Localism’s potential is limited by the scale needed to innovate
Helen EdwardsThe pandemic has accentuated consumers’ already strong affinity for local brands, but innovation budgets remain big brands’ advantage.
Helen Edwards
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Coronavirus offers big brands the chance to think like a ‘re-startup’
Helen EdwardsActing like a startup is never usually realistic for large corporates, but the Covid crisis now requires these companies to reassess many of their first principles.
Irreplaceability is the ultimate goal of a brand
Helen EdwardsAs marketers work from home and strive to make sense of their marketing priorities, there is a case to be made for optimism, pragmatism and perspective.
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B2B marketing is hard, as those who cross over know
Helen EdwardsB2B marketing can be great because the size of the opportunity is great but marketers must also realise it is a test of both flexibility and endurance.
Embracing doubt helps you do things differently
Helen EdwardsIf you are wondering whether you have the confidence to make it in the marketing industry, remember to listen to in-vogue marketing mantra less and the consumer a bit more.
Marketing’s claim to the C-suite is more than strong enough
Helen EdwardsMarketing is infuriatingly hard to articulate, and apt to languish unnoticed and unappreciated by those in harder-edged corporate roles. It can, however, make the difference between a corporation and its brands hobbling along the ground or soaring up into the stratosphere.
Here’s what I hope will change in 2020
Helen EdwardsA change of decade carries with it a weight of hopes and predicted changes. Here’s my wish list of the ways I hope marketing will be better in 2020.
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Even the simplest metrics require forensic analysis
Helen EdwardsMarketing metrics have a tendency to tell you how you’re doing without telling you what to do and to exist within something infinitely more complex.
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‘Buccaneering’ British business is just a political fantasy
Helen EdwardsWhy are British politicians so content to use the language of pirates to shed light on business?
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Great marketers don’t sell dreams, they sell realities
Helen EdwardsMarketers who incorporate data into storytelling to explain the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘why’ will have a far greater chance of engaging listeners.
Marketing needs to go back to extreme basics
Helen EdwardsBefore climbing up the benefits ladder marketers need to focus on getting the simple things right.
Being a ‘me-too’ brand is more desirable than it sounds
Helen EdwardsIt’s all very well being differentiated, disruptive and revolutionary, but if your main competitor makes a meaningful improvement, your brand will drop behind if you don’t follow suit.
There’s no perfect method for measuring creative
Helen EdwardsAs the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity draws to an end for another year, many marketers will be patting themselves on the back for wins at the awards. But are they really measuring the effectiveness of their creativity?
Vision and purpose should stand above commercial considerations
Helen EdwardsAsking whether purpose will increase market share is the wrong question. But brands all have a deep-seated vision, which marketers should dust off and use to inspire their approach to innovating for, and engaging with, consumers.
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It’s midlife consumers who most need brands’ love
Helen EdwardsMarketers could do worse than reflect on both the substantive and affective trials of those aged 35 to 55 and find ways to contribute positively to both.