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A Marketer’s Wish for Transformation This Christmas

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A Marketer's Wish for Transformation this Christmas

Flock is proud to be the world’s first and leading marketing transformation company. We spend every day working towards optimising entire marketing ecosystems, aligning teams and strategy and helping run complex pitches.

So when it comes to Christmas and pantomime season we like to model ourselves on Cinderella’s fairy godmother, transforming marketing with the wave of a magic wand (and a lot of hard work). In the spirit of granting wishes, we set out to ask marketers from all over the country a simple question:

‘If Flock could wave a magic wand, what is the one thing you would transform about your marketing?’

The responses were very similar to the key issues that we encounter at Flock every day:

‘Better end to end dynamic consumer & business data – accurate, timely, aggregated and actionable… and more time.’

We once heard a client say ‘data, data everywhere, and not an insight to be seen.’ This is the great failure of the big data hype. Everyone is drowning in data, although very few know how to extract value from it. Many do not have the processes, systems or capability to use it to understand their consumers. It is crucial to focus on the metrics that map your customer journey and the relationship that you have with your customers. You need to extract insight to drive marketing innovation. Unless you can make sense of the data in the context of your customer experience and mobilise it, it is useless.

‘We need one focus, one goal and one central team.’

Too many teams or departments have little or no goal to aim for, or they do not have a central team to provide direction and guidance. Different teams end up doing their own disjointed thing, vaguely relevant to what the company may be trying to achieve. Marketing becomes diluted and lacking an overall idea. Get your internal teams aligned behind one vision, strategy and idea and make sure that they all know how you want them to deliver it.

‘We need to stop internal competition and have the marketing team work together.’

This comes back to the above point; the teams lack focus and vision but it also means that their targets and KPIs are ‘off’. The best teams are not only appraised on the quantity, quality, outputs or outcomes of their work, but also on how well they collaborate, share information, co-create and work as a team. Culture is key and can be achieved by hiring and training the right people. Show how seriously your company takes collaboration by making it a KPI.

‘We need to get practical with our solutions.’

We see so many solutions that do not take people into account. Processes, systems, technology, team structures and more are set up without thinking about the consumer, the user or the team. Solutions need to have practical applications that are built to make people’s lives easier. At Flock we have a saying; “take away two things before you implement one new one.”

‘We need to focus on our consumer more.’

Marketers can get caught up in the day-to-day challenges of running a marketing department and move the focus away the most important thing: the consumer.

Always start your strategy with the consumer and ask yourself the following questions:

  1. What will the consumer need / want from you over the next 3 years?
  2. What is the customer journey you need to focus your strategy around?
  3. What can you do that is better than anyone else in the sector (and what is the consumer benefit)?
  4. How will you map your resources and organisation to be able to deliver that?
  5. What processes, structures and technology will you need?
  6. What does your overall marketing ecosystem need to look like and what external partners will you need?
  7. How will you make the internal and external teams work brilliantly together?
  8. How will you measure your success?

‘We need to get more organised and gain new skills centred around the user experience and digital customer experience.’

Online and offline experiences need to match up and be delivered ‘on brand’ every time. Achieve this by building integrated teams and resources, sustainable processes and systems, mapping online and offline customer journeys, testing, refining, listening, having your technology designed around people and usability. In the case of a retailer, for example, making sure your shoppers get the same service and experience in store and online is business critical.

Every wish is linked in some way by the concept of integration and transformation. Do let us know what your 2015 wish is, or should one of the above wishes ring true in your department then get in touch. We would love to hear more and discuss how Flock’s magic wand may be able to grant you your wish! Contact us here.

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