Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. Today’s world is not a place where one predicts and undertakes works. Now everything is changing very fast and fast. Predicting especially about consumers is a small and difficult task and involves many uncertainties. For marketers, a challenging year is ahead and they need to embrace the following trends and challenges to get through it.
1 – Value is king.
The world is still suffering from the recession. Since customers are more price sensitive these days, they will only be looking for value more than brand name even sooner. Therefore, marketers need to think about delivering maximum value to customers.
2- Brand differentiation is the key
Now customers are overloaded with many options. Products, services, communication are confusing customers with overloaded information. Great success for marketers depends on how they are going to differentiate their brand from the competition. Value additions, excellent service quality and features will be the key factors in retaining customers.
3- Rising customer expectations
Brands these days are barely keeping up with customer expectations. Every day, customers are encountering new innovations and looking for more of their favorite brands. Smart marketers must identify all of their customers’ expectations and capitalize on unmet needs. Brands that identify unmet customer needs will be the survivors in difficult economic times.
4- Old tricks don’t work/don’t work anymore, talk to each other before talking to the brand
Simply sending them with attractive promotional messages, emails, newsletters will not do well compared to days gone by. Instead of being drawn to assertive communication, people will believe in their peer groups. They first communicate with their peer group and then with the brand. Therefore, social media will be a key marketing tactic that marketers will use or consider.
5 – The market space becomes more online
The online market tends to grow more than before. People find better deals online. It is time for organizations to think about proper online marketing strategies. What are the important things that a company must consider in the online market?
– Facebook will replace personal email: now it has been widely used and has also become a verb. Just like people say “I googled”, now they tend to say “Facebook”.
– Fewer website registrations. Due to the large number of players in the competitive online market, it is difficult for people to remember their password and other information. So Facebook Connect and OpenID are becoming popular where people use to register or sign up to sites with a username and password.
– Interruption vs. Continuity – Social media continues to grow faster and companies are investing in and starting online communities to build their business and market their product.
– PPC could gradually disappear and SEO will play a role. Due to the recession, companies are trying to reduce spending on Google and focus their efforts on search engine optimization. But still advertising on social networks could grow.
– Analytics is the best way to track your visitors’ behavior and site activities.
6 – Customer commitment will be the key point
Ongoing contact and engagement with customers will be a step up the ladder. Staying at a point of sale is no longer sustainable for a company.
7 – Emergence of mobile commerce
Although mobile penetration is increasing, it has not yet delivered on the promise. Recently, the use of mobile phones has been extended to the payment of goods and services. Now is the time for markets to think about mobile marketing for the coming year.
So what are the challenges they face? Now marketers must balance and overcome multiple pressures by increasing consumer engagement, value, differentiation, demonstrating performance, leveraging all data and analytics, and developing innovative and sustainable strategies. It seems that marketers are still trying to adopt a sustainable model for the long term. Now, in addition to the factors mentioned above, they also face the following challenges.
1- Marketers have less confidence in the future.
2- Many marketers fight the crisis with little budget
3- The crisis makes marketers rethink the media budget
Now it is clear that the sellers are constrained with the financial position. Sustainably positioning marketing as a key department that adds value in the long term will be the main task for marketers. They have to
* Differentiate strategies based on green arguments that will only be highly effective for companies that have adopted it in their corporate strategy, business model and business culture.
* Convince senior management about the marketing budget, because today the size of the marketing budget is the first questioned by others.
* Marketers must use performance management tools to track, manage, and predict financial performance.
* Analytical skills have now become top of mind for marketers. Complex decision making will be based on generating relevant information from marketing data.
Let’s wait and see.
