The Problematic Promise of Digital B2B Buying

In this episode, Gartner analyst Ben Bloom discusses the 2023 Gartner Marketing Technology Survey, which saw martech utilization falling further while generative AI is poised to rise. We review how CMOs can assess martech adoption, leverage relationships with IT, and preserve resources for tomorrow.Benjamin Bloom is a VP, Analyst helping marketing leaders with martech stack optimization, personalization, and customer data management.Mr. Bloom's experience spans customer engagement, direct response, CRM, data management, analytics, web development and brand marketing roles, as both a consultant/strategist and client-side team leader. He has developed and optimized marketing campaigns, as well as selected and implemented technology and advertising solutions for over 10 years. Prior to entering the marketing world, he analyzed the technology, media and telecommunications industries at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information at Columbia University.

20 Sep 202339min

In this episode, Gartner analysts and authors of When Machines Become Customers Don Scheibenreif and Mark Raskino discuss how the rise of machine customers will impact the discipline of marketing and the marketing profession itself. What does it mean to market to a machine? What are the implications for how you position your brand? And what do marketing leaders need to start doing right now to take advantage of the huge growth opportunities on the horizon, as potentially billions of machine customers are headed their way?Don Scheibenreif is a Vice President, Distinguished Analyst with Gartner’s Customer Experience research group. Mr. Scheibenreif works with customer experience and IT leaders on how emerging trends and digital business will impact customer experience. He is a founding member of Gartner’s research on digital business and digital business transformation and he has served clients in Gartner’s Industries Research and Technology Innovation practices.Mark Raskino is a Gartner Fellow in the CEO and Digital Business Leadership research team. Mark works primarily with CIOs and their business executive colleagues. He covers business and technology trends and their implications for business strategy, innovation, business models, leadership and executive relationships. Mr. Raskino’s research includes Gartner’s annual CEO survey and CIO resolutions. He co-authored the books “Digital to the Core” (Gartner, 2015) and “Mastering the Hype Cycle” (Harvard Business Press, 2008). He is a frequent keynote speaker and keynote interviewer.

6 Sep 202354min

In this episode, Gartner analyst Kassi Socha and researcher Emma Mathison join to discuss Gartner's latest findings around incentives. The fear of continual price increases and, an appetite to try new brands, and XX are driving consumers to react differently to discounts and promotions than they have in the past. For those targeting a younger consumer, learn how the coupon became cool again, and free shipping is a mandate. To exceed consumers’ expectations, B2C CMOs must prioritize discounts with customer appeal, tailor discounts to specific audiences, and make discount experiences more interactive.Kassi Socha is an analyst covering trends across the retail industry, specifically eCommerce, digital marketing, and consumer insights. Key expert in Industry Marketing Execution, Digital Marketing Strategy and Execution, as well as Customer Acquisition and Retention.Emma Mathison is a Research Analyst, with the consumer insights team in the Gartner for Marketers business. She studies consumer values and attitudes as well as cultural shifts and patterns that impact consumer behaviors.Her current research focuses on studying young consumers, parents and family, LGBTQ and gender topics as well as global consumers.

23 Aug 202332min

Digital engagement is getting more complex, and CMOs are under pressure to show results. In this episode, Gartner analyst Kristina LaRocca-Cerrone shares Gartner’s latest research on “catalytic” digital interactions that change customer behavior, increase customer confidence and, most importantly, generate business value. The discussion includes how CMOs can find the perfect moment for “catalytic” experiences, examples of what a great catalytic digital interaction looks and feels like, and how this new approach might fit into the rest of your marketing strategy.Kristina LaRocca-Cerrone helps enterprise marketers better understand customers (B2B and B2C) buy and make decisions. This includes topics like how buying groups research potential suppliers and make purchase decisions, creating compelling content marketing aligned to the customer journey, improving overall digital experiences (industry-agnostic) to impact customer behavior, and customer journey mapping and persona building. Ms. LaRocca-Cerrone also covers marketing leadership and strategy, and marketing organization trends.

9 Aug 202342min

In this episode, Gartner analysts Ewan McIntyre and Alex de Fursac Gash share insights and explore key themes from Gartner’s 2023 CMO Spend & Strategy Survey. The discussion includes how marketing must learn to do more with less, the trap of digitization for the sake of digitization, and the growing pressures for CMOs to reduce marketing technology spending.Ewan McIntyre is a VP Analyst and Chief of Research for the Gartner for Marketers Practice. Mr. McIntyre is focused on how CMOs and leaders build strategies and align marketing's capabilities, resources and budgets to deliver measurable, optimized performance. He has a deep understanding of how to build the right team by combining in-house and outsourced resources, having built from the ground up multidiscipline digital teams in both the B2B and B2C space.Alex de Fursac Gash is a Senior Director in Gartner's Marketing (GML) Research & Advisory team. In this role, Alex serves as a thought partner to clients and facilitates a wide range of executive-level discussions for heads of marketing and their teams globally. His responsibilities include: advising marketing leaders on their functional objectives; sharing best practices and providing strategic guidance; and supporting senior leaders and their teams to plan and implement a number of initiatives. He also facilitates workshops and delivers keynote speeches at Gartner events and other special industry conferences.

26 Jul 202348min

In this episode, Gartner analyst Penny Gillespie discusses rogue thinking, Gartner’s approach to idea generation and execution. Rogue thinking uses a fresh perspective, often going against conventional, mature business wisdom. Discover the common habits of rogue thinkers, the key skills they share and the barriers that often get in the way.Penny Gillespie is a Vice President and Gartner Fellow within marketing and communications. Ms. Gillespie is responsible for conducting research and developing publications aimed at helping executives recognize digital opportunities, develop a competitive strategy for digital commerce, and improve digital commerce performance and value. She focuses on best practices for digital customer experience (CX) interactions, personalization and trust building, as well as overcoming hurdles to online selling.

12 Jul 202350min

In this #Hashtags episode, Gartner VP Analyst Andrew Frank discusses how marketers and communicators should organize their thinking around generative AI and what they can do to position themselves and their brands for success amid this generational disruption.As VP Distinguished Analyst with Gartner for Marketing Leaders, Andrew Frank specializes in best practices for data-driven marketing, including how organizations can use data to drive sales, loyalty, innovation, brand value and other business goals. He also focuses on emerging marketing technology and trends, including marketing applications of AI and machine learning, algorithmic marketing, and marketing in emerging environments such as metaverse and Web3.

18 Jun 202341min

In this episode of #Hashtags, Gartner analyst Jason McNellis discusses how CMOs can be more data–driven without having to be experts in analytics or machine learning. Today, cherry-picking results and going with one’s gut are serious obstacles for CMOs who want their teams to make better and more timely decisions. We’ll cover how CMOs can assess their teams current use of analytics. Then we’ll use marketing examples from multiple companies as we discuss how experimentation, better questions and a “caterpillar’s-eye view” – not more data science – improve data-driven decisioning.Jason McNellis is a Gartner senior director analyst who specializes in marketing analytics and building insight-generating organizations with a focus on enhancing marketing through machine learning, artificial intelligence, marketing mix modeling, and campaign measurement. Jason helps clients concentrate on the right data and right approach to guide their critical decisions.

14 Jun 202357min