Marketing

For many companies, cost reduction efforts become an endless downward spiral.  As soon as one cost reduction program is completed, it’s followed by another.  Competitors become locked in a race to the bottom, as price reductions predicated on cost reductions are countered by more cost-cutting from competitors to drive another round of price declines.  Before you know it, the industry has shrunk and retailers, manufacturers and consumers alike all lose out on greater growth and access to greater innovation.  By Jason Green, CEO, The Cambridge Group, and Dan Vucovich, former SVP, President U.S.,
The Hershey Co.

Historically, advertising production has followed a very traditional path: A marketer hires an agency of record; then that agency hires a production company to oversee the production of a master asset, as well as the post production, versioning, and adaptations, all with a single point of contact from the brand.  With the evolution of global content production needs, many marketers have found alternative solutions to this process. Often these solutions involve a transcreation house that is able to address emerging markets and provide consistency, transparency of spend, speed to market, and lower costs.  By Jillian Gibbs, ANA Faculty

Millward Brown released a study exploring the brands behind the two U.S. presidential candidates, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, comparing them with brand profiles in the company’s extensive brand database. The Clinton brand aligned with profiles of proficient but undifferentiated brands, including American Airlines, the United States Postal Service and Visit Florida, the state’s travel arm, while the Trump brand was unlike any brand found in the company’s BrandZ™ database of more than 100,000 brands.

Marketers are constantly looking to meet, and exceed, customer expectations. But according to March 2016 research, less than half of marketers feel confident their organization understands the customer journey.

“Listen to your customer” is a business truism that approaches cliché, but the consequences of not adapting commercial models to market shifts can be severe.  By Brian Fox and Paul Magills

Think you know programmatic video advertising? Take our quiz to see how you stack up against other eMarketer readers. Take the Quiz

Quri is announcing critical lessons learned from its “Summer of Merchandising” data, giving brands the keys to drive ROI ahead of Labor Day.

A new Quant-Qual study by Santiago Solutions Group titled “Gen Z 1.0: Hispanics vs. White Non-Hispanics on Aspirations, Stress, Family and the Influence of Culture”, discovered key differences in the relationship between Gen Z and their families for Hispanics and White Non-Hispanics. In a previous Gen Z quant study, SSG found that Hispanics experienced a much higher level of bittersweet relationships with their parents.

Keeping track of consumers’ media diets is a daunting challenge for any marketer. Thankfully it’s less challenging when media consumption can be sliced and diced across multiple platforms to see how Americans are spending their media days in an age of overwhelming choice. And the astounding choice is actually driving increased media consumption.

US senior decision-makers felt a number of varied factors impacted their analytics investments and objectives in Q1 2016. According to research, a plurality of executives—roughly one-fifth—blamed regulatory changes most, followed by economic (15%) and customer behavior shifts (13%).

It used to be that a bunch of analysis went into understanding the target audience, developing a media mix and selecting the publishers who would be considered and ultimately recommended for your media buys.  Then you gathered the available data and determined efficiencies and audience reach as a result of your campaign.  

According to the report, while the face values of print coupons distributed through Free Standing Inserts, SmartSource Coupon Machines and Consumer Magazines was higher than that of digital coupons distributed through Network and Retailer websites, the gap is narrowing.

Big Data analytics tantalize with the promise of nearly automated customer experience programs. Just tune the latest analytics software to your customer interactions and to social media sites, the pitch goes, and you can track and analyze how customers behave, as well as what they think about their experience with your company’s product or service.

Biopharmaceutical manufacturers have been reliant on the in-person sales rep model for so long, with just tentative experimentation with multichannel marketing over the years.  So what is making the tide turn in favor of multichannel marketing?

A new Quant-Qual study by Santiago Solutions Group titled “Gen Z: Hispanics vs. White Non-Hispanics on Aspirations, Stress, Family and the Influence of Culture”, revealed that the most substantial difference between Hispanic Gen Z and White Non-Hispanic (WNH) Gen Z was the manifestation and importance of culture (or lack thereof) in Gen Zers’ lives.

The media business, in the face of competition from Facebook and Google, is fighting for attention, eyeballs and advertising dollars.  And the challenges facing media sellers are becoming increasingly more complex, as our focus shifts from targeting audience “segments” to reaching individuals.  How can marketers and media brands continue to serve and succeed?

Results from a new Trusted Media Brands, Inc. study exploring the future of digital video found 65 percent of surveyed marketers think social platforms (e.g. Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter) are the most important partners for digital video campaigns over video platforms (YouTube, Vevo); video demand side platforms or DSPs (Videology, Tremor Video); full episode players (Hulu, broadcast and cable digital properties); ad networks; publishers (BuzzFeed, Vice, Vox); and multichannel networks (Maker Studios, Awesomeness TV, FullScreen).

Given Puerto Rico’s long-term economic malaise and ongoing fiscal crisis, it is no wonder that out-migration of the Island’s residents has picked up. Over the past five years alone, migration has resulted in a net outflow of almost 300,000 people, a staggering loss. It would make matters worse, however, if Puerto Rico were losing an outsized share of its highest-paid workers.  By Jaison R. Abel, Giacomo De Giorgi, Richard Deitz, and Harry Wheeler

Lizette Williams: Social media has created a platform to bring this conversation to the forefront of the industry, which we never would have seen 10 or 20 years ago. It’s given a real voice to consumers, many who have historically been disenfranchised. We’ve seen this with platforms like Black Twitter and organizations like Latina Bloggers Connect. These diversity issues have become mainstream issues as a result.

In the bid to be completely measurable and provide every figure a marketing executive could ever need, digital marketers are at the point of having an excel sheet worth of figures but not a whole lot of meaning. Many of the metrics I can think of are now turning into hygiene. Did my ad run, did it appear where it could be seen, did we keep it away from porn and was it actually seen by a human rather than a bot?