Seventy-Eight Percent of Marketing Executives Expect Digital Technologies to Drive a Transformation of Corporate Marketing over the Next Five Years, Accenture Survey Finds

NEW YORK, June 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Seventy-eight percent of marketing executives believe corporate marketing will undergo a fundamental transformation over the next five years due to the use of analytics, digital and mobile technologies, according to a new global survey by Accenture (NYSE: ACN).  However, a similar number of respondents (79 percent) believe their company will not be a fully operationalized digital business in the same amount of time.

Accenture Interactive's new report, CMOs: Time for Digital Transformation or Risk Being Left on the Sidelines, notes that marketing executives are chasing the digital vision as more than one third of the executives surveyed expect digital spending to account for more than 75 percent of their marketing budgets within five years, and 41 percent believe their spending on digital marketing will increase by more than five percent next year alone. This is a key finding from the new report based on survey responses of nearly 600 executives in 11 countries conducted between November 2013 and January 2014.

"As marketing executives are increasingly embracing digital they can be catalysts to help their company take advantage of the wider digital opportunity and protect against broader digital threats," said Brian Whipple, senior managing director, Accenture Interactive. "Marketing executives are well positioned to assume this role because the opportunities, as well as the potential and real threats, are all about the customer, the brand, the interface with the customer and how the customer is empowered. To be part of their enterprise's digital transformation, marketing executives should extend their vision of marketing beyond traditional boundaries." 

Only 62 percent of survey respondents, however, believe their company currently provides a good customer experience.  To turn this situation around, the report says that companies will have to improve their ability to build long-lasting customer relationships, design and deliver branded customer experiences, and make use of multiple channels, including an increased leverage of digital channels. 

The report recommends several broad concepts that businesses should consider as they work toward achieving that goal:

• Increase collaboration with the C-suite, including chief digital officers and chief information officers
• Reverse engineer corporate marketing initiatives around desired outcomes rather than focus on sales transactions.
• Empathize with customers by changing the focus of marketing from something you "do to" a customer to something you "do with" a customer. Don't build marketing programs based on initiatives that target, capture and convert customers, focus instead on efforts that influence, engage, stimulate and help customers.
• Remember that the customer is not a transaction but an ongoing dialogue, a continuous engagement. It is a relationship that covers the whole spectrum of sales, service, retention and loyalty.

The report also recommends that marketing executives focus more on leading and transforming the marketing role – as digital transforms the enterprise – by creating multi-channel, personalized experiences for each customer across the brand incrementally, continuously reviewing the data and shifting tactics and technologies as needed.  As part of the process, the report suggests that marketing executives should do more to integrate marketing channels with real-time analytics, invest in agile technologies and cloud-based services, and reorient the marketing model so that new talent with all the necessary skills in analytics, mobile and digital put digital marketing to its most effective use in boosting the customer experience.

Among the additional survey findings:

• There appears to be a generational divide in the importance of mobility. Marketing executives who grew up with digital – those under 35 – give more significant weight to the use of mobile (38 percent) than the older respondents (18 percent). Additionally, seven out of 10 marketing executives under age 50 believe mobile is an important channel for reaching customers and prospects, compared to fewer than five out of 10 who are 51 or older.
• Respondents believe that front-line employees and customer word of mouth are still very important marketing channels, but the increase in effectiveness of email marketing, online display advertising and search engine optimization was significant with jumps of 14, 10 and nine points respectively from the 2012 survey. Interestingly, telemarketing saw a huge drop in both importance and effectiveness, decreasing by 23 percent and 10 percent respectively. 
• Marketers in emerging economies are much more confident than executives in mature markets that their company has the ability to make the transformation to a digital business (70 percent vs. 38 percent) and more confident that their company can achieve that goal (71 percent vs. 42 percent). 
• Although marketing executives have had success in hiring more talent with digital, analytical and technical skills, the survey shows a 10-point decline in customer and digital analytics capabilities compared to the 2012 survey. 
• One in four marketing executives state a lack of critical technology or tools as the chief barrier to digital integration.

To learn more about Accenture Interactive's new report and explore the findings through an interactive data visualization workbook, please visit: CMOs: Time for Digital Transformation or Risk Being Left on the Sidelines.

Methodology
The 2014 CMO Insights survey is the fourth in a series of studies sponsored by Accenture and aimed at understanding the opinions, challenges and points of views of senior marketing executives from around the world. The results are based on online surveys across 11 countries and 12 industries with 581 senior executives in marketing surveyed. Most companies (91 percent) included in the survey have at least US$1 billion in annual revenues. The remaining nine percent have annual revenues of at least US$500 million. The survey was done online in November 2013 through January 2014.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 289,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$28.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2013. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Accenture Interactive
Accenture Interactive helps the world's leading brands delight their customers and drive superior marketing performance across the full multichannel customer experience. As part of Accenture Digital, Accenture Interactive works with over 23,000 Accenture professionals dedicated to serving marketing and digital clients to offer integrated, industrialized and industry-driven digital transformation and marketing services. Follow @AccentureSocial or visit accenture.com/interactive

Editor Notes

SOURCE Accenture

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