Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 6, Issue 3, Year 2016

Vol ume6, I s s ue3, 201 6

TheodorVal ent i nPURCĂREA

Edi t ori al :Market ers’W i sdom i n Del i veri ng W hatCust omers W ant

Cos t el I l i uț ăNEGRI CEA I oanMat ei PURCĂREA

Di gi talmarket i ng capabi l i t i es i nt oday' s evol vi ng di gi talworl d

Cos mi nTĂNASE

The Retai l ers’Market i ng St rat egy:Adapt i ng t ot he f ast -evol vi ng envi ronment

Madl enSERBAN

Bel i evi ng i nt ot he ent repreneuri alcont i nuum.

Resi l i ence hel ps adaptat i on and i nnovat i on makes ant i ci pat i on possi bl e

TheodorPURCĂREA

The pract i ce ofmarket i ng under t he pressure ofcont i nuousl y updat i ng t he market i ng capabi l i t i es pl atf orm

Editorial Board of “Holistic Marketing Management” (A refereed journal published four times annually by the School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University) Editor-in-Chief Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA

Bernd HALLIER

John SAEE

John L. STANTON

Léon F. WEGNEZ

William PERTTULA Levent ALTINAY

Andrew KILNER Dana ZADRAZILOVA Riccardo BELTRAMO Sinisa ZARIC Gabriela SABĂU Hélène NIKOLOPOULOU Vasa LÁSZLÓ Peter STARCHON John MURRAY Kamil PÍCHA Irena JINDRICHOVSKA

Holistic Marketing Management

President of European Retail Academy; President of EuCVoT, Member of the Astana Economic Scientists Club; Former Managing Director EHI Retail Institute, Germany, Chairman of the Advisory Board of EuroShop, Chairman of the Board of the Orgainvent, Trustee of EHI Retail Institute at GLOBALG.A.P. President - Association of Global Management Studies (USA); Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues; Former Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Management Systems, USA; Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, the Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology; Member of France’s National Academy of Scientific Research (CNRS); Director - ESB International Teaching and Research Exchanges, Reutlingen University, Germany Professor of Food Marketing, Erivan K. Haub School of Business, Saint Joseph’s University Philadelphia, USA; Director, Institute of Food Products Marketing, Editor, Journal of Food Products Marketing Secretary General, International Association of the Distributive Trade, AIDA Brussels; Member of France’s Academy of Commercial Sciences; Doctor Honoris Causa of NUPSPA (SNSPA) Bucharest; Hall of Fame of the European Retail Academy, Honored Personality 2015 Internet Marketing Professor, College of Business, San Francisco State University, USA Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Research Area Leader, Oxford School of Hospitality Management, Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, UK First MBA Director at the Rennes Graduate School of Business in France; Director of RAFME Research into Management Excellence; PhD (Cambridge), MBA (City, London) Faculty of International Economic Relations, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic University of Turin, Italy University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia Memorial University, Grenfell Campus, Corner Brook, Canada University of Lille 3, France Szent Istvan University, Hungary Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia Faculty of Business, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice Deputy Head of Department of Business Economics, University of Economics and Management, Prague, Czech Republic 1

Norbert HAYDAM Constantin ROŞCA Hans ZWAGA Roxana CODITA Dumitru MIRON Valeriu IOAN-FRANC Iacob CĂTOIU Virgil BALAURE Gheorghe ORZAN Luigi DUMITRESCU Marius D. POP Petru FILIP

Ion VOICU SUCALA Virgil POPA Alexandru NEDELEA Olguța Anca ORZAN Ana-Maria PREDA Ovidiu FOLCUȚ Doinița CIOCÎRLAN Marius Dan DALOTĂ Mihai PAPUC Gheorghe ILIESCU Costel NEGRICEA Alexandru IONESCU Tudor EDU Olga POTECEA Oana PREDA Nicoleta DUMITRU Monica Paula RAȚIU Elisabeta Andreea BUDACIA

Faculty of Business, Marketing Department, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa President of Romanian Scientific Society of Management - SSMAR Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences, Finland Technische Universität München, TUM School of Management Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest National Institute for Economic Research, Romanian Academy; Romanian Marketing Association; Romanian Distribution Committee Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca Dimitrie Cantemir University, Bucharest Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Management and Economic Engineering Department; University of Glasgow, UK, College of Social Sciences, School of Social & Political Sciences; Managing Editor, Review of Management and Economic Engineering Valahia University of Târgovişte Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University

Associate Editors Diana SOCA Irina PURCĂREA Dan SMEDESCU Art Designer Director Alexandru BEJAN

Holistic Marketing Management

2

“Holistic Marketing Management” (A refereed journal published four times annually by the School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University)

Volume 6, Issue 3, Year 2016

Contents

Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA - Editorial: Marketers’ Wisdom in Delivering What Customers Want……………………………………………………...………..4

Costel Iliuță NEGRICEA - Digital marketing capabilities in today's evolving digital world…..….......................................................................................7 Ioan Matei PURCĂREA Cosmin TĂNASE - The Retailers’ Marketing Strategy: Adapting to the fast-evolving environment…………………………………………………………….....17

Madlen SERBAN - Believing into the entrepreneurial continuum. Resilience helps adaptation and innovation makes anticipation possible………………………………23 Theodor PURCĂREA - The practice of marketing under the pressure of continuously updating the marketing capabilities platform…….………………………........27

The responsibility for the contents of the scientific and the authenticity of the published materials and opinions expressed rests with the author.

Holistic Marketing Management

3

Editorial: Marketers’ Wisdom in Delivering What Customers Want It is known that the relationship between the consumer behavior and identity is a dynamic one, individuals expressing who they are through consumer choices and behaviors, and attaching meanings to their behaviors (showing, for example, the social group they identify with) which leads individuals to re-construct their identities, consumers identities being constructed on fluid and subjective ideas, concepts and ethics. (Papaoikonomou, Cascon-Pereira, and Rayan, 2016) Digital-self construction, for instance, relies unconsciously on lived experience and mediated experience, while digital environments allow for more open self-expressions.

(Chen, 2016) Digital transformation and customer digital experience B2C or B2B Marketers are often surprised by the magnitude of different changes in customer behavior, despite the fact that may anticipate frequent changes. To know how to adequately organize and interpret data about these frequent changes in a way that informs strategic marketing campaigns can be a valuable skill for marketers in today’s always-connected world. There are a lot of realities (such as changeable buying behavior, channel and technology proliferation, data profusion etc.) marketers face today that necessitate transformation. (Conlon, 2016) And as we live, for example, in the era of Digital Darwinism (defined in 2011 by Brian Solis - principal analyst at Altimeter Group, and author of the book “The End of Business as Usual” - as the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than one’s ability to adapt), there is also a need for digital transformation (defined by Solis as the realignment of, or new investment in technology, business models, and processes to create new value for customers and employees and more effectively compete in an ever- changing digital economy), customer digital experience often serving as a primary catalyst for driving change, (Solis, 2016) and offerings being improved via social feedback. (Bughin, 2015) Focusing on building capabilities, and evolving with the new consumer decision journey In February 2015 McKinsey’s representatives underlined significant progress in five dimensions of the practice of marketing globally: taking advantage of the science of data and research to uncover new insights; exploiting the power of marketing to enhance the substance (the products, services, and experiences) offered to customers; having a clear brand story that echoes through cyberspace; creating simplifiers within each organization; being faster to market than the competition. (Gordon and Perrey, 2015) A month later, in March 2015, other McKinsey’s representatives expressed their belief that executives today need to prove considerable engagement focusing on building capabilities, and evolving with the customer.

(Hatami, McLellan, Plotkin and Schulze, 2015) In the same month, some of their colleagues argued that in order to transform marketing and sales capabilities to drive growth, executives should start by comparing their marketing and sales capabilities with best practice, measuring Holistic Marketing Management

4

both how much value is at stake in radically improving their marketing and sales performance, and what is the ROI on their current capability investments, enabling their companies to focus on building capabilities. (Delmulle, Grehan and Sagar, 2015) In October 2015, other McKinsey’s representatives expressed their belief that the so-called, in 2009, (Court, Elzinga, Mulder and Vetvik) “consumer decision journey” (involving shoppers taking advantage of technology, and including a feedback loop, after purchase customers pressuring products to perform and brands to deliver, on an ongoing basis, a superior customer experience) needs updating, and introduced (considering also a survey of Association of National Advertisers - see Edelman and Heller, 2015) “The new consumer decision journey” (brands actively shaping this journey becoming itself the defining source of competitive advantage, automation streamlining this journey steps, proactive personalization using information about a customer to instantaneously customize the experience, contextual interaction using knowledge about where a customer is in a journey to deliver them to the next set of interactions, and journey innovation extending the interaction to new sources of value for both the customer and the brand), hence the challenge of actively managing, measuring, and nurturing these new consumer decision journey so as to capture value. (Edelman and Singer, 2015) At the beginning of this year we received an email from “Ernan’s Blog” suggestively entitled “Chasm Remains Between What Customers Want and What Marketers Deliver”, in which the reputed Ernan Roman (Ernan’s Blog, Thu, January 28, 2016, 8:00 pm) showed that marketers must create tactics that define the brand message (not dilute it), considering the IBM Trend report “Listening to the Customer: 7 New Research Findings” which highlighted is “a massive perception gap between how well businesses think they are marketing and the actual customer’s experience,” while consumers faced with a purchasing decision with a purchasing decision need to clearly and quickly understand brand advantage, and brand identity needing to be in line with consumer values.

An interesting coincidence was that one year before, in January 2015, a global study by The Economist Intelligence Unit has been published, sponsored by Marketo (there were surveyed 600 high-level marketing executives globally to assess their views on the future), this study revealing, among others, that in order to support the business marketers (each marketer quickly building on the knowledge that came before) know they need to change to better, seeing the rise of disruptive competitors and new technologies, and identifying four trends: a broader view of customer experience; metrics for revenue and engagement; the talent hunt; the ecosystem in the future. (The Economist Intelligence Unit, January 2015) In what concerns the European marketers, they acknowledge (there were surveyed 262 high-level marketers from Western Europe) the necessity of updating their skillsets to meet the changing needs of the business, beginning to take greater ownership of the customer experience and adopting aggressively the digital engagement and innovative technologies. (EIU-Marketo)

Holistic Marketing Management

5

And paraphrasing T.S. Eliot (cited by Eric Bonabeau in Harvard Business Review), we strongly believe that it is marketers’ duty in relation with their organizational culture to pay attention to not losing the wisdom in knowledge, and to not losing the knowledge in information.

Theodor Valentin Purcărea Editor – in – Chief References Bonabeau, E., Predicting the Unpredictable, Harvard Business Review, March 2002 Issue, https://hbr.org/2002/03/predicting-theunpredictable&cm_sp=Article-_-Links-_-End%20of%20Page%20Recirculation Bughin, J., Brand success in an era of Digital Darwinism, McKinsey Quarterly, February 2015, http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/hightech/our-insights/brand-success-in-an-era-of-digital-darwinism Chen, C.-P., Forming digital-self and parasocial relationships on YouTube, Journal of Consumer Culture, Volume 16, Number 1, March 2016, Sage Publications Ltd., pp.234-235 Conlon, G., What Change in Customer Behavior Will Impact Marketing Most in 2016? January 06, 2016, http://www.dmnews.com/customerexperience/what-change-in-customer-behavior-will-impact-marketing-most-in-2016/article/463187/ Conlon, G., What Skills Should Marketers Master in 2016? January 15, 2016, http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-strategy/what-skills-shouldmarketers-master-in-2016/article/465370/?

Conlon, G., What Should Marketers Do Differently in 2016? January 20, 2016, http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-strategy/what-shouldmarketers-do-differently-in-2016/article/466183/?

Court, D., Elzinga, D., Mulder, S. and Vetvik, O.J., The consumer decision journey, McKinsey Quarterly, June 2009, http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-consumer-decision-journey Delmulle, B., Grehan, B., and Sagar, V., Building marketing and sales capabilities to beat the market, Article - March 2015, http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/building-marketing-and-sales-capabilities-to-beat-the-market Edelman, D. and Heller, J., The marketer strikes back, October 2015, http://www.mckinseyonmarketingandsales.com/the-marketer-strikes-back Edelman, D., and Singer, M., The new consumer decision journey, October 2015, http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-andsales/our-insights/the-new-consumer-decision-journey Gordon, J., and Perrey, J., The dawn of marketing’s new golden age, McKinsey Quarterly, February 2015, http://www.mckinsey.com/businessfunctions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-dawn-of-marketings-new-golden-age Hatami,H., McLellan, K., Plotkin, C.L., and Schulze, P., Six steps to transform your marketing and sales capabilities, March 2015, http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/six-steps-to-transform-your-marketing-and-sales-capabilities Papaoikonomou, E., Cascon-Pereira, R. and Rayan, G., Constructing and communicating an ethical consumer identity: A Social Identity Approach, Journal of Consumer Culture, Volume 16, Number 1, March 2016, Sage Publications Ltd., pp. 226-227.

Solis, B., Digital Darwinism: Who’s Next? September 30, 2011, http://www.briansolis.com/2011/09/end-of-business/ Solis, B., The Race Against Digital Darwinism: The Six Stages of Digital Transformation, April 26, 2016, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/raceagainst-digital-darwinism-six-stages-brian-solis *** The rise of the marketer. Driving engagement, experience and revenue, The Economist Intelligence Unit, January 2015, https://cmo.marketo.com/assets/Uploads/The-Rise-of-the-Marketer-Driving-Engagement-Experience-and-Revenue.pdf *** The Rise of the Marketer - Western Europe, The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015, EIU-Marketo-The-rise-of-the-marketer-WEurope-Executive-Summary-Updated, http://futureofmarketing.eiu.com/insights/index.html

Holistic Marketing Management

6

Digital marketing capabilities in today's evolving digital world Dr. Costel Iliuță NEGRICEA Ioan Matei PURCĂREA Abstract Romania’s digital infrastructure makes it an attractive place to start a tech business fertile according to Quartz, but its pool of talented product developers need sales and marketing skills, learning the important lessons of best practices. Digitization is transforming globally the way industry functions from supply chains to production to customer experience, companies being forced to continuously innovate. Digital marketing capabilities have become one of the most important marketing capabilities. The Romanian users’ mobile internet consumption knew a considerable increase in the last years, while mobile telephony penetration rate is impressive.

Globally, as shown by Deloitte’s Global Mobile Consumer Trends, 1st Edition, 2016, mobile proves to be indispensable in today’s always-connected world, and businesses must consider the key trends shaping the future of mobile connectivity. In order to advance on the way towards adopting the big corporate practice of mobile perfection, it is important to make practical steps.

Other valuable researches revealed key insights in managing digital marketing activities, and key trends such as digital transformation moving from digital silos to integrated teams, considering the increasing talk of a need for a post-digital marketing world, without neglecting the challenge of integrating digital and traditional marketing. As it is not an easy task to apply the many digital channels and technologies to a business, it is worth having a better understanding of the core skills needed by today’s digital marketer.

Keywords: Digital Marketing Capabilities; Mobile-first; Customer Engagement improvement; Organizing for Growth JEL Classification: L86; M15; M31; O33

Digital marketing capabilities ranked as one of the most important marketing capabilities, but digital tops company gaps in marketing capabilities At the end of August this year, a distinguished member of the Editorial Board of the Holistic Marketing Management Journal attracted our attention on an article published in the well-known “Les Echos”, France, and entitled “And if Romania would become the Silicon Valley of Europe?” (Moreira, 2016) This article’s author showed that: with a maximum throughput of up to 73.6 Megabits per second (Mbps) in the fourth quarter 2015, the Romanian internet was thus far ahead of the United States (ranked as the 20th) and France (52nd), according to the quarterly “State of the Internet” report (now in its 9th year of publication) published by Akamay, Holistic Marketing Management

7

the world’s leading content delivery network (CDN) provider (which uses its globally distributed Intelligent PlatformTM to process trillions of requests each day; Akamay’s advanced web performance, mobile performance, cloud security, and media delivery solutions are revolutionizing how businesses optimize consumer, enterprise, and entertainment experiences for any device, anywhere). In average rate, Romania is ranked as the 10th in the area covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa and as the 19th in the world, while France is ranked as the 21st on the European level and 44th in the world. The article mentioned above also highlighted that the speed of the Internet is not the only argument for Romania, which joined the European Union in 2007 and is now the second-fastest growing economy in Europe, after Ireland, according to Quartz, which also noted, among others, the following: • Romania’s digital infrastructure (a strong telecoms infrastructure, a STEM-focused education system, the third-highest percentage of women working in ICT in Europe etc.) makes it an attractive place to start a tech business fertile considering both the fertile soil for cultivating young developers, and the access to investment capital which still remain the main challenge holding the industry back; • Romania needs an internal marketing team (not just need foreign investment), because the pool of talented product developers (created by the Romanian education system) need sales and marketing skills.

This approach allows us to put some ideas together, in order to learn the important lessons of best practices, making connections with different experiences, such as shown below: • Digitization is transforming the way industry functions from supply chains to production to customer experience (the traditional customer-supplier experiences can be significantly improved by the digital capabilities), B2B buyers, for example, increasingly preferring digital; the way industrial companies interact with and serve their customers can be profoundly reshaped by digital, for example online marketplaces (such as Amazon Business and Alibaba) virtually connecting unlimited buyers and sellers, or suppliers are using faster datadriven tools to optimize pricing, and also sales representatives are making use of targeted insights about products to sell, customers’ success stories, and simulations run with the customer during the sales visit; a successful digital transformation of an organization presupposes a thoughtful approach to change management, and additional value is created by people applying the technology in their daily jobs; (Caylar, Naik and Noterdaeme, 2016) • Companies are forced to continuously innovate (increasing the total number of products they have to source, make, store, pick, deliver, service and recycle) by unpredictable consumer behavior and heightened market competition; (Llamasoft, 2016) • Companies which don’t have a rapid analytics capability in the actual environment (where the only thing you can be certain of is uncertainty) could be left behind if they don’t Holistic Marketing Management

8

prove the ability to test scenarios to inform supply chain decisions, and to use analytics in supply chain design and planning; (Gibbs, 2016) • Within the context of seeing throngs of people playing the new augmented-reality game Pokémon Go, LLamasoft’s industry-leading supply chain management software recently built (wanting first to find the shortest path to cover all the stops, because speed is of the essence in the Pokémon journey) a transportation network model in Supply Chain Guru with demand originating at each of the Poké Stops (places where you can collect free items and potentially catch Pokémon) and Poké Gyms (places where you can train Pokémon) to find the shortest means to serve all of them; then LLamasoft added new constraints into the model to determine a route which would allow visiting the maximum number of locations, considering starting from a specific point, and then mixing in some options to multi-task to other places near the specific point; (Potluri, B. and Pinkert, 2016) • As better practices are implemented and new channels emerge, the way brands market and advertise is constantly changing, mobile continuing to outpace desktop, and consumers wanting personalized and relevant content (according to the head of Revcontent’s marketing strategies); 6 out of 10 apps most used globally are messaging apps (according to CMO.com); 86% of consumers suffer from banner blindness, meaning they can’t recall the last display ad they saw (according to Adotas); 68% of people spend time reading about brands that interest them (according to DemandMetric); researchers found that colored visuals increased people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80% (according to Xerox); 78% of CMOs think custom content is the future of marketing (according to DemandMetric); you’re more likely to become a Navy SEAL than click on a banner ad (according to HubSpot); 72% of UK shoppers find personalization of product recommendations based on purchasing habits a “cool” capability when shopping (according to Econsultancy); consumer’s average attention span is 8 seconds, 1 second less than a goldfish, dropping 4 seconds since 2000 (according to Marketing Insider Group); marketers are investing more heavily in the tools that help create a great customer experience (according to Kapost); 64% of marketers see social media as a critical enabler of products and services (according to CMO.com); within the next 5 years, 75% of marketing budgets will focus on digital, versus the 25% of the past (according to Business 2 Community); 29% of video viewing in the U.S. occurs on mobile devices (according to CMO.com); people are more likely to visit a B2B tech company’s website after seeing a TWEET to becoming a LEAD (according to KoMarketing Associates); 86% of consumers say they feel ads are necessary to get FREE content online (according to Adweek); (McDermott, 2016) • Online forms can benefit different areas of an organization, for example: marketing department can use embeddable forms to increase sign-ups and conversions, and also to boost enrollment (according to a Formstack infographic); (Jarski, 2016) • Rank order of most important marketing capabilities to an U.S. organization (1= top rank; lower score means more important) looks as follows: brand development and management Holistic Marketing Management

9

capabilities – 3.5; customer focus capabilities (include actions that prioritize the customer) – 4.2; digital marketing capabilities (include digital strategy, social media, and mobile marketing activities) – 4.3; customer development and management capabilities – 4.3; marketing innovation capabilities – 4.9; marketing analytics capabilities – 5.2; creative capabilities – 5.5; Omni-channel execution capabilities – 5.9; agency management capabilities – 7.3 (according to The CMO Survey Highlights and Insights August 2016, the 17th administration of The CMO Survey, being surveyed 2956 top U.S. marketers at for-profit companies; survey in field from July 12, 2016 - August 1, 2016); • Top gaps in an U.S. organization’s marketing capabilities (1= top rank; lower score means bigger gap) looks as follows: digital marketing capabilities – 1.7; customer development and management capabilities – 1.9; marketing innovation capabilities – 1.9; Omni-channel execution capabilities – 1.9; brand development and management capabilities – 2.0; marketing analytics capabilities – 2.1; customer focus capabilities – 2.1; creative capabilities – 2.2; agency management capabilities – 2.4 (according to The CMO Survey Highlights and Insights August 2016); • Marketing’s role has broadened in the last five years, and the percent of U.S. companies using marketing analytics in digital marketing decision area (where question was asked for the first time in February 2016) increased from 36.7% in February 2016 to 39.1% in August 2016 (according to The CMO Survey Highlights and Insights August 2016).

Keeping pace with customer behavior evolving to be mobile-first, and connecting better with him by leveraging mobile The Romanian National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) is the body that protects the interests of the communications users in Romania, by promoting competition in the communications market, ensuring the management of scarce resources and encouraging innovation and efficient investments in infrastructure. On August 4, 2016, ANCOM released (after public consultation on18 May 2016 and summary of comments on 28 July 2016) the discussion paper on ANCOM strategy for digital communications 2020. On February 23, 2016 ANCOM announced the updating on Veritel.ro (the online application for comparing telecom offers) of the consumption values configuring the profile of an occasional, average and intensive mobile telephony and mobile internet user (on the basis of the most recent statistical data at that time), the data processed by the ANCOM indicating that: the Romanian users’ mobile internet consumption doubled in the second half of last year compared to the first half of the year; an average user of mobile telephony and internet services consumes 336 MB mobile internet traffic a month (compared to 167 MB in the previous reporting period), sends 74 national SMS (of which, 62 on-net and 12 off-net) and call (on average) 245 minutes from their own terminal both on-net (177 minutes), and off-net (68 minutes).

Holistic Marketing Management

10

On the occasion of a presentation delivered during the “ZF Mobilio‘16”, an event organised by Ziarul Financiar, ANCOM’s President showed, among others, that: by the end of 2015 in Romania there were 14.7 million broadband mobile connections (an increase by 22% in one year); 4G connections increased almost 3 times and a half in one year (from less than 800,000 in 2014, to 2.7 million in 2015), confirming both the Romanian users’ interest for high performance terminals, mobility and speed, and the operators’ increased investment in networks in the recent years contributing to the rise and upsurge of the demand for such services; at the end of 2015 there were 23.1 million active users of these services in Romania (1% more compared to 2014); the number of subscription-based users reached 10.7 million (+8%), but the number of active prepaid cards decreased by 5% (to 12.5 million); at the end of 2015 mobile telephony penetration rate per 100 inhabitants reached 116.4%, while SMS messages reached over 20 billion (3% more than in 2014), and more than half of the voice traffic being achieved by subscription-based users (40% of the SMS traffic being achieved by such users).

It is worth mentioning, within this framework, that according to a qualitative study - on user’s needs & perceptions in relation with electronic communications services - conducted in September-October 2015 by Mercury Research for ANCOM: the younger segments predominantly use mobile communication services (mobile or Internet phone) and fixed Internet, while more advanced age segments show a greater propensity for voice (mobile and fixed); the use of communications services by business segments (IT specialists, companies, equipment manufacturers, online service providers, media), academics and authorities, is varied and influenced in large measure by the professional side, sometimes the need for certain services being triggered by its use at work. (Mercury Research, 2015) It is a well-known fact that in the first half of 2015 there were over 5.2 billion mobile phone users comprising 73% of the global population. (Meeker, 2015) As shown by Oracle: mobile users already overtook in 2014 the number of desktop users; the number of global Internet users (2.8 billion) will be soon overtaken by the smartphone subscriptions (currently 2.1 billion), the average person spending today close to 3 hours each day engaged with his devices; businesses must evolve the various ways in which they interact with their customers and prospects keeping pace with customer behavior evolving to be mobile-first; as customers will increasingly use their mobile devices to contact customer service organizations with their service inquiries service, these last ones must bridge the gap between mobile behavior and customer service, what implies a strategic review of value drivers combined with a tactical search for relevant use cases. (Oracle, 2016) On the other hand, according to Deloitte’s Global Mobile Consumer Trends, 1st Edition, 2016, mobile proves to be indispensable in today’s always-connected world, survey’s findings (this survey being the biggest and most extensive to date, covering 6 continents, 31 countries, and 49,500 respondents representing close to 70% of the world’s total population which, and focusing on consumer behaviors, trends and opinions for a broad range of wireless and mobility products and services), indicating five key trends shaping the future of mobile connectivity: Holistic Marketing Management

11

mobility comes in all shapes and sizes (smartphones, wearables, tablets); consumers can’t get enough mobile screen time (all mobile consumers globally check their phones within three hours of waking up, checking their phones around 40 times per day); text and instant message are consumer favorites (first thing every day consumers are most commonly checking text messages and instant messages); mPayment usage is picking up speed (approximately 40% of the consumers globally are concerned that mobile payments are not secure enough); network versus Wi-Fi – a regional preference (though 4G provides substantially faster speeds, the activities / applications people use most don’t require high-bandwidth services, e.g., email, search).

It is also worth remembering that according to annual global study led by Deloitte and entitled “The future of mobility” (providing a comprehensive analysis of the supply and demand relationship between consumers and mobile digital devices), there are some very significant findings, such as: 4G is becoming mainstream, the driving forces behind its adoption being the early adopters and early considerers are the driving forces behind 4G adoption; smartphone ownership is dominant among digital devices, and online purchasing channels can take over offline channels while changing the value chain; as consumers are reluctant to pay for mobile apps, app developers need to diversified revenue sources in order to reduce risks, app-based mobile payment solution leading hardware-based; key to success for ecosystem players is to develop a wide array of application scenarios; younger age group showed more willingness towards mobile banking; Internet of Things devices most likely to become popular in the next 3 years are “connected home entertainment” and “connected individual devices” etc. (Deloitte, 2015) As we have seen above, mobile is continuing to outpace desktop. In order to advance on the way towards adopting the big corporate practice of mobile perfection, CEO and Chairman of Alumnify Inc. (which creates connections by bridging the gap between alumni and their organizations) recommends some practical steps (preceded by a testing process in place, and keeping constant innovation after these steps): to be in the right place at the right time (by sending company’s target market an offer whenever they come within a certain distance of company’s store, and making a dedicated app or an online game); to give customers some fresh exclusive content, and deals (keeping people interested by giving them a reason to actually pick up company’s mobile app); to prioritize customer engagement improvement (keeping people tied to company’s brand by providing ways in which company’s customers can get involved with its latest project). (Agraval, 2016) Key insights in managing digital marketing activities, and core skills needed by today’s digital marketers The findings of a valuable research report based on a survey (exploring the approaches businesses use to plan and manage their investments in digital marketing, and received over 1,500 answers) of Smart Insights members and Technology for Marketing 2016 attendees – Holistic Marketing Management

12

event, 28-29 September, London – as of 8 February 2016, revealed respondents’ opinion in relation the digital marketing activities with the greatest commercial impact in 2016: Content marketing – 22%; Big Data (including market and customer insight and predictive analytics) – 17%; Marketing Automation (including CRM, behavioural Email marketing and web personalisation) – 13%; Mobile marketing (Mobile advertising, site development and apps) – 2%; Social media marketing (including Social CRM and Social Customer Care) – 8%; Wearables (e.g. Apple Watch, activity trackers, augmented reality) – 6%; Conversion rate optimisation (CRO / improving website experiences) – 5%; Internet of Things (IoT) marketing applications – 4%; Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – 3%; Communities (Branded niche or vertical communities) – 3%; Online PR (including influencer outreach) – 2%; Paid search marketing (e.g. Google AdWords, Pay Per Click) – 2%; Display inc Programatic (Banners on publishers, ad networks social media including retargeting and programmatic) – 2%; Partnerships including affiliate and co-marketing – 1%. (Chaffey, 2016) The reputed David Chaffey highlighted, within the above mentioned context, that core to understanding trends in digital marketing are changes in consumer use of digital media and technology, continuing to see consumer decision behavior increase in complexity (citing also GfK research analysts who show the complexity of today’s customer journeys across multiple devices and through time, particularly for high involvement or high-value purchases).

Chaffey also showed that other key trends (beyond the increasing complexity of the purchase decision) to follow in 2016 will be: the use of mobile marketing (citing Mary Meeker’s State of mobile marketing reports published regularly as part of the 2015 Internet Trends report available from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers - KPCB), being seen a continued strong growth in mobile use, and mobile digital media time being now greater than desktop and other media; (Chaffey, 2015) digital transformation (from digital silos to integrated teams), considering the increasing talk of a need for a post-digital marketing world (as shown by the Y&R Chairman and CEO David Sable, who argued for example, that Digital Exponential done right is far more compelling than post-digital), (Sable, 2012) this post-digital thinking being driven by changes in consumer media consumption (to consuming content in different formats without consciously thinking about which devices or channels) and by problems of managing marketing activities because of digital silos (Chaffey insists on the fact that from the viewpoint of their digital capabilities many businesses are still at level 1 or 2 on a 5 point maturity scale, research showing that many businesses don’t have a digital marketing plan); (Chaffey, 2015) the rise of the Chief Marketing Technologist (within the framework of the shift in control of marketing technology from IT and Sales to Marketing); the challenge of integrating digital and traditional marketing (when it comes to planning their marketing many businesses have separate traditional marketing and digital marketing teams working independently).

At the end of September last year Chaffey invited companies to discover their business’s ability to Plan, Reach, Act, Convert and Engage, underlining that applying the many digital channels and technologies to a business is not an easy task, having to master a large number of Holistic Marketing Management

13

different disciplines, that is why Smart Insights listed 20 core skills needed by today’s digital marketer. (Allen, 2016) These digital marketing skills are the following: Affiliate marketing (beyond just a “pay-per-performance marketing” method); Analytical skills including reviewing digital analytics and business insight; Budgeting and Financial modelling skills; Community management; Content marketing (which is at the heart of digital marketing); Copywriting; Customer data and Marketing Insight; Customer experience design, personalisation and merchandising (including CRO); Customer service, support and assisted selling; Digital strategy development, governance and campaign planning (being recommended PR Smith’s SOSTAC® model (Chaffey, 2016) of situation analysis, objective setting, strategy, tactics, action, and control; in online marketing have to be applied to each part of the customer lifecycle as defined by the RACE planning system of Smart Insights); Development and coding (e.g. basic HTML, CSS, etc.); Email marketing, E-CRM and Marketing Automation; Graphic design (including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator); Mobile marketing; Online advertising and programmatic marketing; Pay per click / Google AdWords; PR and influencer outreach; Planning integrated, multichannel campaigns; (Smart Insights) SEO; Social Media marketing (setting goals for ROI and performance, creating an integrated strategy, and using tools and techniques to start a social listening programme).

Conclusions In our opinion it is worth concluding by highlighting some key findings from the challenging “Marketing2020 – Organizing for Growth” study led by Millward BrownVermeer in partnership with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Spencer Stuart, Forbes, MetrixLab, and Adobe, as well as the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and its organizations in China, Brazil, UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, and France.

Marketing 2020 CMO Brochure reveals that: “In today’s evolving digital world, what marketing does has changed beyond recognition, but how the function is organized has not changed much...

Marketers working on purposeful brands also report back that they are better able to preserve brand consistency as touch points increase and go digital… Winning brands deliver a total experience with increased relationship breadth and depth, creating a personalized and social experience across a multitude of touch points throughout consumers’ daily lives… The capabilities with the highest growth correlation are Consumer Understanding, Brand Positioning and Brand Strategy.” (Millward Brown Vermeer, 2014)

References Agraval, A., 3 Steps To Leverage Mobile So You Can Connect Better With Your Customers, Aug 2, 2016, retrieved from: http://customerthink.com/3-steps-to-leverage-mobile-so-you-can-connect-better-with-your-customers/ Allen, R., The Perfect Digital Marketer? August 22, 2016, retrieved from: http://www.smartinsights.com/managingdigital-marketing/the-perfect-digital-marketer/

Holistic Marketing Management

14

Caylar, P.-L., Naik, K. and Noterdaeme, O., Digital in industry: From buzzword to value creation, retrieved on 29.08.2016, from: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/digital-in-industryfrom-buzzword-to-value-creation?cid=digistrat-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1608 Chaffey, D., Marketing Trends for 2016 – Will we be in a post-digital era? May 13, 2016, retrieved from: http://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/marketing-innovation/marketing-trends-2016/ Chaffey, D., Insights from KPCB US and global internet trends 2015 report, June 11, 2015, retrived from: http://www.smartinsights.com/internet-marketing-statistics/insights-from-kpcb-us-and-global-internet-trends-2015report/ Chaffey, D., Our new interactive benchmarking tool lets you assess the digital marketing capability of your business, September 24, 2015, retrieved from: http://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digitalmarketing/capability-performance-review/our-new-tool-lets-you-assess-the-capability-of-your-business/ Chaffey, D., SOSTAC® marketing planning model guide, March 8, 2016, retrieved from: http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/sostac-model/ Chaffey, D., Introducing RACE: a practical framework to improve your digital marketing, January 20, 2015, retrieved from: http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/race-a-practical-framework-to-improveyour-digital-marketing/ Gibbs, P., Brexit: After the Vote – What’s Next for Supply Chains and Their Optimisation, July 6, 2016, http://www.llamasoft.com/brexit-vote-whats-next-supply-chains/ Jarski, V., How Online Forms Can Anchor Your Business [Infographic], September 3, 2016, retrieved from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2016/30602/how-online-forms-can-anchor-your-businessinfographic?adref=nlt090616 McDermott, K., 15 Marketing Statistics You Need To Know, March 21, 2016, retrieved from: http://blog.revcontent.com/15-marketing-statistics-you-should-know/ Meeker, M., Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, “Internet Trends 2015 – Code Conference,” May 27, 2015, cited in Oracle, Create a mobile-ready customer service strategy, June 2016, p. 2.

Moreira, E., Et si la Roumanie devenait la Silicon Valley de l’Europe? Le 28/08 à 17:30 Mis à jour le 29/08 à 15:26, retrieved on 29.08.2016, from: http://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/hightech/0211232790966-et-si-la-roumaniedevenait-la-silicon-valley-de-leurope-2023197.php Potluri, B. and Pinkert, A., Go Catch ‘Em All Ann Arbor: Using Transportation Optimization for Pokémon Go, August 3, 2016, retrieved from: http://www.llamasoft.com/go-catch-em-ann-arbor-using-transportationoptimization-pokemon-go/ Quartz, One of the poorest countries in the EU could be its next tech-startup hub, August 23, 2016, retrieved from: http://qz.com/763630/one-of-the-poorest-countries-in-the-eu-could-be-its-next-tech-startup-hub/ Sable, D., A “Post Digital” World, Really? May 2012, retrieved from: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/apost-digital-world-really.html *** akamai’s [state of the internet], Q1 2016 executive review, retrieved from: https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/state-of-the-internet/state-of-the-internet-report-connectivityexecutive-review-q1-2016-akamai.pdf *** The CMO Survey Reports, Latest Results – August 2016, https://cmosurvey.org/results/ *** http://www.ancom.org.ro/en/ancom_106

Holistic Marketing Management

15

*** Strategia ANCOM pentru comunicațiile digitale 2020, Document de poziție, 4 Agust, 2016, http://www.ancom.org.ro/uploads/articles/file/Strategia_de_Reglementare_20201469688911.pdf *** Un român apelează în medie 251 minute lunar de pe telefonul mobil, 23.02.2016, retrieved from: http://www.ancom.org.ro/un-roman-apeleaza-n-medie-251-minute-lunar-de-pe-telefonul-mobil_5521 *** 4G Connections Continue Upsurge, 16.05.2016, http://www.ancom.org.ro/en/4g-connections-2015_5570 *** Mercury Research, Studiu calitativ privind percepţia şi nevoile utilizatorilor de servicii de comunicaţii electronice, Octombrie 2015, http://www.ancom.org.ro/uploads/articles/file/strategie%202020/MercuryResearch_Raport_ServiciiComunicatiiElec tronice.pdf *** Oracle, Create a mobile-ready customer service strategy, June 2016, p. 2, 11. *** Deloitte’s Global mobile consumer trends: 1st Edition, Mobile proves to be indispensable in an alwaysconnected world, file:///C:/Users/Internet/Downloads/gx-deloitte-tmt-global-mobile-consumer-trends-report-firstedition.pdf, pp. 2 *** Deloitte’s The future of mobility, http://www2.deloitte.com/cn/en/pages/technology-media-andtelecommunications/articles/the-future-of-mobility-2015.html *** http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=253555678 *** Llamasoft, Cost-to-Serve Optimization Software and Tools, http://www.llamasoft.com/solutions/cost-to-serveoptimization/ *** Smart Insights, Integrated marketing communications, http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-buildingstrategy/integrated-marketing-communications/ *** MB Vermeer, Marketing 2020 Organizing for growth, Our Perspective, http://www.mbvermeer.com/portfolioitemmarketing2020/ *** Marketing2020 – Organizing for Growth, Aligning marketing strategy, structure and capability for business growth, http://www.mbvermeer.com/assets/2014/08/Millward-Brown-Vermeer-Marketing2020-Brochure.pdf

Holistic Marketing Management

16

The Retailers’ Marketing Strategy: Adapting to the fast-evolving environment

Cosmin TĂNASE Abstract Retail and modern commerce have been one of the interesting themes that I have addressed in the last years, in various articles and studies. It is relevant to mention that in 2005, under the coordination and guidance of Professor Theodor Purcărea, I worked with my colleagues at the Romanian-American University in the research group TOEMM, whose purpose was studying the retail market in Romania, which was at the beginning of its development at that time. Research carried out and the satisfaction of the obtained results determined me to continue my scientific work, but not limited to this area.

If in previous papers or studies, found in connection with the retail market, I mainly wrote about quantitative aspects, such as those related to geographical expansion and concentration of modern commerce in Romania, in this article I will address some theoretical aspects of the retailers’ marketing strategy, opening the perspectives for what could be an interesting research, involving the analysis of some of the major supply chains on the Romanian market.

Keywords: Consumers, Strategy Planning, Promotion, Audience, Globalization, Messages, Mission JEL Classification: L81, L82, M31, M37 As known, retailing already covers all of the activities involved in the sale of products to final consumers. Retailers range from large chains of specialized stores, to individual merchants. Some retailers operate from stores and others operate without a store—by selling online, on TV, with a printed catalog, from vending machines, or even in consumers’ homes.

First of all, before thinking about any strategy, the most important fact is that today's customer is better informed than ever before, and retailers take advantage of this by empowering those customers to do and learn more. Assisted selling devices give power to the people, right in the aisle .

In an era of increased mobility, consumers expect access to products and services anytime, anywhere. This need creates new opportunities for that

Holistic Marketing Management

17

are available twenty-four hours a day. Consumers require the highest level of convenience.

Most retailers sell physical goods produced by someone else. But in the case of service retailing—like fast food, tourist attractions, online bank accounts, or one-hour photo processing—the retailer is also the producer. Because they serve individual consumers, even the largest retailers face the challenge of handling small transactions.

And the total number of transactions with consumers is much greater than at other channel levels.

Retailing is crucial to consumers in every macro-marketing system. The nature of retailing and its rate of change are generally related to the stage and speed of a country’s economic development.

Planning a retailer’s strategy Retailers interact directly with final consumers — so marketing strategy planning is critical to their survival. If a retailer loses a customer to a competitor, the retailer is the one who suffers. Producers and wholesalers still make their sale regardless of which retailer sells the product.

Different consumers prefer different kinds of retailers. Like other organizations, retailers make marketing mix decisions about Product, Place, Promotion, and Price. For retailers, some of the Product decisions include choices about what products to carry, how much assortment to offer, and which services to support. Place decisions include where stores will be located—online and/or brick-and-mortar, the number of stores, as well as store layout and design.

Promotion involves letting customers know about the business and the goods and services offered through its in-store and out-of-store signage, advertising, salespeople, and other approaches. Price decisions are varied as well, and include, for example, whether to accept credit cards or charge for delivery, and how frequently to offer products at discounted sales prices.

In developing a strategy, a retailer should consciously make decisions that set policies on all of these marketing mix issues. Each of them can impact a customer’s view of the costs and benefits of choosing that retailer. The combination of these marketing mix decisions differentiates one retailer’s offering from another. These decisions affect its positioning in the market—how customers think about the retailer compared to others.

Holistic Marketing Management

18

A retailer must consider its target customers’ economic, social, and emotional needs. If the combination doesn’t provide superior value to some target market, the retailer will fail.

Some supermarkets and mass-merchandisers have moved toward becoming supercenters (or hypermarkets) — very large stores that try to carry not only food and drug items but all goods and services that the consumer purchases routinely. These superstores look a lot like a combination of the supermarkets, drugstores, and mass merchandisers from which they have evolved, but the concept is different. A supercenter is trying to meet all the customer’s routine needs at a low price.

Retailers have an almost unlimited number of ways in which to alter their offerings—their marketing mixes—to appeal to a target market. Because of all the variations, it’s oversimplified to classify retailers and their strategies on the basis of a single characteristic—such as merchandise, services, sales volume, or even whether they operate in cyberspace. But a good place to start is by considering basic types of retailers and some differences in their strategies.

Retail promotion includes advertising, public relations, publicity and sales promotion. The goal is to position the store in consumers’ minds. Retailers design ads, stage special events and develop promotions aimed at their markets. A store’s opening is a carefully orchestrated blend of advertising, merchandising, goodwill and glitter. All the elements of an opening—press coverage, special events, media advertising and store displays—are carefully planned.

Retail advertising is carried out at the local level, although retail chains can advertise nationally. Local advertising by retailers provides specific information a bout their stores, such as location, merchandise, hours, prices and special sales. In contrast, national retail advertising generally focuses on image.

A popular retail advertising practice is cooperative advertising. Under cooperative advertising, manufacturers pay retailers to feature their products in store mailers or the manufacturer develops a TV or print ad campaign and includes the name of the retailers carrying the product at the end.

Why retailers evolve and change The wheel of retailing theory says that new types of retailers enter the market as low-status, low-margin, low-price operators and then, if successful, evolve into more conventional retailers offering more services with higher operating costs and higher prices. Then they’re threatened by new low-status, low-margin, low-price retailers— and Holistic Marketing Management

19

the wheel turns again. Department stores, supermarkets, and mass -merchandisers went through this cycle.

I also find it interesting that audiences and markets tend to become somehow fragmented, making mass media less effective and increasing the need for more specialised and fragmented media. So communications tend to become customised for narrower and narrower markets, and customer contact is established by means of multimedia methods. There is an increasing reliance on highly targeted communications methods, such as database techniques and boutique channel (highly targeted TV channel) advertising.

Mainly as a result of technological evolutions and innovations, new marketing and marketing communications have become available. Scanning and database technology allow more in-depth knowledge of the consumer and, especially, a more personalised and direct approach to the consumer. Interactive media, such as the Internet, have contributed to a situation in which the relationship between the sender and the receiver of messages is less unidirectional. Social media and mobile applications have profoundly changed the way companies communicate with their stakeholders. Direct marketing and direct response communications also lead to a situation in which communications become more and more receiver-directed. Together with increased communications literacy on the part of the consumer, this leads to a market situation in which much of the power is at the receiving end, i.e. the receiving consumer decides what he or she will be exposed to and how he or she will react to it.

Indeed, the marketing situation has gradually shifted from a situation in which all the power of knowledge and control was in the hands of the manufacturer to a market in which the retailers are the strongest party. Today the balance is shifting towards a market in which the consumer is the most powerful agent. In fact, one could argue that integration is mainly technology-driven. New technologies and applications, such as the Internet, make the consumer less accessible, and force companies into a more integrated approach towards a fragmented and increasingly interactive communications situation which will make marketing communications more credible and more convincing.

Organizations are increasingly communicating with multiple audiences and stakeholders. Many of these stakeholders overlap. An employee may be a shareholder, a community leader may be a supplier, members of stakeholder groups are target customers, and all of them are exposed to different media. Furthermore, decision -making units in many of these stakeholder groups are increasingly complex, im plying that they have to be reached by means of different communications tools and channels. It is not necessary to give exactly the same message to all these audiences; on the contrary, Holistic Marketing Management

20

messages will have to be adapted to the stakeholders’ needs. Neverthe less, it is very important not to convey contradictory messages.

Consistent communications have to reflect the mission, corporate identity and core propositions of the organization to all target groups. Integrated communications provide a mechanism for identifying and avoiding message conflicts when communicating with these overlapping and complex target groups.

One of the trends in marketing today is the increasing importance of building customer loyalty instead of attracting and seducing new customers . This trend towards relationship marketing implies a much more ‘soft sell’ approach. Retailers focus upon building a long-term relationship with target groups by means of consistent interactive communications, rather than aggressively persuading the consumer to buy a company’s products.

Finally, markets are becoming increasingly global. Phenomena such as the Internet, but also the globalization of mass media and the increasing exposure of consumers and stakeholders to international communication stimuli, increase the need for consistency in everything the company communicates in all countries in which it markets its products.

Conclusions Marketing strategy and communications are the voice of a retailer’s brand. The role of marketing communications is to inform, persuade and remind consumers of the brand essence, to engage consumers in a dialogue and to build relationships, or even a brand community. Taking a long-term perspective of brand management, managerial efforts can be classified in two types of activities: brand building and brand-harming activities.

High advertising spending and investing in corporate social responsibility initiatives are examples of brand-building activities. Frequent use of price promotions, on the other hand, dilutes the brand in the long run and can therefore be classified as a brand-harming activity. Indeed, price cuts and other types of immediate material incentives may reduce the quality perception of brands and the potential of the brand to command a premium price. On the other hand, loyalty promotions may serve both as a reward for loyal customers and as a means of enhancing the loyalty-creating effect of brand strength with new customers.

Holistic Marketing Management

21

References [1] Hoyer, W.D. and MacInnis, D.J. (2007), Consumer Behavior, 4th edition, Boston, MA [2] Baumgartner, H. (2002), ‘Toward a Personology of the Consumer’, Journal of Consumer Research, 29 September [3] Areni, C.S. (2002), ‘The Proposition-Probability Model of Argument Structure and Message Acceptance’, Journal of Consumer Research, 29(2), 168–87.

[4] Voss, K.E., Spangenberg, E.R. and Grohmann, B. (2003), ‘Measuring the Hedonic and Utilitarian Dimensions of Consumer Attitude’, Journal of Marketing Research, 11(3), 310–20.

[5] Pham, M.T. and Higgins, E.T. (2005), ‘Promotion and Prevention in Consume r Decision Making: State of the Art and Theoretical Propositions’ [6] Hall, B.F. (2002), ‘A New Model for Measuring Advertising Effectiveness’, Journal of Advertising Research, 42 (March/April), 23–31.

[7] Kempf, D.S. and Laczniak, R.N. (2001), ‘Advertising’s Influence on Subsequent Product Trial Processing’, Journal of Advertising, 30(3), 27 –38.

Holistic Marketing Management

22

Believing into the entrepreneurial continuum.

Resilience helps adaptation and innovation makes anticipation possible An interview with Dr. Madlen SERBAN, Director of the European Training Foundation since 1 July 2009

Based in Turin, Italy, and operational since 1994, the European Training Foundation (ETF) is a decentralised agency of the European Union (EU) having a clear mission: to help transition and developing countries to harness the potential of their human capital through the reform of education, training and labour market systems in the context of the EU’s external relations policy. Having a PhD in social partnership in education and training from the University of Bucharest, Madlen Serban represented the Romanian government on the ETF’s Governing Board from 1998-2007, and Cedefop’s (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) Governing Board from 2007-2009. Dr. Serban has a broad international experience as an expert and evaluator for international organisations including UNESCO, USAID, the European Commission, OECD, the World Bank, and the ETF. It is worth mentioning that she has been Director of the National Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Romania before coming at the ETF. It is our honor and pleasure to share the respect for a “brand” that proves passion, authenticity, and accountability in serving and promoting a culture of excellence.

HMM: “Training”?

According to Aristotle (for him his “logic” was the instrument by means of which we come to know anything): there is no excellence without training and habituation, while moral virtues, like crafts, are acquired by practice and habituation, and if we are brought up in good habituation, we are already prepared to recognize the principles of good action.

Holistic Marketing Management

23

On the other hand, according to Robert Kiyosaki, training and discipline are good for confidence, while in the opinion of our Constantin Brancusi, to see far is one thing, going there is another.

What is your current vision of training and learning, and translating learning into daily practice, taking into account the “ETF’s strategic focus on vocational education and training policies and reforms which strengthen the employability of the labour force,” one hand, and the current challenge of identifying, building, and sustaining the capabilities employers need to continuously improve performance and deliver impact, on the other hand?

Dr. Serban: Professor Purcarea, your questions formulation reflects whom and how you are: well-trained, or maintaining the language of Aristotle’s “logic”, a knowledgeable person. I am impressed by the connection you made of training with philosophy, art and pragmatism that drives towards financial independence and confidence. A journey in time, geographically spanning the Planet.

Let me get inspired by you!

Since the ETF (the only EU agency acting under European external relations policies in support of human capital development) is in Turin, I suggest starting with Seneca’s view saying: “If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind”. At the very beginning of the current era, Seneca suggested that without vision, it does not make sense to start any search for how to act or look for support. Rightly so, Constantin Brancusi is reminding us that having a vision is necessary but not sufficient: you have to have ideas on how but also the capability to get there.

Well, training and learning is part of the two questions’ answer. Human capital is essential in our view for any endeavor, of any kind. Robert Kiyosaki is right in his strong views on the entrepreneurship role in the individuals’ career and personal development. We at the ETF we believe into the entrepreneurial continuum. That’s our vision!

Yes, it is suitable for individuals to become entrepreneurial, but acting alone they do not create the critical mass for sustainable advancement of themselves and of their societies. One cannot forget that in our time more than the bottom three quarters of the world population owns only 1% of the global wealth. This is about inequalities or lack of equal opportunity. We strongly believe that citizens should learn and be entrepreneurial, but the society should not create barriers, on the contrary it should induce and give reasonable guarantee for success. In other words, we see the continuum defined by collective action of the communities, institutions or the whole world of governance and the citizens. Not least, public policies should equally be entrepreneurial.

Holistic Marketing Management

24

I personally believe and I published on that, resilience helps adaptation and innovation makes anticipation possible. Together with risk taking and uncertainty successful navigation, for me, being entrepreneurial and the entrepreneurial continuum frames the required ecosystem.

I propose a brief and selective illustration of the concept that gives also a flavor of what the ETF does related to two continuum components, namely public policy making and community based human capital development. On the others, those interested can search on our website (www.etf.europa.eu) or address me.

The 29 partner countries of the ETF reflect much of the global diversity. They are either G20 or OECD members or middle or low income countries. From time to time, we say that ETF manages diversity. Thus, we have to ensure policy learning processes that are capable to contextualize and differentiate action accordingly. Still, there are common principles we associate with policy analysis that we propose for documenting all the phases of the policy cycle, like policy formulation, policy adoption, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and reformulation, when the case , which relaunches the cycle spiral. The principles focus on the public policy making process essentials, notably be evidence-based, participatory, holistic and owned by the country. These are elements of an entrepreneurial public policy that “invents the future”, associating policy choices which should be predictable in the expected results achievement (we suggest mitigating policy risks by using the ex-ante impact assessment method). This is our work with the Torino process.

“Inventing the future” translates at the ETF into public policies foresighting for human capital development. To our knowledge we are among the pioneers in this field. For sure, for the first time ever this has been done in the countries of South Eastern Europe, known also as Western Balkans. Turkey also pioneered Turkey also pioneered skills policies but being notably advanced in R&D&I and foresighting as a method.

The ETF methodology proposes approaching human capital as an asset of the country and not being fragmented between sectors. The method facilitates the reconciliation of distinct agendas of government, business and society as a whole. Business, employers and their associations are invited to play global first in the search for those economic sectors that are capable to generate competitiveness, economic growth and create jobs for a modernized cohesion of their societies.

This is a way to select priorities for investing the ever insufficient resources for human capital development. More information can be found looking for the ETF FRAME project (stands for Framing the future!).

As for the entrepreneurial governance that should be good, efficient, accountable and anticipatory, we suggest and support changing its focus from institutions driven towards community based. I know I risk not being popular among readers from the university world with such a statement that one can see it as putting in question the role of the university as transformation driver. But it is not about that. What I try to convey is that the university alone Holistic Marketing Management

25

cannot make it anymore! Without skills for technology transfer, the technological innovation remains in the laboratory. And having skills without knowing what they are for is almost equally destructive.

There are good practices on how to act together and at ETF they are named entrepreneurial communities. But, communities should be supported to become entrepreneurial too.

How? Based on their entrepreneurially discovered innovation potential!

Therefore we sustain building and fostering smart territories. This is by putting together in a quintuple helix logic, innovation & research & development with education and training or, as societal actors, government, education and training providers, business and civil society for generating sustainable development. With that, we add to human, cultural and intellectual capitals, another crucial capital: the social capital. One can say the ETF is the institution of “capitals”. Nothing wrong with that!

Let me end by quoting Ben Franklin who illustrates better that anybody else the holistic and acting together credos I briefly referred to: "we must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately".

I chose this on purpose, since I have this chance to address the Romanian -American University publics. And I am grateful for this opportunity.

Happy anniversary and good and inspired continuation!

HMM: Dr. Serban, thank you very much for answering our “holistic” questions, and for your good wishes on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Romanian-American University!

Let’s finally recall again some inspiring words of U.S. President Benjamin Franklin (often called the “First American”), one of the Founding Fathers who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States: “Those that won’t be counseled can’t be helped”; “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”; “Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time”; “A place for everything, everything in its place“!

Holistic Marketing Management

26

The practice of marketing under the pressure of continuously updating the marketing capabilities platform Theodor Purcărea Abstract Marketers feel the growing influence and power of the marketing function, and focus on the new opportunities to increase customer interaction and drive continued loyalty, being under the pressure to develop meaningful brand strategies amid the rush to real-time engagement on social. They need a holistic approach to customers as valuesdriven people, acknowledging the growing power of the customers, and better understanding the importance of relevant and authentic conversations with customers and brand experiences in the digital landscape. Their marketing decisions should be guided by an analysis of customer lifetime value, measuring and managing it, taking advantage of the available and bringing different marketing channels together in a new way for new experiences, including by becoming mobile marketers. What presupposes to see the world through the customer’s eyes and redesign functions to create value in a customer-centric way, linking the customer experience to value, improving this customer experience by moving from touchpoints to journeys, considering the impact of the new and emerging technologies, rethinking the tools and platforms, and focusing on the customer technology stack. There is no doubt that: marketing channels are evolving with time shaped by the evolution of technology and media; marketers really care about their marketing technology stack within the framework of developing a marketing capabilities platform, being wellknown that building marketing capability was identified in the valuable Marketing 2020 study as the most important of all strategic levers to drive competitive advantage; we are in the midst of a revolution in the practice of marketing and companies must really build their marketing engagement engine, keeping making forward progress, because strategy, marketing, and technology are all intertwined, and marketers must connect, inspire, focus, organize, and build, while delivering their messages in accordance with the fundamental human motivations to be satisfied.

Keywords: Marketing function; New Marketing Normal; Mobile marketers; Customer experience; Customer success; Customer technology stack; Marketing capabilities platform JEL Classification: M31; D83; L86; O33

Growing influence and power of the marketing function. New opportunities to increase customer interaction and drive continued loyalty At the beginning of this year, Millward Brown Vermeer’s CMO argued that despite the fact that the new normal is market volatility marketers are more confident about leading their organizations through change, while the American Marketing Association’s CEO showed that within this context (organizational confidence being a strong predictor of performance) it’s time for customer-centric companies’ marketers to push ahead for growth.( AMA Marketing News) Inaugural Marketer Confidence Index survey (conducted by AMA in partnership with Millward Brown Vermeer) revealed that marketers: feel their growing influence within their organizations thanks to the increasing use of technology innovations and analytics (enabling closer customer relationships, micro-targeting and improved measurement capabilities); are facing challenges such as proving and determining optimal ROI amid an ever-increasing number of channels, and Holistic Marketing Management

27

becoming able to use all the company’s customer data and the growing level of complexity of technology integration.

According to the latest quarterly report from the American Marketing Association in partnership with Millward Brown Vermeer (report based on data from an online survey conducted in May 2016 of US 1028 marketing professionals), most marketers think that the marketing function will grow in influence and power within their organization, despite a dampened jobs report, stock market turmoil and political upheaval the Marketers Confidence Index (released on July 19, 2016, and which measures the degree of optimism on the state of the economy that U.S. marketers are expressing through their organizational spending and growth) remaining stable in the second quarter of 2016, increasing two points from 121 - where 100 is neutral - to 123. (prweb.com/releases) The primary drivers of the above mentioned organizational influence and power are technology and digital tools, the study highlighting four opportunities to increase customer interaction and drive continued loyalty (virtual reality, social media, live marketing and the Internet of Things).

It is worth mentioning that on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, UK marketers’ attitudes, sentiment and outlook in relation to career prospects, budgets, business performance and the macro-economic environment are explored by the Marketing Confidence Monitor (MCM), a leading quarterly business index from Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and Bloomberg, first launched in autumn 2012. (cim.co.uk) While on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, there is the so-called Asia Pacific Marketing Monitor from TNS (a part of Kantar, the data investment management division of WPP), whose latest study (2250 marketing professionals across all levels in eleven key markets in Asia Pacific were surveyed: Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) carried out in July 2016: (tnsglobal.com) ▪ explored key themes demonstrating the pressure on marketers to develop meaningful brand strategies amid the rush to real-time engagement on social (end-to-end customer experiences now the top priority for marketers; social media is dominating the customer journey; resolving social spend a priority focus for marketers; marketers see social media as a go-to source of insight; marketers are grappling with multiple touchpoints); ▪ highlighted the top priorities for marketing departments (customer relationship management; increasing brand awareness; transforming the marketing organization; deriving value from data to inform decisions; identifying and delivering new sales opportunities; marketing automation and programmatic); ▪ identified the priority development areas for marketing professionals (customer relationship management; innovation and product development; real-time marketing; social media analysis; mobile brand marketing; better use of touchpoints; insights and data analysis; agency partnerships; programmatic); Holistic Marketing Management

28

▪ showed what marketing aims is social serving (brand communications; providing customer service; amplifying other marketing activity; sales channel; to mine for customer intelligence; providing insights to inform product development); ▪ revealed methods used by marketers on social media (viral content; paid for advertising on social media sites; social media marketing to followers; sponsorship of influencers on social media); ▪ underlined top five metrics informing planning (social media monitoring; market share data; brand tracking; what the competition is doing; information from media agencies); ▪ revealed a varied approach to touchpoint management (knowing which of marketers’ touchpoints work and focusing marketers’ spend on those; focusing on the touchpoints marketers understand and experiment with upcoming ones; spreading marketers’s budget across as many touchpoints as possible; can deliver 80% of impact).

A holistic approach to customers as values-driven people. Marketing, a central player in customer and company value creation Three years ago, Robert W. Swaim (Ph.D., Author, Professor, Consultant and Colleague and Personal Friend of Peter Drucker for over 30 years) reminded us (Swaim, 2013) that according to the legendary Peter Drucker (the mentor of Philip Kotler): the two most important functions of a business are innovation and marketing (the only two functions that contribute to profit, all others being costs); the purpose of a business is to create a customer (Drucker also underlining the importance of finding out more about non-customers by going outside in order to obtain answers), while the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself (with the help of logistics and statistical distribution).

So, we can ask ourselves why not read Peter Drucker again, taking also into account, for example, that: • Alan Kantrow (Chief Learning and Communications Officer of The Governance Lab @ NYU, and former Editor of the McKinsey Quarterly and Senior Editor of Harvard Business Review etc.) observed long time ago the insistence of Drucker on “marketing as the essential, ubiquitous task of management attests to a view of business as a process necessarily oriented toward the creation and satisfaction of customers”; (Kantrow, 2009) • Timo Meynhardt (from the Center for Leadership and Values in Society, University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland; he also worked five years for the consultancy McKinsey & Company, Inc. in Berlin etc.) highlighted that to the tremendous success of Peter Drucker as a management thinker practical wisdom (which embeds values into knowledge-like experience, being an integration of intellectual and moral virtue) was central; Meynhardt also argued, among Holistic Marketing Management

29

others, that values (ingrained in everyday life in judgement, intuition or affect) are indispensable to bridge the gap between the known and unknown, the truth being only in value (a correct judgement being only internal to a value system), and feeling (often the only way of knowing) is integrating and guiding thinking as a psychological reality of value; (Meynhardt, 2010) • Marketing’s father Philip Kotler (a disciple of Peter Drucker) showed that companies must create goods, services, and corporate cultures inspiring, including, and reflecting their customers' values, and Marketing 3.0 (Values-Driven Marketing) represents a holistic approach to customers as values-driven people; (Kotler, Kartajaya, Setiawan, 2010) marketing must be reinvented by acknowledging the growing power of the customers (who need a feeling of gaining superior value from company’s offering) and of the channels and other stakeholders (these last ones including customers, employees, channel members, and investors), and also by acknowledging the new social media world and marketers’ growing social responsibilities; Values-Driven Marketing presupposes: objective (make the world a better place); enabling forces (new wave technology); how companies see the market (whole human with mind, heart, and spirit); key marketing concept (values); company marketing guidelines (corporate , vision, values); value propositions (functional, emotional, and spiritual); interaction with consumers (many-to-many collaboration); (Kotler, 2011) • Ira Kaufman and Chris Horton, two talented digital marketing strategists, underlined in a book (introduced in January 2014 by Philip Kotler, who showed that in order to move into the digital age modern marketing should be reconstituted) published in 2015 the leading role of the marketing function (marketing appearing as the principal agent of change) in the digital transformation throughout the organization, digital transformation impacting the entire organization, starting with a number of fundamental changes to existing marketing function, the so-called “New Marketing Normal” being about customer engagement marketing (customer being always present online, deeper and interactive), and requiring contributions from relevant and authentic conversations with customers and brand experiences. (Kaufman, Horton, 2015) Recently, we have seen thanks to AMA Scholarly Insights and Marketing News Weekly that: ▪ marketing can and should be a central player in customer and company value creation given to the fact that marketing decisions should be guided by an analysis of customer lifetime value (CLV, as a prediction of all the value derived by the business from its entire relationship with a customer) and its drivers; (Bettencourt, 2016) a strong argument in this context were the findings of a valuable Journal of Marketing paper showing that: creating and communicating value to customers to drive their satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability is one of the most important tasks in marketing; companies have to create perceived value for customers (by measuring customer perceived value and providing customer perceptions of value via the elements of the marketingmix), while customers give value in return through multiple forms of engagement (CLV in the

Holistic Marketing Management

30

widest sense) for these companies, hence the need for marketers to measure and manage this CLV and to incorporate it into real-time marketing decisions; (Kumar and Reinartz, 2016) ▪ there are five key questions marketers should be asking now to winning in the new normal (according to Jim Lecinski, Vice President, Integrated Sales and Chief ZMOT Evangelist for Google, who previewed his address at the 2016 AMA Annual Conference, Answers in Action, Orlando, FL, October 2016): << How embedded is digital in your product offering, in your business? Are you present in the micro-moments and the moments that matter, especially on mobile? Are you taking advantage of the data that’s now available at your fingertips to connect dots, make better decisions and achieve better outcomes? How are you bringing different marketing channels together in a new way, for new experiences, in this new normal? What are you as a marketer, as a marketing team doing to foster what we call being “faster, more agile, and thinking 10x?” >>; the context for these five questions being created by the real need for marketers to be great digital marketers, which implies being great mobile marketers, because of the new way that consumers get information about brands (by checking their phones), marketers’ job being to inform them about company’s brand and help them make great choices. (Drell, 2016) It’s interesting to see, within this context, that according to a report (Nanji, 2016) from Retale (based on data from a survey of 1000 parents in the United States conducted in July 2016) 85% of American parents plan to use a smartphone to help with their back-to-school shopping (80% of parents plan to make this year at least 70% of their back-to-school purchases in-store, compared to 82% from 2015), the following mobile shopping activities being listed by respondents: comparing prices (65% use their smartphones to do so); searching for coupons/deals (62%); creating shopping lists (53%); checking store hours (52%); researching products (49%); accessing saved coupons (48%); finding nearby store locations (48%); checking product reviews (43%); buying directly from their device (42%).

The continuous challenge of seeing the world through the customer’s eyes and redesigning functions to create value in a customer-centric way, linking the customer experience to value As customers wield growing power, companies are challenged to delight them by mastering the concept and execution of an exceptionally good customer experience, better understanding the equality between how an organization delivers for customers and what it delivers to them. (McKinsey Quarterly, 2016) The internationally recognized expertise of McKinsey recommends improving customer experience, moving from touchpoints (which are devoted to billing, onboarding, service calls etc.) to journeys (which spans a progression of touchpoints, having a clearly defined beginning and end, and are significantly more strongly correlated with business outcomes) by: observing (and better organizing and mobilizing company’s employees around their customer needs); shaping (interactions into different sequences, and digitizing processes, reorienting company cultures etc.); performing (thanks to a Holistic Marketing Management

31

high engagement from both company leaders and frontline workers). McKinsey analysis offered a valuable customer experience measurement pyramid connecting journeys (putted at the center) to business outcomes and operational improvements, while adequately using employee feedback to identify improvement opportunities, as shown in the figure below:

Figure 1: Customer experience measurement pyramid Source: McKinsey analysis, The CEO guide to customer experience, McKinsey Quarterly, August 2016, CEO-guide-to-customer-experience.pdf, p. 8.

In March this year, McKinsey’s representatives (Maynes and Rawson, 2016) attracted the attention on the importance of building an explicit link to value (when being under the pressure of improving the customer experience) by defining the customer behavior that creates value for company’s business, and following its customer satisfaction over time (in order to quantify the economic outcomes of different experiences), which involves making some significant steps (developing a hypothesis about customer outcomes that matter; linking what customers say to what they do; analyzing the historical performance of real customer cohorts; looking at the trend to take a forward-looking view; tracking outcomes).

On the other hand, it’s worth remembering, within this customer experience framework approach, that according to a report based on a survey conducted in the first half of this year from the CMO Council and SAP Hybris (Nanji, 2016) – respondents being 170 senior marketing leaders (CMO, head of marketing, SVP of marketing etc., 42% of respondents working for B2B organizations, 21% for B2C organizations, and 37% for hybrid organizations) from around the world – the biggest impact of the new and emerging technologies gaining momentum (and hype) on the customer experience will be brought by:

Holistic Marketing Management

32

▪ Big Data engagements and intelligence (smart recommendations, next best actions, etc.) – 61%; ▪ The Internet of things – 37%; ▪ Digital dexterity (defined as core employee cognitive ability and social practice that will define digital business success) – 28%; ▪ Mobile payment, transactions and m-commerce – 25%; ▪ Neuroscience/neurobusiness – 19%; ▪ Live streaming video – 18%; ▪ Virtual reality (artificial, computer-generated simulation or recreation of a real-life environment or situation) – 17%; ▪ Natural language response/answering – 16%; ▪ Augmented reality (layers computer-generated enhancements atop an existing reality in order to make it more meaningful through the ability to interact with it) – 15%; ▪ In-store beacons – 12%; ▪ Machine learning intelligence – 12%; ▪ Headless commerce (where the digital commerce platform, once built around the storefront and shopping cart, embeds programmable shopping interfaces into images, videos, banners and other digital experiences, according to Gartner) – 10%; ▪ Subscription business models – 10%; ▪ Virtual currency (Bitcoin etc.) – 4%.

From customer experience to customer success as the system of engagement enabling professionals to deliver the best possible customer experience In July 2016, Gautam Mahajan (President of Customer Value Foundation, the leading global leader in Customer Value Management; author of “Customer Value Investment: Formula for Sustained Business Success” and “Total Customer Value Management: Transforming Business Thinking”; Founder Editor of the Journal of Creating Value etc.) went beyond using data for the customer value improvement and communication, and putting together a customer value improvement plan etc., and showed how the customer value data (CVA) relates to business results. (Mahajan, 2016) Within this context he argued, among others, that: customer satisfaction Holistic Marketing Management

33

(which does not relate to loyalty) is a great way to measure transactions but not value, what is captured is the experience of the transaction; the satisfaction data can be a useful measure to check improvements only when you have decided on the value priority for improvement, the customer value added data having a one on one correlation with the market share, and increases in customer value added being followed by improvements in loyalty and retention.

In the same month, Shreesha Ramdas (CEO of Strikedeck, a revolutionary new customer success automation solution to deliver an outstanding customer experience) highlighted that in order to engage with customers (which can in the actual subscription economy unsubscribe at will) at different stages of the customer journey, marketers are rethinking the tools and platforms, focusing on the customer technology stack. (Ramdas, 2016) He showed what are the broad categories which have emerged in response to specific needs over the last decade, as shown in the figure below:

Figure 2: Customer technology landscape Source: Ramdas, S., Understanding the Customer Technology Stack 2.0, July 26, 2016, retrieved from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2016/30354/understanding-the-customer-technology-stack-20?

As we can see, according to Ramdas, beyond CRM (Customer Relationship Management, which is covering the marketing, pre-sale, and transactional portion of the customer journey), Customer Communication (this kind of solutions are consolidating the various customer channels – phone, email, fax, and Web portals etc. – adding new ones such as social media and SMS), Customer Satisfaction (this kind of solutions are offering the ability to take surveys which differentiate by the “how” and “where”), Customer Experience (this kind of solutions is taking the pulse of customers, being typically embedded within the product and emphasizing simplicity and ease of use over detail), Customer Loyalty (this kind of solutions make it easier for Holistic Marketing Management

34

companies to reward their customers for specific performed actions), the sixth category (the newest one) – Customer Success – was considered (by Mary Meeker, a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers) as one of the disruptive new enterprise technologies to watch (and this in Mary Meeker’s 2015 Internet Trends Report, published on May 26; the inaugural “The Internet Report” was published in 1995). In the opinion of Strikedeck’s CEO, in order to give their customers a better experience companies must find new and innovative ways, and this change will be reflected in the evolution of the customer technology stack from 1.0 to 2.0, CRM becoming the system of record, and Customer Success becoming the system of engagement enabling professionals to deliver the best possible customer experience (avoiding damaging this customer experience during hold time).

It is also worth mentioning that in Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends Report, published on May 31, 2016, (Meeker, 2016) it is shown, among others, that: commerce and brands are evolving rapidly by/for this generation (each generation having slightly different core values and expectations shaped by events that occur in their lifetimes); marketing channels are evolving with time shaped by the evolution of technology and media; physical retailers become, for example, digital retailers which become data-optimized physical retailers; internet-enabled retailers, products, brands are on rise, being bolstered by always-on connectivity, hyper-targeted marketing, images and personalization; video usage, sophistication, and relevance continues to grow rapidly; smartphone usage is increasing (camera, storytelling, creativity, messaging/sharing); messaging is evolving from simple social conversations to more expressive communication (messaging platform evolution offering more tools for simple self-expression), and to business-related conversations (messaging secret sauce being the magic of the thread which is conversational, and remembers identity, time, specifics, preferences, context) etc.

Instead of conclusions: the challenge of continuously building marketing capability There is no doubt that marketers really care about their marketing technology stack (a grouping of technologies that marketers leverage to conduct and improve their marketing activities). (optimizely.com) On March 21, 2016, (Brinker 2016) the Editor of chiefmartec.com, and the co-founder and CTO of ion interactive, Scott Brinker, posted the 2016 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (comprising 3874 marketing technology solutions on a single slide, almost twice compared to 2015; he said solution instead of company because some companies were included multiple times in different categories, and he estimated that the deduped count of logos is closer to 3500; the first published Supergraphic was in 2011, with only 150 vendors listed) released on the occasion of the 2016 MarTech USA conference in San Francisco (March 20-22). According to this above mentioned Supergraphic, there are five main largest categories by number of solutions (Sales Automation, Enablement & Intelligence – 220; Social Media Marketing & Monitoring – 186; Display & Programmatic Advertising – 180; Marketing Automation & Campaign/Lead Management – 161; Content Marketing – 160), the Holistic Marketing Management

35

whole landscape being organized by Brinker around six marketing technology capability clusters (Advertising & Promotion; Content & Experience; Social & Relationships; Commerce & Sales; Data; Management) which divide key vendors in a multi-platform environment where practice expertise is varying the most from one cluster to the next. Brinker attracted the attention that this is a complex space where many different forces are acting on in parallel, being hard to fit everything into a single simple explanation.

Immediately after the 2016 MarTech USA conference in San Francisco, a representative of Event Automation company (also a MarTech solution) made an interesting analysis of this definitive tradeshow for the marketing technology industry, (Langmade, 2016) underlining the practically useful session (March 21, 2016) of Travis Wright, Chief Marketing Technologist at CCP Global (2-Time MarTech Conference Speaker), who offered multiple topologies (including: Suite, Platform, Multi-Platform, and Bus) taken from Brinker’s post from May 2015 on 4 topologies of integrated marketing technology stacks. (Brinker, 2015) Wright’s contribution (while presenting all four topologies like Brinker as options), according to Event Automation’s representative, consisted of making a compelling case for building an open Bus architecture MarTech topology, by recommending how to build an optimal open architecture stack: Tag Management System (Google Tag Manager, free; Tealium; Signal); Analytics & Tracking (targeting audience, personalizing the customer journey, and creating a better user experience with the help of: Google Analytics 360, Moz Pro, and Adobe Analytics); Mobile Optimization (Monetate, Ensighten Mobile Tag Management); Customer Relationship Management (CRM helping marketing and sales teams to aggregate, track, and analyze data about a customer’s history with a company to improve relationships with them; SalesForce, MicrosoftDynamics , Oracle, HubSpot); Marketing Automation - MAP & Event Automation – EA (Oracle Marketing Cloud – MAP; Marketo – MAP; Salesforce Pardot – MAP; HubSpot – MAP; Certain – EA); Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO being an umbrella term for testing and visualization tools marketers use to improve website experience; Google Optimize 360, Optimizely, Kissmetrics); Data Management Platform (DMP is in the opinion of Wright a cross between ad servers and customer relationship management platforms, being basically Data + Ad Networks; Media Math, Ignition One, BlueKai); Remarketing & Retargeting (AdRoll, QuanticMind, BrightRoll); Search Engine Marketing (Moz Pro, RavenTools, SEMrush); Social Media Tools (Hootsuite, SproutSocial, Buffer).

At the end of the same month, March 2016, Scott Stone, Advertising & E-Business Manager, Cisco Eagle, (Stone, 2016) made an interesting review of some key visualizations and diagrams – from the above mentioned 2016 MarTech USA conference in San Francisco – including one from the presentation of Isaac Wyatt of New Relic, who illustrated the workflow organizations should consider in developing a Marketing Capabilities Platform, as shown below:

Holistic Marketing Management

36

Figure 3: Marketing Capabilities Platform Source: Isaac Wyatt, 2016 MarTech USA conference in San Francisco, in “15 Key Visualizations & Diagrams From #MarTech 2016”, by Edmond, D., March 31, 2016

Stone underlined that such examples from the MarTech conference provide useful measurement in the future.

The Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Board Member of Millward Brown Vermeer (MB Vermeer), Marc de Swaan Arons is the co-author of the best-selling book The Global Brand CEO: Building the Ultimate Marketing Machine, being also recognized as a thought-leader in the burgeoning area of global marketing leadership, and for spearheading the Marketing 2020 study, the most global and comprehensive CMO research program ever conducted - a study led by MB Vermeer in collaboration with World Federation of Advertisers – WFA, Spencer Stuart and Forbes, the study results forming the basis for the best-selling Harvard Business Review coverstory, The Ultimate Marketing Machine, published in 2014. (de Swaan Arons, van den Driest, Weed, 2016) As building marketing capability was identified in Marketing 2020 study as the most important of all strategic levers to drive competitive advantage, Marc de Swaan Arons highlighted in an article published by Forbes in May 2015: (de Swaan Arons, 2015) ● the benefits beyond revenue growth of a dedicated capability-building program: new and increased skills; strategic clarity and consistency; brand differentiation; community; speed and agility; innovation and adoption; attraction and retention; ● ten tips for great marketing capability strategy development flowing from studying overperformers: start with the business DNA and purpose; differentiate capabilities and prioritize; connect to the business strategy; treat programs as an investment; define your own, holistic, way of marketing; build supporting infrastructure; take an interdisciplinary approach; build a multiyear strategy; ensure relevance through governance; teach in the moment.

Holistic Marketing Management

37

Please allow us to draw the attention to the need of differentiating capabilities and prioritize (foundational versus transformational versus specialized), underlining the delivery methodology, as shown by Marc de Swaan Arons in the tabel below: Table 1: Differentiate capabilities and prioritize

Source: Marc de Swaan Arons, Building Marketing Capabilities to Fuel Growth, Forbes, May 20, 2015

Seven month later, in January 2016, Marketo underlined the need of investing in solutions so as to gain that 360-degree view of the customer journey (by automating, tracking, and measuring how people are moving across the entire customer lifecycle), starting from the reality of actionable data and insights that can enable greater personalization, engagement, and success.

Marketo organized a challenging Webinar where Forrester Research analyst Lori Wizdo, and Marketoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lou Pelosi, Sr. Director of LaunchPoint underlined from the very beginning (Wizdo, Pelosi, 2016) that we are in the midst of a revolution in the practice of marketing (dramatic changes in customer behavior, fragmentation of marketing channels, explosion of marketing technology), and (as Forrester Research recommended) companies must build their marketing engagement engine (campaigns sparking interactions across customer life cycle, marketing automation driving the engine, customer data and analytics setting the course, content being the fuel, and all this yielding continuous, relevant, valuable customer engagement). In other words, Wizdo and Pelosi showed that a comprehensive marketing tech stack can optimize engagement, and revenue can be driven by combining customer data with marketing automation.

And this made us recall the recommendation of Scott Brinker of keeping making forward progress, because strategy, marketing, and technology are all intertwined, marketing technology Holistic Marketing Management

38

being about experiences (not just about efficiency), the relationship between strategy and technology being circular (not linear), and being marketers’ responsibility to understand technology. (Brinker, 2014) And paraphrasing MB Vermeer’s representatives, (de Swaan, van den Driest, Weed, 2014) we can add that the so-categorized (by their roles) “think” - “do” “feel” marketers must connect, inspire, focus, organize, and build, while delivering their messages in accordance with the fundamental human motivations to be satisfied.

References Bettencourt, L.A., Heroic Marketing: How Marketing Creates Enduring Firm Value, AMA Scholarly Insights, retrieved on 01.09.2016, from: https://www.ama.org/resources/Pages/heroic-marketing-creates-enduring-firmvalue.aspx Brinker, S., Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2016), March 21, 2016, http://chiefmartec.com/2016/03/marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-2016/ Brinker, S., 4 topologies of integrated marketing technology stacks, May 2015, http://chiefmartec.com/2015/05/4topologies-integrated-marketing-technology-stacks/ Brinker, S., Strategy, marketing, and technology are all intertwined, January 2014, retrieved from: http://chiefmartec.com/2014/01/strategy-marketing-technology-intertwined/ Drell, L., 5 Questions Marketers Must Ask Themselves to Win in a Mobile-First Market, retrieved on 01.09.2016, from: https://www.ama.org/publications/eNewsletters/Marketing-News-Weekly/Pages/5-Questions-MarketersMust-Ask-Themselves-to-Win-in-a-Mobile-First-Market.aspx Edmond, D., 15 Key Visualizations & Diagrams From #MarTech 2016, March 31,2016, retrieved from: http://www.komarketingassociates.com/blog/key-visualizations-from-martech/ Kantrow, A., Why Read Peter Drucker? Harvard Business Review, November 2009 Issue, Originally published January–February 1980, accesat 24.03.2016 la: https://hbr.org/2009/11/why-read-peter-drucker Kaufman, I., Horton, C., Digital Marketing: Integrating Strategy and Tactics with Values. A Guide Book for Executives, Managers & Students, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York, 2015, pp. XII-XIII, 7, 9, 13, 39, 47, 57, 64, 68, 70, 73-74, 85.

Kotler, Ph, Kartajaya, H., Setiawan, I., Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit, Wiley, 1 edition May 3, 2010, pp. 3-6.

Kotler, Ph., Marketing 3.0: Values-Driven Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Kuwait, April 03, 2011, ppt.

Kumar, V. and Reinartz, W., Creating Enduring Customer Value. Journal of Marketing In-Press. Revised: June 2016, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/JM.15.0414 Langmade, L., MarTech 2016 Recap: Is the Marketing Technology Stack Dead? March 24, 2016, retrieved from: https://www.certain.com/blog/martech-2016-recap-marketing-tech-stack/

Holistic Marketing Management

39

Mahajan, G., Customer Value Data and Business Results, Jul 14, 2016, retrieved on 15.07.2016, from: http://customerthink.com/customer-value-data-and-business-results/ Maynes, J. and Rawson, A., Linking the customer experience to value, March 2016, retrieved on 10.03.2016, from: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/linking-the-customer-experience-tovalue?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1603 Meynhardt, T., The practical wisdom of Peter Drucker: roots in the Christian tradition, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29 No. 7/8, 2010, pp. 616-625, Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0262-1711, DOI 10.1108/02621711011059040 Nanji, A., Back-to-School Shopping Trends for 2016, August 4, 2016, retrieved on 24.08.2016, from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2016/30396/back-to-school-shopping-trends-for-2016?

Nanji, A., Survey of CMOs: Which Emerging Technology Will Transform the Customer Experience? July 20, 2016, retrieved from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2016/30287/cmo-survey-which-emerging-tech-willtransform-the-customer-experience Ramdas, S., Understanding the Customer Technology Stack 2.0, retrieved on 26.07.2016, from: http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2016/30354/understanding-the-customer-technology-stack20?adref=nlt072616 de Swaan Arons, M., van den Driest, F., Weed, K., The Ultimate Marketing Machine, HBR, Julyâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;August 2014 Issue, retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2014/07/the-ultimate-marketing-machine de Swaan Arons, M., Building Marketing Capabilities to Fuel Growth, Forbes, May 20, 2015, retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mdeswaanarons/2015/05/20/building-marketing-capabilities-to-fuelgrowth/#5377392120a4 Swaim, R.W., Peter Drucker on Sales and Marketing, 02/10/2013, retrieved on 02.09.2016 from: http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/innovation/columns/peter-drucker-on-sales-and-marketing Wizdo, L., Pelosi, L., Building the Right Marketing Technology Stack, Marketo, January 13, 2016, https://www.marketo.com/webinars/building-the-right-marketing-technology-stack/ *** http://www.mbvermeer.com/marc/ *** Marketers Confidence Index from the American Marketing Association and Millward Brown Vermeer Shows Business Remains Steady Despite the Fragile Global Economy, Chicago (PRWEB) July 19, 2016, http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/07/prweb13561282.htm *** Mary Meekerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2016 Internet Trends Report, 2016_Internet_Trends_FINAL (1).pdf, pp. 49-50, 53, 64, 66, 77, 79, 100-102, 104. *** Marketing confidence monitor, http://www.cim.co.uk/contact-us/research-and-thought-leadership/pastresearch/marketing-confidence-monitor/ *** Marketing Technology Stack, https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/marketing-technology-stack/

Holistic Marketing Management

40

*** The AMA Marketing News, Marketers Confident in Economy Despite Recession Fears, https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/marketers-confidence-index-marketers-confidenteconomy-despite-recession-fears.aspx *** The Asia Pacific Marketing Monitor 2016, http://www.tnsglobal.com/sites/default/files/marketing-monitor2016.pdf *** The CEO guide to customer experience, McKinsey Quarterly, August 2016, retrieved on 18.08.2016, CEOguide-to-customer-experience.pdf, pp.1-10.

Holistic Marketing Management

41

I SSN224 7 1 1 89