Ian Pate

Know Thy Keystone in the arch of Business Empire👇 Nowadays, the consumer expects or even demands a relationship which makes them feel understood, recognised and appreciated. By brands showing their commitment to the relationship via signalling of shared values and an overt desire to forge deeper emotional connections with consumers, they can forge ‘brand commitment’, where the brand feels like the right choice every time and the relationship is symbiotic and mutually beneficial. This, for us, is the new face of marketing & loyalty. #branding #brandmarketing #brandstrategy #brandcommitment #branddevelopment #marketing #entreprenuers

8

If you're in marketing and DON'T know your numbers then you risk being labelled in the 'colouring in department' with good justification. Sure there are 'numbers' when it comes to digital performance campaigns, and promotions but are they the REAL numbers that are discussed around the boardroom table????? Even at the most hardcore agencies, I'd hazard there's more discussion around profitability, pricing and the hard costs of running a business. The proof of success for any marketer is in the pudding (or rather, in the bank 💰💰💰 ) You can't bank a 2% change brand equity in the short-term so stop trying to pretend its a currency, or something your COO should care about. What you CAN (and should) do is talk about how strong brand equity delivers better promo efficiency, protects against margin erosion and enables lower price elasticity as your consumers are willing to stick with the brand over time. Tracksuit Mikayla Hopkins have ALL the goods on this... 👉👉👉👉 LEARN THE LANGUAGE OF THE BOARDROOM (hint... its not what you think it is). “You need to understand the language of P&L, cash flow, balance sheet, you need to understand what NPV (net present value) does,” said (CMO turned consultant) Burggraeve. “And, last but not least, they need to understand the concept of pricing power. You’re not taken seriously at the board unless you’re sitting at the pricing table.” This means you need to: - Know your margins. - Know the levers that you can pull within marketing to impact the wider business... - Know the opererational impact of your fancy new product concept that is likely going to get push back from op's due to (perceived) negative impact on factory overheads. - Know the profit impact of changing product mix - and how your focus on a particular segment of consumers will deliver incremental sales (and ideally profit),. Keep the marketing talk to your team and your agencies. ✅ Your CFO will be thrilled to have a marketer that talks THEIR language, and understands the cashflow impact of your front-loaded campaign for NPD. ✅ Your COO will be stoked to feel listened to when it comes to manufacturing & supply chain. ✅ Your Sales Director will recognise the link between retailer impact and driving category growth. Maybe Duolingo should consider adding this to their line up... Shoutout to Paz Vlahodimos Will Baldock Bridget Ensor James Hickson Sarah Sherriff https://lnkd.in/gY_xyiR3

17

8 Comments

Download this plain speaking brief, written for MDs, Directors and Owners of mid-cap SMEs who don't have a Marketing Director but need marketing to drive growth in new markets or sectors. It'll help you consider the state of your marketing now, where you need to take it, and evaluate anyone you hire to help you. To download, click the full-screen square at the bottom of the preview, then click the download arrow at the top-right of the screen.

3

2 Comments

What's the difference between brand differentiation vs distinctiveness? I just watched a brilliant Mark Ritson video on this... While distinctiveness (the unique look and feel of your brand) is crucial, it's just one piece of the differentiation puzzle. Ryan France of Kantar also shared his research which shows there are four leading ways to effectively differentiate in the market. The most successful brands leverage at least a few of these strategies: 1️⃣ Distinctiveness (iconic visual identity like Louis Vuitton) 2️⃣ Leadership (category-defining innovation like Tik Tok) 3️⃣ Emotive Clarity (consistent emotional storytelling like Disney) 4️⃣ Functional Benefits (unique flavor profiles like Doritos) While distinctiveness is important — genuine value comes from resonating with consumers in two or more of these ways. "LiMu Emu" - Distinctive "Like a Good Neighbor", "Personal Price Plan" - Differentiated Worth noting that "perceived relative differentiation" is what truly matters here. It's not just about being different; it's about consumers actually recognizing and valuing those differences. For you other marketing nerds out there, check out the links to the full video and article in the comments below. #BrandStrategy #Marketing #Differentiation #BrandBuilding #MarketingStrategy — ♻ Repost to inspire your network to show up for others. ➕ Follow me (Nate Challen) for more like this.

16

5 Comments

Worthwhile having a read - these sales have become a huge deal - how to grab SOV and optimise your presence as a business is critical.... #digitalstrategy #ecommerce #SEO #SEM #ROI #channelplanning

1

🤓WOW ! 🤓As a Special Adviser for UNWomen I have the pleasure to share our latest business findings of the Unstereotype Alliance !🎖️🎖️ There has been a growing perception that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including inclusive advertising practices, could be detrimental to business — culturally, socially, and financially. These claims have become more mainstream and suggest that there are adverse consequences for brands that adopt an inclusive approach. Such assertions tend to lack empirical backing or scientific evidence. However, there is also little evidence to show that inclusive advertising is in fact better for business, until now🤓 Against this backdrop, the Unstereotype Alliance embarked on a landmark study to prove whether inclusive advertising practices convert to an uplift in sales for brands and businesses. Unstereotype Alliance and Saïd Business School, University of Oxford measured commercial performance and brand equity metrics for 392 brands over a four-year period, what we found far exceeded expectations🥳🥳🥳 ! The brands in the study cover 58 countries in all regions of the world and represent a wide variety of product categories The study finds compelling evidence in support of the business imperative of inclusive advertising. Brands with more inclusive advertising practices: ✅ Sell more (3.46% higher shorter-term sales and 16.26% higher longer-term sales), ✅33% higher strong consideration, ✅62% higher likelihood of being a consumer's first choice, ✅8% higher incidence of being trialed), ✅Enjoy higher customer loyalty (23% lower chance of being abandoned after trial ✅15% higher loyalty), ✅54% higher pricing power) ✅ Have higher brand equity (8.3% more meaningful, ✅12.1% more different, ✅9.4% higher salience These commercial benefits of more inclusive advertising practices are found regardless of product category or geographic market. This study irrefutably demonstrates that inclusion equals income. Inclusive advertising, in fact, helps brands to grow and commercially prosper. You can check out the full report here: https://lnkd.in/erZqtFSQ   UN Women #UniquelyUnilever #Unstereotype #Inclusivity

152

11 Comments

This is a very good reflection around our Dove The Code campaign. Very grateful for it! The effectiveness of "social" or "purpose" marketing that comes out of this study is a reminder that if your brand talks about topics that matter and does something about them, you might well be building your brand in short term too. Hope more brands see this path. PS. Small build. We are not anti-AI, just hoping to get a more diverse representation of beauty in AI, which can be possible.

59

1 Comment

Now I said to myself I won’t do the ‘as I reflect on a week at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity..’ post but every other person and their dog has done one so here goes... Just 2 big themes and the talks that supported them. Go find a friend who went and get their log-ins and watch the talks 😉. They're all great. 1. A shift of language to Brand and Value, versus just Creativity and Campaign Effectiveness Dr. Marcus Collins and Kory Marchisotto proving that the era of Brand is absolutely not dead. instead the Brand Ideology of ‘Democratising’ powers everything e.l.f. does. Not just the marketing. Karen Crum David Tiltman and Laura Jones made the case for a tighter, more consistent definition of Brand - with an excellent investment case study for Instacart proving the ROI when you balance back from performance-dominated spend. To a more holistic brand-first approach. Diana Frost showing how strengthening and simplifying the foundations of the Heinz Brand allowed for creativity to thrive across all aspects of the marketing mix from all partners. And how playing the long game enables Grand Prix level Creative Effectiveness for Rethink Marcel Marcondes championing a true creative culture and agency collaboration at AB InBev to power real brand value creation. Mark Ritson finally conceded to talk / was allowed onstage and told us Creativity is not Enough and remember the other (f----g) P's Now we are seeing this shift in conversation, will it trigger a change in the type of work that gets measured, submitted and awarded next year? 2. The Industry seemed to finally open up to some hard truths this year Whether it was Adam Morgan and Jon Evans putting some hard facts (& hard £$€¥) on the table around just how much advertising output is dull. And the price we pay for it. Or Lisa Smith Eleanor Thornton-Firkin Aditya Kishore and Karen Nelson-Field PhD lamenting the Sea of Sameness / Age of Average / Blanding / Normalisation of culture. Showing that only 15% of all branded assets are truly distinctive. Wasting $Billions. Or Sir John Hegarty and Orlando Wood looking to fix problem that a paltry 6% of all advertising spend is truly effective. Are we finally admitting to the world the output of the industry is predominately generic, dull, average and ineffective? If so, maybe 2025 is the year where we tackle some of the underlying reasons behind this? To change those numbers significantly for the better. So, now I have become that person who posts ‘my reflections on my week in Cannes..’ feel free to use / ignore / agree / disagree / doom-scroll past The obligatory last word from Mike Cessario from Liquid Death “Marketers can be too literal about making sense. If you can confuse people, you can stop them. There is value, to some degree, to something that doesn’t make sense. Not crazy for the sake of crazy. Contextualize it so the crazy makes sense.” https://lnkd.in/eHaysvdk

46

2 Comments

An interesting piece on the role of CMOs , globally. The case 'for' CMOs "Even in boardrooms that value marketing, CMOs have struggled to consistently prove their worth. But for every CMO position that’s been cut, there are times when the role makes a comeback. General Mills, the company behind brands like Old El Paso and Häagen-Dazs, revived its global CMO role earlier this year. Coca-Cola did the same just this month. In the world of CMOs, it seems absence really does make the heart grow fonder." The case 'against CMOs "The reality is that companies now demand more from their marketers than the traditional CMO role offers. Marketers nowadays are expected to manage retail media ventures, lead internal privacy efforts, and even contribute to M&A strategies. In a world where roles require more versatility than ever, the classic CMO might just be falling short." The more important part - "the role reflects the reality of modern marketing—a collaborative, cross-functional approach where success relies more on specialized expertise and strategic coordination than on a single, prominent leader." Seb Joseph Digiday #CSUITE #CMOs #Marketing #MarketingAndAdvertising #Leadership https://lnkd.in/gcNjR2qX

6

1 Comment

Dear Marketer, 54% of you think 2024 will be your year to ‘finally get to grips with measurement’ and that you are still held back by inadequate legacy media measurement, self-serving platform metrics and a host of new but unproven measurement currencies. On top of that, only 17% of you believe you’ve become more agile in decision making since our last study. Houston... we have a problem!!! DM me or click the link below to get a copy of the sixth wave of MediaSense's Media 2025 research study. Let’s talk, David Strome

6

Cost of living - a warning to brands and retailers Prices are going up, it is a well known and reported fact but a family outing last weekend put the inherent risk to brands and retailers into sharp focus. As a family of 5, we rarely eat out these days (especially as the teenager eats for 10 people) but this weekend we went for a country walk and stopped at the pub for lunch for what we hoped would be a very nice treat. The food was nice enough, the environment was pleasant, the service decent... but that meal costed a lot more than it would have a few months ago and we were all still hungry as we left the pub... it is not so much about the price we paid but the fact that for a lot more money we got a lot less which left us feeling pretty much robbed. Will we go out again as a family? Well probably not because i don't particularly want to carry a picnic in the back pack to feed 3 hungry boys after forking out a lot of money on a meal!!! This relates to a chat this morning with a client where they were sharing that whilst their customers are willing to accept a price increase because they value the unique services they get and because of the outstanding reputation of their company, the post sales feedback is that the experience ends up being subpar compared to what they used to get and they might well think twice to buy again in the future. Last week we conducted a series of consumer meet up sessions (30 minutes video groups where consumers dial in for a moderated chat and the client team can ask questions and interact with them) as part of a series of workshops to get our client to meet their consumers and bring their targets to life... one of the lightbulb moments from the marketing team was "to stop underestimating the consumers and think they won't notice the changes you make... they do notice and they will choose with their wallet whether you represent the right value equation for them, no matter how much they used to love your brand". Times are tough for everyone - brands, consumers, retailers. but the worst you can do as a brand owner is to lower your quality and cheapen your brand experience to increase your margins as, at the end of the day, you are only as good as the last experience consumers have with you and they will walk if you do not deliver what they expect. Use your research budget to understand what it is that consumers love about your brands and that you therefore cannot / should not touch as part of your cost rationalizing efforts.

28

4 Comments

Marketers all know that OOH can't do it all, and it needs to work in conjunction with other elements of a broader plan. It sure can be a fun element of the mix when driven by consumer understanding and a strong creative transformation though. We've been getting a lot of positive feedback on our local efforts, that vary by medium. Check out one of them below.

84

5 Comments

Not everyone likes to hear this I know but standardisation and getting the fundamentals right are key to the success of retail media. Let’s work together as an industry to make this happen

14

In Kantar's first ‘Diary of a CMO’ Mary Kyriakidi discusses with Prof. dr. Koen Pauwels whether attitudes drive sales? … or is it sales that drive more sales? 🌴 🌞 😎 As my thoughts are focused on my imminent holiday next week, I wanted to ground what Mary Kyriakidi and Prof. dr. Koen Pauwels discuss with evidence we’ve picked up within #Travel and #Tourism on our #Kantar #BrandDynamics trackers. -         🏆 Mary and Koen discuss how BOTH attitudes and sales are important - and we find a very close correlation between behaviour and predisposition in Travel sectors. In fact, the correlation sits within the top 20 of all categories on #Brandz -         🏆 We know situational factors like routes and availability drive behaviours for many brands, Ryanair - Europe's Favourite Airline is a great example where Presence unlocks sales -         🏆 Perceived Difference helps creates penetration – look at Emirates, Airbnb and Booking.com – all exhibiting a strong differentiational-pull! And not only does Difference make your brand stand apart and drive sales but it also makes your brand worth paying more for and reduces price elasticity  -         🏆 And the importance of both long-term planning as well as short-term executional wins - having strategies that build predisposition longer-term as well as driving immediate behaviours – I could site so many Travel Brands here but let me pick a few I haven’t mentioned TUI, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays.com, British Airways Please catch Mary’s video here… Piers Lindsay-Taylor Suzannah Rowland Debbie Lawson Ben Krzysica Jamie Donovan

11

1 Comment

Marketers face a paradox: the more they know about their consumers, the less they seem to truly understand them. Great read from my business partner, and work husband Gareth Brock who has explored why brands must go beyond raw data and cultivate authentic intimacy by engaging consumers as people, not just numbers. Link in the comments to the piece. Thanks for the write up Mediaweek Australia #brandactivation #data #PR #thoughtleadership #digtialactivation

10

3 Comments

Why does everyone want to know the price rather than seek to understand the value? Over the last 40 years when I first went to work in the advertising industry I have witnessed the gradual death of value based decision taking to be replaced by two dimensional price decisions. There are still some brands that manage to maintain a value premium but too many just rely upon price. John Lewis with their 'Never Knowingly Undersold' managed to offer both premium service and a guarantee of low prices, but over time this ebbed away only now, thankfully, to be re-established (in part) after episodes selling social housing and filling that most upmarket of general stores, Peter Jones, with tat you wouldn't buy in a charity shop That once most premium of brands British Airways is now reduced to cutting back the food offering in their Business Class and First Class service. No attempt to tell people willing to pay £8500 for a return fare to New York why its worthwhile paying a bit more to maintain the service. It is easier to cut the service than deliver the extra value that justifies the premium. When BA were flying the Concorde service to New York it wasn't enough to say we will get you there quicker, every aspect of the journey from check in to the lounge to the onboard experience were designed to be the best, whatever it cost. The advertising industry itself stopped justifying value in its own services and allowed the Procurement departments of major corporations to dis-intermediate the advertising process and reduced creativity from a 15 per cent commission to a 3 per cent one. Name one private equity owned consumer business that relies upon increasing the underlying value of the business rather than relying upon reducing cost and cheap financial engineering tricks to deliver a return? Yesterday I had in my own small way an example of this, I was introduced to a business owner who was interested in my advice on selling his business. Before I had an opportunity to ask him about his business and why he wanted to sell etc he wanted me to quote for the advice. I knew at that point there was no point going on. He had no interest in understanding how my advice might lead to him selling his company at a 50 per cent premium to its true underlying value, but rather was I the cheapest. The advertising industry doesn't have heroes anymore in the age of digital advertising and the equivalent of pile it high sell it cheap marketing methodologies. Genius's of old like Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy, Hal Riney and in the UK John Hegarty, Charles Saatchi, etc are apparently no more. Have you ever heard of Mark Fitzloff and Susan Hoffman?, Stephen McMennamy or Alex Russell, Anselmo Ramos? These are recognised as the best creative advertisers of our day but are unknown outside their industry largely because the value they create is no longer recognised as the key ingredient of business success

7

2 Comments

Wouldn’t it be great if brand health was measured the same way by all organisations…. In a recent post, reviewing the latest analyst calls with CEOs of leading organisations such as Procter & Gamble, Kraft Heinz and Unilever, I concluded that 2024 was the year for ‘high-quality growth’.     Success was consistently defined as achieving a better balance between Volume, Price and Mix.  Makes sense, given volumes were impacted by the price increases required to cover increases in costs. These hugely successful businesses share a belief that “brand superiority” is a critical enabler to achieving sustainable growth.  Brand strategy at the heart of business strategy, backed up by a tireless commitment to improving efficiency and effectiveness.  Again, makes complete sense. But it got me thinking, if Volume, Price & Mix are the unified business outcomes, (aka lag indicators), from a brand performance perspective, what are the lead indicators that could transcend organisations?  Imagine if you could move from one investor call to another and the inputs to deliver ‘brand superiority’ were being measured in the same way! sarah carter and Les Binet in their brilliant book ‘How Not to Plan, 66 Ways to screw it up’ state… “The single most important factor driving brand preference is Mental Availability”    Sounds like a good starting point to me.  Thoughts? #happyinvestors  #brandstrategy #businessoutcomes.

50

13 Comments

“30 under30” is myopic. Just like anything based on demographics is meaningless. The ability of seeing beyond the surface is not easy to find but it is critical Reposting this post written by Alexandra Panousis What do you think? #marketing #branding #management #mentoring

10

2 Comments