achieving digital excellence: why smart strategy matters even more in the digital age

8/11/2019 Achieving Digital Excellence: Why Smart Strategy Matters Even More in the Digital Age

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ACHIEVING

DIGITAL EXCELLENCEWhy Smart Strategy Matters Even More in the Digital Age

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DIGITAL

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INTRODUCTIONOver the course of more than two decades, digital has

become central to our lives. Yet many companies still

struggle to make digital central to their business.

Achieving Digital Excellence

This begs the question: Why?

In our work with top executives

at some of the worlds largest

enterprises, we have found thatthe struggle to achieve digital

transformation stems not from an

inability to see the change as it

happens outside the business.

Instead, the struggle stems from

an insufficient focus on formulating

the right strategy to drive digital

forward inside the business.

In fact, according to research we

conducted this year, 78% of Chief

Marketing Officers report that they

do not have a company-wide digital

strategy1

. This is a sobering statisticthat we see echoed in a recent

Forrester study, in which 79% of

respondents reported that their

CEOs have failed to set a clear vision

for digital2. As a result of patterns

like these, far too many corporations

find themselves trapped in tactics,

conducting a disjointed array of

digital experiments that arent always

aligned to key growth drivers and

often dont achieve key business

objectives in a meaningful way.

In an age when 87% of CMOs are

under increasing pressure to deliver

a positive return on every

investment3, this isnt good enough.

However, our aim here is not to point

out shortcomings but to lead the

way toward success. A clear digital

strategy empowers marketers to

Know their customers.When 93%4of organisations dont know their

customers digital habits, an evidence-based digital

strategy provides a clear understanding of how your

customers use digital today.

Make smarter choices.At a time when 73%5of marketers believe they have

too many digital assets, and a majority struggle to

manage them and fail to recognise their current value.

The right digital strategy allows you to focus your efforts

on the assets that create the most value for your

customers and capture the most value for your company.

Do what works.In a market where only 40%6of brand leaders

believe their marketing is effective, an effective

digital strategy creates marketing confidence through

accountability and measurable results.

Achieve more for less.A global digital strategy helps organisations eliminate

the duplication of effort and expenditure that comes

from scattershot tactical execution, delivering

upwards of 38%7in global savings.

With this report, we will arm you with a clear and compelling case for strategy in the digital age. Then, we will

help you take your first, confident steps toward digital excellence by bringing focus to four strategic imperatives

that are practical, actionable and most importantly achievable for businesses of just about any type.

78%of Chief Marketing Officers

report that they do not have

a company-widedigital strategy1

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3/13Achieving Digital Excellence

A CASE FOR STRATEGY IN THE DIGITAL AGEA look at even a small handful of the many ways in which digital is shifting the

balance paints a vivid picture of an utterly transformed business environment.

Billions are hyper-connected throughtechnology.

As the result of a digital revolution,

already more than 20 years in the

making, the web, social media,

mobile, cloud computing and big

data analytics (not to mention the

new and next waves of wearables

and the Internet of Things), billions

of people are more connected to

each other, to content and

information, and to the companies

they keep wherever, whenever and

however they wish.

Empowered buyersdemand more.

Always-on access to information,

experts and each other has shifted

control to consumers and

customers, allowing them to

consider more options and make

smarter choices. And consumers

expect the companies they choose

to give their business to be

hyper-connected too. Rewarding

(with their hard earned money) those

who match marketing promise with

real world proof, those who meet

needs efficiently and right wrongs

swiftly and completely, and those

who deliver the best and most

seamless total customer experience

both online and off.

Traditional competitiveadvantages have beenrendered obsolete.

Industrial advantages derived from

scale are giving way to digital era

advantages like agility, innovation,

collaboration and true customer-

centricity. Where once the big ate

the small, in the digital age it is the

fast that eat the slow.

Kodakonce led their sector but were driven into bankruptcy by their inability to respond to not just one, butthree successive changes in their industry: digital cameras supplanting traditional film cameras (this, despite

having registered one of the first patents for digital camera technology decades before the first digital camera

was introduced by a competitor), the growing prevalence of digital photo storage over photo printing, and thepopularity of online photo sharing.

Blockbusterpassed on several early opportunities to acquire Netflix, viewing the company as a decidedlyniche play. Today, Blockbuster is out of business, while Netflix continues to reinvent its business to keep pace

with changing media consumption habits and boasts a multi-billion dollar valuation.

The New York Times, who have struggled to replace traditional dollars with digital dimes, continuesto lean too heavily on a 100-year heritage that has grown less and less relevant to the next generation of

media consumers. In a dense 90+ page report leaked to the media in April 2014, the Times team provides

ample evidence of its digital problems but recommends little more than the formation of a task force to explore

solutions their transformation is just getting started. Meanwhile, the new generation ofinfojunkies have

already abandoned newspapers in favor of quick hit digital media powerhouses like Huffington Post and

Buzzfeed and instant peer-to-peer knowledge networks like Twitter.

For companies slow to adapt to this

new normal, the penalties are severe.

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For businesses that embrace digital fully not simply from a technology

standpoint; not merely as a new way to market; but as a new way of doing business acrossevery area of the enterprise the benefits are positive, tangible, and impressive.


This holds true not only for digital native businesses like Amazon, Apple and Google,

but also for traditional enterprises as diverse as Burberry, Ford and Asian Paints

(Indias largest coatings manufacturer).

9%

More Revenue from their

Physical Assets

26%

More Profitablility

12.8%

Higher Market Valuations

The signals are clear.

In order to thrive in the digital age, you must formulate

and execute a sound digital strategy one that spans all

areas of your business, one that is embraced at the topof the organisation, one that aligns the entire organisation

around efficient execution, and one that recognises that

digital strategy is not simply a matter of technology, nor

merely a mode of marketing, but an entirely new way of

being in business.

Your company wins when you have the right business

answers to the most fundamental digital questions: How

must our business evolve to thrive in an environment that

is increasingly digital, social and mobile?

How must it evolve to meet the needs of digital consumers

and customers who are hyper-connected, always on, and

more demanding than ever before?

These are big questions, for sure and their implications on

your business can be massive. Its not surprising that digital

transformation has made its way onto the boardroom

agenda, even as CEOs struggle to set the vision and CMOs

worry that their strategy isnt solid. But even in a game with

such high stakes, we believe that action comes from distilling

strategy down to its most fundamental components.

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THE FOUR IMPERATIVES OFGOOD DIGITAL STRATEGY

Strategy whether business or marketing, digital orotherwise is all about making informed choices among

the many options available to you. You dont need to do

everything (even if your competition does). Remember,

73% of marketers believe theyre doing too much and

achieving too little. Their agency partners and mediavendors arent making matters any better, as they bring

forward a dizzying array of tactical ideas without the

backing of proper diligence. Thats hardly strategic.

Instead, you need to do the right things for your

business, and for your customers and you need to do

them consistently, efficiently and effectively across your

entire organisation, in order to get the best possible

results. This is the essence of good strategy.

Done correctly, a digital strategy provides you with a clear,

high-level plan for achieving your most important goals,

even under constantly changing market conditions. By

defining a clear strategy for doing business and engaging

customers in the digital age, you establish a set of rules

that focus everyone in your organisation on the right digital

activities to achieve a single, powerful set of overarching

business outcomes.

While no two strategies are the same and in a constantly

shifting business environment, no single strategy is

set-and-forget our work with clients has shown that all

good digital strategies share the following four

imperatives:

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1Data-driven

decision-making

2A clear roadmap of

activities, deliverables

and goals

3The right metrics

for success

4A consistent

focus for all internal

and external

stakeholders


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A CLEAR ROADMAP OF ACTIVITIES,DELIVERABLES & GOALS2.

Make smarter choices.

At a time when 73%10of marketers believe they

have too many digital assets,and a majority struggle

to manage them and fail to recognise their current

value, the right digital strategy allows you to focus

your efforts on the assets that create the most valuefor your customers and capture the most value for

your company.

In a recent TDC review of the top 100 global brands, we

found that the average company maintains 14 different

digital platforms from their website and mobile

applications, to social networks like Facebook, Twitter

and Instagram. And thats even before breaking it down

further to account for product and campaign microsites

or multiple profiles on any single network. Weve worked

with some brands that have 18 Facebook pages alone often where one would do the job just fine.

Whats worse, these digital assets are often not managed as a

single, integrated ecosystem of presences but instead suffer

from a notable lack of coordination, significant inconsistencies

in level of activity or engagement, and even substantial

duplication at the product or regional levels.

Yet, for every instance of a brand doing too much, we can find

instances where brands are doing too little. For example,

87% of the marketers we surveyed do not invest in search

marketing to drive audiences to their properties and, when

they do, 63% do nothing more than point traffic to their main

page (even where other, more targeted pages exist online11).

A focused digital strategy should be manageable, integrated

with your core business and marketing strategies, easy

to understand and implement by all stakeholders. Mostimportantly, it should translate data-driven insights into a

clear and justifiable set of recommendations that make sense

for your company and your consumer.

A well-coordinated system of prioritiseddigital channels, each with its own defined

role in conveying your brands value proposition

and delivering benefit to your consumers.

A balance between long-term commitmentsthat result in greater loyalty and advocacy

among your most passionate customers and

quick win campaigns that deliver near-term

results and valuable learning.

Clear criteria for evaluating any newopportunity or idea, allowing for innovation but

protecting against shiny object syndrome.

A basis for establishing and managing the rightresources financial, human and otherwise

to sustain the planned programs and activities.

And finally, the basis for measuring success and optimising for performance.

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THE RIGHT METRICSFOR SUCCESS3.

Do what works.

In a market where only 40%12of brand leaders

believe their marketing is effective, an effective digital

strategy creates marketing confidence through

accountability and measurable results.

There is a popular business adage that goes, Cheap,fast, or good. Pick any two. Although this saying

originated in project management circles, it happens to

highlight some common misconceptions about

what matters most when measuring digital success:

That digital marketing is (and should be) cheap

That the only digital results that matter are the onesyou get fast (even immediate)

Naturally, its good that often gets lost in the shuffle.

After all, what good is a like if it doesnt contribute

to a deeper, more meaningful relationship between a

brand and its customer? What good is a click if your

back-end systems cant track that user through to the

sale?

A robust digital strategy is insight-driven and validated by

data. It allows your business to measure and analyse

every digital action the ones you take and the ones your

audiences make against the right set of measures. But

even where results rule, there is increased evidence to prove

that digital builds brand value over the long term. Its not that

cost efficiencies and short-term gains dont matter anymore;

its that they are merely two viable measures among a range of

metrics that (depending on your business objectives) might

include digitals contribution to:

Overall brand awareness and perception(brand value)

Lead generation (for subsequent conversion)

Attribution and/or lifts to response rates forother marketing channels

Sales and cost-per-sale

Relationship management

Retention

Loyalty

Advocacy (increased positive word-of-mouth)

A proper measurement plan balances cost per impression (or cost per engagement) efficiencies and simple

click data with a richer, more nuanced set of key performance indicators in order to paint a more vivid picture

of how digital contributes to the strength of the business overall.

More importantly, proper measurement gives you the data you need to optimise the performance of your

digital programs, and the proof you can use to demonstrate the value that digital provides to your

organisation as a whole not to mention to each and every stakeholder, both inside and outside your walls.

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Cheap, fast, or good.

Pick any two.

P P



ALIGNMENT OF ALL INTERNAL& EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS4.

Achieve more for less.A global digital strategy helps organisations eliminate

the duplication of effort and expenditure that comes

from scattershot tactical execution, delivering

upwards of 38%13in global savings.

Even the best strategy is worthless if it cant be executedby the organisation. As companies invest more budget

into digital by some estimates, as much as 75% of

marketing money may be allocated to digital within the

next five years it becomes vital that organisations excel

in four key areas of execution:

Clear internal communication of the strategy,

so that there is organisational alignment around

actions and accountabilities.

As digital strategies become more robust and

investments more significant, it is critical that your

strategy can not only be explained but also understood in

every department and at every level of the organisation.

Alignment of external partners such as agencies,

technical vendors and media partners.

Smart strategy results in flawless execution when you

have the tools to brief, challenge and evaluate external

stakeholders and the approaches they take to deliver

upon strategic mandates. Reviewing outside work

against an evidence-based strategy is more objective,

while creating clear guardrails within which creative and

innovation can thrive.

Consistency across all programs and de-duplication

of efforts between teams and regions.

In our work, weve seen instances where online brand

consistency is as low as 13%14when viewed across

campaigns and markets. As various stakeholders inside

and outside the company, and across multiple regions,

execute similar programs in absence of a unified strategy

to steer them or governance to guide them. This not only

results in wasted time, effort and money but also in

confusion among consumers who often cant distinguish

between new messages and old.

Digital competency-building that ensures the

organisation has the right skills to deliver on the

digital strategy.

In our recent Marketing Survey, only 48% of marketers

said they feel highly proficient in digital marketing and

only 56% do not believe they have the skills to implement

agency recommendations15. Rather than putting digital in

the hands of a few carefully recruited experts, wed

suggest that enterprises infuse digital thinking and skill sets

throughout the entire organisation ensuring commitment

at the highest levels of leadership and involvement across

every business function.

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Online Brand consistency is as low as 13%14

when viewed across campaigns and markets


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CHALLENGES OPPORTUNITIES STRATEGIC IMPERATIVES

93% of companies dont

know their customers

digital habits

Know Your Customers Conduct Data-Driven

Decision-Making

73% of marketers believe they

have too many digital assets

Make Smarter ChoicesCreate a Clear Roadmap

of Activities, Deliverables

and Goals

Only 40% of marketing leaders

believe their digital marketing

is effective

Do What WorksEstablish and Measure the

Right Metrics for Success

Duplication and

misalignmentAchieve More for Less

/ 38% in global savings

Align All Internal and External

Stakeholders Around FlawlessExecution


ACHIEVE DIGITAL EXCELLENCE

Business success today requires a customer-focused digital strategy that is focused, actionable, and results-oriented.

An effective strategy is built upon a solid foundation of data-driven decision-making, a clear roadmap, the right metrics,

and stakeholder alignment. In this report, weve shown you why digital strategy matters and weve given you a high level

framework for thinking about digital strategy in your organisation.

In Stepping Up To The Challenge 2014, IBM16reported that 63% of top executives turn to their Chief Marketing Officer

for strategic input on digital strategy. Similarly, according to Altimeter Groups latest report on The State of DigitalTransformation, 54% of the business leaders surveyed expect the CMO to champion their companys digital

transformation initiatives17.

Wed say the next step is yours if digital creates challenges for your enterprise, it also creates opportunities for

marketing leaders who are ready, willing and able to push their companies to the forefront of digital excellence.

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1. Does your organisation have a single, global digital strategy?

2. Is that strategy clear and simple enough to be understood byevery member of your team and all your outside partners (e.g.,

agencies, media partners, technology vendors)?

3. Do you feel that your digital strategy is being executed consistently by all team members and outside partners?

4. Have you researched and documented your customers digital consumer journey as a basis for data-driven decision making?

5. Can you gauge how well your current digital activities meet themost important needs of your customers and prospects?

6. Have you audited your current digital assets to ensure globalconsistency, minimal duplication or efforts, and adherence to

quality standards?

7. Can you articulate the specific role each digital asset plays in youroverall marketing mix, and do you understand how effective that

asset is in achieving its purpose?

8. Are you measuring success consistently with a robustmeasurement framework and routine reporting then optimising

your digital efforts to drive both near- and long term results?

9. Do you feel your organisation, as it stands today, has all necessaryskills to implement your digital strategy?

10.Do you feel your outside partners especially your agencies have the necessary skills to provide you with strategic guidance

and implement your digital strategy efficiently, effectively, and with

minimum duplication of effort?


You may not have all the insight into

how your business operates but you

will certainly have a sense from what

you know and see around you.

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ARE YOU READY

TO BE A DIGITAL

STRATEGY LEADER?

Digital Strategy Self-Assement



Strategy.Our recommendations are always

analytics-driven with clear,

actionable next steps and timings.

We use proven methodologies and

tools that add value to the business,

create true consumer understanding

around audiences and customers

and ensure the right strategic

framework is in place to be able to

gain collective understanding and

adherence to the agreed strategy.

Capabilities.Without the right capabilities in place

across an organisation the strategy

will be difficult to land effectively. Our

capabilities team assesses existing

and future capability needs and

develops the right training tools,

which are tailored to the needs of

global or regional management

boards and local marketing and

sales teams.

Engagement.In order to embed the digital strategy,

we work with our clients to effectively

engage the right stakeholders across

geographies and functions. By

ensuring they buy in to the strategy,

we help create the right environment

to ensure the agreed company

approach is understood, embraced

and exploited.

ABOUT THE DIGITAL CONSULTANCY

The Digital Consultancy enables senior management to understand and exploit digital strategy as a key driver

of brand value and business growth. Objective Strategic Digital Expertise is at the heart of our business; every

engagement is different and as such we tailor every assignment to provide a bespoke approach and

recommendation. Our proven experience and expertise encompasses three main areas:

For additional information please contact:

UK

Andrew Phillips

Tel: +44 (0)20 7902 0664

Mobile: +44 (0)7970 840063

Email: [email protected]

US

Greg Verdino

Tel: +1 631 543 1910

Email: [email protected]

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END NOTES

1. The Strategy Review.The Digital Consultancy, 2014

2. State of Digital Business.Forrester Research, 2014



5. Marketing Survey.The Digital Consultancy, 2014



8. The Digital Advantage: How Digital Leaders Outperform Their Peers in Every Industry.

Capgemini Consulting and MIT Sloan School of Management, 2013


10.Marketing Survey.The Digital Consultancy, 2014





15.Marketing Survey.The Digital Consultancy, 2014

16.Stepping up to the challenge.IBM, 2014

17. The State of Digital Transformation.Altimeter Group, 2014

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achieving digital excellence: why smart strategy matters even more in the digital age

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