Strategic marketing consulting in the digital age

The old familiar structure of a classic agency or marketing consultancy, which rules and disposes of its client’s communication and marketing measures in the lead, is no longer relevant. The rapidly changing media landscape of recent years, more fragmented and project-oriented marketing campaigns and constant budget cuts in marketing are just a few examples of this change process.

Today, businesses benefit from comprehensive marketing consulting by a partner or agency that masters and correctly interprets the developments of an increasingly networked and unpredictable world – with all its complexity and dynamics. This in turn requires in-depth knowledge of the industry and an advisor-client relationship that is characterised by a high level of trust. It should be based on a genuine understanding of the client’s needs and issues, and the courage of the consulting partner to address uncomfortable truths in personal contact.

One of them: Some B2B clients oversleep their potential. In a context of decreasing budgets, existing solutions are often preferred. Even though in 2020, digital projects are more frequently requested in marketing consulting, the courage to take a much-needed look beyond the horizon is less pronounced than in the consumer sector, for example.

A lot can be learned from B2C marketing. As open to innovation and trend-conscious as a trendy beverage brand has to be to secure highly competitive shelf metres in the supermarket, the planning of marketing budgets and KPIs is usually just as strategic, targeted and forward-looking.

This takes time: Experience shows that marketing consulting and concrete annual planning in B2C marketing begin as early as in the summer of the previous year. Much more than in the B2B sector, budgeting is also more impact-related and dynamic – and closely linked to pre-defined goals. The profitable dovetailing or increasing merging of sales and marketing is also often more advanced.

The linchpin of this management-oriented marketing approach is a well-founded annual planning process, which at best includes data-based decisions from regular reviews and follow-ups of communication measures which have already been implemented. And of course, it has to take international market developments into account.

For a stable and meaningful process, instruments such as established marketing controlling and consistent evaluation offer companies an important opportunity to monitor the effects and control the measures. If the explicit objective is to grow, this careful approach to planning marketing and communication is worthwhile. It is then a very effective means of opening up new markets and generating sales.

Moreover, every company should ask itself what added value it can offer the target group via its marketing – preferably also independently of the individual product in the sense of a service-dominated logic. This is a major conceptual challenge that requires interdisciplinary collaboration between different departments within the company and a departure from traditional silo thinking. This is the only way to create innovative and sustainable business models in marketing.

We speak from personal experience. In fact, we are growing as an agency in a declining market because, due to the extraordinary situation in spring 2020, our agency’s internal strategists and consultants had the courage to combine our entire knowledge and broad range of skills into new, digital marketing formats – at short notice and with great impact – from which several existing and new clients have already benefited. And maybe you will too in the near future? We will be happy to advise you!

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