Marketing

For more than 100 years, the share of money Americans spent at the store for the food and beverages they would later eat at home remained fairly constant. But change is inevitable, and our habits have finally started to shift.

Awareness of the business case for inclusion and diversity is on the rise. While social justice typically is the initial impetus behind these efforts, companies have increasingly begun to regard inclusion and diversity as a source of competitive advantage, and specifically as a key enabler of growth. Yet progress on diversification initiatives has been slow. And companies are still uncertain about how they can most effectively use diversity and inclusion to support their growth and value-creation goals.

The changing face of the American mall points to consumers’ shifting priorities and tastes. But while malls may be taking on a different kind of identity, there’s at least one consumer segment that still favors that traditional shopping experience: millennial women.

Bringing attention to the importance of assortment is easy. It’s getting it right that is highly challenging. Here are the top six hurdles companies face in building an optimal assortment.

A survey of senior ad buyers worldwide reveals a range of issues many have when it comes to programmatic advertising.

Conventional wisdom has long dictated that companies avoid taking a political stance on issues for risk of alienating—or outright angering—potential customers.

A few weeks ago I wrote about being authentic and genuine, both as a brand and a person. Unfortunately, there’s a downside to always being authentic, because that can lead to incredible rudeness.  How do you balance “being yourself” with being professional in the workplace?

Kantar Millward Brown released a new AdReaction study that examines the global state of multichannel advertising campaigns. AdReaction: The Art of Integration guides marketers on how to best navigate the myriad channel choices and ad formats, while delivering effective, integrated campaigns, well understood across channels by consumers.

In the 2018 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report, it unearthed a significant shift in the market that might have bigger, full service shops a bit concerned.  Today, more so than years past, marketers are looking to fill voids left by specialty agency talent in their roster shops at what could be considered an alarming pace.

Like it or not, our data is being harvested all the time and used to ‘personalise’ our online experience.  Increasingly people are wary and are asking more and more questions about how their data is being used: and what they’re getting in return.

Media-buying will continue to migrate “in-house,” thanks to programmatic ad technology, and the No. 1 reason is “control,” according to results of a survey of advertisers and ad agency executives being released this week by digital media-buying technology firm Centro.

U.S. Marketers are quickly shifting growth priorities among multicultural (MC) segments, especially since the White Non-Hispanic (WNH) segment has been declining since 2016.

Marketers may be intrigued by new developments like artificial intelligence, augmented reality and voice search. But plenty worry that they are unprepared to work with emerging tech.

It’s that time of the year when CMOs look back at 2017 results, analyze important KPIs and assess their industry as a whole, and project 2018’s performance. Based on my personal survey with clients and prospects, most predict a 2018 with challenges, with any gains from a potential higher GDP growth being eaten by the need to keep prices competitive to fight private label, channel disruption, and a more-than-ever empowered consumer ready to make the switch to competitive brands.  By Isaac Mizrahi – Co President, Chief Operating Officer / ALMA

I was talking to Dale Beaton about the future of retail and he gave an insight that came from shopping for clothes with his teenage daughter over the holidays. I had suggested that their feelings about the shopping experience were probably very different but apparently not; they both disliked it.  by Nigel Hollis

The digital world has given manufacturers new ways to engage consumers, but online direct-to-consumer models are a mixed bag. Which ones actually work?

There is no doubt we live in a post-factual world and that is as true of marketing as the news media. We have more data than ever on what people do but we rarely try to understand it. Instead we leave interpretation to algorithms, AI and machine learning. We assume that the results are valid and the resulting actions correct.  by Nigel Hollis

Grocery shoppers scan a number of channels to find the best way to save a buck or two. And while digital is a big component of how they find and research such deals, many still take the traditional route—circulars.

The consumer packaged goods sector faces tough hurdles in 2018. That’s mainly because of long, steady shifts in consumer preferences. But new players are disrupting the market as well, as are changes in the distribution channel.

It is common knowledge that US consumers fill their waking hours with media usage. But how people split up their media time may surprise you.