Greater focus on customer retention

This is backed up by Jen Pike, founder of Rockethouse Consulting, who in a Forbes article deduced that:

“When people argue that marketing doesn’t matter, they usually have a different meaning of what marketing is than those who understand how marketing contributes to firm performance.”

She continues:

“Those who often misunderstand marketing believe that it is only about advertising campaigns and media plans.”

What IS marketing about for those that think it contributes to company performance?

A small proportion of respondents identified the ‘slow adoption of new technology’ as a reason for not giving their company’s marketing efforts a higher rating. In spite of the widespread technological explosion, many maritime companies remain behind the curve still using pen and paper, and software tools from 30 years ago. It is well known that the maritime industry has historically been slower to implement technology changes. But perhaps this is becoming the exception rather than the norm, which is reflected in the small number of respondents who highlighted lack of technology as an issue. We know of many shipping companies who have successfully forged ahead with embracing new technologies – like ShipServ – to simplify their management of RFQs and quotes for example.