Capgemini Australia has launched Australia’s Digital Marketing and Customer Experience Maturity Report.

The report, specifically created for Australian marketers, analyses how technology is impacting the remit, success, and evolution of marketing leadership.

The study reveals that Australian marketers are not as effective as they could be when it comes to utilising digital marketing and customer technologies. Yet, 45 per cent of marketers are claiming they realise the potential of new customer technologies.

The onset of the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ (with the increased speed of current breakthroughs) has shaken the very fabric of what it means to be in business today.

In a new era of intelligent technology it’s transforming the way we work, live and relate to each other. It’s not enough to consider what digital means in the context of external marketing activities.

Digital and information-based technologies are transforming the way entire organisations interact with customers across the buyer lifecycle, how they produce and deliver products, and how they service and innovate around them.

The report explores business, customer, and tech maturity as well as the X Factor element which looks at what innovators and tech leaders are doing differently.

Findings highlight how these core areas can enable an organisation to operate at its best including:

Business maturity

Just half of the respondents agree their organisations have successfully adapted to the new digital economy, or achieved a category disruption in the past 12 months.

As a result, digital transformation remains the top priority for marketing and customer experience (CX) functions in Australia, aiming to capitalise on digital and technological innovations that can help better serve customers.

Customer maturity

Personalisation remains a challenge, with 75 per cent of brands unable to connect online and offline, or tailor multi-channel experiences in or near real time for their customers.

The differences of opinion between those who claim customer technology has delivered a return on investment and those who do not believe it has is stark.

The former are less worried about increasing brand awareness (14 per cent) They are also 10 per cent more confident that customer technology is identifying and delivering new sales opportunities. In fact, they see transforming the customer facing digital offering of their brands as a higher priority (7 per cent).

Tech maturity

Less than half of marketers are realising the benefits of investing in new technologies, and nearly 40 per cent don’t have a competitive advantage. This is despite 52 per cent increasing spending on technology in the past year.

Findings showed 65 per cent of marketers are spending up to half their marketing budget on customer technology implementation and usage. But is this paying off?

The X factor

More than half of all marketers realise the benefits from investing in new customer technologies or gaining competitive advantage from their utilisation.

Results found it’s because they’re customer obsessed. In fact, 26 per cent of marketers who agree technology makes them competitive and current are personalising experiences across at least two digital channels in near or real time.

More than ever before, marketing is seen as the growth driver of an organisation, and in many instances marketing already has the tools.

It is the techniques and operating models to make the most of these tools that are yet to be industrialised.

The customer focus and infrastructure is increasingly there, but old models are hard to apply to the new technology enablers and to new consumer expectations.