Marketing

Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) announced the first top-line results from its IRI Long-Term Drivers Consortium Study that was initially launched in mid-2006. Since its inception, the study has been utilizing brand information from a consortium of national CPG manufacturers to quantify the importance of TV advertising, in-store promotion, distribution and brand variety on the long-term health of brands and the overall CPG industry.

Community events score with youth influencers.

A few years back, a market researcher wanted to form a focus group consisting of the most influential kids available. The researcher would ask children, “Who’s the coolest kid you know?” Kids who answered “me” were invited to be in the sample.

I’ve been LinkedIn-crazy lately. As a CEO of a busy start-up, with all the distracting little details that pull me this way and that, it is good to remind myself that the greatest asset I bring to my company is my personal network of contacts. Managing and maintaining my contacts and network, I find, is the single most important thing I can do with my time. And most of that networking is done through email: one-to-one email marketing at its (hopefully) best.

There’s been a lot of talk about word-of-mouth online. I wrote an article a while ago and many people emailed me afterwards. It spawned quite a bit of conversations among colleagues, clients and friends. The overall feeling is that word of mouth online or offline is one of the most powerful vehicles out there. Do you agree?

The U.S. GOVERNMENT will spend more than $1 billion this year on nutrition education to promote fresh fruits and vegetables as an alternative to unhealthy foods for children to eat and snack on, but most of those promotional funds will be wasted, according to an analysis of 57 such programs conducted by the Associated Press. Could it be because the food marketing industry will spend more than ten times that amount promoting some less-than-healthy culinary choices? Well, we’re about to find out, as some of the nation’s biggest food marketers prepare to unveil a set of new public initiatives designed to fix that paradox and get some federal regulators and public advocacy groups off their backs.

Marketers may still be a little leery of using new-media and consumer-generated media (CGM) tactics in their plans. But, as revealed in the 2007 PRWeek/MS&L Marketing Management Survey, those companies that are excelling in this new marketing environment are discovering that taking the plunge is well worth the investment.

Why write an article on Hispanic identity, now? The answer to this question is not difficult: it has to do with demographics. And demographics are they key to economic and political power for any group.

There are obvious pragmatic reasons why companies in the United States have been investing in this segment at a record rate.

How often do you get to sit down and think about the answer to the question, “what is a brand?” I’m relatively lucky because I get to sit and think about it almost everyday. I used to not be a believer in the power of brands, but I eventually changed my tune and feel they are indeed necessary to achieve lasting growth when you build a company, product or service. That being said, the last few years have seen a radical evolution in the way a brand is built and managed, almost to the point where the evolution of a brand is more of a revolution of the brand.

Marketers and advertisers who are looking for product placement to become a substitute for traditional advertising need to be selective in how they use placements since not all product placements are equal, according to a just-released analysis of BIGresearch’s Simultaneous Media Survey. Over 15,000 consumers participated in the latest bi-annual survey.

Kellogg Company announced that it is undertaking two major initiatives that further strengthen its commitment to meeting consumers’ health and nutrition needs by adjusting what and how the company markets to children and through new front-of-pack nutrition labeling.

‘As Seen on TV’ still has some heft to it.

TV ads are the best way to reach and engage online consumers with new product information, according to the American Marketing Association’s “Mplanet” survey, conducted with Opinion Research Corporation prior to the 2006 holiday season.

Alloy Access released findings from a new study revealing data that defines spending power and influence of an emerging and powerful consumer market. Redefining themselves as positive, upwardly mobile Hustlers, the group is identified as the new “Urban Hustler”.

Segmentation is more than a way to classify the market. It acts as a strategic framework for understanding, marketing to, and reaching customers and prospects. Taken to its fullest potential, segmentation provides the organizing principle—the lingua franca—for the way the entire organization thinks about its customers and prospects.

How do you get your clients excited and committed to your market? I have found the variety of approaches we multicultural marketing professionals take to sell our market to corporate America inspiring, amusing and at times, just flat out embarrassing. And while we have become more sophisticated in communicating our target’s business value, it is fair to say that the most important step in marketing brands to Latinos starts with “marketing latinos” to brands.

In case you are not familiar with these variables, let me explain. They are a measurement of your share of voice in advertising.

The Disney-ABC Television Group and Sprint announced that Sprint customers can now access a comprehensive portfolio of news and entertainment video programming from ABC Entertainment, ABC News and Disney Channel.

Not long ago, the Hispanic market was considered marginal by many businesses, being perceived as a largely immigrant group with income, language, and educational limitations. Today, with the commoditization of the concept of acculturation and the emergence of bicultural TV networks, no one argues that Hispanics are an appealing market segment that goes beyond the classic preconceptions to encompass more affluent, hip, bilingual and bicultural consumers. While this shift from low value to high value is important, there is an emerging shift that promises to elevate the role of Hispanics even to a higher level: Hispanics are moving from being a market in itself to being a strategic tool for competitive advantage in the general market. Those who chose to leverage the influencing power of “The Latino” in the crowded general market will profit from the next in strategic marketing.

Word of mouth is the #1 influence on business purchase decisions and is best leveraged through face-to-face marketing efforts, according to a new study of US and UK executives conducted by market research firm the Keller Fay Group and sponsored by experiential marketing agency Jack Morton Worldwide.

Word of mouth-one person sharing marketing-relevant information with another person-is far more influential for business executives than other communication channels. Fifty percent of business executives report they are highly likely to buy a product or service based on word of mouth; 49% pass on what they’ve heard to others. Executives report that word of mouth has more than twice the influence of advertising, direct mail or press coverage on purchase decisions.