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What are the greatest marketing challenges facing business today and why arethey really the same as they ever were? In my opinion, at a high level, the challenges are:

Identifying the most viable target audiences. Effectively positioning what you have to offer against the competition. Selecting the right communication channels to appeal to your identified audiences while

conveying whats different/better about what you have to offer.

Really no different than the challenges marketers have always faced. But, perhaps the one thing

that has changed is volume. Today there are not only more potential customers, there are also

more potential competitors and more potential communication channels. Combine these things

and it doesnt take long to realize that the greatest challenge facing marketers today is simply too

many options! Too many potential customer segments. Too many product/service options and

opportunities. Too many communication tools to choose from.

Todays marketers dont suffer from a lack of opportunity or outletsthey suffer from just theopposite. They suffer from too many opportunities and outlets.

Again, though, addressing this challenge doesnt really require a *different* approach than it

ever has. It does, though, require a focus on the right things. Those things are: your

goals/objectives and your target audience. If you know what you want to achievespecifically!and you know whospecifically!you want to achieve it with, you can successfully wade through

the multiple options available to you to choose those that are likely to generate the greatest

results at the least cost. That, ultimately, I believe should be the goal of any marketer: generating

the greatest results at the least cost.

That has always been the goal. And, while in some ways, it may have seemed easier to achievethat goal in the old days when communication options were limited, the fact is that we have theopportunity to be far more successful in achieving this goal today because we can more

narrowly, more specifically andhopefullymore effectively target exactly the right people we

need to reach to achieve our goals. This is both a blessing and a curse.

Its no longer about running an ad on one of the big 3 television networks. Its about

identifying the wide range of communication options available to you and narrowing them down

to the ones that are most likely to reach your target audience at the right time in the right place

with the right key messages to encourage some desired action.

Five Challenges for Tomorrow's Global Marketing Leaders1. Disruptive technologies.

The proliferation of new technologies from social media and mobile apps to in-

store digital experiences and mobile payments represents a set of obstacles for

which senior marketers are ill prepared. Just 20% consider themselves very

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knowledgeable about technology, yet by 2017 these CMOs will purchase more

technology than their CIOs, according to Gartner. The scale of these investments

must be at a global level within the organization, yet be mindful of local market

requirements. The challenge points to a need for a technology-savvy global CMO

with a sensitivity for local-global relationships and the flexibility to adapt to andembrace disruptive technologies and social media-driven, personalized marketing.

2. Globally connected consumers.

A new class of consumers, adept with and empowered by affordable ubiquitous

technology, has changed the marketing rules. Our research shows that 82% of senior

marketers feel that interconnected consumers have broken down the barriers

between global and local marketing. Global marketings core challenge has been to

deliver relevant messages to the local market, but in an age where assets designed

for one country are rapidly shared around the world, the challenge is to give global

consumers a delicate balance of local, regional and global campaigns

simultaneously.

3. Localization revisited.

Coping with the diversity of global consumers that also have strong regional

subcultures is regarded as a challenge by 75% of senior marketers. A recent Millward

Brown study found that of ads that tested exceptionally well in one country, just over

one in 10 did equally well in another country raising real questions about the cost

efficiencies of cross-border campaigns. Add to this the growing tensions between

local and global roles and authority within the organization challenging for 82% of

senior marketers and what becomes clear is the need for organizational design and

digital platforms that allow for a multi-channel, multi-disciplinary mindset across

the organization.

4. Multi-channel misses.

A full 37% of senior marketers dont believe that their marketing activities are fully

integrated across digital and traditional channels. The opportunity to grow revenues

from multi-channel consumers requires investments in digital experiences that are

too large for a single market, but which must provide flexibility for localization. Thebottom line is that senior marketers need to adopt the global mindset that will let

them displace strong organizational silos, specialized partners and a reliance on

traditional single-channel campaigns in order to realize the benefits of cross-channel

experiences.

5. Organizational structures.

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Too often, the three executive branches of CMO, CEO and CTO claim an overlapping

interest in the area of digital experience, leading to a failure to organize efficiently

for the new global marketing environment. Our research shows that 56% of

marketers agree coordination between digital and traditional marketing teams is

more challenging than five years ago silos and a lack of coordination are gettingworse just as the need for collaboration is becoming greater.

These trends leave us to believe in the rise of a new breed of marketer with a global

marketing mindset. This new global CMO should build strategies that cross silos and

approaches and combine the characteristics of a traditional marketer with the skills

traditionally associated with a CTO and even with the recently created CXO offices. A

decade ago the ecommerce or digital function would have reported to the CIO, but

today were seeing about 50% report to the CMO the single largest bucket of C-

level oversight for digital.

Mastering this evolved global marketing mindset could be what defines the most

successful brands of the next decade. But having a global mindset isnt just for global

brands; as businesses look to export their success into other markets, brands must

increasingly defend against new global competition.