B2B and B2C marketers will face the gauntlet in 2013. Blame the pesky consumers for using their cell phones and tablets, forsaking network TV and cable, chattering away on social media, and demanding special products customized just for them. Welcome to the present and future of the brand experience.
1. The economy. The good news is the pent-up demand by consumers and businesses, but confidence in the domestic and global economy will teeter based on developments in the worldwide debt crisis. Domestic economic growth predictions, in the 3% range, are healthy.
2. Emerging markets, like Indonesia, Turkey and India are hot. They’ll purchase our goods, and infuse our culture with nationalistic styles and fashions. Thinking of opening an office in L.A.? You might want to scope out opportunities in Bombay first.
3. Content Hunger. Feed your customers tasty content, or they’ll go elsewhere. We’re not talking about endless pages designed solely to boost SEO, either. We’re talking the good stuff: content that informs, educates, entertains and cements a brand relationship with prospects.
4. Content marketing is destined to become the successor of cold calling; and a power tool for consumer and business-to-business advertising. You’ll need social media, a blog and landing pages and a plan for stitching them together.
5. The new brand experience. Consumers not only demand customized and personalized products, they want a voice in designing them. Soon, main stream consumers will invest in startups, micro invest in their favorite brands, and participate in the design and creative process of new products.
6. Transparency. Whether it’s ingredients, social action, safety or marketing, consumers want the real thing from their brands. S.C. Johnson, for example, lists all their ingredients on their cleaning products. See-through marketing is another way to allow customers to be close to their brands.
7. The New Media Mix gives a much bigger piece of the pie to social platforms, blogging and video content. About 86% of B2C and 91% of all B2B brands claim some involvement in content marketing. They use an average of 12 social media tactics (84%), website articles (83%) and enewsletters (50%).
8. Hyper Tasking. Consumers are tethered to their mobile devices, from the bathroom to the boardroom, which help them make the most of every minute. The dominant web function is search, so sites optimized for mobile will be the winners. Also, look for a predicted uptick in mobile ad spending.
9. Public Relations, according to Burrells Luce, will pick up the personalization theme through hyper-local placements that target niches, and target mobile users.
10. The Rise of the Editor. With the ever expanding universe of information that pelts us on desktops, smart phones, TVs, radios and tablets, consumers desperately need to separate the wheat from the shaf. Some programs will rely on marketing automation, e.g. super segmented email, and search. But we’re looking for the rise of the curmudgeon human editor to review information streams and decide what’s newsworthy, well written, and entertaining. Curating content will become almost as valuable as creating it.
11. Anxiety. Given the plethora of new tactics, technology and analytics, the ambivalence felt by marketers is not surprising. When asked about the effectiveness of a dozen new tactics, none scored more than 62% favorable and most responses were in the 38 to 49% favorable range.
So, you’re not alone.
It’s an exciting time to reinvent brands and marketing. We look forward to sharing what we learn in 2013.
Sources for this article include:
- Burrells Luce November 2012 Newsletter
- Search Engine Journal, Top Trends for 2013 Marketing
- Content Marketing Institute
- Ad Age, Online Ad Spending
- Sabatier Consulting, Forrester Web Analytics Forecast
- Trendspotting Trend Watch