*** To download the full white paper, go to http://bit.ly/12bCxeQ *** This is part two of Incite's new briefing on the core issues for marketers and communicators in 2013, written by @gnjohnson. In this section of the briefing, 300 corporate executives lend insight on the impact customer-centricity is having on internal workflows and organisational models. With 8 pages, and lots of charts and graphs, we look at how 1) Marketing and Communications functions are merging 2) What is explaining this push to convergence 3) Why Communications needs marketing more than marketing needs them 4) Why B2B companies want convergence more than B2Cs To download the entire briefing, go to http://bit.ly/12bCxeQ

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facebook.com/InciteMC@InciteMCwww.inciteMC.com
IncIte
Customer-Centricity:
Does it mean
distinct
marketing and
communications
departments
are a thing
of the past?
The Marketing AND
Communications Community
Tough questions, insightful answers

2. Convergence between Marketing and Communications Functions
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Big data, social media and customer-centricity
will drive a merging of the marketing and
communications departments
Over the last few months, we at Incite have been conducting in-depth research with over 80 senior marketing and
communications executives.
Since then, we’ve run several surveys and questionnaires to attach some solid statistics to our more qualitative
findings from our conversations with practitioners.
In this piece, I’ll investigate the first major finding from our work.
Marketing and Communications Functions are Merging
Perhaps the most obvious, and pressing, development for senior marketing and communications executives in
2013 is the continued blurring of the lines between the two functions.
It was a common refrain throughout our research -
“The challenge is how both functions work more closely in alignment, and leverage each others’ resources”
“What we’re saying internally is that with the advent of social, with multiple media channels, that lines blur
between traditional marketing, PR and Communications”
“The customer doesn’t care where the info is from, just that they can get that info easily”
“One of our key challenges this year is integration - between brand, PR, communications, and marketing, to
ensure a better joined up response and message to a more demanding set of customers”
As we can see from the chart below, the surveys we’ve run back up the findings. A huge 92% of respondents said
that multiple departments “must work better together for an enhanced, unified customer experience”.
Must multiple-
departments work
better together for an
enhanced customer
experience?
92% YES
8% NO

3. Convergence between Marketing and Communications Functions
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Another significant proportion - 56% - are more specific, declaring that it is ‘very important’ for marketing and
communications departments to collaborate and integrate better over 2013.
How important is it
for Marketing and
Communications
Departments to
work more closely?
14% QUITE IMPORTANT
56% VERY IMPORTANT
5% NOT IMPORTANT
25% IMPORTANT
What explains this push to convergence?
So why has internal departmental convergence, collaboration and integration become such a pressing concern for
senior marketers and communicators?
There are two relatively new pressures on both groups, and they’re blurring the lines between two previously
distinct departments
The external pressure
In large part because of the rise of social media, consumers increasingly expect to be able to speak to a brand as
easily as they speak to a friend - and more importantly, to get a response and build a relationship.
Your consumers expect that when they mention your brand on Twitter, then call you, and then send you a follow
up message over Facebook, that you’ll join the dots. And that’s a real challenge when social adoption is so
fragmented, particularly in larger businesses who usually have tens of social accounts, run by different individuals
in different teams.
One obvious answer is to unify that approach. Considering the marketing and communications teams are those
predominantly responsible for outreach on behalf of a brand, it follows that they should work together to manage
these communication channels (with the possible addition of customer service - and even IT - departments).
The internal pressure
Again, social plays a role here - though big data is becoming increasingly important. Companies now have an
unrivalled ability to track, monitor - and understand - their customer in far greater depth than ever before. To take
the example above, once your business can track customer interactions over multiple channels, one is able to spot
trends, brewing crises, and new business opportunities.
But for this to work, those many departments who monitor different big data sets - IT, customer service, product
development, customer insight, marketing, customer service - must ensure that data flows uninterrupted between
each other. More importantly, that learning is shared between these departments.
Marketing and communications, as the two functions with arguably the most to gain from a more in-depth and
nuanced understanding of the consumer, should be spearheading this unification.

4. Convergence between Marketing and Communications Functions
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Communications Needs Marketing More Than Marketing Needs Them
When we begin to look a little deeper, some interesting further trends emerge:
‘Very Important’
for Marketing and
Communications to
work more closely
42% MARKETING
58% COMMUNICATIONS
When one breaks out the respondents from Communications and Marketing functions, there is a striking difference
of opinion. 65% of communications execs say that it is ‘very important’ to work better with marketing in 2013, and
yet only 48% of their peers in marketing believe the same.
Why? Is Marketing the function with more power within business? It’s certainly true that CMOs are more often
responsible for Communications departments than CCOs responsible for marketers.
B2B companies want convergence more than B2Cs
It’s critical to do better
internal collaboration
93% B2B 86% B2C
Surprisingly, 93% of B2B companies say they need to do better internal collaboration, compared to 86% of B2Cs.
Admittedly, the difference is slight and the result over both business types is emphatic, but B2B respondents with
a similar level of desire for convergence is surprising, let alone more desire.
Why surprising? A core pillar of the argument for more convergence is to deliver a more unified voice to the
consumer. B2C companies, with more individual consumers, with what tends to be a broader and ‘higher volume’
external communications approach, would seem more naturally pressured by a need for this convergence.

5. Convergence between Marketing and Communications Functions
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Internal convergence is more important than external convergence
When one talks of ‘convergence’, it is tempting to play with semantics and broaden the term to incorporate
‘customer-centric’ characteristics - and start to look at convergence between the corporate and the consumer - in
terms of closer alignment, understanding, product delivery etc.
Considering the rampant popularity of the buzzword ‘customer-centric’, one would assume the passion for this
‘external convergence’ would be significantly higher than the more boring ‘desiloisation’ needed for internal
collaboration.
It is important
to do better...
EXTERNAL
COLLABORATION
INTERNAL
COLLABORATION
92%
92%
It’s not. Companies view both internal and external collaboration as just as important as each other.
A note on definitions of ‘customer-centricity’ and ‘external collaboration’
One could read these results as a more cautious reading of what ‘customer-centricity’ means for a corporate
audience. The ideal espoused by Bob Thompson of Customer Think is of a ‘customer-inspired’ business, which
“Thinks deeply about what customers are trying to accomplish in their business and personal lives, and create new
ways to add value before they ask”
But perhaps corporate practitioners’ understanding of ‘customer-centricity’ is lower down Thompson’s “Customer-
Centric Pyramid” - at the ‘Customer-Driven’ phase:
customer
INSPIRED
customer
ENGAGED
customer
DRIVEN
customer
FOCUSED
How customer-
centric is your
business?
Copyright
CustomerThinkCorp

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“We regularly get customer feedback, prioritize key issues and work to improve customer satisfaction with the
products and services we sell, to minimise customer attrition”
Thompson feels that the higher up the pyramid, the better for the business. Again, perhaps this is one assumption
too far. What do you think? What is the ideal level of customer-centricity?

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Map the Future of Multi-channel,
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Tough questions, insightful answers