• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, February 20, 2015

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) FutureScape: Worldwide CMO / Customer Experience 2015 Predictions Web conference, highlighting the predictions based on a new IDC FutureScape report, 25% of high-tech Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) will be replaced every year through 2018.

The session provided organizations with insight and perspective on long-term industry trends along with new themes that may be on the horizon, to help company leaders capitalize on emerging market opportunities and plan for future growth. Some predictions from the IDC FutureScape for CMO/Customer Experience are:

• By 2017, 25% of marketing organizations will solve critical skill gaps by deploying centers of excellence
• By 2017, 15% of B2B companies will use more than 20 data sources to personalize a high-value customer journey
• By 2018, one in three marketing organizations will deliver compelling content to all stages of the buyer's journey
• In 2015, only one in five companies will retool to reach line of business (LOB) buyers and outperform those selling exclusively to IT
• By 2016, 50% of large high-tech marketing organizations will create in-house agencies
• By 2018, 20% of B2B sales teams will go "virtual," resulting in improved pipeline conversion rates
• By 2017, 70% of B2B mobile customer apps will fail to achieve ROI because they lack customer value added
• By 2018, 25% of CMOs and CIOs will have a shared road map for marketing technology
• By 2018, 20% of B2B CMOs will drive budget increases by attributing campaign results to revenue performance

IDC is confident that these ten decision imperatives pinpoint the nerve center of the marketing disruption. They represent opportunities for CMOs who must overcome the gravitational pull from the past. The tools of disruption, such as cloud-based marketing technology, predictive analytics, content marketing, and social media, are marching towards mainstream, concludes the report.

Concurrently, The Economist Intelligence Unit with Marketo, reported on a survey of high-level marketing executives worldwide, with more than 80% saying they need to restructure marketing to better support the business. And 29% believe the need for change is urgent. Some of the change includes:

• Marketing will take the lead in the customer experience, increasingly seen as a key to competitive advantage in every industry, says the report Slightly more than one-third of marketers polled say they are responsible for managing the customer experience today. Over the next three to five years, 75% of marketers say they will be responsible for the end-to-end experience over the customer’s lifetime. 
• Because an engaged customer keeps coming back, engagement is defined most often in terms of sales and repeat sales. 63% marketers polled say that engagement is manifested in customer renewals, retention and repeat purchases. Adding in the 15% who see engagement in terms of impact on revenue, 78% of marketers see it as occurring in the middle or later stages of the classic funnel. Only 22% view engagement in terms of love for a brand, still important, but part of marketing’s legacy skill set, says the report.
• Technology investment plans by marketers illustrate both the dominance and fragmentation of digital channels. Three of the four most widely cited investments are aimed at reaching customers through different channels: via social networks, on mobile devices and on the old standby of e-mail. The fourth, analytics, is needed to knit together data from multiple channels into a coherent and actionable portrait of the consumer. 

More than four fifths of survey respondents believe that now is the time to embark on rapid change in the way they run the marketing function. They agree with the global head of marketing technology and innovation at Kimberly-Clark, when he says, “You can look at future disruption as a multiple of what happened in the past. Disruption in the last five years might show you what will happen in the next three. Disruption accelerates exponentially.” 

When marketers were asked whether they agreed with the statement that they need to change their approach over the next three to five years to better support the business, the answers were scored on a scale from one to ten, from “disagree strongly” (no need to change anything about marketing), to“agree strongly” (an urgent need to change the approach to marketing).

81% agree with the statement: “We need to change the structure and design of our marketing organization to meet the needs of our business over the next three to five years.”  The sentiment cuts across all groups: B2B and B2C, large companies and small ones, CMOs and lower-level executives.  

For additional information from Marketo and The Economist Intelligence Unit, please visit here. For more from IDC please visit IDC here.