Vanson Bourne full market research report on the changes in tech marketing discovered in recent research with IT Vendors in the UK.

1. Directions in
Tech Marketing
Intelligent Market Research

2. Directions in
Tech Marketing
Contents
Executive Summary
Trends in tech marketing management
The changing culture of tech marketing
From "Creatives" to Content Builders - the new tech marketer
Multi-channel communications and the role of social media
Data
Big Trends
Has marketing communications become more or less centralised in recent years?
What is the trend in your company in terms of outsourcing marcomms?
Is your organisation's most senior marcomms professional on the main board?
What are the top trends you see driving B2B technology marketing today?
Brands to Leads
What are the top trends you see driving B2B technology marketing today?
In which of these ways would you say the culture of marketing communications
in your business has principally changed over the past few years?
What departments/teams beyond marketing/PR/communications use your target
market research?
Which of the following are the three most important factors when measuring campaign success?
2-5
2
3
4
5
6-23
6-9
6
7
8
9
10-13
10
11
12
13
Marketer as researcher
How do you track social media use by customers?
In which of these ways would you say the culture of marketing communications
in your business has principally changed over the past few years?
Do you break-out the evaluation of campaign success across the different disciplines?
E.g. social media, print advertising, DM, PR etc.
How do you research your target market?
When do you research your target markets?
14-18
14
Changing skill sets
Which marketing skills do you regard as most valuable in B2B/B2C technology marketing?
Combination grid showing answers ranked first, second and third.
Which marketing skills do you regard as most valuable in B2B/B2C technology marketing?
Grid showing skills ranked as 'most important'.
Do you run integrated campaigns; i.e. ones that use different marcomms platforms/channels
Thinking about technology marcomms, in which of the following areas do you think there
is a lack of skills?
When thinking about your organisation's ability in using tools such as data analytics, social
media/analytics and insight tools, to what extent do you agree with the following statements:
19-23
Demographics
About Vanson Bourne
01 | Vanson Bourne - Contents
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24-25
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3. Directions in
Tech Marketing
Trends in tech marketing management
The first key trend is towards the centralisation of marketing. Half of respondents
acknowledge that this is the direction of travel, compared with only 20% who say
the opposite (p6). Perhaps the corollary to this is the slightly weaker, but still
evident, phenomenon of bringing marketing communications in-house (p7).
Somewhat more than one-third (37%) say this is how things are moving in their
marketing department; this compares with only 7% who say the trend is to
outsource more of their marcomms activity.
02 | Vanson Bourne - Trends in Tech Marketing Management
The next characteristics to arise here are, again, possibly related: in only just over a
third of cases (37%) is the company's most senior marketing communications
professional on the main board (p8) AND in 81% of cases, marketing budgets are
being cut (p9). The incidence of budget reduction is the main trend of a number
identified in the survey, and which will be considered later. It is certainly arguable
that the shifts we see in the next section are a consequence of budget reduction (as
are the moves to re-centralisation and in-sourcing mentioned above).

4. Directions in
Tech Marketing
The changing culture of tech marketing
Respondents are virtually unanimous that the culture of marketing has changed in
their business over the past few years (p12). The weakness of the general economy
is the likely cause of budget cutting and general retrenchment, as discussed above.
And symptomatic of difficult market conditions is a greater focus on driving sales 68% of respondents are experiencing this re-definition of marketing's role (p9).
Tech marketers also see the rise of social media as a key trend that is driving change
in B2B marketing. Close behind "budget reduction", identified as a driving trend
by 81% of our survey participants, social media is now a big factor for 75% of
respondents (p9). Whether the growth in use of social media is fuelled by the
"push" requirement to reduce expenditure or the "pull" requirement to respond to
the market's increased use of social media is debatable. It's most likely that both
play a part and, when it comes to the thrust of marketing within a respondent's
own company, 81% say that a greater emphasis has been placed on social media
(p12) - making it the top way the culture of marketing communications has
changed over recent years.
03 | Vanson Bourne - The changing culture of tech marketing
Reflecting the macro trend toward demand generation, 54% now say that
marketing communications in their business are less about brand development and
more about demand generation (p12). A hint at how far in this direction the role of
marketing has moved, when asked which departments or teams beyond marketing
use market research commissioned by marketing, 89% select "Sales" compared with
only 60% saying "Strategy/planning" (p13). By the same token, 93% say "sales leads"
are an important factor in assessing a campaign's success, versus only 25% who rate
"brand perception" as important (p14).
Other key cultural changes are in the areas of focused targeting and tracking/
evaluation (p12). This development will be considered again later.

5. Directions in
Tech Marketing
From "Creatives" to Content Builders - the new tech marketer
"Generating relevant audience insight" and "content creation" are now the mostly
widely valued skills in technology marketing - over two-thirds of respondents
selected these attributes in their top three. This contrasts with the 39% who
selected "creativity" in their top three skills (p19). This might raise some eyebrows,
but, looking at the outcomes discussed above - lower budgets, tighter focus, the
absolute need to feed sales at the expense of brand development, it's clear that the
possibly stereotypical view of a marketer as essentially a "creative type" is
outmoded. Science has replaced art.
Continuing the "marketing sciences" theme, the third most highly-regarded
marketing skill in B2B is now the "ability to evaluate and prove ROI/value of
marcomms" (p19). This reinforces the view, discussed earlier, that tracking and
evaluation have become major trends in a tech marketing environment haunted
by tight budgets and the need to deliver enough quality leads to tick at least one
ROI box.
04 | Vanson Bourne - From "Creatives" to Content Builders - the new tech marketer
93% of respondents research their target market and a wide array of data sources
are used to support the focused targeting, to develop meaningful content and to
measure impact (p17). And 69% are doing this continuously (p18), doubtless
producing reams of data that requires analysis and interpretation. This element of
the process seems likely to be causing tech marketers their biggest headache. How
so? We asked in what areas of tech marcomms is there a lack of skills; the top
responses are "data analysis" and "making sense of different data sources", both
selected by 42% of respondents, with "trends analysis" close behind on 36% (p22).
These figures suggest that the speedy changes in marketing culture have
outstripped the typical tech marketer's skill set. Reflecting back on the trends
toward centralisation (which usually means headcount reduction) and in-sourcing,
is this skill deficit likely to be resolved except through the use of skilled third-parties?

6. Directions in
Tech Marketing
Multi-channel communications and the role of social media
Social media has permeated all aspects of the tech marketer's role. 61% now say a
"working knowledge of the burgeoning array of marcomms channels, including
social media" is one of the key marketing skills (p19). 90% of respondents run
integrated campaigns across multiple platforms and channels (p21), whilst 73% are
required to evaluate campaign performance across the platforms separately (p10).
When judging campaign performance, only 10% measure "social media chatter and
mentions" in and of themselves, but "audience engagement" (71%) and "web
traffic" (42%), which are arguably outcomes of good social media campaign
practice, are seen as important campaign KPIs (p14).
05 | Vanson Bourne - Multi-channel communications and the role of social media
In the context of researching the market, particularly keeping track of customers,
44% are now using "social media/analytics" and 31% "social media customer insight
tools" (p17). In the context of the in-house versus outsource picture, 58% of
respondents that are using social media use in-house tracking tools, compared with
only 16% that use an external specialist of some kind. Nearly all the others are not
tracking social media at all (p15).

7. Big Trends
Has marketing communications become more or less centralised in recent years?
Base: all respondents
It's more centralised
51%
It's more decentralised/localised
19%
It's stayed the same
51%
Total
30%
Base
51% say marketing communications
has become more centralised
06 | Vanson Bourne - Big Trends
59

8. Big Trends
What is the trend in your company in terms of outsourcing marcomms?
Base: all respondents
We are moving in neither direction
37%
The trend is towards outsourcing more of our marketing
communications function
7%
Base
07 | Vanson Bourne - Big Trends
56%
The trend is towards doing more in-house
37% say the trend is towards doing
more in-house
Total
59

9. Big Trends
Is your organisation's most senior marcomms professional on the main board?
Base: all respondents
Total
Yes
37%
No
63%
Base
In only 37% of surveyed organisations
is the most senior marcomms
professional on the board
08 | Vanson Bourne - Big Trends
59

10. Big Trends
What are the top trends you see driving B2B technology marketing today?
81% say budget
reduction
81%
Rise of social media
75%
68%
53%
Consumerisation of IT
49%
Rise of mobile data/the "mobile apps" economy
40%
Increased competition in our primary market
32%
Drive to maximise average revenue from each customer
21%
Rise of cloud computing
19%
Market convergence
16%
Industry consolidation
09 | Vanson Bourne - Big Trends
Budget reduction
Multi-platform access of our website/business systems
11%
Outsourcing customer insight/analytics
9%
Increasing competition from traditionally B2C companies
4%
*Other (please specify)
75% say rise in
social media
Total
Greater focus on driving sales
75 %
Base: only asked of respondents from organisations with a B2B focus
7%
Base
57
* Other (please specify): With email marketing and social media there is a perception that marketing can be done
quickly and easily from sales; 50% of the decision is made before contacting a company via online research, content
based marketing, digital marketing

11. Brands to Leads
What are the top trends you see driving B2B technology marketing today?
68% say
greater focus
on driving
sales
Base: only asked of respondents from organisations with a B2B focus
Total
Budget reduction
81%
Rise of social media
75%
Greater focus on driving sales
68%
Multi-platform access of our website/business systems
53%
Consumerisation of IT
49%
Rise of mobile data/the "mobile apps" economy
40%
Increased competition in our primary market
32%
Drive to maximise average revenue from each customer
21%
Rise of cloud computing
19%
Market convergence
16%
Industry consolidation
11%
Outsourcing customer insight/analytics
9%
Increasing competition from traditionally B2C companies
4%
*Other (please specify)
7%
Base
57
* Other (please specify): With email marketing and social media there is a perception that marketing can be done
quickly and easily from sales; 50% of the decision is made before contacting a company via online research, content
based marketing, digital marketing
10 | Vanson Bourne - Brands to Leads

12. Brands to Leads
In which of these ways would you say the culture of marketing communications in
your business has principally changed over the past few years?
54% say it's less
about brand
development
and more about
demand
generation
Base: all respondents
Total
A greater emphasis has been placed on social media
81%
A greater emphasis has been placed on targeting specific audiences
69%
Keeping track of customers has increased in importance
54%
It's less about brand development and more about demand generation
54%
A greater emphasis has been placed on evaluation, especially calculating
ROI in communications
47%
Traditional marcomms now not perceived as delivering ROI
19%
We've adopted B2C communications principles/We've adopted
B2B/corporate communications principles
14%
It hasn't changed
Base
11 | Vanson Bourne - Brands to Leads
2%
59

13. Brands to Leads
What departments/teams beyond marketing/PR/communications use your
target market research?
Base: only asked of respondents who do research their target market
Sales
89%
Strategy/planning
60%
R&D/Product development
89% indicated that other than
marketing/PR/communications
teams it is the Sales department
who use target market research
Total
38%
Customer service/customer insight
33%
Board
27%
Finance
4%
HR
4%
No other departments and teams use our audience insight
4%
*Other (please specify)
2%
Base
* Other (please specify): Product Line Management
12 | Vanson Bourne - Brands to Leads
55

14. Brands to Leads
Which of the following are the three most important factors when measuring
campaign success?
Base: only asked of respondents who do research their target market
Audience engagement
71%
42%
Editorial coverage
37%
Brand perception
25%
Audience reach
19%
10%
Awards
Brand
Perception
93%
Social media chatter and mentions
Sales
Leads
25%
Sales leads
Web traffic
93%
Total
2%
Base
13 | Vanson Bourne - Brands to Leads
59

15. Marketer as researcher
How do you track social media use by customers?
Nearly a1/4 say we don't track social
media use by customers
Base: only asked of respondents whose organisation uses social media
methods to research target markets
Total
We use social media tracking tools in-house
58%
Our social media agency does it
13%
We have hired a specialist agency for this purpose
3%
We don't track social media use by customers
23%
* Other (please specify)
3%
Base
* Other (please specify): Apollo report
14 | Vanson Bourne - Marketer as researcher
31

16. Marketer as researcher
In which of these ways would you say the culture of marketing communications in
your business has principally changed over the past few years?
69% say a greater emphasis has
been placed on targeting specific
audiences
Total
A greater emphasis has been placed on social media
81%
A greater emphasis has been placed on targeting specific audiences
69%
Keeping track of customers has increased in importance
54%
It's less about brand development and more about demand generation
54%
A greater emphasis has been placed on evaluation, especially calculating
ROI in communications
54% say that keeping
track of customers has
increased in importance
Base: all respondents
47%
Traditional marcomms now not perceived as delivering ROI
19%
We've adopted B2C communications principles/We've adopted
B2B/corporate communications principles
14%
It hasn't changed
Base
47% say a greater emphasis has
been placed on evaluation
especially calculating ROI in
communcations
15 | Vanson Bourne - Marketer as researcher
2%
59

17. Marketer as researcher
Do you break-out the evaluation of campaign success across the different disciplines?
E.g. social media, print advertising, DM, PR etc.
Base: all respondents
Total
Yes
73%
No
27%
Base
73%
73% break-out the evaluation of campaign
success across the different disciplines
16 | Vanson Bourne - Marketer as researcher
59

18. Marketer as researcher
How do you research your target market?
7% indicated that
they don’t research
their target market
Base: all respondents
Total
Market data reports
69%
Formal customer feedback (survey)
68%
We commission market research
64%
Informal customer feedback (anecdotal)
61%
Social media/analytics
44%
Social media customer insight tools
31%
We run surveys in-house surveys
31%
Big data/customer analytics
22%
We don't research our target market
7%
* Other (please specify)
2%
Base
59
* Other (please specify): Usage in the cloud
17 | Vanson Bourne - Marketer as researcher

19. Marketer as researcher
When do you research your target markets?
69
Base: only asked of those respondents who do research their target markets
%
Total
We are constantly gathering insight from our target market
69%
We only gather audience insight for planning campaigns
20%
Don't know
11%
Base
69% say they are constantly gathering insight from
their target market
18 | Vanson Bourne - Marketer as researcher
55

20. Changing skill sets
Which of the following marketing skills do you regard as the most valuable in
B2B/B2C technology marketing?
61% say a
working
knowledge of
the burgeoning
array of
marcomms
channels,
including
social media
19 | Vanson Bourne - Changing skill sets
Combination grid showing answers ranked first, second,
and third
Base: all respondents
Total
Ability to generate relevant audience insight
69%
Content creation
66%
Ability to evaluate and prove ROI/value of marcomms
63%
Working knowledge of the burgeoning array of marcomms channels,
including social media
61%
Creativity
39%
*Other (please specify)
2%
Base
59
* Other (please specify): Ability to do many and varied things at the same time

21. Changing skill sets
Which of the following marketing skills do you regard as the most valuable in
B2B/B2C technology marketing?
27%
24%
10%
Grid showing which skills ranked as “most important”.
Base: all respondents
Ability to evaluate and prove ROI/value of marcomms
24%
Content creation
22%
17%
10%
Other (please specify)
creativity
27%
Creativity
evaluate and
prove ROI/value
of marcoms
Ability to generate relevant audience insight
Working knowledge of the burgeoning array of marcomms channels,
including social media
generate relevant
audience insight
Total
0%
Base
20 | Vanson Bourne - Changing skill sets
59

22. Changing skill sets
Do you run integrated campaigns;
i.e. ones that use different marcomms platforms/channels?
Base: all respondents
Total
Yes
90%
No
10%
Base
90% say they do run integrated
campaigns
21 | Vanson Bourne - Changing skill sets
59

23. Changing skill sets
Thinking about technology marcomms, in which of the following areas
do you think there is a lack of skills?
Base: all respondents
Data analysis
data
analysis
making sense
of different
data sources
22 | Vanson Bourne - Changing skill sets
trends
analysis
42%
Trends analysis
36%
32%
32%
Social media
36%
Making sense of different data sources
Creativity
42%
42%
Evaluation
42%
Total
29%
None of the above
12%
Base
59

24. Changing skill sets
When thinking about your organisation's ability in using tools such as data analytics, social
media/analytics and insight tools, to what extent do you agree with the following statements:
We are having to outsource increasing research aspects of our
job to suppliers/agencies
Base: only asked of respondents whose organisations use social media/
analytics, social media customer insight tools or data analytics to research
target markets
Total
1 - strongly disagree
9%
2 - disagree
29%
3 - neither agree nor disagree
31%
4 - agree
26%
5 - strongly agree
32%
6%
Average
Base
23 | Vanson Bourne - Changing skill sets
2.91%
35

25. Demographics
How old is your organisation?
How many employees work in your organisation?
Base: all respondents
Total
Less than 1 year old
0%
Fewer than 50 employees
7%
1-3 years
3%
51 - 250 employees
10%
3-6 years
0%
250 - 1,000 employees
12%
6-12 years
14%
More than 1,000 employees
71%
Older than 12 years
83%
Base
Average age of organisation (years)
14
Base
59
24 | Vanson Bourne - Demographics
Base: all respondents
Total
59

26. Demographics
Does your business mainly sell to businesses
or consumers?
Which of the following is your organisation's
main focus?
Base: all respondents
Total
Base: all respondents
Total
B2B
97%
Software
36%
B2C
3%
Services
24%
Base
59
Cloud computing
12%
Networking
8%
Security
7%
Storage
5%
Telecoms and related
2%
*Other (please specify)
6%
Base
59
* Other (please specify): Hosting x2; Payment Gateway; Security; Software, services, cloud and hardware
25 | Vanson Bourne - Demographics

27. About Vanson Bourne
About Vanson Bourne
Vanson Bourne is an independent and specialist market research provider for the
global technology sector. We have a demonstrable track record of helping our
clients better understand and communicate more effectively in their target
markets, providing market research with real statistical rigour. Our expertise in
sampling, design and assured project management combine with informed
data insights and market context to deliver highly effective technology marketing.
26 | Vanson Bourne - About Vanson Bourne

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Burghclere
Newbury
RG20 9EQ
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 550 449
Email: enquiries@vansonbourne.com
Web: www.vansonbourne.com
Intelligent Market Research