Marketing in 2025?

Tuesday, 21 July 2015 01:23 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Madushka Balasuriya

What will marketing be like 10 years from now? That’s the question Mathew Neilson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) UK - the world’s largest professional body for marketing - is currently posing to marketers from around the globe through the website marketing2025.com.

“When speaking about the future of marketing, one of the things that struck me is ‘where do you start on such a big topic?’” remarked Neilson at a CIM breakfast forum held recently in Colombo.

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Neilson, who was in Sri Lanka for the Sri Lankan CIM Graduation and Membership Investiture Ceremony on 17 July, went on to show a brief video of Arthur C. Clark. In it Clarke notes that advances in science and technology will mean that a reasonable prediction of the future would in “20 or, at most, 50 years” seem “ridiculously conservative” while an accurate one “would sound so absurd that everyone would laugh.”

“The only thing we can be sure of about the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic,” concludes Clarke, a conclusion Neilson hopes can be applied to marketing through the ‘Marketing2025’ initiative.

“I’d like you to cast your mind back 10 years and see how much some things have changed. The scale and pace of this change is having a transformational effect on how we live and work. No other corner of business has felt this change more than marketing. Marketers are seeing a significant shift in power; brands and media owners are starting to see their power eroded by customers and consumers,” observed Neilsen, painting a picture of what can or cannot be expected in the future.

“At the end of 2014, CIM held a series of events called ‘Future Focus’ to explore and capture the views of our members. That has led to a major global discussion over the first part of 2015 called ‘Marketing 2025’.

“We want to define the role of marketing in 2025 and enable the marketers of the future, and in partnership with a range of expert marketers CIM is going to champion and reward the most forward-thinking marketers in the industry, who help to predict and solve the challenges of the future,” revealed Neilsen, who went on to note the six key themes under which the debate would be structured: Marketing economics, digital, brands, skills, talents and careers, social and sustainability. In a brief Q&A session following his speech, Neilson was questioned about how marketers in Sri Lanka could better prepare themselves for the ever-changing landscape of technology and social media.

“The question is ‘what’s the next big thing?’ because the likelihood is, that by the time people in Sri Lanka become connected in a way to social media, they would have moved on to the next form of social media,” noted Neilsen, citing Snapchat as an example of a “big form of social media that [he] absolutely [has] no understanding of” but which would “increasingly play an important role around millennials.”

“Those emerging trends that are based on a younger generation in western societies are likely to play a hugely important role in terms of how the young people of Sri Lanka respond to that,” added Neilsen, acknowledging that while “people are very comfortable with their traditional methods” the “skill of a marketer is actually to see how they bring all of the different channels [of marketing] together in the most effective way.”

“I don’t watch TV anymore. Instead I use Netflix and Amazon Instant. My viewing habits are completely different from what they were five years ago. So I feel that increasingly it will be the consumers that decide which channels [of marketing] they will engage us with, and which channels they want to switch us off from if they feel we’re being invasive. Therefore, researching and understanding your customer’s engagement habits is absolutely critical.”

CIM Chairman Mathew Neilson shares key insights into future of marketing

The Daily FT met up with Mathew Neilson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) UK for a brief interview during his visit to Sri Lanka. Following are excerpts:

Q: Following the discussions you’ve had in Sri Lanka, what are the differences you have noticed in the problems faced by marketers here as opposed to those in the UK?

A: The problem you face here is a lack of marketing talent. Since the conflict ended here there’s been a lot focus on getting finances sorted and structuring businesses in the right way. Now that they feel they’re in a really good, stable place, we’re seeing a real focus around marketing.

With that though comes the realisation that they need much more marketing capability and that they would like that marketing capability to be homegrown so as to make sure they’re connecting properly with the people of Sri Lanka.

In the UK on the other hand there is quite significant marketing capability and what we have is a situation where companies are being much more selective about the people that they’re hiring.

However, in some respects, Sri Lanka is in a really good place. I think there’s a huge opportunity for people here to start investing in careers around marketing because, from the conversations I’ve had, there’s a real desire and need to have that talent in Sri Lanka.

Q: Could you elaborate on what you mean by a “lack of talent”? Is it a lack of skills or qualifications?

A: It’s a combination of both. The right skills need to be there alongside the qualifications that provide the assurance that an individual has those skills. The reason why that’s of interest to me is that as the Chair of CIM that’s where we’re keen to see the qualifications that we accredit are actually recognised by a business. That, in turn, is what ensures that the students who take 10-2 those qualifications can feel comfortable that they are going to have good careers. So I think it’s very important to have those qualifications.

Q: In your speech you addressed the blurring of lines when it comes to responsibilities for marketers. How does a CIM qualification address that?

A: One of the things we’re doing now with our qualifications is moving to a much more modular approach. What that means is you now have elected modules, which means you can tailor your qualifications to suit areas that you want to develop your expertise in.

I think that’s a very important facet of learning and education is moving forward. The advantage of the elected module as well, is that it means people who may not wish to take the entire qualification - such as those working in small and medium-sized enterprises - they can still take the module that relates to their business. This will have the same standard and is accredited by CIM, which means they can feel assured of the quality given in terms of their training.

Q: What advice do you have for businesses that want to spur growth in Sri Lanka around the concept of sustainability?

A: When I spoke about being ‘authentic’ and ‘altruistic’ and ‘ambitious’ there will be an authenticity around sustainability; people do it because they care about what they do and they care about the environment in which they live and the society in which they engage. I think that’s a really important concept and I think, in some respects, sustainability is all about rebalancing. So the question that always comes to me is, ‘is Sri Lanka out of balance?’ And I don’t know the answer to that question because, actually, you may be operating in quite a sustainable way already.

It might even be an alien concept to you because you’re already in balance or have harmony in a way that some western cultures don’t. I think the more natural it is, the easier it is to do, and that’s why I think sustainability in some ways is a consequence of the [good] values of an organisation; growth is built on strong values.

Q: Marketing in 2025 - what are some of the better ideas that you have seen?

A: Interestingly, I haven’t explored it in detail because (chuckles) that’s part of the problem with such a big thing. I would probably say the best thing is for anyone interested to go on the website and have a look and see what people are saying. I’ve certainly seen some comments from people in Sri Lanka on that website [www.marketing2025.com].

There however is a process that we’re going to be going through in terms of identifying what some of those really interesting ideas are, because it closes on 31 July. The danger is that it’s highly subjective what one person thinks is a fantastic idea, others will say ‘what’s this all about?’”