10 Marketing Ideas to Ponder for 2020 ...Inspiration from #WEF20

 I am back to business-as-usual after a week amidst the flashing cameras and even flashier droves of business leaders, policymakers, politicians, bankers, activists and journalists that descended upon the white-capped peaks of Davos for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting. As I catch my breath, I also find myself gathering thoughts – some reinforcing my own, others gently nudged me to look afresh at topics that I believe merit more thought. A great catalyst for this was the discussion facilitated by Prof. Amit Joshi from IMD Business School and Forbes on the topic Human experience as the driver of CMO power, with Erika Serow, CMO, Bain & Company and Amber Atherton, CEO & Founder, Zyper as my co-panelists, with so many other inspiring marketing leaders in the room. I would, of course, love to learn more about your perspectives on this as we get ready to shape another impactful year for our organizations. But first, let me share with you the top 10 ideas I took away from our chat.

1.)   Marketer, steer your organization. Till just a few years ago, marketing was sensitive to information flowing in from other parts of the company, so it could then channel that out appropriately to targets. The influx of massive amounts of data and our investments in martech infrastructure has now empowered us marketeers to actually be able to provide intelligence, and the curated insights from it all, to our organizations in terms of what’s resonating, what’s not and steer course. This is about making it our jobs to help our companies change a little every day in the right direction.

2.)   You’ll find the answer in the thick data. The customer plays a big role in maintaining brand relevance. Everything she feels - the qualitative perceptions about your brand, her preferences, the reasons consumers like her behave the way they do, and therefore the trends that stick – all of this is as much relevant as the big data we pour over. Look deeply into the everyday emotional lives of your customers, and how your brand can enhance that, to uncover your next marketing goldmine.

3.)   Your best pal is someone in the CIO’s org. The agility, diversity of thought and collaboration that must be achieved in order to get the outcomes that make our companies the fastest and the most productive, can only be achieved with a tight alignment of marketing strategy and digital execution. This means busting the siloes that separate the CMO and CIO’s organizations. Marketing must leverage every opportunity to lead the creation of agile shared teams that work in sprints of digital co-creation, marketing and learning. Thanks Kevin Warren, CMO UPS for sharing your insights on how UPS is leading the way with CMO - CIO collaboration.

4.)   The data, the tech don’t really count. We tend to think digital natives have access to disruptive data and tech. They don’t. Incumbents have access to the same things they do. Only the digital natives put these to use in disruptive ways. Marketers nurturing data that’s not aiding in decision-making, tech not bringing a time, cost or convenience advantage, must rethink the plot. 

5.)   Sorry, great CX is mere commodity. It’s time to make way for HX.  Digital is a great leveler, and all of us avid learners. We seem to have all elevated our customer experience somewhat similarly to the largest extent that technology will allow us to. But the breakaway advantage will now go to the brands that elevate their customer experience to what now goes by the name human experience. Making every interaction with the brand an intensely empathetic, and human one is a challenge for marketing to take head-on.

6.)   But, forget not the Cs of personalization - Consent and Choice. While we might indeed have all the data and analytics that it takes to deliver hyper-personalization, what’s convenience to one is creepy to another. Respect for customer privacy and their freedom to choose their experience are marketing non-negotiables. Applying data ethics to the management of customer information, and not just for regulatory compliance, in the context of the overall customer service strategy, is a marketing responsibility.

7.)   Companies with blended marketing teams – data scientists and new-age storytelling marketers – are 4-times more likely to gain market share. Soft-skilled brand thinkers paired with hard-nosed data experts, working in tandem make for the best teams for CMOs to nurture and empower.

8.)   Talk metrics that business can appreciate. Gun for business value that business leadership has a natural appreciation for. This could be influence on revenue pipelines, improved margins, greater brand equity and even cost saving. A marketing success story told in traditional marketing metric terms rarely finds its mark with business.

9.)   Brands that are not yet ready to deliver for societal and environmental good, are not ready for business. GenZ consumers and talent pools – are literally unforgiving of brands that are perceived as purely mercenary. As our businesses move into an economy driven by this generation, marketing must credibly shape brands and businesses that comply with these evolving, even stringent expectations.

10.)Your brand is not exactly just yours. In these times of rampant social dialogues, fans, customers, community members, collaborators, partners and even competitors have a strong voice is shaping the future of brands we are increasingly beginning to co-own. Time to evolve into marketers who can successfully navigate the brand leveraging the ecosystem.

And in appreciation of that fact, I invite you to chime in with your views as professionals that work in or follow this space that we all are so passionate about. Your POV will make our discussion richer.