Productivity And Customer Focus Are Top Of Mind For German Manufacturers And Financial Services And Insurance Providers
In reviewing the new Forrester Marketing Survey, 2022, where we have asked marketing executives globally about their opinions on marketing strategy, interesting insights have been captured.
Looking at the growth strategies and marketing priorities of B2B organisations for 2022, differences in their marketing strategies are clearly displayed, especially when comparing regions or industries. Putting a lens on German manufacturing and financial services and insurance providers, marketing executives will especially identify two outcomes to take under consideration when crafting their own B2B marketing strategy.
There are six ways a B2B company can grow (see The Intelligent Approach To Growth). The growth strategies become the compass that guides revenue engine efforts and oftentimes provides the justification to say “no” to misaligned requests or initiatives. It is critical that a company does not try to grow by all six strategies simultaneously and instead prioritise only two or three.
Forrester’s Marketing Survey, 2022, shows that German manufacturers and financial services and insurance providers ranked “productivity” as their dominant growth strategy, far ahead (56%) of their global peers in the same industry (19%). Growth through productivity is essentially lifting your bottom line. The dominance of productivity as a growth driver in Germany is, among others, related to the need to increase digital transformation in Germany. This digital shift and, notably, data-driven value creation offer huge potential to optimise productivity. An important prerequisite is an excellent digital infrastructure, such as broadband internet and mobile technology (5G and 6G), which the German government has in focus to develop or upgrade. It has been identified that the smaller companies specifically are still lacking in digital technology investments and relevant changes of processes. Furthermore, infrastructure, such as access to high-speed internet outside of the big cities, seems to cause limitations to increasing productivity.
In developing a compelling and successful marketing strategy, B2B marketers must identify and select the relevant (set of) priorities for it. The themes include improving customer experience, addressing changing buyer behaviours, defining customer needs, understanding buyer preferences, creating audience-centric content, and transforming to customer-driven marketing.
The Forrester Marketing Survey, 2022, reflects that B2B organisations are reporting a broad spectrum of priorities that are most important to their organisation’s marketing strategy over the next 12 months. Taking again the lens of German manufacturers and financial services and insurance providers, the results reveal a sharp focus on priorities related to driving customer obsession in developing a successful B2B marketing strategy. (One hundred percent of them have identified at least one or more customer- or buyer-related themes as the most important priorities for their organisation’s marketing strategy over the next 12 months.) With this strong customer and buyer focus, these B2B marketing decision-makers at German companies in these industries are ahead of their global peers. From working with German companies in several sectors, these results resonate with organisations aiming to become more customer-focused, approach the segments in a more targeted manner, and optimise the effectiveness of the activities. Driving a business to become customer-obsessed offers the potential to improve an organisation’s success and growth. The results of Forrester’s The State Of Customer Obsession 2021 survey show a 2.5x higher year-over-year revenue growth rate last year for customer-obsessed companies versus those firms that are not obsessed.
The mentioned regional differences in marketing approaches reflect the need for marketing executives to evaluate deep market insights as a solid foundation to craft a successful marketing strategy aligned with market requirements. As environments often change quickly, it is crucial for marketing leaders to capture, review, and interpret market and trend data regularly. This will support marketers in making relevant decisions and potential adjustments to the defined marketing strategy.
Finally, we have an additional tip for you: Join us for Forrester’s upcoming B2B Summit EMEA event, 11–12 October in London, and learn more! New insights and fresh regional and global data will be presented, with exciting client case studies and practical examples for marketing executives and marketers provided to support you and your business!
Besides the described findings on a selected industry in Germany on growth strategies and marketing priorities, the Forrester Marketing Survey, 2022, offers great insights on an entire set of relevant marketing questions for several different industries and regions. Furthermore, relevant marketing trends for CMOs and their marketing strategy have been identified. Find out more and get in touch at cschmitt@forrester.com.
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