Marketing

Imagine, if you will, a thick hamburger patty being pulled off a sizzling grill and laid on a freshly toasted bun. Cheese slowly melts on the patty while it’s topped with lettuce, tomato and secret sauce drips as the top bun is perfectly placed. Now imagine two hands reaching to grab the delicious-looking burger. You see the person open their mouth, take a bite and close their eyes to enjoy each moment of the experience. Their eyes open and the only thing left to do is smile.  Which of these moments — the images of the burger or the person eating it — do you think communicates great taste at higher levels?

I was fortunate to have a great talk the other day with Kevin McNair, Britvic’s marketing director, in which he asserted the need for marketers to have the financial prowess of a CFO and the insight and business acumen to act like a CEO, as reflected in the headline for our interview.

Sometimes revolutions sneak up on you. For ages, boring bloggers (this one anyway) have been going on about the need for change, the coming of the transparent era, how the media agencies’ future resides with planners, how buying will become increasingly automated and on and on and on. And guess what? Suddenly it all seems to be starting to happen!  By Brian Jacobs / The Cog Blog

I admit that ‘brand health’ is one of those concepts used in marketing that is often ill-defined. Maybe that is why there are so many conflicting beliefs about it. So in this post I thought I would address three of the most frequent myths that I have heard concerning brand health.  by Nigel Hollis

Nielsen data has already shown that multicultural consumers are driving trends across alcoholic beverages, but a recent study found they are also influencing fresh categories in the grocery store.

Influencers are taking an increasingly large chunk of the digital ad market, and many individuals with hefty, engaged social media followings are charging top dollar to work with brands to spread the word about their products and services.

It’s tough being a marketer today. Consumers have a barrage of choices in front of them, leaving marketers scrambling to establish value, stand out and deliver. Marketers need ingenious ways to reach and increase brand appeal, and find their way into consumers’ shopping carts. Add to it a cluttered media landscape and rapid advancements in technology, brands are finding themselves increasingly challenged to capture consumer mind share.

I recently read an article in Market Leader by Judie Lannon titled, ‘Lost in translation: is the digital age weakening brand meanings?’ I think her proposition that cultural fragmentation has eroded brand strength is valid, but in part it has to do with how marketers are using digital media.  by Nigel Hollis

Media is viewed as a complex headache by advertisers who are failing to provide leadership in this critical investment area, according to a new report from media change consultants ID Comms.

Once upon a time, “stores” were buildings made of bricks and mortar that sold an inventory of a few thousand products during regular business hours. The digital revolution changed all that: e-commerce retailers created web shops that were open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The 2017 Marketers Confidence Index rose by 6 points from a year ago to 69 out of 100 possible points. Despite overall confidence in marketing increasing, 30 percent of marketers say they are more concerned that their organization is not investing in the right customers. This is a 13 decrease in confidence compared to how marketers felt one year ago.

In the digital age, consumers are always shopping around. New research shows that hooking them early is the strongest path to growth.  By David Court, Dave Elzinga, Bo Finneman, and Jesko Perrey

News that the Department of Justice is investigating “bid rigging” by ad agencies to favor in-house agency facilities highlights how competitive bidding works in the world of advertising and exposes a problematic industry practice, one that undermines the trust between agencies, clients and vendors.  By Alex Blum

As many of you know, I care deeply about the “how” of marketing: How are budgets allocated? How are results measured and tied back to plans and activities? How are marketing departments set up for maximum success? How are agencies contracted, managed and incentivized for their contributions? How is “new news” still allowed as a phrase in marketing presentations?  I care deeply about figuring out how to do marketing before doing the actual job. And so should all marketers.

If media is to change in 2017 then the way it’s assessed also needs to change. That means better, more relevant metrics, measures that reflect how media can add value to a brand and drive business success.

What do my customers want? The savviest executives are asking this question more frequently than ever, and rightly so. Leading companies understand that they are in the customer-experience business, and they understand that how an organization delivers for customers is beginning to be as important as what it delivers.

Isolating and diagnosing the effectiveness of your brand’s communications can be difficult even on familiar ground. With Hispanic consumers, even more variables are in play. These are the most common mistakes brands are making in measuring Hispanic campaigns — and how to avoid them.  By Aleena Astorga Roeschley – Communicus, Inc.

We all know that creativity matters when it comes to advertising, but I will bet that this is where the agreement stops. Is creativity a means to get attention, a means to focus attention on the brand or a means to accentuate an impression of the brand? In reality the answer is all three.

So what is the Hispanic Millennial Mistake? The mistake is when a Brand manager or marketer decides to focus the majority of its marketing dollars on a bicultural, bilingual Hispanic millennial and thus, shifts a large portion of Hispanic marketing dollars away from its core Hispanics base; that’s if a Brand has one. Many Brands are barely beginning to market their products to Hispanic and now they just want to focus on Hispanic millennials.  By Jose L. (Joe) Lopez –  Lopez Marketing Group

Like any art form, movies are a mirror of our society. And as the U.S. continues to evolve into a minority-majority nation, studios are challenged to produce stories that reflect the changing faces of American moviegoers. By Hilary Dubin / Univision Insights