Vibe Marketing Tech Fest (VMF) - Manchester
Book Your Pass

What’s Keeping UK Marketers up at Night?

By Staff Writer

What’s Keeping UK Marketers up at Night?

Here are top five challenges surfacing the consumer landscape in the UK and how marketers can strategise to navigate them.

Inflation has tightened pockets, not just in the United Kingdom, but worldwide. In the UK, customers are cutting down on spending at their regular channels and prioritising experiences instead. This, amongst other trends, is defining the modern customer. The marketer’s role is evolving simultaneously to keep up. How can UK marketers approach these challenges?

Here is a deep dive into some of the top challenges surfacing the consumer landscape in the UK. The answers to these pressing questions act as a guide for preparing their marketing strategies for the year ahead.

Offering More Value to Inflation-Hit Customers

This might just be the perfect time for the loyalty programs that have been sitting down. As customers in the UK deal with inflationary pressures, they are placing greater value in deals and discounts, hunting for rewards points and utilising every bit of them. According to research, six in 10 adults in Great Britain say they’re spending less on non-essential items due to increased costs of living.

A new trend is consumers seem to be swapping their favourite labels with generic products. This also becomes a primary reason why brand loyalty is waning. Loyalty takes a long time to build and the customer-brand relationship needs constant nurturing. However, when the holiday season strikes and customers are left checking their wallets, the discounted items find more place in their carts. At such times, consumers will often ditch their long-preferred brands for cheaper options. This isn’t something they like doing, but it is something they must do!

For marketers in the UK, the way out is to plan strategically. Sales and discounts look like the obvious solution, but might not be the right choice for all brands. With margins already paper-thin and the potential for damaging brand identity, hefty discounts and massive sales might be a “no” for most businesses. How else can marketers approach this? Some brands have seen success with product bundling (the super-saver combos!) and seasonal reward points for subscribed (loyalty membership) customers. Ultimately, what the customer seeks is “value.”

Getting Personalisation and Privacy to Be Friends

Personalisation is an evergreen demand, which only gets stronger with time. Its definition, however, has changed. Customers now demand personalisation that doesn’t come at the cost of their personal data. Brands have been largely moving away from collecting third party data and adapting a more direct approach to gathering customer data.

Customers are more aware of their rights, and with privacy regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR (UK has its own version of the EU regulation, termed UK GDPR), and the Data Protection Act 2018, brands must adhere. Many businesses are starting to align their strategies with the principle of “data minimisation,” where brands must only collect and process information that is necessary. Besides, the data must be collected for defined legitimate purposes.

At the end, it is clear that customers aren’t against sharing their data, as is evident by the rising need for personalised offers. All they want is for brands to be transparent about what they collect, who they share it with, and what they do with it. As far as customers are aware of these bits, they are not opposed to sharing their personal data, especially when it is used for their own benefit.

AI Displacing Marketers

A substantial percentage of digital marketers believe AI is replacing a number of content writers across industries. In the UK, 60% fear that their jobs will be replaced by AI.

In the UK alone, 90% of marketing professionals are using automation and AI to help them spend less time on manual tasks. Artificial intelligence might just be the most disruptive technology that workforces have encountered by far. With the way it constantly trains itself on data and improves, it is proving to be an effective tool not just for marketers but for creative teams as well.

More and more businesses are investing in training their employees on the new technology so as to free themselves from manual tasks by letting AI automate. By assigning more time to more complex tasks and letting AI handle the mundane, marketers can take a step ahead in ensuring their work is augmented rather than replaced by the technology.

The consensus is that the amount of worry that AI causes a marketer is up to them. They can choose to let it bother them, dreading how it would replace their work and do a better job, or they can learn to use the technology to their advantage.

Frictionless Returns Amidst Supply Chain Disruptions

“Description did not match the product,” “found a better price,”  “ordered the wrong size”—these are just some of the ”return” reasons marketers are dealing with everyday. Termed as the “reverse logistics” business, the returns market is growing. In the UK, one in three items bought online are being returned. Why is this a massive concern for marketers? For multiple reasons.

First, the average return per item, which takes into account shipping, warehousing and re-packaging costs a retailer £20. Second, not only are customers increasingly returning their purchased items, they are demanding for the return process to be seamless, fast and hassle-free. Supply chain disruptions have been a major cause of worry and financial losses for businesses in the UK (60% of UK businesses say their supply chains feel more fragile than ever).

The reasons make for complex chaos for the marketing team. Maintaining inventory amidst supply chain disruptions is not a cake walk. Businesses are opting for increased inventory assortments to deal with this challenge. Many are looking to automate every step of the return process to ensure transparency for the customer. Lastly, some are tapping the root cause of returns – ensuring the customer is privy to complete information on all products to facilitate informed purchases, ultimately reducing the chances of a return.

The Evolving Role of The CMO

Starbucks’ decision to scrap the global CMO role last year shocked more than the C-suite. As the marketing team witnesses waves of change in the landscape, with customers undergoing the impact of inflation and expressing new expectations, the role of the CMO is changing too. It is evolving to a more nuanced role which encompasses everything from the adoption of new technology to leading customer experience initiatives.

With technology acting as a crucial enabler, the CMO must think like the CTO,  in the sense that they are primarily responsible for ensuring access to all necessary technologies and the required training to use them. Data-driven decisions must be a priority. Further, the CMO now must overlook beyond the marketing team and ensure harmony cross-functionally.

On the non-technical side, the evolved CMO’s role will include ensuring enhanced brand reputation, which includes bridging the gap between the boardroom and the end-decision makers. The CMO must strategise to ensure all team-level decisions are aligned with the business’ overall objectives.

Vibe Marketing Tech Fest (VMF) will take on these challenges head-on via panels and keynotes by industry experts. Check out the full agenda here. 

Register now to join the event and reach out to our team for more information.

Share this article :

Latest News & Updates