One of my favorite themes these days is that marketers focus on personalization while consumers want value.  Let’s add some wood to that fire with this Oracle Retail study, which found that consumers rate convenience as the most important part of a great in-store experience (56%), ranking experience far behind at 37%. Yet retailers prioritize them equally: experience 35% vs. convenience 34%.

One factor driving martech growth has been the ability for marketers to buy systems with little corporate IT support. This study from Entrust Datacard found that even IT professionals recognize that letting users pick their own tools can provide a competitive advantage. Their preferred solution is to make IT more responsive rather than giving up control entirely.

In the same way that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in heels, B2B marketers do everything that B2C marketers do with more complex data and fewer information sources.  Tech can help.  Demandbase just announced Buying Group AI, which uses you-know-what to identify buying team members and their roles.  It’s in beta for now.