I attended a roundtable event this morning put on by the Canadian Marketing Association. The panelists represented a great cross section of Marketing Executives from Harlequin, Canada Post, Chapters-Indigo and Dell Canada. Two common themes of the greatest needs for 2009 were the need to measure results of marketing efforts and focus on the relevancy of the message to customers. All this requires data - and not just sales data. Traditional sales data is not necessarily good predictors of things like online community participation. Many of the panelist expressed the challenge, and importance, of integrating data from many systems in order to really understand their customers.
Data integration has become easier then ever before with cheaper tools and improved best practices. Hopefully the adoptions of tools and best practices with catch up to the immediate needs of Marketers (and Consumers).
The event also reminded me the the subtlies of marketing. One example provided was changing the background colour of a marketing piece doubled the click-through rate. It underscored the importance of testing and measurement within marketing.