In part 2 of reading through the Digital Trends Report for 2015, The next part has to deal with the areas of digital related business. The big surprise to me is how high social media engagement ranks on this list. Multichannel campaign management is still not receiving its rightful mindshare in organizations. At 22%, this area should be right up there with targeting and personalization, it is that important.

I find these next responses fascinating. The difference in this year and the next 5 years, especially in the area of multichannel campaign management is perplexing to me. This is the age of campaign management and the respondents are thinking 5 years out. That boggles my mind. I do like that respondents are thinking customer experience is the most important item, but that is more of a culture change compared to the other items. All the other items support the customer experience. The fact that customer experience is viewed as a tactic or strategy is why I think this item will be talked about for years to come. Multichannel campaign management, personalization, big data and content marketing are items that will enhance the customer experience, so these items are all striving for the same goal, to deliver relevant content to customers to enhance their experience.

This part of the study is a little perplexing to me. Organizations want to enhance the customer experience, but there very little is being done in the area of geo-targeting. Only 24% have this in their 2015 plan or are already using this technology. For brick and mortar operations, this is the most exciting technology to me. Using this in conjunction with multichannel campaign management is the ultimate targeted marketing.

Even if the uses of this technology are just to enhance the data about customers, organizations should be implementing this technology sooner rather than later. The ability to understand the behaviors of your customers in store and communicate with them if they exhibit certain behaviors is no different than how a customer behaves on a website. Digital marketers have been enhancing their strategies on customer buying funnels on the web for years now, but not enough are jumping at the opportunity to do the same thing in brick and mortar operations.

A good sign is importance organizations are putting in the cross channel journey of their customers. The top 2 answers are what make up a big part of the customer experience. The clear, concise message, regardless of the channel is the key to the ultimate customer experience.

This is probably the most concerning part of this survey. Most companies want to make customer experience across channels their number 1 priority, however the data is still an issue with most companies. Only 37% of the companies feel they have the ability and the infrastructure to capture and act on the data.

In the new age of marketing, data is the first and most important step in the marketing strategy. Without laying a data framework to capture and properly analyze, the ultimate customer experience will be nearly impossible to implement. Companies to focus on the data as much as the culture of being customer centric. These two items go hand in hand.

I'm reading through the DIB Digital Trends Report for 2015 and there is some interesting tidbits. For one, on Figure 5, what is the most exciting opportunity in 2015 vs last year. Customer Experience has jumped into a huge lead, while Mobile and Social have fallen. Why is this? I believe organizations are starting to realize that both of those decliners are just channels. Channels for your content to create great customer experiences. Mobile shouldn't be your strategy any more than email. I view content marketing and personalization as the same thing. If your content isn't personal, then work needs to be done on your content. However, I understand why they are separated here. I believe multi channel campaign management needs to rate higher on these lists. This is the engine that will run most of this,

Adobe Digital Trends Report Figure 5 copy.jpg

Another interesting section is asking what companies plan on how they will differentiate themselves from their competitors within the next 5 years. The report states they are surprised that price is only 5%. I believe organizations will try to differentiate through customer experience, and maybe there is some bias in the respondents, because these companies are probably a little more innovative than the typical organization. I believe companies tend to fall to price differentiation because it is the easiest way to gain sales and market share.

Number 1 and 2 are intrinsically related. As I wrote here, companies that focus on design will constantly look to improve on 1 and 2. A design first mentality puts the experience and the quality ahead of all else. Companies who are answering these questions should be looking to change their culture to a design culture before tackling these differentiators, or else the strategy may fail.

Strategy does not work without the culture to back it up. The fact the respondents have listed strategy before culture leads me to believe these initiatives have a higher chance of failure. If the culture of the company does not support the strategy, it will take too large of an effort to accomplish being customer first.

These are my thoughts halfway through the document. Tomorrow I will comment on the next piece of the document. Very interesting stuff. Organizations are saying the right things, but with anything, it is all in the implementation. The next 5 years will be very exciting indeed.