ROBOTS REPLACING THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT: IS THIS THE FUTURE? The old-fashioned franchise marketing department has come to a standstill. For many of the seasoned professionals who head up the big budgets that come with managing multiple franchises, this change has come, and they don’t know where to turn. Advertising agencies put on new hats. Marketing companies now do ‘everything’. Public relations agencies are now digital. Then of course there is the brand website, APP, and if you are truly at the forefront of new technologies, there is the virtual reality showcase. What worked 5 years ago isn’t working today. Snapchat was the big budget spender only a few years ago, but has all of a sudden been dropped from any self-respecting marketers list, along with a bit of back-tracking on Facebook. No-one wants to endorse a company that sells the personal information of their buyers or is not secure enough to ensure that the information of those tens of thousands of followers is being scraped and used for political gain. With no-one to turn to and few marketing professionals with any idea of what is next for the industry, marketing budgets are plummeting into the nethersphere, and CEO’s are demanding to know why. The truth of the matter is that few people really know the answer to the question - but what we do know is that wherever the buyer is, the seller must have a visible, appealing brand, that is truly engaging its customers. Leading franchises are making the shift and are investing heavily in technology. They are using it to automate marketing processes and to better understand buyer habits. Budgets are no longer skewed to advertising on television, radio or newspapers, but are being redirected to content marketing and for the up-and-coming brands, Google. While many people thought that Dominos investing in robotic technology and drones was a publicity stunt, they are now thinking that perhaps this forward thinking company may be onto something- even if they didn’t get it right the first time. Investing in future technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data is the future of marketing, and considering that marketing departments
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are increasingly becoming an overhead most CFO’s don’t appreciate, the future cost-effectiveness of marketing is essential. In fact, given Silicon Valley’s appetite for innovation, most marketing departments will downsize significantly over the next 5 years, displacing marketing employees and replacing them with robots that work harder, smarter and faster than any human being is capable of. It’s a scary thought, but it’s one that comes with merit. You see, universities are already developing robots to do just that. They have already successfully done so in the legal industry, and are now discovering additional ways to replace human beings and automate processes in other professional services industries. Marketing has already been through a major overhaul with the development of marketing automation, but we are just 12 months away from the biggest shakeups since email and the internet. The issue is to uncover what part of marketing technology and human services should franchises invest in, and what will ultimately become a waste of money and resources. Only two years ago, a large multinational franchise chain chief marketing officer said to me that he didn’t believe in social media content marketing. If he had kept that train of thought, no doubt, the position of that franchise chain would be in a very different situation. While he swore black and blue that it didn’t affect his business and only advertising was relevant, I noted that months later his marketing mix did indeed change. Lucky for him, he kept his job, but had he worked for any other organisation, I am sure he would have seen the door. Where robotics and artificial intelligence comes into play is exciting. The ability to automate everything from advertising spend, through to public relations, branding, social media content calendars and the best use of video will cause a large stir in the field of marketing and creative. In no time at all you will find that the only people sitting in marketing will be creatives, web developers, and customer service representatives.