Time to treat marketers as a profession
I agree with Secret Marketer’s comments about the seemingly lack of professionalism in the marketing industry. All marketers will experience creating strategies, projects and campaigns only for colleagues to disagree with the ideas believing they can also ‘do marketing’. However, if an agency says the same, colleagues will agree with it as the agency is the ‘expert’. So why aren’t marketers treated the same? Is it because our membership schemes have not worked hard enough to represent us better? People do not argue with those in professions that carry title membership in other industries. I think the CIM and IDM must work harder to represent our industry and raise marketing as a professional industry.
Maxine Poole, marketing manager, ACPO Secured by Design
Creating the unexpected
A low-profile, pre-launch marketing strategy (Change of rhythm) is fine if you are an artist or brand considered to be a big deal. The reason why the Beyoncé and Prince tactics work is because they are unexpected.
Activity that closes the space between brands and people, creating a slow burn rather than single explosive activities, is more effective.
So, as usual in our industry, it is not about finding ‘a low-profile pre-launch strategy’ that will work for your brand, it is about creating the unexpected to gain impact or build closer relationships with your fanbase or consumer.
Mat O’Brien, creative director, Space
Loyalty needs rethinking
With networks pouring money into loyalty schemes, but only 12 per cent of UK phone owners signed up to them, the sector needs a radical rethink (Mobile Loyalty Initiatives). The personal and location based data that all mobile phone operators can access, married with social data to understand competitive factors in real time – it must be possible to build more personalised intent-based offer programmes. If your friend bought a Samsung Galaxy S5 and has been posting about its 24-hour battery life, then marries this information to your comments in social media about your handset’s low battery-life – this triggers your network to send you a personalised offer for a longer-lasting handset.
The technology just about exists for this to be a reality, but it requires a systematic approach to the information to be integrated, key insights gathered and fed into automated marketing systems.
Kate Cox, managing partner, strategies & ideas, Havas Media
Superbrand confidence
For many, it came as a surprise that British Airways topped the Superbrands survey. After all, it was up against some of the mainstays that could be argued are far more aspirational and synonymous with today’s consumer culture. Nevertheless, the residual goodwill from its association with the 2012 Olympic Games and the steadying of its reputation through a turbulent industry has injected a tangible confidence in the brand. We can all take our hats off to boisterous branding but the true value of the Superbrand status is the revolutionary re-engagement of BA’s stakeholders. They now wear their ‘To fly. To serve’ badges with pride and it is this pride that makes the words active and where premium customer service becomes a reality, not a promise.
Claudia Shanahan, communications consultant
