The art of hitting the target - Westfair Communications

The results of a survey conducted by The Anderson Analytics of Stamford and issued Nov. 27 show that though green marketing, outsourcing, generations X and Y and Hispanics have all become important, marketing basics for 2008 are still as important as ever.

Members of the Marketing Executives Networking Group, a 1,700-member organization of marketers who are at the vice president-level or above, participated. The study focused on top marketing concepts, buzz words, global areas of opportunity, targeted customer demographics and books marketers look to for inspiration and growth opportunity.

The survey found the core marketing areas are still greatly important. Marketing basics and concepts such as customer satisfaction, customer retention, segmentation, brand loyalty and return on investment were of greatest interest.

Of developing trends, the survey found that optimizing the marketing ability of search engines had relatively wide appeal and cut across all fields of marketing. Another emerging concept was found to be “green marketing,” which was identified as the trendiest of marketing buzzwords.

“Senior marketers are facing an increasingly complex world with new technologies and new market segments rising to the fore,” said Chandra Chaterji, a member of the Marketing Executives board of directors.

In regard to global issues, China is viewed as the region with the best future opportunity, with India as a distant second. Few marketers saw other regions such as Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Brazil, Russia and Mexico as comparable in opportunities.

In terms of another important global issue of outsourcing and offshoring, the majority of marketers reported their companies do not offshore any part of the marketing function. Half of senior marketers are not in favor of offshoring any part of the marketing function, while just under a quarter view it as a favorable option.

“This finding is not surprising,” said Tom H. C. Anderson, founder and managing partner of Anderson Analytics. “Offshoring is not just limited to customer telephone call centers any more. A lot of companies are engaging in ‘knowledge process offshoring,’ which includes everything from customer data processing to more advanced marketing analytics. For instance, in my specific area of marketing, market research, almost all of the larger companies are trying their hand at offshoring while trying to keep it as quiet as possible.”

When asked about the most important customer demographics senior marketing executives rank baby boomers highest. What Anderson finds to be most interesting about the demographic portion of the survey is the fact that Hispanics, women and generations X and Y are catching up to boomers as customer targets.

The importance of emerging generations, especially in an age of developing technologies, is significant in marketing. Though, according to Tom Kadala, president of Research Pays in Hastings-on-Hudson, growth of the Hispanic population as an important demographic is not surprising.

“About 60 percent of the national Hispanic average age is under the age of 13, a very young population, and worth investing in,” said Kadala. “With more than 30 cultures represented under the Hispanic category, having someone who knows how to navigate and appreciate the diversity within Hispanic cultures is not just a good idea, but mission critical.”

The marketing executives were also polled on which books they read to stay abreast of information and to gain insights. The top three most recently read business books were “Good to Great,” “The World is Flat” and “Blink.” Topping the list of all-time-favorite business books ever read were “Good to Great,” “Positioning,” and “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”

“This is the first of a series of studies by MENG which will make a major contribution to the growing effectiveness of marketing,” said Richard Guha, chairman of the Marketing Executives Networking Group.