"Buy the Way…" Insights on Integrated Marketing Communication

Sitting down to watch “The Pitch” series has been truly educational.  I mean I know those types of meetings exist, obviously I have watched them for this class.

When I was little and my friends and I would sit around talking about what we wanted to be when we grew up: they all wanted to be models but not me. I wanted to be in advertising. I was going to be the one that got the perfect idea at the perfect high-pressure moment and win some big accounts (and maybe not win a few smaller ones). My method would be flawless and I would buy expensive shoes on Madison Avenue and only ride first class and my nail polish would always match my outfit.

Fast forward, none of it happened.

But what if that whole “high-pressure-advertising” and “sending your best people to the pitch” mentality is… well…old technology?

I realize I am entering murky waters I mean, so much of what we are learning is how to pitch but maybe agencies today are pitching the wrong thing?

While reading my daily dose of Ad Age (I’m still not entirely sure how they got my email) one article caught my eye. Siltanen & Partners is moving in a different direction and are now guaranteeing results for clients without the expensive pitch spectacle (Graham, 2018). I can’t begin to fathom the cost of the time value and travel for everyone working on the Subway pitch we all watched and was shocked to find out some agencies are expected to shell out almost $500k (Graham, 2018; Schultz 2018).

Instead, S&P enters a sort of partnership in which a prospective client is given a plan of objectives and clear metrics to meet the objectives (Graham, 2018). If S&P does a commercial for a campaign the client is only responsible for production costs and buying air but is not expected to pay an agency fee unless the desired objectives are met (Graham, 2018).

Other agencies are less interested in the pitch and are more interested in who is actually doing the work (Schultz, 2018). Burnett Collective agrees: Clients now spend time at the agencies engaging in meaningful conversations, learning how teams work together and if the client and the agency’s culture are a good fit (Schultz, 2018). It’s more about having conversations and cultivating relationships and figuring out if everyone can work together (Schultz, 2018). Hershey CMO Jill Baskin likes to socialize even after these meetings to see what topics emerge over lunch (Schultz, 2018).

It sounds interesting! A client could give an agency a smaller job to see if everything goes well before asking for a bigger project. Like everything in the world, the only constant is change. The pitch has evolved into a brilliant collaborative of ideas that the client can walk away from without risk!

And I don’t have to worry about my nail polish.

Graham, M. (2018, October 1). Siltanen & Partners won’t participate in your traditional agency review. Ad Age. Retrieved from https://adage.com

Schultz, E. J. (2018, April 2). The new pitch process: shorter, faster, better. Ad Age. Retrieved from https://adage.com

Hey there. Are you listening…? Well, your phone is.

Last week I was at a party and talking about the cake, which was made by Nothing Bundt Cakes. Everyone loved it and was talking about how much we loved it. I never once searched it or typed it into an app. Yet low and behold, the next day, I had an advertisement for Nothing Bundt Cake on Instagram. It crept in there like a sponsored post, as if it was part of my normal day-to-day feed. Sneaky, sneaky. Turns out my phone could listen better than normal people!

In order for this feature of vocal scanning to be valid, the user must have a “trigger” such as “Hey Siri” or “Okay Google” on their phone (Nichols, 2018). Location sharing through photos also triggers suggestions. For example, if you’re at a USC game, ads for a local Chipotle may show up on your screen because you were in the area. Sam Nichols (2018) tried an experiment where he started using specific phrases and tracked the posts on his Facebook page; his constant mentions about going back to university and needing new uniforms triggered advertisements for school.

  While typically speaking, companies will sell information to advertisers, this isn’t exactly the case for Facebook, as they’re doing it “backwards”. They bank on a consumer using a specific feature like a location tag or the usage of words, and then they expose the advertiser to that demographic (Nichols, 2018). This information is crucial to advertisers; in fact, in a report from the World Economic Forum, it was said that “personal data represents an emerging asset class, potentially every bit as valuable as other assets such as traded goods, gold, or oil” (Weiss, 2013).

   Advertisers need this information, because it helps to narrow down targeted material. If a user is constantly checking-in to a gym, perhaps they need protein powder. A user visited a website for new cars? Well, maybe it’s time they got directed to a Jeep-specific car dealer. It makes it that much easier for advertisers to narrow down their demographic. Another example is that Google has been known to scan Gmail messages for keywords, and target advertising based off of this (DiMarco, 2014).

   As a user, I can see how this can be beneficial and help me hone in on products that may appeal to me; however, it does come at a price. I’m someone who says that I have nothing to hide, so I have never worried much about my privacy, but I know this isn’t the case for others. And to what extent can/should companies be searching through my private emails or online searches? What happens if I’m searching for something sensitive or secretive? Do I want that to pop up later?

   On the other hand, someone who deals with advertising and marketing, I understand the value of having this information easier to navigate. We know that we’ve already broken down a barrier and gotten closer to reaching a consumer based off of their likes, searches, page visits, or mentions. It doesn’t get much more valuable than that. I’ve even noticed that I’ve had multiple ads for oddly specific focus groups that I clearly fall into; this is information-dense material and so helpful for advertisers! It saves them the time of weeding through groups to find people who meet certain requirements such as age, location, gender, or hobbies. Technology truly is magical.

  When you sign onto these apps, it’s vital that you’re truly reading through the policies if you are worried about your privacy. Last week we spoke about ethics in marketing, so this issue is particularly pertinent. While technically users have chosen to opt-in to these features and give up certain privacy rights to these applications and technological devices, to what extent can we really use them? Are we crossing the line here? Are we taking advantage of the modern user? Well, that’s for you to decide…and your phone to hear.

-Natasha Perera
CMGT 541
Dr. Muthuswamy

Works Cited:

DiMarco, C. (2014). Facebook and zynga avoid wiretapping fines for targeted ad practices. Inside Counsel.Breaking News, Retrieved from http://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy1.usc.edu/docview/1523840031?accountid=14749

Nichols, S. (2018, June 04). Your Phone Is Listening and it’s Not Paranoia. Retrieved September 30, 2018, from https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/wjbzzy/your-phone-is-listening-and-its-not-paranoia

Weiss, M. (2013). Friends with Commercial Benefits: Social Media Users Do Not Want Their Likeness Used in Advertisements. Journal of Internet Law, 16(8), 8-15. Retrieved September 30, 2018.

You will never find a shortage of organizations dealing with a crisis that is spread out throughout the news. Recently, Levi Strauss took a stand against gun control and gun violence (washington post, 2018), Nike sponsorship of Colin Kaepernick became a trending hashtag on Twitter – #BoycottNike and #JustBurnIt, and McDonalds’s is embroiled in a sexual harassment suit in which workers went on strike to protest alleged widespread sexual harassment at the fast food chain (market insider, 2018). McDonald’s latest debacle is a reminder that all brands must consider the severe risks of societal crisis impacting their organizations.

But how should brands prepare to take a stand on key issues their stakeholders are passionate about? For instance, should an organization that values diversity and inclusion support protesting NFL players? Should a brand with a customer base of Trump voters back the president’s criticism of the league and players? (market insider, 2018). In today’s cultural climate, these are critical business challenges that every organization must face. Research indicates that “80 percent of consumers and 60 percent of employees expect companies to take action on important societal matters and two-thirds of CMOs and COOs said they aren’t prepared to take such a stand” (Market Insider, 2018).

If an organization is prepared for a societal crisis, it can mean the difference between managing its impact effectively or having it disrupt operations and damage the brand. Communications and marketing agency Peppercomm has developed a program called StandSmart to help organizations prepare for inevitable societal crisis. StandSmart, is a predictive analytics tool, that acts as an early warning system for predicting when a crises might hit and will help an organization to respond accordingly (Market Insider, 2018).

Using a data-driven approach, StandSmart takes the guesswork out of when and how an organization should communicate about controversial topics. The tool was created in response to a millennial generation looking to support brands that are transparent and brands that will aid in environmental and socioeconomic issues. StandSmart seems smart and a perfect solution to solving a challenging problem. But will a predictive analytics tool be beneficial to an organization or will it hinder a brands ability to connect to a generation that is looking for brand authenticity? Will they care? Will it matter?

References:

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/09/06/levis-strauss-gun-control-san-francisco-nike-colin-kaepernick/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/09/10/levi-strauss-ceo-takes-side-gun-control-its-inevitable-that-were-going-alienate-some-consumers/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d3888e956025

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/325815/brands-must-prepare-for-societal-crises.html

https://www.marketing-interactive.com/how-ai-technology-can-assist-brands-in-handling-pr-crises/

https://conceptainc.com/blog/machine-learning-vs-predictive-analytics-what-is-the-difference/

Over the past several years advertising has been heavily under attack. Print advertising is being closely examined under a microscope more so than other media outlets due to the strong stereotypical representations of femininity and consumption displayed in ad contents. From an analysis of advertisements published in the magazine Vogue, three of the principal problems we as consumers are facing are: idealizing body types, an image-saturated society, and chronic consumerism.

Vogue magazine has been around for decades. It first came to life in 1892 and has continually grown and expanded worldwide. While it remains the number one women’s fashion publication it is also heavily criticized for reinforcing stereotypical representations, advertising controversial products as tobacco, and depicting racist images. African American basketball player LeBron James and Brazilian supermodel Giselle Bündchen appeared in 2008 April’s cover of American Vogue. Writer of Slate, Wesley Morris, sees the resemblance between the cover shot and the scene in King Kong where the ape takes the white woman up the Empire State Building, “The cover captures James dribbling a basketball while holding onto Bündchen. His face is in mid-roar. His arm is around her waist. He appears to be 10 times her width…” but he says the race card is getting old while other critics like Naomi Klein, known in the advertising industry for ad busting, would take this ad more seriously.

More recently other magazines like GQ have also caught heat with provocative covers like the rapper Travis Scott and scantily clad Kylie Jenner. Critics heavily commented on the portrayal of the woman being half naked, while the man is fully clothed. Sexually suggestive ads have prevailed over decades. Brands like Carl’s Jr. has moved away from their commercials with celebrities devouring burgers in a suggestive way. Brands like Nike and Pepsi have both faced consumer backlash for advertising social issues. With the evolution of digital tools, consumers can take a stand and quickly promote or tarnish a brand. Do you agree with the industry in continuing to objectify women, use race imagery and social issues to spread awareness or start conversations or do you think it is time for a shift in advertising?

References
Morris, Wesley. “Monkey Business“ Slate (March 31, 2008): http://www.slate.com/i
d/2187797/ (Accessed April 13, 2008).
Jhally, Sut. “Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture” from The World and I
<http://www.worldandilibrary.com> article 17591 (July 1990)
Weber, Caroline. “Fasion.” New York Times. (December 3, 2006):
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/books/Weber2.t.html?_r=1&ei=5070&en=5d41225b4b63d0e4&ex=1170133200&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1170023780-fGHT0CkuDT8kD6V6f4J6Nw&oref=slogin (Accessed April 13, 2008).

Marketing has become a novel field in this century, attributed mainly to the advent of social media and the digital evolution that has turned marketing from local to international with brands becoming global commodities (Ries, 2017). The future is still evolving and what’s in store for tomorrow may change and challenge marketing as we even know it today. Recent trends revolve around building brands and not selling products, using information as the basis of marketing activities, content marketing and PR as opposed to traditional advertising, a leap even from digital marketing, multiple brands under one umbrella and even pursuing visual communications (Gruhler, 2018; Ries, 2017). Artificial Intelligence, Big Data (Gruhler, 2018) and visual search – the latest in technology which allows users to search images (Jones, 2018) are all being integrated and aligned to marketing, thus bring to users’ Experience, Exchange, Everyplace and Evangelism; the 4Es of the new marketing mix of the technological world (Carter, 2017; Danziger, 2017). With the arrival of these 4Es, what does entail for the famed 4Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion)? Have they been left behind in a bygone era, is the question which leads us to the topic of my article.

Danziger (2017) explains how the 4Es have replaced the 4Ps which is summarized in the diagram below.

It is worthwhile noting that while she says the 4Ps have been replaced by the 4Es, the wording used is not quite that straightforward. While, I wholeheartedly agree that consumers now expect to be wowed by the 4Es, and marketers are doing their best to provide this, I believe the 4Ps still remain very relevant. I see the adoption of the 4Es as an add-on to the 4Ps of the marketing mix. As Danziger (2017) very clearly explains it in her article, today’s consumers want to be wowed by an experience when they purchase a product, they want more in terms of perceived value for their products than they spend in monetary terms, they do not want to be limited by a physical location for purchasing their product and they want to purchase their products on their own terms. When it comes to Evangelism, Danziger (2017) mentions content marketing, social media, traditional public relations, influencer blog posts, and word-of-mouth marketing as being parts of this ‘E’. In turn making me think of Evangelism as Promotion using the latest tools of marketing. While there is no doubt that the new generation of consumers identify with brands which give them an unparallel experience, engage with them, make an emotional connection with them and still retain the element of exclusivity (Chrzanowska, n.d.) the famed 4Ps remain the foundation of any brand’s marketing activities.

Let me explain… using Apple as an example. Apple has truly got the right mix of the 4Ps in place. They’ve got fabulous products that consumers love, the pricing strategy adopted is accepted by consumers as they perceive Apple products to give value for money, Apple has many places in which they sell their products (while in a bygone era this was only at physical stores, now Apple products are found in the digital space as well), and they unquestionably promote their brand and products using the varied marketing tools available today. Now let’s add-on the 4Es. Apple markets its products as an Experience, their tag line “Think Different” is the start of this. Consumers believe they are exchanging money for a far more valuable product; thus, the Exchange is taken care of. Everyplace, certainly Apple is available everywhere and Evangelism which uses new promotional tools is a complete success with Apple, one example being their Instagram page and the ‘#shotoniphone’ hashtag. So, yes, Apple has also got the 4Es exactly right!

So, can the 4Ps and the 4Es co-exist? I believe this is exactly what they do. The 4Es are our changed view of what the 4Ps mean today. They are the expanded meaning of the 4Ps in the context of the changing market place, a result of digital disruption combined with more demanding consumer wants and expectations, and globalization leading to global brands. This leads me to my original question, the title of this article – Are the 4Ps old news, or merely rapidly expanding in meaning?

For me the 4Ps of the marketing mix will remain the foundation on which brands bring their products and services to the market place in a way that changes with time and consumer expectations… leading us very conveniently (if I may say so) to the 4Es of the new marketing mix!

What are your views?

References

Carter, D. (2017, April 24). The 4Ps are out, the 4Es are in. Growth Cubed. Retrieved from https://www.growthcubed.com/2017/04/24/4ps-4es/

Chrzanowska, N. (n.d.). 9 Thoughts about the future of marketing. Brand24 Blog. Retrieved from https://brand24.com/blog/the-future-of-marketing/

Danziger, P.N. (2017, July 25). Retailers need new tools for marketing: Forget the 4Ps, embrace the 4Es. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2017/07/25/retailers-need-new-tools-for-marketing-forget-the-4ps-embrace-the-4es/#41aac7fe6412

Gruhler, T. (2018, April 18). Five trends shaping the future of marketing. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/04/18/five-trends-shaping-the-future-of-marketing/#7f74b224d369

Jones, M. (2018, September 27). Forget AR: Visual search will be the hottest e-commerce tech among millennials. MarketingTech News. Retrieved from https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2018/sep/27/forget-ar-visual-search-will-be-hottest-e-commerce-tech-among-millennials/

Ries, A. (2017, April 14). Five revolutionary changes in marketing since the turn of the century. AdAge. Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/al-ries/revolutionary-marketing-turn-century/308635/

It’s the weekend. You’re going out with your pals and you know that adult beverages will be involved. So what do you do? You call a Lyft like the responsible adult you are! But Lyft is claiming that they what you to be responsible in other ways.

On August 28, 2018, Lyft announced that they have partnered with various voting registration organizations to encourage riders to registrar and vote in the upcoming November 6 elections. The company is offering half-priced and free rides to voting polls on the day of the election as well.

Lyft claims to truly care about their riders and employees exercises their right to vote, however, I just call it a great marketing campaign. Throughout the numerous scandals their top competitor, Uber, has had in recent years, Lyft has tried to position itself as the most “woke” alternative (Solon, 2017). So much so that being hyper socially and racially aware has become their positioning strategy. Capitalizes on your biggest’s competitions racial, sexual and social scandals but displaying your company as the most concerned about racial, sexual and social injustices is just brilliant.

Many journalists and news outlets praise Lyft on their “genuine” concern beyond their own company, but I am a bit more cynical. If you notice, every time Lyft partners with an organization to better society, there’s always a catch. That catch tends to be: sign up with Lyft and use our service to get you there. Not saying there is anything wrong with that, however, let’s not call Lyft “advocates” so much so as “great marketers”.

Other companies that want to stand out from the competition need to take a look at what Lyft is doing and follow. With such a polarized political climate and a hyper-sensitive country, this new wave of we-care-use-our-service marketing might be the way to go!

References:

The Ride to Vote: Use Lyft to Exercise Your Rights. (2018, August 28). Retrieved from https://blog.lyft.com/posts/2018/8/22/get-out-the-vote

Solon, O. (2017, March 29). Is Lyft really the ‘woke’ alternative to Uber? Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/29/is-lyft-really-the-woke-alternative-to-uber

Activate your Authenticity.

We’ve all been bombarded with annoying advertisements and therefore we ourselves know what we will not tolerate when it comes to buying into someone else’s hype on the internet. Yet when it comes to doing our own marketing, we often find ourselves committing the same bad behaviors that we resent in others.

“Everyone is talking, but no one is listening.”

This is the way that my clients use to describe their experience in social media and networking platforms. They felt bombarded and overwhelmed by the LOUD and confrontational messages they saw from other businesses and organizations, which often resulted in them feeling invisible. The thunderous and overbearing business agendas on these crowded platforms were downright deafening.

It was about ten years ago and my consulting business was exploding. I was known as an online marketing genius and I had an actual wait-list of clients waiting to learn what I knew about driving traffic. I never really intended to be a social media coach, but one day I just happened to crack a code on the Twitter platform trying to get more people to listen to my digital radio show that had not yet been called a “podcast”. Through purposeful engagement on a brand new social media platform, lots of trial and error and several late nights, I discovered the antidote.

This simple equation allowed me to drive traffic with just a quick click of a button. Before I knew it, I had completely reinvented myself and I had a wait-list of clients who were willing to pay me top dollar to share my secret with them.

I took my cute little audience of 80, and turned them into 2,000 in just one night. That 2,000 became 65,000 by the end of the week, 400,000 by the end of the month and 6 million by the end of the year. Word got out that I was a master at driving traffic and suddenly everyone wanted to know my secret.

The secret is that there really WAS NO SECRET online or offline that marketers wouldn’t be able to acquire in a matter of time. We were just figuring out the perimeters of social media so advertising online was an escapade that had no boundaries, rules, or any proven techniques to speak of. The formula that I came up with was simple. I used what I knew about people, how they navigated their way through the digital space, and I used that to generate powerful messages that would compel them to take an action. In my case? A play button.

Everyone wants to be seen, heard and valued.

The simplicity of what I discovered was no different than good old fashioned solutions sales  through authentic engagement and personal connection. Everything you need to know about increasing the bottom line through online marketing is about one thing: Visibility.

Play Button = Web link
Ad placement = Hashtags
Message = Visibility

There it was. I needed to make sure that every message that was placed strategically in front of my audience made them feel important. Every marketing team wants to know, How do I get my messages seen? But often what they are not asking is Does my demographic feel seen when they come upon my message to them?

Stop seeing them as numbers and start seeing them as people.

There is something that feels very artificial about easily driving traffic through interpersonal connections, and yet contrary to how it must sound, every message I had been broadcasting was generated from my genuine passion to connect with others. NOTHING was sly or fraudulent about how I had increased my following or how I taught others how to increase theirs.

Solid marketing efforts is about giving much needed recognition to an audience in a way that makes them feel truly appreciated.

As a solo entrepreneur I did not have the funds to advertise, but even so there was no way I could compete with companies offering the same services with million dollar budgets. I had to come up with pivotal messaging that were not manufactured tech messages strategically placed as an annoying pop-up ad. I knew people were annoyed with the way advertisers were imposing on their web time. My messages came from real conversations that grew from real relationships based on an equal give and take.

It was a delicate balance of being able to connect digitally, but still be able to separate myself from creating marketing hype that would misrepresent my authenticity as artificial. I had to be careful that the tactics I used to get people to know that my product was in existence didn’t counteract my brand that said I was personable.

Advertising on social media no longer feels unnatural.

Online users continue to evolve, but so does their bullshit meters. High impact and aggressive marketing tactics have become even more of a turn off. The advertisements that get the most clickable attention are the ones that are transparent and genuine. Authenticity feels right. Artificiality doesn’t.

A good business cannot survive on passion and enthusiasm alone. Marketing MUST BE part of the equation, but online advertising does not need to be mass produced and manufactured. Even automated processes should be authentic, organic and compelling. Marketing does its best work when it doesn’t feel like marketing at all.

Shout it from the rooftops, the funnel is dead! At least, that’s what inbound marketing folks have been telling us for the past several years. Each time the funnel nearly-dies, some suspiciously similar shaped diagram clambers to take its place. Chicken Little just might be on to something this time, though, as Hubspot unveiled their new “flywheel” at the Inbound conference earlier this month (Buyer, 2018).

Even if you aren’t as Hubspot-hyped as I am, if you spend time in digital marketing circles you are probably at least somewhat familiar with the Hubspot inbound philosophy and the concept of customer delight. Check out this resource for a quick refresher. The old Hubspot model of a buyer’s journey that moves from Attract, Convert, Close, to Delight is out the window and replaced with a diagram that looks similar to a donut chart with Attract, Engage, and Delight encircling the customer in the middle.

The flywheel is a natural extension of the inbound concept of customer delight because the basic concept of both is that the customer is in the center of everything that we do (Buyer, 2018). Instead of relegating customer delight to something that happens at the end of the sales process, the flywheel conveys that Attract, Engage, and Delight are cyclical and in an infinite rotation (Buyer, 2018). It makes sense, right? Brands should prioritize the customer experience at every touchpoint; not really groundbreaking. Except that for many brands, it is.   

When Hubspot rocked the marketing world 10 years ago with their inbound philosophy, they started an explosion of content marketing (Kniahynyckyj, 2018). Which is great — unless you’re trying to get people to take notice of YOUR brand. The internet has become as crowded with content as a Walmart parking lot on Black Friday, and consumers are getting better and better at simply ignoring it (Kniahynyckyj, 2018). What resonates with people now is hearing positive things about a brand from other customers, family, and friends (Kniahynyckyj, 2018). That’s where the flywheel comes in because it’s really hard to create product evangelists if your customer experience is abysmal. (See, I told you this could be groundbreaking for some brands!)

Where the flywheel really breaks with its triangular predecessors, though, is in the way it encourages an integrated approach to marketing communications. Bold statement, right? Let me explain. By placing the customer at the center of flywheel, Hubspot assumes that customers can jump in and out of a buyer’s journey in a variety of different places; this makes the consistency across media and executions even more important because potential customers might not interact with a brand’s media in the “right” order or in the right way. Still not convinced? Connecting across media is also more important in the world of the flywheel. Consumers are more persuaded by reviews and testimonials, so brands absolutely need to make those easier to find. Connecting across media makes it easier for consumers to find the information they are looking for, and that’s pretty delightful.

A delightful customer experience at every stage of the buyer’s journey could be an essential piece of brand image and positioning for many companies. With so many consumers looking to user-generated content and personal recommendations to inform their purchases, brand image and customer delight are two sides of the same, very important, coin. After all, the customer’s experience helps shape how they view the brand, and how they view the brand helps shape how they talk about the brand online and with their family and friends.

What do you think? Will the funnel stay dead this time, or will it rise like a Zombie from the grave to reign anew until someone else invents a “definitely-not-a-funnel” inverted pyramid diagram to represent the sales and marketing process? Let me know in the comments.

References:

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/12-new-realities-of-inbound-marketing/269227/
https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/from-funnel-to-flywheel-turning-customers-into-promoters-02118390