After 28 years leading a B2B agency through change, I can honestly say that the trends I see developing this year offer unprecedented opportunity for marketers and agencies alike. 2014 is a different animal, and it’s one that offers you new power.
To gain that power you need to have those trends and a clear action path on your radar. Our new publication, 2014 Trends in Marketing, offers actionable insights from DardenLentz and:
- Google,
- Harvard Business Review,
- Content Marketing Institute,
- Gartner, and more.
The insights provided will help you position to take advantage of today's most powerful opportunities in marketing and branding.
New Tools Offer Strategic Power
| Marketing must measure performance to improve its value–not just prove it. |
New technologies enable marketing to take on greater responsibility for sales, to demonstrate our impact on revenue, and to provide data that your CEO will find critical to strategic decisions. It’s your chance to assume a more strategic seat at the leadership table.
Brand Equity Will Be Rooted in Engagement
A variety of strategies—some new, some maturing, and some rediscovered—will improve your ability to engage with your customer and build a lasting relationship with your brand. Increased interaction with your brand will shorten the time it takes to build that relationship, and new channels will give emerging brands the ability to develop significant brand equity—seemingly overnight.
B2B Buyers Will Demand Emotional Connection With Your Brand
| Persona profiles will emerge as a basic element of a launch plan, improving your ability to create an emotional connection. |
Identifying emotional drivers and integrating them into your brand promise will be key to creating customer interactions that go beyond the transaction and build brand. Emotional connection will no longer set B2B brands apart–it will be the cost of entry.
You Will Rule the Jungle
The marketer who embraces these trends in 2014—either alone or with the help of a trusted agency partner—will tame this wild animal and emerge at yearend as the king or queen of his or her marketing jungle.
Julia Darden is the Branding Strategist for DardenLentz, a B2B Marketing and Branding Agency focused on healthcare and technology, and she is the firm's managing partner. Julia is passionate about building memorable brands that connect emotionally with customers. She has successfully managed major creative and branding projects for leaders in the technology, diagnostics, medical device and medical informatics industries.
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