Marketing News: October 2019

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

AMA.ORG

OCTOBER 2019

4THE DYNAMIC UNDER 40 FUTURE OF MARKETING

LESSONS FROM THE TEACHER, THE OPTIMIST, THE REVISIONIST AND THE CONNECTOR BUILDING A SWEET ARGUMENT OCTOBER 2019

UNTRADITIONAL PATHS TO MARKETING SETTING HIGHER ED AGENDAS

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table of contents AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

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SEEN ON AMA.ORG

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ANSWERS IN ACTION • Snapshot • Core Concepts • Ethical Marketing

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SCHOLARLY INSIGHTS • Research Digest • Brand Coolness • Sharing Economy

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4 Under 40

This year’s batch of 4 Under 40 Emerging Leaders suggests a boundaries-defying future for marketing.

The most striking characteristic of the group is perhaps how each individual represents four very different aspects of the field.

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EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS • Finn Raben • J. Walker Smith • Lawrence A. Crosby

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CAREER ADVANCEMENT • Higher Ed • Design Partnership

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 Changing Jobs in Marketing Space

The worlds of public relations, advertising, social media and more can immediately benefit from a marketer’s insight. In some cases, it pays to explore alternative ways to utilize marketing training in your career.

AND NOW, A WORD FROM...

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Satisfy Your Boss’ Sweet Tooth

Diane Domeyer, executive director of The Creative Group, on how to build the case for marketing.

50  If the Marketing Career Fits

Everyone’s path to marketing is different. How do skills from an assortment of degrees translate to the field?

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OCTOBER 2019

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR VOL. 53 | NO. 9 AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

The Marketing Universe

Stacy Armijo Chairperson of the AMA Board 2019-2020 Russ Klein, AMA Chief Executive Officer rklein@ama.org EDITORIAL STAFF

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very year during the first week of October, we celebrate AMA Marketing Week. It’s an opportunity to celebrate marketers and the good work you do in the world. From research to sustainability and awareness, no cause would be winnable without marketing. AMA Marketing Week’s mission is to help marketers advocate for their work and its impact on the bottom line.

A universe of roles, tasks and team members orbits marketing to ensure the work gets done. Every marketer has a different team, workload and career path.

What we all have in common is the mission to drive business forward, which makes us stronger than the sum of our parts. In this issue, we’re recognizing the AMA’s 4 Under 40 award winners by exploring what makes them unique, as their work reflects the many facets of marketing, from research to brand strategy.

Freelance writer Hal Conick spoke to marketing professionals with non-marketing degrees, exploring their

Phone (800) AMA-1150 Fax (312) 542-9001 E-mail editor@ama.org David Klein, Chief Content Officer dklein@ama.org Molly Soat, Editor in Chief msoat@ama.org Sarah Steimer, Managing Editor ssteimer@ama.org Julian Zeng, Assistant Managing Editor jzeng@ama.org

journeys to the marketing field and what skills made them desirable job candidates.

“That decision [to seek a job in marketing] is an especially good one with the current demand for marketers,” Conick writes. “Marketing positions are incredibly popular … and there’s demand in these roles for the skills held by non-marketing graduates. In terms of major occupation categories, marketing is a top-20 area of growth across the entire country.”

How can the AMA help you advocate for your work and team?

MOLLY SOAT Editor in Chief @MollySoat

Steve Heisler, Staff Writer sheisler@ama.org Bill Murphy, Designer wmurphy@ama.org ADVERTISING STAFF

Fax (312) 922-3763 • E-mail ads@ama.org Sally Schmitz, Production Manager sschmitz@ama.org (312) 542-9038 Nicola Tate, Associate Director, Media Channels ntate@associationmediagroup.com (804) 469-0324 Rianne McMahon, Recruitment Advertising Specialist Rianne.McMahon@CommunityBrands.com (727) 497-6565 x3467 Marketing News (ISSN 0025-3790) is published monthly except June/July and November/December by the American Marketing Association, 130 E. Randolph St., 22nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60601.

Circulation: (800) AMA-1150, (312) 542-9000 Tel: (800) AMA-1150, (312) 542-9000 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Marketing News, 130 E. Randolph St., 22nd Floor, Chicago, 60601-6320, USA. Periodical Postage paid at Chicago, Ill., and additional mailing offices.

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Opinions expressed are not necessarily endorsed by the AMA, its officers or staff.

CONTRIBUTORS

Marketing News welcomes expressions of all professional viewpoints on marketing and its related areas. These may be as letters to the editor, columns or articles. Letters should be brief and may be condensed by the editors. Please request a copy of the “Writers’ Guidelines” before submitting an article. Upon submission to the AMA, photographs and manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, adequately stamped envelope.

Annual subscription rates: Marketing News is a benefit of membership for professional members of the American Marketing Association. Annual professional membership dues in the AMA are $300. Nonmembers: Call 1-800-633-4931 or e-mail amasubs@subscriptionoffice.com.

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HAL CONICK

EUGENE SMITH

Hal Conick is a writer in Chicago who has previously written for Marketing News magazine, Crain’s Chicago Business, Chicago magazine and Slate.

Eugene Smith is an illustrator born and raised in California, now residing in Chicago. He decided all that time spent doodling in notebooks and scribbling on walls should be put to good use and pursued a degree in painting and drawing from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for all content (including text, representations and illustrations) of advertisements published, and also assume responsibility for any claims arising therefrom made against the publisher. The right is reserved to reject any advertisement.

Copyright © 2019 by the American Marketing Association.

All rights reserved.

Without written permission from the AMA, any copying or reprinting (except by authors reprinting their own works) is prohibited. Requests for permission to reprint—such as copying for general distribution, advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works or resale—should be submitted in writing by mail or sent via e-mail to permissions@ama.org.

Printed in the U.S.A.

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LETTER FROM THE CEO

The Value of Marketing

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was recently honored to be a speaker at the Global Conference on Creating Value in New York City, and I had the pleasure of introducing Philip Kotler, the father of modern marketing.

Kotler has become a dear friend over the past five years, and we met over Chinese food the night before our speaking engagement. I had so many questions for Phil, but I barely had a chance to ask any because I was answering all of his! I told my fiancé that I was disappointed I didn’t ask my questions, but she wisely responded, “That’s how he became so smart.”

My speech at the Creating Value conference included a reimagined version of the venerable 4 P’s of marketing that many universities still teach today. The framework has been reinterpreted, evolved and expanded by many. Most versions meet the test of reasonableness and some are managerially useful adaptations in response to the changing role marketing can play in society.

I’m not an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of guy. Things don’t have to be broken before they can be made better and more valuable. This obvious fact is the basis for the first “P,” which stands for product. But try to reimagine “product” as “solution.”

Nobody wants your product—they want your solution. Looking through the lens of “solutions” vastly widens the aperture for innovation.

When it comes to the second “P,” which stands for price, I believe there’s another element that may figure more importantly in your value equation: time. Think about the disruptors in our economy; most either saved or gave back time to their customer. Friction is a waste of time. Poorly trained customer service is a waste of time. Out-of-

stocks are a waste of time. Slow page loads are a waste of time.

When you look across consumer product and customer service data, you’ll find “waste of time” to be the No. 1 complaint.

The third “P,” which stands for place or distribution, is what I often refer to as the Cinderella of the 4 P’s.

Long ago, marketers forfeited their seat at the table on supply chain and logistics because it wasn’t as sexy as storytelling. Marketers are addicted to storytelling as the panacea for every business challenge.

Now, thanks to smartphones and other technology, this “P” is about unprecedented insight into context, around-the-clock access and real-time immediacy. This makes it the most important “P,” which I now reimagine as “omnichannel” to mean all distribution and media channels combined into one powerful marketing muscle for creating customer value.

The fourth “P” requires perhaps the most important evolution.

Instead of “promotion,” this element should be reimagined and expanded to “participation.” What I like about the term is that it aptly captures the new dynamic of customer engagement: a direct transaction, meaning a direct behavior or desired action by your customer; and an indirect transaction, measured by likes, followers, shares, feedback, etc. Without an indirect transaction with your customer, you only have revenue. Without the direct transaction, all you have is gossip.

The advent of social media has ushered in an expectation by brand owners that they don’t just want purchase behavior, they want positive social affirmation as a complete expression of an engaged customer. Conversely, consumers don’t just want to buy,

they want to be understood. By thinking of the opportunity in terms of participation, you ensure the customer’s voice is actively monitored and understood. Ideally, it leads to inspiration for co-creation.

My new acronym is S.T.O.P.: Solutions, time, omni-channel and participation. My advice is to STOP using the 4 P’s and start reimagining your brand in this way.

In the end, done right, the value of marketing will evolve to a world where everything is bought and nothing is sold, a world where marketing has less to do with buying and more to do with belonging.

Only then does the field have a fighting chance to reverse the decades-long decline of trust from consumers and CEOs alike.

Kotler’s first words on stage after my presentation were, “Russ Klein just crushed the 4 P’s!” That’s an endorsement I will treasure all my life.

RUSS KLEIN CEO

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Marketers Coming Up Short on Personalization

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o say that personalization can lead to a better overall customer experience is far from groundbreaking. But many marketers are still generally unsatisfied with their efforts, despite overwhelmingly agreeing (98%) that personalization helps advance customer relationships.

These findings come from a report

by Evergage and Researchscape International that surveyed 314 marketing professionals across global companies of varying sizes and industries, predominantly in the U.S. Seventy percent of respondents claim personalization has a “strong” or “extremely strong” impact on cultivating customer relationships, and 85% say their existing customers and prospects expect personalized experiences.

Marketers cited numerous impediments to their full acceptance of and confidence in their personalization efforts. Among the top factors impeding marketers were issues with data, siloed personalization, limited resources and inadequately maximizing their potential.

Only a third of marketers believe that they’re delivering personalization to customers effectively, but there is evidence that they are implementing more sophisticated methods. Use of machine learning and algorithmic personalization is up to 40% from 26% last year, and the deployment of emails based on a user’s on-site behavior is up from 35% last year to 45%.

Marketers with strong personalization efforts report favorable results. Ninety percent saw a measurable lift—58% experienced a lift of more than 10% and 15% reported one of greater than 30%.

—JULIAN ZENG

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98%

OF MARKETERS AGREE THAT PERSONALIZATION HELPS ADVANCE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

DO YOU THINK YOUR PROSPECTS AND CUSTOMERS EXPECT A PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCE?

15%

85%

NO

YES

WHAT IS THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF PERSONALIZATION ON ADVANCING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS?

NO IMPACT

2%

SLIGHT IMPACT

6%

MODERATE IMPACT

23%

STRONG IMPACT

52%

EXTREMELY STRONG IMPACT

18%

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32%

OVERALL, HOW SATISFIED ARE YOU WITH THE LEVEL OF PERSONALIZATION IN YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS?

AGREE

NOT SATISFIED

21%

SLIGHTLY SATISFIED

29%

MODERATELY SATISFIED

34%

VERY SATISFIED

14%

EXTREMELY SATISFIED

2%

68%

DISAGREE

WOULD YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT: MARKETERS ARE GETTING PERSONALIZATION RIGHT.

IN WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING DIGITAL CHANNELS ARE YOU USING PERSONALIZATION?

EMAIL

78%

WEBSITE

58%

IN-PERSON

42%

ONLINE ADVERTISING

35%

MOBILE APP

28%

WEB APPLICATION

19%

NONE OF THE ABOVE

7%

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August 2019 CMO Survey: Hiring, AI on the Rise

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arketing budgets make up 12% of overall firm budgets, according to the August 2019 CMO Survey, matching an all-time high.

Administered twice a year as an internet questionnaire, The CMO Survey observes emerging marketing trends via the opinions of 341 top

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marketers of for-profit U.S. companies. The August 2019 survey identified that marketer optimism in the overall U.S. economy increased to 59.8 on a 0-100 scale. This is up from 57 in February, but below the all-time high of 69.9.

In terms of major careerrelated trends, CMO Survey founder Christine Moorman,

also the T. Austin Finch Sr. Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, points to findings related to how new technology will render some marketing jobs obsolete. Although 57.6% of respondents reported that they are not currently replacing employees with new tech, the number is expected to fall to 37.5% over the coming three years. “That shift will be greater ‌ for

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companies that have a greater percentage of their sales on the internet,” Moorman says.

When asked what technology she expects will replace human employees, Moorman points to findings that show the rise of artificial intelligence. There was a 27% reported increase in implementation of AI or machine learning into companies’ marketing toolkits since the question was first asked in February 2018—and marketers expect the technologies to be implemented at even higher levels in the coming three years. The top three uses for AI in marketing are content personalization (56.5%), predictive analytics for customer insights (56.5%) and targeting decisions (49.6%).

It’s not all robots in the future, though: Hiring growth is also on the rise, with a 6.2% increase in marketing

hires planned in the coming 12 months, up from a 5.1% increase reported in February.

Another interesting shift in the survey is in regard to what marketing leaders expect customers to prioritize in the coming 12 months. Respondents expect customers to place a greater emphasis on excellent service (28% increase) and superior product quality (12% increase). The pressure for low price has dropped by 17% since the February survey.

The survey, sponsored

by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Deloitte and the AMA, included these additional key findings: • When marketers were asked to compare their customer experience performance to competitors’, they generally rated their own firms poorly. Their top three challenges in relation to CX were developing

the necessary capabilities inside the organization to design, deliver and monitor the customer experience (13.4%); determining the contribution of each touchpoint to the overall customer experience and identifying critical touchpoints (12.1%); and integrating touchpoints seamlessly across the entire customer journey (11.2%).

• Social media spending fell slightly in the February survey, but increased to 11.9% of marketing budgets.

(Its highest point was 13.8% of budgets in August 2018.)

Marketing spend on mobile continues its climb, coming in at 12.8% and expected to reach 21.8% in five years.

• Respondents said marketing expenses account for 9.8% of their firm’s revenues, up from 7.3% in August 2018.

—SARAH STEIMER

Marketing budget as a percent of firm revenues rises again Marketing expenses account for what percent of your firm’s revenues?

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Popeyes and Chick-fil-A Clash in Chicken Sandwich Feud

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opeyes did the unthinkable.

The Louisiana-style chain slapped its signature, craveworthy chicken between a bun and debuted its first-ever chicken sandwich. On Aug. 12, the company tweeted a close-up image of its new sandwich accompanied by a note: “Chicken. Brioche. Pickles.

New. Sandwich. Popeyes. Nationwide.

So. Good. Forgot. How. Speak. In. Complete. Sandwiches. I mean, sentences.” As of press time, the post has received about 31,000 likes, 5,300 retweets and 1,600 comments. Social media immediately lit up, as droves of fast-food fans flocked to Popeyes and raved that it was the best chicken sandwich they had ever tasted. This sparked the inevitable comparison to one of the Louisiana Kitchen’s competitors: Chick-fil-A. It took them a week, but Chick-fil-A responded on Twitter with a simple message: “Bun + Chicken + Pickles = all the [heart] for the original.” The accompanying graphic didn’t display the sandwich itself, but the message was clear: Consider the drumstick thrown. Not to be outdone, other fast food joints joined the Twitter pile-on, including Wendy’s, Shake Shack, Zaxby’s and Bojangles’.

This particular social media beef can go one of two ways: Popeyes and Chick-fil-A continue to have it out until

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a single winner emerges, or the chains call a truce and the world is better off—and more full of chicken—for it.

[Editor’s note: At press time, Popeyes has since “sold out” of sandwiches until further notice.]

Here are two recent examples of both outcomes for big-name brands.

Burger King Attempts a McMerger In August 2015, the pages of The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune were graced by an unusual offer. Burger King took out full-page ads in both publications offering a temporary ceasefire with McDonald’s in honor of Peace Day on Sept. 21.

Its proposal called for the creation of a Frankenstein’s monster product, dubbed the McWhopper. “All the tastiest bits of your Big Mac and our Whopper, united in one delicious, peace-loving burger,” the letter read, ending with, “Let’s end the beef, with beef.” Burger King even went so far as to propose branding to accompany the hybrid burger that combined the red and yellow of McDonald’s packaging with the familiar Burger King logo.

McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook replied to the offer later that day with a post on Facebook. He seemed dismissive of the idea and insinuated that Burger King was shirking its

responsibility as a global citizen.

He also accused Burger King of needlessly sensationalizing the whole ordeal. “We commit to raise awareness worldwide, perhaps you’ll join us in a meaningful global effort?” he wrote. “And every day, let’s acknowledge that between us there is simply a friendly business competition and certainly not the unequaled circumstances of the real pain and suffering of war.”

He added, “P.S. A simple phone call will do next time.”

#ColaTruce Benefits Both Brands and Those in Need February’s Super Bowl LIII hosted a heated rivalry on and off the field.

Pepsi once again sponsored the game’s halftime show, but this year the championship took place in Atlanta—home of Coca-Cola. PepsiCo came prepared: A few days before the game, it unveiled a statue of its founder, Caleb Bradham, raising a cup of Pepsi. It was placed alongside a similar statue of Coca-Cola founder John Pemberton, located outside the World of Coca-Cola exhibit, so that the two figures appeared as if they were toasting. Pepsi shared an image of the two titans on Twitter, with the message, “Hey @CocaCola thanks for being such gracious hosts for #SBLIII this week. We agree #TogetherIsBeautiful so we’d like to get our founders together for a celebratory cheers to declare a temporary #ColaTruce for the day.”

Coca-Cola was quick to respond, tweeting, “#TogetherIsBeautiful always. Welcome to ATL!” Pepsi took the truce a step further and offered to donate a meal to those in need via United Way for every retweet or post with the hashtags #ColaTruce and #Share2Donate.

Roughly 24 hours later, they donated 130,000 meals and both brands walked away satisfied.

—STEVE HEISLER

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SNAPSHOT

For a recent branding campaign, Oscar Mayer leaned heavily on the propensity for social media to ignite hyperbole and debate in order to drive engagement. The brand threw down the gauntlet: After declaring that a hot dog was a sandwich, Oscar Mayer gave followers 24 hours to reply.

“We thought we owed it to people to weigh in on this debate,” Riezman says.

“It’s increasingly important to have a relationship with consumers; we wanted to build those relationships and establish our authority as a leader in meat.”

Oscar Mayer Opens the Hot Dog Controversy Floodgates Is the dress blue and black or white and gold? Is the voice saying “Laurel” or “Yanny?” Now Oscar Mayer wants to know: Is a hot dog a sandwich or no?

BY STEVE HEISLER | STAFF WRITER

 sheisler@ama.org Goal Oscar Mayer’s branding and awareness work tends to skew sillier, with strong viral potential. In the past, the company created a bacon-scented alarm clock and Bacoin, a cryptocurrency backed by the brand’s bacon. Oscar Mayer once even drove its signature Wienermobile to Alaska to deliver hot dogs.

For a recent social media campaign, which earned the meat mavens a Shorty Award, they tackled an issue that has been weighing heavily on the minds of many: Is a hot dog a sandwich? They declared that it was, set up a hotline and demanded their Twitter followers call in to convince them otherwise.

The jury is still largely out on this debate. Merriam-Webster defines a hot dog as a sandwich, while the National

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Hot Dog and Sausage Council feels the opposite. In 2018, food-focused website The Takeout spent five months surveying 34 pop culture figures on the topic, including actors, journalists and athletes.

The results showed 55.9% answered “no” and 26.5% said “yes.”

Oscar Mayer was paying close attention. “We’ve seen the debate pop up about [whether] a hot dog is a sandwich,” says Matt Riezman, associate director of marketing for Oscar Mayer.

“It was something we knew you could get people excited about on a personal level, pretty much no matter where in the world they were. We decided that, [since] we knew that we were experts in hot dogs as one of the leading brands of hot dogs, we have some serious expertise in sandwiches.”

Action “We knew a hotline has a high barrier to entry,” says Randi Schwieger, account director at mcgarrybowen in Chicago— Oscar Mayer’s agency of record. “People barely call their friends and family anymore … [but] we felt like there was an opportunity to get the most passionate to go above and beyond and thought that could be really fun. That proved very fruitful.”

Schwieger and Riezman wanted to ensure each impassioned message could be shared immediately to spark social media dialogue and ultimately drive more calls to the hotline. They created visual templates that could be populated with noteworthy messages as they came in, then pushed those images out on Oscar Mayer’s social channels. “This wasn’t all set it and forget it, pre-recorded or precreated messaging,” Schwieger says. “We could take people’s opinions and push them back out to continue to fuel the debate.”

The team went live a few days before International Sandwich Day in early November 2018. Oscar Mayer gave no warning to its followers that the campaign was coming, only offering a single message that morning with the hashtag #ChangeOscarsMind and a note: “A hot dog is a sandwich! Try and change our mind 1-833-SNDWICH.” The language of the post was worded to intentionally kick off a heated debate. “‘Change my mind’ is obviously native behavior in social,” Schwieger says.

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SNAPSHOT

“Inviting consumers to engage with us in that way felt like it was right for social.

And we’re absolutely up for the task of trying to change your mind.”

The calls came quickly and reflected the fervor they expected. Many messages were minutes-long and some called repeatedly to continue their argument.

One man quoted the Cartesian coordinate system, arguing that along the xyz plane, a sandwich is eaten on the x-axis but not the y- or z-axis, whereas a hot dog also exists along the z-axis. Another caller threatened to visit the company in person and make his case.

Other tenacious callers phoned corporate headquarters, which surprised other Kraft Heinz employees. “I was scolded by our consumer response team for not telling them [about the campaign],” Riezman says.

The phones closed after a tight 24 hours, and the moment had arrived to reach a verdict. “We wanted people to understand that this wasn’t going to drag on forever, that there will be a decision,” Schwieger says. “It created a little bit of urgency and an understanding that there [would] be some resolution pretty quickly.”

Results First thing’s first: According to Oscar Mayer, a hot dog is, indeed, a sandwich.

“After 24 hours, we had to listen to all of the messages,” Schwieger says. “Ultimately

we had a decision to make. We decided, as a group, that there was no argument powerful enough to change our minds.”

Their decree sparked more phone calls.

The line received 1,638 voicemails within 48 hours, with 608 coming in during that first 24-hour window. Social media exploded with 4.6 million impressions and 628 mentions of the associated hashtag on Twitter. The campaign did well on traditional media sites as well, earning 427 million impressions and 258 earned placements. The campaign also won Oscar Mayer a Shorty Award in the “Polls and Surveys” category in “Food and Beverage.”

The brand continues to question sandwiches—or at least produce questionable ones of their own. In August, it introduced a hot dog-flavored ice cream sandwich containing candied hot dog bits, hot dog sweet cream ice cream and spicy Dijon mustard gelato.

This aberration also proved quite popular on social media.

“One of the biggest effects we’ve seen is that people are increasingly interested in interacting with us as a brand and are almost expectant in certain situations— especially if those involve hot dogs or sandwiches,” Riezman says. “We’re seeing that [interacting with Oscar Mayer] almost feels like talking to a friend that you haven’t seen in a while, but they remember you.” m

answers in action

COMPANY

Oscar Mayer FOUNDED

1883 HEADQUARTERS

Chicago CAMPAIGN TIMELINE

Nov. 1-2, 2018 CAMPAIGN RESULTS:

1,638 voicemails within 48 hours, 4.6 million impressions and 628 mentions across Twitter, 427 million impressions and 258 earned placements in media. A Shorty Award in the “Polls and Surveys” category in “Food and Beverage.”

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CORE CONCEPTS

Make a Lasting Impression: How Brands Can Create Authentic Sponsorships Most brands use sponsorships to win impressions, akin to a billboard or TV ad. But brands have a chance to create authentic sponsorships that engage consumers to win more than an easily forgotten impression.

BY HAL CONICK | FREELANCE WRITER

 halconick@gmail.com

A

t first glance, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk seems an odd choice to sponsor a cycling team. Why would it trouble to court controversy and sponsor a pro cycling team amid the sport’s nearconstant doping and drug scandals? The company’s backing could be perceived as a cynical joke.

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But its sponsorship of American Team Novo Nordisk is an authentic relationship, according to T. Bettina Cornwell, a professor of marketing at the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business. Cornwell met with executives at Novo Nordisk this summer and found that their sponsorship was forged with care: The company produces

insulin therapies, and the cycling team it sponsors consists entirely of riders living with Type 1 diabetes.

“They’re inserting themselves into a conversation you would think would be explosive for them,” Cornwell says. “But actually, it’s quite good.”

In her 2019 paper in the Journal of Advertising—titled “Less ‘Sponsorship As Advertising’ and More SponsorshipLinked Marketing As Authentic Engagement”—Cornwell writes that brands have traditionally used sponsorships as they would billboards or TV ads, but sponsorships have the potential to give consumers an experience and win brand loyalty.

“In most markets, brands are no longer satisfied with logo placement as the central value of sponsorship and are no longer willing to accept prepackaged property asset bundles,” she writes in the paper. “At the same time, consumers are becoming wary of ubiquitous sponsorships and the commercialization of so many spheres of life.”

Perhaps worse than wary, consumers often ignore impressions-based sponsorship, according to Patrick Heffernan, senior vice president and director of strategic planning at branding company Jack Morton Worldwide. “You may notice [the sponsorship] the first time, but unless you can answer the question, ‘Why is the brand there and what value do they bring?’ … those impressions fade away instantly.”

IEG’s 2018 sponsorship report found that $24.2 billion was spent on sponsorship in North America alone, with spending increasing to $65.8 billion across the entire world. That’s a significant amount of money being spent to allow impressions to fade.

Create Authentic Links The need for authenticity in sponsorships was showcased in a 2014 paper—titled “Corporate sponsorship as an image platform: understanding the roles of relationship fit and sponsor–sponsee similarity”—written by Cornwell and coauthor Ravi Pappu, a marketing professor at the University of Queensland. They

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CORE CONCEPTS

examined how consumers feel about ill-fitting sponsorship deals, specifically looking at how the Red Cross would be perceived if it took a sponsorship from a fast-food chain that consumers perceive as healthy (Subway) versus one considered unhealthy (KFC).

Cornwell says that when a sponsorship relationship is seen as authentic, it’s helpful to both brands’ reputations. But when the sponsorship is seen as inauthentic, the relationship and perhaps reputation can be tarnished. In the 2014 study, participants saw a potential relationship between KFC and the Red Cross as inauthentic. As one person quoted in the study said, “It’s quite ironic that the Red Cross is about saving lives and KFC is in the fast food industry, which is the cause of a lot of health issues.”

Perception of the relationship may be the most important aspect of a sponsorship, Heffernan says. Another pair of food companies may be the best example, he says, as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s each had different levels of success in sponsoring the Olympic Games.

Coca-Cola has sponsored the Olympics since 1928. Although the producer of sugar-packed soda seems at odds with an event built on peak athleticism, the company was able to create an authentic, long-lasting link to the Olympics brand.

Heffernan says Coca-Cola has thrived by billing itself as a drink that can break down barriers and be shared among people, even competitors from distant lands.

McDonald’s, on the other hand, recently ended its sponsorship of the Olympics after 40 years. “They could never crack that code,” Heffernan says.

“And it came down to connecting it back with brand purpose.”

To succeed, Heffernan says that brands must first understand why they’re sponsors, then flip the question and answer it from the consumer’s point of view: What value will the consumer get from this sponsorship? If the answer is simply to know the brand’s name, the impression will fade quickly.

Engage the People Cornwell writes that there needs to be a satisfying, emotional bond for both

the sponsor and sponsee. But that bond must be forged by more than frequency of interaction—brands must engage consumers in an experience.

Cornwell cited Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers. The stadium features a Levi’s retail shop, a Levi’s branded “501 Club” party room and regular involvement from the Levi’s marketing team to engage with fans.

Successful sponsorships are set apart by what Heffernan calls “activate before you negotiate.” Before brands sign a sponsorship agreement, he says that they must focus on what purpose the brand will communicate to audiences, and how.

“You can push for different types of assets if you’ve thought it through,” Heffernan says. “You can push for more content opportunities, if that’s important to how you activate. A lot of brands take what’s initially packaged and get it out there, which is usually traditional name-generating, impression-based assets—signage in the outfield—versus the opportunity to host a kid’s clinic when the team is away.”

Measure the Engagement When sponsorships are measured, Cornwell says that it’s often for exposure, emblematic of the classic sponsorshipas-advertising model. Even brands measuring attitude change and ROI are basing their metrics more on the advertising model than engagement, Cornwell says, as ROI and attitude don’t measure the experience of the consumer.

Cornwell suggests that brands measure relationship authenticity: Here’s what they think about us right now, here’s what happened in the first year, is the relationship authentic?

Similarly, Cornwell says that brands can measure the return on objectives and purpose of a sponsorship. This means that brands must know, from the start of the sponsorship, its theme and what it wants to communicate.

“I have to think about what characteristics our brand has and what characteristics [the sponsee] has and how combining them might have genuine

answers in action

potential for engagement,” she says.

“And if I don’t have that part, I probably shouldn’t go forward. Once I have that, even if I’m a lesser-known brand or I haven’t done anything like this before, then the combination should speak to people.”

From here, the brand can set an objective. Is the aim for more people to know about the brand? More people taking a specific action? People changing their attitudes on a topic? “I can measure my before and after on those points of awareness or attitudes,” Cornwell says.

Extra Points: • AVOID FARAWAY SPONSORSHIPS

Cornwell says that sponsorships by brands that are located far away from a sponsee can feel distant and inauthentic to consumers. If you’re a brand looking at a faraway sponsorship, Cornwell says that you should tell a story explaining that your support is about more than just advertising.

• SOMETIMES IMPRESSIONS MATTER

Heffernan says that although it’s best to get impressions through less expensive means than sponsorships, there are opportunities where a sponsorship could work well. A large Chinese company coming to the U.S., for example, may successfully win a lot of public awareness through a well-placed sponsorship. “But that’s the minority,” he says.

• SMALLER SPONSORSHIPS MUST STILL ENGAGE

Even if you’re a local or regional corporation sponsoring a small event, such as a 5K run or a midtier golf event, you must still engage consumers. At a run, for example, Cornwell says that brands should have a place for runners to meet and get refreshments after they finish. At a golf event, brands can open a pop-up shop or restaurant. “It’s more about meeting people in the community or giving back,” she says. m OCTOBER 2019 | MARKETING NEWS

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answers in action

ETHICAL MARKETING

Who Speaks for Your Company on Social?

Employees can be your best spokespeople on social media, but requiring them to post raises ethical concerns

BY STEVE HEISLER | STAFF WRITER

 sheisler@ama.org

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eports of Amazon’s poor workplace conditions have dogged the retail juggernaut. Employees at its warehouses have cited long hours, unfair wages, mandated standing, repetitive stress injuries and—because breaks are allegedly forbidden—urinating into trash cans. Amazon has repeatedly denied these claims, yet its employees continue to assert otherwise. On Prime Day in July,

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workers in Minneapolis went on strike to protest, as some employees told The Verge, being treated like robots.

Amazon was also accused of employing robots when it tried to mitigate the damage in August. The company had previously designated certain fulfillment center workers—warehouse employees— as “FC ambassadors,” tasked with sharing their experiences on social media to

combat misperceptions about Amazon.

These employees, with handles such as “Dylan – Amazon FC Ambassador,” were deployed when Twitter once again erupted with criticism. “Everything is fine, I don’t think there is anything wrong with the money I make or the way I am treated at work,” wrote Dylan, while other FC ambassadors contributed equally canned, seemingly disingenuous responses. Twitter users were convinced they were interacting with bots.

The ambassadors themselves insisted on Twitter that they were not paid to blindly endorse Amazon, and a representative from the company told The New York Times that the content of the posts came from personal experience, not company talking points. Even if the accounts aren’t bots, Amazon is still paying $15 an hour for the ambassadors to pounce on social media; it’s unlikely

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ETHICAL MARKETING

the chosen employees would want to bite the hand that feeds.

While Amazon’s tactics were questionable, the concept of enlisting employees as brand ambassadors is appealing to companies. “We’ve got roughly 55,000 employees in the U.S. alone, with over 240,000 people globally,” says Reggie Walker, chief commercial officer at PwC. “You could say that gives me 55,000 to over 240,000 marketers, because if I can put stories in their hands and activate their networks and know they can tell our story, I’ve just amplified our message around the world in a way that a lot of organizations can’t.”

The thought of a quarter-million brand representatives not under direct supervision is certainly daunting. If employees can say whatever they want on social media, the brand risks the spread of proprietary information, unsubstantiated rumors and generally negative attitudes. On the other hand, monitoring your employees too closely leads to less employee creativity, according to technology and media veteran S. Kumar, writing for Time.

Here’s how to best construct an ethical social media policy that encourages employees to organically join your company on social—without invoking comparisons to Big Brother.

Simplify Your Policy “The standards and guidelines that our people are all required to review and sign off on are not very long … and not overly complicated,” Walker says. “We learned a long time ago that if you put out a billion standards, people aren’t going to follow [the policy].”

PwC’s social media policy outlines a few simple concepts: Only designated employees, mostly those in the public relations department, are allowed to speak on behalf of the company on social media.

Other employees must avoid posting about clients or vendor relationships. New hires learn about this policy on day one, when they begin training at PwC. “You’ve got to lay out what your nonnegotiables are, those things that are fundamentally important,” Walker says.

answers in action

If employees can say whatever they want on social media, the brand risks the spread of proprietary information, unsubstantiated rumors and generally negative attitudes.

“You’ve got to keep these policies clear, but simple.”

Ad agency Spark Foundry further simplifies its social media policy.

The company relies on the rules its parent company—Paris-based Publicis Groupe—has put in place. The policy boils down to, “Be careful discussing any proprietary work as related to the agency or its clients,” says Spark CMO Scott Hess.

Hess adds that the straightforward policy affords employees the chance to ease up and express themselves on social media. “Publicis Media fully supports our employees being their authentic selves on social media and other online platforms, provided they follow that guideline,” he says.

Encourage Employees to Post About Themselves The only times Spark Foundry mandates the content of its employees’ social posts—if those employees decide to post at all—are during social campaigns centered around holidays or seasons. For Mother’s Day and Father’s Day 2018, they shared the hashtags #TheSparkofMotherlyLove and #TheSparkofFatherhood, then asked employees to post photos of their parents to social media using the designated hashtag. A small committee voted on who shared the best photos and awarded prizes.

“We view social media as a window into our people, our culture and our work,” Hess says. “We believe that the Spark Foundry brand is in large part the sum of our people—how they live and show up in the world.”

Maintain Flexibility No company can construct a perfect social media policy on its first try,

particularly when the landscape can seismically shift at a moment’s notice.

To better serve the changing whims of its employees and the social sphere, PwC maintains an open culture of communication.

“If there’s something they don’t think that they can do, or they have concerns about [the policy], we absolutely encourage that dialogue,” Walker says.

“There have been people who have raised points in the past, and we take them into consideration.”

Monitor Sparingly While PwC does comb social media for mentions of the company, it doesn’t find the need to keep tabs on every employee post. PwC doesn’t have the resources to watch over hundreds of thousands of employees, and Walker feels it’s a fool’s errand.

“That’s not who we are,” he says. “We all have to recognize that social media is an everyday part of our lives. You can only control so much.”

Instead, both Walker and Hess advocate placing their faith in employees to self-regulate.

“Our approach to social media is based in trust,” Hess says. “We encourage our people to highlight their own unique personalities [and perspectives] when posting about their experiences at the agency, and we trust that they will do this in a way that supports and is beneficial to the agency. And so far, I’m happy to say we haven’t run into any problems by taking this approach; in fact, we’ve found that when our people are empowered to be themselves, they are truly our best spokespeople. That’s what I would recommend: Start with trust and build your policy from there.” m OCTOBER 2019 | MARKETING NEWS

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At our core, we believe marketing does good. Through our awards program, the American Marketing Association Foundation (AMAF) elevates marketing visionaries who are impacting our profession and inspires future generations to make their mark on our industry. Congratulations to our most recent award winners!

Williams-Qualls-Spratlen Multicultural Mentoring Award of Excellence Mentorship is one of the most important determinants of a successful career in marketing, yet it is rarely rewarded. This award honors the legacy of three worldclass marketing scholars, educators and mentors of people of color, Jerome Williams, Bill Qualls and Thaddeus Spratlen.

RECIPIENT: Tiffany Barnett White, Associate Professor of Business Administration and Bruce and Anne Strohm Faculty Fellow, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Valuing Diversity Ph.D. Scholarship This award widens the opportunities for underrepresented populations to attend marketing doctoral programs.

RECIPIENTS:

Verónica Martín Ruiz, Ivy College of Business, Iowa State University

Patricia T. Gouveia, College of Business at Florida International University

Alejandra Rodriguez, Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University

2018-2019 Journal Awards JOURNAL OF MARKETING Shelby D. Hunt/ Harold H. Maynard Award Recognizes articles that make the most significant contributions to marketing theory in a calendar year.

RECIPIENTS: “Converging on a New Theoretical Foundation for Selling” Nathaniel N. Hartmann, University of Hawai’i at Manoa Heiko Wieland, California State University, Monterey Bay Stephen L. Vargo, University of Hawai’i at Manoa

Sheth Foundation/ Journal of Marketing Award

Marketing Science Institute/ H. Paul Root Award

Honors articles that have made longterm contributions to the discipline of marketing.

Recognizes the article that has made the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of marketing within the calendar year.

RECIPIENTS: “Marketing in Computer-Mediated Environments: Research Synthesis and New Directions” Manjit S. Yadav, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University Paul A. Pavlou, Fox School of Business, Temple University

RECIPIENTS: “Video Content Marketing: The Making of Clips” Xuan Liu, Netflix Savannah Wei Shi, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University Thales Teixeira, Harvard Business School, Harvard University Michel Wedel, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

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2018-2019 Journal Awards JOURNAL OF PUBLIC POLICY & MARKETING

JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH

Thomas C. Kinnear/Journal of Public Policy and Marketing Award

William F. O’Dell Award

Honors articles that have made a significant contribution to the understanding of marketing and public policy issues.

RECIPIENTS: “Mindfulness: Its Transformative Potential for Consumer, Societal, and Environmental Well-Being” Shalini Bahl, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst George R. Milne, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst Spencer M. Ross, University of Massachusetts Lowell David Glen Mick, University of Virginia Sonya A. Grier, Kogod School of Business, American University

Recognizes an article published in the last five years that has made a significant contribution to marketing theory, practice or methods.

RECIPIENTS: “Mining Marketing Meaning from Online Chatter: Strategic Brand Analysis of Big Data Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation” Seshadri Tirunillai, C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston Gerard J. Tellis, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

Paul E. Green Award Recognizes the article that demonstrates the greatest potential to contribute significantly to the practice of marketing research.

RECIPIENT:

Sunaina K. Chugani, Baruch College

“Retention Futility: Targeting High-Risk Customers Might be Ineffective”

Steven S. Chan, Yeshiva University

Eva Ascarza, Columbia Business School, Columbia University

Stephen Gould, Baruch College Yoon-Na Cho, Villanova University

Louis W. Stern Award

Robert M. Schindler, Rutgers University–Camden

Recognizes the article that has made a significant contribution to the literature on marketing and channels distribution.

Mitchel R. Murdock, Utah Valley University

RECIPIENTS:

Sabine Boesen-Mariani, Danone Nutricia Research

“Relationship Velocity: Toward a Theory of Relationship Dynamics”

Joshua D. Dorsey, West Virginia University

Robert W. Palmatier, University of Washington Mark B. Houston, Texas Christian University Dhruv Grewal, Babson College Rajiv P. Dant, University of Oklahoma

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JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETING Hans B. Thorelli Award Recognizes an article published five or more years ago that made the most significant and long-term contribution to international marketing theory or practice.

RECIPIENT: “A Note on Psychological Distance and Export Market Selection”

Douglas Dow, Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne

S. Tamer Cavusgil Award Recognizes the article published within the calendar year that has made the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of international marketing management.

RECIPIENTS: “An Assessment of the Exporting Literature: Using Theory and Data to Identify Future Research Directions”

Brian Chabowski, University of Tulsa Pinar Kekec, University of Nebraska–Omaha Neil A. Morgan, Indiana University G. Tomas M. Hult, Michigan State University Travis Walkowiak, Michigan State University Blake Runnalls, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Call for Nominations Know any outstanding marketers? Honor them for their achievements by recommending them for an AMA award.

Nominations are currently open for:

» Nonprofit Marketer of the Year ama.marketing/NP20

» 4 Under 40 Award

ama.marketing/4U4020

» Robert J. Lavidge Award

ama.marketing/Lavidge20

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scholarly insights

RESEARCH DIGEST

Research Insights: Special ‘Value of Marketing’ Edition Highlights from the AMA journals—and what the findings mean for practitioners Understanding the Marketing Department’s Influence Within the Firm PETER C. VERHOEF, PETER S.H. LEEFLANG

Journal of Marketing, 73 (March 2009). >>IN A NUTSHELL: This

study investigates the influence of the marketing department and assesses its determinants and consequences.

>>PRACTITIONER TAKEAWAYS: The authors suggest a dual relationship between the marketing department’s influence and market orientation. A marketing department’s influence is related positively to market orientation, which in turn is related positively to firm performance. How can a marketing department be more influential?

The accountability and innovativeness of the marketing department are the two major drivers of influence.

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RESEARCH DIGEST

When Do Chief Marketing Officers Affect Firm Value?

A Customer Power Explanation

The Chief Marketing Officer Matters!

FRANK GERMANN, PETER EBBES, RAJDEEP GREWAL

D. ERIC BOYD, RAJESH K. CHANDY, MARCUS CUNHA JR.

Journal of Marketing, 79 (May 2015). >>IN A NUTSHELL: Skeptics

from marketing academia and practice alike are unconvinced about the CMO’s performance implications in terms of firm outcomes. The authors set out to address these skeptics: Using data from 155 publicly traded firms over a 12-year period (2000–2011), they find that firms can indeed expect to benefit financially from having a CMO at the strategy table.

>>PRACTITIONER TAKEAWAYS: The authors conclude that firms benefit from having a CMO among the top management team.

Conservatively, the data and analyses suggest that Tobin’s q of firms that employ a CMO is approximately 15% larger than that of firms that do not employ a CMO, and CMO presence has a positive impact on excess stock returns.

scholarly insights

Marketing Department Power and Firm Performance HUI FENG, NEIL A. MORGAN, LOPO L. REGO

Journal of Marketing, 79 (September 2015). >>IN A NUTSHELL: Using a

new objective measure of marketing department power and a cross-industry sample of 612 public firms in the U.S. from 1993-2008, this study shows that, in general, marketing department power increased during this time period. This finding matters because the authors also show that a powerful marketing department enhances firms’ longer-term future total shareholder returns beyond its positive effect on firms’ short-term return on assets.

>>PRACTITIONER TAKEAWAYS: Senior managers should value a powerful marketing department because it contributes to a firm’s short-term profitability and longer-term shareholder value (even beyond its effect through marketing capabilities).

Journal of Marketing Research, 47 (December 2010). >>IN A NUTSHELL: Which

kinds of firms benefit most from having a CMO? This research identifies a few firm characteristics signifying that a CMO is a good fit.

>>PRACTITIONER TAKEAWAYS: In general,

firms should consider appointing a CMO when customer power is low. If a firm faces considerable customer power, a CMO with the right background and experience can still help; role-specific experience is most important in this case. Moreover, CMOs will be more successful in firms with a larger scope and size and greater past performance. Recruiters should investigate the experiences of prospective CMOs when they consider whom to pick for the job, and CMO candidates should carefully assess the level of discretion that would be available to them before they plunge into a new CMO job.

When and How Board Members with Marketing Experience Facilitate Firm Growth KIMBERLY A. WHITLER, RYAN KRAUSE, DONALD R. LEHMANN

Journal of Marketing, 82 (September 2018). >>IN A NUTSHELL: Boards

with members who have deep marketing experience are better positioned to make growth a firm-wide priority and to increase the effectiveness of revenue growth strategies. The authors’ data shows that firm re​​​venues increased by 5.8 percentage points annually when a marketer is on the board.

>>PRACTITIONER TAKEAWAYS: The theorizing and analyses can help CMOs better understand how those above them affect their ability to deliver results.

This research illuminates the value of having marketing-experienced board members and should motivate CMOs to inspect board composition and other factors that will enable them to exercise their skill sets and wield influence before they accept a CMO position.

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scholarly insights

BRAND COOLNESS

GETTY IMAGES

How to Engineer Brand Coolness A new study in the Journal of Marketing identifies the 10 characteristics of cool brands

BY CALEB WARREN, RAJEEV BATRA, SANDRA MARIA CORREIA LOUREIRO AND RICHARD P. BAGOZZI

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rands such as Off-White, Apple and Instagram and performers such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z have thrived and maintained their longevity at least in part because consumers think they’re cool. An uncool brand such as Pabst Blue Ribbon

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became a hipster icon only to lose its luster soon after. MySpace was once the largest social media platform, but then Facebook stole its thunder.

What makes brands cool? And how can managers build and maintain brand

coolness to grow their customer base and drive revenues?

New research in the Journal of Marketing explores this important topic and provides managers with a tool they can use to measure their brands’ coolness over time, across segments and against competitors. They can use this tool to plan how to create and extend coolness for greater business gains.

We find that cool brands share up to 10 characteristics: Consumers perceive them to be extraordinary, aesthetically appealing, energetic, high status, rebellious, original, authentic, subcultural, iconic and popular. The research, which uses a combination of focus groups, in-depth interviews, surveys and experiments, develops a scale to measure each of these 10 component characteristics of coolness.

Not all characteristics are necessary or appropriate for every brand and consumer segment. Some may even conflict with others (e.g., popularity with subcultural links). We also explore how brand coolness relates to self-brand connections, brand love, brand familiarity, brand attitude, word-of-mouth, consumers’ willingness to pay and other variables.

Our tool allows managers to drill down into which component of coolness is a competitive strength or weakness; which components are of greater importance in shaping overall coolness; and how these might vary across geographies, consumer

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BRAND COOLNESS

segments and time (i.e., as brand-health tracking metrics). Our components can also be used for pretesting and evaluating different marketing programs.

Moreover, we examine the subjective and dynamic nature of brand coolness.

Brands initially become cool to a small subculture of knowledgeable insiders by being original, authentic, rebellious, exceptional and aesthetically pleasing.

Over time, some of these “niche cool” brands cross over and are adopted by a wider audience, at which point they become mass cool and are perceived to be relatively more popular and iconic, but less autonomous. Companies need to manage these distinctions carefully.

As niche brands become better known and more popular, such popularity can make the brand attractively cool to others, but potentially weaken its perceived coolness among those “in the know.”

While coolness purists might therefore argue that being mass cool is bad and niche cool is good, we also observe that mass cool brands command higher price premiums, are by definition larger in sales and market share and are discussed more among the general population.

Managers might prefer taking an obscure, niche-cool brand and transforming it into a mass-cool “cash cow.” However, they will need to cultivate the brand’s image so that it continues to seem autonomous (original, authentic, rebellious, etc.) or else it is likely to lose its coolness—at first to the subculture that initially adopted the brand, but eventually to the masses.

Managers can begin by assessing their brand’s component-level coolness using our scale, and then strategize how to increase its coolness. An existing uncool brand might need to first become niche cool by engaging in behaviors—products, promotions, pricing and distribution strategies—that make the brand seem creative, original and rebellious. To become niche cool, brands also need to cultivate a close relationship to a particular subculture rather than targeting the mass market, as Pabst did with hipsters in the early 2000s or as Instagram did with photography enthusiasts. After successfully

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achieving niche cool status, the transition to mass cool could then follow, but the brand will need to maintain its connection to a subculture (e.g., Nike to its top athletes) and its perceived authenticity to maintain its perceived coolness with the general population.

Generating strategies and tactics to raise a brand’s scores on the characteristic components of brand coolness requires considerable creativity. Building a perception of extraordinary quality likely requires performance and functional specs that are next-generation or that deliver unsurpassed customer experience or service, rather than incremental improvements. Aesthetic appeal routes suggest the need for eye-popping design.

Both the energetic and originality subcomponents require continuous innovation, dynamism and momentum.

Authenticity may require reminding consumers of the history and deeply held values of a brand and its founders, while avoiding the use of strategies associated with mass marketed brands.

A promotion strategy that links the brand with an admired subculture is also likely to make the brand cooler, so long as it doesn’t make the brand seem less useful or too niche. Brands can become more rebellious by hiring spokespeople known to challenge norms. High status comes from associations with glamor and sophistication. Iconic perceptions might be raised by using and publicizing distinctive packaging, advertising style or telling a brand myth that resonates with consumers. m

As niche brands become better known and more popular, such popularity can make the brand attractively cool to others, but potentially weaken its perceived coolness among those “in the know.”

CALEB WARREN is an associate professor of marketing in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona.

RAJEEV BATRA is the Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

SANDRA MARIA CORREIA LOUREIRO is a professor of marketing at Instituto Universitário de Lisboa ISCTE-IUL and the Business Research Unit (BRU/IUL).

RICHARD P. BAGOZZI is the Dwight F. Benton professor of behavioral science in management in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

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scholarly insights

SHARING ECONOMY

Rethinking Marketing in the Sharing Economy

BY GIANA M. ECKHARDT, MARK B. HOUSTON, BAOJUN JIANG, CAIT LAMBERTON, ARIC RINDFLEISCH AND GEORGIOS ZERVAS

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ince researchers Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers introduced us to the “sharing economy” a decade ago, marketing scholars and practitioners have witnessed its effects across various industries. The emergence of the sharing economy has altered everything from the way we travel to what we wear. As a result, consumers are developing new behaviors, companies are reexamining their marketing strategies and society is facing new dilemmas.

Marketing has historically sought to understand and manage exchanges between companies and consumers, primarily centered on the transfer of ownership of offerings from the former to the latter. In this vein, marketing scholars and managers have devoted decades to understanding how to create value for consumers, firms and society in these traditional exchanges. But the sharing economy presents consumption without ownership. In our recent Journal of Marketing article, we explore whether these new challenges presented by

the sharing economy will require new marketing concepts and practices.

The sharing economy’s revolutionary power is no secret, but there is still a lot we do not know about how companies, consumers and society will engage with the new digital world that enables this new economy. While still in its infancy, the sharing economy has the potential to radically redefine the foundations of marketing thought and practice, which are deeply rooted in the idea of resource ownership.

Resource access, rather than ownership, challenges traditional marketing because it results in a lower degree—and different forms—of identity attachment, brand loyalty and level of control over the consumer experience. It also challenges traditional notions of how marketing activities should be regulated and how (and if) they can lead to societal well-being.

To better understand the impact of the sharing economy on marketing, we assessed how it differs from the

traditional economy. We began by examining prior research, focusing on the concept in practice and how scholars have defined it. Based on this research, we identified five key characteristics of the sharing economy: 1. The sharing economy offers temporary access to tangible and intangible resources.

2. This access is obtained via economic transactions (or quid-pro-quo exchanges). In other words, it’s not sharing in the sense of letting a friend borrow your car.

3. These transactions are enabled by technology platforms that connect providers and users. These platforms also serve as reputation systems that allow providers and users to rate each other.

4. In the sharing economy, consumers take on expanded roles and engage in many tasks previously handled by firms, making them “pro-sumers”— people who consume and produce a product.

5. The supply on many sharing platforms is often crowdsourced. For example, most vehicles driven by Uber drivers are owned by the driver, not Uber.

Many sharing economy transactions are peer to peer rather than customer to firm in nature.

“The idea of sharing privately owned assets, such as one’s car or bedroom, has created new companies, new jobs and income. It has also disrupted the income of other companies and workers. A good question is whether the new sharing economy has helped more lives than it has hurt.”

PHILIP KOTLER, PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF MARKETING AT THE KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

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Based on these characteristics, we define the sharing economy as “a socioeconomic system that employs technology-enabled platforms to provide users with temporary access to tangible and intangible resources that may be crowdsourced.”

Our research also recognizes that the sharing economy is not an all-or-nothing proposition and should be thought of as a continuum. Some sharing-economy entities, such as Uber, may display all five of these key characteristics. Others, such as Zipcar, display fewer.

Likewise, the extent to which old frameworks and practices should be jettisoned or maintained is not a blackand-white matter. Firms that possess only one or two of these characteristics will likely find that existing frameworks and practices may still work reasonably well. However, firms that display more of these characteristics—or are competing in industries in which these characteristics are becoming commonplace—will likely need to reexamine traditional marketing assumptions and practices.

But what is our traditional view of marketing? In 2013, the AMA defined marketing as “the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large.” At the core of this definition are the institutions involved in marketing, the processes of marketing and the creation of value by marketing. As the sharing economy grows and expands to new domains, we suggest that each of these three key foundations of marketing will need to be reexamined.

The institutions implied in the AMA definition are primarily companies (which make goods and services available for sale), consumers and regulatory entities (such as legislative bodies and regulatory commissions that influence how marketing is practiced). We believe that the sharing economy has important implications for our understanding of each of these three groups.

Consumers in the sharing economy are transformed from “choosers and users” of

scholarly insights

“What is most important for sharingeconomy companies to communicate is their social and environmental commitments. Launched with a strong discourse of common good, too many sharing platforms­——and especially the biggest ones——have deviated from those ideals. They are becoming known as entities that exploit workers, contribute to congestion and carbon pollution and raise urban rents. Consumers and providers originally flocked to this sector in part because it promised not just economic, but also social and environmental benefit. It’s time to reclaim those roots.”

JULIET SCHOR, PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AT BOSTON COLLEGE AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR FOR THE MACARTHUR FOUNDATION’S CONNECTED CONSUMPTION INITIATIVE

market offerings into pro-sumers, taking on roles that were previously conducted solely by firms. For example, a consumer may be a Lyft driver on Sunday and a rider on Monday. Likewise, peer-to-peer lending platforms such as LendingClub enable consumers to provide loans to another without involving a bank. By expanding the role of consumers into providers, the sharing economy forces us to rethink existing notions such as consumer satisfaction—because consumers are evaluating and being evaluated.

Our view of companies is also challenged in this scenario. Firms in the sharing economy often have far fewer employees and more limited resources than their traditional counterparts.

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scholarly insights

SHARING ECONOMY

“The sharing of the so-called sharing economy is too often a sharewashing disguise for short-term rental. What started out as something closer to true sharing [e.g., Napster, BlaBlaCar and Lyft predecessor Zimride] eventually became commodified and­——in some views­——sold their souls. Perhaps it is time for some soul-searching.”

RUSSELL W. BELK, PROFESSOR OF MARKETING AND KRAFT FOODS CANADA CHAIR IN MARKETING AT YORK UNIVERSITY

Sharing economy firms are also less able to control quality or guarantee consistency because most of their providers and resources are outsourced.

For example, each stay in an Airbnb is unique and depends on the commitment of the individual provider. As a result, ensuring quality is considerably different and likely more challenging for firms participating in the sharing economy.

Due to these changing roles of companies and consumers, regulatory institutions are also facing new challenges. For example, regulations devised for traditional hotels may need to be revised in order to properly govern lodging platforms such as Airbnb. There are questions over the extent to which sharing platforms should be treated as traditional firms when it comes to issues such as labor rights, consumer safety and discriminatory practices.

T

he sharing economy also challenges the way we “do” marketing—the practices of innovation, brand management, managing customer experience and the work of value appropriation—and how profits are earned. Consider the innovation process: Although marketing scholars have traditionally placed considerable focus on developing breakthrough products, success in the sharing economy may depend more on improving the

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underlying platforms upon which these products are offered. In some cases, such as scooter sharing, competing firms offer near-identical products.

Much of what we know about brand management centers on how a consumer’s self-identity becomes intertwined with the products they own, but the sharing economy isn’t based on ownership and it gives consumers access to a portfolio of brands that continually shifts. For example, with carshare company Turo, a consumer may drive a Land Rover one day and a Chevrolet Spark the next, depending on the functional or hedonic needs that motivate the transaction.

Marketers care deeply about managing the customer experience across the entire customer journey, from search to disposal. However, in the sharing economy, platforms do not usually own the products, the people who interact with users are not employees or even professionals, and the transactions may occur in settings that are completely outside the control of the firm. When renting a Lime or Bird scooter, for example, a customer learns how to operate it while surrounded by crowds on a busy sidewalk in an urban location.

In most industries, firms face stiff competition as they try to win customers and earn positive net revenues from their offerings. Because the best business

models for appropriating value for sharing-economy firms are unclear, traditional firms will likely struggle to determine whether it is best to cooperate with or compete against platform competitors. In addition, the sharing economy may require us to revisit our standard models of competition and consider a set of new and different competitors, such as pro-sumers.

T

he definition of marketing recognizes that marketing creates value for various stakeholders, including consumers, firms and society.

The sharing economy does not alter this multi-stakeholder view, but it does create both positive and negative outcomes for those involved. For consumers, the sharing economy may enhance value by providing them with expanded opportunities to access resources they cannot afford to own; however, it may also detract from consumer value. People who provide resources to sharing platforms, for example, are likely to face additional costs for maintenance and repair.

The sharing economy presents a bit of a mixed bag for companies. On the negative side, it could result in fewer products being sold because of reduced demand, which would likely lead to greater competition among firms. Alternatively, the fact that a resource can be rented out when not in use—thereby defraying the

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SHARING ECONOMY

cost of ownership—may encourage more consumers to take the leap and purchase a product that they otherwise might not.

There are important implications for how firms engage in product line and pricing strategies that would allow their products to be accessed and not just owned.

For society, the most pressing questions center on whether the sharing economy contributes to collective well-being.

Academics are debating the impact of the sharing economy on societal outcomes, including happiness, equality and environmental sustainability. Although preliminary evidence suggests that access-based consumption enhances many types of societal well-being, this topic has attracted a surprising degree of controversy. For example, it appears that most ride-sharing participants are people who were already engaging in relatively sustainable behaviors; so if a Lyft ride replaces commuting via a bus or train, the net benefit may be hard to see.

There’s also concern over the considerable evidence that many sharing-economy providers earn very low wages and have few, if any, benefits.

Because the sharing economy is still unfolding, we offer three future-looking guideposts to assist marketers in keeping pace and shaping its direction.

First, we encourage marketers to consider the paradoxes and dark sides of the sharing economy. There are a considerable number of detractors and their voices are growing louder, so we recommend that marketers keep their eyes open to the benefits of the sharing economy and to its potential drawbacks.

Our second guidepost focuses on the maturation of the sharing economy and highlights the fact—while still in its infancy—that shakeouts are likely to occur as many sharing platforms enter maturity. Finally, we encourage marketing scholars to be on the lookout for new technologies. The sharing economy is clearly an outgrowth of the digital age and the rise of mobile computing technology.

The emergence of new technologies such as blockchain and automation will take this economy in new and unpredicted directions. m

scholarly insights

“Sharing-economy platforms create experiences that are a blend of the personal and the commercial, integrating genuine social elements into familiar profit-making services and relying simultaneously on traditional brand equity as well as consumer confidence that stems from digitally created community. Effective marketing strategy will understand and react to evolving economic and cultural determinants of value, will weave the human quest for connection into the platform design with skill and subtlety and will create the right mix of brand-based and digital trust.

ARUN SUNDARARAJAN, HAROLD PRICE PROFESSOR OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND PROFESSOR OF TECHNOLOGY, OPERATIONS AND STATISTICS AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY’S STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, AUTHOR OF THE SHARING ECONOMY AND A MEMBER OF THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM’S GLOBAL FUTURE COUNCIL

GIANA M. ECKHARDT is a professor of marketing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

MARK B. HOUSTON is the Eunice & James L. West Chair in Marketing at Texas Christian University.

BAOJUN JIANG is an associate professor of marketing at Washington University in St. Louis.

CAIT LAMBERTON is the Alberto I. Duran Presidential Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania.

ARIC RINDFLEISCH is the John M. Jones Professor of Marketing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

GEORGIOS ZERVAS is an associate professor of marketing at Boston University.

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SPONSORED CONTENT | PROVIDED BY COLLEGIS

Refocusing Higher Ed Marketing as Enrollment Continues to Decline Undergraduate fall enrollment in the U.S. is down for the seventh straight year. Reasons cited range from a declining birthrate to low unemployment. But it’s clear that competition is increasing, and universities can no longer rely on traditional marketing tactics to engage prospective students. Marketing News spoke with Megan Danielson, associate vice president of marketing at Collegis Education, about some new strategies for navigating these changing market forces.

Danielson has 14 years of experience in the higher education space and built her career around creating cutting-edge digital strategies and go-to-market solutions for educational clients. She leads the team responsible for helping clients with branding and creative through digital advertising, website strategy, conversion rates and SEO at Collegis.

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Q

What shifts are you seeing in the education market and what prospective students expect of higher education?

A

There are definitely some interesting dynamics at play. Because of low unemployment, more competition and the shift in student preferences, institutions need to work harder to gain a student’s attention.

Really, a lot of the change has to do with consumer communication preferences. If you think about your own shift in decisionmaking behavior—how you use your mobile device today versus 10 years ago when making purchases or conducting research— some of those preferences should be clear.

Shorter content. Multiple touchpoints and engagements. Mobile-ready web pages.

Simplified web experiences. With increased mobile-centric consumer needs, consumercentric marketing experiences for the smaller screen are needed now more than ever.

Also, institutions have to own their brand identity and understand what differentiates them. Everyone has “online, quality, flexible” programs. Students want to know something different about you—that they identify with your values—and you need to communicate that within three seconds of them visiting your website.

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SPONSORED CONTENT | PROVIDED BY COLLEGIS

Q

What do you see as the best way for university programs to market themselves to prospective students?

A

Q A

What kinds of experiences are today’s students looking for?

Prospective students are just like any other modern consumer—they want experiences to be frictionless, relevant and distinct. Most universities let their internal processes and functional silos dictate their consumers’ experience instead of the other way around. Some of the steps students need to go through just to get started are not aligned with the desired outcome.

Students shouldn’t have to provide personal information like their birthdate on initial forms just to begin a conversation. Instead, this should be a simple, integrated process already mapped out with the student in mind.

Another inquiry form example is on the “thank-you” page. As an industry, we have been so motivated around generating the inquiry that we focus on the form and forget what happens after a prospective student clicks “submit.” Doing nothing at all is a missed opportunity. Is that really how you want to introduce someone to your institution? All it takes is a simple “thank you” to show you appreciate them and to help boost their excitement.

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It’s amazing to me how much focus in higher ed marketing is still on acquisition through list-buying and paid media. Those strategies bring in quantity, but don’t necessarily bring quality applicants or drive sustainable yield improvements. An institution’s website is the primary source of brand and enrollment engagement. If you’re not communicating your brand and driving students through the enrollment process on your website, then you can’t leverage any of your marketing to its best advantage.

The first step is understanding the prospective student’s needs and aligning your brand and program differentiation.

Don’t just use catalog or academic content to populate your key marketing and enrollment assets.

You need to start thinking about communications from their perspective. For website delivery, this really means filtering your webpages, communicating key pieces of information quickly and identifying what action you want them to take. Be strategic about addressing the students’ needs and build your website to address those needs through content and design.

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SPONSORED CONTENT | PROVIDED BY COLLEGIS

Q

What are the biggest website performance issues you see in higher education that prevent growth?

A

Most institutions manage their website for multiple owners. When your website incorporates input from faculty, deans, alumni and current students, it dilutes the intent to engage core audiences (prospective students, current students, academics). Universities need to shift their thinking to show how their content aligns to these needs.

Knowing your data and understanding who is coming to your site and who you’re designing it for makes a huge difference.

At Collegis, we center an entire discovery period around identifying a university’s unique audience and helping them navigate placing the best mix of information on their homepage to serve multiple audiences while engaging prospective students.

A lot of universities might not feel like they have that kind of data from their website. What big, long-term wins can universities pull from the data they currently have?

Actually, universities have data all over the place—it’s just in silos. To get to long-term wins, you need to make connections in your data to inform what kind of students you should go after. Dig into alumni databases and enrollment records to see who has been successful at your institution and who hasn’t. Look at student profiles to develop unique identities at your university. That kind of data can inform your conversations about marketing direction and help tighten up those critical engagement points in the student experience.

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Q

How can universities set themselves up to get the data they need that will help them differentiate in the future?

A

Data is extremely intimidating for most of us. It will always be messy and it will never define truth. But it should lead to an outcome—and the best way to accomplish that is to start with a set of questions. With a tool like Google Analytics, you don’t need to be a super user to inform questions like where your students are coming from and what social media communities they belong to.

Websites and data don’t need to be intimidating if you think through them the right way. One individual—even several teams—can’t organize this information and communicate on it alone, though. Align on the key questions that you want the data to address and use that data to empower decisions that you are making about your overall brand differentiation.

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executive insights

DATA AND INSIGHT

Three New Developments from the World of Data and Insight

BY FINN RABEN

 finn@esomar.org

T

he data and insights industry is constantly evolving, whether through fast-changing technology, understanding of consumer psychology or the impact of legislation. With so much going on, marketers can struggle to keep track of developments that are likely to impact their work. So what do marketers need to know?

1

Sampling Becomes Programmatic The data and insights industry is part innovator and part magpie, constantly adopting technology to transform data collection and analysis.

One example is programmatic, which has revolutionized the way digital advertising is bought and sold, as well as changed the buying and selling of research samples.

Traditionally, a market research agency or brand would go to a panel provider to buy samples for interviews. This sample might come from the provider’s propriety panel, but often it would be made up of a mixture of samples from numerous providers, with a variable mix of quality standards. However, taking inspiration from the marketing industry, some companies are providing programmatic samples using automated technologies and filters. This allows the buyer to work with one platform to access multiple suppliers, improving speed, consistency and transparency at a lower cost.

This doesn’t mean that traditional panel providers are obsolete. Programmatic is ideal for tactical projects that require

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quick turnaround. But the expertise of a recognized panel provider is necessary for in-depth projects or niche, hard-to-reach or B2B audiences where a proprietary managed panel is more appropriate.

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Poor Data Practices and Consumer Trust It has recently come to light that Facebook paid human contractors to transcribe customers’ Facebook Messenger calls.

This may not be surprising; there have been plenty of conspiracy theories about Facebook listening to calls and adjusting advertising to fit. Alas, those theories are now based on fact. Add the $5 billion fine the Federal Trade Commission imposed on the company earlier in the year and you’d be forgiven for thinking that

Facebook’s days are numbered. So why did Facebook stock improve the day after news broke of the largest-ever FTC fine?

Facebook profits were $5 billion in the first three months of 2018 alone, so the FTC fine was a weak slap on the wrist, showing investors that even the worst behavior will not affect company revenues too badly. Even if the data may have been acquired in an underhand way, it nevertheless made the company enormously data-rich.

Increasing data privacy in the U.S. may come back to bite Facebook in the derrière.

A joint study from ESOMAR, HERE Technologies, BuzzBack and Cint that was carried out this summer shows that trust in Facebook is particularly low compared to its Big Tech peers. We explored attitudes toward data collection practices across 12 countries and 12,000 people. Our results show that 62% of Americans don’t trust Facebook with their personal data. That may still seem low, but when you compare it to Google (31%), Apple (32%) and Amazon (20%), the negative impact of Facebook’s actions is clear.

The study found that 71% of people would be more likely to share personal data if they understood how it’s used.

More than 40% of U.S. consumers are more likely to buy a product or service from a company that they know handles personal data responsibly.

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There is a tendency for brands— particularly those in tech or who collect data from mobile applications—to do it surreptitiously. Personal data is often collected without companies being transparent with the data subject. There’s a fear that if consumers have a choice, then they won’t provide their data. But our new research tells a different story: Be open, honest and transparent and not only will people share, but you’ll start to rebuild trust.

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Impact of the EU Copyright Directive For those international marketers who work in or around the EU, or the eagle-eyed individuals who keep track of EU legislation as a harbinger of what might come to the U.S., you may have encountered the EU copyright directive.

After the General Data Protection Regulation, the copyright directive has been the most significant development in recent months. It generated vast speculation about memes being banned.

This was primarily due to Draft Article 13, which was designed to protect artists and content creators. This article was and remains strongly opposed by companies such as Google and YouTube and by some content creators, as it would potentially limit the freedom of the internet. But a casual glance at Twitter suggests it has done little to affect the social currency of memes.

There’s more to the directive than Article 13. It also does much to improve the bargaining position of authors and performers, and is positive for traditional media publishers such as newspapers and non-aggregated commercial content platforms. This is because they’ve always had to prove or validate sources when reporting a story or publicizing a campaign.

Digital media (to date) has not had to do so. Many would consider this a prime reason for the rise of fake news and unregulated personal targeting. If you’re considering running marketing or creative campaigns in Europe, be aware that digital platforms are now obligated to meet the same standards as traditional

ones when it comes to licensed materials and ethical boundaries.

From the data side comes further positive news. Prior to the drafting of the legislation, my own organization, ESOMAR, formed a coalition with several other associations to ensure any new copyright frameworks did not affect the area of text and digital data mining. Although the framework was initially only intended to benefit academic research, a broader exemption has now been achieved that enables any market or social researcher the right to mine text and data. This exemption can be summarized as “the right to read is the right to mine,” meaning that if you have lawful access to the data, you have the right to mine it without having to obtain further permission or licenses.

Given the vast amount of text-based data now available, the EU has taken the opportunity to open this up for research.

The ability to mine text data is crucial for artificial intelligence, where huge amounts of real-world, text-based data are needed to train the algorithms. Without this exemption, machine-learning projects would have only been sustainable by cash-rich organizations. Now it’s available to all, and we’ve managed to defend a key source of consumer insight.

In an increasingly global world, the impact of new technologies is felt everywhere. Whether using programmatic to simplify research sample buying, maintain consumer trust in brands or simply protect creatives, the contract of the marketer with the consumer must be one of mutual honesty and transparency. Brands are increasingly realizing that it’s important to make sales and behave ethically while doing so.

Those that build honest connections will benefit in the long-run. m

executive insights

There’s a fear that if consumers have a choice, then they won’t provide their data. But our new research tells a different story.

FINN RABEN is director general of ESOMAR. He has spent most of his career in market research, previously working at Millward Brown IMS in Dublin, Nielsen, TNS and Synovate. Raben serves as an external examiner at the International School of Management in Avans University in the Netherlands.

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executive insights

BRAND NARRATIVE

The Power of Narrative

BY J. WALKER SMITH

 jwalker.smith@kantarfutures.com

N

ew Coke is back in the news.

Earlier this year, The Coca-Cola Co. announced a limited re-release of New Coke as a promotional tie-in with the third season of the Netflix show “Stranger Things.” The science fiction series’ third season is set in 1985, the year that New Coke replaced the original Coke formula, which was reintroduced and rebranded “Coca-Cola Classic” less than three months later.

There’s no shortage of books or videos on New Coke, one of the most scrutinized

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product introductions ever. Only Ford Motor Company’s Edsel model rivals it for Monday morning quarterbacks replaying what should have been done instead. New Coke’s hold on popular imagination is evidenced by the fact that, despite all that has been written and said, a limited run of 50,000 cans still commands big headlines.

The truth about New Coke has been lost in the fog of legend and lore. But when you sort through it, New Coke teaches an important and oft-forgotten lesson about the power of narrative.

In 1975, in an effort to jump-start retail sales in the South where Coke had a commanding lead, PepsiCo experimented with local ads in the Dallas market that showed a blind taste test in which Coke drinkers chose Pepsi, dubbed the Pepsi Challenge. The spot was an instant hit that Pepsi rolled out nationally. Pepsi is a sweeter cola, and sweeter beverages tend to win in so-called sip tests. This made for great advertising—and it got under The Coca-Cola Co.’s skin.

Other events surrounding the leadup to New Coke set the stage for the Pepsi Challenge to leave an indelible impression. PepsiCo had already shaken things up with its Pepsi Generation lifestyle campaign launched in 1963. In turn, Coke modernized its image with its 1971 ad, “Buy the World a Coke.” In 1982, The Coca-Cola Co. introduced Diet Coke in a break with its long-standing policy against using the brand name for any

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product other than Coke. Pepsi upped the ante in 1983 when it signed Michael Jackson to a record-setting contract as the celebrity endorser for its “Choice of a New Generation” campaign.

The cola wars during this era were about change, mirroring the social upheaval of the times. Both brands were taking chances by throwing out the rule book—and every chance taken was rewarded. Breaking the rules looked to be the safest bet.

Underlying what The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo were doing, though, was a divergence of perspectives not fully appreciated at the time. Simply put, PepsiCo was trying for a better narrative while The Coca-Cola Co. was trying for a better product. While PepsiCo was pioneering lifestyle advertising about its consumers, The Coca-Cola Co. was introducing Diet Coke with the productoriented tagline, “Just for the Taste of It.” It would be unfair to say that The CocaCola Co. did not appreciate narrative. In fact, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that it invented brand narrative. Long before the cola wars, the Coke brand had established itself as an icon of American life. But Coke became so dominant that The Coca-Cola Co. field of view contained little besides the fabled product itself. When Coke rolled out “It’s the Real Thing” as its tagline in 1969, the message was about the product—the thing itself.

This is why the Pepsi Challenge was so annoying for The Coca-Cola Co. It was an affront to the Coke product that could not go unanswered. With rule-breaking in ascendance as the new norm, The Coca-Cola Co. embarked on a multiyear journey to beat back this product challenge by breaking its biggest rule of all: The company decided to change the hundred-year-old Coke formula that was supposedly hidden away in an underground bank vault. But the power of narrative got lost in the mix.

The head of research for The Coca-Cola Co. at the time was an industry legend himself. Trained as an econometrician, Roy Stout was a stickler for data. In the company’s quest for a better Coke product, Stout designed and oversaw

a sophisticated, years-long research program to identify a data-proven improvement to the formula.

This research was conducted in the strictest secrecy, and blind testing prevailed. Stout didn’t want the brand to influence the results, nor did he want respondents telling their friends that the Coke formula was being tested.

Eventually, this research led to a superior formula. The taste-test data made it overwhelmingly clear that New Coke was a better-tasting product. Without any doubt, the data showed that New Coke was preferred to both Pepsi and the original Coke.

On April 23, 1985, at a press conference in New York City, New Coke was unveiled. Although The Coca-Cola Co. had tried to keep this under wraps, word leaked out. PepsiCo stole a march on The Coca-Cola Co. with a full-page ad in The New York Times that same day, reprinting PepsiCo CEO Roger Enrico’s all-staff letter proclaiming that “the other guy just blinked.” On the very day that The Coca-Cola Co. rolled out an incontestably better product, Pepsi rolled out an ad that shifted the narrative against New Coke.

An outcry ensued. The vocal protests of a few were amplified quickly by media outlets caught up in the drama.

Resistance to New Coke soon became a bandwagon that everybody jumped on. On July 11, 1985, a mere 80 days after taking the original formula off the market, The Coca-Cola Co. held another press conference to announce that it was bringing it back.

executive insights

The Coca-Cola Co.’s initial response to the clamor over New Coke was to insist that the product would win people over eventually, just as the taste-test data had shown. But the data was incomplete.

Stout always made clear that identified testing was conducted, but in an effort to maintain secrecy, Stout missed an ambiguity in the protocol. When people were shown New Coke side-by-side with the original, they were never told explicitly that the original was going to be replaced and taken off the market. Given the iconic status of the brand, it was only natural that respondents would assume New Coke would be in addition to—not instead of—the original.

This is where The Coca-Cola Co. overlooked the power of narrative and where PepsiCo understood it better. The person who created the Pepsi Challenge said it was designed as a blind comparison because “[w]e were convinced people were drinking the trademark.” Indeed, they were.

The clamor over New Coke had the unintended consequence of reminding everyone why they liked Coke so much.

It reminded The Coca-Cola Co., too. As Stout said to The New York Times the day after the original formula was brought back, people “fell in love with the memory of old Coke.” People had been given a better product when what they really wanted was the better narrative about their lives that Coke symbolized.

As it always does, narrative trumped data. A demonstrably worse-tasting product was preferred because it was associated with a better story. After the original formula was brought under the name Classic Coke, sales shot up.

Narrative, not taste, was the bigger driver of sales.

Stories motivate people. The power of narrative is the real lesson of “The Real Thing,” and one that matters to brands more than ever. m J. WALKER SMITH is chief knowledge officer for brand and marketing at Kantar Consulting and co-author of four books, including Rocking the Ages. Follow him on Twitter at @jwalkersmith.​

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executive insights

AI/MACHINE LEARNING

A Call for Mutual Disclosure in AI-Driven Digital Marketing

BY LAWRENCE A. CROSBY

 lawrence.a.crosby@gmail.com

I

t’s nearly impossible to ignore the attention given to artificial intelligence and machine learning in all fields—including business and specifically in marketing. The strength of AI/ML algorithms is their ability to make incredibly accurate predictions.

Compared to conventional statistical tools and models, AI/ML can easily accommodate non-linearities and complex interactions while automatically

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learning from mistakes. With recent leaps in processing power, AI/ML is made-to-order for Big Data. The combination of Big Data and AI/ML has the potential to become a tremendous force for good in society, from predicting who will contract a disease and prescribing the best form of treatment, to forecasting the location of natural disasters associated with climate change.

AI is a bit of a catchall that refers to a variety of systems and programs designed to simulate human intelligence and decision-making—some simple and

some sophisticated. Machine learning is a sub-category of AI that includes programs that can learn and adapt on their own, in response to trial-and-error experience and new data. The algorithm of neural networks fits here. Deep learning refers to what are (for now) the most advanced applications. These algorithms process data inputs into multiple layers of increasing abstraction (think neural networks on steroids).

They are part of the capability behind voice and facial recognition.

Marketing may be ahead of the curve in some ways, especially when it comes to the application of Big Data and AI/ ML to digital marketing. The promise is intense personalization based on a deep understanding of the individual’s needs, wants, preferences and habits, coupled with tailored, curated content that presents the right offer, in the right context, in the right channels and on the right device.

This can create a win-win: greater sales and larger margins for the business and heightened satisfaction for the customer.

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When it comes to customer satisfaction, it’s important not to put too much on the shoulders of the triple-play of Big Data, AI/ML and digital marketing.

For one, digital marketing is generally associated with buyer search and is just one arrow in the marketing quiver. AI/ ML can also address customer use and is already helping to power today’s smart products and the internet of things.

Moreover, many have cited the important application of AI/ML to post-sale customer service (e.g., self-service, case classification and routing, chatbots, etc.).

Still, there’s at least anecdotal evidence that AI-driven digital marketing can enhance customer satisfaction if properly implemented. Various sources confirm heavy recruiting of AI talent by firms operating in the internet retail space.

Firms (or parts of them) classified as internet retail by the American Customer Satisfaction Index received an average ACSI rating of 80 in 2019, compared to the national average of 76.4. Among internet retailers scoring 80 or higher on the ACSI were such companies as Amazon, Nike, Apple, Macy’s, HP Store and eBay, all active recruiters of AI talent. Other firms whose internet retailing efforts fared slightly worse on the ACSI—such as Walmart, with a score of 74—evidently see AI/ML as a path to improvement. As recently reported by CNBC, Walmart seeks to become a digital enterprise through AI applications instore, direct and online.

But deep personalization is a lofty goal. Its pursuit, via Big Data, AI/ML and digital marketing, is fraught with some serious land mines. Close buyerseller relationships are built on trust, which is about keeping promises and not engaging in opportunistic behavior.

Customers expect that firms using their personal data in digital marketing efforts will stay true to their word regarding data protection (both stated and implied) and act in the customer’s interests. Trust violations can be difficult to overcome.

Firms engaged in Big Data, AI/ML and digital marketing need to operate under a strong system of corporate governance

executive insights

Firms engaged in Big Data, AI/ML and digital marketing need to operate under a strong system of corporate governance that ultimately holds the board accountable for trust missteps. that ultimately holds the board accountable for trust missteps.

But there’s also a growing body of literature that points to the risks of over-personalization. The criticisms are twofold: First, users are often slotted into narrow niches that become repetitive and don’t reflect the breadth of changes in their interests. This limits crossselling opportunities and can lead to abandonment of the app, website or vendor relationship. The lesson for digital marketers is to mix it up.

The other criticism is the “creepiness factor.” This happens when a single digital interaction unleashes a cascade of retargeted content that often spans multiple devices. It’s especially disconcerting when that content deals with sensitive issues, such as health, divorce, finances or children. Digital marketers need to know their limits.

At a more strategic level, marketers seeking to pursue deep personalization via Big Data, AI/ML and digital marketing should consider theories of social behavior and relationship development, where the notion of disclosure looms large. For instance, social penetration theory posits that relationship closeness develops progressively through voluntary, mutual self-disclosures between the parties. A problem for many consumers is that their disclosures of personal information are one-way: I tell you lots of personal things about me and you’ll tell me what I can buy from you. This is not exactly mutual. A small step in the right direction is a privacy policy that discloses to the customer the type of

personal information that’s being collected, how it’s used and with whom it’s shared.

Academics working in information systems have borrowed from the privacy and psychological stress literatures to suggest how companies can address customers’ privacy concerns around the involuntary disclosure of personal information that ends up in data repositories. Their suggestion is to offer customers a greater sense of control over the information, which may include enabling them to direct the sharing of personal information with third parties or allowing them to verify the accuracy of the information before sharing.

Personalization efforts involving Big Data, AI/ML and digital marketing will become more prevalent and sophisticated in the years to come.

Perhaps there will be less focus on achieving hyperpersonalization and more on optimum personalization. Sure, many customers have no problem sharing their information in exchange for tailored messages to reduce the costs of search and make shopping a more pleasurable experience. But many others feel that the loss of privacy easily offsets those benefits.

Hopefully, digital marketers will learn to use their tools in a judicious manner that respects these differences and provides safeguards to protect that most valuable intangible asset: the customer relationship. m LAWRENCE A. CROSBY , Ph.D., is the retired dean of the Drucker School of Management and senior adviser to the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University.

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4 Under 40

Ushering in a New Era of Marketing Thinking about the future is daunting. There’s no way to precisely predict new developments in the marketing pipeline, whether in technology, theory, practice or career trajectory. But even if the details are unclear, we can always find solace in strong leadership.

This year’s batch of 4 Under 40 Emerging Leaders suggests a boundaries-defying future for marketing. The most striking characteristic of the group is perhaps how each individual represents four very different aspects of marketing. As the industry becomes more dynamic, so do its practitioners.

The AMA’s 2019 4 Under 40 group, narrowed down from a list of 87, consists of a teacher, an optimist, a revisionist and a connector. They’re each highly accomplished in their own right and are redefining what success in marketing means.

BY SARAH STEIMER ILLUSTRATIONS BY EUGENE SMITH

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Mary Owusu: The Teacher

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ary Owusu isn’t just interested in solutions. She’s interested in the process—a trait that makes her a natural teacher. She muses on the lessons learned, a strategy she’s perfected as a search marketer, analyst and adjunct professor. Owusu wants to know what’s driving the customer or keeping a B student from becoming an A student. Her full story— professionally and personally—is rife with tales of “figuring it out.”

Owusu, who serves as vice president of analytics and digital strategy at Mower, says her transition from search marketing to analyst was prompted by a hard lesson. In the first paid search campaign she ran, Owusu forgot to cap her budget.

She went away for the weekend, and upon her return found that the entire month’s budget was spent over that short period. “I had to call the client, tell them what happened, but also offer some solutions. ‘How many phone calls did you get over the weekend? How many different forms have been completed on the site?’” Owusu recalls. The mistake prompted her to ask deeper questions about data and analytics.

“I realized there was so much more.

I took that and started using it for other clients.”

Her future as an analyst was set off by recognizing a teachable moment, and she’s spent her career sniffing out and pouncing on such opportunities.

Her clarity and ability to make sense

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out of problems and data compels you to want to understand them better. You want her on your team.

“Sometimes, analysts are stereotyped as number crunchers who find it really difficult to socialize with people,” Owusu says. “But I think the glue that defines 99% of analysts is we tend to be very literal and highly logical people, very logic-driven. You present us with a situation—like can you solve X or what is the outcome of Y—and we’re thinking of all the factors that might affect the outcome of that situation. We’re inclined to peel all the layers back until we get to the root cause of something. Ultimately, the analyst’s desire is to understand how things converge: What is the final result we’re trying to produce? That holds true for teachers.”

Prompted to describe an example when she helped a client refocus on the consumer, she gets right to setting the scene—because a good teacher is also a good storyteller, and you become transfixed by the experience of solving for X along with Owusu.

The client in her example is a museum, and she pauses to note how tricky it is to attract people to touristy venues. She presents the goals: “You want to get people aware, then you want them to plan a vacation in the city and then you also want them ... to actually go to the museum while they’re there.

You want the museum to be the hook.” Next, she outlines some typical missteps a marketer could make at this stage, such as setting up a landing page that requests information from the visitor without offering them value. (She even admits to using fake email addresses in these situations herself.)

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Now, the solutions: In the lead-up to an opening or release, marketers have an opportunity to create urgency and scarcity.

Perhaps the museum could offer free admission to anyone who signs up in March. Maybe, in addition to a countdown clock for the grand opening, there’s one for when the offer of the month expires. But there are also bonus points. “People will self-select out of the process if the reward is not relevant,” she says.

Her careful breakdown illustrates just how much Owusu thrills in the opportunity to teach. In addition to her work at Mower, where she’s served for almost five years, she’s also an adjunct professor at Canisius College and is frequently asked to speak at conferences.

It’s not just her natural ability to educate or her search marketing and analysis expertise that move her to participate in events—she also sees her presence as a teachable moment.

Owusu’s family came to the U.S. from Ghana, and 10 years later her parents both had to return to their home country. Owusu and her siblings had to support one another, work hard, become vulnerable and rely on a network of friends and strangers. “It’s about stepping away from homogenous thinking,” she says. “And realizing that there are multiple ways to solve a problem, and that when you are operating within your own sphere of what you know, you won’t have those ‘Aha!’ moments. Somebody else might have a very unique approach.”

Having seen the benefit of diversity in her own life, she tries to highlight the perks of broad thinking when she steps onstage.

“When you have [diversity

and inclusion], it opens up the conversation and possibilities become endless,” she says. “You find yourself being able to do things that you thought were impossible.

You find yourself stepping outside your boundaries. You find yourself thinking differently. I put myself out there because I know that ... I’m different, I know I am an immigrant, I’m a black woman, I’m in a unique field. Sometimes I talk about diversity but sometimes I just talk about analytics and best practices.”

Owusu says her presence is important for the people in the audience, some of whom are in the minority themselves, to witness representation. But it also benefits the people who cannot relate to her gender, race or immigration story. She wants to trigger people to talk about inclusion within their company.

Wherever Owusu shows up, she does so to learn and teach. She has her own arsenal of mentors from diverse backgrounds, and she plays the teacher in the office, at conferences and in classrooms.

People have a lot to learn, but she’s happy to make the time. m

AGE: 38 ALMA MATER: Canisius

College AVERAGE NUMBER OF HOURS WORKED EACH WEEK: 60 FAVORITE BRAND: Lisa

Nichols DREAM JOB: Being a mom of boys (check!)

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Pranav Yadav: The Optimist AGE: 34

rem is

ALMA MATER: Carleton

College AVERAGE NUMBER OF HOURS WORKED EACH WEEK: 60

cit m

FAVORITE BRAND: Ghurka DREAM JOB: A volunteer for this great human project

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E

veryone wants to believe that, on some level, what they do or the way they work will make the world at least a slightly better place. For Pranav Yadav, that may actually be true. It wouldn’t be fair to call him an idealist, because he’s realistic about what currently motivates companies and their marketing departments. (Spoiler: it’s profit.) But he also sees what the role of marketing could be, and he’s optimistic about that.

Yadav is the CEO of NeuroInsight, a neuromarketing and neuroanalytics company that helps organizations find what subconsciously drives consumers.

“Eighty to 90% of your decisionmaking takes place in the subconscious,” he says. “Now think about the $500 billion

that [is] spent every year in the world of advertising globally. The whole purpose of advertising is to influence people to be doing things that the brand wants them to do. ... If the only way we are trying to measure how people would react to things in the market is a conscious way—which scientifically and philosophically we know is only 10% of decision-making—there’s something very broken in that industry.”

What Neuro-Insight does, according to Yadav, is decode human behavior. He’s been digging into the core of what drives people since he was young, pinpointing his first appearance in a play at 8 or 9 years old as the root. He played the role of Ram, an avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu, who solves

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for humanity before solving for himself. Yadav was asked to act empathetically toward the other characters in the play, as well as the crowd. “That turned into a basic interest in the study of human behavior,” he says. “How do people react to things? What makes them tick?”

Early in his career, Yadav worked for Danish innovation strategy consulting firm ReD Associates, which purports to use “human science to put people back at the center of business decisionmaking.” The job launched him into the practice of getting at the heart of why people did—or didn’t— act in a certain way. He was sent to India to find out why people didn’t buy air conditioners, despite temperatures hitting 120 degrees in the summer. He traveled to Las Vegas to understand the gaming industry and to Copenhagen to work on city design. At the heart of all this work was social scientific research: He would sit and talk with people for hours, trying to decode not what they were saying but what their actions suggested.

Yadav wanted to take his research into decision-making further, and that’s when he learned about neuromarketing. “I became obsessed with the idea of, can technology actually provide a solution to understanding the human subconscious, the root of all greatness, that we have seen for the past few thousand or million years in mankind?” he says. It led him to an Australian company, NeuroInsight, which invented technology that could predict human behavior by looking at brain activity. Turns out, they were looking for a CEO. “We come in and try to understand how people would react to certain ideas, storyboards, strategy or even to finished commercials in the real world— before the company actually spends all of the money on production or

media buy,” Yadav says. “Brands commonly use us to figure out how consumers are likely to react in the market so they can come up with products that consumers would want, and they can communicate about their products in a way that the consumers will understand and react to.”

One of the great disconnects Yadav sees is between narrative and brand. He gives the example of the 2015 Budweiser lost puppy commercial that ran during Super Bowl XLIX. The spot—in which a puppy makes a special connection with Clydesdale horses, who rescue the pup from a run-in with a wolf—was a top-ranked ad, but it didn’t lead to higher sales.

Yadav identified three problems: First, advertising is not consumed in isolation, but ad testing is.

Second, consumers engage in postrationalization of why they did or didn’t like an ad, which doesn’t get at the subconscious reasons they found it appealing. Third is the myth that emotional advertising works. Yet here was a highly emotional ad, and it wasn’t driving beer sales.

“Unless and until a particular piece of information goes into your long-term memory, you don’t have the information to react tomorrow, the day after or a year later when you actually want to tap back into it,” Yadav says. The mistake many brands make is to tell a compelling narrative, bring people to an emotional crescendo, but then the music ends and another screen takes over with the branding. It’s a conceptual closure. “If the brand only shows up after that point, your doorway of memory is no longer open to consume any new information,” he says.

Another problem Yadav sees is when brands try to be the hero of the consumer’s story by listing all of its benefits. Imagine if humans did that to one another. “If I were

to meet you on the street and go up to you and say, ‘Hey, by the way, my name is Pranav, I’m the CEO of a neuromarketing company and here are the 10 accolades that I have gotten—I’m worthy of your time. Please give me the attention that I deserve,’” he says, “you’d be like, ‘What a weird character. I certainly don’t want to give him any attention.’” Soap or toothpaste may play some role in our lives, but they aren’t the heroes of our stories—yet brands’ communication strategies often depend on the product being the hero.

Yadav says the most effective strategies are those that include the branding within the narrative and center the consumer at the heart of the story. He uses the “Google Search: Reunion” ad as an example.

The platform is used throughout the spot to help bring together two old friends in separate countries.

The characters are the heroes, Google simply helps facilitate the emotional reunion.

Yadav doesn’t just see his work as a way to help companies make more money. Instead, he sees it as a way to help marketers have a greater understanding of the human subconscious, to better understand them and become more empathetic. Right or wrong, he says, marketing was handed the responsibility of setting culture and propagating behavior.

“We as marketers have the power and the money to influence culture and society and figure out a way and a direction in which to move the world,” he says. “We have a responsibility, a fundamental one at that, to be able to set culture a certain way so we as humanity can move in a certain direction, rather than thinking more short-term about the month or the quarter and the profitability and stock price.

Those needs will be taken care of if we’re actually solving for the greater picture.” m OCTOBER 2019 | MARKETING NEWS

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Erik Huberman: The Revisionist Our full mission is around making marketing accessible.

That’s for anyone, whether it’s a Fortune 100, a tiny startup or anything in between.

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arketers have learned that people want options and flexibility. Gone are the days of being locked into a contract with your cell phone company.

We’re entering the era of on-demand music, movies—everything. But somehow this new pick-and-choose economy hasn’t trickled into the B2B market.

“How is it that all these marketing companies that always talk about the customer have never built a customer-centric agency where it’s about their customer?” asks Erik Huberman. “If you think about all the things that make agencies annoying, it’s to protect themselves, not the customer. Signing a threeyear contract isn’t for the sake of the brand, that’s for the sake of the

agency. That’s crazy to me. Can you imagine you walk into a restaurant and they say, ‘OK, you can only eat if you’re going to eat here every week for the next three years?’”

Huberman saw a gap in the market, for which he introduced Hawke Media, an a la carte marketing solution. Whatever a company’s need, it can choose that exact solution from Hawke’s menu of marketing specialties.

It helps that Huberman doesn’t come from a traditional marketing background himself. (He initially thought he’d pursue real estate.) But after building a few e-commerce companies, he saw a need to tweak how the marketing ecosystem works. The operations side, which he calls reactive, was the easy part.

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But he found himself drawn to the challenge of marketing and sales. He dove into the profession and made a name for himself helping other companies with their branding strategies. Huberman became item No. 1—an outsourced CMO—on an eventual full menu of marketing capabilities that he would offer through Hawke.

“I had a bunch of clients, both big and small, that I was consulting for,” he says. “When I’d try to hire people that execute for them, I was disappointed over and over again and got sick of it, and decided to hire my own team.

I grabbed a bunch of really good marketers in their specific fields. I got a Facebook marketer, an email marketer, web designer, etc. But I kept everything a la carte, monthto-month. The idea is we’re cheaper than hiring in-house, but you can spin off exactly what you need, when you need it and you know that they’re managed, trained, peerreviewed and constantly learning more.”

Hawke Media is essentially the streaming video service of marketing agencies: You watch what you want and get personalized recommendations. Because Hawke has managed more than 2,000 companies’ data—in the same way streaming services have viewers’ data—the agency has done well using insights to know what works and what doesn’t.

Huberman doesn’t seem to take anything too personally. Maybe you need his company this month, but you want to get a marketing team in-house by the end of the year. That’s OK with him. Perhaps you’ll need some specialized digital marketing assistance for next year’s holiday season. Give him a call then, no pressure. Everyone needs

something different at a different time, and he’s willing to be flexible.

This approach is undoubtedly disruptive, and it replaces the way a lot of firms used to do business.

But it’s also disrupting the way marketers themselves work, as his employees are essentially menu items. “It appeals to the person who wants to work on a diverse group of clients,” Huberman says. “If you’re an email marketer, you can go work internally at a company, do the same stuff every day and build out emails for the same fashion brand that look the same and do it for three years until you get bored or want to go to the next one. Or you can come here and, on average, work on six to eight companies at a time. Those also rotate out. You’re constantly changing what you’re doing. The person who likes a little more diversity in their work, it’s a huge opportunity and the right people seem to love that. It’s a preference.”

As he reimagines the marketing ecosystem in an on-demand world, Huberman’s approach also opens the opportunity for greater accessibility. He looks to the big consultancies, such as Deloitte and Ernst & Young, as models.

“For them, it’s accounting and management consulting,” he says.

“What I want to build now is the same thing, but on the growth and marketing side.” He wants Hawke Media to be a place where a company, an entrepreneur or marketing lead can seek help for a strategy or individual execution items. “Our full mission is around making marketing accessible and really helping companies get access to that. And that’s for anyone, whether it’s a Fortune 100, a tiny startup or anything in between.”

If Huberman sounds as though he’s rushing toward the future,

riding the on-demand trend, trying to fix a broken system—he strikes a balance with a healthy dose of skepticism. Yes, he believes in a more flexible future, a combination of agency and in-house, but he doesn’t think freelancing is part of the solution: “I’ve watched the frustrations and problems that come from that.

That’s not scalable.” And while Hawke Media has an initiative of becoming 5% more tech-enabled each year, he’s cautious about how beneficial cutting-edge technology is. “There’s no artificial intelligence yet,” he says. “In fact, machine learning and automation are still not even at a point that it’s actually more lucrative than having a manual person do it.”

Huberman is poking at the status quo, seeing what works and what doesn’t. His solution isn’t exactly new, but it has been reimagined. He thinks it could work for you, and if you change your mind—no problem. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that I think the way everyone else is doing it is wrong, it’s just different,” he says. “I don’t agree with it, I don’t prefer it, but I’m not the only opinion in the world.” m

AGE: 32 ALMA MATER: University of

Arizona AVERAGE NUMBER OF HOURS WORKED EACH WEEK: It depends what you call “work” FAVORITE BRAND: Nike [at

the moment] DREAM JOB: I’m living it

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Carolyn Tisch Blodgett: The Connector The future of marketing is that [brand and performance] don’t need to be in conflict.

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eople love to talk to Carolyn Tisch Blodgett about her work.

“I go to kids’ birthday parties or dinner parties, and all anyone wants to talk to me about is Peloton,” she says. They tell her that the brand, for which she serves as senior vice president and head of global brand marketing, changed their life. With its Wi-Fi-connected stationary bikes, treadmills and digital app, Peloton bridges its users’ harried lifestyles with a love for boutique fitness classes.

“Gratifying is too soft a word, but it really does feel ... I get very

emotional when I hear people talking about Peloton,” Blodgett says.

The brand is personal for Blodgett, who calls herself the target audience for Peloton. (“This product changed my life,” she says.) But she wasn’t always so personally intertwined with the brands she worked for. In fact, she says she always felt that you become a better marketer when you’re not the target audience. That was certainly the case at her previous employer, PepsiCo, where she worked on the Mountain Dew brand.

“My family just didn’t have soda in the house growing up, and I didn’t really like caffeine,” Blodgett says.

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“Mountain Dew was sort of the last thing that I would ever drink.” Yet there she was, working on a highercaffeine version of the beverage.

Her role as a marketer comes first, though, and despite bringing Peloton into her personal life, she dons her marketing hat before she clips into the pedals.

To listen to Blodgett discuss her work, you can hear the way she can scan a table of loose puzzle pieces and snap the matches into place, watching the picture come together.

The first puzzle piece was realizing that, despite her declared liberal arts major, Blodgett found herself drawn to business. “I was always fascinated by how brands connected with some more than others,” she says. She delved into a brand she loved—American Express—and worked for the company’s advertising agency at the time, Digitas. She sought to experience being in a clientservice role, something she says has helped her to understand what a good brief looks like and how good management works. She returned to school, studying at Harvard University, and returned to the client side with PepsiCo. With every experience, she found another piece of her marketing acumen clicking into place.

Her time at PepsiCo guided a lot of her work at Peloton, where she’s helped to grow the company from a small start-up to an international fitness brand. She essentially helped to start the young brand from scratch, but didn’t hesitate to use the tools she acquired while working on Mountain Dew. The difference now is her personal connection to the Peloton brand— but she doesn’t let that overpower the importance of data and insights.

“I’m not successful at my job because I’m in the target [audience],” she says. “That’s just icing on the cake. We need to use data to tell us if something’s working or not working. We may feel so passionately about some marketing, like a new ad campaign that we want to launch. We fall in love with it and we think it’s fantastic, and then we bring it into testing and consumers don’t like it.

We’re not going to produce it. …

That’s where having the balance of, yes, we all feel so passionate about this product and this brand and this experience and community, but we have to use data to validate whether or not we’re making the right decision every day.”

Not that an emotional connection to the brand must be at odds with datasets and customer insights—a combination of the two has been Blodgett’s strength.

Peloton is still a very young business, and that means there’s more than enough work to go around. (Peloton has filed documents for an initial public offering as of press time and is expected to be valued at about $8 billion.) But Blodgett has found her calm within the storm, often relaxing at night by scrolling through Peloton’s Facebook page to see how users connect with the brand.

As she’s connected the puzzle pieces in her own career, a fuller picture has emerged that hints at the future of marketing. Blodgett believes the best route forward, the way for companies to stand out from the crowd, is to blend performance marketing and brand marketing. “Not many companies can do both,” she says.

At a certain point, a marketer can’t just focus on brand or

performance; If you want to be a senior leader, you must understand how the two work together.

Everyone at Peloton is a brand ambassador, Blodgett explains. She references the company’s field ops, drivers and delivery people. Their tasks would appear to be relatively mundane: Get the product from the company to the customer. But Peloton saw an opportunity to reinforce its ability to blend brand and performance. When someone from the company shows up at a customer’s door, they spend time making sure the user knows how to adjust their seat, connect to Wi-Fi and log in to the platform.

It’s another chance to make a connection.

“The future of marketing is that [brand and performance] don’t need to be in conflict,” she says. “You can tell a great story that also happens to do the thing your business needs to do. For us, that’s selling bikes and treads and digital subscriptions. For a different business, it’s something else. But the fact that you can do both of those at the same time is the future of marketing.” m

AGE: 34 ALMA MATER: Yale University (bachelor’s) and Harvard Business School (master’s) FAVORITE BRAND: Peloton DREAM JOB: What could

be better than building a brand from scratch with a product you love? I think I’m in it!

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T U R N T R A N S L AT E T O F I N A N C I A L VA L U E F O R T H E C O M PA N Y. ” K O E N PA U W E L S , D ’ A M O R E - M C K I M S C H O O L O F B U S I N E S S AT N O R T H E A S T E R N U N I V E R S I T Y

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ESTAB LIS H A FOU NDATION OF N UMBERS

“WOR K CLOS ELY WI TH YOUR IT ORGANI ZATION TO UND ERSTAN D W HAT DATA WILL BE NEEDED TO MEASU RE AN D EVALUATE MARK ETING PR OGR AMS.”

»

“INV ES TING IN TOOLS THAT A LLO W A MAR K ETING OR GANIZATION TO CONN ECT THE CUS TOMER JOU RNEY THR OUGH THE US E OF DATA [W ILL P R OV IDE INS IGH TS TO] MAKE A CASE FOR THE VALU E OF VARIOUS MAR KETIN G P ROGR AMS .”

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CO LLEC T DATA ALO NG THE WAY

PRESENT CASE STUDIES “ TAKE BEST- OF - CL ASS CASE STUDIES AND NOT ONLY F OCUS ON THE OUTCOM E, BUT F OCUS ON THE JOURNEY OF HOW TO GET THERE. ”

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SATISFY YOUR BOSS' SWEET TOOTH

DI R EC TOR OF THE C R EATI V E GR OUP, ON HOW TO BUI LD THE C AS E FOR M AR K ETI NG

D I A N E D O M EY ER , EX EC UTIV E

“ W H O C A R E S W H AT M A R K E T I N G D O E S F O R Y O U U N L E S S I T H E L P S Y O U A C Q U I R E M O R E C U S T O M E R S M O R E C H E A P LY, T H E Y S TAY W I T H Y O U L O N G E R , T H E Y D O M O R E S T U F F W I T H Y O U W H I L E T H E Y ’ R E A L I V E A N D T H E Y ’ R E D O I N G T H AT S T U F F AT H I G H E R M A R G I N S . ” P E T E R FA D E R , W H A R T O N S C H O O L O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F P E N N S Y L VA N I A | “ T H E C O N N E C T I O

MARKETING NEWS | SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2019 2019

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P E R M E AT E S I N T O S O C I E T Y. ” S H R I H A R I S R I D H A R , T E X A S A & M M AY S B U S I N E S S S C H O O L | “ M A R K E T I N G B U I L D S M A R K E T A S S E T S , W H I C H I N T U R N T R A N S L

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C O M P I LED B Y S TEV E H EI SLER

- R I S K - TAK I NG

- P OS I TI V E M OR ALE

- I NNOVATI ON

- C AM AR ADER I E

- C OM M UNI C ATION

- C OLLABOR ATI ON

SOF T SKIL L S

“ THE L OW- HANGING F RUIT STARTS WITH WEB AND M OBIL E CAPABIL ITIES TO REA CH YOUR CUSTOM ER A ND CONTENT STRATEG Y. ”

OVERAL L CUSTO M ER EXPERIENCE

P E N N S TAT E S M E A L C O L L E G E O F B U S I N E S S | “ M A R K E T I N G ’ S I N F L U E N C E M AY S TA R T W I T H T H E C U S T O M E R S , B U T G O E S I N T O A F I R M ’ S F I N A N C E S , I T S S T O C K M A R K E T VA L U E A N D F I N A L LY

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“IF ANYONE HAS TO JUS TIFY TO THEI R OR GANIZATIO N W HY MAR KETIN G IS IMPOR TANT, THEY ’RE P ROBABLY AT AN OR GANIZATIO N TH AT IS AT RIS K OF NO T R EMA INING COMPETITIV E.”

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UNDER STAND YOU CA N’T W IN THEM ALL

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B EGIN WITH TH E

“ T H E C O N N E C T I O N W I T H A C U S T O M E R O V E R T I M E I S C R I T I C A L T O L O N G - T E R M S U C C E S S A N D T H AT O N LY C O M E S F R O M M A R K E T I N G . ” K A R E N PA G E W I N T E R I C H ,

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If the Marketing Career Fits Everyone’s path to marketing is different. How do skills from an assortment of degrees translate to the field?

BY HAL CONICK

Y

ears before she became a marketer, Angie Myers was jarred awake one morning by a ringing phone. Get to the newsroom as soon as possible, she was told—Myers, then a TV producer for NBC News in New York City, was resting for a night shift but quickly got dressed and into her car. It was Sept. 11, 2001. Myers fought through traffic from her New Jersey home, finally opting to take the lone working subway line from Jersey City into Manhattan. She spent the day crying as she worked, spellbound and horrified. Nearly two decades later, Myers reflects on whether anything in her marketing career has come close to being as hectic as that day. “Well, hmm,” Myers says. “I haven’t had any bad days.”

Years before he became a marketer, Hunter Rojas worked on a political campaign (“That wasn’t my jam”), waited tables at Chicago fine-dining restaurant Charlie Trotter’s (“I needed to kill time to figure out what I want

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to do”) and worked for a cryptocurrency company (“I realized the startup thing wasn’t going to work out the way I had hoped”). He left these jobs feeling unsatisfied. There had to be something else.

Before he became a marketer, Brian Wise studied engineering and worked as a project manager for a manufacturing line at Unilever. The job was fine, relevant to his major, but what truly attracted him was the company’s brand mission. “I found that it’s pretty damn cool to work for a company that is really invested in making the world a better place,” he says.

Myers, Rojas and Wise were all on paths that didn’t obviously lead to marketing—but eventually did. Their stories aren’t uncommon: A 2013 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that less than a third of college graduates worked in a job directly related to their college major. When they change paths, people often find a marketing job, according to a 2019 report by labor market analysis company Emsi, titled “Degrees at Work.”

In three of the majors, marketing became one of the top three outcomes by the graduate’s third job. It’s as though marketing has a gravitational pull, says Rob Sentz, chief innovation officer of labor analytics firm Emsi.

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“If you think about the core functions within business, you’ve got to make things that people want,” he says. “And once you figure out how to make those things, you have to make sure people are aware of those things. That’s the role of marketing, to do all that strategic communications. That is a huge part of our economy. We just probably don’t talk about it as much as we should.”

Many graduates with these degrees had likely never considered marketing, which Sentz believes is the fault of the university system for not being realistic with students. Universities don’t often tell English majors, for example, that a marketing profession is a common outcome for people who earn an English degree. So when students hear the common question of, “How are you going to make a living with that degree?” they are often faced with unrealistic answers. But Sentz says that these students should know that marketing is a good option for people with a language degree, a path that others have successfully traveled.

Marketing may not be their goal, but it’s a good option.

That decision is an especially good one with the current demand for marketers. Marketing positions are incredibly popular—Sentz says that there were 2 million ads for marketing positions posted between May and July of this year—and there’s demand in these roles for the skills held by non-marketing graduates. In terms of major occupation categories, marketing is a top-20 area of growth across the entire country, Sentz says.

“Other examples in that category are transportation, statisticians, nurse practitioners, financial examiners,” he says. “Marketing really stands out as playing a key role in the economy.”

Sentz says that people with transferable skills only find marketing through market demand—a needlessly long route.

He says that students should be given shortcuts to marketing, such as showing them statistics of career outcomes for those who possess their skills. But they needn’t be dissuaded from their current degree path.

“We shouldn’t tell them, ‘You need to switch your major,’” he says. “It’s good you majored in English and you’re worried about what you might do with the English degree—[marketing] is a really interesting area of application.”

Non-marketing majors can apply their skills to marketing and fill the demand of a hungry market. Sara Eide, vice president of technology staffing services at HR consulting firm Robert Half, says that unemployment in creative professions was far below the national rate of 3.7% as of this July. Unemployment of PR specialists, for example, was less than 1%. This means that firms looking to hire for these roles likely aren’t getting grizzled veterans every time they post a job opening. More likely, they’re realistic enough to look for someone who has transferable skills.

“The net definitely gets cast wide,” Eide says. “From a recruiting standpoint, we always start with specific marketing skills, but we’re always talking to clients—especially with this shortage of talent that we’re seeing. The marketplace across the country is so tight for marketing and digital professionals that we’re asking every client to stretch a little bit.”

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If organizations are straining to hire more marketers with less of a requirement for marketing experience, the time is right for non-marketers to make their move. The road to becoming a marketer is a well-traveled path with plenty of demand, even for graduates of the following majors.

Communications Common skills of communications majors: research, writing, analysis, decision-making, problem-solving, social media, media relations, public speaking

TV news is a young person’s profession, says Myers. After working in NBC’s newsroom amid the chaos of 9/11, she helped launch MSNBC, often working seven days a week from night until early morning. Sometimes, she misses the urgency of the big story, of being the first to hear about important news. More often, she’s glad that she found another career in which she excels and that doesn’t require mortgaging her sleep schedule.

After Myers earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and spent 15 years in news, she transitioned into marketing and communications in 2007, working as a consultant, producer and communications manager in industries such as media relations, politics and food. This year, at 51, she received her master’s degree in technical and professional communications and got a job as director of marketing and communications at the Turnaround Management Association, a nonprofit focused on improving business performance.

“The skill set really does cross over,” she says of both her journalism career and communications degree. “A lot of what we do today is content marketing. We’re always telling stories and we’re trying to engage people with information and tell them why they should belong to a nonprofit organization or support it.”

Communications majors most commonly end up as marketers. Emsi’s report finds that while communications majors start in journalism and PR, the bulk of graduates (20%) become marketers by their second job. “Communications majors are engaging both in the analytics and digital communications that drive marketing strategy, and the systems management needed to implement that strategy,” Emsi’s report says, adding that many also end up in digital marketing with a focus on SEO and analytics.

Marketing can be seen as the ultimate communications profession, Emsi’s report says—it’s creative, analytical and largely web-based, all skills that communications majors often learn in school. Myers agrees, as people with communications backgrounds can write well, make quick decisions and are trained to tell the best stories.

Sentz says that nearly every marketing job posting now

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mentions management or communication. The natural managers, he says, seem to come from degrees such as liberal arts, social sciences and communications.

“When we talk about marketing at the highest level, what businesses continue to signal in the market is their need for excellent communicators,” Sentz says. “And I would say in the case of marketing, it’s strategic. … Strategic communicators are able to operate really big picture stuff across the web, newsletters and different conferences. They are absolutely critical in the economy. This is how companies distribute their products and services. There’s clearly a huge need for it; the four big degree areas—social sciences, liberal arts, business and communication—all feed it. The more we can make people aware of that, the better.”

Language, Philosophy and Social Sciences Common skills of language majors: communication, interpreting information, conveying meaning, leading discussions, giving presentations Common skills of philosophy majors: logical thinking, problem-solving, analysis, attention to detail, research, breaking down complex ideas Common skills of social sciences majors: research, critical thinking, organizational skills, interpersonal relationships, oral and written communication, analysis

In his undergraduate years, Hunter Rojas majored in political science, philosophy and macroeconomics, a trifecta of topics he believes taught him how to think analytically. “I didn’t really have any concrete skills, but I knew how to digest a lot of information [and] distill it down to the main points,” he says.

While analytical abilities may not have come in handy on a political campaign or in fine dining, Rojas says that it has been essential in working with clients at an ad agency. Now, Rojas is associate director of marketing sciences at the agency Mindshare, where he must have technical knowledge but also be able to translate complex chunks of information to clients in ways that they can comprehend.

“It’s really [about] convincing the client that you guys are moving in the right direction,” Rojas says. “If you want to stay bleeding-edge, you have to do things that are radically different than what was done maybe even five or 10 years ago.”

Those who earned these degrees—after years of struggling with the arguments of philosopher Emmanuel Kant, the writings of author James Joyce and the antipositivism of sociologist

WHAT COMPANIES ARE LOOKING FOR FROM NEW MARKETERS

Whether in your first marketing job or looking to move up the ladder, Robert Half’s Sara Eide says that employers are specifically looking for a few different skills: SOCIAL MEDIA: Employers want to see how you’ve used social media to interact with people, whether personally or professionally.

DATA AND ANALYTICS: “Everybody wants to know how they can get their hands on more data,” she says.

SOFT SKILLS: You could have all the marketing experience in the world, but Eide says that employers are putting greater weight on soft skills. These are non-technical, non-industryspecific skills, such as leadership, problemsolving, communication and building and maintaining interpersonal relationships. If you’re new to marketing, good soft skills may give you an edge.

MOTIVATION: In a recent survey from Robert Half, Eide says that 53% of ad and marketing professionals say that motivation skills are the most important factor they consider, especially when promoting someone to mid-management or supervisory-type positions.

HOW MUCH DO THEY EARN?** MARKETING 25th percentile: $25.10/hour Median: $35.81/hour 75th percentile earnings: $55.14/hour MANAGEMENT 25th percentile: $33.95/hour Median: $49.91/hour 75th percentile earnings: $72.33/hour BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS 25th percentile: $24.43/hour Median: $32.92/hour 75th percentile earnings: $44.52/hour ** ALL NUMBERS FROM EMSI’S 2019 DEGREES AT WORK REPORT

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Max Weber—are likely better equipped to explain to clients why a radical change is needed. They can read through thick reports and research industry trends and determine how the changes should be made to the client’s business. They can funnel complex sets of information into easily digestible reports and conversations.

Emsi’s report finds that philosophy and language graduates who get marketing jobs—the fourth most popular job out of college of these majors and the second most popular as their third job—are “highly digital,” with their strongest skill being analytics. Similarly, social science majors who turn to marketing—their fourth-most popular job out of college and third-most popular as a second and third job—are also highly digital, working with analytics, SEO and social media.

“I wouldn’t recommend a homogenous approach to getting people into marketing,” Sentz says. “That said, we probably need to do more to help people from English and social science degrees understand that marketing is a common outcome and how they can translate what they’re learning into that area in the same way that a business-communication student [knows].

We should make them more aware of the likelihood of that outcome.”

Information Technology and Business Common skills of information technology majors: planning, troubleshooting, problem-solving, organizational skills Common skills of business majors: problem-solving, analytical thinking, organizational knowledge, logical thinking, report writing, communications

Rojas earned his MBA in IT management as he worked in startups. In his spare time, he learned to code through the free education service Code Academy, which he hoped would help familiarize him with cryptocurrency and the startup world.

When working as a web analyst at Wisconsin’s Great Wolf Lodge, Rojas noticed that his agency counterparts seemed to be having a lot of fun, so he worked his way into an analytics role at an agency and hasn’t looked back since.

Rojas says that he wasn’t much of a math person before learning to code, but it has been invaluable to his agency career.

By learning to code, Rojas was able to grasp online ad operations, which required an understanding of scripting languages such as Javascript. It also gave him better domain knowledge, which has helped him build practical, predictive models, a skill he says many people lack, especially those who are new to analytics.

“How do you configure an ad server? How do you deploy tags? How do you deal with the complexities?” Rojas asks. “Web designers don’t really understand any of that very well. Unless

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you’ve worked in the ad ops environment or had a job in that space, no one else would be able to teach you how to do that.”

Marketers—whether they feel that they’re “math people” or not—need both technical skills and business know-how.

Those who possess both may have an easier time segueing into a marketing career. Emsi’s report finds that 9% of business and 3% of IT graduates go into marketing, making the transferable skills rarer and likely more in demand. Robert Half ’s Eide says that many companies are now looking for marketers with web and mobile development skills, as well as user interface and user experience skills.

“It’s all around data and how we’re using it,” Eide says, adding that she believes marketing will soon pull in more technologyand data-minded people.

Engineering Common skills of engineering majors: technical skills, problem-solving, project management, teamworking

Brian Wise worked in engineering at Unilever and Battelle as he studied industrial and systems engineering at college. He noticed that much of his work, even on machines and factory lines, eventually focused on communication and project management, which he found engaging. Although Wise says that he enjoyed his early engineering jobs, it was the Unilever brand that resonated with him most. The corporation lists one vision across all its brands: “To make sustainable living commonplace. We believe this is the best long-term way for our business to grow.”

Wise got his first taste of marketing in college, starting his own retail company by buying items from Alibaba and flipping them for more money on Amazon. “I realized that I was [practicing] marketing,” he says. “Marketing is really just about the profit and loss statement and finding some ways to ... purchase something and connect the consumer with their need. I asked Unilever if I could do an internship in marketing.”

The company gave Wise an internship at Hellmann’s and Best Foods in summer 2017, then made him an assistant brand manager for the company’s The Right to Shower product line.

“I found that marketing really ends up being the same thing as engineering in terms of project management,” Wise says. “My engineering education became incredibly valuable.”

Like Rojas, Wise saw that marketing is now based heavily in data, modeling and statistics, something he says has helped him greatly. When Wise studied to be an engineer, he learned a lot about statistics and was two classes away from a mathematics degree, something he’s noticed that few career marketers have.

“That grounds me so well to … be able to manipulate a [profit and loss statement], but also understand the statistics and media,” Wise says.

For engineering graduates, marketing gains popularity over time, Emsi’s report finds. Marketing is the seventh most popular

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job right out of school for engineers, but it becomes the fifth most popular by their third job. By then, Emsi reports that marketing employs 5% of all engineering graduates.

Wise says he’s learned that engineers who go into marketing must strike a balance between their focused, analytic mind and big-picture thinking. Engineers can execute ideas and projects, being strategic and methodical, but Wise says that they often become hyper-focused on a single problem. Someone once told Wise that, in marketing, if you can’t see a solution from where you’re looking, you don’t look harder. Instead, you must look at other facets of the project and avoid hyper-focusing.

Making the Move When Eide has a non-marketing client she’s trying to place in a marketing role, she first has to sell the organization on why someone without the role’s desired background should be considered. For professionals trying to break into marketing, this means having relevant skills—soft skills, motivation and technical skills—that could transition onto a marketing team.

It also means being able to communicate these abilities to recruiters and potential employers, with which many people— marketers and non-marketers alike—struggle.

“They’ve got to be able to sell themselves,” says Eide. “They need to do a little bit of research and be able to be a consultant on their own behalf, to tailor their résumé. They need to make sure that they’ve highlighted the pieces they think would be beneficial to the marketing team.

“Don’t go in with a defeatist attitude—that ‘I’ll never get into marketing’—when the market is so good right now,” she says.

“Go in with confidence. You’ve got to be able to market yourself. … If you want to get into marketing and advertising, but you can’t explain why you yourself would fit in, I would question what kind of strategy and creativity you’re bringing to this team.”

Wise says that marketers are automatic leaders within a company, but they first need to understand their own skill set and how it will be used by the marketing team. Potential marketers should figure out what would differentiate them, how their unique insights could fit onto a team and what they want to do at work.

For someone who has never made a career move before, jumping into an entirely new field may seem scary. But Myers found her career change energizing and fun—“If you look into different professions and different ways to use your skill set, you can make yourself more marketable,” she says. To improve your marketability, Myers suggests accumulating additional credentials, whether that be another degree—she took online classes to get her master’s in communications—or a new certification.

Rojas, admittedly a man of many interests, says that it’s rare for someone to know exactly what they want to do as they start their career. He suggests that everyone—especially new graduates— expose themselves to as many different roles as possible.

“The people who are able to pivot well are the people that are really curious,” he says. “It’s not just about sending an email and then getting the response that you need to finish your project, it’s asking, ‘Why did you do that?’ and ‘How did you get there?’ so you understand the whole process. It’s those kinds of people who are able to get a good feel for all the opportunities that are available in the space. They’re the ones who start making that pivot early.”

Rojas suggests living by a “startup philosophy” of failing quickly, early in a career. Go after the work as fiercely as possible, but be honest and ask yourself: Do you like your job? “Don’t just keep that job for 18 months because you’re afraid that if you leave too early it’ll look bad on your résumé,” he says.

No matter where a future marketer is coming from, there are ways to transfer the skills they learned in college and early in their careers. Sentz says that there should be no rush to switch majors or pit one major against another—the contents of a degree are often worth far more than its title.

“The name of the program is not the name of the job,” he says.

“We just need to help them understand that better.” m

JOBS BY INDUSTRY, FROM 2009 TO 2019** MARKETING 2009: 800,846 2019: 1.3 million Percent increase: 63.1% MANAGEMENT 2009: 6.4 million 2019: 8.3 million Percent increase: 30.1% BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS 2009: 6.5 million 2019: 8.2 million Percent increase: 26% SALES 2009: 3.3 million 2019: 4 million Percent increase: 21.8% Percent increase: 63.1% ** ALL NUMBERS FROM EMSI’S 2019 DEGREES AT WORK REPORT

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Job: Marketing Manager

Job: Product Manager Planet: Mercury

Star: Sun

Orbit: $102,000

Orbit: $78,000

Population: 93,559

Population: 157,827

Population Growth: 10.1%

Population Growth: 10.1%

Gravity: 47

Gravity: 42

Required for Product space travel: management, product development

C H A N G I N G

Job: Marketing Specialist Planet: Venus Orbit: $47,000 Population: 105,651 Population Growth: 23.2% Gravity: 36 Required for Marketing, customer space travel: service, Photoshop, InDesign

J O B S

I N

The skills marketers have acquired don’t simply translate into jobs with the word “marketing” in the title. The worlds of public relations, advertising, social media and more can immediately benefit from a marketer’s insight. And in some cases, it pays to explore alternative ways to utilize marketing training in your career.

Burning Glass Technologies, a marketing analytics company, has compiled a collection of data to help marketers do just that. Its Labor Insight market analysis contains information on jobs related to those of

KEY TO THE UNIVERSE Orbit: Median salary Population: Job postings last 12 months Population Projected growth growth: over next 10 years Gravity: How many days to fill postings Required for Important skills to space travel: possess

Job: Business Development/Sales Planet: Saturn Orbit: $78,000 Population: 316,439 Population Growth: 7.5% Gravity: 40 Required for Sales, sales space travel: management

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Job: Social Media Strategist/Specialist Planet: Uranus Orbit: $47,000 Population: 27,962 Population Growth: 23.2% Gravity: 34 Required for Facebook, Instagram, space travel: other social media platforms

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Job: Market Research Analyst Planet: Earth Orbit: $62,000

Job: Communications/Public Relations Manager

Job: Advertising/ Promotions Manager

Planet: Jupiter

Planet: Mars

Orbit: $65,000

Orbit: $62,000

Population: 37,901

Population: 3,849

Population: 41,362

Population Growth: 23.2%

Population Growth: 5.4%

Population Growth: 10.3%

Gravity: 38 Required for SQL, data analysis, space travel: economics, Tableau

Gravity: 36

Gravity: 40 Required for Advertising, space travel: budgeting, product management

M A R K E T I N G

Required for Journalism, social space travel: media, media relations, corporate and strategic communications

S PA C E

a traditional marketer, including the median annual salary, the number of job postings, projected growth and skills required to make the leap.

As of September, here is the solar system surrounding the job of Marketing Manager, which we’ve designated as our sun. And yes, as of press time, NASA has designated Pluto as a planet—a dwarf planet, but a planet nonetheless.

—Steve Heisler

Job: SEO Specialist Planet: Neptune Orbit: $62,000 Population: 15,078 Population Growth: 9.3% Gravity: 35 Required for SEO, Google space travel: Analytics, keyword research, SEM, Google Ads, paid search

Job: Media Planner/Buyer Planet: Pluto Orbit: $53,000 Population: 17,067 Population Growth: 8.9% Gravity: 38 Required for Media planning, space travel: journalism, content management, customer billing, scheduling, media buying, digital media, media campaigning

Job: Corporate Development Analyst/Manager Planet: Misc.

Orbit: $103,000 Population: 16,613 Population Growth: 8% Gravity: 48 Required for Business space travel: development, mergers and acquisitions

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2019 Higher Education Marketing Services Directory There are nearly 5,000 higher education institutions in the United States, and they are all trying to convince prospective students, and their parents, that they are the right choice. With the cost undergraduate and graduate degrees at an all-time high and increased competition from non-traditional and overseas universities, higher education marketing departments are more pressed than ever.

Finding the right higher education marketing partner can mean the difference between success and failure. Whether you are looking for an agency to create and plan your next marketing campaign, a software company to manage your social media efforts, or a research company that specializes in the higher education market, AMA’s Higher Education Marketing Services Directory is the perfect place to start your search.

An advertising supplement to the October 2019 issue of Marketing News.

Copyright 2019 by the American Marketing Association. All Rights Reserved.

30 YEARS

A Connected Community

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Higher Education Marketing Services Directory 160over90......................................................................................................

160over90–an Endeavor company–is a nationally-recognized, full-service branding and marketing agency for higher education, non-profit, pro sports, and consumer lifestyle brands. 160over90 services include comprehensive research, strategy, creative, media, digital, photography, videography, and activation.

160over90.com

5HD Agency..................................................................................................

5HD is a new kind of marketing company -- focused on the integration of strategy, creative, technology, and data. From brand creative to CRM, media buying to marketing automation, 5HD helps our clients grow enrollment.

5HDagency.com

ACT - NRCCUA............................................................................................

For 45 years, ACT | NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities. In 2017, NRCCUA launched Encoura™ Data Lab to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals.

encoura.org

Acquia..............................................................................................................

Acquia is the leading provider of cloud-based, digital experience management solutions. Forwardthinking organizations rely on Acquia to transform the way they can engage with customers in a personal and contextual way, across every device and channel.

Acquia.com

Agility CMS....................................................................................................

Agility CMS is a Headless CMS, allowing you to choose any programming language while also getting the flexibility, speed and power that comes from lightweight APIs. From there, add a tonne of features like Page Management, Ecommerce, E-ticketing and Search.

agilitycms.com

Beacon.............................................................................................................

Creative Design. Powerful Web Technology. Smarter Marketing. That’s Beacon – a recognized leader in web design, development, and digital marketing. Our unique “Brains. Beauty. Brawn.” approach consistently delivers websites that truly engage visitors and support marketing goals of colleges and universities.

beacontechnologies.com

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Campus Sonar..............................................................................................

Campus Sonar is a specialized social listening agency that empowers colleges and universities to find and analyze conversations that matter, seize engagement opportunities, and develop data-informed strategies. We provide actionable insights to ignite campus strategy.

campussonar.com

Capture Higher Ed ...................................................................................

Capture Higher Ed’s Behavioral Intelligence Platform and managed services help colleges and universities recruit students and raise money more effectively.

capturehighered.com

Carnegie Dartlet ........................................................................................

Carnegie Dartlet is the only communications firm that generates unprecedented human connection through psychometric marketing and team integration. We are leaders and innovators in higher education marketing, offering groundbreaking services in the areas of research, strategy, creative, digital, lead generation, and team building.

carnegiedartlet.com

The Chronicle of Higher Education ................................................

The Chronicle of Higher Education has the nation’s largest newsroom dedicated to covering colleges and universities. As the unrivaled leader in higher education journalism, we serve our readers realtime news and deep insights to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

chronicle.com

Collegis Education ...................................................................................

Collegis EducationÂŽ is a strategic partner whose revenue-growth solutions help colleges and universities maximize their enrollment potential through data-rich, technology-enabled, marketing, engagement and retention services.

CollegisEducation.com

Converge Consulting ..............................................................................

Converge Consulting is the digital agency for education. We develop sound strategy and translate it into campaigns that deliver ROI in a crowded marketplace.

Convergeconsulting.com

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Higher Education Marketing Services Directory

Creative Communication Associates (CCA)...............................

CCA is a data-driven marketing agency that specializes exclusively in higher education. Small by design with experts in strategy, research, media, creative, and digital, CCA partners with small private colleges, specialty schools, and beyond to produce record-breaking results.

ccanewyork.com

DME Delivers................................................................................................

DME is a nationally-recognized, innovative leader in collegiate marketing. We provide results utilizing cross-media marketing, data-driven analysis and tailored platforms. Our team will provide your institution with the confidence of moving to the front of the line with prospective students, while developing programs to retain those currently enrolled.

dmedelivers.com

Dolead..............................................................................................................

Dolead develops and operates the world’s first fully integrated Leads-as-a-Service solution. Dolead customers enjoy reliable, fresh, high-intent leads/top students piped directly into their CRM by either subscribing to a flow of exclusive leads on a fixed cost-per-lead basis. Simplicity. Peace of mind. No surprises.

dolead.com

Echo Delta.....................................................................................................

Echo Delta is a full-service marketing agency for higher education. We help higher ed institutions identify right-fit prospects, drive enrollment, increase yield, build brand unity, and capture donors’ attention through world-class integrated marketing.

echodelta.co

Eduvantis........................................................................................................

Eduvantis is a next-generation strategy consulting and marketing services firm, combining substantial business and product strategy expertise with leading edge market research and digital marketing proficiency. This provides clients with unrivaled growth strategies, marketing execution and lead conversion expertise.

www.eduvantis.com

Emsi...................................................................................................................

Emsi provides colleges and universities with labor market data to build a better workforce and nurture strong economies, businesses, and graduates. Hundreds of institutions use Emsi to align programs with regional needs, drive enrollment, connect students with in-demand careers, track their alumni’s employment outcomes, and demonstrate their institution’s economic impact on their region.

economicmodeling.com

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Epicosity ........................................................................................................

Company Description: Epicosity is an ideas company specializing in higher education marketing. We excel in creative development, digital strategy, video production, website development, PR and media buying. We’re a tight group of creative, idea people that executes nimbly and effectively.

epicosity.com

Fathom.............................................................................................................

We’re digital marketers who believe strong strategy starts with deep roots. We partner with 30+ higher ed marketing leaders and offer a critical perspective to know what works, what won’t, and what’s around the corner.

fathomdelivers.com

FindAMasters.com & FindAPhD.com .............................................

FindAUniversity are experts in everything postgraduate. We’ve been passionate about the higher education sector since 2001. We now work with hundreds of universities across the globe to help them achieve their postgraduate recruitment targets.

findauniversity.com

Formstack......................................................................................................

Formstack is a workplace productivity solution built to transform the way people collect information and put it to work. With its powerful data collection and process automation capabilities, Formstack reduces data chaos and solves important business problems.

formstack.com/industry/higher-education

Funnelback....................................................................................................

Company Description – Over 30% of prospects, students and alumni likely navigate using on-site search. Funnelback for Higher Education makes that search bar on your website into a marketing asset. Tailor search to the user, including courses, staff directories, social media and events.

funnelback.com/he

Glacier Marketing.......................................................................................

Company Description: Is your brand relevant today and tomorrow, across all your offerings? Unless your customers experiences and your brand promise are indistinguishable, it’s not. We can help! We are an award-winning design and marketing firm successful in creating exceptional user experiences at an affordable price.

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Higher Education Marketing Services Directory

Hanover Research ....................................................................................

Hanover, a leading research and analytics firm, helps institutions of all sizes and types tackle critical academic, marketing, and administrative challenges. Our experts develop customized plans using multiple research methodologies to deliver the insights institutions need to make informed decisions.

hanoverresearch.com/education-solutions/higher-education

HigherEdJobs..............................................................................................

HigherEdJobs® features a comprehensive list of job openings, career advice, and other resources to help higher education professionals advance their careers. More than 1.5 million college faculty and administrators visit HigherEdJobs® each month and over 285,000 receive our weekly newsletter.

higheredjobs.com

High School Counselor Connect........................................................

High School Counselor Connect is your complete source for Counselor outreach with data that includes individual email address and all other information needed to reach this key influencer market.

HighSchoolCounselorConnect.com

idfive................................................................................................................. idfive is the integrated marketing agency for brands on a mission. Lead by current and former educators, idfive uses research and user experience to guide brand, web and marketing projects for higher education institutions across the country.

idfive.com

inMotionNow................................................................................................ inMotionNow is a leading provider of creative workflow management solutions for marketing and creative teams, facilitating efficiency and productivity from project kickoff to final approval. With a user-friendly interface and dedicated customer success team, inMotionNow helps creative and marketing teams of every variety do the work they love, and automate the rest.

inmotionnow.com

Inside Higher Ed.........................................................................................

Inside Higher Ed is the leading source for high-quality news, opinion, information and careers for the higher education community. With over 2.2 million monthly readers, it’s the ideal platform to reach a large, diverse audience of influential higher education professionals.

insidehighered.com

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Libris by PhotoShelter............................................................................

Libris by PhotoShelter is the simplest and fastest digital asset management platform built for visual media. We help over 1,000 leading brands and organizations create visual stories effortlessly.

libris.photoshelter.com

Lipman Hearne............................................................................................

Lipman Hearne delivers branding, strategy, and communications that win minds. With 50 years of marketing experience, we’ve helped over 400 higher education institutions increase awareness and national rankings, enroll hundreds of thousands of additional students, and raise over $34 billion.

We’re full service – providing strategy, planning, design, development, and implementation.

lipmanhearne.com

Lucidpress......................................................................................................

We are a brand templating platform that empowers university faculty and staff to create their own marketing and educational materials without relying on the creative services team. Cut down on wasted time and keep your brand consistent with Lucidpress.

lucidpress.com/higher-ed

Magellan Promotions...............................................................................

Magellan Promotions is a promotional product marketing company that specializes in making colleges memorable with their desired audiences. Using this unique experience with over 280 higher education clients, we can share industry knowledge and trends and recommend strategic, meaningful products.

magellanpromotions.com

MDT Marketing............................................................................................

What’s your marketing challenge? We’re here to help. Since 1995, MDT Marketing has been a leader in the delivery of student recruitment, retention, & career placement campaigns via advanced digital advertising & marketing technology solutions built exclusively for colleges & universities.

mdtmarketing.com

Mogo Interactive........................................................................................

Mogo Interactive is a full-service media agency, specializing in digital marketing. We combine advanced online ad tech, customized campaign tactics, and a skilled team to deliver measurable results for clients in Higher Education.

mogointeractive.com

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Higher Education Marketing Services Directory

mStoner, Inc.................................................................................................. mStoner is a digital-first agency — we craft award-winning, powerful, tailored, human-centric experiences to illuminate your brand and allow you to tell the story only you can tell. We position your team for improved productivity, sustainable growth, internal alignment, and proof-positive success.

mStoner.com

NetNatives.....................................................................................................

Net Natives is the student specialist marketing group. We think student. We do, we learn, we refine, and we apply what we’ve learned, just like students! Impact is something to aspire to—we look beyond impressions, reach, clicks, conversions, and inspire a focus on the bigger picture—students inquiring, applying, and enrolling. We help institutions reach students in the right place, on the platforms they’re using, at the right time, and make a meaningful, personalized connection that builds trust and loyalty. Net Natives is here to help you better understand your brand, your audience, their needs, and behaviors with unrivaled insight and data. Let’s do this.

natives.group/en_gb

NewCity...........................................................................................................

NewCity is a full service consulting, design, and development firm specializing in crafting tailored digital strategy and platforms, integrated marketing, responsive websites, and brand messaging. We empower organizations to achieve their goals through a human-centered approach to digital media.

insidenewcity.com

OHO Interactive..........................................................................................

OHO Interactive is a digital marketing agency with 20 years of experience delivering award-winning digital strategy, design, and web development solutions. Our firm provides the full spectrum of digital services with a focus on helping our clients create exceptional experiences, build strong relationships, and generate top-line growth with their digital strategy.

oho.com

Ologie...............................................................................................................

Ologie is a branding and marketing agency that works with clients who advance the greater good. We’re a team of strategic thinkers, creative problem solvers, and bold storytellers. We help organizations define their purpose, convey their story, and achieve their goals through a full range of media, including print, digital, environmental, social, and video.

ologie.com

OmniUpdate..................................................................................................

OmniUpdate is the definitive partner of choice among web content management system (CMS) providers in higher education. Backed by award-winning training and support, OmniUpdate’s OU Campus® CMS is the easiest to use with features and modules designed to meet higher ed’s unique needs.

omniupdate.com

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Pantheon.........................................................................................................

Pantheon is a WebOps platform for Drupal and WordPress, running more than 300,000 sites in the cloud and serving over 10 billion pageviews a month. Pantheon’s multitenant, container-based platform enables educational institutions to manage all of their websites from a single dashboard.

Customers include ASU, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, and Penn.

pantheon.io/edu

Paskill Stapleton & Lord.........................................................................

Nearly 600 partner institutions have entrusted PS&L to bolster brands and optimize enrollments since 1986. Based near Philadelphia, with multiple locations including NYC, our comprehensive services impact all aspects of the selection process: Brand Strategy & Creative, Market Research, Digital & Traditional Advertising, Website Solutions, Training, Video, Events.

psandl.com

PPAI...................................................................................................................

Promotional marketing is an essential branding strategy in advancing marketing & advertising campaigns. Promotional products advertising is the only medium invited into spaces & places other media can’t touch. They deliver the best reach, recall & response for marketers & advertisers.

promotionalproductswork.org

Primacy............................................................................................................

Primacy helps colleges and universities solve brand, enrollment and reputation challenges. We combine deep industry knowledge with broad expertise across strategy, creative, marketing, technology and analytics to help our clients succeed.

theprimacy.com/industries/education

Progress Sitefinity.....................................................................................

Progress Sitefinity is a web content management and marketing analytics platform that provides marketers and developers the tools to support enterprise-level digital marketing, optimizing the customer journey with seamless personalized experiences across different technologies and devices.

progress.com/sitefinity-cms

ReachLocal....................................................................................................

ReachLocal, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, possesses expertise in online enrollment marketing.

We are a pioneer in digital marketing - for well over a decade we have combined award-winning technology with experienced people and industry knowledge

reachlocal.com

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Higher Education Marketing Services Directory

Quality Certification Alliance..............................................................

QCA is an independent, non-profit, organization whose mission is to provide the promotional products industry with a common set of third-party standards to consistently offer brand safety assurances to organizations that utilize promotional products.

qcalliance.org

Robert Mattaliano, Freelance Writer..............................................

I produce compelling content and proposals to engage enrollment prospects, alumni and donors.

“Storytelling” is important but it’s also crucial to follow a data-driven, research-informed and resultsdriven strategy.

robertmattaliano.com

SimpsonScarborough..............................................................................

In higher ed, creative ideas need to be inspirational and motivational — but also grounded in research and vetted by stakeholders. Our integrated approach to market research, strategy, and creative services brings together your people, vision, and values with our recognized knowledge and partnership to build brands that inspire and endure.

simpsonscarborough.com

StudentBridge.............................................................................................

StudentBridge helps higher education professionals access a higher quality and quantity of students by leveraging the power of Personalized Rich Media. Our solutions convert at every stage of the student lifecycle with the outcome being better retention through better recruitment.

studentbridge.com

TERMINALFOUR.........................................................................................

TERMINALFOUR is a digital marketing and web content management platform for Higher Education.

TERMINALFOUR’s software enables Universities and Colleges to drive student recruitment, retention, alumni fundraising and research promotion by maximizing the effectiveness of their digital channels using modern digital marketing techniques.

terminalfour.com

TextAim...........................................................................................................

TextAim is a cloud-based communications company that allows back and forth conversations with students by text. Since students prefer to use text instead of phones and email, TextAim allows schools to communicate to hundreds or thousands of students through a system as easy to use as email.

textaim.com

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Truth & Consequences............................................................................

Truth & Consequences is a new branding firm built from the ground up by partners with experience working with more than 100 universities (and even more global consumer brands). You haven’t heard of us before, but you’ve likely seen our work.

thisistandc.com

Up&Up..............................................................................................................

We’re Up&Up. From strategy to execution, we create brand platforms, marketing campaigns, and web/app experiences to serve student-focused colleges and universities. Through each offering, we focus on how to tell your story in clear and compelling ways.

upandup.agency

Visionpoint Marketing.............................................................................

VisionPoint Marketing is an integrated marketing agency that helps institutions of higher education meet their admissions, branding and communication goals. Our commitment to strategy, making data-driven decisions across all marketing disciplines and ability to build consensus across scores of stakeholders enable us to produce extraordinary results for our clients around the things that matter the most.

visionpointmarketing.com

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career advancement

HIGHER ED

High Priorities in Higher Ed Marketing Higher education consultant Rachel Reuben breaks down her day-one college marketing agenda

BY STEVE HEISLER | STAFF WRITER

 sheisler@ama.org

R

achel Reuben has stayed one step ahead of digital trends in higher education marketing throughout her 20-plus-year career. Her first position in higher ed was at the State University of New York at New Paltz, where she was hired in 1998 as a web editor—the first web-focused employee at the school. Websites were sparse, and even when colleges had one, they were only populated with pieces that had already run in print publications.

She convinced her superiors to form

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a web team dedicated to marketing, which she led. More than a decade ago, she shifted her powers of persuasion to social media, focusing her MBA on how higher ed institutions can benefit from the platforms. Reuben outlined how both Facebook and Twitter could be valuable tools, even in their infancy.

These days, Reuben serves higher ed beyond digital, working as a consultant who provides interim marketing support when schools are between hires. She also offers strategic counsel to marketing

teams in social media, organizational structure, budgeting and recruitment.

The nature of her work finds Reuben popping into colleges and universities both big and small, public and private, online and brick-and-mortar. Marketing News spoke with Reuben about her breadth of knowledge on higher ed marketing priorities, barriers to recruitment and why Facebook isn’t the proper channel to reach teens.

Q

What are some of the most substantial changes you’ve noticed in higher ed marketing?

A

So many schools are tightening their belts—the ones that I’ve been working with, at least. And there are changes in [required] skillsets. [Schools] really need to diversify their marketing staff to bring in a strong group of people that have varying skillsets than what was needed 10 years or even five years ago. You really need more in-house

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HIGHER ED

digital marketing experts and people who can wear a number of different hats depending on the size of the school. I’ve been noticing a lot of change in staffing, especially.

Q

Have there been any changes as to whom colleges are recruiting? Non-traditional students, part-time students, etc.?

A

I don’t think I’ve seen a shift with an individual school that I’ve worked with to say that we’re recruiting different types of students. The only thing I can say is that a number of schools I’ve worked with are really trying to recruit internationally—especially from China—and we’re having so many issues with getting visa approval. [So much so] that many schools are saying, “We better diversify our international audience by not putting all of our eggs inside China’s basket.”

Q

How do you think schools can best leverage social media these days?

A

It’s tricky. We’ve got hundreds of thousands of people following [schools] on Facebook, but different colleges have so many different audiences, especially the huge colleges.

They have current students that follow the page, they have alumni, parents, fans of their athletic teams—all these different people.

So how do you create content, not only on Facebook but all their social channels, that’s relevant? It’s getting noisier than ever, and it’s hard to really figure out where your audience is. It’s about looking at insights and analytics that are available to see who is actually the demographic of the people that are actively engaging with your content. Broadly speaking, I think eMarketer and Pew Research are both saying that Facebook is dead for undergraduate prospective students. If you’re using Facebook at all for content, [you should target] the influencers, like their parents, guidance counselors and other counselor-type people that may be

in their life [helping with] college prep.

But the undergrad prospective students that are 16-18 years old right now think Facebook is for old people.

Q

Let’s say you’ve just started a job in higher ed marketing.

What should you do on day one?

A

The first thing is getting your hands on the college’s strategic plan, assuming there is one. It’s about how the college is going to sustain itself over the next four to five years, or whatever time period it’s developed for, and what things they want to do academically. The second thing would be working with admissions or enrollment management to look at what the data shows are the seller programs that they’ve got plenty of applications for and still have capacity for—or other programs that are not hitting the capacity. It’s impossible for most schools to advertise . . . everything within their college, so it’s really about setting up a small number of priorities for the year. These three or four programs are going to get the most marketing and advertising attention for the college for the year, and see how that moves the needle.

If you’re stepping in at the VP level, get job descriptions and the organization chart for everybody on the team to start the assessment of: Do you have the right positions? Do you have the right people in the right spots? Do you have people that have other skills that are not being tapped into that could be? That’s always part of building your foundation. You need a strong team to be able to support all these different goals and strategies.

Q A

What factors make for a strong higher ed marketing team?

Collaboration and collegiality, absolutely working together. In the older days of higher ed marketing, groups were siphoned off by media, so the digital or web team with one team, the print team with another. We need more than ever to have a true integrated marketing function. They all have to work together,

projects should overlap and resources from all the different teams should come together. I’ve worked with many schools to break down the silos [that have] existed for many years.

Q A

What’s next for higher ed marketing?

We’ve been saying this for many years, so it seems crazy, but I’m still going to schools where there isn’t a real tracking of return on investment. All the things they’re doing, all the marketing wheels that are spinning . . . are they a value? Are they moving the needle? Are they [attracting] the kinds of students that they want? Are they filling the classes? There are so many different key performance indicators, [but] who is tracking all of that? There’s so much data that marketers need access to that they often don’t because of politics; in colleges, institutional research may not share, or admissions may not share. It would help inform future marketing efforts so much more, and help determine, “OK, well, this [aspect] is not worth our effort—we spent hundreds of hours on it and we’re not going to do that again.”

Q

Your website says that you “believe in the power of higher education and the profound effect it has on the lives of students and by extension the global community.”

Can you further articulate that?

A

It’s a personal thing for me. When I went to college, I had to pay for it completely myself—I wasn’t educated about loans, so I had to work full time to pay my way through college. I knew how critical it was to be able to finish and have a degree. I know how much it impacted my life. Therefore, I love being in higher education because of it. I know when we’re working with budgets, we’re ultimately working with tuition dollars someone like me worked very hard for in many cases. Or they took out a gigantic loan that they are going to pay [back] for a zillion years. I always want to be a good steward of those tuition dollars. m OCTOBER 2019 | MARKETING NEWS

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career advancement

DESIGN PARTNERSHIP

Choosing the Right Design Firm Partner for Your Brand Design firms create tangible value, from managing your brand’s identity to pinpointing consumer behavior. Here are some tips to form an ideal working relationship.

BY ELLE MORRIS

 elle@wearesnapdragon.com

Y

ou’ve just established a juicy new design project, and now you need to find the right design partner for the task. Some brands need a big agency, and sometimes a boutique agency fits the bill. But how do you know which is most appropriate for you?

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Large companies and brands have myriad resources at their disposal, including design managers, marketing directors and senior management with plenty of expertise and usually larger budgets. Even if your company has substantial internal resources, a case can be made for retaining external

agencies and design firms. Volume of work is one reason, but more importantly, retaining an external firm provides high levels of expertise, focused attention and new, creative ideas that can help grow your brand.

Small- to mid-sized companies may also have internal resources but require external, specialized agencies to provide guidance, strategy, breakthrough creative and overall management. Start-ups may attempt to manage creative brand work on their own, but often need to bring on an external agency to minimize headcount and maximize impact.

Design firms and agencies are specialized in the craft of managing a brand’s identity, including strategy, positioning, research, design, marketing communications, digital design, brand planning and identifying white-space opportunities. They are adept at understanding the intricacies of target audiences, channels, consumer behaviors, delivery methods, cultural dichotomies and local and global implications. They create real, tangible value.

Selecting a design firm is as much about chemistry (emotional) as it is about scope of work, budget and chops (rational). To begin the consideration process, I recommend creating a decision-making tree to keep the process organized, formal and objective.

Identify the Size of the Brand or Company Are you a small, regional brand that markets two or three products? A major consumer packaged goods brand that’s distributed globally? A corporate brand with a specific trade audience? Compose a detailed explanation of your brand or company, its mission and its audiences.

Define the State of Business Is your business in good health or does it face significant challenges, such as waning relevance to its legacy target? Does the brand need a revitalization? Do you seek a new consumer relationship, such as a different generation or lifestyle?

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DESIGN PARTNERSHIP

Define your white-space opportunities to better leverage the brand in unfamiliar categories and to new audiences, identifying and understanding consumer segmentation strategies. This degree of definition will help prospective agencies understand the successes, challenges and opportunities of your company or brand, and whether they may be the right fit for you.

Determine Scope of Work and Level of Partnership Do you need a firm to support ongoing or sporadic project work? Ongoing collaboration with a firm creates a stronger sense of partnership. The firm will know your business more intimately, be more likely to bring you new ideas and continually observe and audit relevant categories of business. It’s tougher to engage agencies on less frequent work, as they don’t tend to remain as invested in your brand and need time to get up to speed on your business, making them less agile and potentially less creative in their work output. The more committed your agency partner is, the more likely they are to provide 24/7 access, if that’s a requirement.

Identify a Short List of Agency or Design Firm Contenders Throughout my career, I’ve found great success tapping into peers for references and referrals of professional services.

Trustworthy peers can provide firsthand experiences working with creative agencies, which can help narrow down your list of prospective candidates.

Referral sources can also provide insight into candidates’ day-to-day relationships, communication styles, creative output and strategic thinking.

Agency Size Matters (Sometimes) Small or boutique agencies tend to be scrappier—more willing to do whatever it takes, faster and more fiscally responsive.

However, smaller firms may not have all the capabilities bigger brands need. Larger

career advancement

firms vary in size, scale and personnel layers. They can be global powerhouses with the bandwidth, extensive capabilities and local or cultural expertise that multinational brands require.

Determine Budget and Payment Structure Knowing your budget helps you understand what’s realistic for the type of firm you’ll select. Budget estimates also help agencies understand whether they’ll have the appropriate staff for the relationship and whether the budget meshes with the work required.

Retainer-based relationships are rare in today’s agency and client landscape, so understanding compensation at the onset is critical. Will the agency bill you for project-based work as accrued or will the compensation model include fees and performance-based rewards (i.e., an equity stake or a percent of sales compensation tied to business results)?

Set Staffing, Communication Preferences and Relationship Expectations Some firms will send the A-team for the pitch, but will use the B-team for projects once they score the business.

Inquire about the account lead, regular contacts and creative team lead. Clarify your preferred mode and frequency of communication. Also determine level of access: If there’s a burning issue at 8 p.m., will a call to the agency lead feel like a natural step or an annoyance?

Ongoing collaboration with a firm creates a stronger sense of partnership. The firm will know your business more intimately, be more likely to bring you new ideas and continually observe and audit relevant categories of business.

Hold a Paid Pitch ‘Shootout’ You never know what it’s like to work with a firm until you’re engaged with it.

If budget permits, narrow your list to two to three contenders and ask the firms to compete on a real project.

Your company may have other considerations, such as an agency’s location, specialized expertise or specific market segment experience, but one thing is certain: If you are purposeful about the process and invest the time, you can create a winning relationship. m OCTOBER 2019 | MARKETING NEWS

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advertisers’index

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX Quick source for contacting the suppliers in the October 2019 issue of Marketing News.

2019 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education Conference ............................... back cover URL: ama.marketing/highered2019 2019 Higher Education Marketing Services Directory ........................................ pp. 59-69 URL: ama.marketing/highered2019 Advanced School of Marketing Research .......... p. 74 URL: ama.marketing/ASMR19 AMA Foundation Awards — Williams-QuallsSpratlen Multicultural Mentoring Award of Excellence / Valuing Diversity Ph.D. Scholarship / 2018-2019 Journal Awards ........................... pp. 16-19 Calls for Nominations currently open: URL: ama.marketing/NP20 ama.marketing/4U4020 ama.marketing/Lavidge20 AMA Marketing Management Bootcamp . ....................................... inside back cover URL: ama.marketing/MiamiBootcamp AMA’s Marketing Resource Directory .................................................................. p. 69 URL: marketingresourcedirectory.ama.org AMA Professional Certified Marketer Program® . ............................................... p. 58 URL: ama.org/pcm AMA Training Series . ............................................. p. 25 URL: ama.org/trainingseries Cape Town International Convention Centre ................................................... p. 9 Email: sales@cticc.co.za URL: www.cticc.co.za Collegis Education .......................................... p. 30-33 URL: CollegisEducation.com Lipman Hearne ........................................................ p. 23 URL: lipmanhearne.com Marketing News ...................................................... p. 75 Email: sales@ama.org / URL: m ediakit.ama.org Salesforce ........................................ inside front cover URL: salesforce.com/ama OCTOBER 2019 | MARKETING NEWS

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And now a word from…

THE CHARMIN BEARS Official mascots for Charmin

STATS Organization Sloth. As in, what a group of bears is called.

Date of birth 2000 (Three cubs followed shortly after!)

Residence We split our time between the forest and our home near Charmin headquarters in Cincinnati.

Favorite bathroom reading material The Ideal Bathroom and Teddy Bear Times are faves.

Ultra Soft or Ultra Strong?

We’ve got a family of five, all with their own preferences, so we keep a good supply of both on paw.

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How did your family of bears come to represent the Charmin brand?

This may come as a surprise, but most humans have delicate sensibilities around any kind of bathroom banter.

Butt we bears aren’t shy when it comes to talking about a better bathroom experience. And singing about a “Shiny Hiney” or Charmin “Booty Smile” sounds a lot better coming from a cute and cuddly animated bear.

Your new Forever Roll (12-inch diameter) is an innovative step forward for TP. How important is sustainability to Charmin?

The forest is our home, so it’s very important to us! One hundred percent of our paper comes from responsibly managed forests. The Charmin Forever Roll eliminates

100% of plastic wrappers, reduces the amount of cardboard inner cores we use by 80% and ultimately translates into fewer trucks on the road.

For animals that typically do their duty outdoors, how come you spend so much time indoors?

Don’t get us wrong, there’s nothing better than answering the call of nature while in nature … but we’ve also become accustomed to the niceties that indoor living provides. Luckily, Charmin travels well, so we can enjoy the go regardless of our environment!

Any potty-training tips to share?

Be a “roll” model for your cubs! They are little sponges, so it’s

important to repeatedly demonstrate the process of wiping, flushing and washing your paws. And be generous with praise.

It takes time to learn, so encourage them along the way and celebrate the big milestones—like when they realize how much better their bums feel using Charmin.

What makes you so enthusiastic about proper bathroom etiquette?

In this modern world, bathrooms tend to be the last bastion of solitude. A few minutes of “me time” in the bathroom is all some people get, so we want those few minutes to be the best, cleanest and most enjoyable experience possible.

—JULIAN ZENG

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