I recently had the privilege of attending two very informative conference – Forrester Marketing 2016 and Mcommerce Summit - both with an impressive, knowledgeable roster of presenters. While it’s easy to sink into information overload mode after hearing so many ideas from so many different speakers, I found that a few key topics and themes consistently came up and made an impact.

Below is an assortment of thoughts that stuck out. Some are direct quotes, while others may be paraphrased, but all are worth noting:‍

DIGITAL/POST DIGITAL MARKETING‍

There have been three stages of marketing history: pre-digital, which was one-to-many; digital, which was one-to-one; and now post digital, which is one-to-moment.‍

Carlton Doty, Forrester VP, group director   ‍

Post digital marketing must be frictionless, anticipatory and immersive. Retailers must be human, helpful and handy and must flex to meet the context of the situation.‍

Shar VanBoskirk, Forrester VP, analyst‍

Retail marketers must start with a need and then find technology to fill it.
Justin Toupin, Walmart director of mobile products and strategies‍

Every retailer is competing with the retailer offering the best mobile experience. Those retailers (like Sephora) set the expectation.‍

Perry Kramer, Boston Retail Partners VP and practice lead‍

Technology must address customers’ emotions. It’s all about unique, relevant and integrated customer experiences.
Victor Bataya, IKEA global head of mobile solutions‍

DATA + HUMANITY‍

Metrics and KPIs tell you how you’re doing, but not what’s coming…Organizations need to understand why, and data alone cannot tell why - or why not.

People are more than clicks and impressions.‍

Mickey Mericle, Adobe VP of marketing insights, analytics and operations‍

Human curiosity and intuition are the most important algorithms in marketing today.

Buzz and sentiment don’t always translate to revenue.

Coincidence and correlation are not the same thing. Data can provide correlations, but not causation. Marketers must learn to recognize the difference.

Curiosity is an algorithm that says “explore this”. Intuition is an algorithm that says “decide this”.‍

Joshua Reynolds, Qunatafind dead of marketing and client consulting‍

Never forget that at the other end of the pixel is a real human being.
Phil Bienert, GoDaddy CMO and EVP of digital commerce‍

Marketers have chosen patterns over people -pattern understanding over people understanding.

Marketers must use both big data and small data – quantitative and qualitative – and both find insight and spark insight. ‍

Srividya Sridharan, Forrester VP, research director‍

MOBILE APPS‍

Mobile myths from a millennial’s perspective:

- Your customers will download your app

- Customers prefer apps to websites for everything they do

- Tablets are dying

- Apps are the most important part of a company’s mobile portfolio
Nicole Dvorak, Forrester data analyst‍

An in-store app can be a pain killer, helping customers get around the store and find things, or a vitamin, providing more information about products.‍

Justin Toupin, Walmart director of mobile products and strategies‍

Are you using your own app on a regular basis? If not, rethink it. Check reviews. Read them all and feed them back to your development team.‍

Jonathan Pelosi, Google head of industry and mobile apps‍

Consumers on mobile phones want things immediately and in context - to get in, get something done and get out.

Mobile users want to be able to complete a task (like booking a flight) while stopped at a red light.

Apps must perform technically, be a destination (the only place to go for something) and have mechanics for repeat, continuous engagement.

Marketers have to think how to engage with customers where they are and not make customers do work.

An app is not a strategy.‍

Julie Ask, Forrester VP, principal analyst

Do you have thoughts around these topics you’d like to share?