It’s that time of year again. A time for reflections, predictions and reflecting on predictions made last year. At Persio we underwent a rebrand, tripled our staff, won awards and have big plans for next year. With our own 2016 planning in full swing, we looked back on a handful of 2015 marketing predictions to see how they worked out.
From CMO responsibilities to smartphone coupons vs. tablet coupons, we chose five diverse marketing predictions to review. Agree or disagree with our judgments? Let us know what you think. We’re running out of time in 2015 so let’s get to the reviews!
Cmo’s will be more involved in Software Acquisition and Implementation
In October we published an article on the importance of all departments being on board with marketing technology. Cited first in this article is the CMO, and for good reason – they now have more influence than IT. This concept is supplemented by a more recent Persio research report which highlights three key criteria for marketing technology vendor evaluation: simple integrations with vendors, better access to data and the ability to connect data across channels. All of this falls on the CMO, so it is safe to say this prediction is true to the core. As marketing gets more “techy”, CMO’s will, too.
Retailers will use Tech to Centralize, Automate and Report
Paul Roetzer, CEO and founder of PR 20/20, was quoted in October 2014 saying: “Modern marketers need three key pieces of tech: a marketing automation system, a customer relationship management solution and an analytics platform.” Of all the bullseye predictions in this PR 20/20 trend watch article, this one may have hit dead center. To succeed today and in the future, retailers need a marketing and analytics platform to target and track users through the buying process. Premier marketing platforms can easily be integrated with a retailer’s existing partners, vendors and internal systems to manage campaigns from a single system.
Every Customer Expects Superstar Treatment
In our modern era of personalization, this isn’t too bold of a prediction. Rohit Bhargava, CEO and founder of Influential Marketing Group, offered this related quote in an NRF 2015 trend article last year: “Your customers increasingly expect to be treated like superstars….Superstars are not sent emails that start ‘Dear Customer.” The truth is customers are getting smarter and more tech savvy. They are also adjusting to retargeting and personalized marketing – some actually demand it. If a customer shows brand loyalty, the retailer must return the favor. If not, “Dear Customer” will spend their money elsewhere.
Beacon Technologies Will Come Into Their Own
If you don’t know from your own shopping experiences, this is the dud on our list. A January 2015 Forbes article covering 7 Retail Trends That Will Shape How You Shop This Year stated that beacons “will continue to gain momentum in the next 12 months.” Beacon technology has proved to be logistically complicated as a value driver for retail consumers. In order to be effective, the consumer must have the retailer’s app installed and bluetooth and notifications activated for the store. That’s a lot to ask. Because of this, we see beacons as better suited for data collection such as monitoring traffic and dwell times within a store. It’s not to say beacons don’t have applications elsewhere, but the dream of sending hyper-targeted, real-time, proximity based beacon offers directly to customers is still a fantasy. Here’s a link to an article explaining 6 Reasons Why Beacon Programs Fail.
Smartphone Coupon Users will Surpass Tablet Coupon Users
In November 2014, eMarketer forecasted “the number of smartphone coupon users will surpass that of tablet coupon users in 2015.” In December 2015, Juniper Research claimed more than 31 billion digital coupons will be redeemed this year, almost double the 16 billion redeemed in 2014. With all of the supporting research in the article, including 96% of mobile users searching for digital coupons deals when they go shopping (Mobile Commerce Daily), there is no question that smartphone coupon users surpassed tablets coupon users in 2015. The real question is - by how many billion coupons?
In closing…
2015 was another banner year in the evolution of marketing technology. We’re excited to see what the industry will do in 2016 and can’t wait to unveil our own game-changing plans at Persio Inc.
Thank you for reading and Cheers to a prosperous 2016!
