Marketing

Determining audience “identity” has become a major priority over the past year for U.S. marketers, many of whom plan to increase their investment in finding and developing identity solutions.

Rising internet penetration, denser urban locations, faster paced lifestyles and challenging working hours are adding more and more layers of complexity to consumers’ lives. According to the World Health Organization, “workplace stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century,” and multiple agencies have tracked the steady rise of anxiety related illnesses around the world. Consumers are feeling more stretched than ever before, and are increasingly striving for convenient solutions which help to simplify their busy lives.

Johnson’s has radically transformed its 124-year-old brand to meet the needs and preferences of modern parents.

It sometimes seems as if we’re living in a post-trust age, when nothing and no one is beyond question or reproach. Granted, there are plenty of people and organizations that have been guilty of abusing our trust, and the damage can be serious.

The major trade associations representing the advertising industry — are jointly writing to express opposition to the addition of the new census question that asks, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”

Personalized communication with every customer is the future of marketing. McKinsey partners Julien Boudet and Kai Vollhardt say it’s easier than many marketers think, if you begin with the data you have.  By Julien Boudet and Kai Vollhardt

Big data breaches like the ones that Yahoo and Target had can spell the end of a CMO’s career, according to Warren Zenna, founder of Zenna Consulting Group.

The magnitude and pace of change in the US market have undermined traditional growth models for many consumer-packaged-goods companies, especially larger ones. Companies need to combine greater agility with new types of scale advantage to compete more effectively.

Successful personalization at scale requires four elements working in tandem. Here’s how marketing leaders build the operating model to make that happen.

Brand loyalty is somewhat habit-based. Consumers buy products because their parents bought them, passing brand equity from generation to generation. Marketers know this and often leverage that heritage with customers, but in a world where there is disruptive competition for brand loyalty, is heritage marketing still viable?  By Amelia Duggan

Buying media from an unwired network was similar to a game of pin the tail on the donkey.  It was labor-intensive (local invoices for days), hitting your target was never guaranteed and all parties were left with a dizzying feeling.  Thanks to upgrades in technology — think machine learning — those days are gone.

The truth of the matter is that amidst the extreme change (with a splash of chaos) that our industry is currently experiencing, it’s our job to change the story that, in my opinion, seems to have gotten away from us.  Only if WE change the story, can WE change the outcome.  So what’s the story I’m hearing out in the marketplace?  It depends who you ask, but for some it’s “Spanish-language media is dying.”  For others, it’s “Total Market is killing our industry,” or “no one can seem to get the in-culture formula right.”  To me, it’s all just negative bullshit.  No one is immune to the shift the media and marketing industry is experiencing for more reasons than I can count on two hands (that’s ten fingers, folks).  By David Chitel / NGL Collective

At what point does a company become competition to others already in the market? For many large, multinational global brands, other companies don’t become competition until they’re operating at the same scale and in similar markets. As a result, global companies often don’t pay much attention to the small brands that operate well outside of their global peripheral vision.

Marketers want to follow customers in real time, but outdated technology often stands in their way.

The Department of Commerce, which has oversight of the 2020 census, has approved the addition of a new census question that asks, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” ANA members are concerned that the addition of a citizenship question would depress response among both non-citizens and their families (even if family members are indeed citizens). That runs the risk of non-respondent bias by significantly undercounting immigrant, minority and low-income populations. As one ANA member stated: “I believe that undocumented people will not report their presence and therefore the census will be under-reported, therefore skewing data, messing up budgets and providing inaccurate reporting.”  By Bill Duggan / ANA

The world has never been more connected, and U.S. audiences have never had as many options to access content as they do these days. In short, consumers in the U.S. seem like they can’t get enough content, and the possibilities for marketers to reach them, while fragmented, is an opportunity that is just too good to pass on.

Good design ought to make a product or service more convenient, easier, and more enjoyable to use; not just visually attractive or distinctive. But what evidence do we have that people will pay more for a well-designed product?  by Nigel Hollis

Marketers know that data is becoming more important to their livelihoods. But getting tech vendors to make good on their promises is often a tall task.

The concept of trust has usually been associated with stasis more than change. It brings up images of age-old, time-tested, large, solid brands and organizations with large and loyal user bases.

There’s no shortage of evidence and industry opinion to suggest that digital advertising is killing the art of brand building. Whether it’s Binet and Field’s superb work for the IPA or Simon White’s article in AdAge, the consensus is clear; the expansion of digital has generated greater efficiency in sales conversion, at the expense of long-term brand growth.  by Guest Contributor Josh Samuels / Kantar Millward Brown