Two-Thirds of Consumer Goods Companies Need to Do More to Harness Digital Technology for Marketing, Says New Study by Forbes Insights and Wipro

I found an article highlighting on the importance of the digital marketing. Even the most traditional products requires cutting edge technologies to attract more customers.

A new study by Forbes Insights, in association with Wipro Limited, confirms that if companies are not taking advantage of digital technologies to improve marketing efforts, they are falling behind their competitors. According to the study, 65% of executives say their companies need to do more to harness digital technology to improve marketing effectiveness. In addition, 61% say their companies need to do more in terms of harnessing marketing data to improve effectiveness in complementary areas such as product development and logistics.

These are among the major findings of “The Race Is On: Keeping Pace with Consumer Goods Leaders in Digital Marketing and Technology,” a new study from Forbes Insights and Wipro. The study surveyed 125 C-level executives from large, global consumer goods companies, in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. Forbes Insights also conducted one-on-one interviews to provide context for the findings.

“This study shows that many companies still have a long way to go to realize the full potential of digital marketing,” says Bruce Rogers, Chief Insights Officer and head of the CMO Practice for Forbes Media. “A trailblazing group of transformative companies is leading the way and achieving closer alignment between marketing and other departments. Others need to forge ahead or risk falling behind.”

Hiral Chandrana, VP & Global Business Head, Consumer Goods, Wipro Limited said, “Executives today face a bewildering array of digital marketing technologies. It not only requires integrated website, mobile and social media strategies alongside well-conceived and executed data privacy and security strategies but also concepts such as omni-channel and analytics which add to the complexity. But at the same time, the collective capabilities of these technologies to grow and optimize sales and marketing are too important to be ignored.”

He added, “The rapid shift to digital is providing businesses, across consumer industries, with more opportunities than ever before, to connect and engage with their customers. How well businesses are able to implement digital technology has a direct impact on business results and will keep them ahead of their competitors.”

Other key findings:

• Forty-two percent of executives believe their current approach to digital marketing is too fragmented—rising to 47% among companies with greater than $17 billion in sales. The larger the organization, the more products and divisions, the greater the likelihood there will be fragmentation.

• Silos contribute to the challenge: Digital marketing is often organized as a separate function (37%), while e-commerce often operates as a separate business unit (39%).

• Half of executives, 50%, report that in one or more instances, their digital marketing has failed to integrate with essential back-end processes.

• Nonetheless, 20% of companies describe themselves as transformative. These are the leaders, companies that have already embraced a broad array of digital strategies: social, mobile, web and analytic tools and technologies transforming not only sales and marketing but also the overall business.

• Forty-three percent of executives believe their IT departments are so busy they are unable to help with digital marketing technology needs.

• Fifty-nine percent indicate that their companies are amenable to adopting a greater degree of technology outsourcing—specifically, a model where a third-party, full-service technology provider is able to assist with a greater degree of both front-end marketing and back-end operational processes.