Apple doesnt strike us as a company with a particularly good sense of humor, but theyve got this going for them: theyve got a pretty consistent brand image. Instantly recognizable. Clean, smooth, glossy every new Apple gadget is guaranteed to send the brands fans flocking to the stores. If Apple sold water, this is definitely how they would market it. And we would probably buy it, too. Pity Steve Jobs is no longer around to introduce the new product
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Save time managing media, spend time being creative.
Weve seen quite a few vendor videos for Digital Asset Mangement (DAM) solutions, and heres yet another one. OpenText Media Management 7.0 is specifically designed for use in creative professions such as marketing, broadcasting and publishing. These industries make heavy use of rich media content such as photos and videos, and a well organized digital asset library is crucial for a speedy prodution process. Whats more, this solution allows you to transfer content into different formats as required for tablets, e-books, mobile devices and the like.
The OpenText DAM includes several modules: for brand management, media management, text management, video management, for example. All in all, it looks like theyve got most rich media covered. .
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Stacks of outdated marketing materials stored out of sight in a warehouse somewhere. Brochures and product information with outdated information sent out to retailers, because the new versions havent been printed yet. Marketers who have no idea when to order new materials because no one keeps track of how the current supply is being used
Sounds familiar? Then its worth taking a look at CMO Council, which tackles the sticky problem of obsolescence of marketing materials. Of the 125 marketers surveyed, nearly 70% admitted to at some point, stashing under-utilized, unwanted, out of date, or over-ordered materials into storage facilities that can range from a closet to a warehouse. Over-production and a wrong estimation of marketing material due to inefficient planning and managing of supplies costs time and money. Also, it and can negatively impact go-to-market effectiveness, as well as business value and competitive advantage. And oh yes, its bad for the environment, too.
But how to efficiently manage the Marketing Supply Chain, and minimize waste? The shelf live of marketing consumables and promotional materials is becoming ever shorter and more challenging to manage.
In my last post, I defined what a Marketing Execution Platform or MEP is, and I identified the broad marketing functions that an MEP is designed to support. To briefly recap, a marketing execution platform is a suite of technological capabilities that enable enterprises to optimize marketing operations, and a comprehensive MEP will support all major marketing operational activities and processes.
The development of marketing execution platforms is a response to the new challenges that now confront enterprise marketers. While today’s competitive environment presents a number of marketing challenges, two of the most important are the increased complexity of marketing and the increased demands for greater marketing efficiency. Read More
IBMs new survey of the marketing industry finds that chief marketing officers (CMO) and chief information officers (CIO) must join forces in order to connect with today’s consumer across new channels including mobile devices and social networks. Fully 60% of marketers point to their lack of alignment with the companys IT department as the biggest obstacle to reaching todays consumers.
One key new finding of the survey shows that with mobile marketing working well, marketers are now preparing to go beyond coupons and deliver mobile advertising that reaches customers on their smart phone and tablets. According to the study, 34% of respondents stated that in less than 12 months, they intend to deliver mobile ads, the highest rate of new marketing tactic adoption in the five-year history of the study. Overall, 46% of respondents are currently using mobile web sites followed by 45% mobile applications, up from 40% and 44% respectively since last year. Read More
Luma took a crack at bringing all the different programs, websites and apps involved in social media together. If marketers feel a little lost at times when confronted with social media strategy and campaigns, here is why. Digital marketing is confusing, even if you have a software system to manage it.
Bonus points if you can spot which social network is missing from the chart!*
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*Solution: Pinterest.
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‘Marketing as we know it is dead. But there is a better way. Alterian gives you the tools to understand, create and deliver in the new world of customer engagement.
Software giant Alterian introduces its four different marketing software solutions to help todays marketers navigate the complicated world of customer engagement. The underlying idea for each of these solutions is of course the customer. If you listen to what they are saying, you can adjust your marketing activities accordingly and create personalized, relevant content delivered at the right time.
The Campaign Manager is the broadest solution, designed for managing entire campaigns. Knowledge is power and by understanding the audience, you can adjust and optimize campaigns to create maximum effect across multiple channels. A more specific solution is the Dynamic Messenger, which analyzes online behavior with regard to email, allowing you to personalize and finetune email messages. The Content Manager solution promises to help you create interactive and relevant websites, that allow business users to engage customers when they visit. And finally, of course there is a social media solution: SM2, which allows you to analyze how consumers talk about your brand, and become part of the conversation.
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The market in Marketing Operations software has seen a lot of changes in the past year or two. Several mergers and acquisitions, the arrival of new vendors and the disappearance of others made sure that Gartners Magic Quadrant needed constant updating. And these are uncertain terms for marketing departments as well. In 2009, budgets shrank twice as fast as revenue, and although revenue has gone up since, marketing budgets are still lagging behind.
In the IDC takes a look at the current state of Tech Marketing and looks ahead at the year to come, and offers advice for CMOs in the thick of it. The study includes information collected from 61 hardware, software, and service providers, whose combined revenue totals roughly $550 billion. The results? Things are looking up for marketing departments, in general. Tech CMOs expect their budgets to increase by 3,6% (a more realistic estimate than the 8% they predicted last year), and social media are beginning to pay their way in the marketing mix. IDC expects the purchase and adoption of Marketing Operations software to grow in the next year, but is concerned that many marketing departments may not be prepared for the complexity of marketing automation, from the standpoint of proficiency and maturity.
In an earlier post, I wrote about the confusing array of terms and acronyms that fill the marketing technology landscape, and I defined five major types of marketing technologies. I also noted that a newer term – Marketing Execution Platform or MEP – should now be on your radar. In this post, I’ll describe what a marketing execution platform is and what functions MEPs are designed to support.
At ADAM Software, we say that a marketing execution platform is a suite of integrated technological capabilities that, collectively, will enable companies to optimize marketing operations. We define marketing operations as all of the activities and business processes that are required to perform the marketing function. Therefore, marketing operations includes all of the following:
surveyed by Capgemini, a consultancy, for the report, two-thirds said they believed they worked for a data-driven company. A similar total (65%) said the proportion of corporate decisions taken on the basis of hard analytic information was rising.
By contrast, a clear majority (54%) said that decisions taken due to a managers personal intuition or prior experience were suspect. The strong support for data also came despite almost half (42%) of respondents agreeing that data analysis made decision-making slower, and 67% expressing concern about the accuracy of the data they used as a basis for their decisions. Just over half (51%) also complained about the lack of qualified data analysts available to corporations.
According to an earlier report by Gartner,
Business executives and IT managers are increasingly referring to information as one of their organization’s most critical and strategic corporate assets. Certainly there is a sharp rise in enterprises leveraging information as a performance fuel, competitive weaponry and a relationship adhesive. Read More
