Marketing Trends

Taking a customer-centric approach is difficult. It requires not only thinking differently, but also ignoring your own personal agenda for the greater good of the company. But putting the customer first also requires trust and it requires a top-down effort from everyone involved. That’s why PwC’s remodeling of its business strategy is different. “The New Equation” as it’s called, is not just a motto, it’s an entire strategy based on the principles of building trust and helping PwC customers keep up with the pace of change. And the key to any successful marketing strategy begins with a top-down approach and a relentless focus on implementation.“I don't think any strategy is perfect, nor do I think any strategy needs to be perfect. What needs to be far better is the execution of that strategy… All of our people fundamentally understand what we're doing, but it's the getting the confidence in that story and making sure that they really feel supported, bolstered and have everything that they need in order to bring that with confidence.”On this episode of Marketing Trends, we caught up with J.C. Lapierre, Chief Strategy and Communications Officer at PwC, who offered up some insight into the steps PwC went through to implement its new three-pronged services model. Plus, J.C. explains why successful implementation means everything when you’re rolling out a new strategy, and how PwC is forging ahead with a customer-first approach.Main TakeawaysSuccessful Strategies Start with Successful Installations: The best marketing strategies are ultimately the ones that have the best implementation from beginning to end and from the top down. This will help your marketers not only have a strong understanding of the values of your new strategy, but it will give them the confidence to relay that message to the company's clients.The Days of A Siloed Marketing Approach are Over: Siloed approaches to marketing no longer work, especially if you want to have an efficient, cross-functional business. When you eliminate silos, you’re able to effectively and efficiently push your message and your purpose across all your channels without confusion.Don’t Be Scared to Play in New Channels: Even when you’re a legacy company, it’s important to try new channels and continuously evaluate your marketing mix to understand where your message is resonating and where it’s not. Don’t get comfortable with the same strategy that’s worked in the past. For a company like PwC, that meant advertising on OTT platforms, a channel the company had never participated in before.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Genna Franconi has been in digital marketing so long, she fondly remembers the day she pushed out the first Instagram post for Barbie. But social media marketing has changed significantly since those days. These days, lone marketers aren’t the ones worried about hitting send on a post at the right time. Instead, brands now have teams of social content creators who monitor trends and leverage a brand’s voice to get personal with consumers and entice and engage them at each point of the buying journey. “For years we have been saying that brands do not need to be investing in organic content...That makes a ton of sense. But if you're trying to participate in a cultural conversation by throwing out content that is old school, those days are over. Now marketing is really sophisticated and marketers are using the channels to reach these audiences. We're not screaming through a megaphone. Now we’re laser-targeting people to give them something that's either helpful or educational within their buying path.”Genna is the founder and managing director of Trade School, an integrated content shop that works with big brands such as Home Depot and FedEx. On this episode of Marketing Trends, she reveals just how the social media landscape has evolved from the wild wild west of marketing to an integral piece of every marketer's toolkit. Plus, Genna touches on the evolution of influencer marketing and why it’s important that every brand and creative agency understand why and how to effectively deploy a successful influencer strategy.Main TakeawaysOrganic Content Sets Brands up for Success: Creative agencies need to understand that the best way to partner with brands is to not only understand the creative voice of the brand, but also the business goals the brand wants to achieve through its creative efforts. If you don’t align your creative vision with the business goals of your brand, the content you create for them won’t resonate with its consumers.Content is Less About Format and More about Engagement: As the social landscape has shifted, marketers’ strategies need to pivot from thinking about what content works best for each social platform to understanding what content will get the most engagement from their consumers. This means marketers should spend less of their budget on large-scale commercials that will reach a broad audience and focus on more organic content that can be targeted to hyper-specific audiences.Influencers are Now Competitors to Agencies: Many brands view influencers simply as talent that they can direct, but the reality now is that influencers must be seen as competitors to creative agencies because of the hyper-targeted audiences that each influencer possesses. The best influencer strategies allow influencers to leverage those audiences and give creative license to influencers so that the material they post is organic and  aligns with the influencer's audience.--- Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing.   Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Usually, marketers are fighting amongst their peers to generate brand awareness in an already saturated market. How does a camera maker get its latest product to stand out from 15 similar devices? How does a new automaker enter a market to steal customers who might already be loyal to one brand or another? Every marketer has strategies in his or her toolkit for these types of moments, but what happens when you’re literally inventing a market and the only competition you have is yourself?“We're a brand new product, and we're a brand new category. It's not about how do we get incremental sales away from a competitor and into the plant-based egg space. We have to raise awareness that a plant-based egg exists, that it's delicious, but it's called JUST egg.”Tom Rossmeissl is the Head of Global Marketing for Eat Just, a company that develops and markets plant-based alternatives to conventionally produced eggs. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Tom details the trials and tribulations the company went through when developing its plant-based eggs, and he describes the uphill climb the company is still trekking as it continues building brand awareness and getting consumers to change their eating behaviors. He also reveals the influencer marketing strategies the company has deployed to help consumers make the switch to a healthy, sustainable, plant-based diet. Enjoy.Main TakeawaysPick-Up On Aisle Three: When you’re in the CPG space, it’s important to have a full understanding of how your product can succeed while also being able to manage your inventory to maintain your profit margins. For JUST, a relatively expensive product compared to its competitors, this has meant holding off moving to a direct to consumer model while the brand grows.Changing Consumer Behaviors: Marketers cannot rely on consumer’s to make their buying decisions just on their value proposition. While marketers would like those same consumer’s to make purchase decisions based on the environment, the reality is when it comes to CPG brands consumers will still spend their money based on what they believe is good value.Wait, What? When you’re managing multiple brands, it’s important to draw a line and make a clear distinction between the two brands. When consumers see brands, especially in the CPG space, you want them to have a clear understanding of the way each product is produced and what it represents, as opposed to drawing their own conclusions.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Marketers are always looking for ways to get their message across to consumers. Whether that’s trying to get them to stop scrolling long enough to watch an ad, or grab their attention quick-enough to prevent them from changing the channel, marketers are waging a never-ending war to get noticed. But instead of racing to get consumers to your web page, why not just target them when they are already in your store?“All the other digital investments, you're just trying to get people to leave their house, or get out of their car, or leave the gym and go to the place to buy your product. We're talking to the people that are standing in the very place where they can buy your product.”Paul Brenner is a broadcasting savant, with a quarter-century of experience in the radio and television industry. He’s watched from the front row how marketers have shifted their advertising spend from traditional broadcast inventory to digital platforms. Now, as the Chief Strategy Officer at Vibenomics, he’s helping those same marketers create a memorable in-store experience through out of home audio. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Paul describes why the audio you hear in-store is an often overlooked opportunity to grow product conversions. Plus, he explains why ecommerce is not the death of brick and mortar stores.Main TakeawaysThe Rise of Digital: While consumers are moving their shopping habits to online platforms, those purchases still only make up for 7% of total items sold. This means marketers still need to place an emphasis on providing a memorable in-store customer experience.OOH Audio as an Asset: Advertisements are meant to make consumers think about a product and then take action. But getting someone to take those next steps is challenging. OOH audio allows for marketers to subtly remind consumers what they may have missed while they are already in your store.Trusted Source: With the move from third-party cookies, marketers must adjust the metrics they use to make their decisions when it comes to how they spend their ad dollars. This means that marketers will need to have more faith in the numbers that media partners report to them when making their ad-buying decisions.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.  Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

For years the automotive industry has served as a beacon of America's thriving commerce industry. Now that once-thriving sector is facing a global chip shortage, which has caused automakers to slow production. With supply chains sputtering along,what does that mean for manufacturers such as GHSP— a company founded in 1924, with deep roots in providing automakers some of the key components used in everyday cars.“ We're not able to necessarily provide the product that our customers are looking for. They're not always able to, to continue their production. You have the consumer still wanting it. And so it's been unique in the sense that we aren't really looking for a lot of work. We're just looking to fulfill the work that we already have in terms of certainly in our auto space and the markets and companies that we service.” John Major is the Director of Marketing at GHSP, and on this episode of Marketing Trends, John details how GHSP is reinvesting in itself by building up its marketing efforts. John also provides examples of how the company is expanding its product offerings by jumping into the appliance sector, and he details the marketing strategies they are using to build brand awareness and to target potential customers. Enjoy this episode!Main TakeawaysWhere There’s a Will, There’s a Way: When your company is reliant on face-to-face interaction to demonstrate your products and services, it’s important to find new ways to engage your consumers. Consider finding alternative ways to display your products, such as putting together showcase videos or building out a TV studio in an effort to broadcast how the product works.Well, This is New: When you’re entering a new product space, one of the most important things a marketer can do is understand if you have product-market fit. Understanding the niche audience that will need and utilize your product is not only important when it comes to identifying who your target market is, but also in understanding how your service will be used.A Chance to Show Off: While product launches should be used as a marketing tool to build anticipation and excitement for your latest offering, they should also be used as ways to identify future customers and open up conversations for how your product should fit into their current offering.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Not every marketing department has a large budget, and not every marketer has the endless resources needed to hire top-flight designers, editors, photographers, and videographers to create big-budget campaigns. So, what do you do if you’re a marketer that is confined to a strict budget? You do what marketers do and you get creative.“What we're doing with Fiverr, we are building a super brand one step at a time, and one step after another. If you are limited with budget, and you need to be creative and smart and brave, this is where the magic really is. This is how we want to build Fiverr as a brand. We want to be a brand that people will talk about and marketers will talk about because they're going to learn from it.”Fiverr originated as a website for quick five-dollar jobs, and has scaled into a two-sided marketplace for freelancers and job seekers, allowing marketers the opportunity to source quality work while trying out multiple freelancers. Gali Arnon is at the center of it all, and as the CMO of Fiverr, she’s working to evolve the company’s image into a well-known super brand. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Gali discusses how Fiverr uses influencer marketing to organically push the brand’s presence on digital platforms, and she also details how a recent brand refresh is putting the company's old mantra of five-dollar jobs in the rearview mirror.Main Takeaways:The Power of Influencers: Influencers remain a savvy way for marketers to gain organic awareness while also aligning the views of the company with the people that actually use the product. YouTube is one channel where influencers can tell their story in an organic and meaningful way without being confined to advertising time slots.The Makings of a Superbrand: Brands are not made overnight and your brand’s story is not written when you first launch. As your brand evolves, so must your message. Your base users may remain the same, but your target audience’s needs and expectations are constantly changing, so your brand needs to pivot as well.Have to Show Up: If you’re a digital marketer or an ecommerce company, search should remain an integral pillar of your marketing strategy. Whether that is through paid acquisitions or SEO, if consumers are not able to find you, or locate what they are looking for while on your site, it’s a missed opportunity to attract them to your brand and introduce them to your story.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

We have a saying here on Marketing Trends, ‘marketing is meant to be remarkable.’ But what exactly does that mean? Does that mean marketing is great customer service? Or maybe remarkable marketing is advertising that sticks with you. Rob Willey, the CMO of Cheribundi, gave his take on what remarkable marketing actually is.“The fastest way to make remarkable things is via innovation. Meaning identifying what consumers really want or need and catering to that in a meaningful and impactful way. Not every brand can do that, but I think if you start with the consumer, you're headed very quickly in the right direction. I think the wrong direction, which you see a lot of larger companies do is innovate for the supply chain. What can we make more of? What can we make better of? Does anybody even want better of that thing? And what that makes for is a lot of unremarkable products.”On this episode of Marketing Trends, Rob takes a stand on why marketers should stop focusing solely on ads, and instead start aligning themselves with their brand’s views. Rob also dives into how Cheribundi launched a rebrand of its product in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic by developing a better understanding of its power users and leaning into the strategies that separate Cheribundi from its competitors. Enjoy!Main Takeaways:Best Brands Have an Interesting Point of View: While advertising is important from a brand awareness standpoint, the best brands have a distinct and clear focus on what their point of views are and they relay those points of view to their consumers through their channels. A great PR strategy starts with identifying influencers that consumers can not only trust, but build meaningful relationships with. Those brands then use those influencers to relay messages in a unique and ambitious way.Pivot! Pivot!: For startup marketers, digital channels used to be a cheap way to build brand awareness while also gathering valuable information on who your target audience is. But as paid social has increased in cost, marketers have had to pivot their strategies. One of those pivots has been to increase brand relationships with influences. While these relationships can help build authentic relationships with your consumers, it’s also important to have a clear understanding if that influencer is an actual partner who loves your product or service.Rebranding for the Lifestyle: Marketers are always trying to find a better way to understand who their users are, but when you’re going through a rebranding process it's even more important to know who your power users are and why they love the product. Start by identifying your unfair advantage, what separates you from your competitors, and why your loyalists love your product. Then lean into your channels to test your messages and branding on them while gauging feedback as you rephrase the digital touchpoints of your brand.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

The term, ‘content is king,’ has never been more true than it is today. But while marketers are racing to simply come up with effective content at the speed that consumers expect, there is also a struggle to  produce and scale that content across all of the various channels that exist today.“It's less about costs, and it's more about speed and agility. Our world has changed with the pandemic. We all realize that it's accelerated that change. We all live in a digital-first world and businesses need to adapt to that. They actually have to have the teams inside the business with the right tools to be able to build those experiences really fast and change those experiences on the fly and do it across multiple markets and multiple languages. It's complex.”Bridget Perry knows a thing or two about helping marketers and creatives get access to the proper tools to get things done at the speed at which they require. Bridget served as the CMO of Adobe Europe when the company pivoted to a SaaS-based platform, and she is now the CMO of Contentful, where she is helping marketers push out all the content they need to at the pace and scale they require. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Bridget explains why headless content management systems are the future of content distribution systems, and she dives into the importance of creating a seamless customer experience that reaches your customers across all endpoints.Main Takeaways:Not The Front Door, The Side Door: When it comes to interacting with your brand, digital is often the first entry point for every consumer. But, more often than not, consumers are not interacting with your company's front page, instead, they are accessing your content through other landing pages. As a marketer, it's important to think about all those various touchpoints and make sure you are optimizing every experience to make sure that all your digital endpoints are operating in a cohesive manner.Content for All: It seems like content is being developed at the speed of light and it’s important that marketers have the ability to push that content and optimize it for all the necessary digital channels and not just think about where one piece of content will end up: web, email, text.Speed and Agility: Marketing today is less about overall cost and more about how quickly you can spin up content and then scale that content. As a marketer, your tech stack must reflect the reality that your teams need to be empowered with the particular services that allow them to meet those two critical functions. If your teams cannot operate in an efficient and agile manner, they will fall behind.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Let’s be frank: what your brand says and what it actually does are sometimes two very different things. With consumer expectations rising, they are now checking their receipts and making sure that the rhetoric stemming from a brand actually matches its actions.“Consumers more than ever before, and customers more than ever before, look to make sure that what our brand is saying is what is delivered through every interaction and every touch point that they have in their experience. It's a promise, made promise mindset. Your brand is your promise that you're making, your customer experience is how you're keeping that promise through each and every interaction.”Tyrrell Schmidt is the CMO for TD Bank, AMCB and Head of Global Brand for TD Bank Group, and on this episode of Marketing Trends, she discusses how TD adapts its marketing strategies to ensure they stay committed to the bank’s brand promise. She also touches on the unique ways TD continues to put the customer at the center of everything it does, and why the best way to attract new talent is to take a look internally. Enjoy!Main Takeaways:Know Your Voice: As consumer expectations rise, their behavior is changing as well. Consumers are now looking at brands and aligning their spending with brands that have values that align with their own. Brands need to make sure that they are very clear about what their values are and then they have to put their money where their mouth is.A Great Experience Over a Great Campaign: Marketers need to shift their mindset from developing grand campaigns into delivering valuable experiences. When marketers create lasting experiences for consumers through all possible touchpoints, consumers trust that they will always get something good from your brand and loyalty will grow.A Look in the Mirror: The best way to attract new marketing talent is by promoting a culture and atmosphere that breeds success. When that atmosphere exists internally, employees will be more bought in and you will find stars to promote from within.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Consumers are different today than they were last year or even last week. Tastes constantly change, and if there is one thing marketers are frequently reminded of, its that there is no secret recipe to understand consumer trends in the marketplace. All you can do is look at the data, and what it says these days is that consumers are more focused on a brand's values than they ever have been before. They want to see transparency and have trust in the brands they buy from. As a result, companies like Vital Farms are at the forefront of many consumers’ minds.“There's a general movement towards people wanting to eat real food and knowing where it comes from to trust that source. That's very much the mindset that we focus on. There’s a demographic, but more a mindset of people that are willing to pay a premium for products that they believe in and trust that are looking for brands that have values similar to their own.”Scott Marcus is the CMO of Vital Farms, a company that prides itself on bringing ethical food to the table while being honest with customers about how that happens. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Scott explains why Vital Farms’ traceability program is helping the company reach these values-focused consumers, and he explains how to meet customers throughout the buying journey.Main Takeaways:A Market Shift: Consumers have been changing their buying habits for more than a decade and it’s important for marketers to understand the reasoning behind that shift. As consumers continue to change their focus to more health-conscious food efforts, or more brand value decision-making, it’s equally as important for marketers to alter their messaging to meet those needs.Stuck in the Middle: When it comes to issues, brands can no longer stay in the middle. Brands must be honest and transparent about where they fall and what issues they support. When brands attempt to play both sides of issues, consumers end up tuning their message out.New Category, New Problems: Building trust is not only important as far as helping your consumers in their buying journey, but it’s equally as important when your brand attempts to enter into a new segment. Brands that build trust with their consumers will have an easier time entering new markets because of the equity that they have built up with their customers over time.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.