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
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
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
Distributed Marketing Management: Targeting & Reaching Baby Boomers
Earlier this week, the AARP announced a new effort in social media marketing, a YouTube series called “Movies For Grownups.” In the 50+ market, the AARP has significant brand awareness, which makes sense as the 50+ market is their specialty. If the AARP is making inroads in the social media space with senior marketing initiatives, I interpret this as the latest signal that the 50+ market is becoming more and more digitally aware. There’s a lot to be impressed with from the perspective of many brands with regard to the 50+ market. Many brands that operate using the distributed marketing Read More
Can Distributed Marketing Management Brands Have Fun With Their Ads?
Legendary ad agency executive Jerry Della Femina once said that “advertising is the most fun that you can have with your clothes on.” While I am not sure that I fully agree with agree with his sentiment, the fact of the matter remains that advertising and marketing related work has the potential to be fun. I’ve had some fun times in my own work in marketing. The reason I’m asking this question is because of the nature of many distributed marketing organizations. Distributed marketing companies are often in the insurance and financial services. A common perception of insurance and financial Read More
How to Take a Distributed Marketing Management, Multi-Channel Approach to a Brand Crisis
Talking about crisis management is never a fun topic for most marketers to consider. It is something that can keep someone who works in marketing awake at night. Brand crises can take on many forms. They can be product related, a problem with a celebrity endorser, the way customers are treated, or pretty much anything that will cause negative perceptions of the brand. In a distributed marketing organization, there are significant customer interaction touch points that are unique to this form of organization. If a brand crisis happens within a distributed marketing management type organization, there’s a different type of Read More
What Happens if a Brand Doesn’t Listen & Anticipate Online
The rise of social media has put a magnifying glass under every branding decision. Before social media, and even before the Web 1.0 era, brands did have to anticipate how their branding decisions would be perceived by their target markets. However, with social media making it extremely easy to spread a message, the process by which brands get feedback about their branding decisions moves a lot faster. A great analogy for the speed differential would be the difference between traveling between 2 places by horse drawn carriage vs. traveling by Boeing 757. A highly unpopular branding decision from the pre-Internet Read More
Distributed Marketing Management Software: What’s the Point?
Distributed marketing management software has the potential to tremendously benefit an organization. But what are the benefits? What is the point of distributed marketing management software as a marketing automation solution? Marketing automation works well in an organization that is structured via a distributed model. In a distributed model, there is corporate marketing structure that centralizes brand management. In essence, this does not differentiate a distributed model organization from a company like Procter & Gamble, the company that truly defined the modern concept of brand management back in the early 20th Century. Distributed marketing organizations would diverge from Procter & Read More
Who Will You Find On a Social Network?
If your brand is not maintaining a strong presence on the major social networks at a bare minimum, your brand is missing great opportunities to achieve greater success. The majority of online Americans used social media in 2012, according to the Pew Center’s Internet & American Life Project published last week. 67% of all Internet users are using at least one social media site (including 71% of women), and amongst those 18-29, 83% use. The Pew report measured social media activity on 5 social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr). Certainly there’s some overlap, as there are many people Read More
