Marketing

The decade of the 2010’s will require more cultural sensitivity than ever before. Not that cultural sensitivity was not needed much earlier in the US and around the world, but conditions are ripe now for understanding how culture can enhance profits and better marketing.

The economic downturn has put stress on big consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands as more consumers make purchases based on price. CPG marketers do not want their products left behind for less expensive store and private-label items, which increasingly offer comparable quality and ingredients.

The Internet has moved from the “experimental” or “emerging media” categories to a mainstream media outlet. Online video portals like YouTube and Hulu transform the user interface. Facebook reshapes the contours of social media, helping friends connect and communicate. Apple rocked the commercial music world when it rolled out the iPod player.Download report here.

In any product category, roughly 10% of the consumers account for more than 50% of the profits. These super-consumers, as we call them, are the hot dog buyers who eat five pounds of hot dogs a month, wolfing down as many as 4 per sitting. They are the stapler users who own 8 different staplers. They know what they want, they’ll buy a lot of it, and they’ll pay a premium for it. They’re passionate and engaged — sometimes even a little obsessive — and they exist in every category, from soft drinks and air travel to fast-food and oral care products. Available at HispanicCMO.com

After almost a year spent surveying brand and consumer response to the recession through our AnxietyIndex.com, we found that only a handful of the 350 examples we collected across 24 countries truly stood out. Creating innovative work isn’t easy in any economic climate; it’s even harder when marketing budgets are low and risk aversion is high.

Consumers are taking control of in-bound communication channels, unsubscribing to irrelevant email, and defecting from brands that continue to deliver irrelevant content and random mass mailings, according to a new poll from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and InfoPrint Solutions Company.

In the not so distant past, the young urban market was defined by stereotypical images of African-American youth clad in baggy jeans and over-sized shirts listening to loud rap music.

The definition of today’s urban lifestyle consumer has clearly evolved, outgrowing many of the preconceived notions of what urban is. No longer confined to a demographic living in inner-city zip codes, these urban consumers have come to represent a specific mindset born out of the unique energy, creativity and diversity of America’s urban centers.

More than four out of five (84 percent) chief marketing officers (CMOs) allocate less than ten percent of their budgets to experimenting through social media and non-traditional communications channels, with more than half (55 percent) allocating just five percent or less, according to a study by The CMO Club and Hill &
Knowlton.

Arguably the most effective and enduring communications are born from single, simple insights into human behavior — or more specifically, human consumer behavior. Insights so simple, in fact, that once revealed people react by saying, “That must already exist,” or “Why didn’t I think of that.” By Jeff Swystun. Available here and HispanicCMO.com

Marketers want to be seen as visionaries- individuals who can shift perspectives and capabilities to bring about game-changing outcomes in their organizations. However, they are further away from this realization than they think, according to a new study by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) in partnership with Prophet. This key finding was revealed in The State of Marketing Survey: The Shift, a survey of 150 marketers, from director level to chief marketing officer. This wide-ranging study examined the marketers’ current roles, the depth of their collaboration with C-level and corporate executives, and their ability to manage customers and consumers.

With custom branded content and media channels continuing to multiply in North America, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and the Custom Publishing Council (CPC) have formed a strategic alliance to study ROI in an area of marketing spend that totaled $33 billion in 2008.

As with many of us who have spent our entire careers on the Internet, I have a bit of media establishment envy. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Internet; I’ve spent the past 10 years analyzing the Web and continue to believe the future is in truly interactive media. Sentiment aside, for the most part Internet professionals have spent much of our careers at the proverbial kids’ table. For far too long the Internet has been relegated to the “experimental” or “emerging media” categories.