Marketers Will Seize the Customer Experience by 2020, Study Shows

SAN MATEO, Calif., April 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A study of nearly 500 chief marketing officers (CMOs) and senior marketing executives from around the world conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on behalf of Marketo, Inc. (NASDAQ: MKTO), reveals that 86 percent of marketers say they will own the end-to-end customer experience by 2020. To accomplish this, the report found that marketing leaders must have a single view of the customer that allows them to engage in two-way, personalized conversations across technologies, locations, and physical objects.

This is the second year that Marketo, the leading provider of engagement marketing software and solutions, has commissioned this survey, which builds upon the 2015 finding that marketers feel their organizations need to undergo a dramatic shift to keep up with increasing technological and consumer demands. The 2016 report titled, "The Path to 2020: Marketers Seize the Customer Experience," takes an in-depth look at how buyers engage with brands today and the impact that will have on how marketers reach them through 2020.

"Technology's rapid evolution allows customers to engage with brands across myriad new channels in real time, translating to billions of marketing-driven touch points," said Sanjay Dholakia, chief marketing officer, Marketo. "With 86 percent of CMOs and other marketing leaders of the mind that they will own the customer experience by 2020, it is essential that organizations maintain a singular, comprehensive view of their customers. This is the key to building enduring customer relationships and ultimately successful brands."

Additional findings include:

• Marketing complexity is growing: More than half of respondents believe the accelerating pace of technological change, mobile lifestyles, and an explosion of potential marketing channels via the Internet of Things (IoT) will change the field the most by 2020. This is driven by the billions of possible interactions these channels will create between a company and its customers.
• The strength of mass media is declining: By 2020, marketers expect they will increasingly interact directly with their customers through technology and personalization as opposed to indirectly through media and advertising.
• The top marketing channels are those that can be personalized: The top channels to the customer in 2020 will be social media (63% of respondents), the World Wide Web (53%), mobile apps (47%), and mobile web (46%).
• Marketing will no longer be just about acquisition: Loyalty and customer acquisition will still be the top two strategic programs for marketing organizations, but by 2020 they are separated from pioneering new and emerging technologies to engage audiences by only 1.6 percent.
• Customer experience drives brand equity: Raising customer loyalty and better brand perception are the two top benefits (both 53%) marketers aim to realize through a more positive customer experience.
• Innovation will focus on small screens and no screens: Mobile devices and networks (59%), personalization technologies (45%), and IoT (39%) are the three technology-specific trends that will have the biggest impact on marketing organizations by 2020.
• Marketers' influence is growing: Eighty-seven percent of marketers believe their departments will exercise significant influence over business strategy by 2020, with 78 percent expecting to have the same influence over company technology decisions.

"The Path to 2020: Marketers Seize the Customer Experience" includes qualitative, in-depth interviews with five senior marketing executives. Of the recurring themes, one of the most striking is that the customer experience – which is created by marketing – drives brand performance through loyalty and advocacy.

The survey also posits that leading CMOs organize their departments to engage the customer with personalized experiences anytime, wherever they are. As such, the EIU has provided a descriptive framework titled, "The layers of engagement," which illustrates best practices for how CMOs and other marketing leaders can respond to competitive pressures and deliver value to their organizations.

For more findings and to download the full report, please visit http://cmo.marketo.com/research-and-resources/the-path-to-2020-marketers-seize-the-customer-experience.

Survey Methodology
The survey included responses from 499 CMOs and senior marketing executives worldwide. It was conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and was sponsored by Marketo. More than 50 percent of respondents hold the CMO title or top marketing position. Respondents are located in North America (27%), Europe (30%), Asia-Pacific (36%), and Rest of World (7%). More than 50% of survey respondents (52%) hail from companies with more than US$500m in revenue.

About Marketo
Marketo (NASDAQ: MKTO) provides the leading engagement marketing software and solutions designed to help marketers develop long-term relationships with their customers - from acquisition to advocacy. Marketo is built for marketers, by marketers and is setting the innovation agenda for marketing technology. Marketo puts Marketing First. Headquartered in San Mateo, CA, with offices around the world, Marketo serves as a strategic partner to large enterprise and fast-growing small companies across a wide variety of industries. To learn more about Marketo's Engagement Marketing Platform, LaunchPoint® partner ecosystem, and the vast community that is the Marketo Marketing Nation®, visit www.marketo.com.

About The Economist Intelligence Unit
The Economist Intelligence Unit is the world leader in global business intelligence. It is the business-to-business arm of The Economist Group, which publishes The Economist newspaper. The Economist Intelligence Unit helps executives make better decisions by providing timely, reliable and impartial analysis on worldwide market trends and business strategies. More information can be found at www.eiu.com or www.twitter.com/theeiu.

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SOURCE Marketo, Inc.