PIM Marketing Trend Report 2012 Mission Impossible: 8

1"Information Technology

2"Integration

4 Internationalisation

5"Integrity

6""Investment

8"Identity

3"Intelligence

Personal and Strategic Ambition

Technology as a Lifestyle

Actionable Synthesis

WW Net Neutrality Market Power Equality

Data, Metrics Magic Wand

Marketing = Building Sustainable Business Strategy and Implementation

Transparency Me, You, Us

Gebaseerd op Moenaert, Robben, Bray and Gouw, november 2011

7"Inspiration

Market Dynamics Experiences

Refreshing crisis thoughts: The marketing agenda of 2012

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Never waste a good crisis…My apologies… Last year I quoted in the PIM Trend Report that we are ascending out of the crisis that started in 2008. I couldn’t foresee the Euro-crisis and it’s impact on the world. Actually we can affirm that we have a crisis upon a crisis, the double dip... So, I was wrong… but also a tad right by saying that we aren’t there yet. This crisis may last a few years, perhaps. Afterwards, the world will never be the same, so… time to create or own new world then! How? Be creative, work hard and be smart, and most of all, get engaged with both your customer and supply chain. Social is the word, relationship is the key… So, turn the world around is not a Mission Impossible => Mission Impossible: 8.

What you have in front of you is the PIM Marketing Trend Report 2012. It is the eighth time Platform Innovatie in Marketing (PIM) has published a report like this. The third time from Peter Gouw’s hand, the first five times the Trend Report was written by Egbert Jan van Bel. The assignment for Peter Gouw, as editor of the Marketing Trend Report 2012, was to describe what your company needs to do to use the present situation to maximise your interests, using statistics, global research and best practice.

With the title Mission Impossible the report will walk you through eight subjects: Information Technology, Integration, Intelligence, Internationalization, Integrity, Investment, Inspiration and Identity. The key purpose of the PIM Marketing Trend Report is to be food for thought, discussion and reflection. The aim of this report is not to give a complete overview of all the trends in marketing, but to shed light on the most relevant marketing trends that will impact our work throughout 2012. Extremely necessary in times like this. Its purpose is to help marketers make better decisions and provide guidelines for their work. It is not a ‘

how-to’ manual. It is, however, indicative, case-based and contains a lot of valuable statistics. The report looks at today’s trends - trends that are observable and tangible - and discusses what is going on now and what will be important in the short term. The still growing Platform Innovatie in Marketing’s vision and mission is to recognise and monitor the most important and distinctive marketing trends and share our knowledge with you. Just looking and debating not enough: action is needed. At PIM there is a continuous, healthy examination about developments in the marketing field, a reflexion which we want to share with you! One of the accomplishments we share is the PIM Marketing Trend Report.

As always, the report will be distributed to PIM members and others involved in innovation in marketing. Peter Gouw is the report’s editor. A record number of other marketers have also contributed to the report! Thank you all for the hard work!

I hope this report will guide you to improve your marketing results and realise your goal in customer value for 2012. We as "Platform Innovatie in Marketing” wish you loads of inspiration with this new Marketing Trend Report 2012. Enjoy reading it!

Drs. Hans MolenaarChairman Platform Innovatie in Marketing

Preface Hans Molenaar

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PIM Marketing Trend Report 2012

In this trend report you will not find short lists of trends and hypes. Nor warnings or intimidating facts. And this report is also not about an insightful description of what the trend will be in 5 to 10 years from now.

 

The assignment of the board of PIM is clear. Where do we stand as marketers today, why should we step up the plate and what should we do in 2012? We focus on the missions marketers / managers have this year. We have distinguished 8 special missions. Impossible missions, let’s see and discuss, but for sure we have to work off-the-grid (again). That’s what this trend report is all about. Real marketing focus, facts, tips and opinions of our PIM Marketing trend watchers’ network in order to help improve performance in 2012. Providing marketers / managers insights and explanations they can use immediately within their Business to Business (B2B) or Business to Consumer (B2C) activities and of course to inspire.

Peter Gouw

ColophonJanuary 31st, 2012

Publisher: Platform Innovatie in Marketing

Translation by Euro-Script Utrecht

Video : Dimitris Krisilis

Price per copy 95 Euro incl. VAT

Free copy PDF download for PIM members

EditorsRudy Moenaert (TiasNimbas)

Henry Robben (Nyenrode)

Egbert-Jan van Bel (Beeckestijn)

Jan Havermans (GfK)

Pim van Geest (van Geest)

Michel van den Bosch (StratEx)

PIM Marketing Trend Report 2012Focus Trend Rapport

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Visual Mission Impossible: 8 2

Foreword 3

Focus Trend Report 4

Content 5

Trend 1 Information Technology 12Trend 2 Integration 17Trend 3 Intelligence 22Trend 4 Internationalization 27Trend 5 Integrity 29Trend 6 Investment 33Trend 7 Inspiration 38 Trend 8 Identity 43

PIM Marketing Trend Watchers 2011 51

Our Sponsors 52

1 Information Technology

2 Integration

4

Internationalisation

5 Integrity

6 Investment

8 Identity

3 Intelligence

7 Inspiration

PIM Marketing Trend Report 2012Table of Contents

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What key trends are on the commercial radar in the years to come? Tom Cruise is starring yet again in the recently released movie Mission Impossible 4, and we sincerely hope this will be his last MI appearance! But he should perhaps rise to this challenge because the marketing world is already a few sequels ahead of the Tom Cruise bunch. Today, we are looking at MI:8. We will use alliteration, a century-old technique widely used in poetry and music, to convey our thoughts on the marketing agenda for the coming years. We have been accustomed to this particular literary device ever since McCarthy propelled the 4 Ps into marketing stardom.

The challenge for today’s marketing managers is all about boosting the customer experience; it is about deploying the interactive aspects of information technology to appeal to demanding target groups both old and new. You want to develop activities that fully integrate into your customers’ lives in a seamless manner, using intelligent solutions, is fact-based and focused on actual behavior. In the meantime, economic growth is shifting towards the Far East. Growth in European markets is stagnating, and even a decline is on the cards. The Far East, with its rapidly growing population and economies, is now more interesting and relevant than ever. Doing good business requires transparency to keep the house clean. No business is immune, although perhaps a few may attempt to prolong the current blur for as long as possible. The Return on Marketing concept is rendering marketers accountable in the true sense of the word. We need strong marketers, not funny marketers. They must put emotion into their products and services to give customers a reason to buy and employees a reason to be proud. This is what will bring an end to the discussion about the added value of marketers and their identity crisis. To coin a phrase, make marketing cool again. The epithet

Business Model Innovation no longer relates to the challenges that await the skillful marketer of today and tomorrow. MI:8 is nothing more or nothing less than a Business Model Turnaround.

The reason behind this reportChange in the world is gaining momentum. Late 2010, the Western world was geared for new growth hoping that the crisis would subside. There was an air of hopefulness, but the fundamentals were still in a shambles. And from a marketing perspective, we would have to rethink our position in the business environment. Eight professionals from their own particular fields of expertise have written this report to impart their knowledge and reveal the trends for the coming year or two. We are not striving for a

PIM Marketing Trend Report 2012Focus

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long-term vision, but simply focus on a pragmatic understanding of the current environment.

The information in this report combines empirical insight, personal views, and extensive discussion and debate among marketing trend watchers in the Netherlands who are associated with PIM (Platform Innovatie in Marketing).

StructureThe distinct fields of interest for the coming year, our Mission Impossible:8 are:• Information Technology• Integration• Intelligence• Internationalization• Integrity• Investment• Inspiration• Identity

This teaser is a holistic view of the 8 subjects covered in this report. The following chapters give more detailed information about these areas.

1. Information Technology: Facebook, SAP, Tripadvisor, FourSquare, Siebel, Groupon, Booking.com, iTunes, Twitter… The list of IT-enabled businesses that have converted formerly fragmented markets into winner-takes-all or winner-takes-most markets is nearly endless. Innovation guru

Michael Cusumano rightly argues that we must no longer think product but rather product and services (“Staying Power”, 2010.)

Cusumano is actually behind the times. We're now moving way beyond thinking about 'products and services' as we should be thinking ‘experiences.’ Apple's explosive growth is not about products or services: it's about creating a seamless, yet open experience with every interaction. It's about a commitment to the elegance of simplicity. It's about building an emotional connection with every customer. It's their ethos. And it pervades every touch point, every product - throughout their eco-system. Organizations that evolve and get this right will be the ultimate winners.

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2. Integration: Generation Y has made its first inroads into the organizational pyramid. Also known as Echo Boomers, they are true digital natives. The sequel to the 1990 classic ‘Home Alone’, starring Macaulay Culkin, would today be called ‘Never Alone’. Generation Y expects nothing less than transparency and authenticity of the people around them, and their employers. The forty-somethings who currently head up the marketing departments in many organizations may find themselves not only outmoded, but most likely also outwitted by their younger colleagues. Just watch a toddler used to the iPad interface try to swipe its way to the next screen on your PC. Well… that toddler is your next customer!

Again, it's about the experience. For digital natives, it’s more about absorbing a technology that IS their lifestyle rather than a technology that meets their specific needs. For digital natives, the best technology for them is a technology they want to use 24/7/365 simply because it's about their lifestyle - their everyday experience. It's not something they turn off when they leave work.

3. Intelligence: We continue to be profoundly amazed at how inadequately the academic community reacts to the opportunities afforded by the new scenery. The Internet provides huge opportunities to study customers, competitors and other stakeholders in real time, and as a business ecosystem. As a test, we screened a few of the leading

textbooks that are currently used in top-notch American business schools. It is simply frightening to see how disconnected marketing research methodology is from the connected world it is probing. Folks, there’s a lot more to focus on than the methodological principles underlying ad hoc marketing surveys.

However, the next big trend in intelligence is how to synthesize all the collected data and present them in a condensed and digestible format. Take, for example, a company like CIRadar. They deliver a daily briefing covering several metrics about you, your customers, and your competition. The briefing covers a significant amount of data that would take a team of 10 to 15 people to collect manually. This dashboard of meaningful, insightful and actionable information is available for a very reasonable $12K per year.

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4. Internationalization: In the past, the Western world viewed developing countries as low-cost production centers and avenues for channeling Barbie, beer and cosmetics. However, the business’ center of gravity is rapidly shifting towards the Far East. The 7th billion person on this planet was born recently in Manila. Citizens in the Far East no longer consider themselves as passive outposts, slavishly implementing the agenda of Western headquarters. No, driven by pride, people and the power of money, they are now building their own global corporations and brands. A voiceover in a new edition of “How the West was Won” might just suggest it all started in the Far East. Chris Burggraeve, the Chief Marketing Officer of AB Inbev, put it quite simply: “The Belgian marketer of the future will be international, or he won’t be a marketer”. A very valid observation.

However, there is a wildcard in the equation. The concept of worldwide net neutrality has been a catalyst to breaking down borders and isolated cultures. Some geographies are doing their utmost to gain control and limit Web access. This could change things or at least slow down the openness of information.

5. Integrity: Any relationship between two people actually involves three entities: the first person (‘me’), the other person (‘you’), and the relationship between both of them (‘us’). In the age of one-way communication, the company (me) was able to define the relationship at its discretion. Personally, we do not think for a moment that the presidential ambitions of DSK, the brand label generally used for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, would have been dented at all by his escapades if they had occurred some 50 years ago. We have, however, entered the age of transparency. Morons, however high in the organizational chart, are today confronted with a ‘you’ who wants a greater say in ‘us’. This is something that is very much needed. We do not want idiots like Bob Diamond, CEO of Barclays Bank, saying in a parliamentary committee in January 2011: “There was a period of remorse and apology; that period needs to be

over. We need our banks willing to take risks, to be confident and to work with the private sector in the UK to create jobs and improve economic growth”. Vineet Nayar, author of “Employees First, Customers Second”, is right: transparency keeps the house clean. And if we may be so bold, it keeps idiots like Bob Diamond under scrutiny. Even Michael Porter himself calls for shared value rather than shareholder value.

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6. Investment: The book ‘Marketing Strategy & Organization’ (4th Edition, LannooCampus, 2011), quotes Sir George Bull, a long-time veteran of the British beverage industry. He observed: “The marketing function bears all the hallmarks of abstract art – it costs an arm and a leg, it bears only a passing resemblance to real life, and you’re never quite

sure what you’ve got at the end of it all”. Return on Marketing is still a gypsy metric. It need not be. Marketing activities are an investment in a firm’s business model. We need marketers who not only understand the ins and outs of an advertising campaign, but who can also calculate and sell the net present value of search engine optimization, international brand expansion, new product development and sales force recruitment. We need strong marketers, not funny marketers.

7. Inspiration: Are you inspired to lead the change and manage the journey through the commodity game, through financial market disruption, through the battle for energy and the environmental challenge? As marketing leaders we should and need to be inspired by these fundamental trends. It is inevitable - you will have to demonstrate vision and leadership more than ever before, and lead your company by building a sustainable business roadmap with a competitive edge. By embracing the new reality, look differently, look forward, ask yourself WHY and use the full potential of your company strengths, resources, opportunities, and commit fully to all this. Involve your entire organization and bring emotion to the people and customers. Giving them a reason to buy, work your ‘you’. The question might be: “Does your inspiration come from the crowd or from yourself?” As life is becoming more individualistic and self-reliant, are we seeking collaboration to get the right proposition out there? Life is a journey - enjoy the ride!

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8. Identity: The questions currently being asked by marketers and heard in marketing discussions reveal that marketing is undergoing an identity crisis. When asked which marketer we admire the most, Steve Jobs is more often than not our unanimous answer. We do not believe that Steve Jobs’ business card read: “Chief Marketing Officer”. He wouldn’t have accepted that. What Steve Jobs did was real marketing; he impressively transcended the two disciplines that are generally used to illustrate the field: marketing research and marketing communications. In reality, marketing is building sustainable business. The marketer is the architect and manager of the core commercial processes of an organization. Well, it’s high time to rethink these core marketing processes and organizational structures. “What ultimately constrains the performance of your organization is not its operating model, nor its business model, but its management model” (Gary Hamel in The Future of Management).

Business model turnaround has always been the #1 decision screen for good marketers. The mediocre marketer operates effectively as a caretaker and guardian of the status quo. True marketers attempt to peel back the layers of perceived truth, they are driven towards insight rather than data, they are motivated to perform and use creative problem-solving to identify new opportunities and cater for a real customer need.

To put it simply, the business model innovation label no longer captures the challenges that await the skillful marketer.

There is no choice: MI:8 means Business Model Turnaround.

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Natural user interface: from Search Engine to Answering Machine

In 2012, Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, will pose serious competition to Google. Users of Apple’s Siri platform for the iPhone and iPad do not have to search through thousands of websites for what they’re looking for. Siri provides answers to questions, makes a reservation in a restaurant, sends messages, or orders a taxi. You can strike up a conversation with

Siri, ask a question and Siri will give you the answer and provide it in text. Apple makes a search more relevant – ask for information and get the answer.

Google on the other hand seems to be sticking to finding web pages. Google+ is a step towards the next search levels, and predicts what you and I want to find.

Trend 1 Information TechnologyThe year of the natural user interface

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Natural user interface: Near Field Communication (NFC)

With the introduction of Near Field Communication (NFC), banks stopped investing in the ChipKnip. NFC technology means paying is simple – just swipe your smart phone across a reader at the cash desk, or touch another phone with your phone to transfer money from your account to the owner of the other phone. Google Wallet is currently the market leader, but banks are also experimenting.

NFC makes paying more user friendly. You no longer have to find a charge point. You will be able to charge your wallet on the go, even fully automatically, so you can be sure you always have funds available.

Natural user interface: MultiTouchInteractive Glass: Imagine a shop window where we can pick and choose from the complete range, examine your choice to your heart’s content, and then drag it to a shopping basket - all without even entering a shop.

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Multitouch glass will start to appear in the home and office and in public spaces. There will be Multitouch glass where interactivity and information coincide, providing people with yet another way to interact with an organization.

The next step: Hand Gesture Recognition (2012: Innovators)

Natural user interface: Robotics in customer service2012 will see companies investing in robotics for service processes. So far we’ve seen this mostly in production processes. At some point in 2012 it will reach the tipping point for customer services.

Sberbank in Moscow is probably the first bank where technology has won out over the employee. Using scanners for passports, fingerprints

and 3D face recognition, this bank will provide fully digital banking services. You can now open a bank account, or order a new credit card. Clients must still answer a few questions verbally, and lie detector software will detect whether they are telling the truth. If this is the case, your verbal characteristics will be stored on your card whereby the system learns and improves itself.

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Social impact: The end of hierarchyNatural user interfaces will make technology and its intelligence available to all. Individuals will have more influence, and be less dependent on others. This, in turn, will free them from hierarchical systems based on control and inequality. They will look for equal relationships as citizens, employees or customers. If they’re not satisfied with the service provided, they will join up with others in the crowd to be heard.

Social impact: Social judgmentBringing a case before court will be increasingly difficult and more expensive in 2012. In fact this is no longer a viable option for many people. It’s either too expensive or time consuming, and consequently its popularity as an option is on the wane. No worries, crowd-based solutions are at hand. Technology currently available makes connecting with others in the crowd easy. It is highly effective and easy to use. So, for example, if you have a problem with a company, and you shared this problem with others and with employees in that company, the latter will swiftly attempt to remedy whatever was wrong. Everybody wins, and it’s light years faster than going to court.

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Social impact: The Boardroom sandwichTo date, politicians and young people have been active on numerous different social platforms, but the board members of big multinationals didn’t seem to care. Today this attitude is no longer viable and may even be destructive because communication with all stakeholders in a company has become crucial. They have to prepare for an openness and transparency that was not previously required of companies - the boardroom must step up to the plate or be phased out.

Social impact: Digi crimeA word of warning: the frantic pace of digital development and dwindling financial funds will lead to an increase in cyber crime. The greatest threat is identity theft, so protect it!

Nano worldAlthough still in its infancy, nanotechnology will evolve rapidly and in the next year or two we will be seeing its first practical applications in everyday life. By the late 2010s, ubiquitous, unseen nano devices will provide seamless communication and surveillance among all people everywhere. Humans will have nano implants, facilitating interaction in an all-pervading network. Everyone will have a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. Since nano storage capacity is almost limitless, all conversation and activity will be recorded and recoverable. -- Gene Stephens, "Cybercrime in the Year 2025," July-Aug 2008

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Have you ever met somebody from Generation Y? Well, they are now entering your organizational pyramid or taking over your own household if you have teenagers or older children. These Echo Boomers, Youngsters, Generation Why, Millennials, Generation Next, Net Generation, Einstein and .com Gen were born between 1980 and 1996 and are true digital natives. They have grown up in a world resounding with commercial messages. They are adept at filtering out messages that are irrelevant. They are skeptical about product novelty or brand uniqueness. They take heed of their friends, of shop staff and family rather than websites and brand brochures. And key to brand building are transparency, authenticity and connectivity. The needs, behavior and habits of this generation is the angle for explaining some of the integration challenges marketers will face in the coming years.

TransparencySociety is currently moving towards total transparency and there will be no room for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized

products. There are no secrets. Companies can no longer hide behind happytalk websites. Generation Y expects nothing less than transparency – of the people around them, and of their employers.

AuthenticityBrand authenticity drives consumer choice. But perceptions of authenticity change. The young generation considers the old interpretation of authenticity i.e. origin, brand history and heritage, to be less relevant or important. In their eyes authenticity means being unique, honest and ethical. If marketing managers have to tell people that their brands are authentic then they are not - Generation Y consumers will decide for themselves what’s authentic and what’s not.

ConnectivityGeneration Y demands connectivity. They don’t just buy brands, they join them. And so they want to be connected to them just like they want to be connected to their friends. They use social networks,

microblogs and blogs in order be part of a conversation, part of a community. This is why many successful brands use social platforms and behave like friends by providing involvement and control over the brand.

Trend 2 IntegrationIntegration is constant evolution

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How do you compete to gain their trust and give them a reason to buy from you or work for you? They are also perceptively called Generation Why because they don’t take things for granted. Generation Y “demands” flexibility and telecommuting choices, and is generally optimistic, highly social and rather moralistic. They have a complex and strongly tribal social structure built on their social networks. Work and social life are blurred (global workplace study, Johnson Controls Inc.'s). Generation Y brings new energy with their virtual collaboration & communication, networking, knowledge sharing and their second-nature use of online tools. This comes as a big challenge if you happen to be a traditional marketing (offline) manager. The Johnson Controls study showed that over 70% of respondents say they want recycling programs in the office, and 47% would like to see solar panels on site at work. And 79% prefer working in an urban environment. Are we ready for this? Or will they “come round” once they have experienced the financial and economic crisis and act “normally”?

The Values of Generation Y employees: • Meritocracy. Only the talented survive and people with talent should be

able to succeed.• Camaraderie. Working with others, in teams or just collaboratively;

group accomplishment is sweeter than solo success. A sense of mentoring, or mentors, in the workplace.

• Non-traditionalism. Doing things differently from in the past while making the point that “this is different”.•Integration of work and personal life in a number of ways: co-workers are “family”, work and social life blend, and personal and social activities are merged into the working day or night.•Fierce independence: in choice of company to work for, when to leave, how to get the work done, and how the work should be done are all individual decisions, with input from social and professional networks. The result is that there is little loyalty to employers.

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Generation Y employees see themselves as:• Unique. They consider themselves to be a breed apart, talented, skilled

and in demand. They strongly believe in the value of their work and expect “the rest of the world” to appreciate it.

• Proud. They are confident of their skills and enjoy being looked to for advice and guidance and admired for their special talents.

• Confident. They show little fear of the future, believing that their skills will always be in demand, and they have a strong support network in place through family and friends.

• Realistic. They are, however, realistic about financial compensation in turbulent economic times.

• Are they too arrogant and without the right experience and knowledge for them to have power?

Implications for BusinessFinancial compensation. Young knowledge workers may be realistic about variations in compensation because of economic fluctuations, but the underlying expectation of high compensation remains.

Caring. The sense of being nurtured and indulged by the organization is central.

Career opportunities. Generation Y workers

expect that their organization will provide learning and growth opportunities: the chance to do creative, challenging work, with career prospects.

Collaboration. Young workers seek a work culture that is organized around teamwork and collaboration.

Social Responsibility. Business should espouse a social cause that goes beyond the traditional bottom line.

Is this a generation of “cherry pickers” with company devaluation as the result? Well as Don Tapscott stated in his book: Grown up digital (2009), “this newest generation of workers entering the workforce is changing the way that we live and work”.

In the years to come, marketing managers will face a shift in their tasks. In an era of digital technologies and empowered customers, it is more important to become a “content supply chain” manager by managing content through coordinating messages in the media rather than just publishing simple content. Marketing managers will have to become marketplace intelligence leaders by taking a lead in distributing customer

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insights gathered through the digital touch points across the organization. Online marketing and social media are not just new channels that can be used for the same commercial message – they are much more.

Just watch a toddler used to the iPad interface try to swipe its way to the next screen on your PC. Well… that toddler is your latest customer!

Generation Y was raised in the world of digital information technologies. They can’t imagine a life where consumers are not able to connect with

each other, talk about products and services, share opinions and assess what other consumers have to say. They are active producers of media information and are constantly looking for interaction. Companies are starting to acknowledge this “power to the people” movement.

A study by Junco and Mastrodicasa: “Research on ‘The Net.Generation,’” found that 97% of students owned a computer, 94% owned a cell phone, and 56% owned an MP3 player (iPod, Zune, Sansa, etc.). The same study also found that 69% of students polled had a Facebook account, 28% owned a blog and 44% read blogs. At home, Gen Y influence 81% of their families' apparel purchases and 52% of car choices.

Nike found out the hard way that Generation Y is different. Although still hugely popular among teens, the brand actually lost its hold on the market at the turn of the century, according to Teenage Research Unlimited, a Northbrook market researcher. Nike's slick national ad campaigns, with the emphasis on image and celebrity, helped build the brand among boomers. Yet these ad campaigns backfired with Gen Y who said: ''It doesn't matter to me that Michael Jordan has endorsed Nikes''. Bad moves such as Nike's disastrous attempt to sponsor Olympic snowboarders and allegations of inhumane overseas labor practices only fuelled Gen Y's scorn. As Nike has discovered, success with this generation requires a new kind of advertising and a new kind of product. The huge image-building campaigns that led to boomer crazes in everything from designer vodka to sport-utility vehicles are less effective with Gen Y. ''The old-style advertising that works very well with boomers, ads that push a slogan and an image and a feeling, the younger consumer is not going to go for,'' says James R. Palczynski, retail analyst for Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. and author of YouthQuake, a study of youth consumer trends. Instead, Gen Y respond to humor, irony, and the seemingly untainted truth. Sprite has scored with ads that parody celebrity endorsers and

Paul PolmanCEO Unilever

“If they can bring Egypt government down in six weeks they can bring us down in nanoseconds.”

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carry the tagline ''Image is nothing. Obey your thirst.'' J.C. Penney & Co.'s (JCP) hugely successful Arizona Jeans brand has launched a new campaign showing teens mocking ads that attempt to speak their language. The tagline? ''Just show me the jeans.''Nike has learned from its mistakes. When the company wanted to contract Rihanna and Chris Brown to promote their skating products, they first asked their fans, who, in turn, didn’t think it was a good idea. Gen Y consumers said that both stars had nothing to do with skating; they don’t even know how to skate! These celebrities would not lend credibility to the campaign. And so Nike did not contract them. But they did sign a contract with a young Paul Rodriguez, also known as P-Rod, a young street skateboarder turned professional at the age of 17. They shot a video in the most beautiful places in New York popular for skating, with P-Rod demonstrating his most spectacular and difficult skateboard tricks. Nike’s commercial with P-Rod got hundreds of thousands clicks on YouTube.

The sequel to the 1990 classic ‘Home Alone’, starring Macaulay Culkin, would today be called ‘Never Alone’. Generation Y was raised in a world in which total connectivity is normal. Technology is not just a device, it’s a part of their lives. The way they make purchasing decisions, start friendships, communicate and make career choices is affected by their use of online technologies. Because this is the

world they grew up in. The best technology for them is one that they want to use 24/7/365 since it's about their lifestyle - their daily experience, it's not something that’s turned off when they leave work.

You gain Gen Y’s attention by being available 24/7, listening to them, by being creative, green and responsible. Be competitive by staying true to your brand DNA and connect to the spirit of the new generation - this is the secret to becoming part of their choices. Just as Darwin once said, it’s not the strongest of the species, in this case companies, that survive nor the most intelligent. But the one most responsive to change.

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Marketing intelligenceThere is a distinct difference between market intelligence and marketing intelligence, or can we combine them as business intelligence? In these economically challenging times, companies and individuals are increasingly looking for pragmatic ways to conduct research and make sure it is relevant to their business. It will become easier to communicate with the market via online questionnaires, portals and other user groups. It is no longer the domain of the big research companies, although they still play a major role. But the individual is now empowered through various apps to get the right information that is essential for them and their division or company. Since most relevant information is now in the public domain, companies like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn provide a wealth of information to targeted users through groups and specialized apps. The big research companies like Nielsen, Kantar, Synovate and

GfK must reevaluate their position in the current marketplace if they are to provide viable and up-to-date tools and insights for specific groups to use. And even if they do this well in the coming years, Google will be by far the largest market research institute in 5 years’ time because they created a total new market research playing field – a new business model.

The networked company, the real relations within the companyIf we go beyond the hierarchy, and see the company as a network, we gain new insights into how organizations truly work. This also means that information flows are no longer top-down or run by just a handful of people. Getting everybody involved in a company’s strategic goals means

Trend 3 IntelligencePower shifts to the User, Information becomes focused

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getting the very best out of people and not just having them perform their designated tasks. Using the best that networks can offer, both inside and outside the company, fluid project teams are better equipped to focus on specific goals. And once the target is reached, the team dissolves to make way for new projects. In 2005 Bill Gates drafted a memo headed: “the new way of working” to encourage his company, Microsoft, to shift towards this new norm. Even though the memos are already seven years old, it was only the Dutch division that managed to fully implement his views successfully. However, increasing pressure to create a viable work-life balance will mean that this new way of working will be implemented in many more companies across the board. Failing to provide this flexibility will put your team or company at a distinct disadvantage when attempting

to attract the right employee. Another great innovation in providing value to the customer as well as the company is KLM’s Social Seating. The idea is to allow passengers to select seat-mates on the basis of what their Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+ profiles say about them.

Apps in business, getting things doneERP systems used to be the norm in larger companies. Even though they’re very useful, more and more startups provide applications to present data in a more useful manner. So look beyond the big systems to get the right applications for your team or company. Faster time-to-market and implementation can be guaranteed if you’re able to define your specific requirements for the goals at hand. Integration of specific marketing information can be extracted from proprietary systems as well as public domain information from dashboards instead of bulky reports.

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Information becomes actionable, clutter is reduced, and there is no unnecessary focus on too many KPIs.

Finding the right applications for your business is a challenge simply because new apps are cropping up

every day. Analyzing large amounts of data, finding meaningful patterns and aggregating them to useful data does not have to take place within the company. New services will provide you with the necessary insights to propel your company towards achieving its goals. Online surveys will become more sophisticated and easier to implement as will interaction with the customer through gamification to monitor behavior and conduct interactive research.

A wealth of new programs is available from numerous app stores. iPhone users’ cell phone addiction is not only the result of its design - every new app means they are more locked in. They can’t stop using their iPhone and tend not to switch to the competition. They can no longer live without the integration and intelligence afforded by Apple. More on developments in the App-World in the recently released book “The App Effect” by VINT.

Beyond Excel, be the guru or provide actionable informationPeople sometimes talk as though Excel were better than sex! What on earth has happened to our lives! Yes, Excel is an excellent tool but it also

has its limitations. Ask yourself what information is essential for achieving the company or team goals and what seems to be unnecessary detailing. Provide the team with meaningful aggregated data instead of bombarding them with yet another list. It also means that intuition, based on experience and input from multiple sources, places increasing importance on decision-making. A project and result focus will diminish the need for bulky reports and increase actionable data presented in dashboards and scorecards.

Look for proprietary systems provided by ERP vendors like Business Objects, Cognos, SAS enterprise BI server, Oracle enterprise BI server and of course Microsoft products. And don’t forget nonproprietary systems from vendors like QlikView, WebFocus or even open-source

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software like Actuate and Pentaho. Share your vision with us, tell us what you think is excellent, challenge us and give feedback.

Redefining your business model for true focus and collaborationOur economy is a networked economy. More and more companies will focus on a specific role within the supply chain and they will become experts as a result. This will mean they can be more efficient and therefore profitable. It also means that relations with other members of the supply chain become increasingly important. It is no longer possible to ignore this trend (it’s one of the winning business trends, Moenaert, Robben and Gouw), as the geographical boundaries no longer exist. Information on

prospective partners is readily available through Internet technology, and should be used accordingly.

One of the best examples of a company that shifted from the traditional business model towards a completely new one is Springer. Springer, the second largest academic publisher in the world, fully embraced digitalization and it has become very profitable in today’s market.

Cloud-based computingAll the previously mentioned tools can be provided in the cloud. This poses a whole new set of challenges and opportunities. Where previously the IT department dictated what software people would use, now they will look for the tools that best suit their needs without consulting or even

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informing the IT department. The result: loss of control, a raft of security issues and more influence on what tools to use. On the other hand it provides the user with targeted solutions on their smart phone or mobile devices. iOS, Android and Windows mobile where HTML 5 will become the new standards. It also makes the tools independent of their workspace and blurs the boundaries between time and place.

Using currently available computing power, interactive data visualization is becoming a requirement and even a necessity in order to keep up with current demand.

The US elections, which are always very much data driven, will provide a wealth of new applications and insight into what is currently possible.

To warp upIn the coming year marketing intelligence will provide accurate and actionable data for project teams and the company as a whole. In order to get the right information at the right time, take a good look at your business model and for more focus redefine it if necessary, and involve the whole company and all its stakeholders to get things done. The availability of public domain data and tools to access specific information will shift power from the vendor to (expert) user. Give the employees the freedom to explore these avenues and learn to adapt quickly. In the coming years mobile applications will develop quickly and give users more self-reliance. This means they will have to learn new skills and adapt rapidly to a changing environment that places increasingly more importance on social media.

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What is a Shift in the Center of Gravity?In the past, the Western World was the center of gravity when it came to setting standards for trends and creating a need for new products and

innovations. The global population is growing rapidly, the 7th billionth person was recently born and we are moving towards a global population of 8 billion. Today, the pace of population growth in the Western world is diminishing, whereas populations in other parts of the world are growing significantly faster, creating a shift of people and economic power. Emerging regions - Africa, the Middle East and Far East – are home to the 10 fastest growing cities in the world: China (Beihai), India (Faridabad,

Surat, Ghaziabad), Bangladesh (Chittagong), Afghanistan (Kabul), Yemen (Sanaa), Mali (Bamako), Nigeria (Lagos), Tanzania (Dar Es Salaam).

With the rapid population growth in these emerging regions, bolstered by the Net and social media, these markets are expanding rapidly. New global companies are emerging at a rapid pace, led by pride, people and the power of money. This is generating new international top competitors. New rich appear; new markets open up for trade creating opportunities for alliances, partnerships and acquisitions.

The growth in wealth and prosperity is guaranteed to accelerate fast in these emerging regions and with increasing connectivity, it creates enormous commercial opportunities. However, growth has a downside, and resources such as water, energy and food will come under serious pressure. Socially aware societies are emerging and stepping up to address the resources issue, asking businesses, governments and NGOs to take responsibility. As this next group of people will be a tremendous commercial opportunity, they will also need to operate responsibly and contribute to a world pervaded by ‘healthy societies’.

Trend 4: InternationalizationCenter of Gravity Shift

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The Statistics Netherlands internationalization Monitor for 2011 states; “Economic globalization is characterized by increasing international trade, foreign investment and international sourcing. For the Netherlands, this concerns activities by Dutch multinational companies abroad as well as foreign enterprises in the Netherlands.” Important findings in this Monitor are:• The share of imports from BRIC countries quadrupled since 1996 from

4 to 16 percent in 2010, making China the third most important source of Dutch imports.

• One in ten firms in the Netherlands is active in international trade. The top 1 percent of traders generated 74 percent of Dutch imports and 71 percent of exports in 2008.

• In 2009, 1 percent of companies in the Netherlands were foreign-owned. They generated over a quarter of the added value, one-sixth of employment and nearly a third of turnover in the private sector.

(Source: www.cbs.nl)

Beware of the unknown and unexpected, create flexibility, and make sure to choose your business path wisely, select your partners with great care, take responsibility and pro-actively translate the shift of gravity to commercial opportunities.

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Creating Sustainability‘Sustainability’ is part of the mission of many companies. In the past sustainability was about creating a way for your company to keep your shareholders, customers, consumers and employees satisfied. Today it is

only a ticket to ride. In order to create sustainability, leading companies are now focusing on all stakeholders, also involving governments, NGOs, institutions and social societies.

With a global increase in the consumption of resources, there is a significant trend among international companies towards increasing awareness of sustainable, durable and green business needs. This has led to a shift from governments and NGOs establishing legislation to companies and social societies creating legislation. The shift will probably not be endless, but it will get to a point where governments, NGOs, companies and social societies will work together to introduce improvements to our world and society, setting new standards and creating ‘green, durable and sustainable’ international legislation.

Co-leadership is an essential ingredient for creating co-operation among the different stakeholders needed for setting the new rules of the sustainability game. An inspiring and visionary view by Tex Gunning, board member at AkzoNobel on co-leadership can be viewed on YouTube.Next, AkzoNobel is trying to set the new standard with support from social societies. They really understand the need to build trust and gain the support of social societies that is needed to achieve sustainability. An excellent example of how AkzoNobel is creating this trust is the Let’s Color Project (www.letscolourproject.com).

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Philips is a company that continues to innovate to stay ahead of the competition. Within this innovation process, besides customers also opinion leaders and government officials are already involved in the innovation process. Philips

has clearly taken the direction of focusing on all stakeholders by working with governments and NGOs. See also: YouTube)

According to Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, there is a commitment gap between what governments say and what they deliver on sustainability, which provides an opportunity for business, NGOs and society to take up the challenge. This challenge shows that Unilever already has all stakeholders in its sites. Unilever Press Releases on sustainable change.

Next, he expresses the urgency to think about how to better shape your business models and a new future. Watch on YouTube

It is also definitely worth watching the following Youtube movie entitled “One Young World Global CEO Panel”, with 5 speakers. Watch on YouTube.

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Integrity is often associated with good-evil conflicts, mostly in the sense of personal characteristics. If we follow this association for marketing, it is easy to get lost in a race to be the ‘most respectable person in the class’.

We would say that reducing integrity to a ‘good-evil problem’ will lead to too narrow a perspective, and the marketing capabilities from the integrity trend will be much greater if we approach it with a broad perspective.

Integrity – consistency – relationThe word integrity comes from the Latin word integer, which means ‘untouched’, ‘flawless’ or ‘whole’. A ‘flawless whole’ implies something made from parts, and that all its parts are interdependent and interact.

When we talk about integrity we want to emphasize two core concepts:• Consistency• Unity in relation

In the Netherlands, integrity is often used as in the second concept: act from a just understanding of a relationship. With a marketing approach it is more about productivity and an emphasis on consistency, on top of the necessary emphasis on unity in relationship.

Integrity marketing is a consistent mixIn short we believe integrity marketing is about the absence of internal contrast combined with customer insight, product characteristics, services, packaging, brand, price, advertisement, promotion, sales promotion, personal sales, publicity and distribution channels. No matter what the marketing strategy of a company might be: as soon as there are inconsistencies (and if they are there, they will emerge sooner or later) it will have a negative impact on sales.

Take a practical example from the B2C market: the claim that a product or ingredient is ‘natural’ is obviously vague. The consumer will have an idea of the product, but the consumer’s image and the real product mix can be quite diverse because of this vagueness. These kinds of inconsistencies between the product mix and the experience will cease to

Trend 5: IntegrityConsistency – Unity in relation

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exist according to market researcher Mintel. Producers will emphasize the usability of the product, instead of what the product is made of.

Background: Everything is visibleThe driving force behind this trend towards integrity and consistency is the recent increase in transparency in the B2C market. This penalizes knowledge arbitration, and has led to a transparency spillover from the

B2C to the B2B market. The visibility of the value chain in consumer markets has led to an increase in the availability of information and a subsequent strengthening of consumer activism.

As a result, consistency in the marketing strategy will increasingly become more

important. Transparency attracts criticism of the inconsistencies, whether intentional or not, with all the subsequent consequences. Companies must therefore take a close look at their own value chain, and replace the parts that don’t fit their marketing strategy.

New marketing: consistency & moral contractsThis is a big opportunity for both consumers and marketers: B2B represents the largest part of economic activity and adding consistency could lead to a new branch of marketing. In this type of market the marketer will be a positive alternative to the compliance officer.

The compliance officer attempts to enforce ‘rule-based’ integrity. Using what is referred to as a ‘tick box culture’ the marketer can use his imagination to contribute on a ‘principle-based’ solution that meets the wishes of the customer. Where the compliance officer uses integrity as a brake, the marketer uses it as an accelerator.

Marketers do this by implementing a consistent marketing strategy that covers all the parts of the value chain and is true to the spirit of the relationship that the consumer has with the product. The consumer receives positive confirmation of his moral contract with the producer when consuming the product or service. The consumer becomes a fan. Integrity doesn’t lead to new paternalism but to new marketing!

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The banking crises of 2008, and the world economic crises of 2011 have resulted in turbulent times. And something even worse may possibly be in store if we consider the political and financial issues that must be solved in 2012. In the meantime, customers throughout the world continue to connect with each other, developing global trading habits, getting closer and closer to one another, leaving very little room for distribution companies because these customers are doing business more cheaply and quickly directly with the producers.

Our planet is not only too small to maintain the pace of our growing population; it is also too small to contend with significant number of large businesses operating on the world market.

Be more pragmatic about the choices you deal with because:

We have no choice other than to think about the right way we should be doing things. We must start to listen again to others and ourselves in order to understand what we both need.

We are returning to a sense of reality. We have become consumers on a global scale, with almost no goods being made locally. We are triggered

to act in this way by countless marketing campaigns. Large companies are waging war with consumers and other competitors in an attempt to preserve their own market.

We have forgotten how to re-pair, re-use, produce and to re-produce.

A good example is guerilla gardening in cities. It is flourishing because it is not only a financial issue, it is about human nature and the need to create and re-produce. Give seeds to children, and they want to put them in the ground and watch them grow.

Give seeds to adults and they first look on the Internet to find out about the ideal soil, temperature, and moisture levels… and by the time the seeds should be in the ground, our children will be harvesting their produce.

It is essential to learn again how to re-connect with our planet,

and re-connect with our neighbors, family and friends. Our digital lives have changed the way we interact with the world, but our needs as human beings have not changed at all.

Trend 6 InvestmentChoosing the Investment to make

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So what should we be doing in 2012?Look at the momentum surrounding social media, use the energy that is being brought by individuals into those digital worlds and connect to people. Think about re-connecting with Mother Nature and think about the urge to create. Re-think how you conduct business and ask yourself: Am I going to continue to be a producer?

If survival is your aim then it is time for a huge paradigm shift. You will have to come up with something new and worthwhile for individuals if you are in B2C, or worthwhile for companies, both new and old, if you are in B2B.

If you truly want to survive and you are seriously motivated, then it is time to re-organize your business.

Be practical, follow this recipe:

Ingredients: • A large piece of white paper

(as large as you can find)• Color pencils• A quiet place to think

This is not childish, it is very serious, unless of course you want to spend time looking on the internet for solutions instead of planting seeds to harvest this year.

Just draw, it is only for you and no one else will see it unless you want to show it off. Be honest, don’t draw just to satisfy your brain, use your heart for the best effect.

Follow these instructions: 1. Draw your customer in the center of the paper.2. Choose bright colors and draw something you expect your customer

to be happy about.3. Choose a dark color and draw something your customer would be

disappointed about.4. Don’t touch the drawing for at least 24 hours.5. Then add some new features: one bright, and one dark.6. Repeat the drawing-rest session at least 5 times.7. Look at your drawing again.

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Be honest - did you repeat the process at least 5 times? If you did; congratulations.

If you didn’t, you are not going to make it through the difficult times ahead. It’s all about you. We are simply trying to help here, but you are not willing to re-think what you have been doing all the time. You are just hoping that things will keep on being the same, and with luck even be better than in the past. But this isn’t real! Too bad. Too late, Too old.

The significance of the drawing.If asked to do this exercise, children throughout the world would make a drawing straightaway, but adults feel they need to practice because they have been trained to converge, whereas creativity requires divergence.

If everything is ok, you will have a drawing in your hands that depicts your customer’s needs. You have put your brain and heart into action, and this is where your success is going to come from. This time keep it stupid and simple.

We could talk to you about facial coding and the use of webcams, or send you some linking points about neuromarketing. But save your money for 2012: it’s going to be a tough year for everyone and you might need a lot of cash to stay alive and grow the right team around the real needs of your customers. Stay focused. (If you really have guts, let your customers see your drawing and let them add their own features and colors.)

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This is all very nice and simple: having sufficient cash to spend this year and the need to make the right investment is not enough. So now for something really worthwhile!

Almost all industries have witnessed tremendous shifts. The expected shift this year will be in banking, with huge companies interested in having a piece of the financial cake. Google, Facebook, Isis are the biggest players in this field and you won’t be make it with 100 million.No way!

You will need to find something different: let’s look at Waste Management. We produce some 1.6 billion tons of waste every year on our planet! This is a field that has seen no major changes for years. We are not talking here about improved methods of sorting rubbish. We are

talking about a revolutionary new way of looking at our garbage. It probably doesn’t sound very attractive, but this is where the gold mine of the future lies: everyone is concerned about our dependence on scarce metals to fuel our technological growth. We also worry about the fact that most resources only seem to be available in China. But what we must not forget is that ultimately everything ends up in the dustbin and that’s the place to look.

Current waste management is not capable of attaining a level of return higher than 42%. The major reason for this is the fact that everything is either burned, or even worse - dumped in landfills. New technology makes it possible to recycle up to 99% without anything being burned! It uses techniques from the aviation industry (autoclave) and a catalyst to transform plastic into oil, with a return of 1.1 liter of oil for each kilogram

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of plastic. You only need to invest 10 million to start and you will be the first one, because this revolution hasn’t yet started - almost nobody is attracted to invest in rubbish. This is a market where money is going to be made by transforming the value chain. What will happen if we do nothing? We will reach the point of no return and be forced to live on a destroyed planet. But what can be achieved if we all take action today? We can do something about it now. It’s not all about money, but in this case, just doing the right thing could throw up a lot of cash.

This is how we will look at industries in the coming few years: focus on your market, love your customers and be sustainable all the way.

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Business context is changingFour fundamental trends are emerging globally. Neither governments nor institutions will be able to lead the change. Solutions will go beyond national borders. It’s business that needs to come up with an integrated approach to address these trends. We’re looking at an inspiring journey:Business context is changing

Four fundamental trends are emerging globally. Neither governments nor institutions will be able to lead the change. Solutions will go beyond national borders. It’s business that needs to come up with an integrated approach to address these trends. We’re looking at an inspiring journey:

The Commodity game

The cost of raw materials is difficult to predict. We’re in a volatile market. Questions are arising about commodity availability – with a growing world population and increasing use of raw materials, we’re moving into a period of scarce resources.

Financial markets

They will continue to have significant impacting on consumer behavior. But also on the availability of resources (financing). Not to forget the impact financials have on stock exchange listed companies, having direct impact on strategic ambition and capabilities because of the quarterly market performance publications of market expectations – short term vs long term.

The Energy battle

Emerging economies like China and Africa will consume more energy in the coming decades. Their current consumption is already directly

influencing the prices of energy in The Netherlands today, and will increase by every year.

 The Environmental challenge

The most recent climate top in Durban (South Africa) showed again that there is little sense of urgency among political leaders to take full responsibility for and ownership of the challenges we’re facing. Delegates will work on a new, legally binding accord to cut greenhouse gases, to be decided by 2015 and to come into force by 2020. (Extension of 1997 Kyoto Protocol). Unexpected, no, tragic, yes.

As Marketing Leaders we should and need to be inspired by these fundamental trends.

We can, will and should influence in a better and more effective way than our governments do.

Recent research by Deloitte among Marketers and Buyers show that Leaders see more opportunity in sustainability.

Trend 7: InspirationTimes are changing: Be inspired to lead the change!

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Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. - Leo Tolstoy

To be relevant as a business in the future, marketers should create more and better insights into the effects and the potential impact of the emerging trends on their business. The winners will be those capable of building and managing a transparent, open value chain, being responsible and socially connected with society.

Building Sustainable Business: Vision and LeadershipLeaders must be inspired by the challenges associated with the changes we face. This is a clear invitation to approach business from a totally different angle. As Joseph Jaworski stated in his book Synchronicity: New leadership should be based on fundamentally new insights on how we view the world dynamics and underlying trends. Newton’s vision as applied in many businesses, is still dysfunctional in our current business context where there are much greater dependencies. What will be the new roadmap for the new leaders in Marketing?

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Leaders: “stand up and embrace the new reality!”What is a LEADER?

Oxford Dictionary:The person who leads or commands a group, an organization or a country. Defining a leader by the existence of followers has a long tradition, but is not useful in attempting to improve leadership of organizations. We define “leader” as an ordinary human being with both a commitment to produce a result whose realization would be extraordinary given the current circumstances as seen by the participants, and the integrity to see the commitment through to its realization.

Simon Sinek (Start with Why? - How great leaders inspire everyone to take action) says:

All great leaders have clarity of WHY; an underlying belief in a purpose or cause bigger than themselves. It’s the underlying optimism that even the most complicated problems can be solved. He believes we can find ways to remove obstacles to ensure that everyone can live and work to their greatest potential. It inspires.

Everyone can give a number of inspirational examples of great leaders, but what inspires YOU to engage and be committed to a purpose?

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Unlock the opportunities by looking at the trends with different eyes!

As you continue to do the same thing as you’ve done before, at best you will get the same results (if you’re lucky) - Albert Einstein.

Prof. M. Yunus founded the GRAMEEN bank for the purpose of lending money (micro credit) to people who otherwise don’t have access to capital. Prof. Yunus is inspired to put poverty into a museum by applying social business principles.

Danone was inspired by the ambition and dream of Prof. Yunus and became committed to building a business in the spirit of the social business principles without compromising their standard of quality. It is now an integral part of their business model. A leader is someone who sees the opportunities with different eyes and takes action.

‘Re-think’ the capabilities required to be ‘FIT’ for the futureThe way marketing was deployed in the past is now history. The 4-P model is still a strong marketing toolkit, but in order to move forward, social media and CSR need to be included.

The enabling marketing organization should understand and define the capabilities required in the upstream and downstream marketing roles and responsibilities.

Take a close look at your objective and roadmap, and clearly define the gaps.

Don’t limit yourself to your own organization. We live in a virtual and extremely dynamic world. Define what you will ‘own’ and ‘do’ yourself and which alliances will you forge with companies that will be an extension to your marketing organization to support the required skill set.

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Be positive and passionate in what you do in the good and in the challenging times•We can conclude that the future business context is changing. Against this background we, as leaders, need to take cognizance of the emerging trends and

their impact on the future of your business.

• We will meet obstacles along the way. But change does require passion and commitment to the purpose.

• Everyone wants to be successful, but the winners are those who are prepared to plan to be successful.

• Stay true to your purpose. Be positive and passionate about the future.

• Be a leader. Be the change you want to see. Inspire and be inspired!

Life is a journey - enjoy the ride!Don’t look back. You are in the driving seat. It is fascinating to understand how much time is spent looking in the rearview mirror assessing the business. The past is history. We can learn from the past, but more importantly, as leaders you should be looking forward. Be inspired by what you see in front of you. Build scenarios and connect in a compelling way with your organization to be sure that you’re programs will hit the market, building a sustainable business for tomorrow!

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#Crisis #OMG, what went wrong with marketing? #failThe last trend in our MI:8 model is about identity or finding a new identity. We used to be the rebels, creatives, conquistadores of new territories and an uncontested marketplace. Our current position as marketers and questions as to our added value reveal that marketing is undergoing an identity crisis.

So what is an identity crisis? Theorist Erik Erikson coined the term “identity crisis” and believed that it was one of the most important conflicts people face. An identity crisis is a time of intensive analysis and exploration of different ways of looking at oneself. Erikson described identity as "a subjective sense as well as an observable quality of personal sameness and continuity, paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image. In medical circles, the malaise known as an “identity crisis” is defined as “a period of confusion concerning a person’s sense of self and role in society” (Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, 2009).

Some key symptoms include:• an increasingly confused

and blurred perception of self;

• an unfolding exploration of different identities;

• gathering uncertainty about one’s real role in life;

• a deteriorating ability to face future life challenges.

Hmmm, the current marketing outlook looks exactly like an identity crisis. So, how can the patient be treated?

Trend 8: Identity

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Solving an identity crisis the easy wayMany self-help books will advise you to write down your goals and a mission statement. You have probably done that before. Here is another solution to finding out who and what you are: pretend you're Sherlock Holmes! Look for clues and be unconventional if you have to dig deep.• I can say what my interests are by looking at the books on my shelf:

art, culture, science, history, philosophy, metaphysics, health and business.

• I can tell what's important to me by what I strive for: financial security, seat on the board, respect, meaning and spirituality.

• I can say what my hobbies are by looking at how I want to spend my time: music, conversation, art, nature, exercise, studying and working.

• I can tell what qualities I appreciate by looking at my friends: intelligent, diverse, talented, trustworthy, philosophical, amusing.

Identity crises are common in today’s rapidly changing world. Exploring different aspects of yourself in the different areas of life, including your role at work in the company, can help strengthen your identity.

Time to achieve: the changing role of marketingSomehow the current crisis has taken us by surprise as a credible business discipline: companies with a CMO would do better on the stock exchange. Marketing and innovation really are the two most powerful elements in making a company stronger. Unfortunately, most evidence of the decline is the erosion of marketing’s influence in boardrooms.

It’s the calculators in the financial department, those ‘who know best’, who we have to convince today. Without positive metrics, it is not even worth trying to start. Legal and compliance constraints mean that most of our marketing propositions have been downgraded something that is just nice to have. Those involved in sales, finance and production appear to have assumed full control of strategic decision making, usually allowing a production-led organizational philosophy to flourish at the expense of a customer-led approach. In others, external “strategic marketing consultants” are occupying marketing’s empty seat at the strategy table.

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Is marketing part of our DNA or everyone’s identity?History teaches us a funny lesson: the writing has been on the wall for almost forty years – believe it or not, the identity crisis in marketing was first mentioned in 1974. Marketing frameworks, concepts and models have been adopted, refined, developed and applied by other fields - such as strategic management, operations management, accounting and finance. If we do not innovate as a discipline and continue to imitate our finance and sales colleagues, we will end up becoming an intrinsic and ubiquitous quality of every professional. So everyone will be a marketer, so marketing is dead.

It’s time to change: Occupy the boardroom with new value creation. Step up on behalf of those 99% who want inspiration and some real marketing instead something only on paper to placate the financial books!

Back to colonizing marketing’s strategic responsibilitiesWhen asked which marketer we admire the most, Steve Jobs is more often than not our unanimous answer. We do not believe that Steve Jobs’ business card read: “Chief Marketing Officer”. He was Steve, focused on his dreams and his clients. Researchers have established that people who have made a strong commitment to an identity, and dreams, tend to be happier than those who have not. One thing is conspicuously clear: Steve Jobs was very much aware of his identity.

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How to regain an identity?What Steve Jobs did was real marketing; he impressively transcended the two disciplines that are generally used to illustrate the field: marketing research and marketing communications. Again, learning from Steve Jobs, who unfortunately passed away far too young, we would like to examine the origins of his thinking. What made him real was his dedication to finding solutions to real problems. This could be the Holy Grail for marketing: to give marketing a meaning and therefore a true experience. This will give marketing its new identity. We would like to put forward the following steps with a view to creating a new marketing identity:1. Focus on your customer.2. Find new sources of inspiration.3. Dive into eco systems.4. Trust your brain.

Focus on the customerThe current generation of consumers is spoiled: they know what they want and they want it now. Another setback: today's customers are also much better informed. Many organizations spend time pushing back, hoping for the good old days when they could just put a product out

there and leave it to the customers to figure out how to use it and how to integrate it with other products and services. This is no longer the case. Instead of pushing back and complaining, companies must realize that instead of just putting products out there, they really need to provide solutions. We have been hearing this cliché for some time, but it is a cliché that is very true. 

Marketers need to help consumers figure out how their products and services are going to fit into their lives and offer solutions, not just

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ingredients. To do this, marketers need to facilitate the change from a product-centric to a customer-centric strategy. Nearly every company on the planet is product centric. If you organize the company around different types of customers and have customer segment managers who are just as powerful as today's product managers, giving them the right incentives and the right resources and tools, this can actually be a more profitable way for many companies to go to market.

Find new sources of inspirationTo regain inspiration and truly new ideas, we advocate that marketers start to do things their own way. Not posting and checking on Facebook alone, or relying on market research companies. No, marketers must step up their game. From interviews with numerous marketers, we came up with the following two interesting points: • Marketers should focus on staying more up to date with academic

literature. As the saying goes ‘life is too short to make all the mistakes yourself’. It would be useful to keep abreast of marketing literature in the widest sense to learn about new models and frontiers within the marketing discipline.

• Marketers have to start looking for new sources of inspiration and connection. As most other sectors have adopted most marketing models, we believe it is important for marketers to create their own new models from new insights into human behavior. Also: go to non-marketing events, to unlearn and relearn. In addition to academic marketing literature, also take a look at new findings in biology, attend TED(x)/PIM like events and start meeting new people. Start to explore. Think of what Occupy would be like if it focused on the energy or telecoms sectors, what the Arab spring could mean for the labor union movements and company hierarchies.

Dive into ecosystemsWe believe the time is ripe for marketing to look to Customer Ecosystems (CE). This is the follow-up of social networks and cloud. CE self-organize around things that customers care about and need to get done, like managing their money, designing a winning product, taking a family vacation etc. They’re customer-driven.

Several factors will place a marketer in a central role to accelerate a viable Customer Ecosystem• Help customers achieve and/or manage something they care about. • Align the entire ecosystem to meet customers’ success metrics

(including attracting partners & suppliers).• Embed, co-brand, market and be ubiquitous so customers will

encounter and use your brand no matter what their starting point is. To be successful in this eco-system thinking, you’ll need to truly change the way people are able to accomplish their goals and manage their activities.

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Case : Identity and the brainAt the 2011 Neuroleadership Summit, attendees learned how allowing your brain to have an identity crisis (one identity clashing with another) might be just the thing to improve personal and company performance. A simple model for understanding the link between identity and brain, and the effect on performance goes something like this:• Identity drives motivation.• Motivation drives action.• Action drives results.So why would it ever be a good thing for the brain to have an "identity crisis". In many cases an identity crisis gives us a valuable clue that we must drop an identity that doesn't serve us well if we are to be effective at work. So if identity is what ignites the powerful chain reaction of motivation, action, and results, it would seem that the major preoccupation of business should be to create effective identities that serve the company's goals. However, to date, few companies do this well. Creating compelling collective identities is no small task but companies that do so create "brain friendly" environments where employees can work more productively on common goals, and avoid limbic meltdowns that put employees conflicting identities at odds with each other. However, a good place for most companies to start might just be to ensure that all employees know and live the most basic tenets of the company's identity: the mission.

Further reading: Why an identity crisis might be just what your brain needs.

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Case: NOKIA’s new lifeNokia is a brand that has, in a sense, always been near and dear to most people. Nokia has always been one of the biggest phone manufacturers in the market. Fast forward a few years. We are all witnessing what appears to be the implosion of Nokia. In 2011, Nokia decided to clean up and focus on their identity.

Stephen Elop was hired as CEO. From the beginning there were grumblings about this choice of a former Microsoft employee. As the months passed, Mr Elop announced that Nokia was abandoning the OS it had used for years, Symbian, in favor of Windows Phone 7. Sales and stock tumbled immediately. Nokia looked like a company with an identity crisis, not knowing who they were or what they wanted, and as a result people lost faith.

Turnaround: ship ahoy!What happened? Nokia moved away from its competitors and started looking for its own identity. Focusing on its strengths such as good phone quality, and ditching their software for high-end smart phones, Nokia took a good look at possible friends to see what they could do together, and used their eco system philosophy to create a new, positive breed.

Though it still is a bit too soon to tell, marketing seems to be playing a vital role again. Where everybody expected Apple and Samsung (Google) to divide the market, Nokia has now created a third way. As things stand, Nokia marketing US is now in the front seat with a USD 100 million marketing push.

One of the many reviews of this revamp on the Internet:Don't call it a comeback.Nokia hasn't gone anywhere, per se. The company has enjoyed huge market share since the days when cell phones were as big as bricks. But they're mostly low-budget feature phones. Until, that is, Nokia joined Microsoft to make a kick-ass line of new Windows Phone-powered smart phones.

The Lumia 900 is Nokia's flagship for the US market. It's powerful, it's punchy, and frankly, it's damn good looking. The Finnish mobile giant is regaining former glory in a big way with the new 900.

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Wrap upCrisis is nature’s way of regenerating, and economic crises throughout history have proven to be Petri dishes for disruptive innovation and change. Now, more than ever, this change is needed for marketing on societal, infrastructural, organizational and personal levels. The story of the finance-driven world may appear slightly dystopian, yet oddly familiar, while the new identity story emanates a welcoming warmth and agility. One thing will be inherently clear: the “current system” is a terrarium of flies and lies, doctored memories and sweetened opinions, not a place where marketers, or most other employees, flourish.

A Q4 2011 Gallup poll found that 71% of American workers are either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” from their work. Just 30% are “engaged,” or involved in and enthusiastic about their jobs. The “new identity” feels more natural, unpretentious and sustainable: it is the shift that we want to make in work and in life.

After being dashed by declining sales and profits, and me-too marketers in 2011, budgets for 2012 have gone down the drain. Most of the time only the must-do’s are still on the list, with very little room to follow your own marketing dreams. This may ultimately be a good point because you have to go down to your identity. Steve Jobs did it his way, dropping out of college, starting from scratch and following his mission and finding his own kind of identity, a man who focused on what he found important.

For you, marketer, step up to the plate in 2012!

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Egbert Jan van Bel Beeckestijn Business School egbertjan@vanbel.nl 06 5131 5591

Michel van den Bosch StratEx Solutions m.vdbosch@stratexsol.com 06 5336 2526

Jaco Brussé Brussé jacobrusse@gmail.com 06 5124 7956

Adrie Dolman DeKlantKiest.nl a.dolman@qualifiedmarketeers.nl 06 5137 2341

Bruno Fabre The Bright Id b.fabre@thebrightid.com 06 4920 0088

Pim van Geest Van Geest pim@pimvangeest.nl 06 1367 9161

Peter Gouw Vision2B peter.gouw@vision2b.com 06 2498 9909

Katherine Kucherenko Icons katherine.kucherenko@gmail.com 06 4239 2366

Jaspar Roos Dialogues Incubator jaspar.roos@dialoguesincubator.nl 06 2221 3854

Thomas Verhagen Dialogues House thomas.verhagen@dialogueshouse.eu 06 1028 0935

Ewoud Westerink Sensata Technologies BV ewoud_w@hotmail.com 06 3018 3253

Marcel Wiedenbrugge WCM Consult marcel.wiedenbrugge@wcmconsult.com 06 4590 2601

PIM Marketing Trend Report 2012Trend Watchers 2012 in alphabetical order

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We would like to express our gratitude to our sponsors and especially to the sponsor of the PIM Marketing Trend Report Dialogues Incubator / Dialogues House. Their support, enthusiasm, knowledge contribution and long term commitment PIM has developed into a great platform for more than 1.000 marketing lover. Enjoying on a regularly base each others company, challenging visions and opinions.

 

Hans Molenaar

Chairman Platform Innovatie in Marketing

 

On behalf of the whole PIM board.

Watch our trend video:

PIM 2011 Trendvideo

http://vimeo.com/35730882

All links to videos and webpages can be found here:

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PIM Marketing Trend Report 2012Sponsors

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