Adobe CMO Ann Lewnes and branding expert Kevin Lane Keller offer 10 principles to guide leaders through massive transformation in field of marketing, in new MIT Sloan Management Review article

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Apr 03, 2019, 14:47 ET

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In an important new article, "10 Principles of Modern Marketing" (MIT Sloan Management Review), acclaimed marketing pioneer Ann Lewnes and Kevin Lane Keller, an international leader in the study of branding, address the dramatic sea changes in the marketing field and offer leaders and organizations a playbook to help successfully refine traditional marketing models and embrace new approaches.

Ann Lewnes is executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Adobe. She has been named the third most innovative CMO in the world by Business Insider and one of the most influential CMOs by Forbes. Kevin Lane Keller is the E.B. Osborn Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and has served as a consultant and advisor to marketers for some of the world's most successful brands. As proven leaders in the practice and study of marketing innovation, Lewnes and Keller parlay their decades of experience and passion into 10 principles that push leaders to think beyond the status quo.

The technology industry has lead the charge when it comes to marketing transformation and has become the model for modern digital marketing efforts, the authors write.

"Changes in the marketing of technology products are important not only for those marketers looking to hone their craft in that industry … but also to marketers in other industries seeking to acquire new skills and practices."

They illustrate the 10 principles with examples from proven innovators including Adobe, Fitbit, Intel, Intuit, Red Hat, and Spotify.

The 10 principles of modern marketing include:

Technology is just the first step. To fully realize the potential of technology, it takes transformation across people, processes, and technology. The authors explain how modern marketers can maximize these three forces to reap the full benefits that technology can have on marketing transformation.

A new type of customer relationship prevails. Customer-brand relationships have evolved from single, interspersed interactions to always-on, symbiotic, and immersive relationships. A strong customer relationship requires that marketers deeply understand how customers think and feel, not just about their products or services, but what they are using the products and service for and how they are actually using them. It requires keen insight into customer motivations and behaviors — the problems customers are trying to solve and the goals they are trying to achieve.

Data and testing are the new lifeblood. To be a great technology marketer in today's digital world, it is important to build a culture of testing. Companies like Adobe, Amazon, Capital One, Netflix, and Pandora use data analytics to drive marketing experimentation and run thousands of tests to optimize their marketing efforts. Thus, it is imperative for organizations to integrate data and build real-time data models and decision-driving dashboards that blend marketing inputs like behavioral data with inputs from other areas, such as finance. The authors caution that there is still an art to managing customer relationships, and robots will never be programmed to do marketing on their own. Instinct and judgment still — and always will — matter.

Have a bigger purpose. Do good. Brand purpose can provide the fuel for employee engagement internally as well as the glue for marketing programs externally to help emotionally connect with customers.

Marketing leadership itself has had to change. The future chief marketing officer must also be the chief customer officer, chief experience officer, and the chief growth officer. The modern CMO for a technology product organization should not cede those roles — he or she should own, shape, and lead them.

Organizations and leaders who put into practice the 10 principles of modern marketing will be primed to fully realize technology's potential, can gain a competitive edge in their market, and will drive business by bringing the consumer and organization closer together in a way that only successful, innovating marketing can.

To read the full article, please visit MIT SMR.

About the authors:
Ann Lewnes (@alewnes) is executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Adobe. Kevin Lane Keller is the E.B. Osborn Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

About MIT Sloan Management Review:
A media company based at the MIT Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan Management Review's mission is to lead the conversation among research scholars, business executives, and other thought leaders about advances in management practice, especially those shaped by technology, that are transforming how people lead and innovate. MIT Sloan Management Review captures for thoughtful managers the creativity, excitement, and opportunity generated by rapid organizational, technological, and societal change.