Where Marketing Is Headed In 2007

There are plenty of viewpoints about where marketing is headed in the near future, but most of these perspectives are from pundits who represent the “selling” side of marketing. That is why it is great to see these 10 marketing prognostications from Bob Liodice representing the client “buying” side of the business. Liodice is CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), a large group that influences a great deal of the collective spending, thought and clout for advertising and marketing in any given year.

Liodice outlines ten transformations in 2007 that will have substantial marketing consequences:

1. Marketers will abandon their historic ‘command and control’ model of brand building in favor of a truly interactive dialogue with consumers. 
2. Agencies will be turned on their heads, with their efforts increasingly tied to client brand performance.
3. The chief marketing officer will rise in stature as a C-suite player.
4. Marketing will become increasingly unconventional – tapping into social networking, word-of-mouth, local events and more – to break through media clutter, consumer multi-tasking and the growing cacophony of marketplace noise.
5. Media buying and selling will be transformed into something new by automation, transparency and online opportunities.
6. Government policymakers, consumer advocacy groups and brand marketers will begin to find common ground.
7. The marketing organization will undergo a top-to-bottom reinvention, providing better professional education and skill-building, with a focus on enhancing creativity, strategic alignment and, ultimately, brand stewardship.
8. Research will become the next frontier in the accountability equation.
9. Archaic business systems and back office operations will be overhauled to lower costs, increase efficiencies and redeploy non-working dollars to hard-working, productive investments.
10. Continuous marketing reinvention will become the mantra of marketing executives and the cornerstone philosophy for successful brand building, integrated marketing communications, marketing accountability and the marketing organization.

Liodice and the ANA have seen the writing on the wall, and the above list demonstrates the old status quo in marketing is no longer acceptable to any organization that wishes to grow.