Aprimo and Forbes Insights Team Up to Survey Global Marketing Leaders About the Future of Marketing
London, UK (PRWEB UK) 31 January 2017 -- Consumers today want to associate more with the brand than with other less interesting elements of a company and the consumer controls their individual brand experience like never before, so say the key findings of a major global survey of marketing leaders on the Future of Marketing. Published today, the research was conducted by Forbes Insights in association with Aprimo, a leading global provider of marketing operations software.
The research indicates that while there is still considerable room for improvement, organizations of all sizes and scales in many geographic territories are trending toward adopting more agile marketing processes to meet, respond to and exceed customer expectations.
In a digital first world, the survey highlights a challenging marketing resource environment within many organizations where technology resources are constrained or totally absent, instead relying on traditional marketing practices. Some 74% of respondents cite ‘agility of marketing operations’ as a key marketing challenge. 45% of survey respondents identify ‘technology’ as the most critical factor contributing to the success of their organization’s agile marketing efforts, while 33% report that ‘process/organization’ is the most critical factor. 43% of those surveyed are actively exploring ways to implement marketing workflow management.
“Our research indicates that to enable agile marketing, steps must be taken to ensure that process and measurement are enabled,” said Bruce Rogers, Chief Insights Officer at Forbes. “The best way to achieve this is to implement the right kind of agile technology that supports on-going consumer examination and education – a platform that recognizes and builds on past successes to create future wins.”
The report highlights that now, more than ever, Marketing Operations technology is essential to successful modern marketing, dictated by today’s highly complex and multifaceted environment. However, the survey reports that more than 51% of marketers say their companies are among the last to adopt technology that makes marketing agility possible. Only 23% of respondents consider themselves ‘highly successful’ in using agile marketing to deliver relevant, individualized customer communications.
The survey identifies a number of ways that organizations are planning to increase marketing agility. These include implementing marketing plan and spend management (43%), hiring new talent (42%), implementing marketing workflow management (43%), implementing content production management (38%) and ensuring content compliance (36%).
Overall, only 28% of respondents ‘completely agree’ that their organization’s current corporate culture, technology, process and budget support agile marketing, (and unfortunately, 3% report no support for agile marketing). 31% say that a year ahead, they will still be working to become more agile, while another 31% says that their progress will depend on resource availability.
The survey spanned North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia, questioning managers through to directors and C-level executives in a range of industries from financial services to healthcare & medicine, insurance, retail and technology.
“Marketing moves fast, but agile marketers move faster,” concluded John Stammen, CEO of Aprimo. “Automating Marketing Operations is the future of marketing, and implementing the right technology can help marketers regain control of their marketing in the digital first world. Not only is it smart – but it’s vital – for marketers to mind the gap between traditional and automated marketing.”
To download a full report on the research findings go to http://bit.ly/ForbesInsightReport
About Aprimo
Aprimo is a category-leading marketing operations platform that frees CMO’s and their teams to focus on smart marketing by managing the five essentials: planning, spending, creation, distribution and performance. Aprimo’s comprehensive suite improves time-to-market and maximizes a company’s marketing investment to drive revenue. Aprimo is headquartered in Chicago, with global R&D and customer support in Indianapolis, and international operations based in London. For more information visit http://www.aprimo.com.
Cailin Crowe, Finn Partners, +1 (312) 329-3980, [email protected]
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