Jon Evans

It has been a long time since I attended a top-notch marketing conference and MAD//Fest London did not disappoint. It was a seriously impressive event packed full of fantastic and thought provoking content, at a super-cool venue with fantastic food and great cocktails 🍹 3 things that struck me the most: 1. AI, AI, AI: all marketers need to understand and know how to use it; it’s not going to replace us; instead it can be an awesome co-pilot and will be especially useful for small businesses without big budgets. 2. The importance of marketing fundamentals: strong strategic direction, brand positioning and differentiation, balancing the long with the short term and seeing marketing as an investment in value and not a cost - ignore these at your peril. 3. It pays to support mental heath in the work place. For every £1 invested in supporting mental health at work, employers get an average of £5 back. Thanks Ian Maskell and @Luke Wilcox for the ticket and great company. #madfest24

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British grocery price #inflation has also fallen for the fifteenth month in a row to 2.4%, the lowest level since October 2021 and 15% points lower than this time last year, whilst sales rose by 2.9% over the four weeks to 12 May. Grocery price inflation is gradually returning to what we would consider more normal levels. It’s now sitting only 0.8 percentage points higher than the 10-year average of 1.6% between 2012 and 2021, which is just before prices began to climb. Typically, an inflation rate of around 3% is when we start to see marked changes in consumers’ behaviour, with shoppers trading down to cheaper items when the rate goes above this line and vice versa when the rate drops. However, after nearly two and a half years of rapidly rising prices, it could take a bit longer for shoppers to unwind the habits they have learnt to help them manage the cost of living crisis. For the full article and the latest #GroceryMarketShare 👉 https://lnkd.in/eDTdVxz3 Worldpanel by Kantar #consumerbehavior

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So after hinting a couple of months ago that confidence was fragile because positive momentum was so tentative (and there remained real day to day challenges even with inflation decelerating), September brought a significant -7 drop. Are we talking ourselves into recession just as we come into retails "Golden Quarter"? Is the negative narrative from Labour to blame for these drops in consumer perception? Is September's result simply a reflection of a growing awareness that the budget may try to squeeze more tax out to rebalance public finances? Or are the there other factors at play as well? Neil Bellamy in our consumer confidence podcast unpacks last months result, mixing in some key insights from GfK and NIQ's panel data to show who is feeling the squeeze, and what it might mean for retailers and the economy as a whole. #CcbUK #Ccbpodcast #ConsumerConfidence

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Yesterday’s shopper research in the Meal Deal. A cornucopia of choice for shoppers, where they bring their rational but mostly emotional selves to their decisions: 😍 browsing the Premium Meal Deal, looking at 🍣 and 🥗 and 🦐 🏃‍♂️ grabbing a Huel and a banana and dashing away 👯 coming in with a female friend and deliberately making unhealthy (but fun) choices 🍫 💷 carefully buying all the expensive items to max out the value 🩺 feeling a bit unwell so self-medicating with “better” items. It’s all there, in a whirling hurrying mass of humanity, and I love the quick convos and deciphering the motivations afterwards. What’s your favourite combo in the Meal Deal? #shopperresearch #MealDeal #FoodToGo #consumerinsights

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We went along last week for The Marketing Society Scotland's Digital Day 2024 and came back with a few top insights on the latest strategies from brands who are reimagining the future of marketing. Ready to see how they're pushing the boundaries? Check out the blog - https://lnkd.in/d4xjXeGp #DigitalDay #MarketingSociety #MarketingInsights #MadeBrave

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April has followed the trend observed in the first Quarter of 2024 of flatlining consumer confidence, meaning the UK continues to have sluggish prospects for growth due to weak consumer activity. Whilst a slight uptick was observed in some retail activity during April, this was small and due to Easter Holidays rather than a fundamental shift in consumer attitudes. This pattern of stagnating growth in 2024 is driven by the spending power of UK consumers which continues to be challenged. Despite significant reductions in the rate of inflation it is still above the average for the past 10 years and is likely to mean the expected cut in interest rates will be postponed until the autumn of 2024, further weakening growth prospects. The full presentation now includes a new section showing an overall Index from across a number of different measures in the tracker. The UK Maru Household Index provides an overall view across questions – it paints the same picture of a better position than a year ago, but still more households feeling pessimistic rather than optimistic and this remaining stubbornly consistent during 2024. Do let me know if you'd like the full deck. #marugroup #costoflivingcrisis #marketresearch

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Great to see the new from Kantar that Premium own-label volumes were up by nearly 16% year-on-year – suggesting customers are “trading up” as cost of living pressures start to ease. Cheaper own label products have been growing since 2021 which has been a challenge to many of our household brand name FMCG clients testing retail media against this challenging backdrop. I always wondered if this would lead to permanent switching with customers recognising the value these products offered but the premium narrative clearly still resonates with customers and particularly the occasion approach as this shopping behaviour could still be seen an alternative to eating out. A great opportunity for premium brands to capitalise on this with their 2025 plans.

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N. 1 Marketing Hazard.    A couple of years ago, I took a small team  through a very involved brand planning process for a small (2% of market) brand.   Very different to what we’d done before. We did it alongside different brands for the first time.   Loads of people on Teams. Multiple agencies. Lots of market data. Lots of dissecting. Breakouts with people that didn’t know each other and not enough time to finish tasks we didn’t understand.   New words - ones you would NEVER use if a customer walked into your shop —> Leverage —> Anchor space —> Demand space —> Consumer recruitment   “In what particular part of the morning  was a particular type of consumer  who cares about one particular thing at a particular time in their life  going to drink one particular type of drink?”   Over Engineered.    I didn’t think that saying “I don’t know, they can drink it when they bloody want!” was allowed. So I tried to work it out.    You see, I’d been sucked in.  Maybe this was the grown-up way to do things. The ‘right’ way.   I questioned everything I thought I knew.  Moved all the thinking we’d done around  until I had some words on slides  that the people running the show started to nod at.   But when I presented the new strategy to the board  I had to keep looking at my slides to keep track. Because the words - were not mine.   And when I presented it back to my team, I felt myself sinking because I realised… and then a trusted peer confirmed it:   “You sound like you’ve disappeared up your own arse” 🎤 Words people don’t really say on a page in a format “everyone” puts it in does not a strategy make. The following year, we kept it simple.  Started from what we knew.  Reminded ourselves where we wanted to get to. Decided the most important things to do to get there. Wrote that down. Reviewed it monthly. 🚤 🚤 🚤 Small businesses are like speed boats, not ocean liners, or container ships, like the big ones. Do not look at them. You don’t need the kind of engineering that makes them move. I am not convinced they do but that's another story. Look at your boat. And what it needs to go faster. You know. It’s your boat.   * Do you have someone who will grab you if you start to disappear? * Day 11 of 30 days on #smallbusiness and #startups #challenger #founders #brandstrategy #freelance

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The ticking time bomb of outdated insight... I've seen firsthand how ineffective, outdated insight can cripple a brand's NPD success. And it's not just about wasted budgets. - You lose credibility - You waste time - You deplete morale Consider this example: A major dog food company recently spent well over £10 million on a product launch - which was largely driven by outdated trend data and low sample size consumer insight. Here are some ways the not so robust and outdated insight has negatively impacted their product launch: ☒ Misaligned Product Development They created a product formulated to appease an emerging trend that was already long out of date by the time they retrieved the research. By the time the less than agile approach to NPD allowed them to launch, it had been over 16 months since the initial data collection, and the market had shifted in another direction. ☒ Inefficient Marketing Spend The marketing was set up to engage a broad, very generic "dog owner" audience on a variety of mainstream media channels - missing the mark with the younger subsegment consumer group, who they later found out, are those who best align with the specific product benefits and are much less likely to be found where the advertising was deployed. ☒ Wasted time and money They poured millions into producing and distributing a product that was too late, and marketed it toward the wrong audience on the wrong channel - resulting in a LOT of unsold inventory and the added bonus of strained retailer relationships. The result? A complete flop that barely made it past the first month on shelves! The cost of these inefficiencies goes far beyond the immediate financial hit. My advice is YOU should stop making critical NPD decisions based on data that's as stale as that bag of potatoes you forgot about. You know, the one in the cupboard that's literally grown arms and legs. So, what's the solution? It's time we embrace a real-time, continuous approach to insight generation and a truly agile approach to NPD that enables brands to get the right product to market, and engage the right target audience faster, and more cost-efficiently. Triyit can help with both of these things, and save you a pretty penny along the way! You can't expect great results today, with a strategy that relies on data from last year. I'm here to help!

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How many K-brands are focusing on Gen Z compared to Gen X? It turns out, we see many in Gen X are eager to try K-beauty products but find limited options available in the market. Find out more in the K-Beauty Trend Summit. Message me to get the full access 🙌

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Packaging should be designed to work on the shelf, for shoppers. Yet too often it doesn't. Does anyone have any great examples of shopper-centric packaging - ideally a before and after photo? I'm compiling a 'top 10' and would love to share a few. Thanks in advance to my wonderful network! #packaging #packagingdesign #shoppermarketing

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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.

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Custom-made snacking with KIND 🍫 I believe in the power of sensory engagement, and the recent ‘KIND Bar’ pop-up installation in Soho is a flavour-packed example of how brands can get this right. The pop-up featured a range of immersive experiences designed to engage Londoners’ senses and educate them about the brand. 📍 To get started, Londoners entered the Scent Station where they smelt the key ingredients to choose the perfect mix for their personalised snack bar. This taps into We Are Collider's MARVEL Lever of Magic, namely ‘senses’... the extent to which an experience is immersive, attention-grabbing and engaging of the five senses. Obviously the Scent Station not only ticks this box, it exemplifies it. Next stop was the Nutrition Corner where guests learned about the ingredients used in the KIND bars. This harks back to our Value lever, AKA the extent to which an experience provides functional benefits as well as mental stimulation. 🥜 Last but not least, the Creation Station provided the tools to create your very own KIND snack! Wholesome goodness and sensory exploration, galore (we’re talking smooth melted chocolate, chilli flakes and more). This station reminds me of our Exchange lever, where people actively participate and create those all-important ✨memories✨of a brand. I think this brand experience is great, because visitors were hit with a flavor frenzy, texture, and aroma extravaganza, got schooled on nutrition, and even played snack architect. It was like Willy Wonka's factory for health nuts! 🎩 Source: KIND Instagram #Campaign #BrandExperience #Storytelling #Emotion #Creatives #ExperientialMarketing #CampaignExperienceAwards #Kindbars

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PR Manager Maddie Davies is back featuring in The Drum! This time explaining how sector Trend Reports can support and reinforce brands as market leaders. 3 Key TLDR Takeaways are: 💄 Thought Leadership through Trend Identification: Creating trend reports allows brands to showcase their understanding of the market and their ability to anticipate future developments. This positions them as thought leaders and go-to resources within their industry. 💄Data-Driven Credibility: Trend reports shouldn't just be speculative; they need to be grounded in robust data and analysis. This data-driven approach lends credibility to the report and reinforces the brand's expertise. 💄Enhanced Visibility and Brand Awareness: A well-crafted and promoted trend report can attract significant media attention, increasing brand visibility and reaching a wider audience. This helps establish the brand as a prominent player in the market. Last time her feature was one of the most read of the month! So grab a cuppa and dive in - link in the comments below.

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NPD - IS THIS A STRETCH TOO FAR!? Great long-lasting legacy brands reach a point where they saturate their current consumer audience and growth of any kind is challenging. We've seen it in recent times with the advent of Coke red and the extension of that into different light, zero and flavour alternatives to protect their market share and recruit new consumers into the brand. But just when is a stretch too far and how should can you leverage your core product intrinsics in a way that resonates with consumers? We know that most innovation that lands is often wrapped in a brand that we already have a strong memory structure around. New brands struggle as its so hard to land new memories in our already cluttered minds. I was intrigued to see that Chupa Chups had stretched from its core lollipops into flavoured popcorn. An act of genius or madness? Only time will tell, does the flavour alone stretch enough? Its certainly not as bad as Colgate Lasagne but has the elastic band of innovation been stretched too far? #npd #innovation #retail #chupachups

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Get back to basics: Brand marketing is killing performance marketing! Recent analysis from Nest Commerce has revealed a significant shift in the e-commerce landscape, signalling the decline of traditional performance-only marketing in favour of a more holistic approach to digital brand building. In the race for immediate results, many companies have overlooked the importance of cultivating strong brand awareness, but this report serves as a wake-up call. The findings highlight the necessity of adopting a 'full-funnel performance' strategy, where awareness marketing plays a crucial role alongside performance-driven tactics. Companies that integrate both approaches are reaping the rewards, experiencing a remarkable 31% YoY increase in Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), compared to those solely focused on performance. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ec8HaUm4 Now more than ever, it's essential for businesses to strike a balance between short-term gains and long-term brand building. Don't underestimate the power of brand awareness in driving sustained growth and customer loyalty. #DigitalMarketing #BrandBuilding #Ecommerce #MarketingTrends

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Latest #grocerymarketshare data from Worldpanel by Kantar shows Britain’s biggest supermarket Tesco achieved its largest share since December 2017. It now takes 28.0% of the market, up from 27.4% one year ago. Sainsbury's sales increased by 5.1%, with its market share stepping up 0.4 percentage points to 15.2%. Ocado Retail was the fastest growing grocer for the eighth month running, pushing its sales up by 10.0% over the latest 12 weeks. The #ecommerce specialist’s market share grew by 0.1 percentage points to 1.8%. The overall #online market expanded by 3.5% over the 12 weeks, now worth £3.7 billion, with 22.1% of households shopping online. For the full update: https://lnkd.in/e9PpxBbd

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Excellent summation from Les Binet here on maximising effectiveness, efficiency, ROI and enhancing margins by doing some simple things with media spend distribution but also the core of the effectiveness is creativity. I find creative is often observed as an overhead of advertising rather than an investment but the research doesn't lie - amazing creative is as big an ROI multiplier than other factors combined, so the payback of these combinations in the short, medium and long term is absolutely worth it.

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