Originally published by Sarah Vizard, Raconteur.
Marketing budgets took a hit in 2023 as businesses looked to reduce costs. That means marketers are more focused than ever on getting the most from their investment, not just in advertising but in talent and technology as well. Sarah Vizard, Raconteur, spoke to four Marketing Chief's regarding their priorities for 2024, including Matt Pollington, CMO of The Cotswold Company.
One of the biggest trends in marketing and one of the things that we’re focused on is measurement. How do you spend your pound to get the best return? That leads to three things we have to think about: what we market, where we market it and how we market it.
For us, the what is a physical product, but it’s also a string of benefits: that it comes with a 15-year guarantee, options in terms of purchasing, a white-glove delivery service. The where is the really interesting bit, particularly in the context of being post-cookie. We’re an omnichannel business, 80% of our sales come through online, but we’ve got nine stores. And what we see is that there’s a much higher propensity for customers to purchase from us when they’re in the proximity of a retail format. That means rather than just spending pay-per-click pounds where there’s a customer, we’re really looking at the right mix not just of marketing channels but of spending where we’ve got the best chance to turn a potential customer into an active customer.
And then the how is really about constantly challenging and experimenting with different ways of using channels: direct mail or paid search or paid social –and how that interacts with the creative and the geographical element.
There are also another couple of other priority areas we are really cognisant of. The first one is talent. We’re a hybrid business with a lot of our colleagues on remote contracts. That comes with a lot of pros and cons, a lot of management and leadership challenges, but also great benefits in terms of flexibility. It’s great for our employer brand, particularly at a time when attracting attracting and retaining high-quality marketing talent is key. What we’ve seen in marketing is five-to-10 years of having ‘I-shaped’ talent, experts in areas like performance marketing. We’re now in a space where we need ‘T-shaped’ talent who have broader skills and are more commercially aware. That’s a challenge and an opportunity.
The second is AI. Every single marketer is already indirectly using AI; if they’re using Google or Meta services or any measurement technology, they are using a form of AI. Where it starts getting really interesting in the direct application of AI, how do we solve commercial opportunities and commercial problems using this technology?
Read the full article and hear from:
Kate Cox, CMO, BrightBid
Beatrice Bourdel, Strategic marketing communication director, Bayer Consumer Health
Sheila Joglekar Vashee, CMO, Figma
