Stories by Jennifer O'Brien

​From the recent launch of its geotargeting strategy to the release of its first Android app in October, along with a refreshed brand identity, online retailer, The Outnet, is on a continual push to evolve the customer experience, according to its executive vice-president.

As we head into 2017, the push towards digital is more paramount than ever, and marketers must put digital capability, skills, media spend and content front and centre of their efforts. To find out just how brands plan to do that, CMO caught up with three of Australia’s leading brands - L’Oreal, Helloworld and Expedia – to ask them for their marketing predictions for 2017 and how they are crafting their 2017 strategies amidst an ever-changing market.

CMOs must work with CIOs and develop a “CIMO perspective” in order to collaborate and achieve success in the age of the digital customer.

The ‘age of the customer’ is here - the power of personalisation and customer context is now ensconced in every marketer’s lexicon. Certainly, the single biggest driver of digital transformation is customer experience.

As CIO of Australia’s largest network of home visiting doctors, Anthony Buhler recognises the importance of customer-led strategies and innovation.

A whopping majority of Australian consumers (97 per cent) would cheat on their favourite retailers, according to a global loyalty study that revealed ‘devotion’ is a key factor of how passionate, committed and intimate consumers feel with a retailer.

CMOs must build a cohesive team culture, embrace local diversity and consider key elements such as legal regulations and technology in order to build a consistent global brand that resonates locally, according to new research.

​While customer experience management and design is one of the fastest developing IT sectors in Australia and around the world, it isn’t well known - and very few experts are women. But Katja Forbes wants to change all of that.

Two major brands including Qantas and realestate.com have rolled out virtual reality apps that aim to lure customers by offering life-like immersive experiences, a move that signals the future of marketing and the growing demand for an interactive relationship with customers.

Growth hacking - which uses rapid experimentation and new tools and techniques to engage and grow a business's customer base - is popular with not only the startup community, where it was born, but with big companies recognising its promise and appeal in building their overall customer base.

The lion’s share of marketers can’t keep up with the dizzying pace of change in the martech industry, according to a new report.

Customer-oriented firms that value environmental management practices and adopt them as part of its strategic marketing are fast becoming known as environmental leaders, according to a new global research report.

Sean Ellis, the first marketer at Dropbox and founder and CEO of GrowthHackers.com, first coined the term ‘growth hacking’ back in 2009 when he was running growth at Dropbox.com. Andrew Chen, now running growth at Uber, then popularised the phrase with his seminal blog post describing the AirBnB/Craigslist hack, firmly putting the term on the Silicon Valley map.

Adopting the ‘power of positive thinking’ is vital if marketers are to become successful leaders and survive in today’s super demanding work environment.

Today’s executives need to take a new approach to corporate culture and how they operate in order to develop the up-and-coming millennial generation into the next batch of leaders, marketers participating in this year’s Marketing Academy claim.