Marketing Technology Strategy: What Is MarTech?

The accelerated use and integration of applications, algorithms, software, and smartphones is revolutionising how brands reach and engage with hyper-connected audiences. However, L’Oréal Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Research at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Andrew Stephen, cautions brands against letting the technology drive the solutions. 

Transcript

What are we talking about when we, when we refer to this thing called marketing technology? So really, it encompasses pretty much anything, from technology being used in marketing. So software, applications, algorithms, overall programs and platforms, the hardware, fast computer processes, increased resolution, you know, smartphones themselves, things like interactive billboards even could be considered within marketing technology. And then all the services wrapped around that. So not just sort of software as a service type concepts, but also consulting, implementation, project management, systems integration, you name it, sort of all the IT world, uh, type services being brought into particular marketing applications.

So how do we bring this into the context of, of marketing practice?

So, really the world these days is governed by algorithms and we can automate a lot. And then in marketing, we see tons of marketing automation driven by algorithms. There’s a lot of automation that happens now in marketing, and that’s really one of the big things that marketing technology, uh, has provided.

And it’s really, actually, at the end of the day, there to help, um, better serve hyper-connected customers. So if we think about algorithms in marketing and automation in marketing, which are powered by algorithms, from a customer perspective, they’re really there to help marketers better reach and engage with customers, find the right customers in a complex landscape where, let’s say on Facebook, an individual user on Facebook might be defined by literally thousands of characteristics. There’s no way in the world a marketer could manually decide how to target ads at a person on the basis of that many variables. So of course we need algorithms.

Of course, we need some, some level of automation to help marketers actually effectively and efficiently reach and engage with customers. 

Just because there is a solution, just because, you know, there is a tech service you could buy or lease, uh, does not mean that there’s a problem that needs to be solved. So I think putting the cart before the horse, or sort of the tech solution before the problem, is obviously not the way we should do it, but it happens all the time.

And of course marketing technology companies are going to tell you they’ve got the best solution to whatever problem or set of problems. But don’t let them drive your solution-finding. Think about what your problems are, and then go out and find the solutions from marketing technology to help you.

But it’s a really exciting space. And I think it’s one that professional marketers nowadays, and into the future, really need to be, uh, up on because there’s a lot of innovation happening in marketing technology.