Marketing: Complexity and time pressure cause problems for Swiss companies
This year's ZHAW Swiss Marketing Leadership Study on "Complexity and Dynamics in Marketing" shows that Swiss companies need much more time to work out their concepts and strategies and have less and less time to implement the solutions.
The majority of Swiss companies have too little time available than they actually need due to the increasing dynamics. The growing intensity of competition, increasing social digitization and changing consumer behavior are among the most frequently cited challenges.
Although the majority of Swiss companies want to respond to these challenges with the necessary speed, just under half do not see themselves in a position to do so. This situation of rapidly changing framework conditions and simultaneously increasing complexity was illustrated in the study in a time gap. Most of the 400 companies surveyed see themselves in the critical area.
Experimentation as a new strategy
In future, successful companies will not only have to continuously expand their knowledge, but also actually use it to generate competitive advantages. This so-called absorptive capacity is an important resource for driving innovation forward. The study results underline the importance of companies' collaborative and absorptive capabilities. The ability to collaborate is a central prerequisite for absorptive capabilities.
However, many Swiss companies are still struggling with external collaboration in particular. Although great efforts have been made, this also requires adjustments to the corporate culture. Internal structures need to be reconsidered and adapted so that they can cope with the new challenges. Trying things out and experimenting should become a strategy, and new and lateral thinkers have the best chance of getting involved now.
Silos and the "gardening mindset" must go
In order to enrich the results of the quantitative survey of this study, a CMO study was also conducted in which a total of 14 Chief Marketing Officers from different industries were asked about the same topic area in qualitative interviews. The CMOs focus primarily on agility, new corporate structures, uncompromising customer orientation and better use of available (customer) data through the use of modern technologies.
Active collaboration is just as important. Silos and the familiar "garden-variety thinking" are still all too present in Swiss companies. In the past, marketing was located at the end of the value chain; today, CMOs must assume joint responsibility for growth targets and the transformation of the company. The CMO of the future must combine analytics and creativity, have an affinity for technology and be willing to cooperate.
At the Swiss Marketing Leadership Study 2019 A total of 400 medium-sized and large companies took part in the quantitative survey. The target group was defined as marketing managers (owners, managing directors, marketing, customer relationship management or product marketing managers). The 400 questionnaires completed online included a mix of companies from different sectors and of different sizes. An online questionnaire was programmed for the survey, which was sent to Swiss companies via a large panel provider. In accordance with the objectives of the study, the population of the trend study is made up of medium-sized and large companies in Switzerland.
This requirement applies to companies with at least 50 employees. Public and agricultural companies were excluded from the survey. Furthermore, the survey was only conducted in German and French for reasons of research economy.
In order to obtain the necessary depth as well as breadth, a qualitative survey was conducted for the first time this year in a second step with 14 CMOs from well-known Swiss companies. These are the positions of Chief Marketing Officers or the equivalent role. The results of the quantitative study served as the starting point for the interviews.
