutions will have to increase spending on research on the effectiveness of the actions taken, what is important for 62 percent. companies and advanced research into the behavior of their customers, as indicated by 54% of respondents.
Marketing is facing interesting times. On the one hand, the gates are open to the increasing technologization of society, while on the other experts warn of stagflation and an increasingly serious raw material crisis on the horizon and the resulting energy lockdown. In essence, the situation appears uncertain, which increases caution in investing, which may cause a slight slowdown in the marketing tool development sector, although not at every level.
It seems that those marketers who invested in digital distribution channels in time will reap a positive harvest, while the coronavirus will reap a harvest in the form of the rest of the companies that failed to fully adapt. The current situation causes uncertainty in the market, so leaders can build their own small empires of communication, and those who want to become leaders, unfortunately, are moving away from this ceiling, trying to stay afloat. Nothing is a foregone conclusion, and every crisis is a gateway to success, whether in publicity, when we save our image and can clear ourselves of the burden of the past, or in business, when a sunk cost analysis finally causes a change in the model of action, or in life, when even after the worst fall we can finally look in the mirror with a smile!