MSC MARKETING SCIENCE

5 Marketing Trends Shaping the Marketing Landscape

As one of the first companies to embrace digital transformation, Starbucks has reinvented marketing with its rewards loyalty programme and unique mobile app. Conducting over 90 million transactions a week across 25,000 stores worldwide, the company uses cutting-edge data analytics to boost brand loyalty and personalise customers’ buying experience. Powered by the company’s proprietary data-driven digital flywheel programme, the Starbucks mobile app provides discounts, as well as food and drink recommendations to customers based on their preferences. Customers can also place an order ahead of time via the app.

This is one of many examples of how companies are using new digital technologies to capture customers across marketing touchpoints. No longer seen as a novelty, personalisation has now become the new marketing currency that every business needs to thrive.

Below is a snapshot of other key trends in marketing that companies are now deploying:

1. Solutions-based Strategic Marketing

Strategic marketing enables companies to focus on strategies to succeed. It empowers the organisation to build long-term business goals to fill the industry gap and gain a competitive advantage.

Strategic marketing is crucial for the long-term success of any new age organisation. Unlike tactical marketing, strategic marketing considers the company’s long-term goals and directions. It involves recognising the threats and opportunities in the industry.

2. Data Analytics in Digital Marketing

Today, technology is at the core of everything we do. It also plays a crucial role in marketing. Companies are using the power of data analytics and digital marketing to predict marketing outcomes.

Data analytics is now being used by lcorporations to discover trends and patterns to make sense of the purchasing decisions and motivations of their customers. Data analytics goes beyond developing insights. It also provides useful predictions, such as supply and demand forecasts, as well as pricing and profitability forecast.

3. Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing Communications, also known as omnichannel marketing, is a unique strategy that unifies different marketing methods to help brands communicate in an integrated fashion. With this strategy in place, brands can improve customer experience and loyalty. Using multiple touchpoints, brands can increase their sales and personalise their customer experience.

Luxury fashion brands Prada and Nike are known to use omnichannel marketing very effectively. They have successfully used it to generate significant brand visibility by using the principles of integrated marketing communication.

When building a brand, marketers must know how to create consistent messages with a steady flow across all forms of marketing channels. Branding consistency also helps bolster your image and positive brand experiences.

4. Ethnographic Market Research

While traditional market research focuses on getting to know the consumers through their perspectives, the results are often skewed in favour of what the marketers want to hear, rather than the reality on the ground. The ethnographic market research, on the other hand, attempts to look beyond the black box by getting to know the market demographics and their priorities from their daily activities.

Case in point, Miele, a German household goods manufacturer, managed to design a vacuum cleaner with a dust-free light indicator to help those with dust allergies after an intensive study on typical households that grapple with the conditions.

5. Qualitative and Quantitative Market Research

What do consumers want? Companies are always trying to design products and solutions that will fill a need-gap. Market research forms the foundation of all successful marketing campaigns.

Whether it is comprehensive interviews with focus groups or a simple website survey for your visitors, this marketing technique helps brands identify business opportunities, lower business risks, and—overall—make better marketing decisions.

Stay ahead of these industry trends with MSc Marketing Science

To successfully lead marketing campaigns and drive business growth against the onslaught of digital transformation, business practitioners must be proficient in the latest data-oriented skills and knowledge.

The MSc Marketing Science programme has been designed along these five industry trends to help you better understand the intricate relationship between advanced customer insights and digital marketing. The experiential learning approach will shape participants into effective marketing decision-makers.

The MSc programme encompasses three broad categories of modules, which are Core Marketing, Consumer Insights, and Technology modules. These modules seek to equip participants with the strategic, analytical, and technical skills needed to successfully lead marketing campaigns and drive company growth in the Martech world.

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