We’ve searched for the most pressing marketing news so you don’t have to. Here’s what’s happening so far the week of February 10th.
Customer retention demands that brands build customer loyalty, which in turn means that consumers feel that they have a relationship with the brand.
Why it matters: These helpful suggestions gear the reader toward building a loyal base of repeat-shoppers, with aspects from measuring loyalty to building programs around it and developing a sense of community covered. The time is right, now that “It’s harder than ever to hold onto customers, who can shop online with any brand at any time.”
If you’re outwardly positioning your brand as a force for good, you’d better walk the walk internally, too.
Why it matters: Brands whose values are more than mindless accrual are successful when the goal isn’t simply just touting brand-purpose, but rather, baking it into the operational structure of a business and extending purpose to employees. The results can be manifold, including the ability to attract better talent and retain it.
A muddled DTC market and the quest for fashionable freshness mean more differentiation in branding and design. And that means more creative assets generated.
Why it matters: Good design creates copycats. How are you differentiating your DTC brand design from others in its category?
Kraft Heinz is boosting their media spending by 30 percent (see: Super Bowl commercials for Planters and Heinz ketchup) while “narrowing its number of creating agencies,” reports Marketing Dive.
Why it matters: Kraft Heinz’s latest moves could be a bellwether for the CPG industry at large. More popular Kraft Heinz brands, or those with marketing momentum, will see a boost from the media increase. Note also that creative agencies they are working with have dropped from 36 to 19 in an effort to improve efficiency.
How can we elevate marketing’s reputation when it has been in a decades-long decline?
Why it matters: Marketing’s positive influence is on the chopping block and the CMO role is looked at with skepticism and criticism. It’s an existential crisis for the position, but all is not lost: it’s time to regain consumer (and C-suite) trust.
CMOs should complement their marketing skills with technical and analytics chops due to the data deluge organizations are facing as technology advances.
Why it matters: The often-discussed evolution of duties associated with the CMO position necessitates that marketers have a grasp of data collection and analysis practices.
Hard-earned lessons from the demise of DTC darling Brandless.
Why it matters: Legacy brands adopting DTC tactics should heed the recent failures of brands in that category.
As marketers, simplification is a necessary heuristic. Seeing the patterns shouldn’t obscure the complete picture, though. Here’s a handy guide for keeping the human front-and-center of what you do.
Why it matters: On the other side of the work of marketing, beyond the morass of data and the diet of buzzwords and acronyms is ultimately a human interaction.
OOH is having a moment and AdQuick is evidence of renewed investment in a space where brokers are needed.
Why it matters: OOH is picking up as brands spend offline due to Google and Facebook’s duopoly of dominance when it comes to online channels.
Chief Marketer shares five ways to help global brands succeed in diverse local markets.
Why it matters: Don’t let your brand get lost in translation when marketing internationally.
L’Oreal is investing in tech incubation to develop new ways for consumers to personalize products, moving the beauty brand toward a more direct relationship with consumers and giving them greater domain over user data.
Why it matters: “Traditionally, store retailers have held consumers’ data and shared it with manufacturers only on a need-to-know basis.” Data is powerful and L’Oreal has accounted for owning that power, not ceding it to retailers as has been the case in the past.
Tiffany’s is experimenting with installations and partnerships in their new test space, a vacant spot next door to Tiffany & Co. while the flagship store space undergoes a 2-year renovation.
Why it matters: “One of the great things about doing the temporary space is we can learn, trial and test—and build some of those learnings into the flagship store.”
With shipping delays and unsatisfactory 2020 first quarter earnings, it’s not looking too hot for Under Armour.
Why it matters: A major sore spot for the brand is its DTC strategy (not to mention shipping woes blamed on the spread of coronavirus) which has yielded less growth than expected.
Deloitte finds that there’s a lack of communication and trust between CMOs and the rest of the C-suite.
Why it matters: Who “owns” the digital transformation conversation? Who is responsible for customer experience? Deloitte’s survey results may give you pause when questioning whether your colleagues in the C-suite have a good understanding of where you fit on the team and what you are responsible for as chief marketing officer.
The ins and outs of experiential marketing: what it is and why it works.
Why it matters: Experiential marketing is an effective tool if used properly. Get a ground-floor explanation of the concept and how it’s being used by brand marketers to move the needle today.
Audience-based advertising is in crisis and contextual advertising may not be enough to fill attribution gaps. Where do we go from here?
Why it matters: “How long have we seen the regulation freight train coming? Twelve years? Now it’s here, and all behavior has to change.”
What’s old is new (or at least effective) again.
Retail campaigns with catalogs outperform those that only rely on email due to a number of factors including cluttered, competitive inboxes and the vividness of a product’s potential use-cases within the glossy pages of a real-to-life catalog.
Why it matters: “Based on our research, we recommend that e-retailers that sell products that people purchase for fun, pleasure, and excitement to consider investing in aesthetic designs and experimenting with the catalog mailings.”
Lisa Macpherson’s research is centered around technology’s divisive impact and the force of the advertising business model on empathy and connection.
Why it matters: It’s important to examine the industry we inhabit, especially given the strong connection between society and digital technology.
A look behind the work that Cadillac’s CMO is doing to widen the brand’s target audience with a new manifesto.
Why it matters: Cadillac’s reimagined manifesto laid the groundwork for its 2021 “Make Your Way” campaign.
BoF shares an analysis of four DTC brand launches.
Why it matters: While what DTC is exactly has been a topic for debate, this much is true: Direct-to-consumer marketing has altered retail and is being changed itself. Learn from four brands launching into a world where the model has “lost some of its lustre.”
Around 70 percent of total US smart speaker users are expected to use an Amazon Echo device, according to the latest estimates from eMarketer.
Why it matters: eMarketer’s principal analyst, Victoria Petrock, notes that despite market expectations for Google and Apple, Amazon’s Echo device remains dominant in the US through continuous Alexa feature updates and affordability.
The biggest hurdles to dealing with data on a foundational level are cultural, not technical.
Why it matters: Companies may have mountains of data, but that matters little if they don’t have the culture to use it effectively.
“Integrated, experiential marketing is the next era. Let the rise of the experiences begin.”
Why it matters: HBR’s projection about what’s next in marketing takes stock of the evolution of thinking in the industry from “billboard philosophy,” to accounting for digital technology and finally, to focusing on experiences.
Abercrombie & Fitch is changing its image by taking a divergent approach in their new fragrance campaign: body positivity.
Why it matters: Abercrombie & Fitch, as far as their branding has been concerned heretofore, have not been historically accepting of less-than-sculpted body types. But that doesn’t mean the 127-year-old brand can’t evolve with the changing times.
Hear from other CMOs about their top concerns as well as advice on tackling these challenges.
Why it matters: You’re not alone out there. It’s imperative to put an ear to the ground and take note from industry peers to avoid reinventing the wheel.
Editor’s Note: Our weekly reading list is updated daily. This installment is updated until Friday, February 14. Have a tip? We’re looking for must-read articles related to trends and insights in marketing and media. Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.
