8 critical trends & battles for Marketing in

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1. Big Data

Marketers will continue to be challenged by Big Data and the mandate to mine greater insights from increasing volumes and forms of information. For many, this is becoming a losing battle. For those that master this challenge, they will see their influence and power within their organizations grow significantly.

2. Accountability

The battles between marketing and finance will continue. After all these years, many marketers are still challenged to prove the value of their marketing budgets to CFO’s and CEO’s. In order to succeed, and advance to getting a seat at the corporate table, marketers must learn the language of “return on investment”.

3. The Digital Shift

There is more and more pressure for marketers to shift budgets from traditional mass-media to digital channels, but the fact-based proof and wisdom of this move still alludes many. Those who understand and exploit the power of digital marketing will be growth leaders. Those who find the magic formula of the correct balance between digital and traditional-mass media, will see their market shares expand.

4. The Role of Social Media

Many are still challenged by finding value and relevance from social media. Many still view social media as just another marketing channel rather than a laboratory and repository of the brand-customer experience. Those who engage their customers through social media will outperform those who are afraid to do so.

5. The Centrality of the Customer Experience

2015 will be the year that many marketers will discover that the “customer experience” is the biggest driver of their business performance. But old ways to measure that experience via surveys fall short in providing timely tracking and insights into that experience and few are able to link social media to brand sales and performance.

6. The Old Ways of Customer Insights are Not Good Enough

• Some of the traditional tools of marketing research, such as surveys, are fast becoming obsolete. New tools for gaining insights from customers, including social media analytics, are likely to fill this void. None of this makes the need for customer insights less important or critical to the success of the business.

7. It’s the Economy, Stupid!

The year 2015 will be the best year for overall growth in the economy, particularly for the US, since the beginning of the Great Recession; but many marketers will still struggle with stagnant suboptimal growth by somehow insanely thinking that doing the same thing as last year will produce better and different results.

8. The Career of Marketing

While Heads of Marketing have traditionally had the shortest on-the-job tenure in the C-Suite, average tenures have improved significantly over the last several years. While this will continue to be a challenge, the good news is that this means that many marketers are doing things right by doing the right things.