Top 5 Marketing Trends For CMOs And Entrepreneurs In 2019

As 2018 comes to a close, it’s overwhelming to sit back and reflect on the dizzying pace of change we have witnessed over the last 12 months. This period of disruption stands poised to continue into the year ahead as the dialogue around creativity and technology shifts from one of an “either/or” tenor, to one with a “better together” mindset. Much of this sea change is being propelled by our new emotion driven economy which is mandating a strategic fusion of imaginative marketing with different types of AI, machine learning and emotional driven analytics. For all of these reasons, as our new age of business continues to unfold, the marketing function only continues to rise in importance.

As plans get underway for 2019, what follows are the top 5 things senior marketers and entrepreneurs should be aware of as we inch closer to the new year: 

1. We have entered the “Emotion Economy.” Brands must view emotion as a critical currency of business.

Historically, consumer insights have been developed by collecting and analyzing data to predict what the customer’s next move might be. Today, however, this is just one piece of the equation when trying to understand what a customer will do as technology is being used to read, analyze and even replicate the other half of the pie – our emotions.

For successful brands, it’s no longer just about understanding what customers will do, but rather how they feel and how we can best get them to act. This is what pundits are calling the ‘emotion economy’, and recent advances in technology have already put us on the path towards it.  Understanding how this ecosystem works, and learning how to draw value from it, will become vital to the success of any organization that is looking to engage with customers and stay at the front of the pack amongst competitors.

The reason that understanding emotion is attractive to businesses is because of the new opportunities for growth, efficiency and profitability it offers. Industry pundits claim that the affective computing market, made up of technology that is designed to recognize, understand and simulate human emotion, is set to rise to $59 billion by 2021.

In the year ahead, leading brands will recognize the opportunity to not just be smart, but to be emotionally intelligent in ways that define distinction and ultimately positively impact the bottom-line.

2. Our sharing, or collaborative culture, impacts the world of storytelling. People are putting more trust in others they know and reputable content, not ads.

The sharing, collaborative or We-Conomy we have seen unfold over the last decade has been spurred by one fundamental idea: trust. We have witnessed traditional sectors like lodging (Airbnb) and transportation (Uber) be completely upended based off of technology platforms that instigate sharing and are predicated on the notion of trusting in one another, more than “big business.” This is the very reason we have seen a rampant shift from the “me” to the “we” in recent times, along with a sizeable rebalancing of power from the few to the many.

Consequently, the world of storytelling is not immune to these changes, and recognizing the power of content that is reputable, authentic, purpose driven, AND potentially created and/or shared by people who are known or recognized in the space has never been more vital.

As brands approach storytelling in the year ahead, it will be vitally important for them to embrace a focus on the why and who as opposed to the what, and do so in partnership with brand loyalists, advocates or influencers that authentically stand behind an organization and what it represents.

3. I said it last year and I’ll say it again.  We are in an era of purposeful business driven by the notion of leaving the world a better place. Empathy is still the NEW BLACK.

The collaborative, purpose driven era we are living in has elicited a call to action to business leaders to contribute to the world as much as their own bottom-line, and do so in ways that bridge the gap between the public and private sectors to activate real change. This paradigm shift has instigated a pivot point where brands are now aiming to connect with customers on a much deeper and more empathic level.

Smart organizations will approach the creation of winning experiences by finding their purpose and then using it as a creative and aspirational theme with which to engage. Consequently, an approach to building + operationalizing brand purpose will be increasingly valuable in achieving desired business outcomes.

Critical things to consider when building purposeful experiences:

1. Clearly articulate your brand’s purpose. Purpose is not a mission statement or values.
2. Be aware that purpose is not cause and cause is not purpose.
3. Brands must demonstrate empathy by valuing customers and demonstrating an understanding of their needs. They must put managers and employees in customers’ shoes. Purpose is about what a brand is doing for someone else.
4. Make purpose motivational, because it connects with the heart as well as the head. HBR suggests thinking of it as a “philosophical heartbeat.”
5. Use emotion driven storytelling to bring it to life. Purpose is not a sign to hang on the office wall. It’s something that must be a living a breathing organism that casts employees and customers as characters.

For examples of purpose done right, look at the financial services company ING  (“Empowering people to stay a step ahead in life and in business”), the Kellogg food company (“Nourishing families so they can flourish and thrive”) and the insurance company IAG (“To help people manage risk and recover from the hardship of unexpected loss”).

4. View attention as your customer’s most precious resource.

In a hyper-competitive Emotion Economy where consumers are digitally empowered, yet feel forever time-starved, there’s a fundamental choice for a brand to make a Customer Experience strategy. At any particular moment, marketers must decide if a brand’s offering is a stepping stone on the way to emotional experiences or if they are providing the emotional experience itself. At every interaction or encounter brands must ask: are we seizing the customer’s attention?

Following is a list of top things to consider when thinking about crafting emotional experiences that matter and captivate:

1. Does the experience satisfy a grander purpose? Provide information that entertains, informs and delights
2. Create a sense of aspiration that goes beyond the business to the world at large. Create a meaningful emotional connection that works in tandem with the rational one
3. When creating an experience, lead with the audience first. Content used to be created first then personalized thereafter. Uber customize to your audience first, then consider distribution-not the inverse

5. Don’t be afraid. Invest in digital technology, not just digital marketing.

Today’s environment is an overwhelming one for marketers as a result of technology and the massive shifts in the consumer marketplace it has instigated. This has obvious implications for external strategy, but internal strategy has not been immune to market forces, particularly when considering that the amount of technology products/services is becoming staggering. With buzzwords like AI and machine learning becoming ubiquitous, the amount of “noise” around the space has made it difficult for marketers to see the forest through the trees.

That said, the smartest thing for senior leaders to do, when thinking about purchasing technology and creating a marketing stack, is to identify key areas that will drive growth through improved customer relationships. Areas such as loyalty programs, hyper personalized experiences, emotionally informed interactions etc. are all great places to begin.

Case in point: Investing in technology rather than just digital ads is the reason Starbucks dodged the seismic shift in consumer behavior that has knocked traditional retailers, claimed chief executive Howard Schultz. As a result, the coffee giant was able to personalize its interactions with its growing customer base more effectively and create deeper customer loyalty than its competition. The nexus of Starbucks’ digital initiatives is the My Starbucks Rewards Program, which the company reported grew 28 percent year-on-year to 10.4 million members in the US alone in the latest quarter.

To make customer loyalty programs work, however, you need quality omni-channel data. Starbucks stands out for its ability to use data to enhance its customers’ experiences and build emotional resonance with its global brand. Its loyalty program places an emphasis on personal interaction with customers, online and in-store, which is an attitude that comes straight from the top.

Things to consider when investing in digital technology:

1. Don’t buy technology for technology sake. Map it against a specific growth goal or KPI. i.e. “I am going to purchase emotional analytic software to optimize and grow our brand loyalty platform.”
2. Every technology isn’t for everybody. While AI could be a great fit for a brand, perhaps AR is not. The trick to building the ideal stack is to focus on what the company truly needs to grow as opposed to “checking the box” on doing the “latest and greatest”. Remember when brands thought they were actively engaging in social media simply because they had a Facebook page? In today’s market less is often more. No one wants to be a jack of all trades, master of none.
3. Don’t forget the mounds of data you already have and potentially aren’t using. Only .5% of data was used in creative in 2017, for example. Use technology that marries man + machine to make use of what you already have, harnessing the idea of hyper personalization as a strategic touchstone.