New marketing channels
Challenges to new marketing channels, as reported by organizations surveyed |
| Ranked by frequency of mention |
| Rank* | Challenge |
| 1 | Focus on traditional marketing channels |
| 2 | Lack of technological expertise |
| 3 | Involvement in social media depends on parent company |
| 4 | Clients or customers do not use social media |
| 5 | Lack of perceived relevance of social media to the sector |
| * Based on 238 responses from our global multi-sector survey. Rank order may not reflect statistically significant differences in all cases. Unclassified/refused responses not shown. |
Factors enabling new marketing channels, as reported by organizations surveyed |
| Ranked by frequency of mention |
| Rank* | Enabling factor |
| 1 | Proven effectiveness of social media in promoting brand, product or service |
| 2 | Desire to explore marketing possibilities created by new technologies |
| 3 | Potential for a multichannel approach (social media alongside classic marketing channels) |
| 4 | Increased focus on selling products or services online |
| 5 | Desire to acquire skills and knowledge |
| 6 | Goal of understanding and valuing social media opportunities |
| 7 | Desire to develop new products and services for online market |
| * Based on 238 responses from our global multi-sector survey. Rank order may not reflect statistically significant differences in all cases. Unclassified/refused responses not shown. |
Focus on more traditional marketing channels is seen as the biggest barrier to success.
Summary: New marketing channels include social media, web 2.0, email, mobile marketing, search and apps. This opportunity seems to be of greatest interest to the US, China and Russia.
New marketing channels include social media, Web 2.0, email, mobile marketing, search, and apps. Again, despite the apparent sector-specificity of this opportunity, it was seen as important in a sufficiently broad cross section of organizations to elevate it onto our top 10 list of opportunities.
Overall, this opportunity is expected to rise by 2013.
Opportunity outlook and impact
Sector perspective
The possibilities created by new technologies for connecting directly with customers and consumers are of particular interest to the banking and retail industries, which both rank this among the top five current opportunities for their sector.
However, this may well reflect an opportunity that has peaked: both these sectors expect the opportunity to stay at the same level of impact by 2013.
Geographic view
Our survey results suggest that these marketing channels are of heightened interest particularly to executives in the US, China and Russia, perhaps because of the opportunities they create for reaching the vast (and increasingly networked) populations of these three countries.
In many other countries, particularly in Europe, this opportunity is seen as likely to rise in impact in the future.
New marketing channels
Obstacles to success
We found that the two most significant barriers to developing social media opportunities were:
- A decision by senior management to focus on more traditional marketing channels
- An absence of necessary technology expertise within the firm.
These barriers were highest in the life sciences sector. By contrast, they were lowest in retail, oil and gas, and health care.
Analyzing this data by geographical region, we found that barriers to developing this opportunity are reported to be lowest in Italy and China. By contrast, executives in Poland and Germany were significantly more likely to report that their efforts to develop new marketing channels had been beset by serious challenges.
Responding to the opportunity
Our survey identified three principal factors that enable organizations to benefit from the opportunity of new marketing channels:
- Evidence of the effectiveness of social media in marketing their brands, products or services
- A decision by senior management to prioritize this issue
- The extent to which this opportunity could be successfully integrated into a multichannel approach to marketing, blending traditional avenues with new media
Sector strategies
We found wide variations in the extent to which different industry sectors were currently able to benefit from this opportunity.
- Health care and oil and gas industries have already adopted a multichannel approach.
- Executives in the retail and public administration sectors are most likely to be still in the process of considering this opportunity, and building the necessary expertise.
- Life sciences organizations are one of the least likely to have implemented new marketing channels, but the most likely to say such measures are intended in the future.
Geographic approaches
- In China, 78% of organizations were either persuaded in principle of the potential value of new marketing channels, or were actively developing them. This is far above equivalent levels in the US and Europe.
Percentage reporting current use of social media, by sector
Organizations' responses to new marketing channels
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