Deloitte 2022 Global Marketing Trends report provides blueprint for action for Indian biz

Deloitte Global’s ‘2022 Global Marketing Trends – Thriving through customer centricity’ highlights that customer engagement and experience plays an integral role for businesses across the globe to meet the challenges of today’s volatile markets, shifting the dynamics of the marketing industry. According to Deloitte’s survey, business leaders need to refine their approach to deliver a more holistic experience to their customers, employees and society.

Speaking about the evolution of customer engagement strategies, Ajit Kumar, Leader, Customer and Marketing - Consulting, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP, said, “The marketing trends endorse the view that customer centricity needs to be at the core of all our strategy and innovation. Businesses will thrive and stay relevant by understanding customer expectations and creating exceptional customer experiences. Moving away from cookies to designing human-first data experiences in a hybrid world supercharged with AI is the way forward. The conscious and conscientious Indian consumer demands the best of service and quality, and purpose builds credibility.”

The survey lists down the following trends for businesses of the future:

1. Purpose — a beacon for growth: Many businesses are redefining their value proposition and how they make an impact beyond profit through “purpose,” as consumers are prioritizing price and quality in purchasing. For high-growth brands purpose not only inspires product and service delivery, but also guides employee decision-making and corporate social responsibility investment strategy. The survey indicates that with 79% of people switching to remote work, new talent pools emerge for companies that were once confined by geographic limitations.
2. Authentically inclusive marketing: Consumers want to support brands that represent them and their values; high-growth brands are more frequently establishing key performance metrics for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) objectives than their lower-growth competitors. Simultaneously, the highest-growing brands are reducing the cultural and demographic distance between the makeup of their teams and the markets they aspire to reach.
3. Building the intelligent creative engine: Due to pandemic, most of the workforce shifted to remote working. With the growing remote workforce, collaboration should be a priority in helping ensure these new voices and skills are fully embedded within the organization and marketers can create pods of various skill sets, such as data scientists, programmers, graphic designers, and creatives, to work on strategic objectives.
4. Meeting the customer in a cookieless world: Growth leaders are rethinking customer marketing and data strategy in a rapidly changing digital world. Marketers should look to strengthening the relationships with partners, such as tech giants and media publishers, to gain access to their walled gardens and corresponding data insights.
5. Designing a human-first data experience: Consumers are increasingly wary of brands that seem to follow their every move and there is a fine line between helpfulness and intrusiveness when it comes to consumer data. The abundance of customer data available can lead to a paradox within organizations, with marketers seeking to use that data to create better customer experiences and chief information security officers (CISO) working to adhere to privacy regulations. The CMO should work with the CISO to cultivate customer trust through better data practices, designing experiences that create value, provide transparency, and empower customers to control their own data journey.
6. Elevating the hybrid experience: Now that brands are more adept at digital delivery, the next challenge is providing the best integrated physical and digital, or hybrid, experiences. Businesses can elevate their hybrid experiences by expanding choices, integrating feedback, and investing in the technological infrastructure that can bring these design principles to life.
7. Supercharging customer service with AI: A dynamic experience for customers means delivering the assistance and information they need, when, where and how they want it. By designing and deploying an AI strategy that helps brands meet customers in their moment of need, marketers and customer service leaders can create an end-to-end customer experience that seamlessly blends AI and human service — ultimately, to better serve their customers and their bottom line.

Ashvin Vellody, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP, said, “The 2022 Global Marketing Trends report provides a blueprint for action for Indian businesses. The themes highlight a clear call to action on two levels: one, purpose and human centered marketing strategies will work – a clear roadmap on how to translate purpose driven marketing and a human first data experience by showcasing this in every customer interaction to build trust and connection with the customers of the brand; and second, technology at the core of marketing transformation – acknowledging that the complexity of providing world class customer experiences can only be done by an active, integrated use of a set of digital tech to simplify, integrate and provide meaningful insights.”