Marketing strategies to focus on ''customer understanding''

More than a quarter of companies regret not investing more money during 2007 into developing a fuller understanding of their customers, and will seek to redress this concern in the year ahead.

That is according to the first annual Brand Strategy Trends survey from Next Level SMG (NLSMG), which also indicated that marketers believe new products will have the greatest long-term impact on their business in 2008.

While 28 per cent of respondents said they would like to understand their customers better in 2008, 18 per cent stated their intentions to take more risks with their business, while 16 per cent said that they would pursue more creative ways to reach their audience.

Among other New Year´s resolutions, 12 per cent of marketers also displayed a desire to be more externally focused, looking to direct competition for growth categories, while the same proportion said they would like to invest more time and money into better understanding how to create relevant innovations.

"The need for creativity and change was driven by marketplace realities," said Heidi Krauss, director of NLSMG.

"Marketing executives who repositioned their brands or launched new ad campaigns told us that they did so for a number of reasons - to revitalize a brand´s image, to differentiate the brand more clearly from others in the company´s portfolio or to support an on-going strategy to stay competitive."
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