According to some, the world is in a state of stagnation when it comes to innovation. Last year, in reaction to that, I asked if there weren’t still pieces of low-hanging fruit in management – are there things that innovation processes don’t consider? Places managers don’t look for innovative ideas?

We’ve noted that ideas and products that derive from customer-focused innovation processes are most likely to survive and succeed in the marketplace, so part of our recently-launched Marketer’s Playbook is a section on innovating with customers in mind. We think if you can convincingly cover all three of these bases, you’ll be well on your way to creating great, consumer-focused innovations: Read More »

For a very long time, Coca-Cola has been at the forefront of global marketing. An American company, headquartered in Atlanta, created a brand that’s recognized around the globe – and, in the process, has learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t.

That’s why we decided to take a look at Coke’s Open Happiness campaign, an initiative launched in 2009 with the aim of reinforcing the Coke brand around the world. Iterating on a theme of “Coke = happiness”, Coke and their agency, Weiden + Kennedy, developed an integrated campaign – including in-store, print, music, mobile, digital, social, outdoor and some very innovative event elements – that was ultimately localized to every region of the globe.

But plenty of brands have tried to do such a thing – develop a comprehensive, integrated campaign that spans geographies – and have failed. Why did Coke succeed? We think it had to do with two things: Read More »

A picture can say a thousand words – it does sound clichéd.  Marketers who engage in visual marketing realize the fact that images are more impactful at conveying information than elaborate messaging. So how can marketers use the power of imagery to further their marketing objectives? Presented below are four lessons on how companies can leverage the power of visual marketing to their advantage: Read More »

As I’m sure most know, we at MLC have been knee deep in our 2012 research project for a few months now (check out what it’s about! and register for the meeting!). Roughly speaking, we’re looking at ways marketing organizations can best take advantage of sustainable evolving demand – emphasis on the sustainable. In other words, we’ve surmised that the best thing marketers can do in an era of evolving expectations is not to chase daily fads but is focus on new demand that is long-lasting. Determining sustainability, of course, is a lot easier said than done.

In any case, in the process of looking into what kinds of things marketers can do to identify sustainable demand, we started thinking about what it is, exactly, that marketers do in general. We basically are starting to think that all marketing activities can be filed into one of two buckets: Read More »

Segmentation is one of those things that marketing organizations have to get right. Poorly-designed or outdated segmentation schemes can result in irrelevant marcomms, lost sales, dissatisfied customers and worse. Most marketers consider segmentation a top priority, yet few have reaped the benefits that segmentation can provide. They often struggle to clearly define segmentation objectives, select the right segmentation methods, and execute segmentation across the organization.

When we launched The Marketer’s Playbook, our new resource for marketers looking to get up to speed on modern approaches to the key challenges of the discipline, we knew segmentation had to be a huge part of it. So we put together a resource designed to help marketers do three things, where you’ll hear from companies like LG, Best Buy, Reynolds and Reynolds and FedEx:

Define segmentation objectives. You’ll learn how to gather cross-functional input on segmentation objectives, ensuring that all functions have a say and that segmentation is aligned to functional needs. It’ll also get you buy-in from executives before you begin studying the ways you can segment your customers – something that will avoid a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth down the road.

Selecting segmentation methods. You’ll learn how to select the segmentation method that best fits your organization. Because segmentation models vary in their sophistication, ease of implementation, and resource intensity, there’s no one model that will work for every organization. Our resources will help you pick from a few commonly-used segmentation methods.

Executing segmentation. Once you’ve picked out your method, it’s time to put it in play! You’ll learn how to embed the knowledge you gain from segmentation throughout the organization. Inability to translate segment knowledge into actionable steps for key stakeholders often causes segmentation initiatives to stall, lose momentum, or fail altogether. Our resources will help you prevent segmentation initiatives from breaking down and embed segment voice into the workflows of cross-functional stakeholders.

Please check out our playbook for segmentation, and don’t hesitate to peruse through the whole thing, where you can also learn about topics like thought leadership, performance measurement, and customer understanding.

As marketers, we tend to get damn near messianic about the web. We eagerly consume books by Clay Shirky, Seth Godin and others about the great things connectedness is doing for humankind, we (if we’re honest) spend a lot more time thinking about social than we do our other channels, and we generally have an optimistic view of the kinds of things this technology enables.

I’m generally in line with those views, to be honest, although I’m a lot more skeptical than most. And so it’s interesting to be reminded every now and then that not all connectedness is good, and that sometimes people who do destructive things are aided and abetted by the internet. For instance, after grappling with a community of pro-anorexia, pro-”cutting” (self-mutilation) users on the site, Tumblr recently decided to change its terms of service to prohibit “self-harm”-oriented Tumblrs.

Doing this might seem obvious, but it’s a real conundrum. The internet being the internet, there will always be a place for folks interested in self-harm to congregate. It’s impossible to get rid of discussion of any topic entirely. But, having the discussion centrally hosted on a company of Tumblr’s stature gives authorities an opportunity to intervene and try to prevent truly self-destructive behavior from taking place. Suicide intervention, in particular, is enormously successful; a well-timed ad on a pro-suicide Tumblr might be enough to steer someone away from going through with their plan. No such intervention is possible on the myriad, decentralized discussion forums that self-harm oriented Tumblr users surely gravitated to after the announcement of the new policy.

Tumblr ultimately decided that keeping self-harm accounts online was worse for its brand and for those who might be susceptible to self-harm; it’s a decision I can respect, if not necessarily agree with. But as communities become a more important element of the mix, and better social listening gives insight into exactly what our consumers are doing with our products, it’s a conundrum that’s coming to haunt marketers, too.

So, what should we keep in mind when it comes to potentially-destructive behaviors on brand-owned sites? Here’s what I think:

Does it harm others? If a destructive behavior is about, well, destructing other people – physically, emotionally, or even in their enjoyment of certain activities – get rid of it. Nike+ shouldn’t tolerate threads on their discussion boards involving knocking down race competitors, for instance; General Mills shouldn’t allow community posts disparaging Indian food; and PetsMart should report conversations involving training fighting dogs.

If it’s about harming themselves – can you help? “Pro-ana” content is all over the internet, and since weight and body image issues intersect with so many other aspects of our lives, pro-ana perspectives are bound to pop up on brand-owned communities. Nike+, cooking-oriented communities, and other are all vulnerable to this.

The key thing to consider is if the brand can help. If you, as a community manager, have the bandwidth to intervene when folks talk about harming themselves – or if you believe your community will direct those folks to help – then keeping the discussion going is likely better than banning it; if you don’t, then banning discussion of those topics is probably the next best alternative.

The web can be an immensely liberating place, but sometimes it isn’t. What is your brand doing about the dark side of the web?

If you’re like most MLC members, you sell stuff all over the world. But is your brand truly global?

That’s the question we asked ourselves about companies as we developed our Global Marketing Resource Center, the latest in a series of super-cool resources designed to get marketers thinking about how they can make their efforts more fruitful and contribute more to corporate goals.

The resource center features a two key areas that will get you thinking about ways to truly integrate global perspectives into your marketing and branding efforts:

Global Marketing Anatomy. Based on hundreds of hours of conversations with the brands that have done global best, we’ve isolated 27 attributes of a best-in-class global marketing organization. If you get those things right, you’ll reap the rewards of a global presence; if not, you’ll be leaving money and global expertise on the table. We’ve also developed an organizational survey that accompanies the anatomy; it’s free for MLC members, and will produce a custom report outlining strengths, weaknesses, and top priorities, as well as an action plan for getting the job done. Contact your account manager for details on launching the survey.

Global Marketing Showcase. We’re also building out a database of best-in-class global marketing examples, designed to provide some creative spark. So far, we’ve got examples from Coca-Cola, Levi’s, Sony, and Aviva – and we’re always on the hunt for more. If you think your brand has done a great global campaign in the last few years, please let me know!

Stay tuned for more from us in the coming weeks on global. In the meantime, enjoy the new resource!

This year at SxSW you could feel a tension running below the surface of almost every session we attended: the next generation is coming and brands had better be ready for them if they want to survive. This may be overstating things a bit, and yet it’s true that the demands Gen Y and Gen Z will place on brands will differ dramatically than previous generations.

These generations increasingly expect connectivity and immediacy to be a part of almost everything that they do. Adam Edmunds, CEO of Alliance and the speaker at a session called “Gen Y&Z Expectations to Transform Customer Experience” used the illustrative example of his own son: the idea of “live TV” simply does not make sense to his five-year-old. Despite multiple attempts to clarify, this little boy cannot wrap his mind around the fact that he is unable to fast forward through the commercials. Now, you may think that it will be some years yet before that child is the one with the wallet, but be prepared for an entire generation of them that expects to be able to manipulate experiences to suit them. Read More »

Insurance is one of the few things you buy hoping never to use. Dollar for dollar, you’d rather avoid mayhem than have Allstate (or your insurer of choice) catch you when you fall.

If we want to understand what makes the best insurance company, it pays to understand how consumers define their relationship to their insurer. Shoulder to cry on? Professional advisor? Or just service provider? Given the fluffy nature of sentiments, the only way we could make this more concrete is to have people tradeoff different sets of characteristics because in a perfect world we all want the cheap plan with extensive coverage that pays every cent while also offering timely advice.

Our particular focus is on health insurance, since flood or car insurance is less universally applicable. The way the exercise is conducted consists of us mixing and matching the insurance characteristics in the background via algorithm while respondents go through the survey picking their favorite plan out of each set of choices presented. By the time they’re done, they have implicitly drawn a preference curve and it tells us the things they care about: Read More »

The marketing planning process is – judging from our conversations with members to the traffic on our website – one of the stickiest parts of managing brands. And, when you think about it, it makes sense; good marketing planning requires organizational knowledge of consumers, channel partners, and internal capabilities – three things we know marketing organizations never have enough knowledge about.

MLC members have shared with us a number of key best practices in this space, and the dominant theme of them all is simplicity – acknowledging that brands can’t plan for every eventuality, and equipping teams to be resonant no matter what happens in the market. It’s the principle behind MasterCard’s Plan on a Page, for instance; keeping the plan simple not only allows the team to spend time actually doing marketing, but it also allows them to stay flexible if market situations change.

Knowing that planning is the biggest pain point for a lot of our members, we’ve created a special section of the Marketer’s Playbook devoted entirely to planning, complete with video guides, links to case studies and toolkits we’ve put together, and other resources that will help you be the best planner you can be. To summarize our advice, becoming a rockstar marketing planner requires two things:

Understanding marketing planning. It sounds simple, but understanding the theoretical and practical underpinnings of planning before you begin to plan is essential. Our resource center talks about what challenges you’ll face internally and externally, how to align your marketing plan with corporate strategy, and how to identify the limits of planning will help you avoid pitfalls as you actually begin to craft your plan.

Building an actionable plan. So, you understand what planning’s all about – now it’s time to put the thing together. Our resource center will help you prioritize which opportunities to include in the plan, secure buy-in from cross-functional peers during and after the planning process, and use internal communications strategies to drive marketing plan acceptance and adoption.

MLC members – be sure to check out the Marketer’s Planning Playbook!