Act to Impact. Impact to Influence. Influence to Lead - Purposeful marketing ‘futurology’

Authored by Bhuvana Subramanyan, Chief Marketing Officer, Randstad India. 

In their bestseller, “The Power of Moments”, the authors Chip Heath and Dan Heath talk about defining moments that shape our lives. Very insightfully, they say that these momentous occasions are created from, what they term, EPIC emotions – Elevation, Pride, Insight and Connection.

While creating such EPIC moments has always been marketing’s goal and mission, the future of marketing has changed in subtle, but profound and multi-dimensional ways. It will go beyond the cost impact it can generate to the value impact it must create. And as surely as it will be technology – and data-driven, it will demand a hyper-personalised human touch.

The marketer’s playbook has been rewritten and revamped. The last year has challenged established marketing truths on customer and brand engagement and strengthened them with added dimensions. Marketing of the future is poised to bring an exciting blending of purpose, strategy and technology that promises to transform the function to be the best version of its authentic, agile, trustworthy and effective self. 

Reaching out better – with ‘tech-and-touch’ interactions

Customer buying behaviour is changing by the minute and it calls for understanding the role of technology in keeping up with this change. I am excited that marketing is working on creating and setting the baron customer experiences higher and higher. According to a 2021 CMO survey by the CMO council, 48% of the CMOs will focus on Customer journey, acquisition, and conversion and 42% on customer experience. The ability to apply AI and ML to read customer signals and respond real-time will continue to be invaluable in a CMOs toolbox.

It has become marketing’s imperative to go beyond customer’s expectations and deliver beyond the unrecognised emotional needs to create an extraordinary experience. It’s about using the right medium, right content, and right time to create the ‘dopamine’ effect for the client. It is creating the everlasting positive emotion towards the brand or service. Customer service approach must be outside in, however culture is inside out and that reflects on how the employees treat the customer.

Marketing dons multiple hats – reputation builder, customer champion, growth pusher, and innovation enabler – which are the key success builders of a CEO’s agenda. In a sharply customer-centric world, marketing is the company function that is closest to customers, and, therefore, the best-positioned to lead strategic shifts. Marketing today speaks the quantifiable financial language of business (pipeline metrics, revenue, margins, and profit), as effectively as the qualitative (brand impressions, search rankings, satisfaction index, etc.). It partners with sales to forecast and predict new leads through the marketing funnel to be revenue ready. It works with Finance to align marketing budgets and spends to organisation revenue and collaborate with IT to implement the right technologies to boost performance. In fact, marketing is the orchestra conductor guiding the other functions towards a shared goal of higher growth and revenues. 

Digital forward

Data and technology will stand at the core of customer interactions and experiences. In the area of staffing and recruitment, organisations can now move ahead with expansion programs that were earlier constrained due to non-availability of localised talent. As a marketer, I find a great opportunity to digitise this function and enable adoption of advanced HR technologies. Data-driven recruitment by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and automation can quickly boost hiring the right talent for the right opportunities at the right time. Imagine unleashing the capabilities of AI-powered chatbots for initial screening and interview scheduling. Imagine adding to this, the power of human intelligence and the personal touch of candidate interactions. The results can be phenomenal. Now, unleash the advantages of intelligent data analytics, and we can extract sharper insights on client needs and candidate personas. We can convert them to decisions and actions to identify new opportunities and business models and build personalised offerings.

Marketing will continue to drive this tech-and-touch culture to improve HR and recruitment operation. At Randstad, our winning combination of edge technologies and human judgement enables us to anticipate talent needs of business, and bring the ‘day after tomorrow’ to our clients today. 

Driving better outcomes, impacting revenues positively

I believe that marketing is an active strategist and executor of an organisation’s growth agenda – and not just a cost center with a responsibility to improve return on investment. It is an organisation’s growth engine, creating value for both customers and the company by unifying data, analytics, technology, content, and communication.

Through design thinking, it can align talent trends with client opportunities with purpose and outcome-driven intent. Our #newways initiative, spearheaded by the marketing function, has enabled customers to make the leap to new opportunities with great talent and safer workplaces. 

Will the brand be relevant?

So, here is an interesting question to ponder on. As marketing reinvents itself to be the engine that powers growth, speed and agility, will it move away from its custodianship of the brand? My answer is an emphatic ‘no’. Marketing will work with the internal and external ecosystem to add that X factor that can in turn create that wow experience. It will not only help cook the meal, but also add the necessary seasoning that’s required to elevate the experience.

With insightful purpose, it will creative an engaging and intelligent narrative of the brand with a deeper and thorough understanding of the customer journey and experience. In our industry, I see enormous potential for marketing to converge purpose with outcomes, and tailor content and communication authentically to deliver the truth that resides in our organisations. This is the truth that will bring together talent and organisational vision with purpose, trust, and loyalty.

If I must apply one formula, it would be WOW Experience = investment in tech + customer insights + creative wizardry.

What is your formula and the X factor that you plan on using in the marketing futurology?