Everyone is telling you what you have to do and what he is doing is a must and essential. Doesn’t matter if it’s within marketing, sales, service or… thousand of buzzwords are flying around, and you need to have the ultimate strategy, because this is part of every talk, every networking event and conference.

2018 was a very special year, a year which sets the course for many things with a very broad impact. Sometimes we feel killed by all these buzzwords and the increasing breadth and depth of the topics and buzzwords. We hate it!

Do you feel there is something you can’t grab? Something which must be there which is the reason for the difficulties you have sincee some time.

For me, one core element behind everything are data. Doesn’t matter if we think about marketing or IoT for example we need more and more data if we do not want to come to an endd with our business.
If I talk about “data driven things” I mean everything. Customer centricity or customer experience (CX) was flying around in 2018 and artificial intelligence (AI) was the big hype… things which needs data to act. AI can be used within marketing but also products. So data will be used for communication, interaction and IoT.

Data driven things have had their “peak of inflated expectations” before and are now around the “through of disillusionment” on their way to “slope of enlightenment”.

2018 GDPR came into effect and many things needs to be cleared here to reach the “plateau of productivity”.
Forget about all this “buzzword bingo” you hear twice a day. This is just wasting your time. Think about where you are regarding the data topics on this hype cycle. Everything else comes much later.

Do you really know what all this things and buzzwords mean, which impact they have and how to do this?

Yes? You are great, but… have you really done all homeworks before AI or CX for example? Do you have the right people inhouse and external who can help you to understand the big picture, the impact and help you to bring these things to the road?

Most people have just their picture, their area in mind and are really great with what they are doing within their channel… but the time of channel thinking and channel acting is past.
Others have the big picture in mind and the right understanding. Often it’s difficult to follow their thinking or to implement their mindset in the company. Even if you get this, implementing a thinking is a big change and one of the most important things… it’s difficult to bring these things on the road.

Let’s take the example CX. Customers don’t care about channels, they care about their pains, there needs and their interests. We need to “solve” their things at every time and every place. Therefore, we ned to understand them and act on a true 1:1 level.

Are your ready for this? Yes?

Ok, how is your marketing department structured? Offline marketing, online marketing with someone for e-mail, social, search,… ? Or are there people for content, customer experience measurement, customer milestone development, etc. ?
What goals does your employees have? Are this corporate or customer goals?

I’m sure you are not 100% ready!

“GO AWAY WITH SUCH GREAT TIPS, YOU ARE JUST  ANOTHER ONE ANOYING ME”
Maybe this is what you think now and you hate me again. So you think you have the right team, the right setup. A team of marketing, IT, PR, legal, service, HR and more who acts together with a common to change things fundamentally!

• Can you describe your vision clearly?
• Have you build clear strategies out of the mission and does everyone in the company understand this?
• Do you have a clear way and roadmap to implement this?
• Does everyone understand his parts and what he needs to do for it?
• Do you think like a customer or do you think in corporate goals?
  

HATE ME OR NOT – ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
For 2019 let’s stop wasting time with buzzwords and cut things down to the fundamental base which is the core change every business needs to go through.