Three Big Challenges Marketers Face

Our lives as marketers has expereinced tectonic shifts in the last few years. Life, honestly, has never changed so fast as it is now. This has meant that there is a constant challenge balancing the need to adjust to these changes and complete the marketing efforts that are already underway. In my opinion, the following three aspects have meant big changes for the marketers

• Ubiquity of technology

Use of techology to channel and calibrate marketing as well as gain insights from consumers is probably the biggest change in the enviroment. Internet and mobile phones have ensured that the power to access and exploit technology extends to all sections of the society and across the globe. This has lead to marketers having to redefine the channels they will use to promote and distribute products. Graplling with this is a tough challenge.

• The See-Saw battle between Cost Leadership and Preserving the Premium

Brands have been on a constant attack from the competition to be competitive on cost and at the same time having to preserve a premium to secure margins for the brand. The ease of imports, globalization of markets and wavering global economies have ensured that the battle for the least cost products is very fierce. At the same time brands need to focus on how they will differentiate themseselves out of the commodity traps which are omni-present in the marketplace.

• The Stickiness of the Old

Coupled with this is the tendencies of companies, marketers and agencies to stick to old habits and methods of buying media, understand customers, innovativeness in bringing products to the market and pacing the product development lifecycle. While it is felt that companies have fundamentally changed their approach, it is is commonplace to find marketers stuck with old methods of execution. For those who question this observation, a simple test would be to compare the media channel they used in the last five years. If this has not changed fundametally, there is a need to review this approach. Urgently!

Being a marketer has never been easy but right now the challenge is more than even before. But hey, that is what makes marketing such an interesting field!