2014 and Predictions

Back to Basics might be a good start?

So it’s that time of the year again and everyone has predictions and now they come via infographics, video, instagram and memes (still waiting for the dog and cat predictions bake off for 2014). So I thought well maybe I should get into the act, heck I retweeted enough of them over the last 10 days.

Gandalf and Luke are at it too

Note to Peter Jackson — please can we have the final part of the Hobbit soon and not another abrupt ending to a movie. Note to Disney — Harrison Ford in his 70s as Hans Solo, come on. Bring back Mark Harmon!

I had second thoughts after I read some of the predictions below for 2014:

Eric is predicting 2014 will be all about Mobile, after the Billions $$$ Google have poured into it, Motorola excluded, prediction?

Mobile, really? This is my 18th year now working in digital and mobile has been in 16 of those year’s predictions.

Big Data, can we just remove those two words from marketing jargon — Webster help please?

It’s not big data, it’s the insights that we can get from any, all or some data that is key! Move on.

So back to me! The one thing any digital marketer or for that matter marketing lead can do in 2014 is very simple - answer the following questions and then you can see exactly what predictions are relevant to your business:

1. Who is your customer, what markets, what are their personas (wiki definition — key are these two: a representation of the goals and behavior of a hypothesized group of users. Time to move beyond demographics). Make sure to understand persona behaviors online and offline too.
2. What are the touchpoints and journey customers take when they interact with you, your competitors and when they purchase your product or one similar — customer journey mapping — sample framework below and few tips (from mistakes I and others have made):

Sample Customer Journey Map simplified for both B2B and B2C brands

3. Map out who actually impacts the customer interactions with your brands and products. In B2B the relationship, though usually not emotional that is changing, does have at least 3 direct groups involved: Budget Owner, Project Owner and User/s (users usually = retention). In B2C emotional hooks are important and the context of time, need (real or perception) and satisfaction are key, and remember who is really making the purchase decisions and who influences or not.

Now you pretty much will have all the information you need to decide where to spend time, money and resources in 2014 and beyond, predictions aside.

So to wrap up here are my predictions of 2014:

Brazil to put on a real show, minor infrastructure distraction aside, and to win the world cup, my head speaking.

Brazil 2014 World Cup Winners?

My heart wants Messi, the most talented footballer of his generation and maybe any, to win with Argentina vs Spain in the final. (yes it’s called football I grew up in Dublin, the center of Europe)

Messi and his mates for 2014?

And the final two which I know will be true!

Wise chinese men!

A lot of blind marketers, product and innovation people ☺

Happy new year and to a predictable 2014.