Marketers. Your time is now!

The collective of world business and finance leaders who met in Davos last week spoke about one big thing - A New Normal. Effectively the start of a new money cycle.

Pandemic and post-pandemic macro-economics have begun to normalise across international markets. And with that, not change, but an adjustment to how things are. Very like the 1980s, the decade of decadence, the forecast is for expansion across many industries.

Across the last 10 years marketing faced a revolutionary suicide. Rather than submit to the path it was on, marketing found its way by returning to its basic principles and applying them to connect with today’s consumer demands.

The challenge was global and significant in each individual market. Marketers had become obsessed with channels, mainly digital, and not consumers or products. But the fight to move away from this being the existing state has been won. And, marketing now stands as a top priority in how businesses will navigate the pre-growth stagnation and cultural polarisation of the current market and the boom that follows.

Marketing has never in better shape as we face into the beginning of a new money cycle. They have more potential today to connect with the target audiences of their businesses, a broader remit to direct businesses to new growth opportunities, and more power to shape the proposition and ultimately the success of their businesses.

And, they won’t make the same mistakes with AI as they did with digital. Previously, marketers prioritised digital channels over insights, reach, and persuasion causing their marketing efforts to lack creativity, a lasting impact, and generally an outcome. Now, the approach is to leverage the advantages that AI and technology delivers, integrating this with marketing, rather than prioritising just being there!

Understanding = All the right moves.

Understanding of Branding - Brand power equals price power. It’s starts with a clear marketing vision, that flows into positioning based on simple human truths, leading to strategy that defines the challenge and the actions and resources needed to deal with this challenge. The importance of brand equity only grows in a world where company valuations are highly weighted to intangible assets.

Understanding of Product - It’s what your target market wants and needs. Product design and development are more consumer centric these days. This will continue to be the case as businesses are cautious about their investments. Marketers have spent the last 5 years cleaning their product portfolios to drive profit and organic growth through cross-selling within brands. Focus has shifted to products and services that drive portfolio value and grow penetration.

Understanding of creativity. Marketers collectively felt the impact of the gross shift to rational messaging. The tide has turned, now replaced with a blend of emotional and rational messaging optimised to enhance saliency and trigger incremental sales. More brands have dialled up or introduced the use of fluent devices to help consumers connect brands and products.

Understanding of media. (My favourite) Marketers are now benefiting from the omni-channel optimisation of broach reach and targeted activation. We’re seeing improved data flows, less wastage, and tighter integration across the funnel. Meaning today’s media offering the greatest opportunity to align sales and marketing, as every connected device is a potential transactionable platform.

Understanding of sales. Distribution is a gold mine and there are greater number of channels today through which marketers win sales from consumers.

Understanding of commercial management that on-going business success is won across both short-term and long-term business cycles.

Understanding of measurement. Everything we’ve learned has been underlined by enhanced measurement.

Marketers. Your time is now!