Research Findings: As Retailers Become More Customer-Centric, New Marketing Challenges Emerge

MIAMI, Oct. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Retail Systems Research, LLC has released findings from its 2012 Benchmark Report, "Marketing in Retail: Making the Case for the CMO". The report, based on a survey of 133 retailers on their marketing challenges, opportunities, and technology adoption plans, found that retailers continue to struggle with how to transform from a product-centric company to a customer-centric enterprise - and what role the Chief Marketing Officer should play in that transformation. The research is available for free download (registration required).

"The retail marketing leader currently seems halfway through a transition - reporting in the right place, but without the span of control or influence that will help that leader succeed as retail enterprises transform themselves into customer-centric organizations," says Brian Kilcourse, managing partner at RSR Research and co-author of the report. "The intent to embrace customer centricity continues, as strong as ever. But the reality is still far from the ideal."

Key Findings include:

• The percent of respondents reporting that the VP of Stores owns the customer has declined significantly - from 18% in 2011 to 11% in 2012. And both the CMO (or equivalent) and the CEO have benefited from that decline - the percent of respondents reporting that the CEO owns the customer increased by more than 50%, and for the lead marketer, nearly as much.
• Almost one-half of Winners and 40% of less-performing retailers say that measuring effectiveness is a top internal challenge to implementing a marketing strategy.
• The top 3 technologies reported by survey respondents as currently in use were customer purchase analytics, CRM, and marketing operations planning. With these three solutions, any retailer theoretically has the ground floor to a more sophisticated marketing organization - the ability to understand customer behavior, target and influence that behavior, and coordinate that targeting across both channels and organizations internally.

The report is part of RSR Research's ongoing efforts to provide market intelligence on retail technology trends, is sponsored by NCR and SAS and supported by Teradata and PivotLink, and can be downloaded here:

http://www.rsrresearch.com/2012/09/05/marketing-in-retail-making-the-case-for-the-cmo/  

About RSR Research: Retail Systems Research ("RSR") provides insight into business and technology challenges facing the extended retail industry, and thought leadership and advice on navigating these challenges for specific companies and the industry at large. To learn more about RSR, visit www.rsrresearch.com.

SOURCE Retail Systems Research, LLC