​Relevance and substance are the keys to marketing’s future

Jean-Luc Ambrosi

  • Author, marketer
Jean-Luc Ambrosi is an award winning marketer and recognised expert in branding and customer relationship management. He is the author of the new book, Branding to Differ, a strategic and practical guide on how to build and manage a successful brand.

Marketing’s evolution and increased value-add to organisations is making headway in one essential direction: Driving brands to achieve maximum relevance in the heart and minds of customers.

Relevant messages, relevant products and relevant interactions foster emotions that touch the psyche of customers in more ways than one. Managing the customer experience by enhancing emotional bonds, not simply meeting functionality, will bring customers closer to your brand and your offerings.

To get there, insights generation toolkits and targeting capabilities have certainly become essential components of the marketer’s arsenal. But it’s not the apparatus or technology a marketer uses that is important, it’s the ability to leverage these to approach customers where and how it matters.

I need to stress this point as too much emphasis is being generated today about tools and technology rather than the quality of interaction and communication generated. As such, many marketing functions are focusing on, or are pressured to focus on, the instruments they use rather than the substance they bring to the customer relationship.

‘When are you launching a chatbot?’, or ‘what are you doing about artificial intelligence’ are common questions thrown about on a regular basis today. These are leading to a real danger that marketers become ‘technology tragics’ and forget what they’re actually using the technologies for in the first place.  

Clearly this has been exacerbated by the rise of digital as a core element of the communication ecosystem. But if your communication is lacking, launching a new app or a chatbot will not solve your communication issues. Rather, they’re channels to leverage once your messaging content has regained its strength.

What is of absolute necessity is marketers acquiring the ability to identify, select and implement new technologies to support their strategies. But always bear in mind these are instruments, not strategies. The tools, channels and technology marketers use are only meaningful if they can add value in fulfilling a higher purpose, and the higher purpose is relevance.

Marketers therefore need to cultivate an unwaveringly focus on what will make their brands meaningful, communicating with substance how and when it really matters, and not be distracted by the noise.

Holding the keys to building rapport and relationships with customers is what marketers should be all about. By doing so, they will help organisations evolve and transform themselves to better match their customer needs and aspirations. This places marketing in an opportune leadership position to steer organisations, and why research firms like Gartner believe that more CMOs will move to CEO roles in the near future to make their organisations more relevant today and tomorrow.

 

Tags: digital marketing, brand strategy, marketing technology

Show Comments

Latest Whitepapers

More whitepapers

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in