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I think that, coming up with new and effective ways to market a product in such a tight economy is a tough challenge. Customers have more power than ever and marketing initiatives have to meet these new customer demands and give the customer what they want. Actually, there is enormous accountability for marketing managers to ensure that the marketing operation is efficient and cost-effective and to show how marketing spend translates into growth and profitability for the company. In such a highly competitive market standing out from other organizations is an ongoing challenge. Additionally there is the pressure to keep up with technology and how to use it optimally for marketing activity. Relate your personal experience of the challenges you have encountered and discuss how you handled them.
Every marketer faces different challenges. Although we typically share similar goals, some teams are stuck on hiring top talent, while others are having trouble finding the right technology for their needs. Whatever the case may be, there’s always at least one area that you can stand to improve. In other words, there’s always room to optimize the various components of your strategy and turn your marketing into an even more effective revenue generator. Curious about what kinds of obstacles other marketers . Here are some of the most common challenges marketers reported to be struggling with
first of all, thank you for your invitation.
marketing manager faces alot as :
1-the market itself that he must study its needs , its social conditions ,and economic conditions also.
2-the product`s studies , as he must learn all about his product even the weekness point.
3-preparing of the plan, in this step he must know how he will make the customer content with his prodect for reaching the sale step.
4-the most important step is to follow up the buyers , because it proves the place and the strenght of the company .
colleagues' answers are connected to the field itself, and they provided great answers such as Aya Ahmed , Ghada Awada, Lomesh Maniar ...etc
but lets take your question from another perspective, from my point of view the most challenging part in this field that all people in the organization can agitate in marketing field in contrast other fields like accounting or IT, especially when you are working on long term objectives and you have some people with a lack of vision, and the great threat , if those people are in the circle and close to the top management and decision maker
thannks,
Everyone faces problems and challenges in their jobs. And a marketing managers job has gotten tougher with more and more introduction of different media vehicles and different costs of advertising present in the market. In general, a marketing manager of the 21st century faces the following challenges.
Budget allocation is a challenge for marketing managers from day one – Where do you use your budget? Do you use it for TVC’s, hoardings, radio, online or where else? There are so many media vehicles today, and so many variant frequencies of advertising, that media planning has become a big challenge for marketers. If you select the right message but a wrong media, then the message will probably be lost.
Differentiation – The second challenge is differentiation. A customer sometimes watches 6-7 ads in a single minute. If the ads are longer, he will still watch 2-3 ads in every minute of advertisements. So how do you differentiate yourself? What is the message that needs to go along with the advertisement? And remember that the message needs to be effective enough to penetrate the noise and reach the customers mind. Thus, Differentiation is another big challenge for marketing managers.
Brand Recall – You got the perfect message. You even advertised it through the right channels. But now what do you do about the brand recall? After a month or so, the customer is going to forget your ad. So how much budget do you allocate for the brand recall? A smart tactic to learn here is from Vodafone, which always has a 15-20 second ad which can be run at anytime to increase the brand recall. Similarly Intel has a small jingle, which makes customers remember them in seconds.
Positioning – Another target of a marketing manager, is to achieve the right positioning for the brand. Off course, positioning has now become a holistic activity. A company like Apple or Samsung has to ensure that each of its various department is upto mark (including sales, service and others) to achieve the correct positioning in the customers mind. However, marketing is at the helm of positioning and the message sent by the company to its customers through advertisements, majorly forms an impression on the customer. The brand needs to be number 1 in the customers mind, or at least 2nd or 3rd. If it drops below that, it directly affects the sales of the product. Thus, positioning is no easy challenge to conquer.
The above challenges for marketing managers are such that each of them involves 100 decisions to be made and 100 options to be rejected. And even then, at the back of the mind, always remains a doubt, what if we had selected the other option? What if we had shown the other marketing message? This is the exact reason why so many advertising agencies and media planning agencies have cropped up. Because marketing managers need as many minds working on the right strategy, as possible and affordable by the company.
Thus a marketing managers job is filled with challenges. And the above 4 marketing challenges are the toughest for him/her.
Hope this helps!
Securing more budget has been the second-most pressing challenge for survey respondents the last two years running. But marketers know getting more budget is often easier said than done -- especially for smaller organizations that aren't working with sizable nor flexible marketing spend.
And an increased budget is important: Our data showed that the more budget marketers have to begin with (until they hit the $5 million dollar ceiling), the more they’re likely to receive next year. More than half of all marketers with budgets over $25,000 saw a bump in funds since 2014.
But the key to securing more money for your team might not be that complex. Here's what you can do.
The key to unlocking budget lies in being able to prove the ROI of your marketing efforts. According to our report, respondents whose teams demonstrated positive marketing ROI in 2015 were more than twice as likely to receive higher budget.
We found that, for marketers who did see a change to their inbound budget from 2014 to 2015, the most important factor to driving a higher inbound budget was past success with inbound marketing. However, past failure with inbound marketing also resulted in a higher budget: Of those who failed with inbound last year, 81% increased budget as a result. This means that top marketers realize inbound marketing is a long game. If you get off to a slow start, you shouldn’t back off -- in fact, you might consider doubling down.
Again, the only way to have that data is to track it in the first place. Respondents who tracked ROI were over 20% more likely to receive higher budget than their counterparts who failed to keep tabs. Marketers can't afford to be loose about their ROI tracking.
Managing a website was the third biggest challenge for marketers in 2015 -- especially for small companies fighting to reach the growth phase, as well as for nonprofit organizations. For nonprofits, managing a website was actually the #1 concern, ranking above providing ROI and securing more budget.
But, chances are, your website's performance is high on your list of priorities. It's an asset that works around the clock to draw in visitors, convert them, and help you hit your goals, after all.
Issues with website management includes a variety of different factors, from writing and optimizing the content to designing beautiful webpages. Here are a few things marketers can do to deal with this challenge.
Finding the right technologies was the fourth biggest concern for marketers this year. Oftentimes, this is because feedback on technology is scattered. Marketers might turn to colleagues, friends in the industry, and/or analyst reports to figure out which technologies best fit their needs -- only to find that feedback is spread across emails, social media, and so on from people of varied reputability.
Marketers found training their team to be the fifth biggest challenge this year. Whether it's training them on the concepts and tools they'll be using every day or making sure they're achieving their full potential, the struggle was real across the board.
Hiring top talent was the seventh biggest challenge marketers reported experiencing this year. Why? Many companies are shifting more resources to inbound marketing, which means higher and higher demand for top marketing talent. But supply simply isn't keeping up. From sourcing the right candidates to evaluating for the right skills, finding the perfect person could take months ... or more.
lack of clear direction. The problem is not the marketing or the skills today, but rather the pace at which things are moving and the inability of organization to gain momentum, hence the difficulties MM are facing with today. Direction is what triggers motion and motivation.
As the world of marketing continues to expand, even the most savvy marketing manager has a tough task ahead with keeping up on recent developments in the promotion and marketing arena.
1) Team is Inexperienced or Understaffed
2) * Difficulty Interpreting Marketing Report Data
3) * Breakdown in marketing department communication
4) * Disconnect when interacting with executives.
5) * Can’t “Close the Loop” with the Sales Team
Market competetion,Product approval,Knowledge to explain and satisfy to customer,read the mind of customer
According to me the fragmented audience and getting their attention span for atleast enough time to showcase the benefits of your product is the biggest challenge. On top of that you have to manage their individual expectations.
