Marketing Transformation in 2018—Claim Ownership of the Customer Experience

To meet the challenges of the future, marketing leaders must begin thinking about the future of marketing and build the right strategy, structure, and capability. The challenge is to ensure that decisions are rooted in strategy and the needs of the business versus just re-organizing departments.

Customer experience is the foundation of marketing success in 2018 and it sets the stage for marketing leaders to step forward as the leaders of growth in medical devices businesses. Customers are digital, desire close connections, and demand personalized experiences with the brands and products they prefer.

The bar continues to be raised and marketing leaders need to continue to push for and motivate marketing transformation in their organizations. This means focusing on key initiatives such as:

Customer Experience: Budgets continue to tighten, especially media budgets, so there must be focus on improving the total customer experience. Personalization, content, customer journeys, and retention are all candidate activities to focus and improve.

And within customer experience should come the requirement that each interaction with a customer must involve authenticity, empathy, and emotion.

It’s been proven that better customer experience drives better business results and is a competitive differentiator.

Marketing Technology: Developing and building a marketing technology roadmap and topics such as marketing automation and commerce capabilities are critical components to value creation. Leaders must rise above campaigns and drive and influence the roadmap.

Analytics: If analytics and measurement haven’t taken center stage yet in your organization, 2018 is the year to bring it forward and ensure you are properly attributing where dollars are going and the value it is bringing to the organization.

Low-risk, high potential offerings: Campaigns should be quick, measurable, and low-commitment activities that lower the barrier to entry and enable trust building.

According to Forrester Research Data Global Business Technographics Marketing Survey 2017, 60% of marketing decision makers want to elevate the role of marketing within their companies. To avoid getting caught in the swirl of tactical details and becoming marginalized, marketing leaders must stay focused and assume responsibilities that can drive purpose and growth in your organization.

Due to a myriad of reasons from campaign focus, measurement, and determining success with specific marketing activities, it’s easy to see ultimate success in the campaign measurement. However, marketing leaders with an eye on the long game are focused on elevating the role of marketing in the organization and their scope of responsibility. After all, responsibility establishes authority—explicitly or not.

Continuing to transform marketing organizations and focusing on customer experiences while claiming ownership over the areas where there is value creation will enable marketing leaders to drive impactful change in 2018 and beyond.

  • Jim Lefevere

    Jim Lefevere is International Business Leader, Digital Partnering Solutions at Roche Diabetes Care. Jim is an award-winning commercial executive with over 20 years of expertise in the consumer-packaged goods, startups, medical device, and healthcare industries. He has expertise in leading marketing, customer experience, and new product development while expanding global markets through profitable growth.

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