Springing Into Life: Does Your Brand Need to Revitalize?
In the Northern Hemisphere, the spring season is upon us. Spring is known as a time of rebirth. The brand world is not all too different from the world of living organisms. Like all living things, brands need to be cared for in order to demonstrate signs of vitality. This is the essence of the product life cycle, a fundamental marketing concept. Brands are developed, grown, and reach the state of maturity. A challenge comes in the latter part of the maturity stage, which is avoiding the onset of a brand decline. Through revitalization, brands can extend the spring like Read More
Solving The Low Interest Rate Dilemma
On March 14th, I posted The Low Interest Rate Dilemma, which detailed how the current low interest rate environment is impacting the insurance industry. At the upcoming Life Insurance Conference, this is going to be a significant topic. Low interest rates are affecting pricing, the price-value proposition of product offerings and a variety of corporate finance aspects of these companies. With regard to life insurance, some of the product offerings are rather complex financial instruments, but one commonality is that no matter how they are structured, they are negatively impacted by low interest rates. Generally, these policies invest policyholder premiums Read More
Is Non Participation in Social Media a Great Danger?
Trade publication “Insurance & Technology” recently featured an article about social media’s dangers. The article cited a quote from a VP at a life insurance company and a consultancy in the insurance industry. There was some alignment in their perspectives. The VP at the life insurance company stated that “the value in terms of selling” for social media hasn’t “warranted a huge investment.” The consultancy discussed the dangers in the social media space, but also mentioned social media monitoring as having value. What the executive in the life insurance company said may hold value in their organization. At the time Read More
Bridging The Advertising Trust Gap
A report from Forrester Research, based on survey responses from 58,000 respondents, indicates what could be perceived as a severe advertising trust gap. The data indicated that 70% of consumers trust brand recommendations from friends but only 10% trust advertising messages. At first glance, this may seem like a significant deficiency for brand advertisers and a substantial knock of the process of advertising itself. While there is relevance in this snippet of data, it does not spell doom for advertising. I expect advertising to be around in some form 100 years from today. Certainly, this is nothing new. There’s often Read More
Research Indicates Importance of Distributed Marketing Management Software
Content distribution is a key concern for marketers. Recent research from Gleanster and the CMO Council has reinforced this notion. For instance: A significant percentage of companies are having difficulty finding balance between corporate marketing and local marketing efforts. Recent research from Gleanster noted that 93% of distributed marketing organizations cited the conflicting needs of local marketers and corporate marketing as one of the biggest challenges. CMO Council data indicates that 61% of marketers they surveyed felt that local customization of content would be a high priority during 2013. Use of technology has corporate & local marketers at odds. Separate Read More
Why Multi-Channel? 5 Places Where You Need To Be
Visa ads once had a famous tagline of “It’s Everywhere You Want To Be”. So where is the everywhere that brand marketers want to be? Simply everywhere, or as close to everywhere within reason. One of the key challenges of the present era in marketing is changing the mindset from single channel to multi-channel. Brand marketers need to stop thinking about marketing communications efforts in a single setting and think more fully about how the efforts are going to integrate holistically. How will the pieces of the puzzle fit together? Here are the 5 basic components of a multi-channel digital Read More
Why Brands Should Not Pass on Local Customization
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will begin in earnest on Thursday, but the field of teams was chosen yesterday. The tournament is a noteworthy event in the annual cultural calendar, particularly in places where college basketball is closely followed by a significant portion of the population. This represents a tremendous opportunity for brand advertisers in all industries, including distributed marketing brands in insurance and financial services. Experian has compiled data and released research findings about the cultural significance of the tournament. According to Experian, the men’s tournament will reach nearly 20% of adults age 18 or over. This is an Read More
The Newest Pheeding Frenzy
Have you heard of Pheed? Are you on there? The answer to both of these questions is becoming yes more frequently. So what is Pheed? Pheed is the newest, hottest social media network. It launched in October 2012. It has been growing in popularity, and has earned its way to the top of the list of free apps downloaded. Pheed is positioned as a combination of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr, taking some of the best features of those networks and adding its own twist. In that way, it is developing its own brand authenticity. Some of the features of Read More
The Low Interest Rate Dilemma
One of the biggest issues in the insurance industry at the moment is the low interest rate environment. It is manifesting itself in a wide variety of ways. The low interest rate environment could be around for a bit, as all indications are that the Federal Reserve intends to keep interest rates at 0% until around 2015. Life insurance has been particularly hard hit by the low interest rate environment. Life insurance companies are cautious in their investments of premiums paid, investing in bonds and other types of investment vehicles that pay minimal returns. For example, US Treasury Bonds are Read More
Brand Authenticity in a Distributed Marketing Environment
A recent AdAge article highlighted the plans Miller Lite announced with a new ad campaign that will soon launch, emphasizing brand authenticity. I like the idea of brand authenticity, and I think it serves all brands well to develop an individual, authentic approach to marketing communications that will resonate with an audience. The Miller Lite marketing communications approach in this campaign serves as a great case study for a number of elements that compromise the promotion element of the marketing mix. There are applicable elements to brands in many industries, including brands leveraging distributed marketing management style operations in highly Read More
