From analytics to AI: Why many firms struggle to integrate digital tools
'When people hear digital transformation, they tend to focus on the digital side rather than the transformation side.'
The term “marketing” first appeared in the 1900s, although the activity itself dates back centuries. Traditional marketing methods included newspaper ads, billboards, direct mail and other print-based mediums — often effective, but expensive and with limited reach.
The rise of television — and to a lesser extent, radio — represented a paradigm shift in marketing, and allowed businesses to reach a much larger audience with greater precision, often providing opportunities to target specific demographics.
Nevertheless, limitations remained around advanced demographic targeting and measurement, especially when compared to modern digital marketing methods, which allow organisations to gather unprecedented levels of data and information to make informed decisions.
While it is true that today’s customers are more connected than ever before, and increasingly demand more personalised, interactive and engaging experiences, certain fundamentals of marketing hold true.
One of the key ideas advanced in the seminal 1967 book, , is that company actions must be driven by customers and their needs. This core principle of customer-centricity has remained the central idea across all 16 later editions of the book and for good reason.
Despite the rise of big data, social media and e-commerce, creating value for customers remains a key priority for any organisation. Understanding, designing, communicating and delivering value remains the foundation of the best marketing strategies, which has not changed over time.
What has changed is the rise of digital tools and technology, ie data analytics, automation, and AI. But we should remember they are just tools and good strategy is required to guide their use as value-enablers. This can require overcoming a two-pronged mindset issue.
“When people hear digital transformation, they tend to focus on the digital side rather than the transformation side,” says Tony Moroney, programme director for IMI’s diploma in digital leadership.
“When really it’s just using digital tools to deliver this transformation and provide a better experience for customers.”
Similarly, although most organisations were forced to adapt to digital during the pandemic, many organisations are still struggling to meet strategic goals using digital tools and tactics.
“It’s not simply about having a Facebook page or some online presence,” says Eva Perez, programme director for IMI’s marketing strategy for a digital world.
“It’s about integrating digital tactics in a way that enables organisations to meet their strategic goals and become more customer-centric.”
Without overcoming this two-pronged mindset challenge, digital tools may become a distraction from an organisation’s core mission.
Indeed, many organisations are currently redefining their core mission and purpose. Central to many current marketing strategies is that brands should have a purpose beyond profit and add societal value. Gone are the days (generally) when a brand would say here’s the product, here’s the product information, and here’s the price.
Today, leading brands promise to deliver a specific benefit that addresses a particular customer need, which extends beyond functionality and can often reflect a certain aspect of the customer’s identity.
The product is no longer just a product — it is representative of the company behind the product and their mission, vision and values, which often need to be realigned with the values held by their customers.
Tactically, this can be aided through advances in digital technologies, as the proliferation of social media and data analytics enables companies to know in real time what customers are doing and how they are feeling.
Technology has also changed the customer journey. Product information can be found with a single click, which often renders the need for a salesperson or traditional [information-focused] ad unnecessary, and also changes the overall marketing function.
Where marketing was once used as a selling tool post-product development, marketers increasingly offer design ideas and feature recommendations during product development since they are often best equipped to understand a customer’s criteria for buying a product and what will add the most value.
However, while the rise of digital technology opens up new opportunities for businesses to reach customers, it has also created a more complex and competitive landscape. The sheer amount of data available is a frequent challenge for organisations, which often feel overwhelmed and unsure about how best to leverage that data.
But organisations must also be mindful of privacy and security concerns when collecting and using customer data, and it is more important than ever for organisations and marketers to be transparent and accountable.
Another challenge facing organisations is the need for a seamless customer experience across all touch points, with customers expecting a personalised and seamless experience regardless of what channel or device they are using.
But with new technologies and trends emerging all the time, organisations can struggle to adapt and stay ahead of the curve. Leading organisations remain agile and flexible in their marketing strategies, via constant experimentation and testing new approaches to find out how to best deliver value to the customer.
These unique set of challenges has led IMI to create its marketing strategy for a digital world programme. The programme will focus on embracing digital technologies to strengthen marketing efforts, how best to gain and leverage insights into customers to meet their needs, and how to prepare for the rapidly changing world of marketing and its evolving role within organisations.
“It’s all about understanding your target audience online and offline,” says Ms Perez. “Becoming familiar with the integral and changing role marketing plays within organisations. Using customer insights to develop a value proposition which speaks to the needs of the customer, but also giving organisations a competitive advantage.
"Becoming more customer-centric using online and offline techniques to increase customer satisfaction across all touch points.”
Along with a heavy focus on agile marketing and customer-centricity, Perez says the programme will involve interactive and practical exercises analysing the market, looking at how new techniques can be used to improve on what is already being done. This will allow organisations to reassess where they are adding value to customers.
And that is the key point. The rise of digital technology and changing consumer needs have shifted the focus of marketing from traditional channels to digital ones, requiring organisations to adapt new strategies in order to remain competitive.
But adding value to customers is still the major challenge — especially in an increasingly complex and competitive digital world where adaptation and staying ahead of the curve are more vital than ever.
- Ben Davern leads research and insights with IMI
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