Today’s Marketing Challenges and a Print Solution
Recently IBM published the results of a study developed from the interviews of over 1700 Chief Marketing Officers globally, called ‘From Stretched to Strengthened.’ The conclusions have profound ramifications for both marketing communications managers as well as those in the print communications business.
First, the study concludes that marketing professionals need to understand their markets in terms of its individuals. “The most proactive CMOs are mining new
digital data sources to discover what individual customers and citizens want.” They have seen that the empowered customer is now in control of the business relationship.
Second, delivering customer value is crucial. CMOs need to use data to form bonds with their customers, recognizing preferences and trends.
And third, marketing professionals are being held accountable to measure their results, to provide a return on their marketing investment. New analytics are being used to provide this to improve decision making and demonstrate this accountability.
How do these trends relate to print communications? Marketers can target their print communications to specific, interested customers by creating variable direct mail material, promotional displays, and marketing literature, tied into databases of customer preferences. Digital printing makes producing this personalized material simple and efficient. These marketing campaigns can also be automated using an online web-to-print capability, so these personalized promotions can be easily created at and for multiple office locations or regional distributorships.
Variable digital printing and online marketing programs can help achieve these new goals of today’s marketers. Marketing campaigns can be targeted to the customer, according to the customers’ wants and needs. Promotions can provide customer value, as they recognize individual preferences. And results can be measured readily, providing the necessary accountability.