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[Conference] Marketing is changing as customer expectations change, and competition is increasing

The entire marketing landscape and the way it operates have significantly changed in recent years. Consumers are empowered and have access to a wealth of information, while competition in the market is constantly intensifying.

Additionally, there is the development of technology, which is almost impossible to keep up with, requiring marketers to change established ways of working and to adopt different approaches to win over clients.

This was confirmed by the director of Lider, Bojana Božanić Ivanović, who, at today’s Lider conference 'Marketing and Sales by Numbers', emphasized that the marketing and sales sectors are very much aware of the changes and understand that customer, client, and consumer expectations are evolving as the technology they use to communicate with companies changes.

– Competition in the global world is relentless, breathing down your neck, and if you stop, your market share will disappear. But what happens when, in the entire mix of rapid changes and uncertainties, which are not foreign to these business functions, we need to add a series of other problems: war in Europe, inflation, breaking supply chains, shortages of inputs…? What kind of wizards do we need to be to juggle so many changes at once? – said Božanić Ivanović, adding that for marketing and sales managers, leaders, assistants, and accounts, there is no option to just follow; they want to be 'at the very edge of events'.

– They want to solve customer problems through their products, they want to be environmentally conscious, socially responsible, promote equality and inclusivity, be sustainable companies, all in a world that is at a major crossroads, and no one knows what tomorrow will look like. The success of organizations in changing their management style and business processes to align with rapid market changes will determine how successful the marketing and sales functions will be in realizing their ideas and achieving the best results – emphasized Božanić Ivanović. 

She also added that the last two years have taught us that the world is changing faster and that it is difficult to imagine the future, but we have also proven that in all these new circumstances, there is room for growth, innovation, new products, new solutions, and the discovery of new talents.

The new trends in marketing, customer experience, production and digitalization of video content, as well as innovations in multichannel marketing, native content, sales funnels, and co-branding are topics that will be discussed at today’s Lider conference. In this context, Jelena Jelinić Cvirn, HSM, Member of the Management Board for Marketing and HR, highlighted in her opening speech that technology is the foundation and intertwines with everything that will be discussed today because 'without technology, marketing and everything we know could not be at the level it is today'.

– This is important because it allows us to free up our time and energy to focus on more creative solutions, new approaches, which is why we are here today. And to leave daily tasks to software that is so powerful that we, with the best intentions, cannot process that amount of data – said Jelinić Cvirn.

This year’s edition of the conference has gathered key people from marketing and sales departments in companies who will attempt to answer the question of all questions through four panels, two presentations, and two case studies that await us today – How to increase sales?