Future of Marketing: Recent Trends, Emerging Issues & Future Outlook

Marketing is always evolving as technology moves forward. Marketers need to see the big picture in order to be successful. As executive Ralph Oliva director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets at Penn State University’s Smeal College of Business said, “It doesn’t matter about the latest thing you did on social media. What’s important is understanding the principles for navigating what will always continue to be a new world of marketing tools” (Hosford).

The demand for marketing is growing. According to the Online Marketing Institute’s survey results “40% of respondents said they have more marketing positions open than they can fill with qualified talent, with analytics being the most desired skill. The OMI study was based on an August online poll of 747 companies. But many observers say the focus on specific skills is misplaced, as tools and tactics evolve rapidly and become outdated quickly‚Äù (2014).

Therefore it is important for marketers to have an analytic mind and be able to predict future tendency if they are going to be successful for a long time frame, medium time frame, or for a short time frame. Not long ago ISBM published a study identifying four key trends expected to dominate not only marketing but also marketing hiring in the future, those were: First, marketing is becoming more strategic, with increasing responsibility for the organic growth strategy of companies. Secondly, marketers must recognize the importance of global markets and the challenges they represent. Third, Technology’s “disruptive power” could make certain b-to-b practices obsolete. Fourth, B-to-b companies must transition to “marketing realities,” including moving from a product focus to a market focus, or shifting from being operations-driven to customer-driven (2014). It has become clear that marketing is an always-rapid evolving discipline that those who can’t adapt will be left behind according to the article published in the marketing week Welcome to the Future of Marketing. Furthermore, the article explains that the most important quality that a marketer should have is vision. ‚ÄúVision, translated into adaptability, is the currency that brands now desire above all others. The ability to look ahead and spot an opportunity has never been more necessary‚Äù.

The future of marketing is hard to predict. Tom Seddon chief marketing officer of InterContinental Hotels Group in an interview conducted by Nancy Pekala, Senior Director of Online Content, believes that relationships with customers are at the heart of everything. He talks about ‚Äúputting customers in control of the direction employed by each of IHG’s brands, using insight gathered from the 44 million members of IHG’s loyalty scheme to guide innovation. Such reliance on data is only going to increase. The better and cleaner your data is, the more ability you’ll have to tailor meaningful conversations with potential customers‚Äù (Leader, 2009). In addition companies as Samsung put an emphases in engagement of costumers. Bigger companies are looking in ways to involve their customers in all their communications. ‚ÄúSamsung is inviting consumers to produce the ad campaign for its Blue Earth touch phone‚Äù (Leader, 2009).

More importantly, the biggest change in marketing is globalization. As discussed in the article Forcasting the Future of Marketing Research, by 2020 ‚ÄúChina will catch up or overtake … the European Union and the United States in GDP. And the huge growth of China and the other BRIC countries … is going to have a radical change on where U.S. companies get their growth from and where the research gets done, and what, then, research companies need to do to get ahead of that‚Äù. Globalization causes the world to be interconnected. The reduction of trade and economic barriers has greatly affected the interconnection of countries. And yet, the worldwide emphasis on Green Marketing is one of the biggest emerging issues. Green products are confusing for the costumers because of the labeling, certification and various green advertising. According to Tiwari, Tripathi, Srivastava, and Yadav many consumers in all the countries want to buy from environmentally responsible companies. ‚ÄúConsumers say environmental consciousness is an important corporate priority – ranking behind good value, trustworthy, and cares about customers‚Äù(Tiwari, Tripathi, Srivastava, and Yadav, 2011).

Equally important, liability for online content is an emerging issue in marketing. As technology evolves the need to have more laws have increased as well. Today we have new media law, cyberlaw, technology law, Internet law, or online IP law. Companies need to keep track of all the laws and changes that occur as new technologies are introduced. Marketing is always changing because of the digital media and the rise of data analytics. Framaroot is best android rooting application. It let you root android smartphones without computer. In an article of Kirkus Reviews Back to the Future of Marketing “In the future products will talk directly to consumers, each product will speak nearly every language spoken anywhere in the world. Grocery shopping, will feature talking shelves, and the overall retail environment, which will move online completely.” Then again marketers will need to keep changing with the changing landscape.

To conclude, according to Hodsford (2013) “Big ideas only occur if customers respond to them. We’re convinced that behavioral data is where the world is going to be, taking data and mnessages and making sense out of it.” The key in being a successful marketer is to be visionary understand the market, analyze the data and predict where the world is going.

 

References

Back to the future of marketing. (2014). Kirkus Reviews, Retrieved from http://.proquest.com.woodhous.aquinas.edu/docview/

Forecasting the Future of Marketing Research. Marketing News TM, Retrieved from www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic

Hosford, C. (2013). The future of marketing: Are skills keeping up with increasing demands? B to B, 98(6), 1. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.woodhous.aquinas.edu/docview/1460249642?

LEADER: Engagement is the future of marketing. (2009, October 29). Marketing http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA210695617&v=2.1&u=lom_a quinascoll&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w&asid=cc1421a82e1d2c9aaf316b55356cd4a

Tiwari, S., Tripathi, D. M., Srivastava, U., & Yadav, P. K. (2011). GREEN MARKETING – EMERGING DIMENSIONS. Journal of Business Excellence, 2(1), 18-23. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.woodhous.aquinas.edu/docview/1010336807

Welcome to the future of marketing. (2014, Apr 30). Marketing Week (Online), Retrieved from http://0- search.proquest.com.woodhous.aquinas.edu/docview/1520043342?