Marketing Complexity
A recent White Paper from Unica (Unica.com) offered a very nice summary of the forces that are transforming marketing. The implications for student recruiting and fundraising are clear.
The paper suggests that three tightly interrelated megatrends are transforming marketing:
- The increasing empowerment of the customer
- The growth of direct and Internet-based media
- The relentless increase in marketing complexity
Let’s briefly consider each of these.
The rise of the empowered customer. Marketers are losing power and control to their customers, who now have unprecedented access to third-party information and opinions about companies, offerings, marketing claims, service, and often even pricing. They can identify and leverage competitive alternatives that were once inaccessible due to distance or inconvenience. They are even gaining more control over how companies contact them—and they are demanding even greater power to avoid unwanted messages. These changes are systemic. They span industries, cultures, and all types of businesses. They will not be reversed or slowed: they represent a permanent new reality.
The budget shift to direct, interactive, and Internet marketing. As customers gain power, marketers are increasingly moving their investments from traditional mass media to direct and Internet-based media. These budgetary changes began small; in some organizations, they still are. But they are rapidly gaining momentum.
The upsurge in marketing complexity. Both the rise of the empowered customer and the shift to direct and Internet marketing are contributing to unprecedented marketing complexity. For example, marketers know that customers are increasingly comfortable crossing channels; over 80% of online consumers research online and buy offline, and 54% of cross-channel shoppers research offline for online purchases. In response, marketing organizations are struggling to construct, execute, analyze, and optimize integrated cross-channel campaigns. It’s no longer enough to simply pour prospects into a “sales funnel”: marketers must coordinate all customer touchpoints in a buying process that’s more individualized than ever. These programs must fully reflect customers’ individual contact preferences. Issues such as these are adding complexity to all facets of marketing, and driving change in areas ranging from organizational structure to campaign planning.
So what does this mean? At the very least, it suggests that effective marketing strategies will be increasingly built on solid research, be multi-channel, and be audience centric.
Photo by michael.hiss
