In a new report, “Understanding Digitized Customers in Digitized Environments,” a taskforce of MSI members and academics has identified six research priorities for academic-industry collaboration on this critical marketing challenge.

The MSI initiative is cochaired by Cait Lamberton, University of Pittsburgh, and Andrew Stephen, University of Oxford. In May 2016, they convened a group of academics and practitioners to discuss the challenges and opportunities emerging from rapidly advancing technologies and changes in the ways customers use technology

With the shared thinking of academic researchers as well as B2B, B2C, financial services, services, and pharmaceutical firms, they outlined six questions that are relevant to marketers across industries:

• How “frictionless” should technology-enabled customer experiences be and how “personalized” should technology-enabled marketing actions become?
• How do marketers steward their brands through social media conversations and find new, value-enhancing uses for social media?
• How does the digitized customer experience and digitized market environment relate to basic models of consumer information processing and decision making?
• What is the optimal balance between human and non-human touchpoints in a customer journey?
• What are the best approaches for gathering and using data from digitized customers, and for ensuring that customers understand how their data are being used?
• How should marketing and IT work together, from the C-suite down, and within companies, and with partners?

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