The key performance indicators that marketers use most often to track the results of their media investments are rarely the same KPIs that those same marketers consider to be most important. This is a key finding from the ANA Media Leadership Growth Council’s study “Media KPIs That Matter.” In fact, only one KPI is in the top five of both lists.
Continue readingPersonalization and Discovery Aren’t Mutually Exclusive
When personalization is done well, brands benefit in myriad ways and customers get a better experience. But some marketers overuse personalization in ways that can hinder discovery. Others use greetings that sound personalized to try to mask generic communications, which can leave customers annoyed instead of open to new possibilities.
Continue readingWhat Customers Want Most From Brands Today
We all know that customer expectations are at an all-time high and that the pandemic has forever changed the way consumers interact with brands. A new study reveals how companies can use empathy to help their consumers feel more connected at a time when so many of us feel isolated.
Continue readingThe New CMO/CEO Growth Mandates
In our current tumultuous environment, it’s more important than ever before for CMOs to align with and support their CEOs. It’s also essential that CEOs work closely with their CMOs to stay agile and focused on customer-centric growth. Those were two of the key takeaways from Marketing Growth Leaders Virtual CMO Breakfast, hosted by Lisa Nirell, founder of Energize Growth, which runs Marketing Growth Leaders events.
Continue readingThe Top Brands Feeling the Consumer Love
Marketers strive to help brands build the powerful emotional bonds that underlie long-term customer loyalty. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted those efforts for some and emboldened them for others. MBLM sought to uncover which brands have retained the strongest emotional bonds as 2020 has unfolded.
Continue readingThe Martech Trough of Disillusionment Is a Crowded Space
Among the 21 technologies represented in the Gartner Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing 2020, nearly half are mired in the Trough of Disillusionment. They include account-based marketing platforms, AI for marketing, customer data platforms, and personalization engines. There could be a big shift in 2021, however, as most of the tools in the Trough should start making their way to or through the Slope of Enlightenment on their two- to five-year trip to the Plateau of Productivity.
Continue readingHow Much Impact Has COVID-19 Had on Customer Experience?
Forrester has announced its U.S Customer Experience Index 2020, along with a report on how brands build loyalty through the quality of their CX. Report author TJ Keitt notes that after several years of little to no gains, 27 percent of the 250 brands across 14 industries that the index tracks saw improvements to their CX scores. Additionally, nine industries improved their score averages.
Continue readingCOVID-19’s Impact on Marketing Spending—and the Channel Unlikely to Be Affected
Spending on marketing since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown began has dropped across nearly every channel. According to a report from Winterberry Group, the predicted reductions in marketing spending for Q2 2020 range from 10 percent to 75 percent.
Continue readingDespite All the Disruption, Media Agencies Still Play a Vital Role
“We’re living in a world of instant satisfaction,” asserts Nicolas Bidon, chief executive officer of WPP’s programmatic media agency, Xaxis. “At the touch of a button, consumers get a solution to their immediate problem. And, even where it’s not that easy to get their needs met now, that’s still what customers want.” The challenge, he notes, is that some industries have a hard time achieving that immediacy because they’re still in the midst of their digital transformation.
Got Feelings? Why It’s Time to Rethink Brand Positioning
Back in 1980, Al Ries and Jack Trout warned marketers that if they didn’t position their brands in consumers’ minds, their competitors would do it for them. That’s still true, but there’s another notable reason for brand positioning: “Whether or not a brand actively tries to spark a feeling, people are going to feel something about them,” says Kai Wright, global consulting partner at Ogilvy, author of Follow the Feeling: Brand Building in a Noisy World, and a stand-room-only speaker at ANA Masters of Marketing. “So, it’s dangerous when brands don’t actively have a strategy that unifies all of their marketing and communications and policies and practices towards one positive thing that everyone is striving towards.”
Ginger Conlon 