Crikey! That healthcare legislation was a wee bit contentious. 

One thing we can all agree on is that it will be tough for marketers to predict precisely how the new laws will affect consumer and stakeholder behavior.  Simply put, the sheer complexity of the US healthcare system makes prediction difficult.  Moreover, legislation this sweeping will almost certainly yield unintended consequences, thereby increasing the levels of unpredictability.

How should marketers cope?  Try these two tools.  Read More »

Let’s face it – as the frontline for cutbacks in consumer spending, traditional retail has suffered through a miserable two years. Abercrombie & Fitch gambled that higher prices would keep its panache and lost terribly. Sears Holdings’ stores had their best quarter since 2005 – with a 2.3% year-on-year same store sales decline. Even the McDonald’s ‘I’m lovin’ it’ juggernaut stumbled to a 0.7% same store sales decrease this January. Does the rest of 2010 provide any hope for recovery? And if so, can retailers take advantage of it? Read More »

Customer churn is a perennial problem, particularly for those in service and utility businesses.  When it comes to solutions, it’s easy to get into an internal rut.  Practices, processes and metrics build up over time to support a particular worldview of churn.  The worldview works for a time, but retention gains inevitably flatten as competitors replicate the approach and the business evolves.

We often find that fresh ideas from outside the industry can catalyze new, healthy thinking about churn.  Here are a few ideas to hopefully freshen your thinking: Read More »

A few weeks ago, I pulled 10 nuggets from The Economist’s special report on social media. Fittingly, The Economist followed that this week with a special report on managing information.

Managing and making best use of all the data trails that consumers create via digital and social media is critical for marketers (see this prior post on managing information richness). This capability is one of a few that will separate winning marketing functions (and even enterprises) from losing ones in the next 3-5 years.

So, without further delay, here are 10 of my favorite takeaways from the report. Read More »

Very rarely does one member conversation spark a complex web of issues, but one yesterday with a senior marketer at a consumer firm in a mature industry did just that.

The firm has reconfigured its entire new product development process, from stage gates, to resource allocation, to organizational structure and ultimately, the locus of innovation – a conscious shift from incremental to disruptive.  Simultaneously, the company placed brand management among its top priorities for the year.  Our dialogue quickly turned to the intersection of the two and which was actually driving the bus. Read More »

Marketers would be remiss to ignore the U.S. political events of the past week. Scott Brown’s upset victory in Massachusetts’ Senate race removed the air of inevitability from health care reform. President Obama’s plan for a tax on the largest financial institutions sent the Dow plummeting 5% across three sessions. As December home resale data proved less than stellar, the administration announced a wind-down of federal support for mortgage rates – potentially a double blow to that sector’s recovery. Let me back up: why should marketers care?

Political affiliations aside, government touches more elements of our consumer-driven economy than ever before. One policy change here, another there, ripples through the system with unprecedented speed (like perhaps, an unintended consequence). If banks feel less wealthy as a result of taxation and more limited mortgage support, the less likely they are to expand credit. Tighter credit, as we saw vividly in the fourth quarter of 2008, leads to lower business investment and greater consumer savings – starting another cycle of money removed from our economy exactly at the time it needs capital injected.

Senior leadership teams don’t want excuses, though. After two years of stumbles, most executives look to 2010 for growth. Yet the number of extraneous variables affecting that potential growth is incredibly high, hence marketers’ collective uncertainty. Just take several possible scenarios that could happen across 2010: Read More »

By Whitney Satin

Frank Sinatra famously crooned that love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage.  Little did he know that, in an ironic bit of pop culture repurposing, the song would come to signify the often hostile—though ultimately committed—relationship between Peggy and Al Bundy in the TV sitcom Married … With Children.

Dysfunctional?  Yes.   Mutually dependent?  Absolutely.

The same can be said of Sales and Marketing.  The two functions often butt heads behind closed doors, but their cooperation and interconnectedness is necessary to achieve key business objectives.  Of course, getting the two groups on the same page is often easier said than done.  We typically see breakdowns in the following areas: Read More »

After my gloomy 2009 retrospective, I thought I’d try for a cheery 2010 prognostication. Then I looked at the unemployment rate, continued declines in construction spending, the looming bust of commercial real estate and quickly recalled why I’m a self-described realist (others call it cynic, take your pick).

So how about an even-handed assessment of things to watch for in 2010? Even the cynic can provide that.  Here are three big macroeconomic and marketing-specific trends every marketer should follow in earnest: Read More »

By Tasneen Padiath

I’m no wine connoisseur, so the marketer in me kicked in on a recent trip to my local liquor store.  I considered the attributes I wanted – under $15, preferably red, not too sweet or fruity, a familiar brand name and something that connotes a fun experience. Faced with an array of wines from California to Chile, from Merlot to Bordeaux, I was struck by the enormous difficulty marketers face in differentiating their brands and creating a connection with consumers in the moment.

Granted, I was probably a little outside of the target segment for most wine makers, but what would have altered my decision? A catchy label or even a suggestion from one of the sales people could have nudged me in a different direction. The lesson for me here: while there is immense opportunity to influence a brand decision before a consumer goes shopping, the importance of the in-store experience—whether through product placement, point of purchase signage or a well trained store employee—cannot be minimized. Read More »

The economic outlook has forced most marketers to make some of the toughest resourcing decisions of their professional lives. But this is all going to get easier next year, right? Not really. Findings from our 2009 Marketing Investment Benchmarks Survey reveals that marketers do not expect their companies to loosen their purse strings in 2010.

Results from our tenth annual survey show that in 2009, spend on channels conducive to driving consideration (website, social media, direct mail, PR) held flat or grew; while spend on channels that primarily drive awareness (broadcast, print, online display ads) declined in comparison to 2008. The question we asked was what is driving this trend? Read More »