The automation of marketing

Abstract

Today, the average campaign response rate is less than one per cent and with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), traditional marketing is wading into troubled waters because the waves of strategic campaigns, the retargeting, the real-time media buying and personalised e-mailing are not moving the marketing needle as they used to. The robotisation of shopping and marketing is changing how brands compete for consumers. This paper stipulates that the real opportunity in marketing today lies in redefining the customer relationship rather than in cutting costs. In the future, humans might only be needed in the consumption phase of the buying cycle and purchasing decisions could be left to IoT-connected bots that order products for the customer. These products will then be delivered by anticipatory systems that understand when orders are to be made. For companies to succeed in this environment, they need to make the marketing, ordering and delivering process as seamless as possible, not just for the humans who will consume the products but also for the bots that will order them.