The current preoccupation with Martech as fancy CRM and demand generation is as baffling as it is strategically off-base.

The programmatic train-wreck occurs daily with corporates over-spending and under-auditing. Stupid is as stupid does. Most Martech investments are failing to deliver anything like the ROI promised while unleashing a wall of spam on unsuspecting and unwanting customers. And, marketers continue to chase the latest, bring shiny tool rather than returning to fundamentals.

Meanwhile, retail and distribution is being monumentally disrupted by voice and services such as Amazon Prime. Marketers need to look at Martech as the enablement of products and services, not just the distribution of messages and offers. Where is your voice strategy? Where is your ‘presence’ strategy for meeting customers in new places? How do you partner deeply with Google and others to counter Amazon?

I’d say one in ten marketers I speak to are working strategies that go beyond the 15 year Martech journey we’ve all been on. Instead that work has been left to chief digital and marketing officers. In doing so, they are ceding marketings vital role in architecting customer experience. More importantly, they are loosing touch and control of what will be one of the most important distribution and media channels emerging.

It’s time to rethink your Martech strategy.