Introduction

by Diana O'Brien, Andy Main, Suzanne Kounkel, Anthony R. Stephan
  • Download
  • Share
    • Share on Facebook
    • Share on Twitter
    • Share on Linkedin
    • Share by email
Deloitte Insights
  • Strategy
    Strategy
    Strategy
    • Business Strategy & Growth
    • Digital Transformation
    • Governance & Board
    • Innovation
    • Marketing & Sales
    • Private Enterprise
  • Economy & Society
    Economy & Society
    Economy & Society
    • Economy
    • Environmental, Social, & Governance
    • Health Equity
    • Trust
    • Mobility
  • Organization
    Organization
    Organization
    • Operations
    • Finance & Tax
    • Risk & Regulation
    • Supply Chain
    • Smart Manufacturing
  • People
    People
    People
    • Leadership
    • Talent & Work
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
  • Technology
    Technology
    Technology
    • Data & Analytics
    • Emerging Technologies
    • Technology Management
  • Industries
    Industries
    Industries
    • Consumer
    • Energy, Resources, & Industrials
    • Financial Services
    • Government & Public Services
    • Life Sciences & Health Care
    • Tech, Media, & Telecom
  • Spotlight
    Spotlight
    Spotlight
    • Deloitte Insights Magazine
    • Press Room Podcasts
    • Weekly Economic Update
    • COVID-19
    • Resilience
    • Top 10 reading guide
    • XE-EN Location: XE-English  
    • Contact us
      • Dashboard
      • Saved items
      • Content feed
      • Profile/Interests
      • Account settings
    3 minute read 15 October 2019

    Introduction The human connection

    3 minute read 15 October 2019
    • Diana O'Brien United States
    • Andy Main United States
    • Suzanne Kounkel United States
    • Anthony R. Stephan United States
    • Anthony R. Stephan United States
    • Download
    • Share
      • Share on Facebook
      • Share on Twitter
      • Share on Linkedin
      • Share by email
    • Seven trends to help brands refocus on the “human”

    Increasing reliance on digital technologies can create a need for human connection between brands and their customers, workforce, and partners. This provides brands an opportunity to build connection, drive engagement, and power growth.

    Every industrial revolution was catalyzed by a major technological evolution. Today is no different. With 90 percent of the world’s data having been produced in the last two years and more than 26 billion smart devices in circulation, we are living in an era of unprecedented technological innovation—one that has spurred the Fourth Industrial Revolution.1

    Our first Global Marketing Trends report is, in many ways, a response to this Fourth Industrial Revolution. Yet, it’s not a technology report. For no matter which era we live in or the technology it brings forth, the human remains constant throughout this relay of revolutions. This report is intended to guide C-suite leadership in developing their strategies in this fast-changing digital milieu, while keeping the human front and center.

    Learn more

    Explore 2020 Global Marketing Trends

    Download the full report or create a custom PDF

    Explore the Marketing & sales collection

    Subscribe to receive related content from Deloitte Insights

    Download the Deloitte Insights and Dow Jones app

    In this spirit, we set out to explore how brands can navigate the increasingly digitized business, economic, and social environment in a way that helps preserve—and even cultivate—their human connections. Through interviews with more than 80 subject matter experts across the globe, we identified seven key trends on which every business will likely have to focus over the next 18 to 24 months to help build a socially and human-conscious enterprise. To create this report, we integrated new research and analysis, insights from academic literature, and stories from the field. While each of these trends varies in age—conversations around some are just starting to pick up in the public sphere while others have been noted in literature for centuries—there’s a common thread that runs through them, one that puts the human at the forefront of our digital environments.

    Seven trends to help brands refocus on the “human”

    Just as people expect brands to treat them like humans and not merely as transactions, they also expect brands to act more human. This means they expect the brands with which they interact to embody human qualities—be steadfast and transparent in their beliefs, consistent in their actions, and authentic in their intentions.

    Our seven marketing trends are anchored in this human-first philosophy. Among these seven, we’ve identified two overarching trends, connecting nearly all facets of business, that help brands place the human at the center of their work. These are purpose and human experience. The first trend—purpose—and the focus of the first chapter of this report is foundational to why brands exist. Though purpose is not new, it’s more important now than ever to direct every strategic choice across the organization. Authentic, human-centric purposes are differentiated in the mind of society in a way that’s impossible for others to imitate. The second trend—human experience—weaves purpose across a brand’s interactions and relationships with its customers, workforce, and business partners, helping ensure that every facet of a company’s operations is aligned with making the world better for all the people it serves.

    Purpose and human experience unite the five other trends—fusion, trust, participation, talent, and agility. The third chapter—fusion—highlights how purpose and human experience are together the North Star that guides brands in choosing partners with whom to engage in large, open ecosystems. Our fourth chapter makes it clear that brands can’t accomplish purpose-driven work authentically without establishing trust across these ecosystems.

    To help brands align with customer values, the fifth chapter provides guidance on how they can bring consumers into the ecosystem and amplify their participation. Chapter six discusses how talent should be nurtured in a manner that enables brands to best work toward their purpose. In the final chapter, we deconstruct what it takes to structure internal operations in an agile manner that empowers brands to not only move at the speed of technology, but also slow down enough to create moments that matter for all people they touch.

    From the C-suite to the frontline workforce, we close each chapter with specific tips on how marketers can better position their brands and their companies in this digitally connected age.

    The breakneck pace of technological change is simultaneously exciting and overwhelming, full of opportunity and the potential for missteps. Our hope: Putting the human at the center of our trends exploration can help brands forge their own path to making an impact that matters.

    Acknowledgments

    This report would not be possible without the subject matter expertise that results from working alongside executives on the front lines to understand the impact of these trends in the marketplace and how to embrace them to drive growth for organizations.

    Thank you to the following contributors:

    OUR GLOBAL LEADERS CONTRIBUTING ACROSS THE ENTIRE 2020 GLOBAL MARKETING TRENDS REPORT

    David Redhill, Partner, Deloitte Consulting Global CMO, Australia
    Mike Brinker, Principal, Global Deloitte Digital Leader, US
    Will Grobel, Director, Customer & Marketing, UK
    Andrew Jolly, Partner, Digital Mix Lead, UK
    Peter Sedivy, Partner, APAC Deloitte Digital Lead, US
    David Phillips, Partner, Brand, Creative & Media, Australia
    Pascual Hua, Partner, Deloitte Digital, China
    Ryo Kanayama, Director, Chief Brand & Corporate Affairs Officer, Japan
    Desiree Phakathi, Senior Manager, Marketing, South Africa
    Tharien Padayachee, Manager, Marketing & Communications, South Africa
    Livia Zufferli, Income & Associate Partner, Customer & Marketing, Canada
    Pablo Selvino, Partner, Consulting Director, LATCO
    Heloisa Montes, Partner, Digital Customer & Marketing Transformation leader, Brazil
    Renato Souza, Director, Communication & Brand, Brazil
    Victor Press, Partner, Acne, Northwest Europe
    Jennifer Veenstra, Managing Director, CMO Program leader, US

    THE EDITORIAL TEAM FROM THE CENTER FOR INTEGRATED RESEARCH

    Tim Murphy, Senior Manager, US
    Josh Schoop, PhD, Manager, US

    THE GLOBAL MARKETING TRENDS TEAM

    Anna Syrkis, Manager, Global Marketing Trends Program Manager, US
    Julie Murphy, Manager, Marketing Manager, US 
    Marion Cannon, Lead, Content & Insights, US
    Natalie Melamed, Senior Manager, Content & Insights, US

    Purpose is everything

    Jennifer Barron, Principal, Brand & Growth Strategy, US
    Torsten Gross, Managing Director, Customer & Applied Design, US
    Richard Prévost, Senior Manager, Branding, Marketing & Advertising Lead, South Africa
    David Olsson, Partner, Acne, Sweden
    Ori Mace, Senior Manager, Acne, Sweden
    Andy Sandoz, Partner, Chief Creative Officer, Deloitte Digital, UK
    Mark Hutcheon, Director, Risk Advisory, UK

    Paying down experience debt

    Amelia Dunlop, Principal, Customer Strategy & Applied Design Leader, US
    Ashley Reichheld, Principal, Customer & Marketing Automotive, Transportation, Hospitality & Services sector leader, US
    Stacy Kemp, Principal, Customer & Marketing Strategy, US
    Maggie Gross, Senior Manager, Heat, US
    Megan Fath, Senior Manager, Customer & Applied Design, US
    Emma Gu, Manager, Customer & Applied Design, China
    Thomas Kant, Manager, Deloitte Neuroscience Institute, Germany
    Olivier Binse, Partner, Head of Digital Advisory, Deloitte Digital, UK
    Deborah Womack, Director, Customer & Marketing, UK
    Susie Nursaw, Director, Deloitte Digital Insights, UK
    Peta Williams, Senior Manager, Deloitte Digital Marketing & Insights, UK

    Fusion is the new business blend

    Paul Magill, Managing Director, Customer & Marketing, US
    Larry Keeley, Managing Director, President, Doblin, US
    Mike Barrett, Principal, President, Heat, US
    Will Grobel, Director, Customer & Marketing, UK
    Tom Day, Director, Market Gravity, UK
    Alex Curry, Partner, Monitor Deloitte, UK
    Dan Adams, Partner, MarTech & Insight leader, UK

    Are you a trust buster or builder?

    Jeff Weirens, Principal, Global Business Leader of Financial Advisory, US
    Jeff Simpson, Principal, Customer & Marketing, US
    David Cutbill, Principal, Marketing and Advertising Risk Services Leader, US
    Cameron Brown, Director, Head of Privacy, UK
    Will Grobel, Director, Customer & Marketing, UK
    Peta Williams, Senior Manager, Deloitte Digital Marketing & Insights, UK
    Wendy Stonefield, Director, Customer & Marketing, UK
    Nick Purdon, Director, Customer & Marketing, UK

    The amplification of consumer participation

    Jennifer Lacks Kaplan, Principal, Customer & Marketing, US
    Melissa Schwarz, Senior Manager, Deloitte Pixel leader, US
    Balaji Bondili, Senior Manager, Hybrid Solutions & Incubation, US
    Grace Ling, Partner, Consulting, China
    Emma Gu, Manager, Customer & Applied Design, China
    Andy Sandoz, Partner, Chief Creative Officer, Deloitte Digital, UK
    Matt Guest, Partner, Deloitte Digital, UK
    Monica Hu, Manager, Deloitte Digital, UK
    Alex Curry, Partner, Monitor Deloitte, UK

    Valuing your most important asset—talent

    Jannine Zucker, Principal, Human Capital, US
    Ashley Reichheld, Principal, Customer & Marketing Automotive, Transportation, Hospitality & Services sector leader, US
    Hilary Horn, Managing Director, Human Capital, US
    Yohan Gaumont, Equity Partner, Digital Customer leader, Canada
    Will Grobel, Director, Customer & Marketing, UK
    Gillian Simpson, Director, Customer & Marketing, UK
    Rupert Darbyshire, Director, Human Capital, UK

    Diffusing agility across the organization

    Mike Barrett, Principal, President, Heat, US
    Jocelyn Lee, Senior Manager, Head of AI, Heat/Deloitte Digital, US
    Alan Schulman, Managing Director, Chief Creative Officer, Deloitte Digital, US
    Ed Grieg, Senior Manager, Chief Disruptor, Deloitte Digital, UK
    Martin Willets, Partner, Customer & Marketing, UK
    Yohan Gaumont, Equity Partner, Digital Customer leader, Canada
    Verusha Maharaj, Senior Manager, Monitor Deloitte, South Africa

    Special thanks to the CMO Program team and the leaders of Customer & Marketing and Deloitte Digital for their insight and support through this journey.

    Cover image by: David Vogin

    Endnotes
      1. Bernard Marr, “How much data do we create every day? The mind-blowing stats everyone should read,” Forbes, May 21, 2018; Statista, “Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices installed base worldwide from 2015 to 2025 (in billions),” accessed September 12, 2019. View in article

    Show moreShow less

    Topics in this article

    Technology Management , Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) , C-suite , Strategy

    Deloitte Digital

    Digital technology has changed the face of business. Across the globe, Deloitte Digital helps clients see what’s possible, identify what’s valuable, and deliver on it by combining creative and digital capabilities with advertising agency prowess and the technical experience, deep business strategy, and relationships of the world’s largest consultancy. Deloitte Digital empowers businesses with the insights, platforms, and behaviors needed to continuously and rapidly evolve to perform beyond expectations.

    Learn more
    Get in touch
    Contact
    • Jennifer Veenstra
    • CMO Program leader, Managing director
    • Deloitte Consulting LLP
    • jveenstra@deloitte.com
    • +1 415 783 4223

    Download Subscribe

    2020 Global Marketing Trends

    img Trending

    Introduction

    Article 3 years ago
    img Trending

    Diffusing agility across the organization

    Article 3 years ago
    img Trending

    Fusion is the new business blend

    Article 3 years ago
    img Trending

    Paying down experience debt

    Article 3 years ago

    Explore the collection

    • The amplification of consumer participation Article3 years ago
    • Purpose is everything Article3 years ago
    • Valuing your most important asset—talent Article3 years ago
    • Are you a trust buster or builder? Article3 years ago
    Diana O'Brien

    Diana O'Brien

    Global Chief Marketing Officer

    Diana is the global chief marketing officer for Deloitte responsible for driving growth across all businesses. Reporting to the global CEO, Diana leads a network of brand, communications, marketing, and insights organizations. Her responsibility is to champion the voice of the customer, surface deep insights with advanced analytics, increase sales velocity, and gain greater competitive advantage with stronger, differentiated experiences. Her goal is to align global customer data, creativity, and innovation with business strategies to accelerate Deloitte’s ability to solve customers’ most complex issues. She also leads the C-Suite CMO Program, and serves as an advisory partner to global life sciences clients. Since joining the firm in 1985, she has held a number of leadership roles across global client portfolios. Appointed in 2015 as the first chief marketing officer for the US, she reimagined marketing by combining independent marketing functions with PR, communications, and digital to create a cohesive, agile, client-centric organization. She led the ground-breaking and opening of Deloitte University, our 700,000 square-foot, $300 million leadership center and as its managing principal, was responsible for industry and professional learning, leadership development, leader succession, and community and inclusion engagement. Diana has been included in Forbes’ World’s Most Influential CMOs and Business Insider’s "Top 50 Most Innovative CMOs in the World." Her passion extends to charities related to autism and diversity. She is the chairman and founder of IMPACT Autism, a forward-thinking organization that creates and delivers life management solutions to combat the educational, emotional, and social challenges of living with autism. Diana holds an MBA in finance and a BS in behavioral management from Xavier University. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband and 22-year-old triplets. For the latest marketing insight and trends, visit CMO.Deloitte.com or Deloitte.WSJ.com/CMO.

    Andy Main

    Andy Main

    Principal | Global Head of Deloitte Digital

    Andy is a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, and is the Global Deloitte Digital leader which includes the Global Customer and Marketing business. He also leads our Digital Transformation offering globally and in the US. He firmly believes the customer is at the center of a company’s digital experience and transformation. He helps clients imagine their futures and achieve their ambitions using our high-end creative and design capabilities and a human-centered approach, combined with our deep industry and technology knowledge. When not helping clients with their business futures, you can find Andy outside on skis or bikes, watching football (the original kind of football), hanging out at the Denver Art Museum, or volunteering at the Keystone Science School.   

    • amain@deloitte.com
    • +1 303 298 6618
    Suzanne Kounkel

    Suzanne Kounkel

    Chief Marketing Officer | Deloitte

    Suzanne is a principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP and the chief marketing officer (CMO) of Deloitte. As the leader of Deloitte’s integrated marketing and sales organization, Suzanne challenges her team to push the bounds of creativity and collaboration in pursuit of two intertwined goals: happy clients and healthy business growth. Suzanne’s trifecta of business, technology, and marketing experience provides the essential foundation for spearheading marketing and sales in an era of rapid change and ground-breaking innovation. She recently served as the CMO for Deloitte Consulting LLP, a role that further grounded her marketing and sales leadership in business-specific insights. Additionally, she ran Deloitte’s US Consulting Tech sector industry practice, one of Deloitte’s largest and fastest growing businesses. A driver of transformational change throughout her Deloitte career, Suzanne’s track record also includes leading Deloitte’s US Customer market offering (which involves CMO services), creating Deloitte’s Next Gen CMO Academy, and developing Deloitte’s customer, market, product, and M&A integration methodology. Suzanne’s ability to connect with clients, understand their challenges, and help solve their problems is recognized and respected throughout Deloitte. She has led relationships with many of Deloitte’s largest clients, helping them to reimagine how they attract, engage, and retain customers. Never content with the status quo, Suzanne has been a result-oriented advocate for women in leadership roles throughout her career. She led the Women’s Initiative in Consulting, where she helped to significantly increase the percentage of female leaders in market-facing roles. A dedicated coach and advocate, Suzanne is passionate about mentoring Deloitte professionals on their path to leadership roles. Lending her voice to broader industry conversations, Suzanne is a frequent speaker and published author on issues close to her CMO heart, including purpose-driven brand, elevating the human experience within B2B marketing, and the ethical use of data within marketing. She sits on the Board of Directors for the Ad Council and is a member of the Adweek Diversity and Inclusion Council, as well as a member of ANA’s Global CMO Growth Council, with a focus on helping CMOs leverage data and technology to connect with customers.

    • uscmo@deloitte.com
    Anthony R. Stephan

    Anthony R. Stephan

    Executive Leader, Project 120 | Deloitte Consulting LLP

    Anthony is the US Consumer Industry Leader for Deloitte Consulting, LLP, where he inspires businesses to amplify the human experience, transform the enterprise, and disrupt traditional boundaries. Prior to leading the Consumer industry, he led the US Deloitte Digital business for Deloitte Consulting, LLP and served as the National Business Unit Leader for the Customer & Marketing business. While leading effective teams and serving clients are his highest priorities, Anthony also invests heavily in the growth of others. He is the Executive Leader for Project 120, a $1.4 billion investment in advancing technology and leadership skills for our people. This is a bold transformation of our approach to learning and development (L&D), setting a new industry standard for how L&D should be designed, delivered and experienced. He has also served as the Co-Dean of the LEAD Program, which is the yearlong development program for new US Partners, Principals & Managing Directors, as well as Co-Dean of the Art of the Story program. For more than 30 years, Anthony has guided businesses on the verge of transformation, leaning in with aspirations to inspire change, and drive balanced growth through strategic initiatives.

    • astephan@deloitte.com
    • +1 973 602 5377

    Share article highlights

    See something interesting? Simply select text and choose how to share it:

    Email a customized link that shows your highlighted text.
    Copy a customized link that shows your highlighted text.
    Copy your highlighted text.

    Subscribe

    to receive more business insights, analysis, and perspectives from Deloitte Insights
    ✓ Link copied to clipboard