98 Percent of Marketers Say Online and Offline Marketing Are
Merging
Digital marketing is now mainstream, and digital
commerce is a top priority for marketers, according to a survey of
marketing executives by Gartner, Inc. The survey also found that
marketing budgets increased 10 percent in 2015, with 61 percent of
respondents saying they expect budgets to increase again in 2016.
These findings form part of Gartner's
2015-2016 Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Spend Survey that included
responses from business leaders responsible for marketing — in
particular, digital
marketing — in 339 large and extra-large companies in North America
and the U.K. Respondents represent organizations with more than $500
million in annual revenue across seven industries: financial services,
high tech, manufacturing, consumer packaged goods (CPG), media, retail
and transportation/hospitality. The survey took place between May and
July 2015 and marks the fourth year that Gartner has surveyed marketers
on spending priorities and marketing operations.
"There is little doubt that digital marketing is now mainstream," said Yvonne
Genovese, group vice president at Gartner. "Marketers no longer make
a clear distinction between offline and online marketing disciplines. As
customers opt for digitally led experiences, digital marketing stops
being a discrete discipline and instead becomes the context for all
marketing. Digital marketing is now marketing in a digital world."
Ten percent of marketers say they have moved beyond digital marketing
techniques and are expanding marketing's role to create new digitally
led business models. The blurring of the physical and digital worlds
represents opportunities for marketers to apply customer insights to
create and test new digitally led experiences and business models.
Digital commerce is surging, capturing 11 percent of the digital
marketing budget (up from 8 percent in 2014) as marketers become more
accountable for driving results.
"The rise in digital commerce is an opportunity for marketers," said Jake
Sorofman, research vice president at Gartner. "There was a time when
marketing and selling were two distinct disciplines. In many cases,
digital merges these two into a single, continuous activity from initial
awareness, through engagement, conversion, transaction and repeat
purchase. Marketers can now tie spend to revenue. In fact, it's becoming
a mandate."
Two main factors are driving marketers' interest in digital commerce:
the need to point to tangible results from marketing investments, and
the recognition that companies need more than a commerce platform to
sell. In the past, we've seen digital commerce operations wholly
disconnected from the marketing engine. Today, we're seeing integration
between marketing and digital commerce as two parts of a single
discipline, where marketers bring everything from content marketing and
brand storytelling to advanced analytics and multichannel campaign
management to optimize digital commerce across channels.
B2C companies have long been considered more sophisticated in digital
commerce, but we're seeing growing appetite by B2B companies under
pressure to reach customers directly with digital commerce initiatives.
They are looking to engage customers directly to better understand their
needs, preferences and behaviors.
As CMOs face the digital transition, the survey showed that overall
marketing budgets are on the rise. This year, 61 percent of respondents
said that marketing spending will be, on average, 11 percent of company
revenue, up from 10 percent of company revenue last year. That one
percentage point change represents a sizable increase — 10 percent, year
over year — in marketing spend.
"Bigger budgets, however, come with sizable expectations," said Mr.
Sorofman. "Marketing is expected to drive profitable growth through the
acquisition, retention and expansion of the most valuable customer
relationships. As customer buying journeys and customer expectations
expand, so, too, does marketing's scope of responsibility. As a result,
the marketing remit now often includes driving broad-mandate customer
experience, digital commerce and innovation initiatives."
More detailed analysis and additional survey results are available in
the report "CMO
Spend Survey 2015-2016: Digital Marketing Comes of Age."
This research is part of the Gartner for Marketing Leaders program. This
program provides real-time, personalized digital marketing guidance,
from vision through execution. Gartner for Marketing Leaders is focused
on helping digital marketers succeed in eight key areas: emerging
digital marketing trends and techniques, social marketing, mobile
marketing, monetizing digital marketing through commerce, multichannel
marketing, data-driven marketing, digital marketing essentials and
digital marketing programs. Additional information is available at http://www.gartner.com/digitalmarketing.
For additional details, email GML@gartner.com.
About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) is the world's leading information technology
research and advisory company. The company delivers the
technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right
decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations
and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom
enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors,
Gartner is the valuable partner to clients in approximately 10,000
distinct enterprises worldwide. Through the resources of Gartner
Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner
Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and
interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual
role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford,
Connecticut, USA, and has 7,100 associates, including more than 1,500
research analysts and consultants, and clients in 90 countries. For more
information, visit www.gartner.com.
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