A major global study takes an in-depth look into the future of marketing and provides case studies and frameworks to ready marketers for the challenges and changing customer expectations for years to come. Above: Brand consistency, yet a need to act fast and flexibly to local needs, are indentified as key to future marketing success. Coca-Cola promotes such behaviour by using a ’networked’ marketing model, where responsibility is devolved to local teams and best work is rolled out globally. More than any other profession, marketers need to have an uncanny ability to predict the future. To perform their roles effectively, they must grasp how the world is changing and anticipate how their brands and businesses should adapt so they can continue to be relevant.However, major new research reveals that while 70 per cent of marketers rate their skills as very good or excellent for the job requirements of today, that figure drops to 56 per cent for five years’ time. It also finds that 37 per cent of UK marketers receive no formal training compared to 33 per cent globally.The Marketing 2020 study, of which Marketing Week is a UK partner, considers the future role of marketing and asks how brands can continue to deliver on consumers’ expectations in the next decade. The study surveys more than 10,000 respondents globally and interviews 250 top marketing chiefs from many of the world’s biggest brands (see methodology, below[1]). Teresa Octavio, managing partner at consultancy EffectiveBrands, which led the study, says that business structures have remained quite static despite huge changes in the marketing landscape. “Marketing organisation has not changed in the past 20 years, but will need to in the next five,” she argues. “The challenge for brands is how to ready their marketing organisation to drive growth in a rapidly changing…

A three-dimensional marketing approach that engages all the senses will not only boost food and drink sales but can translate into various sectors – and could add $100m to a brand’s value. Print Power“Thinking about your brands in terms of pictures, not just words, is really powerful, but why wouldn’t you use all the senses? Three-dimensional marketing is about a more holistic view of what your brand stands for and is about.”That is the view of Diageo global brand director for single malt whiskies Nik Keane. The company is purposefully moving towards creating sensory ‘worlds’ for its brands, rather than simply using words to describe them in communications.The economic effect of sensory marketing has been measured by Unilever’s Dove soap brand. Research consultancy Millward Brown estimates that the smell of the product contributes $63m (£39m) of its annual US revenues, while touch accounts for $34m and sight $14m. The smell has been found to make users feel ‘relaxed, valued and calm’.Millward Brown chief global analyst Nigel Hollis says that maintaining a brand’s formulation, and therefore how it engages four out of five senses, is critical to its success. “Imagine you were considering changing the Dove formulation to a cheaper recipe that would save $5m a year but would negatively affect the user’s experience,” he says in his new book The Meaningful Brand: How Strong Brands Make More Money. Having seen brands change the way they use the senses result in a negative effect, he asks: “Might the suggestion that the decision would affect over $100m in revenues based on the sensory experience give you pause?”Sensory marketing is not only useful in the beauty and food and drink industries, it is also becoming important for products that rely less on the senses, such as travel and insurance (see boxout, below).“We spend…

Last week’s Merlin Entertainments flotation and Twitter IPO are the result of strong branding and marketing. Lucy Tesseras looks at how marketers influence brand value ahead of their IPOs and what listing means for companies in the future. Above: Twitter’s IPO is selling 70 million shares, which rose from the initial price of $26 before trading started yesterday to $44.90 (£27.91) when it closed despite the company never turning a profit, and is the largest technology IPO since Facebook. Photo: Aaron Durand (@everydaydude) for Twitter, IncConfidence finally seems to be returning to the market as big name brands are once again floating on the stock exchange. Today [8 November], Alton Towers and Madame Tussauds owner Merlin Entertainments went public with shares priced at 315p valuing the company at £3.2bn, after Twitter[1] ’s first day of trading as a public company yesterday valued it at $31bn (£19bn).Meanwhile, Royal Mail[2] ’s stock market launch last month drew in hundreds of thousands of consumers, all clambering to get in on the action.And with many more brands rumoured to be floating over the next couple of months – House of Fraser, Saga and clothing retailer Bonmarché to name a few – businesses are relying heavily on marketers and the power of their brands to boost their share price. However, all too often companies do not understand the value of their brand when looking for investment, says Millward Brown Optimor vice-president of EMEA Anastasia Kourovskaia.“Marketing and brand have a tremendous role to play in investor relations; in generating interest, eliminating uncertainty and thus driving a higher price,” she says. ”Companies sometimes don’t realise that there is inherent value in their brand and that the brand is as much, if not more, of an asset to the company than the buildings and land that it owns.“Our…