Feature
The Gist
- Decades of martech chats. The "best-of-breed vs. suite" debate in marketing technology remains a hot topic, despite being discussed for years.
- Respect, Don Brinker. Scott Brinker, the "Godfather of Martech," suggests three potential futures for martech in the AI era.
- Martech values from Drupal creator. Dries Buytaert, creator of Drupal and co-founder of Acquia, believes in an AI-driven expansion of the martech industry, emphasizing the importance of custom solutions, central data storage and seamless integration.
Remember the best-of-breed vs. suite debate when it came to marketing technology? We do, too. It was so 2014. It was so 2019.
It was so…today? Yup. We’re still debating the selection, integration and outcome paths for marketing technology tools.
Why? Generative artificial intelligence has arrived, and it's re-ignited the debate among some marketing technology influencers.
The Heart of the Best of Breed vs. Suite Marketing Technology Debate
Who you say is weighing in? First, there’s the Godfather of Martech, Scott Brinker. Author of the Chief Martec blog and creator of the famous Martech Supergraphic, which in May found more than 11,000 marketing technology solutions worldwide. In 2011, it was 150.
It was Brinker’s first industry conference in 2014, Martech, where the “build vs. buy,” or “best-of-breed vs. suite,” whichever you call it, debate ruled the conversation of the day. This is nine years ago.
And guess what? The crux of the conversation nine years ago still holds water. On one side, there's the best-of-breed crowd, who support building your marketing technology stack with several point solutions. And there's the all-in-one platform fans, who buy a marketing technology stack through essentially one large-suite provider that is the centerpiece of all things marketing. Some organizations combine each model.
The classic debate from 2014 for which Brinker's conference provided a platform (no pun intended):
Best-of-Breed Allows Flexibility
“Buying” one large marketing cloud provides less flexibility than the “forward-facing” approach of building your own from multiple best-of-breed solutions.
Yeah, and So Does All-in-One Suite
One vendor in 2014 said: “We have thousands of customers, and we recognize that many of them are going to want to choose their own solution for email, and so a large number of email integrations remain available, and will indefinitely. Our system is anything but closed.”
Related Article: Goodbye, Marketing Technology. Hello, Customer Technology?
Brinker: Exponential Growth Coming for Martech
The man who keynoted that conference in 2014 in Boston piped in recently on the topic of marketing technology and suite vs. best-of-breed. Brinker discussed the future of marketing technology with AI’s infusion in a recent blog post.
He breaks marketing technology's evolution down into three possible scenarios:
- Option A: Software collapses into a few super apps
- Option B: AI lets everyone build most martech custom
- Option C: An exponential explosion of all software
“Option C looks at the size of today’s commercial martech landscape and says, ‘Hold my beer,’” Brinker wrote. “Like Option B, this scenario will see an exponential explosion of new specialized software apps. But in this case, a large number of them are commercially available apps that marketers buy, not build.”
Here's what Brinker sees for the two other potential marketing technology scenarios:
Software Collapses Into a Few Super Apps
- In this scenario, the martech landscape consolidates into a few dominant applications powered by AI.
- These "super apps" would have vast functionality but would be simplified for users through AI assistance.
- The most likely winners in this scenario would be the current large incumbents with significant market share and data resources.
- Major companies from outside the martech space, such as Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, could become dominant players due to their AI expertise and vast scale.
- Brinker also raises a speculative point: If one app can manage the complexities of marketing, could it not also manage entire businesses or even broader systems?
AI Lets Everyone Build Most Martech Custom
- Instead of converging into a few apps, this scenario sees a proliferation of specialized software.
- AI would enable more people to create custom software quickly and efficiently.
- Software engineers would have AI "co-pilots" and advanced AI-powered services.
- The real growth would come from AI-enhanced low-code/no-code platforms, allowing even non-technical users to create custom software solutions.
- This would lead to a shift where most marketing software is custom-built to fit specific needs, rather than being purchased off-the-shelf.
- Commercial software would still exist, but primarily as tools and platforms to support the creation and integration of these custom solutions.
Both scenarios present different visions for the future of martech in the AI era, including one scenario that focuses on consolidation and another that emphasizes customization and individualization.
“In truth, I think all three of these scenarios are plausible,” wrote Brinker, who also serves as vice president of platform ecosystem for marketing and customer experience software provider Boston-based HubSpot. “Part of why I’ve sketched this is to help people keep an open mind about these different alternatives, so we can be ready to adapt to any of them. … My best guess? I’ll go with Option C (explosion of all software). But Option B (AI enables custom builds of martech) is a close second.”
Related Article: Marketing Technology Expands as Composable Business Models Are Embraced
Buytaert: We’re Living in Two Martech Worlds
The other heavy hitter going public with some predictions and insights in marketing technology circles these days is Dries Buytaert, the creator of open-source Drupal software and co-founder of Boston-based Acquia, a digital customer experience software provider.
Buytaert, in a recent blog on the future of marketing technology, sides with Brinker on a marketing technology future that sees an exponential explosion of all software.
"AI will lead to an expansion, not a reduction, of the marketing technology industry,” Buytaert wrote. “Scott Brinker's infographic will grow bigger, not smaller.”
Buytaert also claims:
Custom Is King
- While comprehensive tools offer broad solutions, there's always room for specialized, tailored tools in every martech stack.
The Marketplace Model
- Comprehensive platforms will provide foundational services like Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), while specialized tools will enhance and expand upon them, all organized within a marketplace.
Centralization Is Crucial
- To truly leverage their content and data, large organizations will prioritize central storage systems, making them indispensable in martech.
AI: The Centralization Catalyst
- The rise of AI will hasten the shift toward establishing centralized content and data repositories.
Integration Without Intimidation
- Both comprehensive and specialized tools should seamlessly integrate without the need for expert intervention.
Evolving Digital Dynamics
- Key areas like digital experience analytics, content marketing and personalization will not only persist but will also evolve, embracing an AI-centric approach in the coming decade.
The ultimate reality in the buy vs. build/suite vs. best-of-breed debate? Buytaert said the reality now and in the future is a world in which each will be a part of the marketing technology story.
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“Platform companies don't excel at every service they offer,” he wrote. “Consequently, most marketing stacks end up having a number of point solutions, making the integration of data and content from these diverse applications a necessity.”
