BrandKnew September 2020

Branding matters. Because branding matters.

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09.20#95

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Dear Friends: If you permit me a blast from the past ‘ Come September ‘ was a classic theme music created by Ventures way back in the early 1960’s. Alas, with the current state the pandemic has left us in, we do not have yet the luxury of being freewheeling and blasse. But, as they say, this too shall pass. To begin with we have a feature packed issue. We talk about how ad agencies are recalibrating their mindsets to be ready for the next future. We also pick up a conversation on how the world’s biggest advertisers are spending(or not) during the pandemic. The Future of Strategy 2020 is being looked at with a new lens. The importance of having a strong personal brand has also been brought to the fore. For brand owners and marketers understanding and shaping consumer behaviour in the next normal is going to be significant. We take a look in this edition. We have entered into an era where our AQ(Adaptability Quotient) will be our biggest asset.

So, get prepared for Tiny Rebellions before it gets you. If you are Obsessed about building a brand that people love from day one, the article on the subject is just for you.

We also venture into understanding 5 of the most potent AI Marketing Tools. With WFH(Work From Home) becoming default, we crystal ball gaze at the Workplace of the Future as well in this issue. Design Thinking gets a revisit too. There is ample more to feast on. Have a good time soaking it in. Stay safe.And till the next, my very best!

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Suresh Dinakaran @ISDGlobalDubai

@Brandknewmag

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Brand Knew is published by

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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 Chief Growth Architect: Kapil Bhamare 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: Ryan Govindan Video Content Specialist: Vinayak Sivaprasad

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CONTENTS Future of Strategy 2020: opportunities in a post-pandemic world How the world’s biggest advertisers are spending (or not) as the pandemic grinds on I Was Saved By My Personal Brand How to Do Design Thinking Better 15 Persuasive Copywriting Techniques That’ll Boost Conversions The Workplace of the Future ‘My mind is opened to different possibilities now’: 5 ways agency work will change going forward Tiny Rebellions: Make Change Before It Makes You Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One Brand You. Who Me? Is Now the Time to Transition to Personalized Marketing?

Datathon Challenge: How to Boost Sales for a Global Retailer How Starbucks Came a Long Way on Customer Centricity Avoid the ’Hero Trap’ and Close the Intention-Action Gap Lego’s Next Build: Worlds and Characters Created by Its Fans Prince Harry: Social media is dividing us. Together, we can redesign it 5 of the Most Promising AI Marketing Tools [Research] Understanding and shaping consumer behavior in the next normal How to Recover After Burnout Book, Line & Sinker

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Future of Strategy 2020: opportunities in a post-pandemic world

By WARC Staff

Strategists are in more demand than ever as a result of the pandemic, WARC’s 2020 Future of Strategy survey finds, though amid a looming recession, the purpose of the strategist is changing.

was on younger employees with a significant decline in the number of employees aged 25 or under. IPA Census data suggests agency personnel under-35 dropped by 23% in the 12 months that followed the crash.

WARC’s annual Future of Strategy report is based on a global survey of strategists that was fielded in May and June 2020.

Subscribers can read the full report here.

Already, that pattern is emerging with 26% of respondents noting that headcount has decreased as a result of COVID-19.

What’s more, a further 18% were expecting staff cuts in the next few months.

This year’s report focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on strategy, across headcounts, budgets, and the role of strategists during the crisis. It also addresses what long term changes might result.

There’s a deep strangeness to the situation as the pandemic demolishes old certainties. As a result, strategic expertise has never been more important as brands seek creative responses to challenges and opportunities. Yet the pressure it exerts has asked difficult financial questions of brands and agencies alike: short-term reactions to that pressure in the form of budget cuts has put both jobs and strategies under threat.

Meanwhile, some strategists continue to feel that their work is undervalued, especially when aggressive staff cuts loom.

The danger here is that those cuts fall on junior practitioners at a key moment in their careers and slashes opportunities at a time in which agencies and brands had been under pressure to make their workforces more representative of the population.

Four key themes stood out from the report: A time to prove strategy’s value Strategists are busier than ever, and throughout the pandemic clients have relied on them more than usual. In 2020, 59% of respondents feel that the strategy department is exerting more influence over the agency than this time last year.

A continued theme from last year: 84% of respondents feel their hours should be billable. “It’s times like this that attaching thinking to revenue comes into sharp focus, so it’s vital that the work we do is accountable: billable. The services we offer provide a tangible return”, said one strategist. However, many are also keenly aware that in the current environment, it’s unlikely that agencies will start to charge separately.

Headcounts and the next generation There’s precedent for recession hitting the next generation.

During the last recession in 2008/09, the major impact

The risk here, say strategists, is that despite offering a quick source of cost reductions, stretching a team employed precisely in order to do deep thinking. As a result, some anticipate a hollowing out of the middle, with either very junior or very senior staff members.

Yet 41% of respondents say the skillsets being lost are those of junior strategists, followed by generalists (37%), both of which reflect a pressure on those in the early parts of their careers. Writing for the report, Ally Owen, Founder of Brixton Finishing School points out that the window of opportunity in the creative industries is already narrow and gets narrower when you come from an under-represented background.

“For strategy teams to really resonate, they need to include a collection of individuals who together offer a forensic understanding of people and culture.”

Budget cuts and the hit to freelancers Media budgets are being cut, according to 87% of respondents, and the skills of strategy are increasingly taking demand from the field of planning. “It feels like we are closer to the client’s financial decisions, more visibility into internal processes and understanding of the weak spots”, said one Strategy partner based in Europe.

“The feeling is that we are working harder to put less work out,” said a strategist in LATAM. Though strategists are in demand, freelancers are the first area to be cut in tough times with 48% of respondents saying that their agency has reduced its use of freelancers.

Strategy in the age of short-termism Brands have acted in the face of the pandemic, but most of that has taken the form of budget cuts, and a renewed pressure for communications work to drive sales quickly.

Yet there is opportunity: 62% or respondents see the biggest opportunity for the discipline in adapting clients’ strategies to the post-pandemic world.

How the world’s biggest advertisers are spending (or not) as the pandemic grinds on

By Lara O’reilly

As the coronavirus crisis took its grip on the western world, many marketers initially reacted by pausing, or at least reining in, their spending.

virus.” Taylor said its educational TV advertising and the use of additional in-store navigational and educational signage helped deliver “an immediate lift” to its homecare category.

But that paralysis quickly dissipated as companies reforecast and adapted to the circumstances. For some the strategy was to shift their resources into e-commerce, while others took it upon themselves to promote public health messages.

P&G said it expects to record sales growth of between 2% to 4% for the current fiscal year — citing challenges with the economy and the ongoing health crisis. Organic sales rose 5% in its 2019 fiscal year.

Digiday analyzed the most-recent earnings updates from the top 10 ad spenders in the world (according to RECMA data from 2018; 2019’s ranking isn’t available until September) to see how they are adapting their marketing strategies to the ongoing crisis.

2. Unilever: Readying a ‘purposeful’ push

1. Procter & Gamble: Supporting public health measures Much like the previous quarter, the world’s largest consumer goods maker continued its strong pandemic sales performance as consumers stocked up on cleaning products like Mr Clean, Tide and Charmin toilet paper. E-commerce was also a particular bright spot as organic sales were up 6% in the latest quarter, its fiscal fourth.

The company said it increased marketing investment by 270 basis points — or around $480 million — though this increase was partially offset by 230 basis points of overhead and marketing expense savings.

On the earnings call last week, P&G CEO David Taylor said the company was “using our marketing and communications expertise to encourage consumers to support public health measures, to help flatten the curve and slow the spread of the

Unilever reported a 0.3% dip in second-quarter sales growth, but its shares still soared when it reported earnings last week as analysts had expected a bigger decline. With hygiene front of mind for consumers, sales of products like Dove soap, Domestos bleach and new Lifebuoy sanitizer shot through the roof. Still, with much of the world under lockdown conditions, food service sales declined by almost 40%, while out-of-home ice cream sales declined by almost 30%.

As consumer habits shifted, Unilever said it adapted and reallocated its brand and marketing investments “weekby-week.” That, coupled with declining ad prices in most media markets, led to the company’s brand and marketing investment declining by 100 basis points during the period — but also improved efficiency.

However, Unilever said it expects to increase its marketing investment in the second half of the year as lockdown restrictions ease and it puts advertising heft behind new products designed for the new normal. “We’re investing more of our marketing spend on communication, which is explicitly purposeful,” such as campaigns for brands like Lifebuoy and

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Domestos which also provide coronavirus-safety messages, said Unilever CEO Alan Jope on the company’s secondquarter earnings call.

3. L’Oréal: ‘Entering the second half with confidence’ L’Oreal’s sales dropped 19% in the second quarter as lockdown conditions weakened demand for makeup and cosmetics. Still, there are some signs of a recovery: Chief executive Jean-Paul Agon said the company’s sales rose in July for the first time since January.

Much like its consumer goods counterparts, L’Oreal’s e-commerce business has grown rapidly during the pandemic, up 64.6% over the first half of the year. The company’s China business also marked a swift recovery, with sales up 30% in the second quarter.

L’Oreal spent 3.98 billion ($4.7 billion) on advertising and promotional expenses in the first half of the year — down 10.9% in absolute spend terms versus last year, but up 30 basis points as a percentage of sales.

Agon said the company is “entering the second half with confidence.” The company has new product launch plans for each of it divisions and Agon said it is increasing its media investment “everywhere” to grow its market share.

4. Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance: A rough road ahead Renault plunged to a record loss in the second quarter as the

pandemic ruptured car sales and the company continued to feel the negative effects from its troubled alliance partnership with Nissan, of which it owns 43%. Renault’s sales fell 35% in the quarter. Meanwhile, Nissan has warned investors it will likely record its biggest ever operating loss in the year to March 2021. Global vehicle sales in the current quarter were down 48% on last year. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi reported a ¥176 billion ($1.7 billion) loss in the period covering April to June.

The alliance is now embarking on a turnaround plan that involves wide-ranging jobs and production cuts.

On the marketing front, Nissan last month introduced a new “flat” logo. Meanwhile Renault is planning to make its e-tech hybrid engine technology one of the “key pillars” of its strategy this year, said Renault CEO Luca de Meo. “We shouldn’t be as shy as we have been in the last years” about showing off the performance of the technology, he added.

5. Amazon: The unstoppable money printing machine Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has been a boon for Amazon’s sales as consumers dodged the shops and ordered items straight to their homes. Net sales soared 40% to $88.9 billion in the second-quarter and the company booked a record quarterly profit. Still, Amazon laid out $4 billion in “covid-19” related costs, such as purchasing personal protective equipment and paying out bonuses to its front-line employees and delivery workers.

The company expects sales next quarter to grow between 24% and 33% versus the prior year. Amazon’s “other” segment, which primarily includes revenue from advertising, grew 41% to $4.2 billion.

Its marketing costs in the period nudged up 1% on the yearago quarter to $4.3 billion.

Amazon is planning to host its Prime Day shopping event in the fourth quarter this year, rather than the third, so as not to affect service to its customers who are relying on its service throughout the prolonged coronavirus crisis.

6. Coca-Cola: A narrower focus on its biggest brands Coca-Cola’s net revenue slid 28% in the quarter ended July 2 as lockdown conditions hit beverage sales in restaurants, bars and other out-of-home venues. CEO James Quincey is more optimistic for the future: “We believe the second quarter will prove to be the most challenging of the year,” as sales trends improved as the months progressed. Coke pulled back heavily on marketing expenditure in the period — its selling, general and administrative expenses were down 34% — just over $1 billion — versus the year-ago quarter.

Quincey said Coca-Cola is now refocusing its marketing investments around its biggest brands and being more disciplined in its experimentation. One example of that is its new global ad campaign, “Together Tastes Better,” demonstrating how its drinks can be paired with meals.

Coca-Cola is also launching the next iteration of its “Open” campaign this summer, a push that “invites the world to enjoy the simple and important things in life,” as Quincey put it.

At the same time, Coca-Cola is re-evaluating the return on investment across all its marketing channels — “everything from ad viewership across traditional media to improving effectiveness in digital,” Quincey said. Ultimately, even though marketing spend will step up from the second quarter, there will be cost savings.

7. GlaxoSmithKline: Working on a covid-19 vaccine Pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline typically doesn’t talk too much about marketing and advertising on its earnings calls. The company suffered a 2% dip in revenue in its second quarter as global lockdown situations slowed down the number of people using its vaccines, with visits to healthcare professionals limited.

The company is working with France-based Sanofi to develop a covid-19 vaccine. So far the U.K. has signed up for 60 million doses of the vaccine, while the U.S. has agreed to secure 100 million doses.

GSK has been making a number of divestments of some of its products, such as Horlicks, as it looks to position itself as “the world’s leading pureplay consumer healthcare company with the most competitive portfolio possible,” said CEO Emma Walmsley. GSK has also been “winning share in an accelerating e-commerce channel” in its consumer unit.

Looking ahead, GSK is aiming to make £500 million ($656 million) in savings between now and 2022.

8. Volkswagen: ‘Full-blown task force mode’ Volkswagen chief finance officer Frank Witter described the first half of 2020 as “one of the most challenging in the

history of our company.” Revenue dipped 23% in the second quarter.

Still, he said the Germany automaker was “cautiously optimistic” about the rest of the year, thanks to the launch of new models and the “positive trend exhibited in our business over the past few weeks.”

The company maintained its “full-blown task force mode” from the previous quarter, which included cutting back budgets in areas including external consultancy and marketing. Witter said Volkwsagen has been “even stricter” with its brand efficiency programs and its platform rollouts.

Volkswagen’s U.S. unit was among the advertisers joining the #StopHateForProfit Facebook boycott in July.

9. McDonald’s: Cooking up a big push With many restaurants closed and consumers staying indoors, McDonald’s global comparable sales declined 23.9% in the second quarter. Things are on the up now: As of June 30, McDonald’s said “nearly all” of its restaurants around the world were open.

U.S. marketing spend was down 70% in the quarter as McDonald’s chose to conserve resources until the coronavirus situation stabilized. That budget will be reallocated in the third and fourth quarters. The company said it will spend more than $200 million on additional marketing to support its franchisees get tills ringing again.

Some of the efforts will also be directed towards a “rededication” to breakfast, which the company said had been the most challenged part of its menu due to coronavirus — especially as some new competitors had stepped up their breakfast offerings at the same time.

Having removed scores of menu items to ease its operations during the height of the pandemic, some will be returning — but not all, the company said. The bulk of McDonald’s marketing efforts in the second half of the year will be towards core menu items and drawing attention to some of its service channels — like online ordering — rather than new innovations 10. NBCUniversal/Comcast: A tricky quarter, but room for Peacocking While Comcast’s broadband business continued to mark an uptick in customers as the coronavirus crisis continued to keep people at home viewing and surfing in record numbers into the second quarter, the rest of its empire was in a slump.

Many of its theme parks remain closed, cable customers continued to cut the cord, advertising revenue was down and many movie releases are up in the air. Overall, revenue for the June quarter dipped by 11.7%.

On a positive note, Peacock —the company’s ad-supported streaming service it rolled out in April to Comcast customers, followed by a wider national U.S. launch in July — has picked up 10 million customers, the company said. Despite the Peacock push, advertising, marketing and promotion costs were actually down on the prior year — falling 29% to $1.3 billion.

Advertising revenue, sold across its local cable, national cable, broadcast television and Sky networks, fell 30.4% in the quarter.

I WAS SAVED BY MY PERSONAL BRAND

By Mark Schaefer

Like many people, when the coronavirus crisis hit, my business tanked. And then on top of everything, my wife became infected, then I got the disease.

So there was a period of about seven weeks when my household was in a quarantined, non-functional haze.

Everything seemed bleak at that point.

As I started to wake from this pandemic fog, I went through a period of disorientation. What was my place in this new world? I am a speaker without a stage, a consultant who is irrelevant to clients in a deep crisis, a college educator without students, an author with an unbelievable 90 percent drop in book sales when the virus hit in March.

Today, a few months into this chaos, my business is coming back in a remarkable way. I’ve had two of the strongest financial months of my career. And I had a powerful realization.

I’ve been saved from this shipwreck by my personal brand.

I have been consistent, tenacious, and generous with my content and online presence and people remembered that.

I’m still being sought out as a speaker, consultant, and personal business coach when others are falling into a deep business trough they may never get out of.

I’m not out of the woods. Truthfully, no one is.

But I do feel good about the fact that every time I created a piece of content over the years, I was making a deposit into an insurance policy for my career. Now it’s paying off. I’m making the “withdrawal” on the authority, reputation, and presence I worked so hard to establish.

I’m known. I have an advantage. That doesn’t mean success is assured, but ANY advantage means a lot right now.

For you In this period of unspeakable suffering and cataclysmic business change, I’ve been saying as often as I can that it’s not too late for you to work on your personal brand, too.

The personal brand work paid off

In fact, it’s more important than ever.

Here is something I’ve been preaching for years: If you are KNOWN in your industry, you have a permanent, sustainable competitive advantage.

• If you have a small business, then you must realize that your personal brand IS the brand.

And that’s exactly what happened for me. Even in a crisis, new doors kept opening because I had put in the work on my personal brand for so many years. The advice I give to others worked on myself! I am needed, even now, because I’m known.

• If you’re an entrepreneur, a strong personal brand might give you the visibility and attention you need to get the funding and first customers you need.

• If you work for a company, a personal brand can create new opportunities, especially if your job gets eliminated

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and you have to compete for a position in a climate of high unemployment.

• If you work for a non-profit, you are probably getting hit hard right now. You have a better chance for a returned phone call with donors if you’re KNOWN.

I’m not a “salesy” person. But if I look back at my career, KNOWN is probably my greatest contribution to the business world. Every week, somebody tells me this book changed their life. The book is on a lot of lists. It won some awards.

People like Dr. Adam Martin said it is the best book they’ve ever read.

Getting started on a personal brand

The bottom line is, it works.

Creating a personal brand in this environment might seem overwhelming but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, when I did the research for my book KNOWN, I found that every person who has become the “go-to” leader in their field did the same four things. No exceptions.

Many people have asked me to create a course about this process of becoming KNOWN. Here’s something even better.

1. You have to be clear about what you want to be known for. This is harder than it sounds. You have to be able to complete this sentence: “Only I …”

2. You’ll need to figure out some space you can occupy that is under-served. Zig when others are zagging.

We’ve got this!

Just begin.

I want to disclose something to you.

There have been some weeks in my life when I’ve wondered why I should keep creating content. It takes A LOT of time.

3. Content is the fuel for your personal brand. You only have four choices of how to do this. So pick one and rock on!

But when I look back at my career, I realize that every business benefit eventually sprang from the audience that loves the content I create. And now in this crisis, I’m so, so, so grateful I kept at it.

4. A social media audience alone will not help you make your dreams come true. You need to build an actionable audience that believes in you.

Starting is difficult. It can even be nerve-wracking.

So I cleared the path for you.

You don’t need to take an expensive course or waste time on blogs and videos and podcasts that go nowhere.

Here’s all you need to do. Invest in this book:

In six months it will be easier, more rewarding, and even more fun. But you have to BEGIN and you have to give yourself 18 months before even thinking about a pivot.

This is so important. If this is the right time for you, I hope you’ll start making those deposits in your own personal brand account this week.

How to Do Design Thinking Better

By Jennifer Fisher

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Design thinking has, perhaps, reached peak popularity. Businesses in every industry talk about ideating and iterating, a linguistic nod to the creative process made famous by design and consulting firm IDEO. The design-thinking approach loosely follows a four-step process that involves observing a problem, reframing it, designing solutions, and testing them—all with the end goal of improving how humans experience a product or service.

But being familiar with this approach and actually putting it into practice are very different things. “Sometimes people think they’re doing design thinking, but it’s really not,” says Leigh Thompson, a professor of management and organizations at Kellogg. “When you get it right, it’s really powerful.”

Rather than blindly following the approach, she says, it can be helpful to understand the psychology behind it. And critically, social psychology also offers insight into specific ways to get more out of each step in the process.

“The science is what explains the magic,” says David Schonthal, a clinical associate professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at Kellogg, as well as a senior director at IDEO. He and Thompson recently published a paper on this topic and teach a course together on using creativity as a business tool.

So why does design thinking work? And how can businesses effectively apply these principles themselves? Thompson and Schonthal explain.

1. Look for the gorilla.

The first step in the design-thinking process is to observe a situation and notice what is actually happening. This sounds straightforward. But Thompson points out that we are actually really bad at observing a situation and noticing what is actually happening—despite having a lot of confidence in our own abilities.

Twenty years ago, researchers Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons conducted a now-famous experiment in psychology. They showed participants a video of people playing basketball, and instructed them to count how many times the players on a particular team passed the ball.

About 45 seconds into the video, a woman wearing a fullbody gorilla costume walked across the screen. But a large number of participants didn’t notice this oddity at all. They were too focused on counting passes—an illustration of a phenomenon psychologists call inattentional blindness.

Thompson explains. “Coupled with the fact that people believe themselves to be in the 99th percentile with regard to their perceptive abilities, that’s a dangerous combination.”

So how can we get better at noticing things?

As Thompson and Schonthal explain it, noticing is a cognitive strategy that can be broken down into three parts. First, observers must identify and abandon their cognitive scripts— the preexisting narratives that guide their understanding of situations. Next, they must learn inductively, making inferences based on limited information. And finally, they must find patterns in complex stimuli.

This is why design thinkers must get out from behind their desks and observe a problem “in the wild,” as Schonthal puts it. Relying on people to self-report their habits is not enough.

He points to an example of when a pharmaceutical company tasked IDEO with investigating its hypothesis that the packaging of its arthritis medication was too difficult for patients to open.

So the IDEO design team interviewed—and crucially—also observed patients who used the medication going about their daily routine. One elderly woman with arthritis said she had no trouble opening the packaging. But when the IDEO team asked her to actually show them how she did it, she took her pill bottle out of a drawer and put it on a meat slicer, then used the meat slicer to cut open the top of the containers— because twisting the cap off herself was too painful.

“One of the biggest takeaways from this example is to never take what people say they do at face value,” Schonthal says.

“Actually seeing with your own eyes what is going on can immediately spark identification of unmet needs or better ways of solving a problem” 2. Ask a question no one else is asking.

The second step in design thinking is framing and reframing.

In this step, design thinkers look at a problem from multiple vantage points, trying on different lenses to determine the best approach to finding a solution.

— Leigh Thompson

To better understand the importance of this process, Thompson and Schonthal highlight the work of economist Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize for his research on cognitive framing. Kahneman showed that people make very different decisions depending on how those decisions are framed: specifically, whether they are focused on the possibility of gaining something—what design thinkers call a “promotion frame”—or by the possibility of not losing something—a “prevention frame.”

“People are very limited in what they’re able to perceive in their visual world when they’re focused on one thing,”

Understanding a customer’s motivations for using a product or service are important for developing something that works

“Sometimes people think they’re doing design thinking, but it’s really not.”

for the customer. Take, for example, a project IDEO conducted on diabetes management for a healthcare company. IDEO’s team found that more traditional goals like losing weight and controlling blood sugar in order to avoid health problems (which activate a prevention frame) weren’t successful in actually motivating patients to make healthy changes. But setting social and emotional goals—like gaining the ability to walk a 5K or dance with your daughter at her wedding— activated a promotion mindset and actually motivated people to change.

“Prototypes are embodied questions.

It’s not building something that you hope people will fall in love with as the final product.”

— David Schonthal Armed with this knowledge and new frame, IDEO was able to help the company move beyond creating a new medical device. Rather, IDEO helped them build a customizable app that instead solved for a different challenge: How do we help people with diabetes live their best lives?

“With any really well-thought-out product, chances are the designers started by asking a different question or solving a different problem than all of their competitors,” Schonthal says.

3. Approach brainstorming with rigor.

The third step is to imagine and design—what Thompson and Schonthal describe as “the heart and soul” of the designthinking process. Which is why, even more than the other steps, it’s crucial to understand the science behind successful ideation.

At its core, brainstorming is about focusing on quantity over quality, building on one another’s ideas, and encouraging the most outlandish suggestions, all while avoiding criticism.

And studies show that these principles, devised in the 1950s, remain effective today.

Yet people regularly violate those rules, other studies show.

They suggest too few ideas or criticize individuals, rather than ideas. And criticizing the person who comes up with an idea can hurt further ideation.

facilitator collects them all. This allows individuals to generate lots of ideas freely and without concern for criticism. One widely cited meta-analysis shows that brainwriting groups generated about two and a half times the volume of ideas generated by brainstorming groups—and a significantly greater percentage of their ideas were judged to be of higher quality.

“Most people don’t want to believe that group brainstorming is inferior to individual ideation, at least for a finite amount of time, because we feel good in groups. Groups are stimulating.

They make us feel all warm and fuzzy,” Thompson explains.

“But it isn’t necessarily the best way to have a creativity and innovation meeting.”

4. Fail faster. Learn sooner.

When it comes to actually building and testing solutions— the final step in design thinking—a successful designer must understand that failure is simply an expected part of the process and will ultimately make the work better.

“The idea is to fail faster and learn sooner,” Thompson says.

One key to this is ensuring that your group has a growth mindset. The term refers to the belief that ability and skill come through practice, not through innate talent. With this frame, failure becomes a way to learn, not proof of incompetency.

For example, one study showed that participants who were prompted to have a growth mindset accomplished a complex task better and more enjoyably than participants who were prompted to have a “fixed” mindset.

One way to foster a growth mindset, Thompson and Schonthal explain, is to use “How Might We” (HMW) questions that get design thinkers to push past constraints. “Groups that adopt a HMW focus are more likely to persist and be creative than those who don’t think about possibilities,” they write.

Another way to reinforce the idea that you are simply experimenting—and thus that you are open to truly honest feedback—is to use low-fidelity materials to create prototypes.

For example, to test different ways to redesign the long-haul flight experience, IDEO used materials found around the office. For one concept, the designers literally stacked office chairs to test the idea of “bunkbeds” on a plane. Airline executives who tried to lie in the chairs quickly rejected the concept—and IDEO moved on to the next idea.

Thankfully, science also suggests some best practices.

“Prototypes are embodied questions,” Schonthal says. “It’s not building something that you hope people will fall in love with as the final product.”

First, consider a smaller ideation group. As the number of people on a team increases, the productivity of ideas per person decreases. That’s because when people work in groups—like the traditional brainstorming session—they’re often inhibited by social demands like being polite and waiting their turn.

At the end of the process, designers ultimately want to create something that people do fall in love with. A successful final product often seems intuitive—as if the idea sprang fully formed from the designer’s brain. But as Schonthal and Thompson’s research shows, a science-backed approach is critical to innovation.

Or consider switching from brainstorming to brainwriting.

In a brainwriting session, participants spend a set amount of time writing down as many ideas as they can, before a

“Once you see a beautiful design, it seems obvious,” Thompson says. “But it’s really, really hard to figure out, ‘Now how does this get created to begin with?’”

15 Persuasive Copywriting Techniques That’ll Boost Conversions

By Brian Solis

Have you ever seen an object glow in the dark?

like a friend.

If you have, you’ll notice that even amongst darkness, that

But do keep in mind the magnetic power of the word “you” as you write your copy.

glowing object still captures your focus with its beauty.

Similarly, in a world where everyone is clamoring for your prospects’ attention, you need your content to stand out.

According to HubSpot, 49% of marketers report that increasing customer acquisition is their top priority.

Therefore, you need a competitive advantage.

In this article, we’re going to explore 15 persuasive

“As long as you use words like I, you, and me, you create the feel of a personal form of communication.” – Joseph Sugarman Furthermore, use simple words and simple sentences to create a light atmosphere.

The objective?

copywriting techniques that engage leads and convert them.

To present copy that’s easy to read.

So, let’s jump right in.

It’s not about “talking down” to your reader. It’s about clarity.

1. Write conversationally – one friend to another Everyone wants to feel valued.

No one wants to feel like a faceless entity.

When you write conversationally, you’re talking to your

Without clarity, there’s no conversation. No persuasion.

Want to see an example of conversational copy?

Check out this snippet from Levi’s website: Notice the following:

prospect, making them feel valued.

• They say “grab” instead of “get.”

You use words like “I” and “you” to make your prospect feel

• They say “your.”

• They say “head to” instead of “go to.”

Here are some ways:

• They say “how to style them” instead of “how to wear them.”

Read Amazon reviews

Doesn’t it feel like Levi’s is having a conversation with you?

Scour online forums like Reddit

2. Tell engaging stories

Interview your current clients

Want to transport your reader to your world?

5. Use the power of imagination

Tell a story.

There’s a thin line between imagination and reality.

Research shows that engaging stories absorb those who listen to them.

Hold on, let me rephrase that.

When told strategically, a story can transport your prospect to, what Joseph Sugarman calls, a buying environment.

The objective?

To have your prospect imagine what it’s like to use your product or service.

Why?

If there is a line, it’s blurred.

According to research, when you imagine something, your mind and body interpret it as reality.

Sounds crazy?

Well, we know this is true, firsthand.

Let me explain.

Because when we touch an object or imagine doing so, we establish perceived ownership.

Have you ever watched a scary film and felt your heart pounding faster than a techno beat?

It’s the reason why Apple stores display their devices. And why car salesmen allow test-drives.

Although you were watching an imaginary world, your body was going through the same reactions as if you were one of the characters in the film.

“In all my ads I try to make the prospects imagine they are holding or using my product.” – Joseph Sugarman 3. Highlight a unique value proposition Your unique value proposition (UVP) is what you have to offer that few competitors can. It’s your edge, your distinguishable trait that others can’t replicate.

Here’s a definition of unique value proposition from Unbounce: “Your UVP is a clear statement that describes the benefit of your offer, how to solve your customer’s needs, and what distinguishes you from the competition.”

If your offer is too common, then it’s a carbon copy of the competition. But if your offer is unique, it stands out.

That’s why you must highlight your unique value proposition.

Promote it so you can boost conversion.

Check out this example of a unique value proposition from Mantis Research: Mantis Research’s unique value proposition is that they combine data and story for their content marketing research.

4. Speak in your prospect’s language Have you ever read copy from a website or an advertisement and said to yourself, “Wow, it’s like they read my mind.”?

Well, it’s because the copywriter did read your mind. She used your words to communicate with you. She spoke your language.

And research shows how effective this can be.

So, how can you get the inside scoop on your prospect’s dialect?

As a copywriter, use words like “imagine” and “picture this” to invite your prospect to your imaginary world – a world where their life has improved after using your product or service.

And if done effectively, your product or service will become part of their reality.

6. Use power verbs to strengthen your copy Verbs initiate action. They direct your readers, taking them on a journey with you as their guide.

But some verbs are more potent than others.

Instead of saying: Tom meticulously researched the financial statement.

You can say: Tom dissected the financial statement.

Instead of saying: I vehemently emphasized my point.

You can say: I hammered my point.

“The secret of persuasion lies in our skillful use of action words. The magic of advertising is in the verbs.” – Roy Williams Check out this copy from Oreo: Notice how Oreo uses power verbs like “twist,” “dunk,” “please,” and “delight.”

7. Use repetition Ever hear a song on the radio you thought was awful? But then, you kept hearing it repeatedly, and suddenly, you found yourself liking it?

That’s the power of repetition.

Or have you seen a pizza commercial frequently? Then, next

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25 thing you know, you’re salivating, calling up your local pizza shop?

That’s the power of repetition.

Well, you can harness the power of repetition using your words.

Research shows that moderate repetition within a message can make it more persuasive.

Here’s an example of copy that uses repetition: Häagen-Dazs repeatedly uses the word “soft.”

“Soft” is a sensory word that connotes comfort. Perfect, right?

Especially since Häagen-Dazs appeals to people who like comfort food. (By the way, I’m one of those people.)

Stay tuned for more details on sensory words.

8. Offer a money-back guarantee Your offer sounds appealing, but your prospects don’t know if they can trust you. They’ve been burned before, and now they need armor.

The solution?

A money-back guarantee.

With a money-back guarantee, the seller assumes the risk.

And the buyers feel comfortable knowing they have an exit strategy.

Also, keep in mind that many of your customers won’t even consider your offer without a money-back guarantee.

The money-back guarantee conveys that the seller is confident in their offer. In turn, this makes the buyer confident.

“You must convey the idea that you are shouldering most of the risk. If you can transfer the risk from the buyer to yourself, that removes the barrier, it removes the fear and they’re free to do what they most want to do—buy your product.” – Ray Edwards In his book How to Write Copy That Sells, Ray Edwards states that “in almost every case, the longer the guarantee the lower the refund rate.”

Here is an example of a money-back guarantee from AWAI: Notice how AWAI uses words like “No-Risk” and “satisfaction,” along with phrases like “promptly refunded” and “no questions asked.”

9. Insert sensory words Sensory words trigger your prospect’s imagination. It helps them experience your words.

Brain imaging research shows that when we hear sensory words like “rough,” the part of our brain (the parietal operculum) that senses texture through touch is activated.

So, when you read copy that mentions a “rough morning,” you’ll feel it on a deeper level than if it had said “bad

morning.”

But what if you want your copy to convey a wholesome feeling?

Let’s check out this snippet from Minute Maid’s website: Notice how Minute Maid used the word “smooth” to convey a pulp-free drinking experience.

10. Plant seeds of curiosity It’s not enough to attract your prospects, you must also keep them engaged.

To do so, you can use a technique introduced by Joseph Sugarman called seeds of curiosity.

“These seeds of curiosity cause you to subconsciously continue reading even though you might be at a point in the copy where the copy slows down.” – Joseph Sugarman Some copywriters call this technique “bucket brigades.”

Here are some examples: “And that’s not all.”

“Let me explain.”

“But there’s more.”

By planting seeds of curiosity, you help establish what Joseph Sugarman calls a slippery slide. When you create a slippery slide, you make it hard for your reader to pull away from your copy. Their curiosity has them spellbound.

Why is curiosity so potent?

George Loewenstein theorized that curiosity stems from information gaps. When we lack information, we develop a strong desire to fill our gap with knowledge.

So, when you plant seeds of curiosity, you open information gaps.

But as Joseph Sugarman states in The Adweek Copywriting Handbook, use the seeds of curiosity technique sparingly. If you use this technique too often within your copy, it won’t be as effective.

11. Showcase testimonials to establish social proof As children, we were all told not to trust strangers. And as adults, we still have that mentality.

To gain your prospect’s trust, you must earn it.

No one wants to have their hard-earned money snatched from them.

Prospects like to double-check they’re making the right decision. That your offer is legit. So, they look for social proof to guide them.

And this is where testimonials come in.

Testimonials prove that someone has benefited from your offer; that others vouch for your product or service.

If a majority of people believe something, the minority fall in line. Solomon Asch’s experiment proved that.

Indeed, we value the opinions of our peers.

But what’s the most effective way to use testimonials?

In the book Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, Noah J. Goldstein states that testimonials are more useful when they come from someone similar to your prospect.

Want to see an example of testimonials as social proof?

Check out this snippet from Basecamp’s homepage: Basecamp’s website displays testimonials that address the needs of their prospects.

12. Use scarcity to create urgency The last technique we discussed was social proof, one of Robert Cialdini’s principles of persuasion from his book

13. Employ words that trigger emotions Customers ignore stales words.

So, to avoid dull copy, use words that trigger emotions. In turn, you’ll galvanize your prospects, making them excited about your offer.

Why must you appeal to emotions? Research shows that it’s impossible to make decisions without them.

“We buy on emotion and justify with logic.” – Joseph Sugarman Let’s explore the emotional pull of the word “thorn.”

When you hear that word, you may immediately think “sharp,” “prickly,” “pain.” Terms associated with discomfort.

Thus, the phrase “a thorn in my side” triggers emotions you’d want to avoid.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

Now, let’s flip the script.

Let’s discuss another principle of persuasion: scarcity.

Let’s discuss “love.”

Research shows that scarcity works, whether you’re using it

When you hear the word “love,” you experience warm feelings.

for time or supply.

Here are a few scarcity terms: “In short supply” “For a limited time only” Why is scarcity so effective?

Because it creates a sense of urgency. It motivates your prospect to purchase. Immediately.

Scarcity capitalizes on your prospect’s fear of missing out.

Check out this example of scarcity from Tom Ford: Tom Ford’s website uses the “limited time” scarcity tactic. But if you’re a Tom Ford shopper, you’re wondering how long the sale lasts.

You may think of your spouse, your parents, your children, your best friends.

Or the first time you fell in love.

Either way, the word “love” is a strong emotional word.

Now, check out this copy from Apple’s website: Apple connects an emotional word with its iPhone 11. Also, potent use of personification.

14. Use the contrast principle In his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini mentions an experiment where students take turns sitting in front of three buckets of water: one cold, one at room temperature, one hot.

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Each student received the same instructions:

“If you sense that there might be an objection and you ignore

Place one hand in cold water, and the other in hot water.

it, it’s like ignoring that consumer. You won’t get away with

Then, place both hands in the room-temperature water.

Surprisingly, each hand had a different reaction to the roomtemperature bucket. The hand that previously was in cold

it. The consumer is too sharp and will not buy.” – Joseph Sugarman Check out this example from BMW’s website:

water felt hot, and the hand that was in hot water felt cold.

The moral of this story?

How you view something is affected by how you contrast it

BMW understands that when most people think of BMW, they think expensive.

with something else.

Check out where BMW takes you after you click the “Learn

This is known as the contrast principle.

More” button:

Want to see how it’s used in copywriting?

Notice how BMW says its pricing is “more competitive with

Check out this example from Ted Nicholas:

local repair shops than ever.” And they mention “transparent,

Notice how Ted lists the regular price ($777.00) and the

up-front pricing.” They even refer to their repair service as

special price ($297).

“value service.” All efforts designed to resolve objections

The special price is $480 less than the regular price. So, the

prospects may have about the price.

people who bought this product feel it’s worth more than they paid.

By listing the regular price, Ted placed his prospect’s hands in hot water, then cooled them with his special price.

Your words must glow You know why we’re so fascinated by fireflies?

Because they glow in the dark without the aid of electricity.

Also, Ted offers a money-back guarantee.

So, he used two persuasive copywriting techniques discussed

They capture your attention – while other insects blend with

in this article.

the background, trapped in obscurity.

15. Raise objections, then resolve them

As a copywriter, your job is to transform words into fireflies.

A salesperson has a direct conversation with their prospect.

Why?

If their prospect has questions, the salesperson can address them.

Because you’re not aided by the power of talking to your

As copywriters, we must raise the concerns and questions that

customers.

our prospects may have, then resolve them.

You must sell with the written word.

If we don’t, it’s the equivalent of dodging a prospect’s questions about your offer.

So, are you ready to make your copy glow?

The Workplace of the Future

By Kate serves

Last week, we asked our Twitter followers how they felt about working from home. 33 percent said they loved it, 27 percent can’t wait to get back to the office and the remaining 40 percent are pretty neutral about it. With COVID-19 shifting the way we work, educate and interact with the world, it’s no surprise that 73 percent of organizations with 500-plus employees are introducing more expansive telecommuting policies in the future. In addition, several other organizations report leaving the decision to return to the office at all up to the individual. With so much variance in employees’ opinions of remote work, this begs the question: some day we’ll go back to the office, but will we?

There are are so many unknowns in life right now, especially as it pertains to work. Some speculate that big American cities like New York, San Francisco and Chicago will lose their appeal for employment opportunity. (After all, if an entire team is remote, employees could live in Wisconsin but still work for a tech start-up in the Bay Area). Meanwhile, while others argue that these cities may see an influx of eager workers hungry for opportunity after the country opens back up.

With all the complications that lockdowns have caused, there is some semblance of a silver lining when we think about how the this time has forced us to shift our perception of the

workplace. Organizations all over the country are committing to remote work indefinitely, resulting in fewer cars on the road (and cleaner air), less stress on employees who commute and more flexibility for employees to have agency over their time, some getting several hours back each week they’re not sitting in traffic.

In addition, many leaders report increased productivity among their teams. The lines between departments and titles have blurred, leveling the playing field for cross-functional collaboration and accountability.

There is no blanketed right or wrong way for an organization to handle the way forward: the grey area is where many will find themselves. Each situation is different, and each workplace is different. The best way to combat the changing workplace climate is to listen to your employees and create an environment where everyone feels safe and productive in a way that makes sense for your business. The workplace of the future may be different than we previously imagined it would be.

Kate serves as Marketing Coordinator at the CMO Council where she drives the social media engagement strategy and assists in content and creative development for the CMO Council’s biweekly newsletter, Required Reading, and monthly e-journal, Marketing Magnified.

‘My mind is opened to different possibilities now’: 5 ways agency work will change going forward

By Kristina Monllos

This is part of a special package from Digiday about what comes next, looking to the other side of the current crisis to explore the lasting changes that are coming about.

Over the last four months, employees and employers have adapted to a new way of working that’s not only remote but more flexible. Doing so has, of course, come out of necessity due to the on-going coronavirus pandemic. But agency executives and employees believe that some of the workflow and workplace changes will stick long after coronavirus is under control as old beliefs about what can be accomplished outside of the office have been proven false.

Remote work and shared work spaces will be normalized With employees working remotely for the last several months and productivity levels still on par with normal in-person activities, agency executives say that they are changing their minds on having employees work from afar.

That’s true for David DeMuth, CEO of Detroit-based ad agency Doner. The last four months has led to an “epiphany” of sorts about remote work for him. Prior to the pandemic, DeMuth believed that it was necessary for employees, especially those in senior roles, to work at the agency’s office. The past few months, however, have proven that working with employees wherever they are is a viable option. “Now we might not require someone to move,” said DeMuth. “My mind is open to different possibilities now.”

Going forward, agency executives believe that a hybrid model of employees working remotely some days and in the office on other days will likely be popular once the coronavirus is

controlled. That model will likely lead to workspaces shared by more that one agency.

“Clients don’t want to pay for everyone’s overhead anymore, so it’s an industry that’s ripe for shared work-space with access to common resources,” said Caveat co-founder and managing director Josh Greenberg, adding that shared work-space can be beneficial because “creative professionals and creative service companies all need many of the same tools and vendor resources.”

A focus on diverse talent Without the need for employees to live close enough to commute to an office each day the geographic restrictions of searching for an employee near said office will be removed, according to agency executives. Employers will then be able to open up the talent pool and potentially hire candidates outside of their area. For some agencies, the ability to do so could help with the diverse makeup of their employee base.

“They’ll be able to hire outside of major cities or typical places they recruit from,” said Michael Tonge, founder of The Culture LP and freelance creative strategist. “That enables people to go further outside of their immediate networks. At a minimum it will lead to diversity in thought.”

In recent weeks, agencies have been grappling with the lack of diversity (especially in mid-level and management roles) and looking for ways to address the problem. Simply hiring more diverse candidates isn’t enough as there are systemic issues inside agencies that need to be addressed to “enable true diversity and inclusion at all levels when it comes to talent,” said Tonge.

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That said, agency executives believe going forward a focus on “hiring, training and recognition for diverse teams and inclusive management becomes the norm,” said Mack McKelvey, founder and CEO of SalientMG.

ultimately leads to burnout),” said PJ Pereira, creative chairman, and co-founder, Pereira O’Dell.

Benefits packages will change

With the lines between the professional and the personal blurred physically, some believe that the boundaries of work hours will become more flexible to account for that.

Employees with home offices prior to the pandemic were ready for the transition to working remotely. Those without such amenities have had to figure out what’s necessary to make working at home bearable. Some employers will likely make changes to their benefits packages — like a stipend for office supplies or cell phone bills — part of their benefits package going forward, according to agency executives who say they have to account for the new ways of working.

“Work schedules and individual availability will no longer be as commonly and collectively Monday-Friday / 9-5 (or 9-9, in agency life), but instead be more limited or flexible depending on individual circumstances,” said Matt Wurst, U.S. managing director for branded content shop Revelation.

“Successful businesses and companies will be the ones that recognize, embrace, celebrate, adapt and build upon on these differences.”

“Companies will need to rethink benefits,” said McKelvey.

“We cover employees personal cell phone bills and home wifi (always have); but in the future, companies should find ways to offset costs (childcare, home office stipend, etc.) creatively for this new hybrid of in-office/remote work.”

More flexibility

More of a focus on work-life balance With employees working from home, the boundaries between work and life have come down. Agency leaders and execs say that now, months into this shift, there’s an awareness that the separation of work and life will need to be rebuilt or remade to make sure that employees aren’t burnt out because those boundaries are gone.

“It will be more important than ever to recreate some sort of limit so work doesn’t end up invading too much of our personal lives and ultimately creating resentment (which

For years, agency executives and marketers have used “agile” and “nimble” as buzzwords to set themselves up as modern and differentiated. The need for teams to be both “agile” and “nimble” has certainly been proven in recent months. That said, the ability to quickly change course due to unforeseen circumstances will be part of agencies’ process long after this moment. “‘Pivot’ feels like the word of the year,” said Katy Wellhousen, senior account director at influencer marketing agency RQ. “While agencies and brands have always needed to think through ways to adapt campaigns to cultural shifts, the last four months have proven that there are some things you simply can not predict,” she said. “The biggest learning point for me has been putting aside ego and pride and letting go of a concept that no longer fits within the cultural climate.”

Tiny Rebellions: Make Change Before It Makes You

By Sherine Kazim of Wunderman Thompson

How to seize the narrative from the beginning Swinging London never saw it coming. In 1965, Mary Quant slashed long skirts to create the micro mini. It was a radical rebellion against the establishment, and a literal symbol of cutting through the norm. That tiny sash of fabric became a massive symbol of liberation, literally changing the way women moved through the world. Just as women had dumped their corsets 50 years before, they were once again experiencing a new freedom.

But Quant’s invention didn’t just change human physical behavior; it celebrated and forced an evolution of expression.

Her tiny rebellion gave us permission to explore and thumb our noses at social norms. It expanded our thinking and contributed to symbiotic relationships in every realm of art and design, from David Hockney to the Who to Mini Cooper cars. Collectively, these industries impacted fringe groups like the Mods, eventually giving way to an entire movement whose influence can still be felt 50 years later.

Looking back, it’s impossible to deny that Quant’s decision to cut a piece of cloth changed the world. But even on our best days, change can feel unattainable. We battle against expectations, norms and ourselves. We focus on the negative aspects of change and apply the wrong strategies to get there. We try to change existing patterns, repeat the same processes, and remove factors from old equations all in hopes of avoiding failure and hitting the innovation jackpot.

Turns out failure is all the rage, with Amazon showing over 30,000 results in books, and Apple having upwards of 30 podcasts. This hyper-focus on negative results is taking us away from something far more important for change: the trigger that sets it off. Revolts often start with a single voice: an automatic, inherent, reflexive reaction to knowing something isn’t right. In time, that quiet voice eventually becomes louder, our vision clearer, our actions targeted, eventually turning into something that people can rally behind.

But rebellions are an especially lonely business, particularly in the beginning. The problem with being a changemaker is that you have to be brave enough to make change. That means opening ourselves up to criticisms from our peers, our bosses and our team. It also means dealing with epic amounts of failure that can paralyze us and keep us tethered to the status quo. There’s no getting around the fact that we will inevitably fail at first, but for success to be noticed above the failure fray, we have to seize the narrative from the beginning.

Here’s how: Tap Into Reactance As humans, we struggle with as many as 50 cognitive biases— patterns that create a warped, subjective reality and make us behave in abnormal ways. Chief among these is reactance, the perceived notion that our freedoms or choices are being threatened or taken away. As unnerving as this may sound, we need to tap into the spirit of reactance when wielding a pitchfork or a pixel. The next time you use a product or service that you depend on, ask yourself what it would be like if someone took away your ability to interact with it. If we can master deprivation, it will force us to react quickly and imagine uncommon ideas.

Let the Vision Inform the Process If we are going to continue to celebrate failure, let’s communicate where we failed, not how. We fail at a step in process, not at a whole idea. And our reaction to that failure is paramount to our and our organization’s survival.

It’s also key to how we communicate success. The best way to rally people into joining a rebellion is to externalize ideas, be vocal and clear about intended outcomes, and speak truth to power. It’s impossible to operationalize it, so stop seeking shortcuts and cheat sheets on process. Instead, let the vision inform the process. Trust your intuition, shorten the distance between thinking and making, and communicate that the process will be formative.

Trust the Winner Effect Finally, there’s a phenomenon in biology where the probability of an animal winning larger battles in the future increases because of their previous wins at smaller battles in the past.

So, if an animal can believe in its own potential to win, and realize its power, shouldn’t we give ourselves permission to do the same? The Winner Effect takes practice and time to manifest because sustainable change is a long game.

Winning one battle guarantees little, but applying continued effort over time can create everlasting change.

Quant had no way of knowing that wielding a pair of scissors would change the way humans view and move through the world. Instead, she trusted that her perspective was both wholly original, and greatly needed. She couldn’t help but act, and neither should we. So, go on, make change before it makes you.

Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One

By Mia Pinjuh

Red Antler co-founder Emily Heyward’s new book draws from her years of experience in the marketing industry and dives deep into making a brand that people love and trust.

Red Antler, the Brooklyn-based agency founded in 2007, is behind some of the most memorable campaigns of recent years and is responsible for the branding of some nowhousehold names. Casper, Allbirds, Snowe, Hinge—the company has a knack for developing the stories of start-ups and new ventures, with a fine-tuned radar for what draws us to a brand.

Co-founder Emily Heyward works with brands from their inception, during those heady first days of launching a product, so she has deep insight into what makes some brands stick. With an eye to the psychology behind consumer decisions, and a keen knowledge of cultural shifts that shape our choices, Heyward’s book Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One, is a blueprint for anyone thinking about branding and how to create a sustainable connection around a product or service.

We drew out some key lessons from Heyward’s book, and what her branding strategies can illuminate about integrity, community, and storytelling.

Start before step one Red Antler starts working with their clients long before the product launch date. As Heyward says, “Half of our clients are ‘pre-launch,’ which means that we meet founding teams before they’ve launched their businesses, and help them to create the entire consumer-facing experience through the lens of brand.”

It’s here that the work of brand building begins, and where the big questions need to be addressed and answered. With any

venture, whether it’s launching your own studio or embarking on a freelance career, it is crucial to examine your intentions and take a step back to look at the big picture view. Longterm success is impossible without a deep understanding of your purpose and answers to the inevitable questions of who you are and what you stand for.

“With any venture, whether it’s launching your own studio or embarking on a freelance career, it is crucial to examine your intentions and take a step back to look at the big picture view.”

Heyward says, “Founders need to be thinking about brand from before day one; it needs to be embedded in their culture from the very start.” By weaving it into the DNA of everything you do, your brand will always reflect a fundamental purpose, and help act as a North Star with any tough decisions. Think of branding as woven into your entire being, not a surfacelevel afterthought. “Leading brands are able to form deep emotional connections because they stand for something that people care about. When I talk about brand, what I’m actually talking about is what a business stands for, at its very core.”

Follow the “Why?” questions Obsession

arises

from

the

personal

connection

that

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consumers when brands speak to them on a deeper level— or when they encourage alignment of their lives and the product. Asking “Why should people care?” prompts a host of philosophical questions, and in Heyward’s experience, many of these eventually circle back to the big one—fear of death. This isn’t necessarily the grim concept that it sounds like! “To successfully launch something new and have people fall in love with it, you need to tap into a need that’s deep and true, and that has existed for a long time before you came on the scene, perhaps as primal as fear of death itself.”

At its core, it is about digging into what is behind all of our decisions, and following the trail of “Why?” questions to come to a common ground. Once you think you’ve reached the deepest level of understanding someone’s needs, go a step further. Does it connect to a universal, primal notion that we all share? That’s where you’ll find the answer to the real problem you’re trying to solve.

Create community at every stage Connecting the product to the personal story arc behind it is the strongest bond you need to create. The emotional idea needs to be backed up by practical function. If these don’t line up, your project will always be shrouded in inauthenticity.

Start by forging connections between people, which will, in turn, create deep bonds to the brand. Even if you don’t have a brand that naturally lends itself to creating a robust community (Heyward cites Spotify’s playlist ads as a hugely successful illustration of the strong community the brand created), examine where there is potential to nurture community, create a shared vocabulary, and a sense of kinship among those who are users of the product. Heyward notes, “Brands build successful communities when they create a powerful feeling of inclusion. This does not require purposely leaving people out, but it does require a willingness to put a stake in the ground about who you’re for and what you stand for.”

“Brands build successful communities when they create a powerful feeling of inclusion.”

Part of inspiring genuine passion for your product means recognizing that you must make some savvy decisions— about who you’re brand is for and who is not part of your target demographic. Attempting to be all things to all people is a telltale sign of insecurity and lack of understanding of your purpose. Nobody wants to be talked down to, but at the same time, you don’t want to shut an audience out with impenetrable terminology or arcane references. Walking that fine line creates a community of insiders, with a shared passion, and as Heyward notes, “Passion is powerful within an individual, and unstoppable when it’s shared. When a brand creates a movement, it’s because of shared passion.”

The power of the personal Today, it might feel as though the world is saturated with new brands, spin-offs, and product launches. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed, cynical, or even wish to opt out altogether. Even for dedicated minimalists, though, consumer

decisions come into play every day. So how does a brand appeal to those who are wary of the whole prospect, and what makes the brand-consumer relationship go beyond a merely transactional one? Heyward makes note of the glut of similar ideas that are cropping up in the marketplace, and how branding is ultimately what sets them apart from the rest. “Now, within a month, we’ll sometimes meet with three different teams launching nearly identical ideas. Because it’s so much easier to get things off the ground, and because technology has lowered the barriers to entry for everyone, the difference in success largely boils down to brand.”

“What makes the brand-consumer relationship go beyond a merely transactional one?”

The success of a brand rests on making it personal and bringing customers into your world. Those who understand how to align their values with their venture are much better placed to succeed. Think about why you have embarked on starting a brand, project, or collaboration. What is driving you to work on it every day and to dedicate your time and energy? Where does your inspiration and motivation come from? Heyward mentions engaging with several clients whose personal stories behind their decision to start a brand set the tone for their story arc and subsequent messaging. This idea of personal alignment can always be traced to the founding team and staff. “Even if you don’t exactly mirror your target audience, you need to embody the values and spirit of the brand you seek to create.”

Start a conversation We know that the days of relying on television commercials and newspaper ads are long gone. To succeed in the now, a brand must be nimble and ready to adapt to ever-shifting arenas. Heyward is all too aware of how a brand needs to navigate this changed landscape, “With all the places a brand needs to appear today, you have to bend and flex to keep things interesting.” What’s more, the idea of a static, perfectly polished brand no longer rings true for most of us.

We know all too well what goes on behind the scenes, and perhaps even have a healthy skepticism for advertising and targeted marketing.

Honesty, transparency, and humility are the cornerstones of creating a foundation of trust and making the consumer part of the story. So how do you draw someone in and make them stick around? In Heyward’s experience, the key is to start a conversation. Sparking dialogue between the customer and brand is a way to invite them on the journey, with all the pitfalls and successes. This might mean relinquishing control, which is understandably a daunting risk with any new venture. But that can pay off with remarkable results. “Letting go of control is what allows consumers to become part of the story. Their content gets featured, they see themselves in the brand’s narratives, and they feel more invested. Instead of a top-down approach, it’s a conversation, and conversations are by their very nature unpredictable—at least the good ones are.”

Brand You. Who Me?

By Ashutosh Garg

You have to develop yourself in a way to ensure that you leave a legacy. People will remember you through your actions, your expertise, and the emotional connections that you make.

Personal branding is about deciding to take an active role in managing the direction you want to take your life. Your personal brand allows you to manage your life and helps you to stop depending on others for your credibility and your success.

active partner in creating the direction of your life. You get to decide what your unique promise of value is and who you want to share it with.

Your personal brand helps you make the most of what you have to offer. Brand You is your reputation, built one story at a time through the experiences people have with you. These stories will reflect what makes you unique or different.

The stakeholders in your life are your family, your employers, your peers, your subordinates, your superiors, your community and everyone else who you have an impact on. They wish to know who you are and what you stand for. They want to know what you will do and whether what you will do is likely to be in line with their expectations of you.

As you start your journey to evaluate Brand You and then develop a strategy to build and promote Brand You, here are some pointers of what you need to look at.

Be Yourself You have to be yourself instead of trying to pretend someone you are not. It needs courage to be yourself and it takes conviction to stay the course.

The strategic process of personal branding makes you an

Be Credible

You build credibility not through your words but through your actions. Your actions lead to creation of perceptions. If you live your personal brand and keep your brand promise to your stakeholders, you are on the path to building a strong credibility for yourself.

Your actions will have to align with your brand. These actions will validate that you can be trusted and demonstrate that you are credible.

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that you are no longer enjoying this specialty.

As your brand develops, your confidence will start to grow.

When you recognise your positives, your self-esteem reaches an all-time high.

Be Connected

Keep in mind that strong and confident brands can repel your audience as much as it attracts them. Not everyone can be your target audience. Not everyone will like or agree with what you stand for. Defining who you are means that you need to be brave enough to let your true self be visible.

A confident Brand You will highlight your strengths and give you a meaningful direction.

Be Different Differentiation is crucial to your personal branding success.

We notice differences among people very quickly. We are hard-wired to notice differences in one another. We do not have to be different for the sake of being different.

You need to be different. You need to present yourself differently.

When I was in college, I had grown my hair long, sported a beard and wore “bell-bottom” pants. This was my way of attempting to be different. It was then that my father called me and said, “You must get accepted in society because of your mind and not because of the clothes you wear or the way you comb your hair!”

This was a major lesson for me in “being different.”

Be Energetic

You need to constantly connect and network with your audience. Your brand needs to build a strong relationship.

You need to connect with the audience you have identified.

You cannot communicate with the entire world. For your brand to be acknowledged and then accepted, you need to connect at an emotional level.

Building a strong personal brand helps you interact with your target audience in a clear and consistent way that quickly becomes comfortable and familiar. This consistency builds trust in your target audience, which allows those emotional connections to form.

Remember that you must not lose connections as you expand your network. The biggest mistake most people make is to forget the relationships they made at the early stages of their career.

Be Supportive and Supported In your journey to create and build your brand, be supportive of others and seek out support from people. You need to be clear about who you are and what you need so that you can ask for support with clarity.

Most people want you to succeed. Very seldom will you find someone who wants you to fail and actively does things to harm you. If you know what you need, you know what to ask for.

Be Consistent

In today’s world, everyone is exceptionally busy and so are you.

Just like you can never be static, nor can your brand.

Consistency requires you to use the elements of your brand over and over again as you continue to evolve.

Brand You will have the energy and the ability to filter what are the right opportunities for you and which opportunities you need to let pass by. Your brand will give you the clarity to focus your energy on matters that can be important for you.

An important part of the branding process is to get known for something. Your first step is to identify your best characteristics so that you know what to build upon.

An energetic Brand You will help you to reinvent yourself.

Be Special You need to have a specialty, or you need to develop an area of expertise. You cannot be better than others in everything.

Think of what can you do that others cannot? Think of what can you do that is better than others? This could be at work where you may be the best analyst or the best accountant or the best designer. Or this could be at play where others want you on their team.

To develop a specialty, you have to start with what you know.

Think of what you can do that few others know. What is the target audience that your specialty will appeal to? Are you willing to commit to investing personal time and resources to further this specialty?

It is not advisable to go down a path and after investing a lot of time and money, realise that you have made a mistake or

Do not be overly sensitive while dealing with people. Most of us constantly worry about our actions not because of how we are doing but because of “what others will think!” We never stop to think that everyone is busy with their own lives. Most people have too many problems and challenges of their own.

They do not have the time to think of or worry about what you are saying or doing.

You have to develop yourself in a way to ensure that you leave a legacy. People will remember you through your actions, your expertise, and the emotional connections that you make.

So do your tough work up front and reap the rewards down the road.

The author is an Executive Coach and an Angel Investor.

A keen political observer and commentator, he is also the founder Chairman of Guardian Pharmacies. He is the author of 6 best-selling books, The Brand Called You; Reboot.

Is Now the Time to Transition to Personalized Marketing?

By Prince Harry The Duke Of Sussex

Months into the COVID-19 crisis, businesses are finally starting to come up for air. And as they survey a radically altered business landscape, many are realizing that their own business will need to adjust to meet the new conditions.

“As leaders, our minds necessarily turn to starting to think about, ‘What do we do next? Where do we go from here? Not just survival, but perhaps, what [growth and transformation] opportunities are out there?’” says Jim Lecinski, a clinical associate professor of marketing at Kellogg, and also at Northwestern’s Medill School In a recent webinar from Kellogg Executive Education, Lecinski discussed how leaders can use the current moment to revamp their marketing strategy to make personalized marketing a focus.

Personalized marketing involves understanding who your customers are as people and, in real time, delivering them an experience that is relevant to them at that moment.

While personalization continues the trend of increased segmentation that marketers have been doing for years, it takes the idea further. So, instead of segmenting customers into, say, a dozen or a hundred segments, a company with 20 million customers can now create 20 million segmented messages.

That specificity requires some special tools—including sufficient data, plus AI and machine learning—to pull off.

“What’s different is the use and implementation of technology that allows us to cross this chasm and go from a hundred segments to 20 million segments,” says Lecinski. “Delivering this deeply personalized experience requires a significant shift for companies.”

It’s a shift that only about half of marketers have actually made. Why? Many write off personalization as hype or a fad—an idea with which he vehemently disagrees.

Many other marketers simply don’t know where to start. So Lecinski lays out a five-step roadmap for companies looking to make the transition. He calls it the AI Marketing Canvas.

First, companies need to gather enough quality customer data to train machine-learning models. There are some clever ways to do this: for instance, in Thailand, Unilever’s Knorr brand created cute emojis for customers to use on a popular social-messaging app in exchange for sharing information

about themselves and their favorite Knorr products.

Second, companies should seek out quick wins at individual moments in the customer journey. This often means plugging the data you’ve collected into third-party tools and using them to make predictions about customer behavior. For instance, JPMorgan Chase Bank worked with an AI partner to serve up personalized display ads to its customers—and found that they increased click-through rates more than ads created by actual human marketers.

Next, companies should expand their efforts by beginning to develop an in-house AI competency. For instance, Coca-Cola began manufacturing its own “Freestyle” vending machines, which let customers create their own blend of soda flavors via an app and share their “recipe” with others and receive personalized messages and offers.

Then, it is time to bet big on machine learning. By now, marketers should have enough success under their belts to convince their executive teams to invest heavily in AI as a new way of doing business. Starbucks recently made the leap with its in-house Deep Brew platform, AI that allows it to personalize the customer experience while also freeing up employees.

In its final state of maturity, marketing AI doesn’t just solve a critical business problem—it becomes its own full-fledged revenue stream. For instance, The Washington Post’s automated storytelling engine, Heliograf, is now licensed to other newspapers and publishers.

Developing the AI necessary to transform your marketing may sound daunting, particularly at a time when resources are tough to come by. But the costs of not investing could be far worse, says Lecinski.

Rather than thinking about AI’s ROI in the more traditional sense of “return on investment,” he says, consider the “risk of ignoring” it and doing nothing. It may well be that the world moves on during this transformational COVID moment and your brand will no longer be able to compete against AIpowered modern marketing.

Datathon Challenge: How to Boost Sales for a Global Retailer

By Wharton Staff

Every time you take advantage of a discount, join a store’s

function. The data given to the students revealed that the

loyalty program, or simply buy something online — whether

company also sold products such as cooking and dining

it’s a bag of groceries, a toddler sun hat or a shaving kit

items, luggage and home furnishings.

— you’re telling a retailer something about your needs, preferences and buying habits. Billions of pieces of information are continually being generated. How do companies make sense of it all to gain a competitive edge? That, of course, is where data analytics comes in.

“Using the data, how can we contribute value in the form of improving revenues?” Awad asked the students. He suggested they might take approaches such as optimizing prices for particular genres of goods; architecting and applying discounts; encouraging and improving cross-

The global big data analytics market for retail was estimated

selling (for example, promoting accessories with clothing), or

at $3.4 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach nearly $11

re-engaging customers who have stopped buying from the

billion by 2024, according to a report in Business Wire. The

company.

report noted that data analytics is being used at every stage of the retail process to understand customer behavior, predict demand and optimize pricing.

Awad said that although he had outlined those sample objectives, he wanted to keep the challenge broad. His aim was to give the students a sense of “a real-world scenario”

Recently, a group of Wharton and University of Pennsylvania

as an actual data analyst, which would typically involve

students were invited to try their hand at a real-world data

“having a dataset put before you and a blank sheet of

analytics challenge. They were given customer transaction

paper.” He encouraged the students to use their creativity

data from an international consumer brand and tasked with

while designing solutions that would be relatively easy for a

finding innovative ways to help the company improve its

company’s managers to understand and implement.

gross margins. The virtual event, a Datathon run by Wharton Customer Analytics, was sponsored by Baring Private Equity Asia.

The retailer, whose identity was not revealed, is part of Baring PE’s portfolio. Baring vice president Karim Awad described it as a U.K.-based international women’s wear and kids’ wear brand with both a physical store presence and an ecommerce

“I think it is more important than ever for retailers to use careful analysis of data to understand who their good customers are.”–Raghuram Iyengar The data shared with the students was two years’ worth of

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point of sale information, in the form of about 20 million rows of transactions and 50 variables. It included both retail and ecommerce activity from the UK and Japan.

Serving as one of the judges was Wharton marketing professor Raghuram Iyengar, faculty director of Wharton Customer Analytics. He commented in a separate interview about the increasing importance of data analytics in retail, especially given the challenges the industry has faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think it is more important than ever for retailers to use careful analysis of data to understand who their valuable customers are,” he said.

One major improvement that data analytics can bring to retailers, Iyengar noted, is to help them identify customers across sales channels to better understand shopping behavior.

If a customer comes into a store, for example, were they motivated to do so by recent in-store promotions, an ad on their mobile, an online video, or something else? However, many retailers still manage their channels in separate siloes.

According to Iyengar, a top priority should be breaking down those siloes to enable data-gathering across them. The companies would then be on track to achieve “a holistic view of what customers are doing.”

What Do They Buy and When Do They Buy It? Fifteen teams of three to five students each competed in the Datathon. The participants were Wharton MBAs and undergraduates as well as students from other Penn programs

such as engineering and information technology. Teams analyzed the dataset using the programming languages and tools (e.g., Python, R) of their choice, and created statistical models that helped solve the business challenge. The judges’ panel was composed of Wharton Customer Analytics leadership. The first-place team was awarded $1,500 and the second-place team, $500.

Winning first place was a team whose presentation was titled, “Modeling Consumer Retail Preferences for an International Consumer Brand.” The team came up with a variation on RFM (recency, frequency, and monetary value), an established method for determining customer value based on how recently they bought something, how often they buy, and how much they spend. Team member Hoyt Gong asserted that the traditional RFM approach didn’t work well for this brand.

“RFM scores should normally reflect customer value….

However, when we tried to find a correlation between these RFM scores and the transaction history of our customers, we only saw a weak correlation. Similarly, we saw little to no correlation between that same RFM score and our client’s gross margins.”

“The company’s strategy will be the most successful if they … lower that churn probability.”–Hsien Tham They decided to pull apart recency and frequency measurements from monetary value, stating that their new

model would tell the business which customers, based on their recency and frequency, will make the greatest number of future transactions. The model would also yield customer lifetime value (CLV), determined by multiplying a customer’s expected future transactions by their average purchase size in dollars. Once the firm adopts this improved way to calculate CLV, they said, it will know which customers to focus on, and can better optimize its decision-making.

The team also used a technique known as network modeling or network analysis to reveal that the firm’s new and repeat customers have different purchasing behaviors: specifically, that they buy items in batches differently. They pointed out, for example, that bundles of Disney-themed items dominated the most frequent purchases for repeat customers, but not new customers. The team noted that the company could plug all their customers into this model to determine the most appealing products to promote to them as add-ons to their order.

The second-place team’s presentation was “Understanding the Customer.” Team member Gantavya Pahwa explained, “When we got access to the data, we very quickly realized that we should have our primary focus on the customer….

From this, we realized that there were a few key questions that we should ask.”

Pahwa and his teammates created a “when, what, why and who” question framework. First, looking at “when and how much do they buy,” they built a probabilistic model of customer transaction streams. Second, examining what customers buy, they sought to identify the optimal product mix for maximizing revenue. Asking, “Why do they buy?” they examined responsiveness to discounts and pricing. And finally, they looked at who the brand’s customers are based on age, gender, and country data.

Interestingly, the team found that customers with a high rate of what marketers call “churn” (meaning they stopped buying during a certain timeframe) were contributing a large chunk — about 74% — of the company’s revenue.

Since these churned customers provide significant value, reengaging them presents a lucrative opportunity, they said.

Team member Hsien Tham commented, “The company’s strategy will be the most successful if they … lower that churn probability.” The team suggested designing loyalty rewards, membership programs, exclusive events or other types of offers for this promising customer segment.

Another insight the team offered was that this particular brand’s most valuable customers are the more priceconscious ones. The firm should conduct more sales and offer more discounts, they said, and focus on lower-end products. Using data analytics they also managed to identify the product mix that these valuable customers tended to buy (which consisted of outerwear, separates and dresses).

Navigating a Sea of Data to Create Value The judges also selected a third-place team, whose

presentation was titled “Revenue and Retention Segmentation Models.” This team created a spending model and a retention model to analyze customer behavior. They then combined the top contributing features of the two models to arrive at a list of value-creating factors that the company should focus on: the ecommerce channel; high-frequency purchases; the accessories category such as luggage, bags, and backpacks; and the dresses category.

“It’s not enough to just show the numbers; you have to be good at talking about the numbers, and then explaining the ‘so what.’”–Raghuram Iyengar Among the recommendations the team came up with was that the company should strengthen its online platform to create a richer omnichannel experience. Team member Namrita Narula commented, “We saw [in the data] that e-commerce is indicative of sales and retention, and therefore it is important — especially in these unprecedented times — that the consumer brand has items fully stocked and their full range of products available online.” The team also advised investing in a mobile app since, according to Narula, the profitability of one-click sales through in-app purchases is increasing.

Secondly, the team suggested linking the bags/backpacks category with dresses, since both categories are good sellers.

For example, the company could increase tote bag sales through a fashion campaign focused on sustainability. In general, the bundling of products could enhance customer brand recall.

The team also presented a seasonality-related finding.

While conducting their analyses, they had noticed that the firm’s winter sales were nearly six times that of summer.

They speculated that the company’s summer product stock was perhaps not as inviting as the winter’s, and suggested that might be an area of expansion, with micro-influencers engaged to boost sales.

Of the Datathon overall, Wharton’s Iyengar said that the most important skill these students can learn — and that the Datathon helps them practice — is weaving a coherent narrative around their analyses. “It’s not enough to just show the numbers; you have to be good at talking about the numbers, and then explaining the ‘so what.’”

In fact, he said, just having the baseline skills of running analyses or working with the latest machine learning model are not as prized as they once were, because they’re now easier to acquire. “You can actually get that on Coursera or other platforms,” Iyengar said. Instead, a truly valuable candidate is one who can perform the data analysis and then stand up in front of a management team and persuasively explain the business significance of their findings. “And I think those people are more scarce,” he said.

How Starbucks Came a Long Way on Customer Centricity

By Lara O’reilly

When Customer Centricity was first published in 2011, I made a big statement about some of the biggest names in retail. I was particularly hard on Starbucks, which, I wrote, was a classic example of a “customer-friendly operation that falls short of customer centricity.”

Starbucks, I wrote, “makes almost no effort to learn anything about its customers.” I pilloried the company for gathering virtually no data about its customers. I said it was “leaving huge amounts of money on the table by failing to take advantage of the deeply ingrained buying habits that many of its customers have established over the years.”

Not long after these words were first published, I got a phone call from Aimee Johnson, who at the time oversaw the loyalty program at Starbucks.

I didn’t know it at the time, but Aimee was not calling to praise my work. Instead, she was on a mission (assigned by a senior executive) to “educate” this renegade Wharton professor to stop being so critical of the company. I couldn’t tell this from the initial call (Aimee didn’t explicitly tell me about this assignment until years later), but she asked a lot of interesting questions about my radical ideas, which upended some fundamental beliefs about customer service, customer relationship management, and customer lifetime value. She asked how they may (or may not) apply to Starbucks. After several follow-up calls, she realized that my ideas were, in fact, nicely aligned with the bold transformation that Starbucks had started to undergo. But some of the ideas, language, and analytical tools I referred to in the book were very new (and, in some ways, seemingly threatening) to the company.

Long story short: Aimee became a fan of the work and, in turn, became one of the “Heroes of Customer Centricity” whom I have praised in countless executive education sessions and keynote talks. Likewise, Starbucks as a whole made major changes to better understand its customers at a granular level and to leverage these insights in a truly customer-centric manner.

Taking Advantage of the Pumpkin-spice Frenzy Take, for instance, the clever idea that is the Leaf Raker’s Society. If you haven’t heard of this particular corner of the internet, well, that’s no mistake. The Leaf Raker’s Society is supposed to be a “secret” Facebook group. Most specifically, it’s a secret Facebook group for people who are passionate about — you guessed it — raking leaves (among other autumn activities).

Launched by an internal Starbucks marketing team in the

summer of 2018, the group is, in truth, little more than a brilliantly disguised, ongoing, permanent advertisement for the ever-popular pumpkin spice latte, which reappears on the Starbucks menu each fall. Described as a site for people who are “year-round scarf-wearers” with a goal of helping “autumn arrive earlier in the calendar year,” the Leaf Raker’s Society has evolved into a truly organic online community; as of this writing, the group had more than 37,000 members and had sparked millions of conversations since its launch that go well beyond Starbucks products. That’s customer centricity in action.

“The group is … a brilliantly disguised, ongoing, permanent advertisement for the ever-popular pumpkin spice latte, which reappears on the Starbucks menu each fall.”

For the members, it’s simply a site to celebrate fall, sweaters, pumpkins, and, of course, pumpkin spice lattes. But for Starbucks, it’s so much more. It’s a window into its customers’ hearts and minds; it offers not just usable data about those customers — Facebook, as we know for better and worse, is a treasure trove of personal data — but also, and perhaps more importantly, some perspective about how and why a group of people who are passionate about, of all things, a season are also passionate about pumpkin spice lattes.

From a marketing perspective, it’s a masterstroke, and as somebody who came down somewhat hard on Starbucks in the initial publication of this work, I have to tip my cap here and say: Well done, Starbucks. Well done. You’ve come a long way.

And what about Aimee Johnson? Well, after doing great things to help Starbucks navigate the customer-centric waters, she recently decided it was time to take on a new challenge — to take her expertise to a very different company in another sector that is in desperate need of some customer-centric transformation. Today, Aimee is the CMO of Zillow, helping this digitally native real-estate giant broaden its strategy to extend well beyond its initial scope of home listings, including buying and selling homes, providing financing to homebuyers, and a range of other services that will help create lasting relationships with high-value customers. It’s bold and risky, but it’s a great example of how customer-centric thinking can cross traditional industry lines with a visionary leader like Aimee Johnson to make it happen.

Avoid the ’Hero Trap’ and Close the IntentionAction Gap

By Brands Staff

Digital marketing has changed immensely in the last decade.

There have been a multitude of changes in tactics along with Google’s search engine algorithms. Low-quality content that has been referred to as “clickbait” has stopped generating the results it once had. Consumers are becoming pickier in terms of what they spend their time reading or viewing. Certain trends like that focus on in-depth content in a variety of forms will continue to flourish. Podcasting is a great example of a form of content that can be easy to make and can help showcase the knowledge or an individual or company. The following are trends that will continue to stay relevant when it comes to digital marketing.

Micro-Influencers Investing money in a huge celebrity to become an influencer for a brand is rarely the best use of marketing budget. This does not mean that influencer marketing as a whole is not efficient. Smaller influencers that have built up a sense of community among followers will generate the best ROI for a sponsored post. Taking a look at influencers to see what other brands they partner with will be very important. The last thing a company wants is to partner with an influencer that promotes products that directly compete or do not align with the values of the company.

Podcasting Continues Growing Podcasting is mentioned above and has become a huge part of digital marketing. There are a number of different types of podcasts listed below: Individuals or groups of people trying to build their personal brand. This could be a humorous podcast or professional one that helps a person establish themselves as an authority on a topic.

Companies that are looking to reach and educate current customers. Attracting customers in the industry in B2B situations will work far better if looking to have work contracted out to your business.

The sporadic podcast is of a company that sees the value in podcasting yet hasn’t dedicated time or money to the process. This could happen once a month or a few times a year. Generating listeners is about putting out content that is informative/entertaining consistently. Being able to rely on a certain podcast on a specific day provides comfort to loyal listeners.

Question and answer podcasts could be a favorite regardless of the ultimate goal of the podcast. Being able to answer specific questions from listeners is important. This can earn

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new customers and provide a sense of comfort to current customers that know they are in good hands.

Keep in mind that your podcast should have at least an outline to provide some kind of structure. Transcribing these podcasts can be a great way to turn these in-depth conversations into a searchable document.

Web Design Needs to be Intuitive Web design has changed immensely over the years with a majority of companies wanting a website designed with SEO in mind. Designers that are current with web design trends along with experts in user experience of a website are essential. Lacking either of these things can limit a business and can cripple revenue for online sales or lead generation.

Easy to navigate websites will also continue to be important as Google incorporates user experience when ranking sites which also includes page loading time.

Data Will Drive Nearly All Major Decisions The days of creating a strategy then seeing what sticks in marketing are all but over. Data drives marketing in today’s digital age with a number of tools that can help. Buzzsumo allows for marketers to see what type of content relevant to their company trends on social media. Companies are looking for engagement with their content so creation of content that is sure to intrigue or spark conversation needs to be a focus. BuzzStream allows for the link building outreach process to go smoothly and efficiently. Being able to track subject lines and clicks in an email can allow for the ultimate email marketing campaign to be launched. Look for data to become even more present in decision making for years to come as the numbers don’t lie.

Voice Search Gaining Steam Voice search is commonly used by people when they are in the car or want to look something up quickly. Search engines are starting to account for voice search results with marketers following suit. The keywords that are targeted are going to be more natural and conversational than in the past. People search very differently when typing compared to speaking.

The content that has to be created for voice search will be actionable and answer common questions customers might have. Writing in a natural way is more important than ever which some digital marketing professionals will lag behind in. Far too many SEO copywriters miss the point of writing for the reader while doing it in a search engine friendly way.

This does not mean that your current content is worthless but to get the true value out of it, you might need to do some editing of pieces.

Voice search needs to be optimized for local search listings as well. The last thing that a company wants is to lose traffic to their website due to not tagging the location of their business on the website appropriately. Voice search will continue to grow as a trend well into the future with many digital marketing professionals having quite a bit to learn!

Digital marketing is constantly changing but the trends above will be prevalent for years to come. If you run a company, looking into tactics that will stand the test of time can help maximize ROI on marketing spend.

Three-time returning ACC champion in the 100 back and two-time defending champion in the 100 fly...ACC record holder in both events.also holds long course University records in the 100 fly and 100 back...member of school record setting 200 medley (also pool record), 400 medley and 400 free relays.

Lego’s Next Build: Worlds and Characters Created

by Its Fans

By Sahil Patel

Seeking ideas for TV shows, digital videos and toy sets, Lego A/S is asking people to share their imaginings on a new platform set up for that purpose.

Called Lego World Builder, the platform lets users propose story worlds, characters and other ideas by uploading concept art, videos and descriptions. Lego said it will buy the ideas it likes.

Entertainment has long been important to the $21 billion toy industry, which also sells playthings based on popular Hollywood franchises as well as making TV series and movies about its own wares. Licensed “Star Wars” toy sets helped Lego rebound from near-bankruptcy in the early 2000s, while the success of “The Lego Movie” in 2014 helped usher in new products and an increase in revenue.

But content—stories featuring toys—has become central as toy makers vie for children’ attention against videogames, YouTube and social media.

“It’s a different world with so many choices for children,” said Chris Byrne, an independent toy-industry consultant and analyst. Lego’s most ardent fans will stay engaged on Lego World Builder, as the company mines them for ideas to reach consumers across a fragmented media landscape, he added.

This isn’t Lego’s first attempt at crowdsourcing. Its Lego Ideas program allows people to submit ideas for new toys. If an idea is approved, the company will build and release the toy, paying the creator a royalty fee of 1% of total net sales.

Lego World Builder is meant to source and develop franchises instead of individual toy sets. “If we love a world about ‘Alien Mermaid Princess,’ we could make content, toys, attractions at our parks, etc., based on that concept,” Mr. Malone said.

Lego developed the new effort with Los Angeles-based tech company Tongal Inc., which operates a platform to connect creative talent with content companies and advertisers.

Crowdsourcing through Lego World Builder will allow the company to gradually develop new franchises, said James DeJulio, chief executive of Tongal. A popular idea on Lego World Builder, for example, could lead to a video or series on YouTube—and if that is successful, something more, he said.

“You start to get closer to the audience in the development process,” Mr. DeJulio said.

Tongal has worked with Lego since 2012, playing matchmaker between creative talent and the brand on 183 projects. They include short videos distributed on platforms like Netflix Inc. and YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

Lego has budgeted $500,000 a year for at least the next three to pay the platform’s users when it likes their submissions, said Keith Malone, the company’s senior director of entertainment development. To option an idea—meaning Lego will try to develop it—the company will pay $10,000, he said. If it decides to buy the idea outright, it will pay $50,000. Those pitching ideas must be at least 18 years old.

Lego World Builder could also enlist fans while avoiding a pitfall common in unsolicited pitches: lawsuits over intellectual-property rights.

Lego’s theatrical film development business won’t be involved in the new digital platform.

“Unfortunately, the result is that this makes it difficult for a lot of independent creators who are not employees of a company, but who may have some great ideas, to get those ideas to those content companies and brands,” he said.

Consumers are already on platforms such as Wattpad, a site where users post their own writing, with stories about Lego characters such as the ninjas of its “Ninjago” franchise.

If one searches for Ninjago on Wattpad, “there are hundreds and hundreds of pages of stories that people are writing,” Mr. Malone noted.

Wattpad Corp. connects some of its users with publishing houses or media companies for books or adaptations, but Lego’s new platform opens a direct line to the company’s fans.

“Most brands and studios do not take unsolicited submissions because it could lead to all sorts of problems,” said William Finkelstein, a veteran IP lawyer and former vice president and intellectual property counsel at PepsiCo Inc.

Eighty-five of the 208 beta testers of Lego World Builder do not work in creative fields, according to Tongal.

Lego has bought two projects from the beta testers, including a three-minute animated video tied to “Ninjago.”

The premise lays out various “what-if” scenarios set in the Ninjago universe.

“It’s from a young man who is a student in Canada,” Mr. Malone said.

Prince Harry: Social media is dividing us.

Together, we can redesign it

By Prince Harry The Duke Of Sussex

Amid a crisis of health, hate, and truth online, companies need to take a stand for a more compassionate digital world, writes Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex.

A little over four weeks ago, my wife and I started calling business leaders, heads of major corporations, and chief marketing officers at brands and organisations we all use in our daily lives.

Our message was clear: The digital landscape is unwell and companies like yours have the chance to reconsider your role in funding and supporting online platforms that have contributed to, stoked, and created the conditions for a crisis of hate, a crisis of health, and a crisis of truth.

We did this at the same time as the launch of a civil rights and racial justice campaign called Stop Hate For Profit, which sought to change online policies around hate speech—in this case, policies at Facebook—by urging companies that regularly purchase digital ads on the platform to withhold their advertising spending for the month of July. As of the end of last month, the campaign (led by respected organisations such as the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, and the NAACP) sent a $7 billion message through withheld ad dollars.

Some may ask why a change campaign would take aim at online advertising. Well, many of us love and enjoy social media. It’s a seemingly free resource for connecting, sharing, and organising. But it’s not actually free; the cost is

high. Every time you click, they learn more about you. Our information, private data, and unknown habits are traded on for advertising space and dollars. The price we’re all paying is much higher than it appears. Whereas normally we’re the consumer buying a product, in this ever-changing digital world, we are the product.

While companies made their own decisions about what to do in July, we felt it necessary to say our part about the rise of an unchecked and divisive attention economy. We’ve always believed that individuals and communities thrive when the frameworks around them are built from compassion, trust, and well-being. Sadly, this belief is at odds with much of what is being experienced by people on social media.

From conversations with experts in this space, we believe we have to remodel the architecture of our online community in a way defined more by compassion than hate; by truth instead of misinformation; by equity and inclusiveness instead of injustice and fearmongering; by free, rather than weaponised, speech. This remodeling must include industry leaders from all areas drawing a line in the sand against unacceptable online practices as well as being active participants in the process of establishing new standards for our online world. Companies that purchase online ads must also recognise that our digital world has an impact on the

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physical world—on our collective health, on our democracies, on the ways we think and interact with each other, on how we process and trust information. Because, if we are susceptible to the coercive forces in digital spaces, then we have to ask ourselves—what does this mean for our children? As a father, this is especially concerning to me.

In the 1970s, there was a groundbreaking study on the societal effects of lead exposure and kids. The research found a clear connection between lead accumulation in children and their mental development. There’s no debate over the dangers of lead today, but at the time, the development was met with strong resistance from industry leaders (lead was used widespread in products such as gas, house paint, and water pipes). Eventually, sweeping health and environmental reforms were put in place to change this. We knew something was harmful to the health of our children, so we made the necessary changes to keep them safe, healthy, and well.

Researchers I’ve spoken with are studying how social media affects people—particularly young people—and I believe the book of data that we will look back on one day will be incredibly troubling.

WHEN WE DO THE RIGHT THING, WHEN WE CREATE SAFE SPACES BOTH ONLINE AND OFF—EVERYONE WINS. Around the world, for many reasons, we are at turning point— one that has the potential to be transformative. In all areas of life, a rebuilding of compassionate, trustworthy communities needs to be at the heart of where we go. And this approach must extend to the digital community, which billions of us participate in every day. But it shouldn’t be punitive. When we do the right thing, when we create safe spaces both online and off—everyone wins. Even the platforms themselves.

Meghan and I heard similar arguments made by humane tech leaders with whom we convened at Stanford University earlier this year, by internet law experts, by neuroscientists, and most importantly by young people who have grown up in a fully connected world.

We have an opportunity to do better and remake the digital world, to look at the past and use it to inform the future.

We must take a critical eye to the last two decades, where advancements in technology and media have outgrown many of the antiquated guardrails that once ensured they were being designed and used appropriately. It shouldn’t be seen as a coincidence that the rise of social media has been matched by a rise in division amongst us globally. Social media’s own algorithms and recommendation tools can drive people down paths toward radicalism and extremism that they might not have taken otherwise.

There are billions of people right now—in the midst of a global pandemic that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives—who rely on algorithmically driven information feeds to make judgments about fact vs. fiction, about truth vs. lies.

One could argue that access to accurate information is more important now than any other time in modern history. And yet, the very places that allow disinformation to spread seem

to throw their arms up when asked to take responsibility and find solutions.

We all need a better online experience. We’ve spoken with leaders across the racial justice movement, experts in humane tech, and advocates of mental health. And the collective opinion is abundantly clear: We do not have the luxury of time.

We need meaningful digital reform, and while the role of policymakers and regulators is important, we can’t just wait for them to take the next steps. This is a moment for companies around the world—companies with business and advertising models directly tied to digital platforms—to consider how they can bring about reform to ensure the betterment of all.

WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO BETTER AND REMAKE THE DIGITAL WORLD, TO LOOK AT THE PAST AND USE IT TO INFORM THE FUTURE. It was reported recently that, for the first time, spending on digital advertising is set to eclipse ad spending in traditional media. Think about what this means. The standards and practices advertisers rely upon when placing their commercials on television, for example, do not apply when it comes to the online space—arguably, the largest broadcaster in the world. And for the first time in history, the ad spend in this relatively lawless space is beginning to overshadow the more traditional spaces. No manufacturer is likely placing their television soap ad next to this type of toxicity, yet due to the nature of the digital world, that advertisement could be sandwiched between inciting propaganda.

So there is huge value in advertisers sitting at the table with advocacy leaders, with policy leaders, with civil society leaders, in search of solutions that strengthen the digital community while protecting its free and open nature.

For companies that purchase online ads, it is one thing to unequivocally disavow hate and racism, white nationalism and anti-Semitism, dangerous misinformation, and a wellestablished online culture that promotes violence and bigotry. It is another thing for them to use their leverage, including through their advertising dollars, to demand change from the very places that give a safe haven and vehicle of propagation to hate and division. We’re hopeful to see this approach amongst industry leaders become reality.

For one, the industry group GARM—the Global Alliance for Responsible Media—has committed to evaluating standards and definitions around online hate speech.

But this is just the beginning. And our hope is that it’s the beginning of a movement where we, as people, place community and connection, tolerance and empathy, and joy and kindness above all. The internet has enabled us to be joined together. We are now plugged into a vast nervous system that, yes, reflects our good, but too often also magnifies and fuels our bad. We can—and must—encourage these platforms to redesign themselves in a more responsible and compassionate way. The world will feel it, and we will all benefit from it.

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5 of the Most Promising AI Marketing Tools [Research]

By Mike Kapu

CB Insights publishes the AI 100, a yearly list of the “most promising private companies providing hardware and data infrastructure for AI applications, optimizing machine learning workflows, and applying AI across a variety of major industries.”

The selections come from a pool of 3,000+ companies being tracked by CB Insights, and are chosen based on factors like patent activity, investor profile, and market potential.

The startups are categorized by industry groupings devised

by CB Insights.

Every year, we like to keep tabs on the AI startups likely to make waves in the marketing industry. Here’s a rundown of CB Insights’ picks in the “Ads, Sales and Marketing” category.

For each company, we’ve included a short description and their current funding (as of writing) using data pulled from Crunchbase Pro. 1. Gong With over $133 million in funding, Gong uses AI to “clone” your most successful sales reps by tracking customer interactions and analyzing them to determine what’s working best.

2. Unbabel Unbabel has $91.2 million in funding for its AI-powered language translation solutions. Those solutions are used to translate customer emails, translate and update FAQs, live

chat with people around the world, and build multilingual chatbots.

3. Gamalon Gamalon’s AI is used by companies to build chatbots that read and understand your website, so they can respond more intelligently, increasing conversions. The company also offers AI that improve the performance of your email marketing.

The company has $32.1 million in funding.

4. FullStory FullStory’s digital intelligence platform uses AI to analyze customer interaction data and reveal how customers experience friction on your website, allowing you to improve customer experience quickly. The company has $59.2 million in funding.

5. BounceX With more than $75 million in funding, BounceX offers a range of AI-powered products that identify consumers in real-time, send them highly effective abandonment emails, and personalize website pages to each visitor.

Mike Kaput is the Director of Marketing AI Institute and a senior consultant at PR 20/20. He writes and speaks about how marketers can understand, adopt, and pilot artificial intelligence to increase revenue and reduce costs.

Understanding and shaping consumer behavior in the next normal

By Tamara Charm

Consumer beliefs and behaviors are changing fast. To keep up with—and perhaps even influence—those changes, companies must leverage deep consumer insights.

Months after the novel coronavirus was first detected in the United States, the COVID-19 crisis continues to upend Americans’ lives and livelihoods. The pandemic has disrupted nearly every routine in day-to-day life. The extent and duration of mandated lockdowns and business closures have forced people to give up even some of their most deeply ingrained habits—whether spending an hour at the gym after dropping the kids off at school, going to a coffee shop for a midday break, or enjoying Saturday night at the movies.

Such disruptions in daily experiences present a rare moment.

In ordinary times, consumers tend to stick stubbornly to their habits, resulting in very slow adoption (if any) of beneficial innovations that require behavior change. Now, the COVID-19 crisis has caused consumers everywhere to change their behaviors—rapidly and in large numbers. In the United States, for example, 75 percent of consumers have tried a new store, brand, or different way of shopping during the pandemic. Even though the impetus for that behavior change may be specific to the pandemic and transient, consumer companies would do well to find ways to meet consumers where they are today and satisfy their needs in the postcrisis period.

Behavioral science tells us that identifying consumers’ new beliefs, habits, and “peak moments” is central to driving behavioral change. Five actions can help companies influence

consumer behavior for the longer term: Reinforce positive new beliefs.

Shape emerging habits with new offerings.

Sustain new habits, using contextual cues.

Align messages to consumer mindsets.

Analyze consumer beliefs and behaviors at a granular level.

Reinforce positive new beliefs According to behavioral science, the set of beliefs that a consumer holds about the world is a key influencer of consumer behavior. Beliefs are psychological—so deeply rooted that they prevent consumers from logically evaluating alternatives and thus perpetuate existing habits and routines.

Companies that attempt to motivate behavioral change by ignoring or challenging consumers’ beliefs are fighting an uphill battle.

The COVID-19 crisis, however, has forced many consumers to change their behaviors, and their new experiences have caused them to change their beliefs about a wide range of everyday activities, from grocery shopping to exercising to socializing. When consumers are surprised and delighted by new experiences, even long-held beliefs can change, making consumers more willing to repeat the behavior, even

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when the trigger (in this case, the COVID-19 pandemic) is no longer present. In other words, this is a unique moment in time during which companies can reinforce and shape behavioral shifts to position their products and brands better for the next normal.

When consumers are surprised and delighted by new experiences, even long-held beliefs can change, making consumers more willing to repeat the behavior.

For example, approximately 15 percent of US consumers tried grocery delivery for the first time during the COVID-19 crisis. Among those first timers, more than 80 percent say they were satisfied with the ease and safety of the experience; 70 percent even found it enjoyable. And 40 percent intend to continue getting their groceries delivered after the crisis, suggesting that they’ve jettisoned any previously held beliefs about grocery delivery being unreliable or inconvenient; instead, they’ve been surprised and delighted by the benefits of delivery.

Another example of changing beliefs involves at-home exercise. The US online fitness market has seen approximately 50 percent growth in its consumer base since February 2020; the market for digital home-exercise machines has grown by 20 percent. It’s likely that many people who tried those fitness activities for the first time during the pandemic believed that at-home exercise couldn’t meet their exercise needs. That

belief has clearly changed for many of these consumers: 55 percent who tried online fitness programs and 65 percent who tried digital exercise machines say they will continue to use them, even after fitness centers and gyms reopen. To reinforce the new belief that online fitness can be motivating and enjoyable, NordicTrack, in a recent TV ad titled “Face Off,” shows that online workouts can foster the same friendly competition and connection that people look for when they go to the gym or attend in-person exercise classes.

An effective way to reinforce a new belief is to focus on peak moments—specific parts of the consumer decision journey that have disproportionate impact and that consumers tend to remember most. Peak moments often include first-time experiences with a product or service, touchpoints at the end of a consumer journey (such as the checkout process in a store), and other moments of intense consumer reaction.

Some companies have focused on enhancing the consumer’s first-time experience. Plant-based-meat manufacturer Beyond Meat, for instance, was already benefiting from delays in meat production in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis: its sales more than doubled between the first and second quarters of 2020. In collaboration with local restaurants and catering companies, the company has been delivering free, professionally prepared food to hospitals and other community centers. By giving away Beyond Burgers prepared by professional chefs, Beyond Meat is creating positive first experiences with its product at a time when consumers are more open to trial.

As the consumer journey has changed, so have the peak moments, and it’s crucial for companies to identify and

optimize them. For example, a peak moment in a grocery store might be the discovery of an exciting new product on the shelf. In the online-grocery journey, however, a peak moment might instead be on-time delivery or the “unboxing” of the order (the experience of taking the delivered items out of the packaging). Grocers could consider including a handwritten thank-you note or some other surprise, such as a free sample, to reinforce consumers’ positive connections with the experience.

Highly emotional occasions can spark intense consumer reactions and therefore present an opportunity for companies to create peak moments associated with their products or brands. For example, when graduations shifted from formal, large-scale ceremonies to at-home, family celebrations, Krispy Kreme offered each 2020 graduate a dozen specially decorated doughnuts for free. With that promotion, the company connected its brand with an emotional event that may not have been a key occasion for doughnuts prior to the pandemic.

Shape emerging habits with new products Companies can nudge consumers toward new habits through product innovation. For instance, the COVID-19 crisis has spurred consumers to become more health oriented and increase their intake of vitamins and minerals. Unilever reported a sales spike in beverages that contain zinc and vitamin C, such as Lipton Immune Support tea. The company is therefore rolling out such products globally. It’s also aligning its innovation priorities with consumers’ emerging health-and-wellness concerns.

Similarly, packaged-food companies can encourage the habit of cooking at home. Spice manufacturer McCormick’s sales in China have sustained double-digit increases compared with 2019, even as the Chinese economy has reopened and people go back to their workplaces. The same pattern could play out in other countries. Kraft Heinz’s innovation agenda for its international markets now prioritizes products that make home cooking pleasurable, fast, and easy—products such as sauces, dressings, and side dishes. These will be targeted at “light” and “medium” users of Kraft Heinz products.

Sustain new habits, using contextual cues Habits can form when a consumer begins to associate a certain behavior with a particular context; eventually, that behavior can become automatic. To help turn behaviors into habits, companies should identify the contextual cues that drive the behaviors. A contextual cue can be a particular task, time of day, or object placement. For example, more consumers are keeping hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes near entryways for easy access and as a reminder to keep hands and surfaces clean. Product packaging and marketing that reinforces the put-it-by-the-door behavior can help consumers sustain the habit.

Some companies may need to identify—and create—new contextual cues. Before the COVID-19 crisis, a contextual cue for chewing-gum consumption was anticipation of a social interaction—for instance, before going to a club, while commuting to work, and after smoking. As social occasions have waned during the pandemic, a chewing-gum manufacturer must look for new contextual cues, focusing largely on solo or small-group activities, such as gaming and crafting. Gum manufacturers could consider designing packaging, flavors, and communications that reinforce those new associations.

Align messages to consumer mindsets People across the country have felt an intensified mix of anxiety, anger, and fear because of recent events, making marketing a tricky terrain to navigate. The heightened emotions and increased polarization of the past few months could drive lasting changes in consumers’ behavior and shape their long-term preferences. Companies should therefore ensure that all their brand communications are attuned to consumer sentiment. The quality of a company’s communication and its ability to strike the right tone will increasingly become a competitive advantage.

McKinsey’s consumer-sentiment surveys show that consumers are paying closer attention to how companies treat their employees during this crisis—and taking note of companies that demonstrate care and concern for people. That has implications for how brands connect with consumers and what types of messages will resonate. Hair-care brand Olaplex, for example, became one of the most mentioned hair-care brands on social media when it started an affiliate program: the company donated a portion of its proceeds from product sales to customers’ local hairstylists, helping them stay afloat during salon closures.

That said, consumers will see through—and reject— messages and actions that are performative and that seek to commercialize social issues. A brand’s communications must align with its purpose; otherwise, the messages won’t ring true. Testing marketing messages among a diverse group of consumers, in the context in which those messages will appear, could help prevent costly missteps.

Analyze consumer beliefs and behaviors at a granular level Consumer beliefs, habits, occasions, and emotional-need states will continue to evolve rapidly over the next year or two as the world awaits a COVID-19 vaccine. For consumer companies to stay abreast of those changes, monitoring product sales alone won’t be sufficient. Companies must also conduct primary consumer-insights work, with a focus on identifying changed behaviors and associated changed beliefs and motivators to get a comprehensive picture of the changing consumer decision journey.

Qualitative, exploratory research will have a particular role to play as a precursor to (and, in some cases, a substitute for) quantitative research. Digital data-gathering and monitoring techniques—such as mobile diaries, social-media “listening,” and artificial-intelligence-driven message boards—will be vital tools to help companies understand emerging behaviors and contextual cues. When structured well, those insights generate new thinking within an organization that can be validated through larger-scale surveys and in-market testing.

Companies can then refine their product offerings and marketing messages accordingly.

In addition, granular analyses of footfall data and omnichannel sales will unearth telling details, such as which geographic regions are seeing in-person commerce rebound first and which products consumers are buying (such as smaller pack sizes to avoid sharing, activewear versus office wear, and so on). Whereas in the past, companies might have fielded high-level usage and attitude surveys and brand trackers a few times a year, it’s especially important now for companies to keep a closer eye on the evolution of consumer behavior on a weekly or monthly basis.

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How to Recover After Burnout

By Evan Lauterborn

Even under the best of circumstances, the journey to becoming a fully fledged content creator is difficult and requires a massive amount of testing. Using that same process to build your personal brand or business reputation is another challenge altogether.

During quarantine, the content creation process has become increasingly laborious. Motivation is hard to muster, proper audio/video equipment may still be stuck at the office, and in-person interviews or panels are obviously impossible.

The struggle to create even just a single blog post or other meaningful piece of content can seem insurmountable.

Here’s the video interview, along with a transcript that has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Your #DailyGoldie videos have amassed a global audience, more than 6 million views and even a video marketing course on LinkedIn Learning. How has your content creation approach changed during quarantine?

I think this is so hilarious, because I actually just did a first take of this question and had to do a second take, because during the first take a ton of police cars and also a lot of other noise was happening in the background!

To determine how brands and personalities should be adjusting their thinking, we spoke with Goldie Chan about content creation, personal branding, the current marketing agency landscape and how organizations can better connect with their audiences.

Now that we are creating content primarily from home, it is so important to understand that if audio isn’t perfect, take a break. Wait until it’s quieter so you can create the kind of content that has clean audio. That’s just one technical suggestion.

Goldie is one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Marketing & Social Media, founder and head of content and creative at Warm Robots, a regular Forbes contributor and our favorite greenhaired personal branding icon.

In terms of thinking about creating content during the quarantine as a brand, think as far as you can outside the box. Tap people who are already friends and fans of your brand and showcase them on whatever social media

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platforms you’re active on.

Interview them, have them do a tutorial, have them do a demo, make sure that they are engaged, and make sure you’re sharing that content publicly.

How should newcomers think about personal branding outside of content creation? What are some LinkedIn-specific tips?

There is so much to personal branding, obviously outside of doing really great, amazing memorable content, which is one of my favorite ways to build a personal brand.

But outside of that is networking. Make sure that people are aware of your personal brand by just being out there. Speak on panels, attend or speak at webinars, make sure that you are present in conversations and situations.

In terms of specific LinkedIn recommendations, I’d suggest that you once again think about how you can build your network effectively. This will help infinitely with personal branding outside of content creation.

Make sure that you add people that you went to school with or that were at your previous jobs and roles. Make sure that you are adding people to your network every single week.

I’ll give you a piece of homework: Add at least five new people to your network, every single week.

What advice can you give others on creating a personal brand alongside a business, much like you have with Warm Robots?

I love this question, because not everyone has the luxury of creating a personal brand separately from their business.

Some of us are just meant to shine a little bit more. So how can we think about doing both at the same time?

B means that I try to stick with Plan A about 99.999% of the time.

If my agency is going to release a project -- like an amazing one we just did with Pinterest called Courageous Conversations -- there’s not really a plan B for not doing that project.

We’re going to get it out there and it’s going to be amazing.

And quite honestly, just like everything in life, if it’s not absolutely top tier or your most amazing project, it’s at least out there.

I think a lot about a few folks that I met on another project I was doing interviews for. It was a series of chefs who were coming from the Navy. They were doing a boot camp cooking class, and we were helping interview them for this school.

One of the things we learned was that when they are cooking for their cohort, it doesn’t matter at the end of the day if the product is perfect. They just have to get it out there. That’s how I think about consistency. Make sure you just get your content out there.

The crazy thing is that over time, all of your content -- or in the case of those amazing chefs, all of your food -- will slowly improve over time. It’s simply because you get into the practice, and every day you get a little bit better.

Consistency to me is a stubbornness of belief and not having a plan B. Give us your best elevator pitch for Warm Robots.

What makes your agency unique? What is your unique value at a time when many marketing agencies are moving in-house?

The main ethos behind Warm Robots is evolving brand storytelling.

First of all, I think it’s important to have separate presences for each. For example, on LinkedIn, I don’t just have a company brand page. This way, clients can tag Warm Robots and my personal page, Goldie Chan.

We want to always make sure that we’re helping the brands and companies that we work with get to the next level with how they tell their story both externally, and of course when we do HR-related projects, internally.

Now this is the double whammy: When people want to tag both of my accounts on Twitter or LinkedIn or any other platform, they can say: “@GoldieChan of @WarmRobots is now working on this new project with us.” Not only do you get that amazing boost for your personal brand, but also your agency or your brand also gets an extra second boost.

What makes Warm Robots really different is that they are led by me! My team is amazing and I “heart” them to pieces.

Create really defined, well-built-out separate presences for both, and make sure that your copy and your ethos for both are at least slightly different. Because if you exactly cut and paste images, if you exactly cut and paste the wording, then there’s no reason why someone would tag your brand, as opposed to your personal account.

In your 2018 Forbes article, you said your “... best piece of advice for building a personal brand by creating content is to keep going.” How do you stay motivated and keep the content fresh?

I think motivation is such a tough concept right now, especially as we’re going through so many changes globally. I like to always tell people, I don’t have a plan B. Not having a plan

One of my key personal beliefs is in telling stories that have meaning. I’m really thinking about diversity, thinking about culture, coming from a culture of listening, thinking about analytics and AI, and how all these elements can be built into making the perfect story that helps customers come back for more.

The last part of this question is, of course, that marketing agencies are moving in house. For example, I won’t name them, but a big Fortune 500 company I just talked to has built a really strong, robust in-house marketing agency from scratch.

We at Warm Robots love to partner with those amazing inhouse agencies to help them think strategically. Just like in life, sometimes it’s incredibly helpful to have an outside point of view. That outside point of view will help clarify overall strategies in a way that, if you’re in the weeds, if you’re thinking too closely about the details, if you’ve worked in the

atmosphere for so long, it’s sometimes hard to have that kind of clarity.

So that’s what we do; we actually work with a lot of in-house teams to help them really think through strategy, clearly.

For those brands that do not have a known brandpurpose or cause, what initial steps should they take to create such a culture and brand reputation?

Many brands are scrambling to address the current social climate in a way that doesn’t come across as tone-deaf. What advice would you provide?

I’ve been asked this by quite a few of my clients and also, of course, prospective clients. This is a very tough time. In fact, I just gave a keynote called Weathering the Storm for brands.

This is a tough question.

The first thing to do, of course, is to listen. You always want to be listening to what other people are saying. It’s incredibly important to be able to learn during this time.

When I sit down with brands and we think about things from the very beginning, the very bottom of who they are and what their purpose is, I think sometimes it’s helpful to think from the outside.

The next thing that I like to say about this subject is keeping a sense of calm. Calm and confidence, especially as a leader, especially as a leading brand during this time, will only help you look incredibly professional.

Who is your target demographic? Who are those key types of people, those key segments that you’re attempting to target?

Then we craft a brand purpose that makes sense through every single one of those key demographics.

Finally, the third piece of advice is: open it up to your network.

What do I mean by that? I mean opening up that question to your network once again, encouraging yourself to listen and encouraging yourself to learn. But also, making sure that you are growing your network constantly.

For example, if you are building a brand purpose for a meditation app, it would make sense to think through: How can you help each of these different demographics remain calm during the day or remain relaxed?

If you’re a wonderful B2B company working in the electronic field, maybe one of your goals is to make sure that people understand IoT better. Understanding your purpose can come from better understanding your audience demographics.

To reach Goldie Chan with any further questions, send her an email at hello@warmrobots.com.

If you found this interview insightful, sign up for SmartBrief on Social Business for more successful personal branding and content marketing news, delivered daily. For even more quality news coverage, sign up for any of SmartBrief’s 275+ newsletters today, free.

Book,

&

Line

Binge Worthy Branding: Build Customer Loyalty Using AI and Personalization Like Amazon, Netflix, and Starbucks Paperback – June 5, 2020

by Sterling C McKinley Whether you’re a marketing manager or a small business owner, this book will forever transform the way you think about branding and your customers.

Social Media Marketing Mastery 2020:3 BOOKS IN 1-How to Build a Brand and Become an Expert Influencer Using Facebook, Twitter, Youtube & Instagram-Top Digital Networking & Personal Branding Strategies

By Robert Miller

Give & Get Employer Branding: Repel the Many and Compel the Few with Impact, Purpose and Belonging Paperback – March 5, 2020

By Bryan Adams, Charlotte Marshall In today’s fiercely competitive job market, with the balance of power squarely in job-seekers’ hands, how can organizations attract and retain the most talented candidates—and the best additions to their culture?

Branding: In Five and a Half Steps

By Amanda Miller Littlejohn Michael Johnson is one of the world’s leading graphic designers and brand consultants. His studio, johnson banks, is responsible for the rebranding of many notable clients, including Virgin Atlantic, Think London, BFI, Christian Aid, and MORE TH>N, and he has garnered a plethora of awards in the process.

Sinker Branding: What You Need to Know About Building a Personal Brand and Growing Your Small Business Using Social Media Marketing and Offline Guerrilla Tactics

By Joeri Van den Bergh In a market dominated by conglomerates, competition between small businesses is at its peak.

Brand Storytelling: Put Customers at the Heart of Your Brand Story 1st Edition

By Miri Rodriguez Written by the award-winning storyteller Miri Rodriguez at Microsoft, this actionable guide goes beyond content strategy and, instead, demonstrates how to leverage brand storytelling in the marketing mix to strengthen brand engagement and achieve long-term growth, with advice from brands like Expedia, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Adobe and Google.

Book of Branding - a guide to creating brand identity for startups and beyond

By Radim Malinic The conversational, jargon free, tone of the book helps the reader to understand essential elements of the brand identity process. Offering first hand experience, insights and tips throughout, the book uses real life case studies to show how great collaborative work can be achieved.

The How of Personal Branding: 3 C’s to Become the Highly Paid Authority in Your Field

By Dr. Shahab Anari The How of personal Branding: CLARIFY your unique message, COMMUNICATE it to the right people, and CLOSE a lot more deals.Do you want to build a strong brand and monetize your expertise?Do you want to create a big following and make an impact?

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Ladies, Power Up Your Brand: The Women Entrepreneur’s Guide to Getting Paid to Be Bold, Brilliant and Unapologetically You

By Stacy Graiko, Faith James Personal branding is not about logos, color preferences, expensive website designs and photoshoots.

Personal branding is about finding out what makes you truly you and using your...

Gorgeous War: The Branding War between the Third Reich and the United States

By Tim Blackmore Gorgeous War argues that the Nazis used the swastika as part of a visually sophisticated propaganda program that was not only modernist but also the forerunner of contemporary brand identity.

Digital You: Real Personal Branding in the Virtual Age

By William Arruda The most successful brands aren’t created, they are unearthed. Successful branding is based on authenticity. So how do you reveal your own brand? First, by searching yourself for answers to questions like these: What do you do better than anyone? What are you most proud of? What makes you lose track of time?

Start Up Business Plan Journal: Helps with Branding, Budget, Targeting Demographics, Setting Financial Goals and More! With Inspirational Quotes - Great Gift For Aspiring Entrepreneurs!

By LucyFieldDesigns

INSTAGRAM MARKETING ADVERTISING 2020: Secrets on how to do personal branding in the right way and becoming a top influencer even if you have a small business (social media mastery beginners guide)

By Robert Grow

The 10 Commandments of Author Branding: Embrace Authenticity, Gain Book Ambassadors, and Create Your Tribe

By Shayla Raquel Writing your book is the easy part. It’s the marketing and branding that make authors pull out their hair.And yet, what if you could approach marketing and branding confidently, knowing you can attract loyal readers for life?

Social Media Marketing Power Mindset: Learn The Online Digital Advertising Strategies That Can Help Grow Your Business, Network, And Influencer Brand ...

Youtube. (Social Media Marketing Masterclass)

By Rory Ames-Hyatt

Logo Design Theory: How Branding Design Really Works

by A Michael Shumate The world famous branding designer, Ivan Chermayeff said of the first edition of Logo Design Theory, “At last somebody actually understands what identity design is all about and how it is accomplished.”

Logo Design Theory explains the underlying principles of logo design, branding design, corporate identity design with clear examples...