Gartner Analysts Discuss the Vital Role
Marketing Plays in Helping Organizations Flourish in Challenging
Times at the Virtual Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo, Aug. 31-Sept.
2
Marketers play a vital role in re-establishing and fortifying
connections across the stakeholder landscape—from customers to
business partners and employees, according to Gartner, Inc.
During today’s opening keynote at the Gartner Marketing
Symposium/Xpo, taking place virtually through Thursday, Gartner
analysts discussed the steps marketers should take to align
day-to-day activities, decisions and connections with customers,
business partners and employees to drive long-term organizational
goals and values.
“Now is the moment for marketing leaders to recognize and assert
their role as the chief stewards of these vital stakeholder
connections,” said Carlos Guerrero, senior director, advisory, in
the Gartner Marketing practice. “Marketing leaders must explore new
pathways to revitalize these stakeholder connections – for example,
solidifying brand purpose by leveraging partners across and beyond
the enterprise to create ties with like-minded external brands.
Marketers must also find ways to engage with their customers beyond
transactions.”
Strong Connections with Customers Drives Loyalty
Marketing’s ability to gather significant amounts of customer
data has helped build more sophisticated ways to develop products
and services, build journey maps and experiences, and target
timely, relevant messages to customers. However, data and insights
alone don’t build strong, symbiotic connections with customers.
“Lately, marketing leaders have been guilty of conflating ‘what
we know about our customers’ with truly knowing their customers,”
said Guerrero. “’What we know’ gets to all the data and information
marketers have been able to gather about their customers. But truly
‘knowing’ the customer requires a connection and establishing
two-way channels through which valued information flows.”
Marketing leaders must reset expectations that data collection
alone means they know the customer, and instead they should use
that data to understand why customers make the choices they do and
find meaningful motivators that build strong connections with those
customers.
“Building connection means understanding what your customers
care about, not just what they need to get done. This means
understanding them as a whole person, not just as a consumer of
your products and services,” added Guerrero.
Strong Connections with Business Partners Powers the
Organization
“Marketers are the voice of the customer. They have the digital
expertise, and they see how organizational workings contribute to
the customer experience or detract from it,” said Mike McGuire,
vice president analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice.
“Marketers are uniquely positioned to gather, interpret, analyze
and act on customer insights. This is their superpower, and it
needs to expand beyond serving marketing to empower those they
collaborate and work with.”
However, more than a third of digital marketers say that
cross-functional relationship building is the most difficult
activity they face. Building and maintaining strong connections
with business partners is a two-way street—one that focuses on
sharing challenges, listening to the challenges of partners and
applying collective strengths to solve problems.
To do this, marketers need to shift focus from solely
demonstrating and showcasing the value and contributions the
marketing organization makes to the bottom line, and incorporating
their partners—both internal and external—into that success.
Strong Connections with Employees Leads to Advocacy
“The vitality of the marketing organization is grounded in their
own people,” said Dorian Cundick, vice president, advisory, in the
Gartner Marketing practice. “The degree to which marketers
cultivate those employee connections can determine whether they’re
investing their limited energies and resources in nurturing a
thriving brand, or staving off threats from within.”
Gartner’s Consumer Behaviors and Attitudes Survey of more than
750 consumers in September 2020 revealed that 36% of employees had
spoken out against their own employer over the past year. In fact,
Gartner predicts that by 2022, 30% of crisis communications budgets
will be used in response to employees speaking out against their
organization. Marketing leaders must play a role in helping
employees feel more grounded, in control and part of something
bigger in order to invigorate performance, loyalty and brand
advocacy.
Marketing leaders should address change fatigue with their own
teams by building the team’s confidence and capability. In
addition, marketing leaders must steer employee activism towards
advocacy by offering employees something valuable and
empowering.
“To forge stronger connections, marketing leaders need to shift
their emphasis from trumpeting authentic commitment—telling the
world about all the good their organization is doing—to emphasizing
personal fulfilment—enabling their audiences, including their own
people, to be part of all the good they’re doing and to tell their
own stories of making the world a little better,” added
Cundick.
About the Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo
Gartner analysts discuss the key issues facing CMOs during the
Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo, taking place virtually August 31 –
September 2. This conference provides marketing leaders actionable
advice about the trends, tools and emerging technologies they need
to deliver business results. Gartner analysts address the biggest
opportunities, challenges and priorities marketers face today,
including data and analytics, customer experience, content
marketing, customer insight, marketing technology (martech) and
multichannel marketing. Follow news and updates for the event on
Twitter at #GartnerMKTG.
About Gartner for Marketers
Gartner for Marketers provides the objective, expert advice, and
proven tools that CMOs and other marketing leaders need to seize
the right opportunities with clarity and confidence, and to stay
ahead of the trends that matter. With in-depth research and
analysis, Gartner for Marketers helps you focus on the
opportunities with the greatest potential to deliver results. More
information on Gartner for Marketers is available online at
www.gartner.com/marketing. Follow news and updates from the Gartner
Marketing practice on Twitter and LinkedIn using #GartnerMKTG.
About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading research and
advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip business
leaders with indispensable insights, advice, and tools to achieve
their mission-critical priorities today and build the successful
organizations of tomorrow.
Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced
and data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions
on the issues that matter most. We are a trusted advisor and
objective resource for more than 14,000 organizations in more than
100 countries — across all major functions, in every industry and
enterprise size. To learn more about how we help decision makers
fuel the future of business, visit gartner.com.
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Kelly Blum Gartner +1 571 303 5754 kelly.blum@gartner.com
Gloria Omale Gartner Gartner + 44 (0) 1784 268 792
gloria.omale@gartner.com
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