The Future of Marketing Is Now—but Some of the Old Rules Still Apply

The annual meeting of BCG’s worldwide Marketing, Sales & Pricing practice took place in Madrid recently. The theme was “The Future Is Now,” and so much of what I heard and saw during those 36 hours continues to run through my head and has me excited about what comes next.

First Item on the Agenda: Speed

Talk of an industry that’s changing at digital speed is no longer just talk. The reality of a new, dizzying pace was in evidence everywhere at our meeting. I listened to extraordinary colleagues and some of our inspirational clients as they described the work we’ve been involved in over the past year—and the way that work got done.

I was floored by the speed of progress, much of it a result of advanced work with digital enablers and deliverables; our collaborations with BCG Gamma, Digital Ventures, and others; and developments in technology stacks and the data analytics ecosystem—all of which boils down to highly sophisticated ways to understand the consumer.

In one presentation, a BCGer showed us the logos of all the software vendors we collaborate with, and I was struck by the number of new companies in the group as well as by the impact they’ve already made. I could remember a similar presentation from years ago, when the only recognizable logos were those of Salesforce.com and Google.

It’s incredible how the world has changed, and how we’re right at the center of that change—an extensive suite of tools at our fingertips, bringing us the ability to optimize marketing effectiveness and pricing. Rich Hutchinson, our global Marketing, Sales & Pricing practice area leader, describes the firm as existing at “the tip of the spear of the world’s digital transformation”—and I know he’s right.

Data Is Critical, but So Is Proximity to the Customer

One of the most memorable moments of the meeting was listening to our keynote client speaker, a young leader from alcoholic beverages giant Diageo, as he described the incredible transformation at his company as a result of a transformation effort he held with BCG’s support over the past year. Diageo’s investments in its brands are significant, and making sure those marketing dollars are working as hard as they can is more important than ever.

That’s nothing new. Everyone has always wanted to know if they’re getting the right return on their marketing investment, and the answers have not always been crystal clear.

However, Diageo’s ability to answer these questions on an enterprise-wide level has been massively enhanced by its rollout of Marketing Catalyst, a cloud-based software platform that truly changes the game when it comes to making marketing decisions. Now, every single one of Diageo’s employees has data at the tip of their fingers on how to optimize marketing effectiveness, as well as a clear and simple way to use that data for decision making.

During the Q&A with the Diageo executive, I wanted to know this: “Now that you have all these insights—all this marketing power—do you also plan to optimize everything from the center rather than giving the decision-making power to the markets?”

I think his answer was terrifically important. At the end of the day, as he sits in his office in London, there is simply no way (and no desire) for him to be able to predict the exact effect of a particular marketing campaign at a bar in downtown Nairobi. This was a key insight for me: The transparency we get from the tools we have has changed everything, but there’s still no substitute for doing work at the most local level, as close to the physical customer as possible.

That’s a notion that reflects the BCG world, as well. We try to do as much as we can globally, but we’re dependent on our team at the local level on the ground to carry out the message.

Physically Listen Before You Digitally Ask

Another session I remember vividly was led by a BCG principal, who told the story of how her team applied the firm’s Demand Centric Growth approach in its work with a large financial services client. DCG gives companies a unique method of market research that helps create a comprehensive, effective growth strategy. It was exciting to hear the story of this same method bringing great success to this financial firm, across multiple brands. The impact stories were impressive and the methodology beautifully worked.

The session drove home how far we’ve come since I helped launch BCG’s Center for Customer Insight, which created the DCG tool—to be in the same room with the handful of colleagues who have driven that work since the beginning and to see how the approach has spread beyond CPG to financial services, health care, and more.

That success underscores, again, that the science may be mind-boggling, but there’s nothing like the power that comes from talking to consumers and teasing out what really drives their behavior. Before you can set up a quantitative survey, you have to talk to people, get them to like you, and go after old-school qualitative research. That part of the job will never change.