Welcome to the AMA’s new thought leadership blog. We’ve created a forum for expert ideas, opinions and commentary on the latest in marketing. Each week, we’ll bring you exclusive insights from AMA leaders, executives in marketing and research, and leading thinkers in academia who’ve so kindly stepped up to share their knowledge and expertise with the AMA network. We aim to inspire new strategies and spark new thinking, and to foster a dialogue with the global marketing community on news, trends and strategies that can help improve your marketing and business results.
With its diverse global network of members and contributors, the AMA is well-positioned to follow, analyze and extrapolate on the issues and trends that are and will be impacting the marketing industry, and your business outcomes. With our ears to the ground, we’re exploring topics that will influence your marketing strategies today and 10 years from now, and we’re getting subject matter experts to weigh in. Their insights will be featured here.
We’ll also be weighing in with perspectives on the marketing industry from our vantage points at the AMA. My colleagues and I recently conducted research for our organization’s long-term strategic planning, focusing on business and technological trends, and global marketplace realities that are likely to affect our efforts in the next five to 10 years. The resulting document presents a snapshot of the existing global marketplace and points clearly to the impact that such issues could have on the practice of marketing, offering ample fodder for innumerable blog posts, and for lively blog exchanges and offline conversations.
For example, many organizations currently are deliberating over how to manage the knowledge transfer as boomers retire and millennials become the predominant generation in the workforce. The talent management challenges and institutional knowledge losses are hurdles that every company likely will face, but the generational shift also begs the question, what will happen to consumerism as boomers are supplanted by millennials as the most significant demographic? And how will—or should—those changes in consumer behavior and purchase decision making affect marketing strategies? The AMA will work to address such questions to bring you the insights and information that you’ll need to evolve your strategies to meet the demands of the modern marketplace.
I’ve witnessed marketing’s evolution from the helm of the American Marketing Association for 15 years. I’m now transitioning from chief executive to CEO emeritus, and I’m handing over the reins to Russ Klein, a career marketer who brings big ideas and plans for action to the AMA, who will capably steward the association into its next stage and who will, no doubt, enjoy the ride as much as I have.
Join me in wishing Russ well on his new journey. And share your insights with the AMA community here. Please weigh in on blog discussions in the comments section, or feel free to submit a post at amablog@ama.org. Let’s keep the conversation going.
Sincerely,
Dennis Dunlap, CEO