One of the most jarring data points in “Eliminating Complexity for a Frictionless Marketing Experience,” a new research report from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services sponsored by Quad: Just 30% of respondents, all involved in their organizations’ marketing decisions, rate their organization’s marketing as “very effective” today.
In other words, most marketers are kind of underwhelmed by… their own marketing.
If that sounds like something of an existential crisis, well, it is.
But helpfully, the HBR Analytic Services’ report has a lot to say about exactly why marketers are struggling to produce effective marketing — and the report also identifies what the marketers who are satisfied with their own marketing are doing right.
The full report, which was commissioned by Quad, can be downloaded here. It’s based on an in-depth global survey of 527 members of the Harvard Business Review audience, all involved in their organizations’ marketing decisions. The size of the organizations ranges from 10,000 or more employees (31% of the respondents) down to 100-499 employees (24%) and covers industry sectors including financial services and technology. (More details on the participant profile and the survey methodology appear on page 9 of the report.)
Here’s a quick executive summary of some of the report’s key findings:
Marketers may be struggling to create effective marketing, but they’re not experiencing a crisis of faith
That existential crisis we mentioned above isn’t actually about marketers doubting marketing itself. Nearly 9 in 10 (89%) survey respondents say it’s more important than ever that marketing play a strategic role within organizations.
The proliferation of channels is a major pain point for a lot of marketers
As the report puts it, “Today’s media mix is negatively impacting many marketers’ stress levels.” Drilling down: “More than half — 53% — say their marketing team feels overwhelmed by the amount of channels they need to manage within the media mix. Even efforts to reduce media mix complexity by teaming up with external partners with specialized skills can backfire: 59% of respondents say the need to have specialists who know about each new marketing channel creates complexity for their team.”
The challenge of managing a complex network of partners can hurt marketing operations
The HBR Analytic Services report also takes on what it calls “the marketing sector’s labyrinthine network of partners, ranging from content creators and agencies to referral partners and affiliates.” The survey findings are striking: “Nearly half (47%) of respondents cite a complex network of partners for negatively impacting marketing operations significantly or moderately. Only 34% believe they perform ‘very well’ in managing these external partner relationships.”
Overall marketing complexity by the numbers
The big picture on marketing complexity, according to the HBR Analytic Services report: “77% of respondents say their organization faces ‘some’ or ‘a lot of’ complexity within its current marketing ecosystem, and 66% say rising complexity in the marketplace is making it increasingly difficult for marketers to deliver business value to the organization.”
There’s a lot of damage caused by excess marketing ecosystem complexity
HBR Analytic Services asked respondents to detail how complexity has affected their marketing operations: “Survey respondents cite a multitude of negative business impacts caused by marketing ecosystem complexity, including difficulty optimizing campaign performance (46%), increased stress for the marketing team (44%) and less impactful marketing initiatives (42%).” Other impacts include inefficient spending (41%), campaign delays (40%) and limited transparency into campaign performance across channels (36%).
Follow the marketing leaders
As part of its survey, HBR Analytic Services asked respondents to rate their organization’s marketing on a scale of 0 to 10, and then grouped those respondents into three buckets: “leaders” (respondents who rated their organization’s marketing 8, 9 or 10), “followers” (6-7) and “laggards” (0-5). HBR Analytic Services also asked everyone how streamlined their marketing processes are — and tellingly, “While 49% of leaders report having ‘very streamlined’ processes, only 18% of followers and a mere 5% of laggards can make the same claim.”
There’s hope for overwhelmed marketers
What happens when marketing organizations push back at excess complexity and focus on streamlining? “Among those with somewhat or very streamlined marketing processes,” the HBR Analytic Services report says, “54% of these respondents say their organization has achieved greater speed and agility to respond to market trends as a result of having a streamlined and frictionless process for its marketing efforts. Other benefits of streamlined processes cited by these respondents include better customer engagement (53%), better utilization of data (52%) and greater campaign impact (50%).”
What it will take to get marketing back on course
To come full circle, as we noted above, just 30% of those surveyed by HBR Analytic Services rate their organization’s marketing as “very effective” today. Quite simply, marketing is broken, according to a lot of marketers.
What will it take to fix it? “Efforts are underway to course correct,” the HBR Analytic Services report says, noting that 59% of those surveyed are currently increasing the use of data insights to make marketing decisions, or planning to within the next 12 months, 41% say the same for reallocating their marketing mix (e.g., platforms, networks, sites), and 34% are updating their external partnerships (e.g., agencies, consultants, vendors).
What’s next for marketers?
“Updated channels, streamlined processes, data analytics and consolidated partnerships can uncomplicate marketing, clearing a path for the seamless execution of campaigns and deeper consumer engagement,” the HBR Analytic Services report concludes.
Those are realities that Quad knows a lot about. We’re a marketing experience (MX) company that works with nearly 3,000 marketers across every conceivable vertical — from retail and CPG to health and financial services. We do that by deploying our market-leading MX suite of solutions — MX: Creative, MX: Production and MX: Media — fueled by MX: Intelligence and MX: Tech.
The bottom line: We help your marketing machine run more smoothly, saving you time, money and resources while giving you better results, speed and efficiency.
To learn more about Quad’s MX suite, click here. And to download a copy of the “Eliminating Complexity for a Frictionless Marketing Experience” from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services sponsored by Quad, click here.
