Marketing Is Changing

Gaston Legorburu is Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of Sapient Nitro. He has coauthored 'Storyscaping-stop creating ads, start creating world'. This book talks about the changing landscape of marketing.

The sphere of influence of people heading marketing department has increased over time, along with the complexity of the responsibilities. As always, the customers still purchase based on the value they obtain. Therefore , the consumer need and behaviour remain critical in developing superior value proposition. However, the elements of the marketing mix used to deliver the value have become more complex, that is why the challenge of marketing have increased manifold.

If we talk in Indian context, some radical changes have taken place. Every year, the Dipavali gifting used to be big business opportunity, there are many companies whose entire years' profit depended upon Dipavali sales. But this year most of them were either out of business or big dip in their sales.with arrival of online marketing players like Mynta, Flipcart and Amazon the way gifting business is done changed overnight. Consumer now a days become more knowledgable, his search is based on the android phone, which empower his power to compare quality, rates as well as increase opportunity to grab a better deal.

This has compelled more and more companies to explore digital platform for garnering new business, but on the other hand They are continuing to carry the traditional baggage-this is the way they were doing here-from the past. Therefore going by traditionally in which the market functions have been handled by a wide variety of organisations, the full scope of holistic marketing, which needs to be the sphere of influence associated with the head of marketing is yet to be realised.

So in this fast changing scenario, role of marketing head is far more complex on e today, largely due to the changing consumer behaviour. The regulatory environment as well as growing market competition is much tougher for the brands. To top that there is huge proliferation of media options.

This new found competition and decreasing product life cycles have made development of new differentiated offerings that resonate with customers more challenging. Distribution channel management is now another challenging area as internet has opened new distribution channel. Promotion and price have further added complexity to the entire game plan as these are difficult 

This has left no choice for marketing heads but to learn new tricks of the trade and that too faster. He has to be able to take on multiple roles to provide integrated solution to address business needs. He should be able to forsee inflection points consumption, provides clear strategic shift wherever it is required, the ability to use the accumulated marketing knowledge and have a complete road map with contemporary initiatives that emable other functional areas to synergise with his domain i.e. Marketing. He should be able to work as a catalyst within the organisation to ensure that it respond to the rapid changes in the business environment.

Marketing Heads should now understand technology used in the process so that he may be able to explain future requirement of technology partner. He has stop picking from the basket offered by technology vendors or the committee recommends.

Time is changing and to stay in business time is primary essence for the current generation, to achieve an edge from the competitors in the marketing there is a need to strategically leverage technology to get pulse of this young generation. Many brands often overlook is the importance of being consistent in over all branding strategy. It is imperative to identify brands' position in the global marketing realm and target the right audience.