marketing

brand as business bit:  While perusing the aisles at Target awhile back, I stumbled across these really great packages of healthcare products and fell in love:

What happens when marketing becomes a part of, or eclipses, the product? In a world were products and brands become more and more similar, will products end up as commodities, as invitations in to differentiating services and added value offered through the marketing relationship? And how will this affect marketing?

About a month ago I was asked to supply an article for the Ukrainian «Business» magazine. In a short essay I had to reflect on the obscure topics of the Future of Marketing. Would there be brands in 2031? What instruments CMO’s would have at that time? And aren’t we all supposed to be dead in December 2012 how different will the consumer be? This is when I realized that I haven’t written anything like this for a while. The future that I was predicting in Top Ten Trends in Marketing Innovation was about to happen now. However, 2031 was still a longer shot, so I gathered that I can let my imagination fly free.

by: Marina Natanova

In September 2009 I left Russia for Belgium, to work for Futurelab. By that time I had worked internationally for 5 years, but the prospective of seeing “the West” from inside was thrilling. I had little illusions, though: when you see audit results * of a huge multinational across the globe, you stop feeling so bad about your own country’s opaque methods of dealing with advertising money. However even those little illusions I had, were enough to give me a surprise. 

Kodak is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, turning to renting out space to tenants on its manufacturing campus, and shopping its 1000+ digital patents (selling intellectual property to stay in business is kind of like giving away your mind in order to stay sane).

The CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) has put the cat amongst the pigeons by suggesting that marketing should become part of sales. This has got Marketing Magazine all hot under the collar.

This has nothing to do with older consumers but I do know the guys at CIM and have taught courses for them for longer than I care to remember.

In September I was invited by my friends from Evensys in Romania to talk about the ways FMCG  brands could improve the performance of their sales promotions. When putting together my presentation (see below) I was heavily influenced by two factors. First, I had just published my new book, So You Want To Be Customer Centric? and my mind was still full of all the material I didn't get to use. Secondly, I've never really been a fan of the "buy more, buy cheaper movement", so I didn't really feel like talking about the ways to build a better sales promotion mousetrap.