Branding matters. Because branding matters.
Published by 06.21#103
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Dear friends: Given the stress and turmoil that a lot of us are going through, showing up and shipping the BrandKnew issue, month after month is driven primarily by the continued loyalty of our readers and subscribers. That is a huge motivation and thank you all very much for your continued patronage. It means a lot to all of us at BrandKnew. Humour is sought after but not very often given the due. In this issue we look at how humour can create great value in marketing. If you take a look at some of the most reputable brands in the world, you will not miss certain key personality traits. Understand more of it here. The job market has never been tighter or tougher. Building a personal brand that acts as a steely armor in such a situation is shared in this edition. We are putting our neck on the line here when we say ‘ AI is neither artificial or intelligent ‘. Read more to decipher why we say that. Seeing around corners is a habit that we need to cultivate. Adopting a future back strategy rather than a present forward one. Treating the future as an asset not a guess is what we prescribe here for brands and marketers. The pecking order that marketers are following in this age of high video consumption: Make things that people want to see, watch and buy. Game for it? Know more in this edition. The Harvard Case Study method is part of management folklore. Over several decades it has served as the beacon of understanding organisations and brands and remained at the fulcrum of strategy development. Being counter intuitive, we put a spanner in the works and urge you to make a case out of revisiting the case study method. Soak up the feature and you just may endorse our thinking. Do feel free to push back. It is very much stating the obvious but saying it nevertheless. Post the pandemic as more customers walk through and into retail stores, what will keep them and bring them back again is a ‘ Wow Customer Experience ‘. It is a very angry world out there(all the world is a rage!!)- how do we keep brands safe in such an environment? You will get to know more in this issue. There is ample more to distill, whet and debate on and I leave you to do just that. Till the next, my very best!
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Managing Editor: Suresh Dinakaran Creative Head/Director Operations: Pravin Ahir Magazine Concept & Design/ New Media Specialist: Mufaddal Joher Chief Strategy Director: Rishi Mohan Brand Engagement and Outreach Specialist: Anuva Madan Chief Country Man, India: Rohit Unni Brand Trends and Research Architect: Meeta Pendse Revenue Growth Architect: Ritu Dey Country Head, Australia: Norbert D’Souza Country Head, UK: Sagar Patil Performance Marketing Architect: Suresh Babu Technology & Web Enabler: Vyanky Charakpalli Social Media Outreach: Pooja Chhabda SEO Advocate: Santhosh Rakonda Content & PR: Nitin Kumar
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CONTENTS Is “Performance Branding” an oxymoron? This Researcher Says AI Is Neither Artificial nor Intelligent The Personality Traits of the Most Reputable Brands Humour in marketing and value creation? You must be joking The future is an asset, not a guess! How to Crash-Proof Your Personal Brand in a Tight Job Market Yes, Customers Always Know What They Want 5 Reasons Your Brand Needs Its Own Spotify Playlist Keeping Brands Safe in an Angry World Is There A Case To Revisit The Case Study Method? The economics of movie product placements Do You Prefer Cats or Dogs? Why Self-expression Increases Giving Five great display and video advertising tactics to increase relevance and revenue in a cookie-less world Not Doing Different Things, Doing Things Differently Want to Make Retail Customers Happy? Give Them a ‘Wow’ Experience The ‘Econometric Hero’ and five questions every CMO should ask about MMM Marketers, Make Things That People Want to See, Watch and Buy. In That Order. Branding the Branders: The Joy of Designing Agency Identities Proving Marketing to Execs (Part 2): Marketing’s Language Problem When the cookie crumbles: how to prepare for the next stage of digital advertising Book, Line & Sinker
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Is “Performance Branding” an oxymoron? By John Furgurson
Yep. Your branding efforts really can translate to bottom line growth.
gets people talking. If you can do that, you’ll move a lot of product and build your brand at the same time.
A lot of business people seem to think that branding ads are a waste of money. As if “branding” and “results” can never go together.
The fact is, every ad and every touchpoint with a prospective buyer is branding. Whether you like it or not.
Subaru’s branding ads disprove that notion. And Apple’s new commercial for its purple iPhone is a perfect example of how great “branding” ads can cross the chasm into product promotion. Bigger Idea That video is impossible to ignore.
Just because a Facebook ad includes a promotional offer doesn’t mean it’s NOT branding. Of course it is. If all of your ads and posts offer price point discounts and super savings you’ll become known as a discount brand. By default. Those ads might perform well and move a lot of product, but they’ll also cement the perception of your brand in the minds of your prospects.
First of all, the visual execution is stunningly beautiful. Eye candy, for sure. But more importantly, the spot is jarringly memorable thanks to the Candyman sound track.
So be careful.
That old song from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, circa 1971, sings its way into the deepest recesses of the human brain.
But if you’re determined to build your brand for long-term success you have to think beyond just the next promotion.
It’s, literally, a neurological trigger. From what I’ve seen on social media, people either love it or they hate it. But they sure are talking about it! That’s what you’re looking for in any kind of ad; A big idea that’s on brand, executed in a strikingly memorable way that
If all you want to do is make a quick buck off a generic product with a short lifecycle, it’s not an issue.
Your ads need to have a little more meaning, and a much bigger idea. Subaru’s brand ads have sold a lot of cars to skiers. Apple’s candyman commercial is moving purple iPhones. What’s your brand message doing?
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This Researcher Says AI Is Neither Artificial nor Intelligent By Tom Simonite
Kate Crawford, who holds positions at USC and Microsoft, says in a new book that even experts working on the technology misunderstand AI. TECHNOLOGY
COMPANIES
LIKE
to
portray
artificial
underpinning some versions of the technology. Crawford,
intelligence as a precise and powerful tool for good. Kate
a professor at the University of Southern California and
Crawford says that mythology is flawed. In her book Atlas
researcher at Microsoft, says many applications and side
of AI, she visits a lithium mine, an Amazon warehouse,
effects of AI are in urgent need of regulation.
and a 19th-century phrenological skull archive to illustrate
Crawford recently discussed these issues with WIRED senior
the natural resources, human sweat, and bad science
writer Tom Simonite. An edited transcript follows.
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WIRED: Few people understand all the technical
if you drop culture and context and that you might change
details of artificial intelligence. You argue that some
the way you look and feel hundreds of times a day.
experts working on the technology misunderstand AI more deeply.
That also becomes a feedback loop: Because we have emotion detection tools, people say we want to apply it in
KATE CRAWFORD: It is presented as this ethereal and
schools and courtrooms and to catch potential shoplifters.
objective way of making decisions, something that we can
Recently companies are using the pandemic as a pretext to
plug into everything from teaching kids to deciding who gets
use emotion recognition on kids in schools. This takes us
bail. But the name is deceptive: AI is neither artificial nor
back to the phrenological past, this belief that you detect
intelligent.
character and personality from the face and the skull shape.
AI is made from vast amounts of natural resources, fuel,
You contributed to recent growth in research into
and human labor. And it’s not intelligent in any kind of
how AI can have undesirable effects. But that field
human intelligence way. It’s not able to discern things without
is entangled with people and funding from the
extensive human training, and it has a completely different
tech industry, which seeks to profit from AI. Google
statistical logic for how meaning is made. Since the very
recently forced out two respected researchers on AI
beginning of AI back in 1956, we’ve made this terrible error,
ethics, Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell. Does
a sort of original sin of the field, to believe that minds are like
industry involvement limit research questioning AI?
computers and vice versa. We assume these things are an analog to human intelligence, and nothing could be further from the truth. You take on that myth by showing how AI is constructed. Like many industrial processes it turns out to be messy. Some machine learning systems are built with hastily collected data, which can cause problems like face recognition services more error prone on minorities.
I can’t speak to what happened inside Google, but what I’ve seen is incredibly troubling. It’s important that we have researchers inside technology companies seeing how these systems work and publishing about it. We’ve seen research focused too narrowly on technical fixes and narrow mathematical approaches to bias, rather than a wider-lensed view of how these systems integrate with complex and high stakes social institutions like criminal justice, education, and health care. I would love to see research
We need to look at the nose to tail production of artificial
focus less on questions of ethics and more on questions of
intelligence. The seeds of the data problem were planted in
power. These systems are being used by powerful interests
the 1980s, when it became common to use data sets without
who already represent the most privileged in the world.
close knowledge of what was inside, or concern for privacy. It was just “raw” material, reused across thousands of projects. This evolved into an ideology of mass data extraction, but data isn’t an inert substance—it always brings a context and a politics. Sentences from Reddit will be different from those in kids’ books. Images from mugshot databases have
Is AI still useful? Let’s be clear: Statistical prediction is incredibly useful; so is an Excel spreadsheet. But it comes with its own logic, its own politics, its own ideologies that people are rarely made aware of.
different histories than those from the Oscars, but they are
And we’re relying on systems that don’t have the sort of
all used alike. This causes a host of problems downstream.
safety rails you would expect for something so influential in
In 2021, there’s still no industry-wide standard to note what
everyday life. We have a regulation emergency: There are
kinds of data are held in training sets, how it was acquired,
tools actually causing harm that are completely unregulated.
or potential ethical issues. You trace the roots of emotion recognition software to dubious science funded by the Department of Defense in the 1960s. A recent review of more than 1,000 research papers found no evidence a person’s
Do you see that changing soon? We’re getting closer. We have Alondra Nelson in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who has written about the fact that you cannot escape the politics
emotions can be reliably inferred from their face.
of technology. And we’re starting to see a new coalition of
Emotion detection represents the fantasy that technology will
capitalism and computation is core to climate justice, and
finally answer questions that we have about human nature
labor rights, and racial justice. I’m optimistic.
activists and researchers seeing that the interrelatedness of
that are not technical questions at all. This idea that’s so contested in the field of psychology made the jump into machine learning because it is a simple theory that fits the tools. Recording people’s faces and correlating that to simple, predefined, emotional states works with machine learning—
Tom Simonite is a senior writer for WIRED in San Francisco covering artificial intelligence and its effects on the world. He was previously the San Francisco bureau chief at MIT Technology Review, and wrote and edited technology coverage at New Scientist magazine in London.
The Personality Traits of the Most Reputable Brands By Ayaz Nanji
The brands that consumers find most reputable tend to come across as risktaking, friendly, uncompromising, trustworthy, and orderly, according to research from TrustPilot. The report was based on an analysis of Global RepTrack’s 2018 list of the top US, UK and global brands that consumers find most reputable.
The researchers used IBM’s Watson Personality API, an AIdriven platform that processes written text, to see which key personality traits the brands exhibit.
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The brands examined ranked in the 95% percentile, on average, for immoderation, the analysis found. At first glance, that personality trait may not seem to go hand-in-hand with being reputable, but a high score can
indicate a deep commitment to taking risks in order to pursue a company’s values, goals, and ideas. Top Characteristics of Most Reputable Companies
Friendliness was the personality trait with the second-highest average percentile; it was followed by uncompromising, trustworthy, and orderly. The Global RepTrak 100
About the research: The report was based on an analysis of Global RepTrack’s 2018 list of the US, UK and global brands that consumers find most reputable. The researchers used IBM’s Watson Personality API, an AI-driven platform that processes written text, to see which key personality traits the brands had in common.
Ayaz Nanji is a digital strategist and a co-founder of ICW Media, a marketing agency specializing in content and social media services for tech firms. He is also a research writer for MarketingProfs. He has worked for Google/YouTube, the Travel Channel, AOL, and the New York Times.
Humour has an important role to play in effective advertising, but don’t just ‘do a funny ad’, warns Jack Miles – put some serious thought into it.
also the condition humour in advertising is actually funny. There’s no Effie or Lion for dad jokes.
Marketing effectiveness. Value creation. Serious stuff, isn’t it? Some might say neither of these are a laughing matter. But ‘some’ are wrong. Why? Because there’s evidence that using humour in marketing is a value creation opportunity.
… and want to create marketing value with humour. Simply ‘doing a funny ad’ will limit how much value humour can create for your marketing. Instead, you’ll need to incorporate humour into marketing’s holy trinity: segmentation, targeting and positioning.
And no, I’m not joking. And given we’ve recently exited April – National Humour Month – it feels appropriate to discuss this. Ad jokes or dad jokes? Much of the work on humour in marketing focuses on humour in advertising. And it’s easy to understand why. Effective advertising is noticeable and memorable. Even better, it’ll form a connection between brand and consumer. Humour has a role in this. Research into the ‘humour effect’ shows that humorous material is more memorable compared to non-humorous material. Why? Because we pay more attention to humorous things. And this means we remember them. Better than being memorable, is advertising that connects brands with consumers. Professor Rod Martin, a humour and laughter expert, believes humour aids this. Martin defines humour as having social and interpersonal dimensions. This means humour has evolved as a tool of social cohesion – i.e. bonding. In Ehrenberg-Bass language this means humorous advertising will build your brand’s mental availability – it will be accessible in people’s minds and buyable. Oh, there’s
A segment, a target and a position walk into a bar…
The why is simple: advertising’s role is to communicate your position to your target segment(s). This means it would be remiss to neglect humour’s role in the holy trinity – value creation’s strategic foundations – before using it in advertising. Why did the segmentation cross the road…? … To divide your market up so you can identify the most profitable and reachable segments to target. This process will involve analysing your market’s demographic profile – a basic element of segmentation, yes, but vital if you want to use humour in your marketing. Why? • Incongruity Theory states humour is a point of realising the link between a concept and a real situation. Experiments on this topic show that often older people are less likely to understand jokes vs. younger people. Yet, when understood, elder people appreciate jokes more. • Males and females have different senses of humour. A meta-analysis of 77 studies demonstrates this: men appreciate aggressive and sexual humour more; women have greater appreciation for humour production over delivery. But
demographics
alone
won’t
produce
targetable,
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Humour in marketing and value creation? You must be joking By Jack Miles
differentiated and actionable segments, especially if you want to use humorous advertising. Therefore, two other elements need including in your segmentation: 1. Psychographics to understand personality traits 2. Behavioural data to identify happiness triggers Knock, knock. Who’s there? Target. Target who…? … Good question. Choosing which segment(s) to target is a big strategic marketing decision. And if you want to use humour in your advertising, targeting is everything. You’ll not only need to decide which segment is profitable and reachable. But also, when you should target them. This is because mood influences memory. If people are in a good mood, they’ll remember more. Furthermore, people are more likely to remember material that matches their memory. Thus, people are more likely to remember a funny advert when they’re in a good mood. But can you target people based on mood? Yes, you can. Google’s Ad Stack lets you target people with specific adverts based on audience signals. This includes when people are browsing topics they’re passionate about, and thus in a good mood. Or in Snickers’ case, it allows you to target people when they’re likely to be feeling impulsive. And mood-based targeting isn’t a ‘Google thing’. Spotify also allows you to target people based on their mood, defined by the music they’re listening to. What’s black, white and red all over…? …The balance sheet for a brand with a weak positioning. And key to avoiding this – and making said balance sheet black, white and green – is to position your brand in a differentiated
way in people’s minds. If you want to use humour to help achieve this, you need to ask yourself: • How can humour make your position unique vs. your competitors? • Can a humour-based positioning help you stand both for and against something? • Is humour a relevant and sustainable position for your brand? If you can’t answer these questions, commissioning that ‘funny ad’ could mean the joke’s on you. Ha-ha-ha-s humour in marketing got long term potential? Marketers often talk about striving for customer-centricity and closeness. And humour – a way to create intimacy – can help these efforts. Let’s also not forget Binet & Field’s belief that emotive advertising campaigns are more likely to create long term profitable growth. But one size fits one. Not all. Light humour works for Nando’s. Verging-on-outrageous humour works for Paddy Power. And humour helped KFC not FCK up in November 2018. But how much value could humour create for British Gas, Shell or Amazon? I’d suggest limited amounts. So, if you’re going to use humour in marketing, don’t just ‘do a funny ad’. Instead, ensure it’s considered and planned for as you segment your market, target segment(s) and position accordingly. Failure to do so will mean, no matter how funny your advertising is, it’ll create limited value. And that’s not a punch line anyone wants to hear.
A crystal ball gazing into what marketers and marketing should/could be doing in the coming times! The future is an asset, not a guess. As such, using it rather than predicting it, is the only way to create the conditions for a tomorrow that is better than today. Few industries will have more predictions or “future of” reports than marketing. After all, it’s in our best interest to be a step ahead of the consumer. However, rather than prediction, intention is what has enabled the creation of strong global brands, remarkable campaigns, game changing products and services and thriving economies. Marketing can no longer be taught, investigated, and practiced as confined to transactions between buyers and sellers, but needs to be reconsidered as deeply embedded within society and our living world. Critically, though, this is perhaps the perfect stage and time – an open invitation for marketers to stop viewing themselves and their trade as economists do. As preached
by ad legend Rory Sutherland, “My definition of marketing is simply the science of knowing what economists are wrong about. The human mind does not run on logic any more than a horse runs on petrol.” Perhaps, rather than chasing more universal laws of marketing, and what Sutherland calls ‘measurebation’, why not chase the exceptions that bring exponential success? And why not use that to help shift a business culture focused on short-term advantage, obsessed with money and uninterested on much else? Particularly when, as explained by Sutherland in an exclusive master class for The Marketing Academy,“ “Marketing could be viewed as the most determining factor for social progress – not just in terms of changing our buying habits, but also in transforming our values system.” Well… so what? A typical career lasts for 80,000 hours; so if you can make your career just one percent better, then in theory it would be worth spending up to 800 hours working out how to do just that. The past holds the patterns, the present is blurred, but the future is from where such exceptions can
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The future is an asset, not a guess! By Suresh Dinakaran
be seeded and harvested. Dr Toby Ord, a Philosophy Fellow at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, frames the point in a rather compelling way: “Of all the people whose wellbeing we should care about, only a small fraction are alive today. The rest are members of future generations who are yet to exist. Whether they’ll be born into a world that is flourishing or disintegrating – and indeed, whether they will ever be born at all – is in large part up to us.” This conclusion holds true regardless of whether your moral framework is based on common sense, consequences, rules of ethical conduct, cooperating with others, virtuousness, keeping options open or just a sense of wonder about the universe in which we find ourselves. Regardless of your personal stance, this is an opportunity for a sound investment of your time. Now and then.
“We know how marketing works, but do we know what we want it to work for? Profit is the default worldview.
Prosperity is the renegade counterpart. Why not both?” Why not embrace ambiguity, apply genuine foresight and rigorously imagine possible scenarios where marketing’s effectiveness can be considered in novel and holistic ways? THE POST-COVID POSSIBLE SCENARIOS By all accounts, the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak was not an unpredictable ‘Black Swan’, since many working in the emerging infectious diseases field provided several indications of its possibility. What is hard to predict, yet possible to project, is what may happen after this. The challenge of a global response is that there are multiple world views operating, all with different interests. Thus, predicting what the future may hold is pointless. But projecting alternative scenarios, preparing for potential risks and setting a course of action that helps actualize a desired future is a valuable lesson that futures studies can provide.
We need to stop talking in terms of the ‘new normal’. Please!!! What we are currently facing is a set of circumstances that have changed our environment. To what extent and for how long is unknown. This will again depend on your industry, your target audience and your ability to pave the road forward as opposed to waiting a return. How? Marketing’s ‘4Ps’ can be a good indicator. Move on from planned obsolescence to products that last longer or, even better, regenerate. From a burnout workforce to one that better integrates life and work. From the cumbersome commute and costly square metres to ubiquitous mobility and commerce convenience. From low prices funded by cheap labour to competitive prices enabled by smarter supply chains and business models. What we have seen more than anything else is incredible adaptability, agility and versatility, none more so than within our small business community. If you weren’t digital before, you certainly are now. Again, every marketer needs to arm themselves with skills and pivoting abilities, rather than grand strategies and we could all learn something from SMBs. In this (as in any time of change) we need to focus on what we need to learn, NOT on what we already know. How do we use data to learn more, improve outcomes and make sure we are resonating with our consumers? This time has also given us the opportunity to press the reset button. Change is not new to marketing. COVIDinduced change across industries and economies has forced simultaneous change for all marketers and tested their adaptability. It’s on a bigger scale but not totally new. We have been forced to forensically look at ourselves, our budgets, the environment in which we are operating and, ultimately, our consumer. This has forced optimisation through digital, collaboration, through necessity and working in a much more agile manner. We may now expect some positive outcomes, like grit to NOT return to a normal that only partially served us.
The strength of a society is based on how we treat the weakest, not how we glorify the strongest. Young people are no longer the future, but the present. This is the disruption that truly creates the fourth industrial revolution. Along with external innovation, there is inner innovation – a social revolution. Evidence-based science and technology inform public policy, not the whims of particular leaders. The insights from fighting COVID-19 are applied to climate change. There is a dramatic shift to plant-based diets. It is business transformed, social mutation, not back to usual. There are, however, concerns about privacy. COVID has accelerated tech adoption. Any brand that is still wrestling with ‘digital transformation’ will likely be struggling to keep up. It is wrong to think digital doesn’t incorporate creativity, just as it is wrong to think creativity has nothing to do with data. It’s both and, the sweet fruit of this marriage could mean the rise of sentient marketing. In this new reality, brands proactively take action to avoid errors, sensing adversity and remaining alert to micro-trends and opportunities in its environment. The sentient enterprise is frictionless and truly unified by its brand’s strategy – for real, not just as a model on the paper. Like many actions that the brain executes, the sentient enterprise listens to data and makes autonomous, real-time decisions without requiring a human’s conscious
intervention. Predictive marketing should absolutely be embraced but, as with all technology, success will be driven by more than just profit. Empathy, connection and responsibility, combined with value delivery, may become the new metrics assessed by brand trackers. Without delivering this, brands will quickly lose meaning and the ability to command price premiums and, ultimately, will commoditise. For now, consumers are searching for brands that help them make good choices that support the well-being for all – planet, people and the economy. Brands able to demonstrably track progress across the triple bottom line will move away from niche indexes reporting on ‘green brands’ and become the new gold standard for the more mainstream ‘best brands’ reports. Another (not so optimistic) scenario is that of a great despair looming large- Not an apocalypse, not a depression, no magic- just a slow and marked decline of health and wealth. Walls appear everywhere. The World Health Organisation and others try to contain it, but the virus repeatedly slips in and infects the bodies, minds and hearts of all. We are back to the Middle Ages. The efforts to address fail. The least connected to globalisation fare the best. The vulnerable are forgotten. Intergenerational memory of past pandemics informs reality. As marketers, do we have enough influence to impact this scenario? This often depends so deeply on political and economic inputs that are beyond our control. However, as an industry we are overwhelmingly one of optimism, action and awareness. Adopting a Future Back strategy(something that we practice at ISD Global ( https://bit.ly/3oCwAZD) is a manifestation of marketers’ ability to foresee this and disrupt inertia or apathy. There are many steps between here and there. Marketing doesn’t only have to be to ‘sell’ products and services. It can equally persuade and inform decisions about health choices, protecting the vulnerable, combating mental health deterioration and lessening the height of any ‘walls’. As a part of society, marketers would be part of the effort to resist the described decline. A few of us have already started. A systemic view of what marketing effectiveness is, and can be, needs to be supported by data, insights, technology, media ecosystems and the power of brand. Proficiency is part of the solution and posturing part of the problem. Above all, we have the unique opportunity to address the claim from the most important marketing theorist of the 20th century, Wroe Wilson, who said that, “What is needed is not an interpretation of the utility created by marketing, but a marketing interpretation of the whole process of creating utility.” For the 21st century, all marketers can make an honest attempt at doing just that. If we succeed, we can expect to ignite a journey to a desired future. If we fail… Suresh Dinakaran is the Chief Storyteller at ISD Global, a brand strategy & creative ideations entity based out of Dubai and Managing Editor, BrandKnew. With over two decades of insights, expertise and experience in building and growing brands across multiple geographies and media platforms.
How to Crash-Proof Your Personal Brand in a Tight Job Market By Humberto Herrera
Five years ago, asking a CEO whether he or she wanted—or needed—personal branding services would have earned you a raised eyebrow and a polite but emphatic no. When I started my career as a branding consultant, most of my clients were ambitious entrepreneurs or midcareer professionals who were willing to invest the time and money in boosting their personal brands. Top-level executives, however, often demurred, reasoning that they were busy and already as prominent in their industry as they needed to be. But in an ever-intensifying job market, even top executives— I’m talking triple-A talent—have come calling. The truth is that no one’s job is wholly secure. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the freshest intern or most entrenched CEO, there is always a chance that you could be laid off, replaced, or let go. Nearly 8.7 million Americans will have lost their jobs by the end of 2021, according to the Labor Department, and many of those roles will be permanently gone. Such job market constriction means that more laid-off workers will need to either pivot their careers or compete for a much smaller number of available roles. Competition for jobs is fierce. The average job search takes five months, research tells us, and only 5% of applicants are called in for an interview. Candidates have to set themselves above the pack; otherwise, they may find themselves in hiring purgatory, staring at a stack of polite rejection emails. But how can they stand out?
The answer lies in developing a standout personal brand. Personal branding is the narrative that we tell others about ourselves, and which others come to accept. A good personal brand increases the perceived value that a person has. If you’re looking for a job, your brand will bolster your chances of being selected; if you already have a position, it will increase your chance of keeping it. Personal branding leads to significantly greater career satisfaction and perceived employability, research suggests, and it further boosts professionals toward positive career outcomes, such as social capital, financial rewards, and professional opportunities. Every person’s personal brand is, by definition, unique. A generic formula to craft a perfect one doesn’t exist. However, the following three guideposts will help you take the first steps toward a market-proof personal brand. 1. Make your personal brand about you, not your last gig or employer Not long ago, one of my clients—an experienced corporate professional who, before her layoff, had a pristine and decades-long track record at a multinational brand—came to me, frustrated by the lack of response she had received from potential employers. Once she explained her situation to me, I saw the problem: She had spent so much time with her last employer, and she
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was so focused on what she accomplished for that company, that she had built her personal brand around the company. The company loomed so large that it overshadowed her. Although name-dropping an impressive former employer might earn you a second glance, making that company the foundation of your professional identity will make hiring managers worry that you won’t be able to adapt to a new organization. It also undermines the point of personal branding: A personal brand is a relationship with you, an individual who exists separately from your company. The process of personal branding involves finding your uniqueness, building a reputation on the things you want to be known for, and then allowing yourself to be known for them. Ultimately, the goal is to create something that conveys a message and that can be monetized. (Michael Stelzner, Social Media Examiner) Don’t build your personal brand around your employer. You must highlight your capabilities, interests, and skills; otherwise, hiring managers will never see enough of you to make a fair determination of your potential. 2. Think about what you’re selling What do you offer, and why is it valuable? Your personal brand should answer those questions. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how extensive your resume is: You’ll be out of luck. Not long ago, a former sales executive with 15+ years of professional experience asked me to help her pivot into consultancy. She wanted to focus on developing tools for what she called “prospective communications.” The problem was that clients who could have benefited from
her services weren’t calling because they didn’t know what that term meant. Ambiguity kills personal brands. Ambiguous brand names can negatively influence a person’s response to and perception of the brand’s products, psychological research tells us. If you want to sell anything—even your skill set—people need to know what they’re paying for and why their business will be better for the investment. When people in your specialty don’t think they can make more money or become more relevant from your service, they aren’t going to buy. Your brand should make the commercial case for the investment clear from the get-go. 3. Include accomplishments in your personal brand Many talented people simply don’t want to deal with personal branding. They might spend an hour updating their LinkedIn or getting good headshots, but they aren’t thinking critically about how they can boost themselves above the competition. I’ve often had conversations with clients who hesitate mentioning involvement in an amazing project or massive business initiative. When I ask them why it isn’t on their CV, they invariably say, Oh, I didn’t think anyone would find it interesting. Think through all your accomplishments. Go beyond the basics to figure out what you offer that others don’t, and then make that distinction clear in your branding narrative. Humberto Herrera is an executive consultant and Forbes Colombia contributor who has advised some 170 of Latin America’s most important entrepreneurs, public figures, and foundations on the nuances of personal branding, public relations, and personal development.
Yes, Customers Always Know What They Want By Allen Weiss
Marketers often feel like second-class citizens in their companies because people think new products and services come first and marketing comes afterward. Maybe you’ve heard something like this from colleagues or friends: Assuming that people know what they want and need for a product is a mistake, because they simply don’t—just like nobody knew that we needed an iPhone before the first iPhone was launched. Just like nobody knew they wanted Alexa until Alexa was born, or Ring Doorbells until it was launched, or PowerPoint until Microsoft came up with it, etc. The list goes on and on and always has the same point: People don’t know what they want until someone makes it first. When a reporter asked what market research went into the iPad, Steve Jobs replied: “None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.” (Lohr, S. “Without Its Master of Design, Apple Will Face Many Challenges,” NY Times, 08/25/2011) If that’s true, then focus groups, surveys, or any other market research won’t make a difference since people can’t tell you what they want—except for specific features of alreadydeveloped products. What if customers do know what they want? In your company, most likely engineering (or some other group outside of Marketing) comes up with new products, and Marketing has the responsibility to sell those products— whether they are good or bad. It’s easy to see why marketers might think they don’t have much power over new products: They spend their time marketing other people’s new products. But what if I told you people do know what they want. Then I imagine your world would change completely. Marketing would be a seat of power and you could then talk to customers and help engineering design new products that solve real problems. Well, the fact is, customers do know what they want! Customers know what benefits they want vs. features or attributes Let’s start by looking at the iPhone. Here is Steve Jobs’ introduction of the iPhone when it first came out in 2007: Well, today we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. The third is a breakthrough Internet communications device.... These are not three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. What were the benefits of the iPhone when it first came out? Mobility, media storage, being connected, etc. But also benefits like “I’m cool” or “I’m part of a group” or something
that feels great and makes my photos look great. Even benefits like “something I can just touch” (like the touchscreen—which was first introduced in 1994 by IBM Simon, 13 years before the iPhone). Was the benefit of convenience (where a phone, music, Web access, and touch are all combined in one device) invented by Apple? Did the iPhone create those benefits? No. Those are benefits that relate to basic human needs, goals, and desires. They already exist. So, yes: Nobody knew that we needed an iPhone before the first iPhone was born, but everybody already knew they wanted all those benefits but there were no products before the iPhone that delivered them. Let me give you another example: Before Uber came around, there were taxis. Uber (and the others like them) offered more control—I can order an Uber on my phone and see where it is on the road—and ease of payment. Did Uber create the benefit of wanting to have more control in your life? Do people want payment to be difficult? The point is that people cannot tell you specific features and attributes, but they can tell you what benefits they are seeking. So, ask customers what problems and challenges (both large and small) they have or what resources (time, money, physical, psychological) they are trying to conserve. Know your customers’ needs and desires, and you’ll know what they want Here are some suggestions to get you started. First, listen to customers—even unhappy ones. Second, watch customers in real situations. You can also use focus groups and social media, but pay attention to the benefits customers are looking for (not the products). Finally, you can let customers develop new or ideal concepts for your products. Now, you might think customers can’t do this. But as Eric von Hippel revealed in his research on “lead users,” about 82% of all commercial scientific instruments he studied were developed by end users, not companies. Often, component suppliers develop products as well. Why does that happen? Because customers know what benefits they want—and if no company has come up with a product to satisfy those desired benefits, some customers create the products for themselves. If you focus your attention on benefits rather than the product features, characteristics, and attributes, you will see marketing in a different light. You will point your company toward new products and services that actually solve customers’ real problems.
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5 Reasons Your Brand Needs Its Own Spotify Playlist By Adrian Falk
A curated soundtrack will be music to your customers’ ears. With so many businesses competing against each other
out. Likewise, trying to make a statement on social media
in one market, it can be hard to make your brand stand
is becoming all too common. So what can you do to get
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attention? Music streaming services have been popular for years, but many seem to believe only major music and tech players can benefit from them — until now. Here are five ways to amplify your brand in an unconventional way, by creating a music playlist for your fan base. You could gain a captive audience of millions in the process. 1. To discover new clients Music streaming platforms are flooded with active users. With so many platforms to choose from, and the most popular ones containing millions of listeners, they’re the perfect place to reach new clients. By creating playlists on these sites, users will immediately feel connected to your brand through one common interest, music. As they get to know your business, they’ll can further connect with your brand and potentially become a new customer. When curating your playlist, it’s essential to make sure the music choices that reflect your company’s image. Start by designing a persona for your business. Think about the various artists and types of music they would enjoy. Keep in mind the musical tastes of your target audience. Your playlist should feature a variety of genres and artists, but avoid adding personal favorites to the mix simply because you love them. Doing this can narrow your reach and incorrectly portray your brand’s image on the site. 2. To bring your brand’s personality to life An entrepreneur understands every aspect of their business. They know the brand’s personality, values, goals and most importantly what makes it great. Despite knowing everything about the company, it can still be hard for a marketing team to accurately translate their vision to the customer. When a brand is able to reflect its qualities in a profound way, customers are able to recognize and relate as if your brand were another human being. Music is a great way to learn more about a person and connect with them. Making a music playlist for your brand will bring it to life and give your audience the tools it needs to further understand its personality. Customers who enjoy the music on your playlist are able to relate to your company on a deeper level. They sympathize with your business and might even associate your brand to a specific song they like from your playlist or bring back a favorable memory from their previous interaction with your company. 3. To learn more about your customer base Music reveals a lot about a person. People with similar personality traits and interests often listen to the same genres of music. With its huge collection of songs and active listeners, music streaming platforms are also a great resource for analyzing your customer base. Most sites will give you access to the number of followers you have on individual playlists, along with their usernames and profiles. Use this information to your advantage and take the time to get to know your potential customers. If you notice that a majority of your followers love rock music, then add some to your playlist. Go a step further and analyze the songs your customers choose. Do they like to stay active
and upbeat by listening to Pitbull or to slow down for a good cry every now and then with an Adele ballad? Whatever it may be, music is a great way to get to know your audience. Curate a couple of different playlists, see which ones gain the most followers, and go from there. 4. To save time Entrepreneurs can spend hours of their day creating content for their business. Many companies hire other content creators to do the job, but that can cost a fortune. Unlike a content creator, creating a playlist on most music streaming platforms is 100 percent free. Not only that, but all the components of a successful music playlist for your company are already on the platform. All you have to do is put it together and make sure it accurately reflects your brand’s personality. Depending on how well you understand your company and your target market, making a music playlist for your business could take as little as five minutes. Using these sites will save your company money for other content but it will also allow you to allocate time for other important aspects of your brand. 5. To mark special occasions and transitions The beauty of using music streaming platforms to promote your brand is that the sites allow you to create all kinds of playlists. Unlike Instagram or TikTok, music streaming platforms allow users to showcase playlists without the pressure of building followers based on a specific niche. With that being said, your company can curate songs inspired by anything from products you’re selling to upcoming holidays. Take Starbucks for example, it uses Spotify to make playlists for its cafes and customers. By creating public playlists, for dinner parties and beyond, the company allows customers to take the Starbucks experience into their own homes. Starbucks even partnered with Malala Yousafzai and the Malala Fund to create a playlist for International Women’s Day. Victoria’s Secret creates playlists on Apple Music. Its soundtracks are inspired by seasonal collections and brand collaborations, including one with clothing brand For Love & Lemons. Like musical artists, brands need to make a continuous effort to stand above the rest. It can be especially hard with today’s innovative competition, and trying to come up with cuttingedge ideas is exhausting. Exploring new mediums such as music streaming platforms can give your business the tools it needs to make a statement without having to create new content. Curating a playlist will bring your brand to life and give your company new insights into your target market. Unlike social media, taking your business to music streaming platforms is a new practice that will set your brand apart from competitors. So amplify your brand with a music playlist that will turn your company into a hit in no time.
Founder of international advertising and PR agency Believe Advertising, Adrian Falk generates publicity for entrepreneurs, IT, fashion, luxury travel and beauty corporations across the globe, increasing their leads and sales.
Keeping Brands Safe in an Angry World By Wharton Staff
Two years ago, in the late New Zealand summer, a lone gunman live-streamed his first of two attacks at mosques, killing 51 people. A day earlier, he had reportedly uploaded a 74-page racist manifesto. The Wall Street Journal ran a story underscoring the danger of digital content, “New Zealand Massacre Video Clings to the Internet’s Dark Corners.” It was a “watershed moment” in the sundry world of adsupported digital media, says Rob Rakowitz who leads the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), an industry alliance aimed at improving consumer and brand safety, in an Internationalist Trendsetters podcast. No brand wants to appear next to such despicable content. In the days of the printing press, marketers and their advertising agencies bought positions inside magazines that covered specific topics. Magazine editors had complete control over content. Then marketers began buying audiences in digital media via programmatic display advertising networks, where there’s a lack of transparency, consistency and control — a kind of Wild West in publishing. Did it matter where digital ads appeared as long as potential buyers saw them? Not really, according to the conventional wisdom at the time. This led to frenzied spending and ads landing next to hate-filled speech, adult material, conspiracy theories, spam and other nefarious content. Fiery rhetoric has heated up, and now everything from fringe politics to animal abuse to terrorist acts have found there way into digital media. Concerns about online brand safety have raised the eyebrows of CEOs and CFOs. “It’s fundamentally changed in the last year,” Rakowitz says. Simply put, brands can’t afford to be associated with dangerous online content, whether by accident or negligence. As life and work blend into a single digital experience,
consumers and employees alike won’t put up with brands that don’t align with their mores. CMOs are now in the hot spotlight of brand safety. Companies are turning to them to drive this conversation and work diligently with corporate affairs, procurement, agencies and platform partners to ensure that the supply chain is aligned with corporate beliefs, Rakowitz says. Marketers stand ready to pull ads, which, in turn, has forced major digital media platforms to take action and clean up content. A new report from GARM found significant progress being made by Youtube in the number of account removals, Facebook in the reduction of prevalence, and Twitter in the removal of pieces of content. Eight out of 10 of the 3.3 billion pieces of content removed across major platforms are from three categories: spam, adult and explicit content, and hate speech and acts of aggression. Marketers wanting to get better at brand safety should take a page out of GARM’s playbook and focus on four critical questions: How safe is the platform for consumers? How safe is the platform for advertisers? How effective is the platform enforcing its safety policy? How responsive is the platform at correcting mistakes? “Safety for consumers and thriving societies need to be bolstered by a bright and vibrant media marketplace,” Rakowitz says. Tom Kaneshige is the Chief Content Officer at the CMO Council. He creates all forms of digital thought leadership content that helps growth and revenue officers, line of business leaders, and chief marketers succeed in their rapidly evolving roles. You can reach him at tkaneshige@ cmocouncil.org.
IS THERE A CASE TO REVISIT THE CASE STUDY METHOD? By Suresh Dinakaran
Back in the 1920s, Harvard Business School(HBS) professors decided to develop and experiment with innovative and unique business instruction methods. As the first school in the world to design a signature, distinctive program in business, later to be called the MBA, there was a need for a teaching method that would benefit this novel approach. Central to the case method is the idea that students are not provided the “answer” or resolution to the problem at hand. Instead, just like a board member, CEO, or manager, the student is forced to analyze a situation and find solutions without full knowledge of all methods and facts. Without excluding more traditional aspects, such as interaction with professors and textbooks, the case method provides the student with the opportunity to think and act like managers. HBS professors selected and took a few pages to summarize recent events, momentous challenges, strategic planning, and important decisions undertaken by major companies and organizations. The idea was, and remains to this day, that through direct contact with a real-world case, students will think independently about those facts, discuss and compare their perspectives and findings with their peers, and eventually discover a new concept on their own. So far, so good. In lecture courses, claimed a Harvard professor, students ” are waiting for you to give the ‘answer ‘ “. There is a built-in
bias against action. What we say with the case method is : ” Look, I know you don’t have enough information, but given the information you do have, what are you going to do? “. Consider a typical scenario. James is the CEO of MegaCorp Inc. What should the company do now? The professor and almost 90 of James’ classmates anxiously await his response to the totally ‘ cold call ‘- designed to ensure that students have prepared the case. James did give it a long thought. After all, he was told that the case study method is intended to ” challenge conventional thinking “. He has also been reminded that good managers are decisive, good MBA students must take a stand. So James swallows hard and answers the question. ” How can I answer the question? “- James begins. ” I barely heard about MegaCorp Inc before yesterday. Yet today, you want me to pronounce on its strategy. As is typical at Harvard, James was working on two other case studies the previous night, so he barely had a couple of hours to prepare on the MegaCorp Inc case. He had never knowingly used any of the MegaCorp products. Until the previous day he did not even know that the rat poison that he used on his basement was made by the same MegaCorp Inc. He had never visited any of its factories nor has been anywhere close to ‘ You Never Know Where, Newfoundland ‘, where MegaCorp is headquartered. He has never spoken to any of the company’s customers(except of course himself).
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James says ” My previous experience(the little there was) took place in a furniture company. MegaCorp is a high-tech company and I am a very low tech guy. All I have to go by are these few pages. This is a superficial exercise. I refuse to answer your question “. What happens to James? At the business school, I will let you hazard(?) a guess. But from there James moves back to the furniture business, where he immerses himself in the products, the process, the people. And with his courage to be decisive and with an appetite to challenge conventional thinking, James rises to the position of the CEO. There with hardly any ‘ industry analysts ‘ at all, James and his colleagues learn their way to a strategy that transforms the furniture business. Meanwhile, John, who is sitting next to James in class jumps in. He too has never been to ‘ You Never Know Where, Newfoundland ‘. But that doesn’t stop him.He makes a clever point or two and gets that coveted Harvard MBA. This gets him into a ‘ prestigious consulting firm ‘, where as in those case study classes, he leaps from one situation to another, each time making a clever point or two, concerning issues he recently knew nothing about, always leaving the firm before implementation (action) begins. As this kind of experience rolls in, John doesn’t take far too long in becoming the CEO of a major appliance company. (He never consulted for one but it does remind him of that MegaCorp case study). There, after downsizing( it’s fashionable you see) a few thousand unsuspecting Human Resources, he formulates a glitzy high-tech strategy, which is implemented, so to speak, through a dramatic program of acquisitions. What happens to that?? Guess again! Readers (of the book ‘ What they Really Teach You At Harvard Business School ‘by Philip Delves Broughton) are probably asking , ‘ Read the case and do that analysis in
two to four hours?’ Harvard’s answer is YES. Students need to prepare two to three cases each day..so (they) must work toward getting their analysis done fast as well done well. Some years back, HBS ran an ad in The Economist for it’s executive education programs. It had a dapper, uber smart looking executive-woman saying, ” We studied four companies a day. This isn’t theory. This is experience.” Sorry. This is nonsense. There was a book released in 1990 called ‘ Inside the Harvard Business School ‘ by David Ewing, for long, an insider. The first line of the book makes a sweeping statement ” The Harvard Business School is probably the most powerful private institution in the world “.The book listed 19 Harvard alumni who had made it to the very top, the school’s superstars as of 1990. If you took a look at the post 1990 records of all 19, to see how they fared, there was only one word to describe it- BADLY. 10 of them clearly seem to have failed(meaning their company went bankrupt), they were forced out of the CEO chair or a major merger backfired, or the like. Performance of another four appeared to be very questionable. The other five seem to have done fine. To conclude, most MBA students enter the prestigious HBS or similarly profiled hallowed Ivy Leagues smart, determined, aggressive. There, case studies teach them how to pronounce clearly on situations they know little about , while analytic techniques give them the impression that they can tackle any problem- no in-depth experience required. With graduation comes the confidence of having been to a proper business school, not to mention the ‘ old boys ‘ network that can boost them to the top. Then what?? Begs the question!! Case Study or Case Unsteady? Ready. (Case) Study. Go!!
The economics of movie product placements By Zachary Crockett
Today’s films are brimming with products from big-name brands. How exactly do these partnerships work? In the 2000 film Cast Away, Tom Hanks’ co-star isn’t Leonardo DiCaprio, Meg Ryan, or some other A-list actor. It’s a volleyball, courtesy of Wilson Sporting Goods. Throughout the film, the volleyball enjoys 10.5 minutes of screen time worth an estimated $1.85m+ in advertising value. And for this exposure, Wilson paid a grand total of $0. Each year, hundreds of brands — cars, computers, clothing, kitchen appliances, and lawn chairs — grace the silver screen. Sometimes brand appearances are overbearing (think a 30-second-long glamour shot of a Lexus driving down the coast); other times, they’re so subtle you might miss them if you blink. But how do these brands end up in major motion pictures? What do the economics of these deals look like on the back end? And is this an effective form of marketing? A mutually beneficial exchange A frequent misconception is that all brands pay a fortune to appear on the silver screen. In some cases this is certainly true: • Harley-Davidson paid $10m to get its electric motorcycle featured in Marvel’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015). • Heineken shelled out an estimated $45m for 7 seconds of screen time in the James Bond film Skyfall (2012). • BMW plunked down ~$110m to supply cars for GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and The World is Not Enough (1999) before Aston Martin outbid them with a ~$140m offer for Die Another Day (2002). • More than 100 brands (including Gillette, Nokia, and
Carl’s Junior) offered a combined $160m to be featured in Man of Steel (2013). These big-money deals include a slew of other elements, like verbal cues written into the script (“Boy, I sure could go for a nice, ice-cold Budweiser!”), a guaranteed amount of screen time, and the rights to run cross-promotional advertisements with the film’s leading actor. But in the majority of cases, there is no cash exchanged at all between the brand and Hollywood: Producers need props, and brands are happy to loan them out at no cost in exchange for exposure. The rationale for these arrangements is simple: Movies are pretty damn expensive. On average, a major studio film costs around $65m to produce, not including marketing and distribution. The largest chunk of that is general production costs, which include set design, props, and wardrobe. For action films, the prop budget alone can stretch into the millions. The Fast & Furious franchise, for instance, wrecked a total of 1,487 cars over its first 7 movies. Even at a modest estimate of $20k/car, that amounts to $30m in prop costs. Property masters (the folks in charge of props) are on a constant quest to cut down budgets — and product placement can be a lifesaver. By getting free stuff — hotel rooms, cars, fancy clothes, kitchen appliances — a big production might trim its budget by $250k to $5m+, according to industry insiders The Hustle spoke with. That might not sound like a lot in the context of a $65m
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film, but it’s money that can be reinvested into better music, special effects, or other details that improve the quality of the final cut. Many well-known product placements in film were unpaid: • Reese’s got star treatment in E.T. (1982) after M&Ms turned down Speilberg over fears the alien would scare kids. • Ray-Ban didn’t pay film producers for its prominent placements in Risky Business (1983) and Top Gun (1986). • Google not only got complimentary inclusion in The Internship (2013) but had an active say in how its brand was represented. For the most part, these are mutually beneficial trades: Films save money on their budget, and companies get exposure and brand recognition. But getting a product on Hollywood’s radar often requires expert help. The connection brokers
The brand provided $1.5m in merchandise to be featured in Jerry Maguire (1996) under the pretense that Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character, Rod Tidwell, an athlete who’d been smited by Reebok, eventually made amends with the brand. But in the end, this scene was cut. The amended context — and a final script that included the line “Fuck Reebok!” — made the brand look like a terrible sponsor. They later sued TriStar Pictures and settled out of court. Any time a brand’s logo appears in a film — even if it’s just in the background somewhere — producers have to get clearance from the company to include it. Certain brands are hyper-vigilant about avoiding conflicts. Eric Smallwood, president of the product placement agency Apex Marketing Group, tells The Hustle that the coffee liqueur brand Kahlúa asked to not be named in The Big Lebowski (1998) over fears that it would be associated with alcoholism. (It later embraced The Dude.) When the film or TV show can’t get clearance, it often has to resort to less authentic workarounds like:
Prop departments constantly get inundated with products hoping to fill a production team’s needs.
Greeking, or obscuring logos: You’ll sometimes see an Apple laptop with a strategically placed sticker, or a car emblem that’s blocked by a tree.
To stand out among the masses, brands will often hire a product placement agency like Hollywood Branded, which promises to leverage its industry connections to “make your brand a star.”
Generic props: Some prop companies specialize in making fictional products (like Heisler, the “Bud Light of fake beers”) that can be used in negative contexts without repercussion.
Hollywood Branded CEO Stacy Jones has placed Lacoste into Mother’s Day (2016), Vita Coco into Entourage (20042011), and Blackberry into Up in the Air (2009), among many others. The process typically works like so: 1. The brand pays a fee (anywhere from $40k to $300k annually, depending on the desired scope) with the agency. 2. The agency “educates” Hollywood about the brand, what it can loan out, and what kinds of projects it wants to associate with. 3. The agency hobnobs with decision-makers (prop masters, set decorators, transport coordinators, stylists), stays up to date with projects that are in production, and reads scripts. 4. When a good fit is sourced, the agency informs the brand and secures a deal with the production company. In brokering these deals, Jones has to ensure that the context in which a brand is used won’t cause potential conflicts for the company. “There’s some risk involved,” she told us. “You don’t know if the film will be a hit. But you also often don’t have all the details; scripts, sets, camera angles, final cuts — everything is subject to change.” Reebok learned this the hard way.
Other brands prefer to handle their product placements inhouse, bypassing the middleman agencies. Dell started doing this 20 years ago by cold-calling folks in Hollywood and organically building relationships in-house. Gary Moore, who runs Dell’s global product placement team, tells The Hustle that the brand has been featured in dozens of TV shows and films over the years, including The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019). In 2020, Dell made a cameo in 19 films, including 5 minutes of screen time in Bad Boys for Life that, alone, was worth ~$8.5m in ad exposure. Whether a movie needs 100 military-grade PC desktops for an FBI scene or a dozen laptops for a startup office, he’s the go-to guy. “We have a vetting process we look at to make sure that a show or film is a good fit for our brand,” he says. “We want to make Dell is represented in a positive light, and we turn an opportunity down if we think our products will be used in a nefarious context.” To ensure this, Moore often flies from Austin, Texas, to Hollywood just to read potential spec scripts. “I say to every brand that comes my way, you should be doing product placement and it’s not as expensive as you think.” But just how effective is product placement as a form of marketing? Are film placements worth it?
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Dominic Artzrouni is the founder of Concave Brand Tracking, a firm that offers detailed analytics on the performance of product placements in film. Artzrouni provides brands like Dell with data on screen time, discernibility, logo visibility, context (location, associations), and — most importantly — the value they derive from their placements. The process of determining this value is complex and varied, but Artzrouni says it can be simplified into a basic formula: (Exposure on screen) x (Viewership) x (Cost of TV commercials) It’s not an exact science, but it spits out a rough dollar amount that equates a brand’s film placement to the value it would’ve derived from traditional TV commercials. Each year, he publishes a list of the brands that derived the most value out of product placements.
Chevy Camaro sold 80k cars after playing a starring role in Transformers (2007), jumpstarting the ailing brand. The film was such a hit for the carmaker that it was later called a “GM ad in disguise.” And academic research has shown that product placements can raise brand awareness by 20%, resulting in a greater recall rate, more positive attitudes, and a stronger intention of buying. Brands are flocking to the space Jones, of Hollywood Branded, says there has never been a better time to get into product placement in film. “I’ve never, in 25 years, seen more opportunity in the space,” she says. “We’ve never had our phone ring more. The level and number of brands getting into the space is astonishing.” She attributes this to a confluence of factors:
In 2020, the top brand — the British clothing and shoe manufacturer Lonsdale — generated an estimated $16.5m from its 16+ minutes of screentime in The Gentlemen.
A changing of the ad guard: Traditional TV advertising is declining and brands are looking for creative ways to leverage digital media.
Artzrouni says brands that appeared in 2020’s 50 highestgrossing films reaped $890m in combined ad value. Extrapolating across all films, he estimates that brands saw $1.2B in ad value from movie product placements in 2020.
A content boom: Streaming services have been pumping out historically high quantities of content, leading to more product placement opportunities.
But that only tells part of the story: Unlike traditional commercials, good films are timeless, and those values can increase exponentially. “Product placement is the gift that keeps on giving,” he says. “The ROI can be ridiculous; a brand might get into a film for free and get $3m in value from it.” Outside of equivalent ad value, brands can reap both shortand long-term sales benefits from placements: Reese’s saw a reported 65% spike in sales after E.T. Ray-Ban sales skyrocketed from 18k to 360k after Risky Business. Etch A Sketch saw sales balloon by as much as 4,500% in the wake of Toy Story (1995).
Budget awareness: Rising production costs on the backside of the pandemic have caused producers to think more deeply about ways to save money on films. Like any form of marketing, success is often contingent on high volume and good luck. “First you need to be lucky enough to have your product shown a lot in a film,” she says. “Then you need to get lucky with the film’s performance.” But if Wilson Sporting Goods imparted any lesson, it’s that the potential rewards from a slam-dunk film placement are worth the risks. More than 20 years after the release of Cast Away, the company still sells replicas of its famous blood-stained volleyball to fans all over the world.
Do You Prefer Cats or Dogs? Why Self-expression Increases Giving By Wharton Staff
Do you prefer dogs or cats? Vanilla or chocolate? Winter or summer? The answers to these simple questions reveal a little something about who we are and what we like. We want to answer them because they’re fun, and because it broadcasts a bit of information about our personality, our values, and our desires.
idea actually started from something we saw in coffee shops. You might walk into a coffee shop, and rather than having a tip jar there for you to drop in a buck or two, instead there are two jars with pictures on them. One might say “dog” and one says “cat.” They might say “vanilla ice cream” or “chocolate ice cream.” Or they might say “Star Wars” or “Star Trek.”
But there is also a serious side to these questions, which Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger explains in a new paper titled, “Penny for Your Preferences: Leveraging SelfExpression to Encourage Small Pro-Social Gifts.” The paper looks at how businesses can use this intrinsic desire for selfexpression to get consumers to give more money, whether it’s tipping the barista a little extra or donating more dollars to a charitable cause. He and his co-authors call it “the dueling preferences approach,” which frames the act of giving as a choice.
“We all love self-expression. We do it all the time through our cars and clothes and music.”
The co-authors of the paper, which was published in the Journal of Marketing, are Jacqueline Rifkin, assistant marketing professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Henry W. Bloch School of Management, and Katherine M. Du, assistant marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Lubar School of Business. Berger joined Knowledge@Wharton to talk about the study. Listen to the podcast at the top of this page, or read an edited transcript of the conversation below. Knowledge@Wharton: How does answering questions about personal preferences make people want to give more money? Jonah Berger: There’s a fundamental question that many organizations or people have thought about, which is, how do we increase pro-social behavior? If I’m the Red Cross, how do I get more donations? If I’m a barista at a coffee shop or a waiter at a restaurant, how do I get people to tip me? If I’m trying to raise money for a museum, how do I go about doing that? It’s obviously very hard. Lots of people mean to donate, they want to donate, but there are lots of causes and lots of things going on. In the end, it often doesn’t happen. We all love self-expression. We do it all the time through our cars and clothes and music. [My co-authors and I] wondered whether we could leverage this tendency and this desire for self-expression to encourage pro-social behavior. Part of this
Coffee shops are using that approach for a reason. They think it’s engaging their customers in some way and hopefully increasing tips. But we wondered, does it work? There are many things that businesses try that don’t work, so does this actually work? Does it work all the time? Can we apply this more broadly? Knowing that people drop in a couple of extra cents for cats versus dogs is nice for a coffee shop. But if I’m the leader of a big nonprofit, or I’m trying to raise money for a foundation, could something like this be useful for me? Is it just something for coffee shops, or can it tell us something broader about human behavior and ways that organizations can leverage these insights to increase pro-social behavior? Knowledge@Wharton: How did you study this? It seems subjective, so how did you make this analytical and objective? Berger: I’ll give you a couple of examples. One experiment we did was very much in the exact setting we talked about: a local coffee shop. We went in and, for different periods of time, we had different tipping situations. Sometimes there would be a single jar that would say “tips.” Other times, we randomly manipulated whether it had just a jar or this idea of dueling preferences — these two things that customers could vote on based on their opinions. They could choose cats or dogs through their tipping. We manipulated the time of day across multiple days, counterbalancing for everything — almost like an A/B test — to get a sense of what affects donations. You could say, “Well, hold on. You’re asking people to make a choice. Cats and dogs have nothing to do with tipping. Maybe it’s going to decrease donations. Maybe people are going to feel overwhelmed. They’re not going to make a choice.” But that’s not what happened. Giving people a
Science is resilient. It can overcome diseases, create cures, and, yes, even beat pandemics. It has the methodology and the rigor to withstand even the most arduous scrutiny. It keeps asking questions and, until there’s a breakthrough, it isn’t done. That’s why, when the world needs answers, we turn to science. Because in the end, Science will win.
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choice mattered. Just making two jars and putting “cat” and “dog” on them led people to tip more than twice as much compared to a tip jar. It wasn’t just restricted to tipping. We did a very similar experiment with donations to the American Red Cross. Rather than simply asking for donations — and that’s what we did for some people — some people were asked to donate by voting. Would you prefer chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream? Again, chocolate and vanilla ice cream have nothing to do with the American Red Cross. You could say, “Well, hold on. Won’t people think this is frivolous or doesn’t matter? It’s not going to help.” But that’s not what occurred. In fact, just the opposite: It increased donations by 28%. In a variety of different contexts, we can use dueling preferences. It’s giving people a self-expressive choice as a way to motivate action and, in this case, motivate giving.
“If I were a marketer, if I were a manager, if I were a charity director, I would think about how to harness selfexpression.” Knowledge@Wharton: Were you surprised by the experiment results, or did they line up with what we already know in the literature about identity and consumer behavior? Berger: I was surprised by the size of these results. This isn’t a couple of pennies here and there. A 28% increase to the American Red Cross is a big deal. That’s a lot of money for that organization. I was certainly surprised by the size of the effect, but it was also interesting to see when this happens and why it happens. I’m not suggesting just to give anybody a choice or that any choice will work. It really has to be a way for people to express their preference. It has to be something that they care about, and they feel that expressing their preference on that dimension is diagnostic of who they are. Sports rivalries are the same way, right? Maybe it’s the Yankees and the Red Sox. That’s something people feel very strongly about. They want to share their opinion. It’s about understanding the context. Pick a choice that the audience cares about and feels self-expressive. Caring about chocolate and vanilla ice cream is not the most important domain in the world, but it’s something people feel says something about them. The same with dogs and cats. There are cat people and there are dog people who feel like it says something about them. We can use that to motivate behavior even in an unrelated domain. There’s lots of research that clearly shows that if you’re the type of person who drives a BMW, that’s a desirable identity for you. You’re going to pay more for a BMW than someone who doesn’t hold that [identity]. It’s clear we care about identity. It’s clear that identity motivates behavior. Knowledge@Wharton: Given this information, what can marketers, managers, or even charity directors do to help increase giving? Berger: I think the place to start is to stop just thinking about you. Your cause is very important, but think about your audience. What this research shows is, yes, if I’m the American Red Cross — or whatever organization it might be
— I can go out there and say, “This is an important problem. Please donate money to this problem.” And I will get people to donate. I will get a set of people who have donated in the past to donate to my cause. Those aren’t small circles of people. But if I want to move beyond those circles of people, I have to think [bigger]. There are other important causes. There’s the environment, and there’s cancer — there’s a variety of things people could give their money to. I have to think beyond just my cause and people who inherently believe in that cause to begin with, and start thinking about, “Well, what do those folks care about?” Even people that may care about the cause to begin with — what’s a way to motivate them to give? This isn’t just about making it a game, though it does feel a little bit like a game. It’s really about allowing them to express themselves. Maybe your local grocery store does this competition where they say, “Collect receipts, give them to your local school, and the school that gets the most receipts gets a big donation from the grocery store.” That’s not just allowing people to express themselves, but to compete. It allows those expressions to be public signals of the self.
“How can I motivate my audience to give by providing them an opportunity to express their preferences?” If I were a marketer, if I were a manager, if I were a charity director, I would think about how to harness self-expression. I would think about the right opportunity to give people the right choice. How can I motivate my audience to give by providing them an opportunity to express their preferences? Knowledge@Wharton: What’s next for this line of research? Berger: One thing I’ve thought a bit about lately is the value of asking questions rather than making statements. I talk about this a bit in my most recent book, The Catalyst. We did some research on it here, and we’re doing some research on it more generally. But questions are really powerful in a number of ways. Often, when we want to persuade people, we think that telling them to do what we want — making a statement, if you will — is the best way to get them to take action. But people often push back on statements. Questions do a number of interesting things. First, they allow us to collect information. If you ask questions, you can better understand the people you’re communicating with, the people you’re trying to persuade. Second, it gives people some freedom and autonomy. Just like we talked about today, it allows them to express themselves. It allows them to participate. If you’re a boss trying to get people to stay late after work, and you tell them what you need, they may push back. Instead, if you say, “What kind of company do we want to be, a good one or a great one?” And they answer, “A great one.” And then you ask, “What can we do to get there?” They think about it, and they give you some answers, and you adopt those answers. Now, they’re more brought into the process. I think questions can be a great way to make people feel like they have a role in the process, which makes them much more likely to be engaged and to help [achieve] a desired outcome.
The problem with advertising these days is that it is too focused on sales. For an ad like this one to be considered successful, it has to first get your attention and then provide you with something so amazing — like a set of features or unique selling points or a solid promise — that you’ll put down the magazine you are reading and rush to the store to purchase the product. To help increase the chances of this happening, some ads include a “call to action” feature, which is a gimmick so ridiculously
unbelievable — like buy one and get 197 free — that you don’t have any choice but to put down the magazine you are reading and rush to the store to purchase the product. Good thing that this ad for Oatgurt* isn’t like all those modern ads. It’s only interested in providing you with an oversized cute visual of the package, an overpromising headline, a totally nonsensical call to action button and an asterisk with a side note to tell you what the product actually is.
*As a side note, Oatgurt is not yogurt, because yogurt is made with dairy and has no oats, while Oatgurt is made with oats and has no dairy.
Five great display and video advertising tactics to increase relevance and revenue in a cookie-less world By Tim Brown
How the death of cookies will result in better and stronger results. Five must-have tactics for display and video advertising to smoothly transition to the post-cookie era. Let’s face it. The world is going through difficult times, and
consumers will get no value out these promotional banners
so is every method of advertising. People are suspicious and
sitting around the content they visit. They get annoyed when
don’t trust advertising, thinking that ads may lead to fraud
video advertising interrupts their user experience popping
or that advertisers act only to their own benefit and that the
up or getting in the way of their desired content.
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Things get worse when the ads are totally irrelevant to the user’s interests, which results in total waste of money. Things got a bit better with cookies, as we could target specific audience segments based on their demographics and browsing behavior so that the ads where tailored to their state of mind and interests but in a soon-to-be cookieless world? Are we back to zero?
this is how they get to trust them. Consuming educational content brings us closer to the bran’s values, we see the world through their eyes and therefore we decide to follow them or not. Have you ever made friends without listening to them talking first?
Fear not. During the past few years, the targeting technology and tactics became much more sophisticated and we can use numerous methods to target our audiences with relevant only ads and at the same time comply with the new GDPR normal.
Especially during the pandemic, people started educating themselves on numerous topics that don’t necessarily have to do with their job. They love reading about how they can make their life easier. And they trust someone’s content especially when they are not trying to directly sell or only sell a product without justifying it. To my opinion, content must be branded but should be consumer-centric at the same time. These are some questions you should seek to answer through your content.
Below are five must-have tactics around display and video advertising to smoothly transition to the post-cookie era. Well, there are no must-dos in life, but realistically these will definitely make your life a lot easier and your ads will create only positive relationships with your audience. Anyway, cookies matching (the process of syncing cookies data so that Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) and Data Management Platforms (DMPs) know that they are dealing with the same user) isn’t exactly perfect. So let’s see the positive side. It’s our chance to get closer to our goal to increase relevancy, please customers, and drive sales.
How?
• What are the benefits of the product/service? • How does it fill someone’s needs? • Does it add value to someone’s life/daily routine?
Why?
This is exactly our time as advertisers to elaborate on the challenges that our audience can overcome by using the product. This is our time to be where our consumers are and consume content, to show that we care, and we give, and this is a win-win game. And that the more we win, we commit that the more we will give.
Back to zero? Not quite.
So what?
Yes, keyword or contextual-based advertising is an old tactic, I am not talking about the invention of the wheel. But: nowadays we can use Programmatic buying. With cookiebased targeting, ads about martech platforms would keep following you around the web. But this is not you. You are more than that. You like fitness, food, minimalism, whatever.
Brands that get personal like the P&G ads are amazing. Have you seen them? They celebrate women’s/mums’ roles and contributions to society. They speak the truth, they make people relate to the content. Also, going back to my point on the pandemic now, people appreciated it so much the brands that collaborated with each other for a good cause, the brands that offered, the brands that supported also financially the situation.
1. Contextual targeting
How? With contextual targeting through programmatic, you will be able to display your ads only when your audience is in a relevant state of mind across hundreds of sites at the same time. So when you’re looking for healthy recipes in food websites, you will see ads for organic products and when you will be reading about the future of digital advertising, you will see ads of a new analytics platform.
Why? Because we all want to feel that someone is there for us, that brands don’t care only for their profits. So if I’m going to give my money for a product anyway, I will choose one that we have the same beliefs with.
So what?
And here it comes. Your boss, your client come to ask for channel integrated campaigns. They want to see how everything works together towards the same goal. They don’t like fragmented budgets anymore, as the ad investment comes from one pot and there’s one person managing all the channels so there’s no point in delivering multiple media plans.
So the ads will be relevant to the web environment you’re currently consuming and consumers will feel more comfortable to convert, as they will see the ads as an extension of the content they are already looking at. Contextual advertising works well for all the stages of the purchase journey, as high impact formats (large sizes or video) but also native ads-teasers can be used to increase awareness and memorability and click-throughs respectively. 2. Content sponsorship Why? Yes. It works. People want to get value from the brands, and
3. Channel collaboration Why?
How? Use every channel’s success or failure (this is still a very useful insight!) to contribute to the success of other channels. For example, look at search engine marketing (SEM) like paid search or SEO to find the most successful keywords, and then implement these in your display and video advertising
– contextual strategy. So what? In other words, what I strongly recommend is to use the terms that your customers are using in their search before they convert, to open up to new audiences in relevant webpages. This way, you can have an online presence in relevant environments, with high impact display formats and videos to increase awareness when your audience is at the right state of mind. 4. User-based targeting Why?
experience. Someone may see an ad on their smartphone and then the second in order ad may appear the next day on their laptop. So what? It has been observed that awareness can be vastly increased through high impact sequential ads. For instance, Google’s research in partnership with Ipsos on sequential videos revealed a 74% ad recall lift and 30% purchase intent uplift compared to standalone video advertising. The sequential messaging drives also high-quality leads as they guide the user down through the funnel to convert.
This is not something new, the big platforms are already doing this and it’s an amazing source of data that I don’t think we made the most of, because we were mostly relying on cookies (that, let’s face it, wasn’t 100% accurate anyway). These data sets are quite accurate as they rely on information that the users give through forms and actions and not on our interpretation of their browsing history.
The sequential tactic is highly effective as most consumers use multiple digital devices before making a purchase or using a service. This strategy increases visibility, as people notice a brand more when its ads appear on multiple devices and they seem familiar, plus you allow your audience to interact with your brand through their platform of choice and it prevents ad fatigue. It’s of no wonder why this tactic presents increasing CTR.
How?
Into the technicalities now
This is essentially targeting through the user id on the respective platform. Users give their details and create profiles so that they get access to various platforms or make purchases to numerous websites. This way the brand can target the ideal users with cross-device recognition, using first-party data.
In digital display and video advertising, I would recommend for the sequential path to involve three stages of content.
So what? Who doesn’t want a consistent experience while interacting with a brand across multiple devices? Again, this is a winwin game when implemented effectively, as the brands do not waste budget while targeting the users isolating every device and at the same time the users are being targeted with the most appropriate message depending on the stage of the funnel that they are. Plus it improves personalization. 5. Sequential targeting Why? How many times have you noticed a specific car model in the streets after you talked about it for the first time with your friends? It’s not that all these cars magically appeared in front of you after your conversation. It’s that this car is now familiar to you, so it’s easy to notice it. Humans like what looks or sounds familiar. The brain wants to spend as little energy as possible so if it’s something already known, it’s easier to identify and memorize. That’s why we need sequential advertising in our lives. How? First-party data allow also for sequential targeting, which is a marketing technique that uses a sequence of ads to tell a story and convince the audience to convert over time, across different devices. The creatives used for sequential targeting should have the same look and feel so that the consumer feels familiar with them and also recalls the brand’s image but should be evolved as we walk down the funnel. The sequence is device agnostic when a user is logged in through their account, which means that shifting between devices doesn’t affect that strategy, it even enhances the
• Stage one – the user sees an ad that is usually more generic, it introduces them to the brand or service • Stage two – includes ads that educate around the brand or service advertised and present briefly the benefits and happy results of using it The first two stages should invite the user to learn more about the product and get to know the brand if needed so that they walk through the consideration phase. For these purposes, the first (or second too) stage can well be represented by a video. The videos are well known as being highly memorable and impactful, so this is what the user needs at this stage. Stage three – ad with a strong call to action, an invitation for the audience to use the product and purchase, sometimes even offering a discount Naturally, the call-to-action in each stage will change depending on what action we want the person to perform (Learn more Vs Buy now). Conclusion Therefore, it’s not the end of the world, it’s the end of a technology that worked for long but now it’s time to move on to new relationship structures, just like societies do. Because it’s time for the brands to build honest and transparent relationships with consumers, which is going to lead to stronger trust in advertising. And this is a good thing. What are your thoughts on display and video advertising? Feel free to share them in the comments section. Anastasia-Yvoni Spiliopoulou is a Global Digital Media expert. She has recently launched her new online course in digital display and video advertising for corporates and individuals.
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Not Doing Different Things, Doing Things Differently By Helena Mah
If we only think about all the changes we have experienced during the last months - not just the global pandemic, but also the economic impact, human isolation, social unrest and all the changes we are experiencing are coming at us, all at once. It’s scary. Adapting is hard, but even more so when we try to shift gears and continue to reach unchanged strategic goals. Yet this also is an amazing opportunity to understand our customers better - how they are experiencing this change how they are behaving and how they will change their experience in the months to come. According to Gartner, 90% of marketing leaders agree that marketing has to become more adaptive to shifts in customer needs, to be able to meet the demand and more deliberate modifying current capabilities in pursuit of strategic long term objectives—recognizing customer understanding as a key driver of adaptability in delivering impact. The question on top of our minds is how do we become more flexible and more adaptable to the rapidly changing environment? So we stay ahead, being able to respond to short-term problems, doing the right thing at the moment, clarifying the important strategic goals, and developing to be ready for the challenges to come. Yes, as marketers we have a challenging mandate while being at the center of the growth agenda and being faced with so many challenges at the same time. Therefore I wish to prioritize 4 critical ones that will affect our actions as leaders and actions of our teams in the months to come. Uncertainty is the only certainty. Agility should become the new mode of operations. Without it, we are vulnerable. The status quo is being disrupted daily. So, we need to plan differently and implement change-based planning. Being prepared means having always at least two scenarios ready, re-segment customers per changes in their needs and become nimble enough in marketing capabilities to effectively execute on each, execute swap between the two, on the fly if need be. And think ahead about how their impact could potentially affect the business.
Customer needs are rapidly changing. How to balance commercial demands and customer expectations? By better listening to customers and understanding of drivers for their behavioral change. Marketing leaders must use this insight to represent customer needs to the broader organization, educate other leaders on shifting customer expectations, and influence them to take action and thus double the chances to influence the revenue growth. Marketing budgets are under pressure. Multiple conflicting forces are keeping budget pressure high. However, this pressure extends beyond cost-cutting to optimize the performance of remaining programs and directing investments to strategic initiatives that support growth and digital transformation. Cost optimization starts with data and marketing technology. According to the CMO Council, 69% of companies are investing more in MarTech, but failure to effectively use it to collect, integrate and analyze data indicates a disconnect between marketing efforts and spending, business needs, and priorities. Marketing leaders’ success depends on allies and partners. Marketing represents the voice of the customer (and prospects) and other functional leaders need that voice, to consider it in their business decisions. Making that insight available and using it to inform and influence requires marketing leaders to form an alliance and partnerships with other functional leaders. So, becoming more adaptable is not just a smart idea, it creates positive results for our customers, our peers, and other stakeholders. The most successful marketing teams are not doing different things, they do not use revolutionary technology, they do not have disproportionally bigger budgets, they don’t have smarter people. They do the same activities as everyone else, but the way they are doing them is much different.
Want to Make Retail Customers Happy? Give Them a ‘Wow’ Experience By Wharton Staff
Retailers must create “wow” shopping experiences if they want to satisfy customers and keep them coming back, according to a recent study from Wharton’s Baker Retailing Center and The Verde Group, a global customer experience consultancy. The survey-based study found that retailers can increase shopper repurchase intent by nearly 60% by consistently delivering a great experience, whether in-store or online. What defines a “wow” depends on the shopper and type of store, but hassle-free customer support is at the top of the list. Thomas Robertson, a marketing professor who is director of the Baker Retailing Center, said the report offers some good news for an industry bombarded by negative stories about store closures, bankruptcies, and the so-called retail apocalypse. “This study was all about taking a positive outlook on the retail shopping experience, and to find ways that retailers could enhance that experience and benefit consumers,” he said. ‘Surprise and Delight’ The Verde Group surveyed 9,400 consumers and found that what consistently “surprised and delighted” them was exceptionally great service, said CEO Paula Courtney. That great service can be as heroic as a sales associate going above and beyond to help a customer find just the right item, or as mundane as a clean, well-organized store. “Whether you’re a specialty retailer or a big box or category killer or a mass merchandiser, whatever your value proposition is, the essence of that value proposition [and] delivering on it seemed to be the No. 1 thing that defined greatness and ‘wow’ for consumers,” Courtney said. Some of the highest-ranked customer “wows” are: • Fast, free shipping • Easy returns • Problem-free shopping • Well-stocked inventory • A great app or website for online shopping • Attention to detail in packaging Interestingly, the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t made shoppers any less demanding — or forgiving. If they encounter supply chain problems, staffing issues, and other obstacles that create friction, they simply shop somewhere else. “What we learned, which is surprising, is that consumers are not giving retailers a hall pass for the pandemic,” Courtney said. She said retailers need to keep investing in their stores, in
their staff, and in great shopper experiences, despite the hardships created by the pandemic. “I absolutely believe that now is not the time to shirk away from delivering ‘wow,’ or delivering on the basics, because customers are more demanding than ever.”
“Consumers are not giving retailers a hall pass for the pandemic.”–Paula Courtney A Missed Opportunity Robertson believes well-trained sales associates are a big part of a successful retail strategy. But those jobs have been slashed in large numbers, replaced by online chatbots, or nothing at all. Customers are left frustrated and feeling the friction, he said. “I think a major opportunity that is being missed that could help retailers deliver ‘wow’ experiences would be to value professional sales associates,” Robertson noted, adding that he isn’t sure whether those jobs will rebound after the pandemic. “It really depends on how you’re going to define your business,” he said. A dearth of sales help may be functional for low-cost retailers. “But for others, I think you’d better bring them back. Because otherwise, the in-store experience is going to continue to deteriorate.”
“There are winners, there are losers, and things are changing.” –Thomas Robertson Robertson also dismissed concerns that retail is dying. It’s one of the largest employers in the United States and a major contributor to the gross domestic product. Data show that sales have been rebounding significantly since last year’s pandemic-related plunge. “There are winners, there are losers, and things are changing,” he said. “There’s a lot of innovation out there.” E-commerce is teeming with new ideas, such as shopping shows that are now live-streamed on social media platforms like Instagram. Malls are downsizing and reconfiguring physical space more economically. Online retailers are opening stores, offline retailers are getting better at digital, and everyone is trying to adapt. “If you’re a sophisticated retailer, you realize that and don’t cling to the past,” Robertson said. “You move on to the future, which is always a challenge for any legacy company in any industry.”
The ‘Econometric Hero’ and five questions every CMO should ask about MMM By Tony Evans
Facebook’s Tony Evans considers how Media Mix Modelling should be reinvented to reflect today’s marketing priorities. Media Mix Modelling (or MMM) was first developed back in the 1970s to measure the impact of offline media such as TV, radio and press advertising. A lot has changed since then, including a plethora of digital platforms and higher expectations from CMOs toward actionability and accountability from advertising strategies. MMM can solve that, but only for those who change the way it is done. There are people who would have you believe that marketing has changed since the internet came along. There are new tools and techniques for reaching audiences, for sure, but the very core remains the same: getting the right message to the right person at the right time in as cost-effective manner as possible. As technology and data techniques have evolved, platforms have benefited. This technological evolution enabled smarter targeting and smarter delivery of ads fuelled by data and machine learning. The overall experience became better for both the marketer and consumers. Better targeted and more relevant ads are great for the time-poor consumer looking for their next purchase. And, of course, they are great for the advertiser, which gets a much more cost-effective way of spending marketing budgets. The first phase of MMM Econometrics – the practical application of economic theory – has been in use in business for some time. Within this exists the marketing arm of the process of econometrics, namely MMM. Statisticians ingest a number of variables that could impact sales and, through a process of regression, figure out which of the marketing channels or other factors (identified
variables such as price discounting, competitor activity etc) was having the biggest impact. The data collection, analysis and then technique application to get to usable information in MMM has been a long and expensive process requiring specialists. As a result, MMM modelling was typically an annual event, neither dynamic nor driving timely actions. Digital advertising and the rise of causality The plethora of data available in digital marketing enabled a whole industry to look at the link between activity and sales. While many fall into the first trap of identifying only the last touchpoint before a sale is conducted online, the majority of marketers knew that was way too simplistic and incorrect. Up until five years ago, it was not possible to easily look scientifically at different groups of people at scale, and determine whether their exposure to advertising had led to an action. Through products like conversion lift, sales lift and brand lift, marketers could now see whether their ad executions were truly driving actual behaviour. A funny thing happened on the way to the future The digital advertising industry is maturing, and an increased focus on privacy online has once again made MMM the unlikely hero. Advertisers will have to seek out new techniques to understand ad effectiveness. They need to be able to operate with their own data, where they are in control of complying with all necessary data regulations of ownership and processing of that data. It’s also becoming clear that MMM is no longer a technique reserved to large, established teams within CPGs and auto brands. Mobile-app advertisers are already shifting toward MMM and innovating at a rapid pace, redefining how MMM is done for pure app players. (Re) enter the ‘Econometric Hero’
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One of the challenges is that MMM is a model: it’s a statistical assessment based on the inputs available. It looks at past impacts and makes conclusions. A study that scientifically shows causality would win every day over regression. Ekimetrics, a data science company, has found that another challenge is that MMM tends to be slow. The challenge on data latency isn’t just on the media side, but in the fact that MMM needs a wide variety of data from across the business to run including competitor actions, market factors, distribution, product launches etc). Ekimetrics is working on low latency solutions, focused on the data pipeline and increasing access to traditionally harder areas of the business to capture. Turning MMM into the tool for the future: Five things to ask 1. How can MMMs be built quicker? Solutions now exist to automate MMM builds – Demand Drivers by Analytics Edge, for example. Leverage the power of cloud-based technology to help accelerate the frequency of delivery of insights. MMM can be built quicker with the right tools and data strategy. 2. How can we take more variables into the modelling? Models should be run across as much advertising activity as possible. The goal is to get constant learnings on as many campaigns as possible. It may mean that, in the short run, digital-only MMM may become the norm, while quick data availability and lower costs would allow for non-digital channels and other factors to be baked in quickly. 3. Could we build this ‘in-house’ in a cost-effective way?
To build in-house requires expertise. This needs investment in people and in tools. It can lead to more flexibility than outsourcing. It may mean partnering with agencies and consultancies, but in a very different way. Open source codes, including our very own project Robyn, are both a reflection and a catalyst of these changes. Set a three-year plan, starting with collaborating with your MMM provider, and ending with this MMM provider being a consultant to your in-house team of experts. 4. How can we ensure that models are accurate? Removing bias completely from models is not achievable in the short term. However, minimising these biases is achievable now. Validation and calibration of MMM results with experiments run on and off Facebook should be a minimum requirement. CMOs have to make multi-million-dollar decisions and holding these decisions to a higher degree of accuracy is key. Deloitte went ahead and has already developed validation and calibration techniques within MMMs it built. The 2021 Deloitte White Paper provides more details. 5. How can the modelling results show that it is worth the investment? This is a topic for CMOs to ask themselves as much as their MMM provider. The results and efficiencies for your business are only useful if actions are taken as a result of the modelling. Put actionability at the core. Request forecasting and simulations to be done, and verify their accuracy over time. Marketers who adopt rapid modelling alongside causal testing will be in the best position to understand advertising efficacy. As with everything companies have done in building successful businesses, if it were easy everyone would have done it. Those that make the choice now to invest time and resources in building this out will be the winners.
Marketers, Make Things That People Want to See, Watch and Buy. In That Order. By Robert Willey
Early in my career, a highly respected colleague told me that ‘marketing was the tax you pay for being unremarkable.’ At first, I was offended and felt defensive. And then I realized he was right. Marketing often stands at the end of the line, told to go fast, ignore the broken parts and do amazing work. This is exactly why marketing is expensive most of the time. It’s hard to convince people to buy something that was never meant to actually do them any good. Thankfully those brands are on the wrong side of history. Now more than ever consumers and brands can have a symbiotic relationship if brands simply strive to be a badge worth standing for. Here’s how. Make it official Eighty percent of people on IG follow a brand. Remember when Facebook launched ads over a decade ago and there was nearly an internet revolt to allow companies to comingle their posts with your friends and family? Fast forward to today and not only do we follow brands, we expect them to engage like our best friends. To respect our feeds and post content we want to see, learn from, know about and
occasionally buy. It’s such an invitation for the best brands to find new relationships and create lifetime value. Yet countless brands just want to produce ads. Sell stuff. Tell you why you should buy their widget with a highly commercialized post that most of us simply scroll past. The best brands don’t aspire for anyone to simply purchase. At the recovery juice company Cheribundi where I serve as an executive, we make antioxidant-rich tart cherry juice that is consumed by pro, elite and everyday athletes, and we aspire to make things people want to see, watch and buy. In that order. What’s the point if not? And people want the same: to connect, advocate, share and come back later. That sounds a lot like a real relationship to me. And I’m here for it. It’s never just one thing The concept of what we expect from our spouses has changed. Once upon a time, it was enough to be the master of a domain: provider, housewife, mother, dad, etc. Now talk to therapists and they all say the same thing: we want more in our relationships. We are dynamic, complex and aspirational humans that have come to believe we can have it all. Well,
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that’s now what we expect from our brands as well. Once upon a time the adage ‘stack it high and let it fly’ was the king of the retail kingdom. Earn the shelf space and create the biggest footprint to acquire consumers. Times have changed. While trial still often happens offline, it doesn’t begin and end with the shelf. It also requires more than just presence. Being the best at one thing rarely wins the day. As GM of ecommerce at the soap company method, we knew that efficacy wasn’t enough. Sure soap can clean things well, but why can’t it also be counter-worthy design or smell good or even help save the planet. And when we did all those things, we learned that consumers want more than just soap. It’s not about me, it’s you In most companies, the ideas for innovation come from inside. Feasibility, operational inputs, P&Ls and efficiencies rule the roadmap. Yet that’s not where some of the best and often most disruptive ideas come from. In my time at Taskrabbit, we clearly understood that people needed help around their home assembling furniture and hanging shelves by paying
attention to the challenges of weekend chores. Uber followed suit and was born because SF taxis were the worst. It wasn’t about trying to find white space in a market - it was creating the market. These types of opportunities surround us every day and all we have to do is look around. Pay attention to culture. Read, talk, watch and understand the social conversation. Be curious. No doubt sometimes the pace and tenor can feel throttling but that’s why marketing has moved to the front of the class. We aren’t just a cost center. We should be the compass for innovation and the microphone for cultural trends. At fashion ecommerce startup Spring, we always said that the sidewalk was the new catwalk. The show outside the show was where trends were made. Look outside, investigate your feeds and listen. There has never been a better time to be a brand. To connect and positively impact people through commercial gain. While we have all been sitting inside, staring at screens and pondering the future, I’m excited to see brands build relationships IRL once again. Let’s aspire to be remarkable.
Branding the Branders: The Joy of Designing Agency Identities By Juan Carlos Pagan and Ahmed Klink
A look at three of our recent projects Since starting our creative studio and artist rep firm in 2016, we’ve been fortunate to create brand identities and allencompassing communications for a wide range of clients. Everything from The New York Times and NPR to the Type Directors Club, the Denver Nuggets to Pinterest, Bacardi and Ciroc to Adidas and Loisa Latin food. But a look at our portfolio also reveals an unusual little niche: brand identities for ad agencies. Weird, right? You’d imagine it would be a natural for them, since they’re experts and do it literally every day for their clients. But truth be told, it’s often better that they remove themselves from that
role, sidestep the inevitable internal biases and competing billable deadlines, and treat themselves to being the client for a change. It’s like writing your own memoir or telling the story of your life: Very few authors are able to do this in a way that’s compelling, usually because they’re too close to it. Sometimes you just want an outsider to listen to your story, have them go off to work on it and come back with their own perspective. Luckily, a number of agencies have called us to do just that, and turned out to be pretty great clients themselves! It sounds obvious, but having a compelling visual brand is incredibly important for an advertising agency. With a great logo and design, agencies can tell the story of who they
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are, why they exist, and showcase the values they want to communicate to their clients.
geometric sans, quite literally living among the branches of a ficus tree.
The first step of the design process is to just sit and listen to the agency stakeholders have to say, and why they feel like they need a new brand for their agency. Then we serve ghost-design studio for the agency, synthesizing the insights and coming back with an identity system that tells their story.
Our most recent example is a new identity for Liquid+Arcade.
We had the pleasure of working with Joan, the creative agency founded in 2016 by Lisa Clunie and Jamie Robinson. They already came up with the great name, historically eponymous with some of the most powerful and badass women. While we loved the name, their original logo was a bit soft. The insight from Lisa and Jamie was to have a mark that was modern, bold, confident and badass, because that’s who they are as an agency. Drawing on a combination of ambition, curiosity, imagination, work ethic and aforementioned badass-ness, Joans have continuously challenged, questioned and changed the status quo. So we took inspiration from this ethos and built a custom logotype around the sword, wielded by one of the greatest and most famous Joans of all time, Joan of Arc. The former Figliulo & Partners, the full-service agency founded by former TBWA CCO Mark Figliulo, came to us for a new identity to coincide with their fifth anniversary. The first thing we told them was Figliulo isn’t the easiest name to pronounce. Luckily, they were open to us going beyond a simple rebrand of their old name and actually let us come up with a whole new one. A key insight from Mark and his team was that the agency prides itself on having a comfortable, nurturing culture. Our suggestion was to rebrand the agency as FIG, a simpler and more youthful moniker. A modern, bold and welcoming wordmark was designed, displaying the new name in a beautiful
Previously known as Liquid Advertising, the agency has worked with some of the biggest names in gaming and entertainment. The El Segundo, California-based shop changed its name to Liquid+Arcade to reflect its recently expanded full-service offering, including both creative and media services. Since Liquid+Arcade is an agency born out of the video gaming space, there was a tremendous opportunity for us to lean into video game history and nostalgia. We spent many hours of our youth in arcades, and aimed to capture that neo-noir look and feel for the agency’s new identity. We developed a new word mark rooted in the world of early 1990s video games and arcades, then created a custom logotype inspired by neon signage using shades of white, blue, red and magenta. To symbolize the duality of Liquid+Arcade as both a media and creative service agency, each character of the logotype consists of an inner and outer stroke. We then fleshed out the world where the identity lives, even designing stationery made of hardened glass. Based on our experience, ad agencies can make for pretty great clients, and we really enjoy the collaborative process. They have been some of our most understanding creative partners, and also seem to really enjoy sitting on the other side of the table for a change! As a studio, that’s really the best situation we can hope for, the perfect combination to make great, long-lasting design work. And in true agency fashion, we’ve even won awards for it!
Proving Marketing to Execs (Part 2): Marketing’s Language Problem
By Allen Weiss
Marketers frequently talk about “quality,” “value,” “strategy,” “performance,” “reputation,” “position,” and “branding”—all of them important concepts. However, your president, CEO, CFO, and other members of the executive team are talking about “assets,” “return on assets,” “velocity,” “leverage,” and (if you work in a publicly owned company) “P/E multiple” and “firm value.”
present value,” “assets and liabilities,” “cash flow statement,” etc. all have standardized meanings. The definitions for those areas of business come from Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
All those words make up a company’s common language.
Marketing does not have such principles. Confusion over the meanings of terms leads to confusion over what the marketing department’s strategy is and how that strategy should be executed.
As I mentioned in my previous article (Proving Marketing to Execs – Part 1), you have to translate marketing into the language of business to get more respect from the C-suite. But Marketing has another problem—the basic way marketers use marketing language. Marketing’s Other Language Problem Every business function has its own specialized vocabulary, but when marketing professionals from different parts of your company define marketing in different ways, you create confusion and skepticism among others in your company. You can understand why the credibility of marketers can be compromised when marketers from two different divisions use the same words but mean different things by them. The resulting confusion becomes especially harmful when marketers interact with managers from other parts of their organization (such as R&D, Finance, and Sales) and even other companies (e.g., advertising agencies). In some ways, the problem is unique to marketing. Accounting and finance, for example, have standardized languages. “Net
For example, a marketing practitioner may say, “Let’s put our value proposition into that product brochure.” But “value proposition” means different things to different groups and people in a company. Your VP of Sales might view the value proposition as the price of a product or service relative to the price of competitive offerings. The VP of Engineering might offer yet another understanding of the product’s value proposition, such as how efficiently it can be produced relative to competitors’ offerings. The same confusion arises when people use the word quality. When you say “quality” in your company, what do you mean? Product reliability? The attractiveness of a product brochure? Something else entirely? Moreover, do other managers with whom you discuss “quality” give the term the same meaning you do? And what about your customers: How would they define “quality”? Often, the
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word means something different to each customer—further muddying the waters about what constitutes a “quality” product or service. Another confusing expression is “reputation.” To some people, reputation refers to a company’s brand equity. To others, reputation signifies what a brand is good for. The problem is that you can have a reputation for anything: a reputation for reliability, or good service, or just for being a nice person. “Image” is another tricky term. Some managers use “image” to refer to the picture consumers see in their heads when they think about the brand (for example, the physical product or its logo). Other managers talk about “image” in terms of advertising. For instance, an “image ad” doesn’t contain much information about the product; rather, it associates the product with a certain type of person or lifestyle. So how do you avoid the problems described above? Start by gathering your marketing team together and listing the marketing terms you use every day. Then arrive at agreedupon definitions. To persuade people to invest time in the meeting, explain to them beforehand the importance of clarifying vocabulary. Cite the benefits that will arise from developing a shared understanding of each term’s meaning, such as more generous support for marketing initiatives from the C-suite, or a greater willingness to provide feedback on proposed marketing strategies. Consider this as well: Avoid using words such as “value,” “quality,” and “reliability” (or pick your favorite ambiguous
term) that have different meanings for different people in your company and that can be interpreted in broad and often confusing ways. Instead, use words for which people across the organization can agree on their meaning. Translating Your Activities Into Business Language Because they’re already part of the company’s financial language, use financial terms such as “velocity” and “leverage.” Technically, “velocity” is the number of times a company’s products or services are sold and replaced with new inventory in a given time period. But your marketing activities—such as promotions and price reductions—are actually increasing velocity. Indeed, the whole point of those activities is to sell more products and services as quickly as possible. The more you can show execs how your work enhances velocity, the more they’ll see the connection between marketing and measurable financial performance. “Leverage” is a company’s ability to use someone else’s assets to produce cash for itself. The language of business includes a variety of risk-related terms (“business risk,” “financial risk,” “risk averse,” “risk neutral”), but for our purposes the word “risk” refers to the possibility that a marketing investment’s actual return will differ from the expected return. So, let’s say you want to use a brand to extend into a new market. You can say instead that you want to leverage the brand to enter the new market. Whenever you have an asset (even one that is intangible) that you want to use for something else, you are engaging in leverage.
When the cookie crumbles: how to prepare for the next stage of digital advertising
By Rob Foster
Google has killed not just the cookie but also the key workaround that many marketers were relying on. Rob Foster, Senior Consultant at The Observatory International, says the real solution is fundamental rewiring of their approach to data. Google’s decision to phase out third-party cookies will have a huge impact on advertising capabilities, particularly when it comes to data-driven marketing. This time there’s no fudging the issue because earlier this month Google also said it would block the key work-around that many were hoping would minimise the impact. There will be no alternative individual identifiers allowed in order to track browsers across the web, further hindering ad targeting capabilities. Many are preparing for a dip in results, a worsening of performance and reduction in return on investment. Plans are being re-written and target audiences redefined as marketers start to engage in deep conversations with their media agencies to forecast the impact on digital performance. But this change has far wider implications. The reality is that now is the time for a bit of inner reflection, a chance to take stock and review what is still in advertisers’ control: the information within their businesses and their first-party data.
Brands that can become less reliant on third-party platforms and the data they offer will thrive over those who are unable to have their own direct interactions and conversations with consumers. Successful management and use of first-party data is increasingly key to driving customer loyalty, delivering a better understanding of the customer’s needs and enabling brands to add true value for them. The truth is that cookie removal may seem like a technical change, but it leaves a huge gap upstream and demands action on the bigger principles of how a business uses information to drive business growth. Getting this right will have significant positive effects on business performance, as evidenced by many industry commentators including Forbes. It’s a business change project worth undertaking. To succeed, brands need to move beyond the ‘traditional’ parameters of marketing and establish a connected ecosystem across the entire business that allows for the access, analysis and utilisation of data in an effective way. Marketing needs to be able to pass and receive data and information with all relevant parts of the business across all markets. Brands will need a governance structure that links all
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websites, apps, stores, call centres, logistics and points of sale with a consistency of language that enables a heightened understanding of the business. This will allow that information to be used to deliver advertising in a consumer-focused way that meets customer needs and adds value for them.
should be using the same language, from the names of individual products or the description of consumers through to defined target business metrics. Strong language governance unlocks organised and efficient information sharing.
Marketers that don’t currently have access to all the data and information they need in order for marketing output to add value to consumers’ lives, need to act to enable that to happen. Getting this right means taking five key steps:
4. Focus on the consumer impact: If you are struggling to think of fresh approaches within an existing business, try working backwards instead. Start with a specific consumer impact or behavioural change you’d like to target and work backwards to identify the requirements from within the business that you need to make that happen.
1. Establish a culture of using data and information sharing: Insisting that employees speak consistently in quantitative terms rather than vague qualitative statements puts renewed focus on the need for data to underpin business decisions.
5. Have cross-team/discipline idea sessions: Specialists in one area often aren’t aware that what they do has relevance or potential benefit to other areas of the business. Uniting them in a fun, engaging environment can uncover potential lines of connection.
2. Build strong leadership: Having a leadership team that understands the importance of collaboration across departments/markets to reach shared goals will help to unlock potential areas of connectivity. Collaboration should not devalue a sense of ownership however, as clear ownership and management of data is important if it is to be used correctly.
The need to restructure the marketing function by revising its role within a business is becoming more apparent by the day. Challenges such as the removal of third-party cookies are another reason to make any business a consumer-facing operation.
3. Establish common language: All parts of the business
So rather than obsessing about the end of the cookie, businesses need to examine the bigger principles of how they use their own information for business growth.
Book,
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Building Brand Experiences: A Practical Guide to Retaining Brand Relevance By Dr Darren Coleman Retaining brand relevance is fundamental to organizational success, and an increasing challenge that high-level marketing professionals now face. In the past, many have responded with product or price-based competition, yet this can only propel a brand so far when it comes to retaining long-term relevance.
Sinker Brand Storytelling: Put Customers at the Heart of Your Brand Story By Miri Rodriguez Despite understanding essential storytelling techniques, brands continue to explain how their product or service can help the customer, rather than showcasing how the customer’s life has changed as a result of them.
The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change)
The End of Marketing: Humanizing Your Brand in the Age of Social Media and AI
By Clayton M. Christensen
Business: Small Business and Entrepreneurship category WINNER: BookAuthority Best New Book to Read in 2020 - Social Media Marketing category FINALIST: Business Book Awards 2020 - International Business Book category Social networks are the new norm and traditional marketing is failing in today’s digital, always-on culture.
A Wall Street Journal and Businessweek bestseller. Named by Fast Company as one of the most influential leadership books in its Leadership Hall of Fame. An innovation classic. From Steve Jobs to Jeff Bezos, Clay Christensen’s work continues to underpin today’s most innovative leaders and organizations.
Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans by Tony Meerman Robbins How do some brands attract word-of-mouth buzz and radical devotion around products as everyday as car insurance, b2b software, and underwear? They embody the most powerful marketing force in the world: die-hard fans.
Radical Candor: Fully Revised and Updated Edition: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean By Kim Scott Featuring a new preface, afterword and Radically Candid Performance Review Bonus Chapter, the fully revised & updated edition of Radical Candor is packed with even more guidance to help you improve your relationships at work.
By Carlos Gil
The Culture Code By Daniel Coyle *New York Times Bestseller* *JPMorgan Recommended Read 2018* `A marvel of insight and practicality’ Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit What do Pixar, Google and the San Antonio Spurs basketball team have in common? The answer is that they all owe their extraordinary success to their team-building skills. In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle, New York Times bestselling author of The Talent Code, goes inside some of the most effective organisations in the world and reveals their secrets.
Faster, Smarter, Louder: Master Attention in a Noisy Digital Market By Aaron Agius In todays online world, a brands success lies in combining technological planning and social strategies to draw customers inand keep them coming back for more. Without a strong digital platform, time and money are wasted, content sits unnoticed, and prospective clients disappear. Fortunately, two seasoned digital marketers have a plan to make your brand succeed.
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Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It By April Dunford You know your product is awesome—but does anybody else? Forget everything you thought you knew about positioning. Successfully connecting your product with consumers isn’t a matter of following trends, comparing yourself to the competition or trying to attract the widest customer base.
The Hidden Psychology of Social Networks: How Brands Create Authentic Engagement by Understanding What Motivates Us Hardcover By Joe Federer
From the former Head of Brand Strategy at Reddit comes a proven and thought-provoking approach to the digital economy and how brands can create authentic engagement that is rooted in the fundamental motivations behind human psychology
The Results Obsession: ROIFocused Digital Strategies to Transform Your Marketing
Lemon. How the advertising brain turned sour.
By Karen J Marchetti
Using a unique mix of neuroscience, cultural history and advertising research, the study shows how an increase in abstract, left-brain thinking has spread across business and popular culture and how this is undermining creativity and making advertising less effective. Crucially, it also provides practical advice to reverse this decline.
These digital strategies have doubled and tripled client sales, boosted online leads 67%, increased email click-through 200%, and generated a 22% opt-in rate for clients like Qualcomm, Union Bank and more! You’ll improve the elements that have the biggest impact on results – Offers and Copy, tailored to Why Your Customers Buy
How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know By Sharp 2020 celebrates the 10 year anniversary of How Brands Grow with over 100,000 copies sold. Voted AdAge’s Most-Recommended Marketing Book of the Summer 2013.This book provides evidence-based answers to the key questions asked by marketers every day.
By Orlando Wood
Build Your Brand Mania: How to Transform Yourself Into an Authoritative Brand That Will Attract Your Ideal Customers By Matt Bertram The missing piece of internet marketing that almost all business owners miss is transforming themselves into an authoritative brand that attracts their ideal customers.
3 Months to No.1: The “NoNonsense” SEO Playbook for Getting Your Website Found on Google
Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers
By Will Coombe
Do you have a hobby you wish you could indulge in all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night? Now is the perfect time to take that passion and make a living doing what you love. In Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shows you how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses.
Learn the SEO tactics that saw one Airline Pilot quit his flying career. The same ones he used to build a Top SEO Agency in London. 9 Years & 500 clients later, he hands you the Playbook.
By Geoffrey A. Moore