Although marketing has a very clear and precise set of goals that have not changed for ages, the methods through which these goals are achieved changed immensely from the time the people first started making comprehensive marketing strategies. Those changes were sometimes very interesting, rapid, and influential. One of the latest trends in this line is the rise of “marketing agility” which quickly became a popular buzzword in the world of marketing. But, as we know, not all buzz words end up being really relevant, so let us see how “marketing agility” holds up in that regard.
Still, before we can determine does marketing agility has any real heft, we should first see what those two words mean and, in turn, understand what is marketing agility supposed to be.
Agility – According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, agility means nimbleness, or in other words, the ability to move or act quickly. If we would consider, for example, manufacturing, instead of marketing, we would say that agile manufacturing would be lowering the time of production, so production is able to keep up with current market demand and optimize its operations.
Marketing – Marketing is usually described as the process of anticipating and identifying customers’ desires in order to eventually satisfy their needs.
It is very easy to see that, unlike manufacturing, marketing has no tangible product as a result. Therefore, agile marketing cannot be defined as the speed at which you are executing the marketing solutions, but instead, a speed at which you can adjust the marketing mix in order to deliver greater customer value. That can make marketing agility a very relevant, and indeed, tangible quality, and not only the buzzword stick CEOs use to beat their marketing teams.
As mentioned, marketing agility represents a concept, while agile marketing is the manifestation of that concept. Marketing agility is the ability to quickly assess market trends, make rapid business decisions, and reduce the waste by removing uncertainty. Agile marketing is the formal approach through which these ideas are brought into existence. It should be clear then that marketing agility deals with structural changes, and one business’ core operations, which makes it interested not only in quick decisions but also in some long-term developments.
Now, we should look at some of the examples of how marketing agility can be encouraged within some companies.
The only way your business will be able to provide an answer to the marketing agility challenges, is if itself becomes equally as agile, and one of the most important things that need to be set in motion is the expertise of your employees and organization in general. Promote creative thinking, demonstrate the value of formal training, and be sure to reward the expertise.
Your marketing team will be able to come up with viable marketing solutions only if it has access to some of the flexible marketing assets such as a visa gift card, or a voucher, instead of using the alternatives which are related only to some specific scenarios.
Big data makes the necessary prerequisite for making any kind of meaningful marketing decision. Agile marketing requires that you harness as much of that data as possible, and put your focus not only on your potential customers, but also on the competition, industry trends, and even in-house developments.
As we can see, investing your time and money in encouraging this concept throughout your business can make it able to provide very quick, efficient, and precise marketing solutions. In this day and age, when entire industries rise and fall over the course of the night, the ability to make the right decisions and swift moves might just save your business.
