Data has never been as important to marketing as it is today. The amount of customer data is growing with digitisation and online sales accelerating. With the growth of e-commerce over the past decade, ensuring a unified customer view has become crucial for customer journeys. The drive to get this right has only been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. With these developments, marketing is expected to contribute to a better customer experience and hence business growth. Research shows that in a whopping 76 per cent of cases, marketing is seen as a potential growth driver [1].

Meeting that expectation requires understanding the end user. However, consumer desire is increasingly shifting towards an 'on demand' model. To get clear on how customers interact with brands and companies and where and when organisations can engage with them, the use of (real-time) data is crucial.

Holistic role for CMO

Through a data-driven approach, organisations are able to establish a dedicated customer experience. However, this requires a new strategy and a different - broader and more holistic - role for CMOs. After all, it turns out that 74 per cent of CMOs are now held responsible for the use of data and technology [1]. While only 12 per cent say they have the required data access, capabilities and talent [1]. Improvement in this area has already begun. Compared to 2018, 2020 organisations appeared to be doing increasingly better in terms of digital capabilities and exploring the right tools [2]. However, there remains a gap between those organisations that are successful in data-driven marketing - the Digital Masters - and the rest [2].

These outcomes raise interesting questions, such as; Are marketing teams aware of the potential of data-driven marketing? Is the marketing function sufficiently data-driven to execute real-time marketing? How mature are in-house marketers when it comes to using data and technology to understand the behaviour and insights of new consumers? Can they also respond appropriately and in time here? How do these developments affect the role of CMOs and their marketing teams? And how do CMOs collaborate with the CIO and CDO for their strategy?

To gain insight into such issues, Capgemini is conducting an exploratory benchmark study. This research focuses on the question: Why should CMOs use real-time marketing to drive sustainable growth? Taking part in this survey will provide you with inspiration for (further) developing the data-driven strategy and give you an insight into how your organisation deals with all that comes with improving the customer journey, compared to your fellow managers.

Sources:
[1] Capgemini Research Institute | A new playbook for chief marketing officers: why CMOs should enable real-time marketing to drive sustained growth
[2] Capgemini Research Institute | Digital Mastery Survey