Marketing

Hyundai Motor America has named Angela Zepeda, the senior vice president and managing director at its agency of record INNOCEAN USA, as its new chief marketing officer. Angela will be responsible for all of Hyundai’s marketing and advertising activities in the U.S., including the strategic direction, brand development, national and regional advertising, experiential marketing, digital and social media, brand partnerships, and lead generation, among other responsibilities.

Consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) companies worldwide invest about 20 percent of their revenue annually in trade promotions. Stunningly, 59 percent lost money (in the United States, it’s 72 percent).  Conversely, best-in-class CPG promotions returned five times more than the least efficient. Clearly, there is a huge opportunity for both CPG manufacturers and retailers to improve return on investment (ROI) on their trade-promotion investments.

In a previous post, I tried to define the word brand. In this one I want to propose five financial benefits of a strong brand. Most people, I believe, would start with selling more, but given what I wrote in the last post I must start with commanding a higher price point.  by Nigel Hollis

In the age of anxiety, global challenges like trade, politics, inequality, and the state of the natural environment have captured much of the public’s consciousness. What’s not getting enough attention are timely examples of human innovation — the kind that will help drive a more sustainable future. There are two such milestones this year from which to draw inspiration.

Brands old and new are participating in the direct-to-consumer model, and this graphic depicts essential stats as well as tips for getting started in this space.

Why brands must forge deeper, more personalized relationships with consumers for future growth.  By Valeria Piaggio, SVP and Head of Identity and Inclusion Insights at Kantar Consulting

Traditionally, organizations haven’t viewed the customer experience as a singular thing owned by one particular person or department. That’s changed, as brands have worked to put customers at the forefront—and it’s given modern CMOs new importance as owners of that experience.

While marketers admit their future growth and success will rely on leveraging deeper relationships with customers, 43 percent surveyed by the CMO Council admit that their organizations identify “transactional” as being the top attribute and descriptor of their customers.

I realise that the idea of a ‘brand’ is one of those ill-defined concepts that causes endless confusion. We all use the same word and yet can assign it very different meanings. Given that a blog post is meant to stimulate discussion, I am going to propose a definition and we can see where things go from there.  by Nigel Hollis

Like professional athletes at the mercy of team owners always looking for the next superstar, chief marketing officers appear to have the shortest tenure of any member of the C-suite. The median life span in the role was 28 months in 2018, dropping from the 31-month median tenure a year earlier, according to Spencer Stuart. While some departing CMOs are tapped for internal roles beyond marketing, such as general manager, more often than not they are shown the door and move on to their next gig.

Ethical behavior has long been a concern for responsible marketers. But in a digital age, just what constitutes ethical marketing has become a moving target.

Over the past decade, many consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) companies have mastered the fundamentals of pricing, promotions, assortment, and trade investment—revenue growth management’s four main elements. While that development has allowed CPGs to reliably capture value, the landscape has shifted, and the bar is rising.

Every industrial revolution was catalyzed by a major technological evolution. Today is no dfferent. With 90 percent of the world’s data having been produced in the last two years and more than 26 billion smart devices in circulation, we are living in an era of unprecedented technological innovation—one that has spurred the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

But as consumers’ entertainment consumption patterns continue to change dramatically, a growing number of brands and organizations are starting to look at product placement in a new light, fueled by integrated marketing and more and more affordable programming options.

The fundamental method by which television commercials are bought and sold hasn’t significantly changed since the first spot aired 70 years ago — but that is changing now, and changing fast.

More than 20 companies were named as winners in 12 separate categories. Grand Prize winners in each category will be announced at an awards ceremony during the ANA’s 21st annual Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference, November 6–8, in San Diego. The ceremony culminates with the “Best in Show” announcement, honoring the year’s best campaign chosen from the Grand Prize category winners.

New global research released by Accenture Interactive offers guidance to chief marketing officers (CMOs) on strategies to use data respectfully and responsibly at a time when a majority of consumers (69%) would not do business with a brand if their data usage was invasive.

The 2016 ANA report on media transparency was a welcome and long-overdue wake-up call for the global advertiser community. By highlighting the existence of nontransparent trading practices in the U.S. media market — by most measures the largest and most sophisticated in the world — the report focused many national and global advertisers’ attention on the issue of transparency in media. It was the first stepping stone on the journey to more transparent media trading.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court has settled the debate around the inclusion of the citizenship question in the upcoming 2020 census, the business community can once again focus on what truly matters: the rich data it will provide to all of us, and how to apply the new learnings that this data will unlock.  By Isaac Mizrahi-  Co-President of ALMA

At this year’s Cannes Lions, Peter Field’s analysis of entrants into the UK’s IPA awards declared a crisis in creative effectiveness, blaming organisational short-termism for the decline. At Kantar we have long championed the role of creativity in driving brand predisposition, that if converted into action, delivers short term sales and longer-term equity. So, if award-winning ads are becoming less effective, how can we help restore them to their former strong effectiveness?  by Daren Poole – Global Head of Creative / Kantar