Exploring the MarTech & CX Landscape
Articles about brand strategy for modern marketers.
Sangeeta Prasad has had the rare experience of launching the Chief Marketing Officer role at not one, but two global organizations. That gives her a unique vantage point: she hasn’t just built marketing campaigns—she’s built the case for why marketing matters in the first place. In her current role as CMO of Slalom, a $3B global consulting firm with a presence in 53 offices and 12 countries, Prasad leads with equal parts strategy and heart.
Consumer trust, once a given for established brands, has eroded due to recent events, opening the door for new players to redefine the category.
Brand partnerships are undergoing a significant transformation, fueled by the innovative power of artificial intelligence. Traditionally, forging these alliances has been a laborious, time-intensive process, often limiting access to only the largest brands with extensive resources.
Building a brand from the ground up is a daunting task for any marketing leader, but imagine doing so for a newly spun-off company with 90,000 employees across 60 markets. This was the challenge Maria Winans, CMO of Kyndryl, embraced following the company’s separation from IBM.
In B2B marketing, especially in highly regulated industries like healthcare, “bold” and “memorable” aren’t usually the adjectives that spring to mind. But Kristin Russel, CMO at symplr, has a different take. With a background that spans government speechwriting, spinning classes, and multiple executive marketing roles, she brings a refreshingly pragmatic—and occasionally irreverent—lens to brand-building in complex sectors.
The rise of the creator economy is a testament to the rapid transformation of the marketing landscape. No longer are brands solely in control of their narrative; instead, consumers and creators wield significant influence, shaping brand perception and driving purchasing decisions.
Innovation without visibility is invisible. That’s the harsh reality killing breakthrough companies across all industries. While brilliant brands focus on perfecting their products in stealth mode, louder competitors with inferior offerings are taking the lead—grabbing market share, captivating investors, and winning over customers. The truth is, the marketplace doesn’t reward the best solution; it rewards the most visible one. Without visibility, even the most groundbreaking ideas risk fading into obscurity.
This article was written for Forbes Agency Council by Greg Kihlström. With a fiercely competitive field of options for customers, simply offering a high-quality product or service is often no longer enough to set your brand apart. To truly stand out and build lasting relationships with your customers, you need to create an emotional connection that resonates with them on a deeper level.
This article was written for MarTech by Greg Kihlström. Want your ads
remembered and acted on? Use these creative levers to boost
distinctiveness, emotional impact and profitability.
88% of consumers now say trust is just as important in buying decisions as price and quality. Think about that for a moment. Trust isn’t just some emotional afterthought or goodwill product of a long-standing customer relationship. It has fundamentally shifted into a key competitive battleground and deciding factor at the point of purchase.
