Customer closeness used to enable marketers to conduct the orchestra of the marketing mix but too many now are woefully under-prepared and under-trained to play this vital role.
As the DTC sector matures, direct-to-consumer brands are borrowing strategy ideas from established brands, and vice versa, as they look to build sustainable businesses.
Good morning and welcome to Marketing Week’s round-up of the news that matters in the marketing world today.
Facebook wants to educate people on privacy, but going to Facebook for a privacy check-up is like asking David Cameron for advice on Brexit.
A focus on social content and partnerships is allowing Three to engage with customers in new and immersive ways.
As assumptions around gender are being challenged like never before, brands have an important role to play in shaping a more inclusive world. But they must look beyond a commercial lens if they want to be a force for good.
Online auction giant eBay is extending its customer-centric approach to help SMEs in Wolverhampton revive the struggling high street.
Story of my CV: Having carved out a career that specialises in digital and data across sectors as diverse as retail, automotive and travel, Chris Chalmers is clear about the value of variety on the path to becoming marketing director.
Effectiveness is a matter of marketing management. A framework is the best way to ensure brands are doing the right thing, not just doing things right.
When it comes to customer insight, all to often marketers go in knowing what they want the answer to be, but becoming a better questioner is a skill that can be learnt.
Ovo Energy has outlined a number of new measures to reduce the carbon impact of its marketing, but its director of brand and marketing acknowledges this might be easier said than done.
In spite of a challenged high street, retailers lead YouGov BrandIndex’s brand health rankings, while Netflix takes the top spot for most improved.
Tom Fishburne is founder of Marketoon Studios. Follow his work at marketoonist.com or on Twitter @tomfishburne See more of the Marketoonist here
We arm marketers with all the numbers they need to tackle the week ahead.
McCain says its focus on diversity has had a real impact on the business, not just on brand perceptions but also its internal make-up.
Unrivalled coverage, alongside practical advice
With investment in customer research on the decline, marketers are not addressing the basics, let alone testing new techniques like behavioural science, which means brands are missing what consumers want.
HelloFresh believes it is in a strong position when it comes to consumer insight as it has direct relationships with its customers.
Marketers often talk about their desire to be more customer-centric, but it won’t be achieved by cutting corners. Brands must invest both time and money to get it right.
Most businesses try to put consumers at the heart of what they do, but many fall short because actually being customer-centric often means making business decisions that seem counter-intuitive.
Philadelphia and Volkswagen became the first brands to have ads banned under the ad regulator’s new gender rules this week but the decisions have raised questions over whether the guidelines go too far.
The new rules around harmful gender stereotypes have caused brands to rethink how they portray gender in advertising and look more closely at the make-up of their own teams, says Diageo’s Andrew Geoghegan
Zero-based budgeting hurts long-term brand-building, while advertising-to-sales ratios are entirely arbitrary. There’s a much better, ‘two-speed’ way to set marketing budgets.
Digital Shift: The changing martech landscape and horizontal innovation
From the ever-changing martech landscape and the rise of brands looking to innovate horizontally to the changing face of retail and the real impact of 5G, this Digital Shift report from Econsultancy covers all the hottest topics in digital marketing. Click below to listen to the accompanying webinar. Listen to the webinar
1. Foreword When I ask senior marketers to tell me what marketing framework they are most familiar with, they often suggest the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion). This model was first published in 1960 by American marketing professor Edmund Jerome McCarthy in his book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. This was in an era of […]
1. Foreword Before the launch of the iPhone in 2007, and for some years after that, ‘mobile’ was perceived as a standalone channel, deserving a dedicated strategy, budget and team. Now that ‘mobile’ has become infused into every aspect of digital marketing, no longer considered as a distinct channel, do marketers still need a standalone […]
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Gillette Labs will focus on attracting smart tech enthusiasts as the brand looks to engage younger consumers through a new purpose and different routes to market.
Marketing Week Explores: As brands strive to develop the next big innovation, the best strategy for success could be to collaborate with partners and search for ideas from across the entire organisation.
By uniting marketing and innovation under the remit of global CMO Pedro Earp, AB InBev has cut development timelines from two years to just 36 days.
Disney is ramping up focus on its new subscription service Disney+ by hiring Sky’s former CMO to head its direct-to-consumer business in Europe.
Sonia Sudhakar still struggles to speak up, but she wants young marketers to understand that showing vulnerability when asking questions is not a weakness, it’s an intellectual strength.
Danone’s first global CMO in a decade has overhauled marketing to create a new vision for the company that calls on brands to “be bold or die”.
The beauty industry is a saturated market, meaning a stand-out product or interesting story is no longer enough to succeed as consumers become increasingly demanding and more digitally-savvy than ever before.
Over the past few years, a digital revolution has been taking place in the financial services industry that has upended consumers’ expectations of customer service and left some incumbents scrambling to catch up.
Automotive brands are innovating the customer experience through digital technology: these are the trends that look set to impact the industry in future.
Our new video series on marketing effectiveness in B2B begins with Genpact’s Neil Dowling, explaining why disruption needs to be part of the marketing team’s psyche.
At a roundtable hosted by Marketing Week in partnership with Facebook, marketers debated the cost of hindering consumers on the way to making a purchase, and how brands can keep them coming back with smooth, hassle-free experiences.
The financial services sector may be big and cumbersome, but brands are using an increasing number of data sources, focusing more on customer experience and engaging more customers in real time than ever before.
‘Queen of shops’ Mary Portas believes retail is entering an exciting period where innovation is key and the future of the high street depends on community, connections and removing ‘friction’.
