An almost absurdly simple point made recently at EffWeek 2017 should give marketers cause to reconsider their content marketing expectations and efforts. To state the obvious, driven by the ‘content is king’ mantra, almost every brand is churning out more content. This all modestly adds to the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data that according to … Continue reading
Recently a growing number of voices have been questioning the logic and value of social media marketing. But in the main these views are overwhelmed by the ubiquitous support for all things social. This post summarises a range of these dissenting arguments to help invite greater debate about why and how brands should use social … Continue reading
There are two paradigm challenging forces at play in marketing today. One is obvious – the shift to digital and social media. The other is somewhat less widely known but no less significant, being the new understanding of consumer psychology offered by behavioural science and neuroscience. What isn’t recognised is that the frameworks they suggest … Continue reading
In February this year the title of a short article in Forbes asked the provocative question “Can social media be killing brands?”. The article reported on the preliminary findings of a ten-year study by two American academics into the use of social media by US FMCG brands and its impact on their relationships with consumers. … Continue reading
The advent of digital media and changes in consumer expectations mean that brands now have to think in terms of the story they want to tell rather than just positioning themselves. This post examines the shift from positioning to story, provides an overview of brand storytelling, and exemplifies this through looking at how the Scotch … Continue reading
There is a growing consensus that to succeed brands need to be “more human”. Ironically there is a case to be made that this also applies to politicians, business leaders and other celebrities who commonly adopt public personas in line with the stereotypical expectations of their positions. This tendency is what social psychologists term role … Continue reading
In general Australian FMCG brands were late starters in the use of digital media. Now many have used their mass market penetration to play ‘catch up’ through promotions and other incentives to generate Facebook fans. The results, according to social media analysts, are Facebook pages that are high on fans but low on engagement. Essentially, … Continue reading
Similar to the idea of dressing for the job you want rather than job you have, sometimes brands can accelerate their growth by signalling their ambition to their customers and business partners. This appears to the case with Glorious Foods!, a relatively small UK brand that has just launched (at least conceptually) a very impressive … Continue reading
Over the past decade businesses that compete in the mass middle market of their industries have seen increasing pressure on sales and margins. ‘Death in the middle’ as it has been called has been caused by competitors taking either value positions or premium positions. This has shrunk the space in the middle and made the … Continue reading
Sir Ernest Rutherford famously said: “We haven’t got the money, so we’ve got to think”. It is a truism that has played out for many small budget advertisers who have had to break rules and take risks to get noticed. Which is why, not surprisingly, many the more innovative users of social media have come … Continue reading
