Can Adobe win beyond marketing?

At Adobe’s customer conference last March, a banner on stage read, “Marketing beyond marketing.” It’s true that Adobe, with its Marketing Cloud and Adobe Experience Manager, owns the high end of marketing and experience software for major consumer brands. Its aggressive investment and focus is paying off. Forrester’s research shows that Adobe’s experience manager revenue is twice that of its competitors. But the banner begs the question, can Adobe actually move beyond consumer marketing?

This is not just a question of intent; it’s a question of potential. Can Adobe’s products, customers, and partners reach across every step of the customer journey, from discovery to purchase, service, and engagement?

Do customers want Adobe to move beyond marketing? Does it make any sense for marketing to lead the charge across a customer’s complete journey? Does Adobe have the software to move beyond marketing? Does Adobe have the DNA or desire to move beyond marketing? Does Adobe have the financial resources to move beyond marketing? Will investors reward Adobe for moving beyond marketing? Do Adobe’s partners want to bring Adobe into commerce and service and into B2B?

To answer simply, my quick take is yes, sometimes, no, maybe, probably not, and not without more software and commitment.

But, we can answer one question definitively: Does Adobe have the software portfolio to move beyond marketing and the Marketing Cloud? Despite the fact that Adobe has some of the highest scores in Forrester’s 2015 Wave evaluation of digital experience platforms, the answer today is, no.

Here’s why.

Forrester identified 10 leading software providers to see how they stack up. The research looked at how broad and deep their digital experience software portfolios are and how well their portfolios hang together as a software suite. Companies like Acquia, Adobe, Demandware, EPiServer, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP hybris, SDL, and Sitecore were evaluated across 40 criteria, looking at these six core capabilities:

• Content. Every web, mobile, wearable, and wall experience is enriched with words, pictures, videos, and sound — preferably personalized to each customer’s wants.
• Customers data. Knowing your customer in detail gives you the ability to do right by them at each step of their journey.
• Analytics. Knowing what’s working, what’s important, and what’s needed arms companies with eyes and ears and intelligence.
• Marketing. Reaching out or responding sensibly to prospects and customers on screens of every size is shockingly complex — but is vital in attracting, winning, and retaining customers.
• Commerce. If someone wants to buy, you better be prepared to take their money and return a great product or service in exchange.
• Customer service. If you know I just bought a gizmo and I ask for help, there’s a good chance I want help with my new gizmo.

Adobe’s product scores very well in content, customer data, analytics, and marketing. It integrates with other commerce providers — in fact, that’s where the agencies and systems integrators make much of their money. But to take marketing beyond marketing, Adobe would need to improve in a few key areas. Adobe and its customers and partners rarely attempt to integrate with service software the way Oracle, SAP or Salesforce do. It doesn’t have the deep analytics workbenches of IBM, Oracle, or SAP.  Its products aren’t designed to run well in the cloud. And it doesn’t have a strong mobile apps strategy yet.

So while I like Adobe’s products, and I like its chances to win marketing in some B2B industries, I’m doubtful that, when the crunch comes, Adobe will spend what it takes to take marketing beyond marketing. I doubt that Adobe will commit financial and operational resources on complex integrations or the diverse software needed to address customer experiences beyond marketing.

So I think it’s unlikely that Adobe can take marketing beyond marketing. I do believe it will stay in its creative, marketing-centric sweet spot — and do very well there.

Ted Schadler is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research.