The reality for marketers is more data, more specialised agencies at the table and more content to deliver to the ‘always on’ consumer. What is different now is the pace of change due to technology. Here are six ways for marketers to become change makers and leaders.
1 Rethink business models, not just use data
As more data on consumer behaviour is more readily available, marketing leaders must think past the current brand model to create better business models to meet new behaviours and opportunities. Brand leaders must use data but it is insight and branding which will create demand and a premium. Hailo does not just line up demand with geographically immediate supply, it has made people feel safe, secure and smart about how they use taxis.
For many brands it might mean relooking at their audiences and working out who is profitable and how they can create more value by becoming relevant to a new segment by satisfying a need or pain point and deliver it by using a better business model. It combines innovation, branding and business and insight led thinking to change people’s lives for the better – so they will ultimately pay more.
2 Insight not data is gold
Whilst ‘big data’ is overused as a term – we always had data – 90 per cent of it is useless. It is important to understand behavioural patterns to help frame better questions to ask consumers in understanding the ‘why’. It is the ‘why’ not the ‘what’ that can shape brands to deliver on consumer’s motivations. Successful marketers embrace new insight techniques to get richer insights and leave standard, more traditional techniques to their competitors.
3 Create a more human experience
Tech ubiquity is overtaking people’s lives, 66 per cent of people surveyed globally agreed, while 61 per cent of 18-24 year olds consider it dehumanising. Consumers are looking to experience life and live in the moment and want their online experiences to be more human. The impact on retail is noticeable as higher end brands are using their stores to be landmark experiences where the consumer can get exclusive experiences not available online. The need to humanise customer experiences will increase as people move from pad to sensor technologies. The consumer will become more passive but demand more personalised content, such as Netflix.
4 Story doing, not storytelling
While consumers want authenticity and transparency, they are experiencing a human connection gap. They want brands not just to say, but to do. At MCCP, we espouse a form of story doing, not storytelling, to reflect the need for brands to develop a purpose, not just a positioning. Brands with a strong purpose align the internal organisation, the myriad of stakeholders and agencies and consumers around behaviours, not just empty words.
Examples here are Unilever’s Dove (above), Amex cards and its Small Business Saturday approach. Brands with a proper purpose perform 56 per cent better, a global survey of top marketers indicates. Marketers need to get out of their departments to lead the organisation around their brands and become more reactive, meaning that they get off course and erode any longer term value. They need to be agile not short term. The role of strong strategic planning must be to challenge short term data led evolving media planning models that constantly iterate and deliver content that can stray from the core brand purpose to lose its way. Spending money that does not add to brand value, costs in the medium to longer term.
5 Be agile with long-term focus
Big data allows us to react real time, marketers must think medium to longer term to build brands and not just create a reactive culture. The danger is that marketers stop building
brands and become more reactive, meaning that they get off course and erode any longer term value. They need to be agile not short term. The role of strong strategic planning must be to challenge short term data led evolving media planning models that constantly iterate and deliver content that can stray from the core brand purpose to lose its way. Spending money that is not adding to any brand value, costs in the medium to longer term.
6 Connect at a cultural level
It is time for the many globally directed brands or local brands with agencies, owners and global ideals to understand the local cultural context. Other issues aside, Irish Water did not get the significance of this to frame the service correctly. Marketers need to frame the argument it in a way that addresses the real issue for the most resistant.
How many brands really understand the cultural context of its consumer without accessing expertise on the ground when developing insight, communications and activations? Changing the voiceover is not a cultural connection. As the market recovers, we enter a new time with fresh challenges that only great marketing can solve, but it means marketers need to adapt and take the lead. The recovery brings new imperatives to embrace.
Kay McCarthy is founder and managing director at MCCP The Planning Agency. A former chairperson of the Marketing Society, she spoke at both Cannes and Eurobest creative festivals last year; she can be contacted by email at kay@mccp.ie
