marketing

The image company Shutterscock has published some data showing how open minded and inclusive Gen Z and Millennial marketers are when it come to using imagery and advertising messages that embrace same-sex couples, transgender models, people with disabilities and gender-fluid models.

Big round of applause!!!!

When reading about the exploits of marketers I spend more and more of my time shaking my head in disbelief. How can they be so dumb?

The obsession with digital - the inability to understand the importance of demographics - the lack of understanding about what makes consumers buy products.

If you have 30 mins and don't mind Mark's colourful language then he will provide you with some answers. Nothing and everything to do with ageing. Dick Stroud

CVS is going to make sure the products it sells aren’t promoted with images that have been “materially” altered. It’s a great start.

The announcement earlier this month read, in part: “We want our beauty aisle to be a place where our customers can always come to feel good, while representing and celebrating the authenticity and diversity of the communities we serve.”

CVS is going to put a logo on products it deems authentic.

If you’ve come here looking for the latest thinking on virtual reality, drones and autonomous driving—you’ve come to the wrong place. Marketers are an interesting bunch—we pride ourselves on “being in the know”, with some good reason… Part of our jobs are to stay one step ahead of the game so we are better prepared for the changes that inevitably effect the business of our industry. But in the pursuit of staying ahead of future trends—we often overlook massive shifts that need to be operationalized over the next five years, if not decade.

I guess every generation of marketeer think they are the only ones that 'get it', whatever 'it' is.

Do read this lovely report from a consultancy that sets out to show how Millennials have cracked the code of marketing.

Can you believe the author has discovered that marketing is a profit not a cost centre. Wow and Wow again. That looks like something I was writing a couple of decades ago. No, make that three decades.

This is one of the more hilarious sentences:

In Mindset, psychologist Carol Dweck argues, based on decades of research, that how we see ourselves is a major factor in what we can achieve. If we see our abilities as fixed, we tend not to go very far. However, if we see our capabilities as dynamic and changeable, we will work to improve them and are more likely to attain excellence.

Marketing used to be pretty simple. To promote your brand, you used mass media to reach large audiences and create widespread awareness about your product or service. If you crafted a powerful message, the approach could work wonders. Most of the great brands of the 20th century were built that way.

Modern marketing really began in the 1960’s with Philip Kotler and his ideas about uncovering the “needs, wants and interests of target markets.” Ever since, generations of marketers have learned to focus on the consumer and communicating features and benefits to them effectively.

The majority of a company’s value is intangible, so a strong brand is a significant competitive advantage. As Philip Kotler wrote, “The art of marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a brand, you are a commodity. Then price is everything and the low-cost producer is the only winner.”