Salesforce/ExactTarget Deal Means More Complexity For Marketers
The Salesforce.com (SFDC)/ExactTarget (ET) deal is a win for SFDC, write Forrester analysts Rob Brosnan and Shar VanBoskirk in a new blog post analyzing the acquisition. However, while the deal brings good integration and development possibilities for B2B marketers, especially those already using ET’s Pardot, it’s less rosy for ET’s B2C customers.
Brosnan and VanBoskirk expect a range of consequences from the deal, including a clash of cultures, a decline in email excellence, and limited advantage gained by traditional ET B2C customers on the whole. “Salesforce’s sales and service products do not extend ET’s core offering. Indeed, the acquisition likely will slow down the already much-needed unification of the disparate technologies and data structures underlying ET’s Email, Audience Builder, Automation Studio, Social Engage, and Mobile products. Integration with Salesforce is likely to take precedence over unification in the near term.”
Additional implications on the broader marketing technology market include clouding the prospects of unifying anonymous and known customer interactions, raising the bar on further market consolidation by large players, and creating a yin-and-yang pricing dynamic that damages innovation.
To read the full analysis, visit the blog post here.