CMO Council: Globalization of Markets and New Channels of Digital Engagement are Causing Marketers to Seek for Transformation

Corporate marketers, as per the Chief Marketing Officer Council's latest State of Marketing Report, expect to become less dependent on agencies and more self-sufficient with their own internal digital marketing infrastructures, talents and go-to-market capabilities.

To gather insights and contributions for its seminal report, The State Of Marketing: Outlook, Intentions and Investments for 2010, sponsored this year by Deloitte (News - Alert) Consulting LLP, and ExactTarget, the global affinity network of 5,000 senior marketers surveyed more than 600 of its members.

A wide range of insights and views was extracted by this annual Marketing Outlook Audit. From every major region of the world, participants were drawn and were representative of most vertical industry sectors and company sizes.

Almost 63 percent of respondents said they reported directly to the CEO, president or COO, while another 21 percent said they were accountable to a regional vice president, general manager or division/business group head.

Among the initiatives taken to maximize the impact and value of marketing in 2010, Investing in digital demand generation and online relationship building ranks among the top.

Most of the surveys that would be conducted will be done in-house or by specialist firms and outsourced service providers in the digital marketing and customer analytics space.

Around 35 percent of marketers, to improve go-to-market effectiveness in 2010, expect to initiate or undertake transformational marketing projects. Nineteen percent say this is under consideration, and 8 percent report this has been proposed but not approved. Most common among the projects to be undertaken are:

--Digital marketing makeover -- platforms, programs people
--Sales and marketing organizational alignment
--Customer data integration and analytics
--Marketing performance measurement
--Lead qualification and harvesting system
--Reorganization of marketing group

'Globalization of markets and new channels of digital engagement are causing senior corporate marketers to seek new internal skills and capabilities, and re-direct spend towards more inventive and localized go-to-market programs,' Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, notes. 'The transformation of marketing organizations, practices and functions is well underway. This is being driven by the need to engage at an individual level, create more content relevance, and leverage a new world of crowd-sourcing Internet communities, omnipresent connectivity, and pervasive mobile device ownership.'

Fifty-nine percent of marketers, attesting to the growing shift to digital modes of engagement, are looking to train and develop existing staff, 40 percent are adding or expanding digital marketing agency support, and 36 percent expect to bring in new talent resources to their organizations.

On the other hand, 72 percent of marketers, underscoring this, anticipate no headcount reductions as they re-skill staff, and 18 percent expect to review web design and development resources. This compares to just eight percent who plan to do ad agency reviews, an all-time low, as marketer attention moves to the digital realm.

'Companies looking to improve their online capabilities must ensure their online investments by staffing teams accordingly,' Morgan Stewart, Principle of the Research and Education Group at ExactTarget, said. 'This can be challenging because people with a successful track record online are in short supply -- and they know it. That's why it is critical to find people who are not only good themselves, but have the ability to train others. They're hard to find, but they're worth their weight in gold.'

Only 6 percent of marketers responded excellent, when asked to rate their online marketing performance capability.15 percent said that their ability to convert site visits to customer leads is deficient.

Sixty-five percent of respondents , in reviewing where digital marketing dollars are likely to be directed, said they were evaluating investments in new social media and online communities, 44 percent in Internet media channels, 33 percent in mobile messaging, and 31 percent in new methods of online content delivery.

How demand generation, sales support and advertising dollars are being directed reflects the management requirements for greater top-line growth in 2010.

To database marketing, sales collateral/literature, trade shows and conferences, and online advertising, the largest shares are being allocated.

Most marketers, in contrast to 2009, are seeing their media budgets stay the same or increase slightly by five percent. Larger gains of over five percent are reflected in interactive/web marketing, social media, search marketing, SEO, and mobile communications areas.

Christine Cutten, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLC notes, 'The lens on marketing spend has been magnified and marketers will continue to be asked to do more with less and justify marketing investments. To deliver against these directives and enable growth, marketers are looking toward online and social marketing execution strategies.'

'We are seeing increased activity in the marketplace around online channel integration and building digital competencies as online strategies increasingly become incorporated with overall enterprise strategies and consumer purchasing patterns change. Similarly, we have seen a push toward the development of multi-channel offerings that deliver the brand promise consistently across online, mobile, in-store, and traditional channels,' Cutten added.

For senior marketers, the CMO Council's annual Marketing Outlook study and State of Marketing report has become a reliable reference. There are now more than 5,000 in the CMO Council, controlling over $150 billion in annual marketing expenditures.

The trends in strategic marketing progress and performance, the marketing plans of more than 600 survey participants, priorities and intentions of industry leaders are covered in this year's report.

The State of Marketing assessment is also a bellwether of where marketing resources and expenditures will be allocated and applied in the year ahead.

The fourth edition of the 2010 report has grown along with the CMO Council and is deeper, richer and diverse. The following areas of interest from the report can be downloaded:

--Top accomplishments in the preceding year and management mandates for the year ahead
--How current economic conditions and business factors and forces are impacting plans and budgets
--Areas of expenditure and shifts in where and how marketing dollars are being allocated
--Strategic initiatives and investments to increase marketing efficiency, proficiency and effectiveness
--Evaluation and embrace of digital marketing systems, programs and alternative media channels

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