Marketing Governance

a feature article for DAM News.

As you might expect, there’s no shortage of opinions on these topics.

• Some industry experts contend that DAM software has become “bloated” with features that most users don’t need.
• Others say that most DAM solutions are too “generic” and don’t provide the specialized functionality that many users require.

Debates regarding the future of DAM are certainly interesting to those of us who are directly involved in producing DAM software. For obvious reasons, we’re also deeply interested in how the DAM software industry will evolve from a competitive perspective. But these are not the only issues that are important to many current and potential DAM users.

One of the greatest challenges facing marketing leaders in large enterprises is to select and implement a marketing technology system that will enable and support the delivery of exceptional customer experiences. DAM software is a critical component of an enterprise-class marketing technology system, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. Therefore, astute marketing leaders will not evaluate DAM software as an isolated, stand-alone application. Of course, the functionality of the DAM software is important, but the ease with which the DAM software can be integrated with other marketing applications is equally important.

On Thursday, December 5^th, ADAM will host a webinar – Building Blocks to create your Integrated Marketing Solution – that will address these important issues. During this webinar, Bart Omlo, CEO of HintTech, will explore how to build an integrated marketing technology system and describe the role that DAM software plays in that system.

You can register for this important webinar here.

One of the major challenges facing enterprise marketers is to create and maintain meaningful engagement with potential buyers who are more self-sufficient than ever. The proliferation of communications channels and the widespread availability of information about almost every conceivable product and service have changed how both consumers and business buyers learn about products and services and make purchase decisions.

Today’s buyers exhibit two distinctive behaviors that create challenges for enterprise marketers. First, the buying process used by potential customers is less predictable than in the past. A recent survey of over 7,000 consumers by the Corporate Executive Board found that the traditional purchase funnel (which depicts a buying process in which consumers move from awareness to interest to desire to action, while narrowing their options along the way) no longer describes how most consumers actually buy. Read More

Three recent research studies clearly demonstrate that technology has become essential to effective and efficient marketing and that CEOs and other senior executives now recognize the vital role that technology plays in marketing.

• In a survey of senior executives by McKinsey & Company, 52% of respondents said that digital marketing and social tools are a top ten corporate priority, and 25% said they will spend at least 3% of their total cost base on digital business initiatives this year.
• In a survey of marketers this year by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, 20% of respondents said they have a mandate from C-level executives and the budget to execute digital marketing initiatives, and 42% said they have strong interest and active support for such initiatives at the line-of-business level.
• In its 2012 Global CEO Study, IBM found that CEOs now rank technological change as the most critical external factor that could impact their business over the next three to five years. In the marketing area, IBM found that seven out of every ten CEOs are implementing major initiatives in their organizations to deepen the understanding of individual customer needs and to decrease the time needed to respond to market insights. Read More