Marketing Monday’s 5 Stories of Note (Daily Strategic Bulletin for 13 Feb 2012)
More on crowdsourcing, a rallying call for marketers, user generated content and magic bullets – you’ll want to read this Marketing Monday Strategic Bulletin!
People buy from people. And Gen Y (aka Millenials) typify this – they “don’t buy without consumer input” according to this thorough piece of analysis on MarketingProfs.com.
I’ll let the MarketingProfs guys to the hard job of explaining it in more detail, but the reason I’m including it in today’s Strategic Bulletin so that one simple question can be raised:
If Gen Y relies so heavily on user generated content to make their purchasing decisions, what steps are you taking to make sure that you’re on the map? How are you enabling Gen Y get access to the information that they need – information which will connect you and them?
More Crowdsourcing
I know, I know – I mentioned crowdsourcing in last Monday’s Strategic Bulletin. But I’ve happened across another two stories I think that you’ll like (both originally spotted by Brandchannel.com)…
First up, we’ve got Dale Buss’ report on Seattle’s Best Coffee encouraging their fans to show exactly what they put in their coffee to create “their version of delicious”.
Meanwhile, Sheila Shayon brings us the news that Domino’s Pizza are turning to crowdsourcing to
“become more relevant and increase loyalty (and business) by engaging consumers (customers and non-customers) in its reinvention.”
And yes, you’ve guessed it – both of these crowdsourcing attempts are running through Facebook…
So we’ve got one brand looking for new recipes and the other looking to make itself more appealing to the audience by modelling themselves on the business picture that their customers are telling them that they want.
Both could work – if they get enough engagement. If handled right, we’ll see an outcome where customers see their ideas implemented and feel as though they own some of the eventual success. if either turns out to be a damp squib, they’ll do more harm than good.
We shall see…
Can Marketing be a magic bullet?
The Bank of America sure hope so... Rupal Parekh brings us the news that BOA is seeking “a new marketing direction fast” to shore itself up on the back of dropping share price to under $5/unit.
From a strategic point of view, this sort of move is always fascinating and worth watching to see how progress unfolds. Marketing is rarely a silver bullet, in my opinion, and this sort of marketing effort will never be effective unless accompanied by a ‘root and branch’ re/branding exercise to ensure that the resulting campaign is deeply rooted in the business’ core values, and also transmitted to all consumer touch points.
Keep your eyes on this one…
Marketers need to step up to become business leaders
I’m going to leave you this week with a great rallying call from Ruth Mortimer over at Marketing Week, who quotes recent Forrester research stating:
“Chief marketing officers must go beyond marketing and put more focus on strategy and management to be “business leaders”…”
I passionately believe that marketers should have a seat at the top table – and yet we have the same arguments year after year between CEOs and CMOs about who hold power.
Ruth’s piece is a must read for any marketer who wants to make sure that their voice is heard inside the boardroom…
Neil Hopkins is a Marketing and Branding Theorist at heart, and a Marketing Communications Manager by day. His blog – interacter – is the primary location he shares insight and information relating to marketing, branding and advertising strategy.
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The Daily Strategic Bulletin is a device designed to share interesting content with you across five key business areas – Marketing Strategy, Brand Strategy, Advertising Strategy, Business Advice and Inspiration.
Image for this post comes from Sreejith K’s Flickr Photostream (and used under Creative Commons)
