Marketing processes, skills, and technology will look different by the year 2020. Not every marketer can win.

Marketers who have the passion to win will adapt to changes in the consumer market and focus on being consumer-centric before anything else.

I believe marketing parallels athletics as it takes skill, intuition, and of course, practice to perform successfully.

To win, it takes more than simply understanding the X’s and O’s found in your “marketing playbook”.  A marketer must have the passion to adapt when those X’s and O’s turn into Y’s and Z’s.

This post will provide key insights on how marketers can adapt now to win later.

Here’s how marketers will win in 2020

Be Agile

I’ve come across businesses that have a traditional way of executing their marketing campaigns. They would plan, execute, analyze results, learn from them and apply the lessons to an upcoming campaign.

This is wrong. All wrong.

Today’s consumers are expecting more from businesses. To meet consumer demand, marketers are now constantly listening to consumers and instantly connecting in relevant ways.

Now let’s dig deeper…

Have a Purpose

There’s nothing more attractive than having a purpose in life. Consumers are becoming more purpose driven, and this drive may influence businesses in which they chose to patronize.

With this in mind, building a campaign around an ambitious theme that helps consumers find a better meaning to life is the key to winning.

For instance, for a chance to win a family portrait and a trip to bring your relatives together, Skype asked users to share stories of how they stay connected with their families. The Skype Stay Together campaign was a great way to connect a product with a purpose.

Skype created a winning campaign, and you can take a page from their marketing playbook as well.

Take a close look at how consumers are utilizing your product and determine the purpose-driven product benefits that help your consumers live and work better.

That’s how you’ll win.

Next, marketers should open up…

Be Transparent

In today’s digital economy, hiding behind your brand will not produce a win for your business. Open up your brand by sharing the truth or your consumers may do this for you.

Consumers are demanding transparency more than ever before. With a few mouse clicks, they can reveal any inconsistencies in your marketing messages.

The Internet gives brands a tremendous amount of visibility, and all marketing efforts will be under consumers’ constant scrutiny.

Naturally, consumers will view transparent brands as authentic and will appreciate marketing messages from them more than mysterious brands.

Here are some companies that took note of consumers’ demands for transparency:

Chipotle

They labeled all the ingredients in their menu items, including GMOs. This makes Chipotle the first American fast food chain to voluntarily display the presence of GMOs in its products.

Buffer

Buffer suffered a security breach in October 2013. They immediately took to every communication channel and apologized for the inconvenience, and explained what was to be done as soon as they got a handle on the situation.

Integrate

Consumers now rely on peer-to-peer connections and less on messages directly from companies.

By 2020, marketers will win if they integrate consumers in their marketing campaigns. There is a reason influencer marketing is effectively helping brands reach and convert consumers.

Peer-to-peer communication is perceived as authentic and helps brands extend its reach into niche markets.

More importantly, brands that help instead of sell will dominate. And brands with a consumer-centric focus will win.

Be Trendy

Consumer behavior often changes faster than behavior within an organization. Marketers will win by modifying the organization’s outreach based on changes in the outside world. Relevant communication has many variables to consider such as time, place, and type of information received.

As marketers, we often fail to consider the relevance of the brand itself.

Marketers will lose if they get stuck digging in the weeds and focusing on creating highly relevant campaigns.

Marketers will win, however, by determining if the brand itself is considered relevant.

I look forward to your responses in the comments section.

Here’s a nice example:

Mountain Dew wanted to leverage a popular trend by creating a naming contest for its brand.

You’ll notice ‘Diabeetus’ in the third spot that conveys why this campaign failed. Mountain Dew wanted to develop a trendy campaign that activated consumers. The dangerous sugar levels in this soda, however, is a relevant topic as well. Perhaps, Mountain Dew should create a healthier alternative to rename.

Marketers will win in 2020 by assessing the benefits their products provide consumers. If the danger outweighs the benefits, it’ll be a difficult win.

Collaborate Internally

I don’t consider marketing as a siloed operation and marketers who believe this as well will win in 2020.

Let’s face it, marketing touches all aspect of a business from IT, customer service, operations and more.

To win, marketers must develop a collaborative, cross-functional process with functions that report up through other parts of the business.

The consumer market has changed, and organizations must be aligned to best serve its consumers.

Crowdsource

It seems like everyday there are new products and services being launched that are leveraging the power of crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is a buzzword that’s used by many marketers. It has become popular in the industry as it’s used to come up with business ideas, fund new projects, and of course, create relevant marketing campaigns.

Since most consumers are socially connected and exchange knowledge through social media, marketers can leverage this when building brand awareness or testing a marketing campaign.

In 2020, crowdsourcing will supplant traditional focus groups and marketers that use this technique will win.

Here are a few examples:

Waze is a free turn-by-turn GPS application for mobile phones that uses crowdsourcing to provide routing and real-time traffic updates.

Vizy is the first international platform of video crowdsourcing. Brands, Agencies, Publishers, and Broadcasters can access on UserFarm, a network of more than 20,000 videomakers able to create a full range of different forms of video content.

Final Thought

Passionate marketers will win in 2020. If they are committed to making an impact on the consumer by being more helpful, they will naturally develop the necessary skills to win.

Whether it’s being agile, transparent, or trendy, a marketer must develop the skills to properly meet the needs of his or her target consumer. This notion goes beyond strategy and embodies all values that motivate us as humans.

Overall, it’s a marketer’s passion that will win the day, the month, and the year of 2020.