In the past few years, we have tried to look into the future a bit to give you our views on the major trends and challenges facing marketing in the year ahead.

Prognosticating about 2009 is doubly daunting because of the massive economic crisis that continues to color everything in marketing and the culture overall. Another complicating factor is the big political shift that is now taking place with the new Obama Administration taking power on the 20th.

But, there are some key marketing trends that are already starting to emerge for 2009, and here are just a few of them. Many thanks to my colleague Mitch Wainer for his valuable input:

• Marketers Will Struggle to Respond Effectively and Correctly to the Cautious Consumer Mood — Consumers are definitely spending less these days — a lot less. And that goes for consumers at pretty much every level of the economic spectrum (which is a big development in and of itself). They are concerned and confused, and worried about their jobs, their homes and the future in general. Marketers are struggling mightily to get just the right balance in their marketing to respond to and address that steep decline in consumer confidence. They’re thinking, "Should I get aggressive and offer even better deals and push hard in the market place, or should I go really low key." I think everyone is just hoping that the new president will deliver a major inspirational jolt to the economy and the negative psychology will start to turn next summer. We can only hope.
• Marketing Will Be Even More About Relationships — One thing is for sure that marketers today are striving more than ever to build, expand and enhance the relationships they have (or should have ) with their customers. It’s likely that there will be fewer of those customers for most businesses (in some cases, like the car business, drastically fewer), so they will want to make the most of each relationship. This is one reason why Customer Relationship Management is one of the few expanding areas of marketing.
• Social Networking Gains Ground as Marketing Tool — The die hard proponents of social networking are, in my view, overly optimistic about the impact of this major trend on everyday life and particularly business and marketing. But, the naysayers are also way too negative in their cynical assessments of the rise of social networking. I think 2009 will see a steady adoption of social networking tools and channels in the marketing industry. In fact, tools like web videos and blogs are already de rigeur for businesses of all types and sizes, and that trend will expand. The challenge remains, however, for marketers to figure out how to tap into the power of online social networks to strengthen interest in and support for their brands and products/services. That is still a work in progress. You are seeing many marketers trying to copy the successful social and online marketing and communications tactics of Barack Obama and his historic campaign. I guess community organizing really is a lot more powerful than some people gave it credit for previously. In fact, social networking really is part and parcel to the continuum of community organizing strategies and tactics.
• Applications Increasingly Being Adopted by Marketers — More and more companies are exploring the development of their own digital applicaitons, from iPhone and Facebook downloads to cutomized engagement and gaming tools featured on brand websites. Widgets were supposed to revolutionze marketing, but that still has not happened. But, that does not mean that there is not a lot of interest in this kind of technology to reach out to and excite and engage consumers and customer across the digital spectrum. I think 2009 will be a growth year for smart and useful brand oriented applications.
• Marketing Budgets Shrink and Shift Even More Digital — No surprise here that marketing budgets will continue to shrink. Consumers are not the only ones lacking in confidence these days. As expected, an increasing percentage of those leaner marketing budgets will go to digital channels and media, which generally are more cost efficent and certainly more measurable. Marketers will continue their quest for the Holy Grail in their marketing activities: true ROI. But, for many marketers, the old aphorism will still apply: "I know at least half of my advertising is working, I just don’t which half."
• Creativity and Content Still Matter — For all the talk of a new austereity and bottom-line focus on marketing in the face of an historic recession, creativity and content will still matter. Now, that does not mean that marketers will be able to get away with creative that is not founded on well thought out strategy. It does mean, though, that in every channel you are using, you have got to stand out and be even more relevant today to succeed. Strategically focused creativity and truly interesting and useful content can make the difference in your marketing, especially in a time when consumers are not in the spending mood.

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