The Role of Marketing in Driving Business Growth in the USA

'Cut through the noise' may be a tired marketing mantra, but it's probably more vital than ever. Few businesses can afford to stay complacent as attention spans shrink, news cycles shorten, and competitors emerge from every angle. To innovate and prosper, businesses must go above and beyond, whether by inventing a unique product, finding an inventive approach to reach their target audience, or addressing an important social issue. Often, the brands that establish a comprehensive strategy to address all of these areas have the greatest impact. Raconteur recently invited three senior marketing executives to talk about how brands can stay on the cutting edge of innovation and why marketing plays such an important part in this. Staying at the forefront of innovation. Ben Carter is the global chief customer and marketing officer for Carwow, an online car trade platform. Carwow, as a scale-up that has pivoted with the industry, is no stranger to innovation, according to him. The company has evolved from a review site to a lead generation site to a business that allows customers to sell a car directly from their own driveway.

"The industry is still far behind, with only 2% of car sales done online at the moment in the UK," says the analyst.

"So, there are certain industries that are primed for disruption and transformation. And that's what's so exciting about being a marketer in industries where you can truly drive consumer change." So, how can brands foster a culture of innovation? According to Kristen Cavallo, CEO of creative advertising agency MullenLowe Global, organisations are defined by what they celebrate. "At MullenLowe, we talk about having a spirit of positive dissatisfaction and those terms are put together on purpose because the dissatisfaction is what motivates you to ask 'why?' or 'what's next?'" She emphasizes that large disruptions to the status quo do not come from major players who are already winning the game under the rules they established. "You need the revolution to start from the sidelines. Usually, someone asks the inquiry, "Could this be better?" Could it be different? And then those brands propel the entire market ahead, transforming everything." Victoria Gold is the marketing director for Just Eat in the United Kingdom and Ireland, another company that has witnessed firsthand how innovation can disrupt an industry. "We've definitely been on a journey," she explains. "We were the first market disruptors to shift food ordering from offline to online." That market, in particular, has expanded dramatically during the previous six years. It's gotten more competitive, dynamic, and complex, with food delivered on demand becoming the norm." Gold demonstrates Cavallo's point about driving the category forward by explaining how the company has consistently updated its consumer proposition to stay one step ahead. This has also included the introduction of additional grocery categories, as well as broader retail opportunities. "We've really innovated and step-changed our marketing engine according to that," she shares. "So looking at our data, our tech and targeting capabilities, and evolving our marketing and media mix to show up with the right customer proposition on the right channels at the right time."

A new recipe for success.

As an agency leader, Cavallo gains a broader perspective on brand innovation and has experienced firsthand the value of the appropriate advertising approach. "It's funny because I think advertising has been around for so long that people don't always give it credit for innovation," she tells me. "However, the method we reach out to people has changed dramatically. Consumer incentives have also altered. Cavallo notes that awareness was once the most reliable indicator of success. Then it switched to preference. Relevance and conversation value are currently the most accurate predictors of sales success. Naturally, given its unique ability to adapt rapidly and catch the cultural zeitgeist, the marketing function can have a significant impact on a company's prospective success. "You can try something new in the morning and you can return the next day and already see the impact," Carter tells me. I feel that marketing is one of the most powerful tools that a customer has in their arsenal. Cavallo agrees that an imaginative marketing team that isn't afraid to work fast and experiment has a lot of value, and that there's no danger in this approach as long as the brand stays loyal to itself. "I believe that marketing is one of a client's most powerful instruments. And I don't believe most of them are wielding it as the sword it is," she continues. "Our timescales are substantially faster, with little drawbacks. If you try something in a tweet and it fails, it's usually not fatal. " However, Gold emphasizes that businesses must strike a balance between being on top of current events and maintaining a strategic focus. It's about "capitalising on opportunities in the here and now, but also ensuring that we keep building that longer-term brand vision, so that we can evolve constantly and drive the desired behavioural changes among consumers" .

There should be a lot more experimenting because the risks are pretty low.

Carter keeps going: "Marketing's role is to continue to not only innovate and to make sure that we are relevant in all channels but also make sure that we don't leave the customer behind." Shaping the story According to Cavallo, effective advertising can buy time between product advancements by articulating a brand's future direction. "Tech companies are well-known for promoting future developments. This means they frequently get credit, even if they weren't the first to do it," she explains. This can have a big impact on brand recognition, perception, and value. "Every year Fast Company does an issue of the most innovative brands in the world, and this year several of the top ten companies were there because of their marketing, not necessarily because they changed their products," Cavallo shares. She uses the example of Tiffany's, which, although selling a product that is millions of years old, was at the top of the innovation list for celebrity advertising efforts. Gold and Carter both agree that product and marketing teams must work closely together to innovate. Gold believes that the key to today's success is a collaborative strategy in which departments innovate together to address customer problems and create the most seamless end-to-end customer experience. "This is going to be a challenge for lots of brands, but I think there's a huge opportunity there," she said. "Those that can do it the fastest will probably grow the quickest." So, how do brands stay ahead of the curve? "It's not enough to innovate once and call it a day. Cavallo emphasizes the need of staying focused at all times. Successful brands recognize that innovation is a continuous process of pushing boundaries, partnering strategically, and trying bravely.