© Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 It´s now the time of year when every marketer should well reflect the past year’s performance and holistically examine what the New Year is going to mean for marketing, branding, and business With this article I proceed with a good tradition by following-up on my previous and related articles for 2016 2015, and 2014 As we know, paying attention to what’s on the horizon does offer valuable insights Knowing the below-listed 16 trends that I consider as highly relevant for 2017, should help you to build and keep strong brands So, let´s have a look at what I think that the best brands will in 2017: Senior Executive, Marketing Expert, Leadership & Executive Coach, LinkedIn Influencer, Author, Speaker © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 Constantly Raise the Customer Experience Instore Execution and Internationalization Drive Data-fueled Creativity and Innovation Push Augmented & Virtual Reality into Mainstream Apply The Magic PISD Content Formula 10 Develop Value-Adding Native Advertising Campaigns Cherish Analytics Embrace Technology 11 Rock Video - More, Better, Mobile 12 Put Even More Focus On Mobile Leverage the Internet of 13 Institutionalize Influencer Things (IoT) Further Develop Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots Capabilities Marketing 14 Ramp Up Security Systems 15 Establish a Borderless Organization 16 Drive Vehemently Customer Loyalty © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 Although this should have been ingrained in every marketer´s DNA for years, however, with all the data, tech, and buzzwords flying around, one of the biggest marketing challenges of 2017 will be to stay calm, focused, and being obsessed with the only one that matters: Your customer! How to identify her, to reach her, to engage her, to make her purchase, to have her stay loyal, to make her to recommend you, and to have her even re-purchase more of your products in the future? © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 There is a certain risk that (marketing) managers – more than ever – get confused and fall into the trap of mixing up data-driven insights with a real customer-centric business philosophy Whilst data will be an extremely crucial element of marketing in 2017 and beyond, it’s quite a challenge to filter out valuable information from the enormous volume of data available Therefore successful companies and brands don´t worship the data gods for the sake of it; instead they have a comprehensive and deeply rooted digital transformation strategy in place which is flanked by a crystal clear marketing action plan Enhanced and lived by every employee of the organization and not only by a chief digital officer who very often is floating around the company in search for her home base © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 Omnichannel marketing, i.e the ability to offer a continuous brand experience across shopping formats and devices, has been in recent years mostly interrupted and poorly delivered offline: When shoppers are in brick-and-mortar stores and face demotivated (or no) staff, waste time standing in line, not find the products they´re looking for, feel not stimulated to buy – or even worse – not have the impression of being welcome and appreciated In other words: Many brands and retailers have gotten much better at matching their mobile app the responsive design of their website than creating an engaging and brand-building look, feel, and convenience inside their stores © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 * Photo by David Shankbone with Creative Commons license According to Nielsen´s Global Retail Growth Report, 46% of shoppers around the world say that e.g grocery shopping is something they try to spend as little time as possible doing Less than half of global respondents (49%) believe their main grocery retailer always or mostly communicates with them in a relevant way Why would you as a brand or retailer not want to exchange with shoppers, have them experience (feel, touch, smell) your products, have them express their social needs in real stores? And although it´s common knowledge that we all dislike waiting at traditional check-out counters, after more than a decade the supermarket industry is still testing self-checkout kiosks (except for the UK where it went mainstream) © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 * Photo via Stephanie Faris 10 Instead tech and retailing company Amazon launched in December 2016 a store called Amazon GO which works differently and empowers customers: Shoppers simply use an app, also called Amazon Go, to automatically add the products they buy to a digital shopping cart Then they can walk out of the building without waiting in a checkout line © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 * Photo by Amazon via Wired 10 © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 68 Finally, a word on the possible marketing organizations of the future Many (consultancies) are suggesting that the (digital) transformation of marketing should be led by a Chief Digital Officer (CDO) I strongly disagree If your CMO and your marketing team are not ready (yet) to tackle related challenges and tasks, then you as leaders better support and train them ASAP, instead of hiding your strategic and organizational weaknesses behind the function of a CDO Even if you were lucky enough to find an exceptional candidate to fill out the demanding role of CDO (tech and marketing understanding, strategic mind and strong executer, change manager) and if you were to give her direct business responsibility (which in my opinion is a definite „must“ for such a role), then she should be part of the CMO´s team, and in charge of digital strategy and campaigns, versus being in a separate function or organization She should closely team up with an expect Chief Marketing technologist as her peer to co-lead such initiatives © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 68 69 The organization´s senior management team will need to create an organization free of department borders and a „silo thinking“ mentality The need to kick-off and moderate the required change initiatives and, over time, to withdraw more and more and as such giving people freedom that they can contribute and amaze them Based on attributing individuals more decision-making authority, providing them with learning opportunities, stimulating virtual team work and global project work, and allowing them to self-organize © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 69 70 The future of marketing – embedded within an accelerating digital transformation process - encompasses key functions from R&D, sales, finance, legal, HR to strategic business planning Most importantly, it´s not rooted on machines or algorithms It´s rather founded on the conviction and knowledge that people as owners will whatever it takes to make their organizations, projects, and teams succeed © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 70 © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 72 It shouldn’t come as a surprise that for many brands the respective trust levels is low In recent years, there have been numerous examples of consumers being misled by brands in sectors like food, beauty, automotive, the technology sector, etc Prior to the internet age, brands could get away with these sorts of things easily, but now—luckily for customers—it’s not as easy © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 72 73 In a recent report the Rare consultancy put the focus back on customer emotions and explored the drivers of true customer loyalty There were several key findings: Loyalty isn’t functional While general purchases are driven by price (81%), quality (80%) and convenience (55%), loyalty is about likeability (86%) and trust (83%) As a result, in 2017 top marketers will very strongly focus on emotional and authentic messages (e.g via Influencer Marketing) to drive customer engagement (versus customer recruiting) and to try making them more loyal © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 73 © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 75 Of course, the presented list isn’t exhaustive Be prepared and ready for the unpredictable and unprecedented That´s the real beauty of being a leader, manager, business owner or marketer Even, and especially, in a world which is increasingly dominated by data and analytics Nor should you have ambitions of getting involved with all of the trends which I have outlined in this article Instead, focus on the ones which make most sense to your business setting, competitive environment, resources, vision and ambitions However, be bold, think big, and dare to experiment, fail, and succeed The timing has never been any better Wishing all of you a lot of fun and success by building and developing again some great brands in 2017! © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 75 76 Constantly Raise the Customer Experience Push Augmented & Virtual Reality into Mainstream Apply The Magic PISD Content Formula Drive Vehemently Customer Loyalty Instore Execution and Internationalization Further Develop Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots Capabilities Develop Value-Adding Native Advertising Campaigns Establish a Borderless Organization Drive Datafueled Creativity and Innovation Leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) Rock Video More, Better, Mobile Ramp Up Security Systems Cherish Analytics Embrace Technology Put Even More Focus On Mobile Institutionalize Influencer Marketing © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 76 linkedin.com/in/avonderheydt slideshare.net/AndreasvonderHeydt facebook.com/ConsumerGoodsClub twitter.com/ConsumGoodsClub Senior Executive, Marketing Expert, Leadership & Executive Coach, LinkedIn Influencer, Author, Speaker youtube.com/user/BlondJames007 soundcloud.com/andreas-700932257 iTunes Podcast – Leadership XXL © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 77 78 2016 Predictions 2015 Predictions 2014 Predictions © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 78 79 USA USA Amazon UK UK Audible Germany Germany iTunes Spain Spain Italy Italy France France Japan Japan Canada Canada India India Australia © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 79 80 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/de/docs/Nielsen%20Global%20Retail%20Growth%20Str ategies%20Report_DIGITAL.pdf https://www.kioskmarketplace.com/articles/supermarket-self-checkout-technology-approaching-tippingpoint/ https://www.amazon.com/b?node=16008589011 https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/how-digital-connects-shoppers-to-local-stores.html http://digiday.com/brands/retailtech2016-inside-ralph-laurens-connected-fitting-rooms/ https://services.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon/benefits.htm http://gs.statcounter.com/%20-%20desktop+mobile-comparison-ID-monthly-201409-201508 http://www.si.com/olympics/2016/07/27/rule-40-explained-2016-olympic-sponsorship-blackout-controversy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh9jAD1ofm4 http://www.pitch.co.uk/brands-winners-losers-rio-2016/ http://coca-colafounders.com/index.php?page=home https://www.innovationleader.com/coca-cola-shutters-founders-initiative/ https://blog.getresponse.com/optimizing-marketing-automation.html https://radius.com/landing/the-guide-to-marketing-intelligence/ http://scet.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/BlockchainPaper.pdf http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3165317 https://www.ihs.com/Info/0416/internet-of-things.html https://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2014/04/14/cisco-and-amsterdams-plan-make-green-city-smart http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3241817 http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#home https://www.facebook.com/notes/david-marcus/messenger-platform-gets-an-update/10155014173359148/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRpnA1fE19Q https://www.forrester.com/report/The+State+Of+Chatbots/-/E-RES136207 © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 80 81 24 https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-fund/fund-signup 25 https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit 26 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/1-month-global-pok%C3%A9mania-key-implications-learnings-von-derheydt?trk=mp-reader-card 27 http://www.lowesinnovationlabs.com/holoroom/ 28 https://www.cnet.com/special-reports/vr101/ 29 http://www.pwc.com/us/en/increasing-it-effectiveness/forrester-customer-personalization-power.html 30 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/snapchat-worth-25-billion-andreas-von-der-heydt?trk=mp-reader-card 31 https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/insights/all-insights 32 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_advertising 33 http://www.sharethrough.com/resources/in-feed-ads-vs-banner-ads/ 34 http://go.brightcove.com/marketing-social-research-US?_ga=1.216372758.167032366.1482830886 35 https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html 36 https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/best-practices/live 37 http://www.invodo.com/mobile-explosion-infographic/ 38 https://tech.zalando.com/blog/why-zalando-is-celebrating-mobile-first-day/ 39 http://www.zenithmedia.com/mobile-forecasts-75-internet-use-will-mobile-2017/ 40 http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2232897 41 http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/ 42 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/270363 43 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/26/ddos-attack-dyn-mirai-botnet 44 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/for-brands-fake-news-is-anexistential-threat/article33109539/ 45 http://alliance.org.uk/resources/A%20circular%20economy%20for%20smart%20devices.pdf 46 http://rare.consulting/loyalty © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 81 ... von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 * Photo via Windows Central 13 © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 15 In an era of ever increasing consumer emancipation... around the company in search for her home base © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 Omnichannel marketing,... © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 © Andreas von der Heydt – What The Best Brands Will Do In 2017 Although this should have been ingrained in every marketer´s DNA for