Swiss Marketing Leadership Study 2018: Speed vs. consistency?

Companies want to follow digital trends while still creating emotions among customers and also tackling digitalization in product management. However, most companies do not have the data available to implement the trends that are relevant to them, and the Swiss Marketing Leadership Study 2018, which was conducted by the Institute of Marketing Management at the ZHAW School of Management and Law, found that continuity is crucial for brand management. Consistent brand management in the sense of clear differentiation from the competition is eminently important for the success of a company, and even in dynamic times, when digitalization and agility are in vogue, branding relies on the consistency and constancy of a brand. Employees play an important role in this, especially as they have a strong influence on the brand identity. Sustainability in brand management is also identified as a relevant trend by the companies surveyed, right after continuity.

Tension between speed and consistency in CRM

This year's trend topic "speed vs. consistency" is the subject of particularly controversial discussion in CRM. A slight majority of companies place a stronger focus on consistency than on speed. The development of channel usage and the importance of specific CRM trends show a bipolar picture: digitalization continues to advance, while personal contact with customers is becoming increasingly important for companies. The reason for this is the desire to emotionalize customers and customer relationships.

Speed through digitalization in product management

Digitalization has a strong impact on product management. The majority of Swiss companies surveyed agree that digitalization is making the market environment and product requirements more complex. However, thanks to data from all phases of the product life cycle, there are also opportunities to innovate their own performance. The digitalization of corporate processes enables product management to gather the necessary information across all phases of the product life cycle in order to tap into potential. Swiss companies understand this, but are still a long way from where they would and should be in terms of implementation. This is evident from the fact that only 22% of companies have smart connected products that collect analyzable data from the various phases of their life cycle.

Background and details

The "Swiss Marketing Leadership Study" will be published for the fourth time in 2018. The Institute of Marketing Management at the ZHAW School of Management and Law randomly selected 1968 medium-sized and large companies, 295 of which completed the questionnaire. The The detailed results of the study are available to download free of charge.