Changing the Face of Marketing - the 5 Ps
Alterian's solutions are framed by its model for integrated
marketing – the 5Ps: People, Passion, Platform, Process and
Partners. This model defines the technology, process and people
required to make integrated marketing a reality. The original 4 Ps
of product, price, promotion and place are concepts which, whilst
still significant, have become somewhat commoditized by our
connected world. The 5Ps build on this construct and provide a
framework more applicable for the technology enabled,
customer-centric marketing required today. Alterian believes this
simple and unique framework is an important tool to help marketers
– in what is a very complex and changing world of marketing – turn
vast amounts of data in to value for both the customer and the
company.
People: Understanding customers as people
Customers are a scarce, but valuable, resource who directly
create the value an organization needs to survive. Marketers
therefore need to understand the buying journey of their customers,
from both a transactional and an emotional/human perspective.
Through analysis, marketers can understand customers (as people) on
a one to one basis, respecting the individual's needs and
preferences, how they buy, where they buy, developing them into
recommenders of the brand. The goal is to build long term
relationships to create value for both the customer and the
company.
Passion: Passion for marketing driven by analytics
Marketers have always been passionate people; passionate about
creativity and passionate about the success of their campaigns.
However, marketers are now under more pressure than ever before to
become accountable for their spending, to show measurable results,
to predict the value of each customer and to provide insight to
identify new markets or market innovations which in turn drive
business growth. This demand is fueled by the increasing maturation
of digital channels and the amount of data generated for analysis
doubling every 12 to 18 months. Marketers therefore need to drive
their passion for marketing through analytics, having the data to
support their campaigns, back up their plans and drive the customer
lifetime value agenda. It is no longer acceptable to manage by gut
feel or instinct; with so much data available marketers can track
behaviour, manage by fact, predict with accuracy and raise the bar
for professionalism in marketing.
Platform: Integrated Marketing Platform
The Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform is the first
marketing 'platform' that gives the marketer an
integrated set of applications built on top of a
single data architecture and accessed through a single user
interface or marketing portal. Every application of the Alterian
Integrated Marketing Platform shares data, business rules and
assets across applications. Marketers can plan, create, execute,
and report through one user interface, across all channels, across
all departments in the organization, around the globe. This
Platform also provides a future proof investment as marketing
technology matures and more of marketing's processes are
integrated.
Process: Joined up Marketing Processes
With the increasing demand to understand customers as people
comes the need for all of marketing to integrate. If every aspect
of the customer's interaction and journey with the organization is
planned and monitored, mutual value can be generated and a long
term relationship nurtured. In summary, marketers need to join up
their marketing.
There are a number of steps on this journey, starting with
database marketing, where the underlying accuracy and completeness
of customer data underpins the success of an integrated marketing
platform. A logical next step would then be to combine
digital/online marketing with offline marketing so that the right
message is sent to the right customer, via the right channel, at
the right time.. With the increase in velocity and complexity of
online and offline campaigns, marketing then needs to implement an
operational marketing infrastructure to support the planning,
sharing, workflow, asset management and reporting of campaigns.
When marketing has become joined up, an improved customer
experience can be achieved in terms of a planned flow of
interactions with the customer, including them as part of the
process through feedback and self service. As the customer feels
more respected, acknowledged and builds trust with the organization
they are then more likely to recommend the company, thereby acting
as an extension of the marketing department itself (word of mouth
marketing).
Partners
As marketing is forced to transform, driven by the rise in
digital channels and the change in customers' buying approach, the
marketer needs help with this transformation and will typically
turn to their portfolio of trusted marketing partners, suppliers
and experts. Alterian works exclusively through a global network of
such partners who provide the domain and service expertise to
implement and execute integrated marketing strategy and
solution.
These partners fall into three key segments based on a starting
point for their solution – marketing services providers, agencies
and systems integrators – a although there is more often now a
blurring of segments and capabilities; as with the integration of
marketing so comes the integration of marketing supplier
capabilities.