Solution
TCS Interactive
Humanizing Technology to Create Iconic Experiences
Highlights
- Marketing organizations that want to stand the test of time should cultivate the qualities of a marathon runner.
- For marketers, fitness means excelling at many things—being a marketing guru, a creative leader, and now more than ever, a technologist.
- Building endurance, strength, and adaptability puts marketing organizations in a better position to positively impact the business.
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An athlete’s mindset
In a world of perpetual, high-speed change, CMOs are under immense pressure to help drive and sustain business growth.
Often, CMOs and marketing leaders must do more with less. The pressure is forcing them to adjust their budgets and investments and rethink their marketing channels, resources, and programs to make their marketing efforts more effective.
Marketing teams large and small are doing what they can to keep up, but is it enough? According to a global study done as part of Reuters’ State of Marketing 2023, when brands were asked how effective they are in turning their purpose-driven marketing into action, a majority said either their efforts were not effective at all or were unsure. So, what skills should marketers hone to help their companies stand out and stand the test of time?
More than 20 CMOs who joined an event organized by TCS Interactive ahead of the TCS New York City Marathon all agreed on one thing: Marketing organizations should cultivate the qualities of a marathon runner. They need to build endurance, strength, and adaptability to meet any challenge like a well-prepared athlete.
Fitness for marketers
For today’s CMO, fitness means excelling at different things: being a communications and marketing guru, a creative leader, and now more than ever, a technologist.
It requires both creative and analytical skills and calls on the tactical skills they have learned through years of experience. And it entails the ability to support strategic responsibilities related to business growth and their companies’ bottom lines.
The way forward is for CMOs and their marketing teams to build their fitness with these three qualities:
- Endurance: Just as a marathon runner must endure prolonged hardship to stay in the game, marketers must overcome challenges such as keeping budget in check, constantly shifting priorities to match the rapid pace of change, and embracing new technologies, among other things—to achieve and sustain competitive advantage longer and better than others.
- Strength: Successful long-distance runners must push through changing conditions and unexpected circumstances. Successful CMOs and their teams must have a strong foundation that allows them to withstand disruptions while safeguarding their business, people, assets, and brand.
- Adaptability: A marathon runner needs to adapt to certain changes which may happen during a run and stay on course to cross the finish line. Similarly, marketers must be able to adapt to changing business needs.
Fostering fitness
CMOs can help teams build their endurance, strength, and adaptability by employing technology and data.
Today, massive amounts of data that can be amassed from various sources and data analytics help marketing organizations better understand customers’ behaviors and desires, and optimize experiences for them. But what’s also required is more effective use of the technologies in hand and making the right investments in new ones, as well as continuous training for marketers.
CMOs also can help their teams be more fit by focusing on harmonizing data and technology with brand and design, two other key elements of marketing. Harmonization requires a holistic approach to marketing initiatives and breaking down silos that exist and divide business units. Marketing can’t be done on its own; it requires input from and collaboration with multiple business units across an organization. Further, within marketing departments, the brand team needs to have access to customer data and must be empowered with the latest design tools and technologies.
Harmonization is key
Harmonization can lead to real-time, orchestrated omni-channel journeys and seamless, frictionless customer experiences.
It also can help marketers develop a predictive, forward-looking attribution model that enables a better understanding of each marketing touchpoint leading to engagement with a prospect, who is likely to convert into a customer. Harmonization can also help teams unlock the right answers via data-driven insights that are tested and retested for further refinement. And it sets a solid foundation for an integrated ecosystem and roadmap that future-proofs business.
Just as top athletes continually build endurance, strength, and adaptability to become more competitive, marketing organizations who do the same to get in their best shape will be in a better position to stay ahead of competitors and positively impact the business.
