The marketing industry is in the midst of a revolution, and these days, marketers have no choice but to embrace change.
Why? Because in order to survive in today's rapidly evolving business environment, marketers have to find new ways to transform the customer experience. We have to find new ways to use technology. We have to find new ways to drive revenue growth.
In short, marketers today must become change agents across virtually all marketing functions. And, that means now, perhaps more than ever before, we have to be open to innovation.
For many marketers, that's a somewhat frightening prospect. After all, our gut tells us that change and innovation can be risky . . . and enigmatic . . . . and unpredictable.
But, what would happen if you started thinking about change a little differently?
Imagine how productive you could be if you could "tame" innovation -or, at least, make the most of all its benefits without falling victim to its downsides. Maybe there's some way to use technology and the latest forms of customer engagement to more reliably drive new forms of value creation? Maybe it's even possible to engage our customers in product design and testing?
Questions like these are bubbling up wherever I turn, and it's clear that collaborative marketing innovation is sure to be one of this year's hottest topics. Fortunately, I have a dear colleague to help me sort through it all. You see, for academic insights on innovation and other marketing trends, I'll be listening intently to Mohanbir Sawhney when he speaks at the Aprimo Marketing Summit 2012, coming up February 28 through March 1.
A professor at the Kellogg School, Dr. Sawhney is a globally recognized scholar, teacher, consultant and though leader in strategic marketing, innovation and new media. Business Week named him one of the 25 most influential people in e-Business, and Crain's Chicago Business named him a member of "40 under 40," a select group of young business leaders in the Chicago area. Dr. Sawhney is also a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and his research and teaching interests include marketing and media in the digital world, process-centric marketing, collaborative marketing, organic growth and network-centric innovation.
In the introduction to the book Collaboration with Customers to Innovate: Conceiving and Marketing Products in the Networking Age, which he co-authored with Gianmario Verona, Dr. Sawhney boldly proclaims:
"In a tough business environment, innovation is the only route to gaining and sustaining competitive advantage."
Marketers take note. As Dr. Sawhney goes on to point out, to succeed in today's networked digital world, it's time we started "innovating innovation."
Fortunately, technology can help. Marketing automation can drive focus and early value by allowing marketers to dig out relevant information from the constant flood of digital data. It creates the awareness required to optimize future campaigns, and it enables collaboration and integration of processes, both internally and externally.
I look forward to discussing these topics in more detail with Dr. Sawhney because it's clear that the consumer will play an increasingly large part in "innovating innovation," as well. By partnering engaged customers with technology, marketers will be able to uncover the new products and new processes that will ultimately drive revenue growth in today's rapidly evolving digital marketplace.