Post-Pandemic Marketing Truths

These are the data, customer experience (CX) and artificial intelligence (AI) stories we’re reading here at Finalytics.ai this week.

Updated Top Ten Marketing Truths

Back in March, Harvard Business Review published a great article by Janet Balis, Marketing Practice Leader at EY Consulting. The article examines 10 marketing truths and how they need to be updated due to the pandemic. Balis’ perspective is absolutely correct.  It confirms what we believe and what we’ve been building here at Finalytics.ai. We’d like to highlight a couple:

2. Old truth: You are competing with your competitors.  New truth: You are competing with the last best experience your customer had.

5. Old truth: Customers must sit at the heart of your marketing strategy. New truth: Customers must sit at the heart of your customer journey.

If you are in marketing, or any executive or managing position, make sure that you read this article.

AI and Gartner’s Hype Cycle

Like all AI-geeks, we were excited to check out Gartner’s 2021 AI Hype Cycle report. An article in Tech Republicby Veronica Combs examines the report. Combs notes,

Gartner analysts found more innovations in the innovation trigger phase of the hype cycle than usual. That means that end users are looking for specific technology capabilities that current AI tools can’t quite deliver yet. Synthetic data, orchestration platforms, composite AI, governance, human-centered AI and generative AI are all in this early phase.

As we are in the space, we see the need for AI tools that can help organizations leverage data. We agree that expectations don’t yet meet what’s available. The exciting part is that organizations like Finalytics.ai are solving the problem quickly.

Tim Cook and AI

According to Business Insider’s Taylor Borden, Apple’s Tim Cook is “really stoked” about AI. Borden writes that Cook does realize that there are dangers to AI. She quotes Cook,

For artificial intelligence to be truly smart, it must respect human values, including privacy. If we get this wrong, the dangers are profound. We can achieve both great artificial intelligence and great privacy standards. It’s not only a possibility, it is a responsibility.

Borden notes that Cook believes that these challenges can be addressed and remains positive. She quotes him again,

Mainly, I am so optimistic about all the things that can happen in our lives that free up time for more leisure activities and other things that we want to do in life.

We wonder if our readers are also stoked or worried about AI. Drop us a note to let us know.

Is Digital Transformation Doomed?

We follow several studies and publications that failures warn of the many challenges digital transformation projects face. In fact, an article in Forbes states that 84% of companies fail at digital transformation. In our experience, failures are due to people and to technology. By people we mean leaders and the organizational culture they develop. Steve Denning, author of many business books, writes in Forbes,

In any large firm today, top management usually includes two groups. One group is committed to transform the firm digitally, as a key to survival, let alone thrive. The other group treats the need for digital transformation as a sideshow of the status quo.

Digital transformation fails when the status quo team wins out. He writes that the change-oriented leaders must change the narrative to get the status-quo group to listen.

What the change-oriented managers may need to do is to spark a new story in the mind of the status-quo managers that what is at stake is not just having somewhat stronger financial return by strengthening customer focus, but also the extraordinary trillion-dollar gains that can come from combining customer focus and digital technology. It’s the combination that makes the potential exponential.

We agree with this approach, of course.

Let us know what you think of this weekly listing. Stay safe. And don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and on Twitter.