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		January 2012, Issue 94

Featured Article Change Is the New Normal in 2012. Are You Ready? Excerpt from "Embracing the Marketing Transformation in 2012: Trends, Forecast and Essential Guidance," an executive brief by Bulldog Solutions and IDC The future of marketing is here, and it offers the savviest marketers the opportunity to sit at the revenue table, proving their impact on sales with an agile and proactive approach to revenue performance. Here's a summary of recent research that outlines the trends, looks to the future and offers up guidance for how to embrace the transformation.   This article is an excerpt. Want to read the whole thing? • Download the executive brief. • View the webinar. Embracing the Marketing Transformation 2012: Trends, Forecast and Essential Guidance Executive Summary Traditional BtoB marketing as we know it is undergoing a transformation. As the economy emerges from a dark period, Marketing must evolve—reimagining its role, reevaluating its processes and delivering more value across cross-disciplinary mediums. A recent major study on technology marketing budget investments, conducted by market intelligence firm IDC, supports an insight captured during one interview with a CMO at a major enterprise brand; that is, "Traditional BtoB marketing is dead." The results of the study, along with real-world insights that IDC analysts and Bulldog Solutions thought leaders have gained while working with enterprise clients in the space, reveal that a transformation in marketing is definitely under way and that savvy marketers are changing their game in order to make more of an impact on revenue. The Future of Marketing: Key Trends Trend #1 Your buyers are in control. One of the greatest strategic risks facing businesses today is a lack of insight into customer behavior. More knowledgeable, more connected and busier than ever, today's BtoB buyers are "individual" in terms of how they prefer to consume information. At the same time, the average number of decision makers in an enterprise organization is increasing. Practically speaking, this increases the length of the buying cycle because there are more people to sell to. Trend #2 Marketing investment trends have been disrupted since the 2009 recession and aren't recovering as anticipated. The broken trend patterns we've seen since 2009 (as shown in the figure below) are indicative of an unstable economy coupled with the fact that marketing investments and budgeting are by and large a game of sentiment. Our research indicates that organizations are questioning the value marketing investments are bringing to the bottom line. Data from our study supports the notion that marketers are now charged with "doing more with less"; that is, the effort and time required to create a customer is growing; each customer costs more money to create; and Marketing is under tremendous budget pressure. Here's a snapshot of this trend: Trend #3 The marketing transformation is a "long and winding road" to predictable revenue performance. The building blocks of the transformation include: Revenue performance strategy and goal alignment Targeted messaging aligned with the buyer's journey Content, data, processes and technology—all synchronized Sales and marketing alignment As a result of the pressure on Marketing, noted in trend #2 above, organizations are increasingly embracing sales and marketing alignment. Sales has gotten a bigger slice of the budget, most likely because its impact on revenue is easier to prove. Aligning sales and marketing processes allows organizations to drive revenue growth but do it much more effectively and efficiently. 2012 Forecast What considerations are important for CMOs as they continue to work on market budget planning for 2012 and what are their areas of opportunity? The overall forecast for 2012 supports the "doing more with less" theme, with marketing investments still projected to lag behind the solid revenue growth organizations are anticipating. Insight #1 Digital marketing spending has doubled (from 12% of total marketing spend to more than 25%) and is projected to continue to do so. In line with program spend allocations over the last several years, the increase in digital spending is occurring alongside a reduced spend across other more "traditional," non-interactive categories of the marketing mix, i.e., advertising and trade show events. At the same time, social media marketing investments are also gaining prominence in program spend allocations; however, the inherent challenges of internal support, return on investment, processes and talent remain. Download the complete executive brief. For more insights and guidance from BtoB marketing experts, you may download the complete executive brief here. Return to MWJ Home About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1000 IDC analysts provide global, regional and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 47 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research and events company. www.idc.com Marketing Watchdog Journal is a monthly newsletter from Bulldog Solutions, a revenue performance agency that designs and executes strategies that transform our clients' revenue performance. We welcome your feedback on this newsletter's content and design, and encourage you to share your ideas for topics you would like us to cover in future issues. Please send your comments or questions about Bulldog Solutions to Cheyanne Atchley, director of marketing.

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