The marketing of the future

MARKETING On October 6 and 7, 300 top executives from the German economy came together in Frankfurt. MTP - Marketing zwischen Theorie und Praxis e.V. organized the 10th Marketing Horizonte on the topic of "Lead or Die: Leading Marketing in the Future".A study conducted by the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Marketing und Unternehmensführung and MTP e.V. in the run-up to the congress was presented at the start of Marketing Horizons. The findings on the "marketeer of the future" place a number of demands on the university: the topics and demands on marketing associated with digitalization must be integrated into university teaching in a timely manner. All 560 managers, students and CEOs agreed that the areas of big data/data mining and mobile marketing will become more relevant to market-oriented corporate management by 2020, followed by CRM and social media management.Corporate culture is crucialThese results were examined in more detail in various presentations and panel discussions throughout the day. In his keynote speech, Gerhard Berssenbrügge, patron of the event and former CEO of Nestlé Deutschland AG, emphasized the importance of corporate culture in adapting to the changes brought about by digitalization. Anika Hähnel, Category Director Personal Care at Unilever Germany, called on students to believe in themselves more confidently. She also called on universities to include hands-on management, such as agency briefing, in the marketing curriculum. The Executive Vice President of BBDO Worldwide, Thilo Schotte, pointed out the success factors of a movement and praised working in interdisciplinary teams in which each member contributes their different strengths.Prof. Dr. Heribert Meffert sees digitalization as another major challenge for marketing, as the complexity and speed of the new framework conditions also place demands on corporate management. Jan Honsel, Country Manager DACH at Pinterest, emphasized that, in contrast to American companies, the infatuation with hierarchy in German companies, but also in the minds of employees, often works against reacting quickly to new directions. In future, marketing will have to focus even more on the customer.Pinterest as a discovery toolIn the second part, Jan Honsel presented the possibilities of Pinterest as a discovery tool through which brands can accompany consumers during the decision-making process. Robert Kämper, Chief Marketing Officer Lead at Microsoft, emphasized the importance of data-driven marketing and digital marketing automation. It is important to filter out the relevant data from big data and focus on the individual customer. In the second panel discussion on the topic of "Sustainable leadership in a digital world", various leadership models were discussed. In addition to the aforementioned shift from a rigid hierarchy to a flexible, professional management structure, the experts called for an intact corporate culture as a crucial prerequisite for being able to adapt quickly to changes in the market.Native Marketing & Word-of-MouthThe last part of the event focused on the media industry. Frank Vogel, member of the management board of G+J Media Sales EMS, discussed content solutions such as native marketing and word-of-mouth campaigns. The Director of Client Services at Burda Community Network, Michael Samak, presented a study on paid, owned and earned media and the importance of customer-to-customer recommendations, and in the concluding panel discussion on "Marketing in times of dying business models", creative solutions were discussed to counteract the publishing crisis.According to the experts, paid content will come, but the young generation is not prepared to pay for online content, at least at present, due to years of being taught to obtain information free of charge. Only one person in the auditorium IMG_0056 had a paid news app. Additional online integrations, customer-oriented data mining models, agency services and emotionalizing communities are currently being created to compensate for the decline in advertising revenue.Support neededBased on this year's theme "Lead or Die: Will Marketing Lead in the Future", the outcome of the congress can be summarized as follows: Marketing is definitely leading in the future! However, due to digitalization, it is more dependent than ever on the support of other areas of the company, which requires a holistic view of the company. All speakers agreed that focusing on consumers and their needs is a basic prerequisite for successful marketing in the future.