IBM pushes transforming marketing profession

MANILA, Philippines - In today's increasingly connected business environment, IBM is pushing for the transformation of marketing teams to enable companies to scale for growth.

Matt Friedman, Vice President of Market Development for IBM Software in the Growth Markets, described marketing today as a changing profession where personalization and collaboration are essential.

"Marketing is no longer a one-way street, it is a conversation. Because of this, marketing is expected to engage with the customer as an individual and not just as a demographic or a data set," Friedman said.

Friedman said it is essential for marketing and IT teams of businesses to have a closer collaboration to achieve three key imperatives, such as: Understanding each customer as an individual; Creating an engagement system that maximizes value creation at every touch point; and Designing an authentic brand and organizational culture.

With its goal of transforming a large, complex marketing team, IBM's strategy involves customer analytics, marketing performance and optimization, customer experience and engagement, and also social marketing and collaboration.