The author of the article - Yaroslav Humeniuk
November 7, 2022
New Old Marketing 2023
When I was asked in January 2022 to name the marketing trends of 2022 and the coming years, I talked about:
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influencer marketing,
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Omnichannel,
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Development of artificial intelligence and machine learning,
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gamification,
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Personalization,
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Focus on customer experience,
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The growing importance of social networks in brand value,
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The role of interactive interaction with customers, opinion leaders and brand advocates,
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As well as the increasingly important role of own content and its representation in all communication channels.
I recommended that marketers increase their involvement and competence in this. Also, the role of marketing and the power of the brand became key in other areas of the company's activities, such as HR and GR. For new employees, especially from the Zet generation, the social component of the brand and the internal corporate culture became more important than career and financial opportunities. The same became more and more important for the state and the community as a whole.
But the war in Ukraine, the growth of the economic crisis in the world and inflation significantly affected the trends.
In fact, the war became a catalyst and a litmus test for brands, the same black swan that M. Taleb wrote about.
With the impact of external factors, reduced investment in marketing by companies and brands, reduced solvency and pent-up customer demand, fears about the future, marketing teams in 2023 may face traditional challenges, but on a completely different level of difficulty.
Still, the communication goals will determine the company's business goals. Marketing strategies are still important. Marketing will again be in the spotlight to find answers to the questions:
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What is the market, its size and opportunities?
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Who are our customers?
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What are their needs, tasks and pains?
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How can we best synchronize the business objectives of the company and the needs of the market?
Demand management, inflow (traffic) and lead generation are still important and will only increase due to increasing competitive pressure in all markets and segments.
Budget and profitability, teams and leaders play the most important role, as before.
At the same time, justifying the budget and necessary resources in the next year will be a separate challenge for marketing teams, which is natural in the conditions of budget constraints. Demonstration of the profitability of marketing activities with maximum substantiation of its efficiency and effectiveness is also an expected challenge. This raises the role of marketing analysis, calculation of financial models, formulation and protection of strategies and business plans, including for new businesses and products.
At the same time, the very strategy, analysis and plans must reflect the uncertainty that markets, customers, companies and brands are entering. They should be adaptable, flexible with elements of scenario planning. Therefore, I would note the complications in creating, developing and supporting marketing teams. Very dynamic and turbulent times are ahead. And the effectiveness of the manager in such times is ensured by the effectiveness of his team. But the manager may simply not have enough time to train new employees, the employees themselves may not have enough time or money to develop professional marketing skills.
So it's no surprise that 30% of marketers say that team learning was the biggest challenge in 2021, and 21% predicted it would remain a top challenge for marketing departments in 2022.
What has changed and what to expect?
Social responsibility and reputation business and brand, which were important before, now came to the fore.
The social position of the company, decisions in critical situations in relation to its employees, customers and the country, real social responsibility in quantitative and qualitative dimensions, reputation as a market player, as an employer, as a resident, are now of key importance.
Employee and customer loyalty is becoming critical for brands and businesses. The importance of inclusive brands is growing.
And if earlier we said that product quality and service are the headliner of marketing communication, today we emphasize that this is no longer enough.
Humanity and professionalism are the two pillars of marketing communication in 2023.
At the same time, marketing as a function continues its professional development, and the professional trends of 2023 will be, as before: brand power, interactive marketing of brands, involvement in interaction with customers and opinion leaders, marketing in social networks, customer experience, customer loyalty and retention.
Increase the role:
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Marketing analysis in the context of calculating ROI, LTV, SAC and other marketing indicators,
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Long-term influencer-brand relations,
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Streaming and video content,
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User-generated content,
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Agile marketing,
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Long-term customer experience,
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Voice search for SEO,
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Interactive content and marketing,
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Penetration of virtual reality,
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AI for better trend detection, the Internet of Things (IoT),
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An omnichannel approach to marketing.
About the author:
Yaroslav Humeniuk
Marketing Director "KNESS Group"
Yaroslav is an expert in strategic and digital marketing, e-commerce and trade marketing. He has many years of experience as the head of the marketing function of national and international companies at the level of marketing director. Worked in the markets of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan with more than 25 brands. He teaches the "Marketing & Digital Strategy" module on the "Diploma in Professional Marketing" from СIM.
Yaroslav will soon be a speaker at an online event, as a CIM tutor.
He will talk about training in diploma programs from CIM.
It will answer the questions: "What is the practical benefit of studying at a British institute?", "Is the study adapted to the Kazakhstan market?" and "Why is the SIM diploma so attractive to marketers in Europe and Asia?"
A meeting with CIM tutors and graduates especially for Kazakhstan marketers!
Soon!
In November!