So what exactly should a company do to make a customer feel appreciated? Is a simple “thank you” good enough? What about offering a “thank you” along with a financial acknowledgement such as a discount on future services? If you were presented with this choice as a consumer, which would you say would make you feel more appreciated? 

If you are like most people, research indicates that you think that receiving a “thank you” along with a financial acknowledgement would make you feel more appreciated. In fact, this is probably why, in 2012, sent loyal customers a birthday e-card with a (worth $.25) to express its appreciation. 

But, like many areas of research, our intuition leads us astray in this domain of consumer psychology. 

Customer Appreciation – Something Is Not Always Better Than Nothing 

A trio of researchers from , , and recently published a series of studies that demonstrate that “the inclusion of a financial benefit can actually subtract from, rather than add to, customer goodwill.” 

Our intuition that any financial acknowledgement should be viewed favorably rests on the premise that the comparison standard for evaluating a financial gift is nothing. We presume that something must be better than nothing. However, like many things in life, we compare what we get to norms of what we expect rather than nothing. This is why we would be unhappy to get a re-gifted present from a friend. Our expectation has been violated, even though we got something more than nothing. 

In their paper, “,” published in the of Journal of Marketing, Professors , , and “demonstrate that receiving an acknowledgment with a smaller-than-expected financial benefit can lead consumers to feel less appreciated than receiving no financial benefit.” 

In one study, for example, the researchers set up a laptop survey outside the dining room of a hotel conference center and asked hotel guests to complete a customer review of the conference center. After completing the review, half of the study participants were randomly assigned to receive a letter of thanks from the hotel for their review and the other half of study participants received a letter of thanks along with a small financial acknowledgement ($.05). Analyses indicated that participants who received the “thank you” and financial acknowledgment felt significantly less appreciated than those who received only the “thank you” letter. 

A separate study showed that the “trivialization” effect also holds when the form of financial acknowledgement is a % off discount on future purchases. That study looked at eight different levels of discount from 5% to 40%. However, it showed that a financial acknowledgement is only detrimental when it falls below expectations. Specifically, participants felt less appreciated when they received a 5% discount acknowledgment in comparison to nothing, equally appreciated when they received an acknowledgement of a 10 to 25% discount, and more appreciated when they received a 30 to 40% discount acknowledgement. 

How to Show Customer Appreciation Properly 

So what should managers do as a result of this research? 

First, be cautious about showing appreciation to customers via a financial acknowledgement. Acknowledgements that fall below customer expectations can actually backfire. And even acknowledgements that don’t backfire may not make customers feel more appreciated than simply thanking them for their business and their efforts in support of your company. 

Second, if the goal is to acknowledge customers financially, be sure to do your homework to understand customer expectations of what level of acknowledgement would be considered appropriate. The % off discount study showed that a financial show of appreciation can be beneficial, but only if it is large enough to exceed the expectations of most customers. 

Third, seek to introduce other norms into how a financial acknowledgement will be evaluated. Another study by the researchers showed that a small financial acknowledgement can go from having a detrimental to neutral effect on felt appreciation if it is offered to a prosocial cause on the customer’s behalf. And if a trivial acknowledgement can go from detrimental to neutral, then modest levels of financial acknowledgement may go from neutral to positive. In this case, the company gets more impact per dollar when a prosocial rather than business transaction norm is introduced. 

Lance A. Bettencourt is a co-founder and managing partner of , a service that matches corporate decision-makers with the expertise of business school professors. Bettencourt is a distinguished marketing fellow at the , and author of 

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The Great Recession was an insidious force against the U.S. economy. Across the country, organizational production plummeted in step with the GDP, capital investment and jobs. The country was sent into a fiscal tailspin, with productivity left to swirl into its downward spiral. 

Crashing productivity was less publicized than other failing pieces of the economy, but its pain was felt country-wide. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonfarm business productivity dropped 100% between the periods of 2000 to 2007 and . 

Middle market productivity, while not unaffected by 2007’s economic sinkhole, has been a proverbial lambent flame in an otherwise darkened economy. As U.S. productivity continues to languish in 2016, down 0.6% during the second quarter, midmarket productivity has been on the rise since the fourth quarter of 2015, according to the . The sector experienced its third consecutive quarter of growth in the second quarter of 2016. Yielding 3.3% growth in the second quarter, it is closing in on its 2014 productivity increase of 4%. 

Mary Josephs, founder and CEO of middle market investment firm , posits midmarket productivity held steady due to one of its finest assets: the employee. 

“I have a bias and a passion for the middle market,” she says. “The sweat equity of family and entrepreneurs building businesses in communities across the country is, to me, part of the foundation of America.”

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Middle market companies, which contribute $6.2 trillion to the economy and employ 50 million Americans, have a unique combination of svelteness and monetary power, striking a balance small and large businesses normally cannot. For this reason, midmarket organizations are set up for employee engagement and productivity, . 

The midmarket’s compact workforces allow for a protean work flow, easily able to turn on a dime, and, in theory, . Getting employees to consider productivity enhancements can improve the bottom line from 4% to 10% year-over-year, Josephs says. This can only happen at companies that combine culture, leadership and talent. 

“The families that are about building a business and sustaining a culture … tend to have extraordinary throughput,” she says. “I call that productivity, whereas, if it’s a privately held family business [that tries to] take out as much money as possible for the family—maybe not offering a retirement plan because that’s not required, or skimping on benefits, training, health care and leadership development—[that] is not [productive].” Such benefits, in Josephs’ experience, correlate to productivity, which correlates to value.

Finding Value Within 

knows how powerful an engaged, productive employee base can be. He’s written two books on intellectual capital within companies and says he’s endlessly intrigued by productivity. Stewart enjoys looking askew at productivity, but thinks there’s one tenet that’s important to remember: productivity’s equation is output divided by input. Increasing productivity means increasing outputs or reducing inputs. The question in 2016 often boils down to creating more with less, or perhaps finding greater value with the same workforce and tools. 

“If I can have the same number of people, and they’re doing more work or more valuable work that I can charge a higher price for, then I’m increasing productivity,” Stewart says. “[If] I take the same number of workers and increase the number of widgets they produce per worker, but also increase the value of the stuff they produce, that’s a significant thing.”

​Analytics and Big Data may assist in productivity improvements, no matter the employee base; however, executives at each midmarket company must ask what . 

This is where the productivity of middle market companies can be made or broken. These companies are aggressive hirers, Stewart says, anywhere from 50% to 100% faster than small or big businesses in terms of net growth, but they usually hold off on capital spending until coming into additional funds. Any savings via productivity may mean an ability to make smarter investments. 

“They’re really cautious about adding to their monthly costs,” Stewart says. “Whether that’s wages, plants or capital equipment, they want to maximize the output they’re getting.”

Labor productivity is the simplest measurement, Stewart says, and often tells less of a story than many think. Getting more complex—and perhaps sophisticated—means measuring total factor productivity, or the portion of the output not explained by the amount of input in production. This measurement determines how efficiently inputs are used on the production level, per Harvard Business School. Stewart says this may give a wider view of productivity across the organization and bring forth the question of where companies will look for additional productivity. Could it go beyond labor and into new equipment or technology, such as automatic drivers or drones?

“We may be on the cusp on a lot of labor productivity gains in places that have been resistant to it before,” he says. 

Creating a More Engaged Employee Base

How is a more efficient, productive employee base cultivated? Josephs says the culture must be allowed to come alive with ideas. Some ideas will be good, some will be bad, but all will have the aim of creating more efficient business practices. This likely means promising employees their good ideas will not mean a round of layoffs, Josephs says. After all, no employee wants to make a suggestion that will slash their hours or end their job. Creating an atmosphere where mistakes and new ideas are not only allowed, but encouraged, may be a key to productivity.

“You get politics out of the way and [everyone] rowing in the same direction,” she says. 

These changes must come from the top. Executives must believe in cost-benefit analysis, coaching, investing, recruiting benefits and encouraging employees to exchange ideas for the best result, Josephs says. 

​​“That’s a leap of faith for some people. I think of people who came out of a very tough time in business. They have a mentality that all spending detracts from value. You have to believe that it’s not spending, it’s investment. You have to have permission to do it,” she says.

An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) or other employee-owner agreement that gives employees a stake in the company may be positive for productivity and increase the willingness of employees to be more open, invested and creative, Josephs says. However, there must still be something the entire company is driving for, she says; a common goal of productivity must be in place. This, in the end, . 

“The exceptional companies have identified what some key drivers are in their business,” she says. “Maybe for factories it’s on-time deliveries. For retailers, it’s minimizing shrink and turnover. [In any case, they’d] have everyone knowing that these metrics are going to help boost share value, which is going to make the retirement accounts bigger.”

What’s Next for Midmarket Productivity?

Midmarket companies will need to find where opportunities to improve exist, Stewart says. This is likely where advanced data analytics will factor in, as he believes the productivity slowdown across the country is probably from the “easy gains” of the first wave of automation, digitization and offshoring. . 

As an example, Stewart says if a company’s total cost of producing a good is $100 when it was made 25 years ago, (where 50% of costs were attributed to labor, 25% to IT and 25% to machinery) and the cost to produce is still $100, where could feasible cuts be made in production? Labor costs are likely down, he says; could technology be the place to look? Stewart believes so, saying the productivity of machines and IT, especially with technology getting less expensive each year, could be a sensible place to save money. 

Now, with automated systems and leaner employee bases, Stewart says midmarket companies need to ask, “What’s next?” This may go beyond labor and into finding a greater level of productivity in technology. “People who can crack those nuts might make some really big gains,” he says.

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These are tough times for international marketers. 

There is the ubiquitous and growing occurrence of terrorism, which brings fear to airports, train stations, entertainment venues and many other places. There is strong political volatility where the battle is not only about political savoir faire, but is driven by individuals. Just think of the new governor of Tokyo, a woman elected against “official” guidance in a male-dominated country.

There is growing wealth concentration for a few, and low income for many. We have witnessed the breakup of long-term coalitions thought to be stable, such as in Libya, Iraq, Indonesia and South Sudan. In Europe alone we have witnessed massive migration flows from the Middle East, which have led to global disharmony. We have seen the referendum in Scotland to tear asunder the United Kingdom. And now there is British exit (Brexit) from the European Union (EU) due to a plebiscite.

Much of this occurs at a distance, so should marketers really be concerned? The answer is yes—they need to analyze the precursors, effects and consequences. There will be major changes in business relations within the EU and important effects on marketing on both sides of the Atlantic. Knowledge and preparation will not remove the thorn of separation, but may help with a less-painful adjustment.

One hundred years ago, world economic and political conditions were characterized by globalization and democratization. Political and economic power was in balance. Large global conflict seemed unlikely between the three relatives who ruled England, Russia and Germany and referred to each other as Vicky, Nicky and Willy. Yet, within only a few years, World War I had led to millions of casualties and major devastation. Today, some say that rather than walking the walk of diversity, we are ominously close to a similar path of divisiveness. What are we to do in order to avoid a dramatic deterioration of global civility, security and economy?

Tinderboxes can cause hot flames. For example, to guarantee their spheres of influence, Britain and France signed the Sykes-Picot Treaty on May 16, 1916, which drew hasty and culturally poorly conceived borders for the Middle East. The accord achieved its planned outcome, namely the expiry of the Ottoman Empire, but has caused a century of painful conflict in the Middle East. Even today, the conflicts in Syria or Turkey reflect the inherent disharmony of the old agreement.

Brexit reflects an unwillingness to accept large migration flows and a reluctance to cope with diversity. A British start may encourage other nations to also demand special consideration. But who will be the beast of burden and at what price?

Forward-looking countries that adapt their own solutions often surpass the slower and larger powers. Hungary’s policy of “we can’t do it” led to early control of immigration flows. But the nation found itself derided and scorned, even though many other countries followed suit. Being the first with good ideas and their implementation does not always pay off.

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It is ironic to see a self-inflicted British exit from the EU, which does not better the world, but carries the spark for further conflict. The economic relationship between the U.S. and Britain will weaken. The European Single Market (ESM) is single no more. The departure shifts the entire European unification from an outlook of optimism and growth to a fear of division. Its significance as a business cluster is declining and no longer as charming. The value of the pound is likely to remain depressed as will the currency of other non-euro countries. Relative salaries, housing prices, innovation and new ventures become less robust. The plans of many people to establish their lives in Britain will change. Inward tourism may rise, but outward travel will suffer.

For trade and investment issues already settled by agreements between the EU and the U.S., the U.K.—now an outsider—will need to seek new access accords. Many policy questions will not necessarily be resolved in favor of the U.K. How will America choose between Britain and the EU? What are the consequences the U.S. will have to bear, especially with the ongoing negotiation of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)? What shortcomings will marketers experience in terms of employment, human capital development and global market success due to the missing British team member? At the very least, they will need to redifferentiate between the EU and the U.K., which requires new strategies, new tactics and new allocation of emphasis.

American outward foreign direct investment (FDI) will change. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reports that every day, almost 1 million people go to work in America for British companies. More than 1 million people go to work in Great Britain for American companies. The U.S. and U.K. have the world’s largest FDI partnership. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, British direct investment in the U.S. totaled $449 billion in 2014 while American direct investment in the U.K. reached $540 billion. American firms have regarded investment in Britain as a strategy to be safe and gain more access to the 27 other member states of the European Union. Under Brexit, such rationale is no longer valid.

Stability is a key concern for investors. While the U.K. is an attractive market with its strong rule of law, highly educated workforce and language similarity with the U.S., the EU partnership may be more attractive due to its size and the overall streamlining of trade and investment rules. American marketers in the U.K. will face rising cost and decreasing earnings. A survey by Ernst & Young found 72% of U.S. investors citing the access to the ESM as an important element of the U.K.’s investment attractiveness. Marketers will need to find ways that improve the future appeal of the U.K.

Brexit will not make trade negotiations any easier. Trouble may often be unforeseen and delayed. For example, The Washington Post reports that the EU has agreed to a ban of certain pesticides in order to protect bees and their hives, which are in decline. Will a London withdrawal from such restrictions endanger British bees, or will British bees endanger their EU relations? What can marketers offer to bridge this gap?

This is not a time for global conflict. Marketers must contribute to tranquility and cohesion to demonstrate that trade and investments are preferable ways to obtain goods and services rather than by engaging in battle. As part of this process, marketers may shape relationships that are less traditionally organized but more individualistic and spontaneous. Also, highly emphasized marketing fundamentals such as competition, risk, profit and ownership may have to be modified.

Confrontations between friends and adversaries do not require winners and losers. All should be willing to learn from one another, acknowledge and respect special needs and make allowance for the human dimension. “We must lead toward a world that trades in freedom. And we must pursue all these goals with focus, patience and strength.” These words of former president George W. Bush still ring true. With all the resources now available, there must be an increased search for the soul of marketing. Determining past wrongs and the inflicted cost on individuals and society may enable curative marketers to play a new role in the development of relationships. We all must contribute conscientiously to finding ways that help others by sharing their burden. Yet, they must become more willing to share ours as well. Leadership is expensive. Those who now sit at the table must let others approach and take a seat. Dropping crumbs is an insufficient path to a better world.

It used to be said that the U.S. and England are only separated by a common language. The near-term future will see a separation of the two by treaty considerations, which were thought to be concluded, but due to Brexit, will emerge anew. There may be the opportunity to arrive at new conclusions during new negotiations; however, the revision of past agreements will be quite onerous. In many instances, negotiators will be more risk-averse, leading to more restrictive negotiation outcomes. Bilateral discussions between the U.S. and the U.K. will focus on controversial fields such as norms, use of chemicals or additives and privacy.

Marketers can contribute to such future negotiations by providing real data that help negotiators understand the realities of market exchange. It will be up to marketers to emphasize global openness, transparency and consumption as desirable objectives for progress toward a better human condition.

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In today’s world, how can you make the most of your multichannel, global marketing? Should you emphasize a global perspective or a local one?

From what I am seeing, the correct answer is an emphatic, “Yes!”

Thanks to technology advances and lower-cost mobile devices, even developing markets are leaping headlong into the digital world. Along the way, they are becoming increasingly attractive targets for marketers’ digital campaigns. As these consumers are exposed to many of the same apps and services that we find in the U.S., Europe and Japan, we see the worldwide market flattening in crucial ways. Many of the same key market segments can be found readily on different continents. The “ambitious striver” segment—which GfK Consumer Life calls “achievers”—has come to define modern China and India but is also on the rise in both developed countries (U.K., France and U.S.) and emerging ones (Mexico and Brazil).

Enabled by programmatic buying, mobile technology continues to level the advertising and marketing playing fields. In Indonesia, for example, 95% of all internet use is via smartphones; the digital world now embraces millions of consumers who were left behind in a desktop-centric environment. This is particularly true of younger consumers who have never known a nondigital world.

And ways of interacting with devices are also truly global. These basic ingredients of the user experience, including the Netflix on-screen interface and Snapchat’s filter swipe, provide templates for exchange and engagement that work for almost any marketer.

This all suggests that a primarily global approach, emphasizing digital efforts to reach the largest possible audiences, makes the most sense. Marketers can leverage powerful commonalities if they are willing to accept some over- or under-spend on selected platforms in single markets.

Tapping the Global Heavyweights

When we think of true mass media, relevant across many continents, Facebook and Google come immediately to mind. Targeting consumers in India and Poland in the same campaign is turnkey via these and other publishers with global scale. Marketers can supplement these digital efforts with more traditional media buys—TV, for one—that reach large audiences across a range of countries.

For marketers at major CPG, pharma and technology companies, the challenge of a global approach is clear: keep your messages and executions relevant and punchy across a host of platforms while leveraging the efficiencies of worldwide scale.

Marketers must also remain aware that digital’s ability to cross geographic boundaries may work against their best-laid plans. Consider, for example, the challenge of “containing” a product launch within one country, or even one continent, in the digital ecosystem. When Amazon debuted Audible earlier this year, demand began to surge in Europe, Asia and developing markets—even though the product was only available in the U.S.

Global Reach, Locally Infused

The truth is that, while global efficiencies may be alluring for budget-conscious marketers, there is a lot about the digital world that is profoundly local, unique to specific countries and even cities. And if our ultimate goal is effectiveness, then we run the risk of truly missing the boat by not integrating these differences into our campaigns.

Consider the many incredibly popular apps that are completely indigenous to one region. In Indonesia, you can use GoJek to book a ride on the back of someone else’s motorcycle—often the quickest way from point A to B on that country’s crowded streets. GoJek, which also provides many types of innovative delivery services, is one of the 10 most popular apps in Indonesia and was recently valued at a stunning $1.3 billion. GoJek has some similarities to Uber and other social networks doubling as transportation and delivery hubs, but it is also a distinctly local iteration.

Or think about the Singapore WhatsApp group called Homework Gods, which bails out parents or students stumped by an assignment. Just take a picture of the problem, share it on the app, and an on-site “homework god” will give you the answer for a nominal fee. This is an innovative way of providing a service using an already established medium.

In the same way, we must also be mindful of market segments that have distinctly local flavors. While one contingent may have a preference for certain types of mobile apps or ways of communicating in one region, they may use their cellphones or smartphones very differently elsewhere.

Research Globally, Reward Locally

Consumer insights experts face the same challenges when working at a global scale: how to leverage the growing oneness and similarities across platforms and segments while not losing sight of make-or-break local differences.

For its GXL media panel, GfK is using standardized meters, a unified taxonomy and centralized data processing systems to develop truly comparable data across 10 countries. And in our global point of sale (POS) panels, we use a single system to code hundreds of attributes of consumer electronics products and various other products in dozens of countries, allowing global manufacturers or retailers to see at a glance which sales trends are truly worldwide.

On the other hand, researchers also need to be mindful of crucial local differences. For example, the research firm Netquest (a GfK subsidiary) has a consistent survey engagement app installed on cellphones and smartphones in a number of Latin American countries (think about the consistent user experience environment that can be created to boost consumer involvement). However, when it comes to providing incentives for engagement, Netquest customizes the reward options for individual countries, focusing on what is more likely to be valued in a particular country or region.

So, returning to the question we started with, whether to focus on global or local for marketing and research success, the answer is truly, “Yes.” Affirm the best that each has to offer; do not lean too heavily on global sameness, but also be wise about the time you spend tailoring to local markets. Getting the balance right may be a years-long experiment, but knowing that this fine-tuning can pay huge dividends makes it the essence of due diligence for global marketers.

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is among many companies that are dialing up the use of brand storytelling or what I call “signature stories,” stories that communicate core strategic information about the firm and its strategy. the director of global marketing at GE explained how stories helped GE communicate its strategic message during a talk at the June 2016 ANA conference on Masters of B-to-B Marketing.

It all starts with GE’s DNA, which always has been passionate about science and technology, starting with founder Thomas Edison. The GE goal is to be associated with this DNA as reflected by imagination, creativity and always being in motion. The firm is comfortable with geeking-out with people who find science and technology interesting. In fact, a key audience is people who are also into science and technology—those who will relate to GE’s passion and strategy.

What is novel about GE for the past few years is the emphasis placed on stories, authentic narratives that surprise, intrigue and involve the audience while also being informative or entertaining. Several aspects of GE’s approach are worth highlighting:

• Creativity and experimentation lead to unique ideas that surprise, many of which are driven, or at least influenced, by a social media vehicle. That means that a variety of people and organizational units inside and outside the firm get involved. It is far different from having an advertising brief and then developing and running a campaign.
• The exposure to the stories is often audience-driven. A major basis for stimulating social activity is the GE opt-in set of 4 million members over a variety of social media platforms. Given this serendipity, it is amazing how professional and engaging the final story vehicles are. The presentation is always extremely well done.
• There are some ad campaigns, but the body of work emphasizes GE content-driven audiences rather than rented media vehicles

We would all do well to follow GE’s lead in the following nine brand storytelling areas:

1. Find and leverage partners, and own the audience driving content.

Partnering with and top Hollywood storytellers such as , GE helped put together a six-part documentary TV series about scientific breakthrough stories from the GE labs that have faced enormous unknowns and technical challenges, but have emerged with innovations that have changed lives. The series, featuring stories on pandemics, clean water, human engineering, aging, improving the brain and clean energy, was shown on the National Geographic TV channel and streamed on GE Reports in 2016.

2. Get personal.

, a lab manager at GE Global Research, saw firsthand the effect his work had on real-world patients when his young son, Adam, was diagnosed with cancer. The treatment Adam received at the included advanced imaging technology developed at High Energy Physics Lab GE Global Research. Now that Adam has completed his treatments, Mark created a video of his story and the role imaging technology played.

3. Be tangible and connect through your brand storytelling.

As a maker of advanced materials, GE had a prominent role in the 1969 moon landing. To retell that story on the occasion of the 45th moon landing anniversary, GE introduced on Snapchat aredesign of the original moon boots using advanced GE materials used in jet engines and wind turbines. One hundred boots, termed Missions, went on sale on the exact anniversary day and cost $196.90. helped with the launch by posting a photo of himself on Snapchat wearing a pair of Missions. The shoes are now available on eBay for thousands of dollars.

4. Adapt to the media.

Leverage audience storytellers to your brand storytelling. GE created a series of six-second videos of scientific experiments. Research showed that 30% of millennials’ time is spent watching user-generated content, so GE encouraged consumers to create and share their own six-second videos tagged with . Vine, a video app launched by Twitter, was the platform. The #6SecondScience fair was a success, and the project won a Cannes award.

5.Be creative.

Video of a “snowball in hell” involved a snowball encased in a vessel made of the same material used in jet engines. Molten steel at 2,000 degrees was poured into a foundry over the vessel. The snowball survived “hell.” Other topics were “catching lighting in a bottle,” and “talking to a wall.” A competition is on to find the next idiom to test.

6. Adapt to the audience.

GE’s instinct was that their target audience is fascinated by big machines and how they work and, thus, would love to visit factories and see them in action. Six Instagram influencers and six GE superfans were asked to visit a jet engine test site in rural Ohio and record the experience. There have been more than a dozen such experiences filmed, from making a locomotive in Texas to visiting a test facility near the North Pole in Norway. The results were exposed to the GE social media audience members as well as on social medial sites. The first #GEInstWalk got some 200,000 views 48 hours after its posting.

7. Use user-generated content.

GE partnered with The Tonight Show and Jimmy Fallon, who is a patent-holder and a lover of science. The result was a segment that aired three times per year called “Fallonventions.” In them, kids would present their inventions, which were always clever and hilarious. One, for example, allowed people to reach Pringle chips low in the package by inserting a door in the package. Another had a hat tied to a back-scratching device that could be activated by a pull chain. GE reinforced the brand’s message with brand storytelling that it is a champion of innovation.

8. Employ vivid technologies.

GE is planning to create content using virtual reality. The first effort follows an underwater submersible that mimics GE’s subsea technology used to collect and discover gas and oil deposits in the ocean. People can use an Oculus Rift headset and sit in a vibrating chair while the headset simulates the underwater experience. More experiences are planned.

9. Empathize with the target audience and use humor.

The geek world is celebrated by Owen, who, in an ad series, tries to describe to friends and family his new job at GE writing programs to help trains, hospitals and planes run better. They don’t get it. One tries to clarify—“So you are going to run a train?” In another ad, a friend who is a game programmer sucks the energy out of the air, and Owen cannot be heard. The brand’s storytelling works because it honestly admits the GE geek culture and does it with humor. Owen has become an ongoing symbol of the new GE and appears at conferences. Although it was not at all designed to help recruiting, it did increase inflow of applicants 800%, and a second set of ads shows Owen now on the job.

GE has shown how to capitalize on the realities of the social media age: have clear communication objectives, know your audience, be creative and try things, tailor content to the media and don’t force it, don’t compromise on execution and invest in storytelling that will interest and involve viewers, since simple facts neither communicate nor persuade.

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The paradigm has shifted in U.S. politics. Out-of-nowhere candidates—such as Republican presidential nominee  and Democratic-so​cialist —have grown less from the political canon and more from the will of the people. 

Marketing has been at the heart of this shift, according to  professor of marketing and a Wicklander Fellow in business ethics at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University in ​Chicago. In Newman’s latest book, , he writes that President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns changed how politicians use marketing.

Obama’s campaigns used the latest in marketing technology, Newman says, including microtargeting, social media and Big Data, which he calls the “strategic triad.” Newman’s book juxtaposes how these forms have worked in for-profit, nonprofit and political sectors. 

The use of marketing in politics has been considered outdated for years, Newman says, but the Obama campaigns flipped that concept. Newman says a “shift that took place in ‘08 and ‘12 was so sophisticated that now the for-profit and the nonprofit sectors have a lot to learn from what we’ve been doing in politics.”

Marketing News spoke with Newman about the “marketing revolution” in politics, how marketers are using the marketing tactics of politicians and what to expect in future elections.

Q: Can you explain what the “Obama Method” is and why it worked so well in his 2008 and 2012 campaigns?

A: Essentially, what he did was use technological skills to go through every step any company would go through, which I refer to as a “lesson.” Each lesson represents a different chapter in [my] book, beginning with identifying the marketing concept, using the research strategically, creating a unique brand identity, coming up with a winning advertising strategy, developing a relationship with your customer and being able to act in a crisis. 

​Q: How far forward did the Obama campaigns in ‘08 and ‘12 push these marketing techniques? I recall George W. Bush’s chief campaign strategist Karl Rove was lauded for his use of data during the 2000 and 2004 campaigns. What’s the difference?

A: What  with Bush was use numbers and mathematics to determine what it was they had to do to win in the general election. I can tell you from personal experience, as I was in Mexico City in 2004 and [Bush’s 2004 campaign chief strategist] Matthew Dowd was one of several speakers invited to speak to about 300 politicians. What was very interesting was that as I sat and listened to his keynote speech—I had never heard about this in the media in the U.S.—he said they realized after they won in 2000 that in order to win in 2004 they needed 3 million new voters. The way they did that was to go to the evangelical leaders across the country in the churches. They requested that each evangelical religious leader enroll 10, 20, 30 people from their church to register to vote. 

Sure enough, Karl Rove was very clever; they did in fact win in 2004 by exactly 3 million votes. They also made the point that after they won in 2000, it didn’t matter who the opponent was. As long as they could get the extra 3 million votes, they could do it. Karl Rove used numbers and mathematics to come up with a quantitative orientation to the campaign. What changed in 2008 was Obama realized that it wasn’t necessarily important to win the popular vote by a certain number of votes, but his people knew he had to win in the Electoral College vote. If you go back to 2012, for example, Obama won the popular vote by about a 3% margin, . … How did that happen? It happened because they used microtargeting and Big Data to send selected targeted messages the way we do in the marketing of any product or any service. 

They carefully targeted those voting blocs around the country that they knew were on the fence. All they had to do was win those people over to win [the election]. As opposed to Karl Rove saying, “We need 3 million new voters to register,” the Obama people said, “We need these specifically targeted voters in these particular areas of the country, and in order to do that we have to use microtargeted messages to get through to them.”

The other difference was fundraising. The Obama campaign used very sophisticated experimentation to determine how to go about sending e-mail messages for fundraising. For example, they would send out [thousands of] e-mails with different words in the subject line in order to perfect exactly which wording brought about the most funds.

Q: Have you seen anything in this year’s campaign that has taken the Obama Method and run with it? I’ve read that Ted Cruz’s campaign used microtargeting in the primaries. 

A: . What Cruz would do is have anyone who came to his rallies provide their personal Facebook accounts. [The campaign] would take that information and they would merge the . They then sent messages to each person who came to the rally and to all of their friends who were on their Facebook accounts, magnifying geometrically the number of people they were able to target.

Another big change we saw—and this is how the title of the book reflects what’s happening now—is the ability of the candidate to go directly to the voter in no different way than Amazon has gone directly to the book customer and in no different way than Uber has gone directly to the person who wants transportation. 

This direct distribution channel, which we have seen evolve on the commercial side, has now been transplanted to the political side, and it’s allowed someone like Donald Trump to circumvent the political party apparatus and go directly to the voter and very effectively utilize tweets to drive the debate in the news. ; Hillary . To this day and throughout the Republican primary, Trump has used tweeting in a way that we didn’t see in 2008 and 2012.

Q: Is it a more personal style of tweeting?

A: It’s personal, but it also brings the message back to the entrepreneur. … . This was the genius of the branding expertise of Donald Trump.

But the interesting story from the marketing standpoint is that in marketing, you can use branding very effectively. You can use all the tools we have—which Donald Trump doesn’t rely on; he’s not relying on microtargeting, he doesn’t believe in Big Data, whereas Hillary Clinton is [and does]—and you can be the best brand or advertiser in the world, but if you want to be a good marketer, you have to have a good product.

What people are realizing now is that Donald Trump was able to use a unique brand identity to get the attention of the media and the people, to respond to a movement in the country where there are people upset with how much money they’re making and the threat of ISIS and other foreign interventions. [However,] if under the spotlight you cannot come up with answers to questions and people say, “I don’t think he really knows what he’s talking about,” suddenly all the great advertising and branding means nothing if you don’t have a good product. And that’s what’s happened to Donald Trump.

Q: Back to the Obama model, have you seen many companies or marketers use it in their own business?

A: Well, on the corporate and nonprofit side they’re not breaking down the boundaries. In the Obama campaigns, they had people sitting around a table from different departments. The strategists, the consultants, the pollsters, the advertising people, they all broke down the departmental barriers and they all worked together. They had an open mind about bringing in new solutions to problems, they began to use advertising in a way that wasn’t used on the commercial side. What we see on the commercial side is that all of these technologies are being used, but they’re not being used in a creative way as the Obama people used them in 2008 and 2012.

Q: What’s behind that creativity? Is it the simple act of getting everyone in a room?

A: It is. It’s all about bringing people in from outside in a creative way. We as marketers have to have a much more open mind about allowing the CMO to interact with the CIO, CEO and CFO in a way that most corporations don’t. Yes, the corporate world is using it but they have not come to a point that … Obama did in his two campaigns. 

For example,  so the person at the gate has information loaded in their handheld computer and they have visual capabilities of identifying their loyal customers as they walk up to get into the jet. They were saying, “Hello, Mr. Jones. I’m glad you’re back on our flight today.” That was being used but then people were feeling like, my God, my privacy. You can take [the technology] and use it up to a point.

​​Q: Does that speak to why Cruz’s campaign ultimately wasn’t successful? When you said he used campaign stops to collect Facebook pages, it struck me as something people may consider creepy.

A: He was much more advanced than his opponents during the primary, and that helped him. But his basic problem was that he wasn’t able to measure up under the microscope when he was compared to Donald Trump. Donald Trump [picked on] each one of his opponents one at a time. Unfortunately for Ted Cruz, he wasn’t tough enough and didn’t stand up to Donald Trump. …  A big part of effectiveness in marketing is matching the right message with the right messenger, something Donald Trump has had throughout the campaign. …

Trump was more effective at becoming the face of the movement in no different way than Obama was the face of [his movement], bringing people of all different races and creeds together. [Obama’s] jingle,  epitomized his message very effectively. Donald Trump, up to this point, has been very effective at looking like the leader who could  if you think America isn’t great. Of course Hillary Clinton is juxtaposing that messaging by saying, “What’s wrong with America? It’s been great for a long time. There’s no need to make it great again.”

What we do in marketing is very fascinating on the political side. What you have in a political campaign is an organization in crisis mode from day one. … I talk about how an organization responds to crisis. What’s the most effective way to communicate? Who should you put on the television screen? How fast should you respond in crisis? Do you open yourself up and the people in your organization to the crisis? Do you raise expectation in some level that leads the public to expect too much from you? … There’s no other sector in society that’s exposed to crisis in a way a political campaign is, especially at the presidential level.

Q: Trump and Sanders were out-of-nowhere candidates this year. Could this innovative use of data eventually translate to a third-party candidate picking up steam?

A: It’s going to be a couple cycles down the road, but we’re moving in a direction—in no different a way than we see in the book industry, music industry, transportation and real estate—[where] it’s becoming possible for an outside organization, a micro organization, to make an inroad into a market. You have this organization oligopoly controled by just a few corporations that did not allow for that to happen. Those barriers are being broke down in sector after sector. 

Q: What do you see happening on Election Day?

A: There’s no doubt in my mind, and I’ve been forecasting this, that it’s going to be a landslide victory for Hillary Clinton … in no different a way than in the Electoral College vote that Obama won in 2008 and 2012.

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GOAL

Some products sell themselves. Flea- and tick-control pharmaceuticals for pets and livestock: not so much. When the developed a new flea-guard oral chew product called  that provides coverage three times longer than long-held industry standards, it had to crow about it.

Enter . The global marketing director for Merck Animal Health was tasked with familiarizing pet owners and veterinarians with the preventive pill. Fortunately for the company, she was more than up to it.

ACTION

Jager knew that just having a better product wasn’t going to make Bravecto a top seller. She also knew that flea-and-tick medication is at best a boring chore, and at worst a necessity that many pet owners are ashamed to request.

“Breakthroughs are great. Being first is great. But it does require some additional follow-up,” she says. “The thing with parasites: they’re yucky. And people don’t even like to go to a clinic to explain that they have a flea infestation in their house because of [the perceived] lack of hygiene. So we try to do it in a fun way. Everyone who owns a dog or cat has seen a flea or a tick once in their life.” 

Jager and her team decided early on that in order to promote Bravecto, they couldn’t just make a technical pitch around extended efficacy. 

“We want them to love the brand, so we want to give them an emotion with it—to feel good but also know that they are doing something extraordinary for their dog or cat on an emotional level.”

And Bravecto needed to do it quickly. After months of planning an initial campaign concept, Bravecto presented it to marketing teams in 20 different countries, only to receive a tepid response. “When people [only] say, ‘It’s good,’ it’s not special,” Jager says.

She decided to hit the reset button and develop a new campaign in two months, later calling this strategy, “marketing from the gut.” One of the first steps Jager took when developing the Bravecto campaign was to give the agency she worked with, , an unusual note.

“Don’t think pharmaceutical. Please think differently. Don’t listen to us at all. Come with something that will blow us out of our chairs and make us really uncomfortable,” she told them.

While Stein IAS was processing her request, Jager worked to secure backing from the boardroom and ease concerns from skittish pharma executives who were uneasy about deviating from the well-worn formula of pairing products with happy people enjoying lives made normal again through pharmaceuticals. 

“In pharma, they stay a little bit on the cheesy side—happy people—because they want to explain the product. But you can explain the product with different branding,” Jager says. “We went to the emotional level immediately. That required a lot of internal discussion around why we need this.”

Stein IAS and Jager came up with a campaign that focused on people’s love for their pets. Rather than just showing the parasite-free after-party of regular Bravecto use, they would acknowledge and destigmatize the reality of animals bringing home fleas and ticks, and emphasize treatment and prevention as an extension of the love pet owners feel for their animals.  

This strategy manifested in part through a , created by the U.S. marketing team, that featured a group of grizzled bikers. “They brought them on themselves. Now it’s war and I want them dead,” the lead rider declares before the shot cuts to a bright, sterile veterinarian’s office. “The fleas and ticks?” a vet asks. “We can do that.”

Jager says that spot in particular caused some worry among executives who didn’t think tattooed outlaws were the right fit for the brand. But she persisted and the ads won kudos from the international marketing teams.

“The C-suite is not always comfortable, but when they see that the teams around the world love and support it, then they’re fine with that,” Jager says. 

Jager took on the boardroom again when she requested more social media outreach for the brand. This was met with grim hesitation, as executives were worried about brand social accounts becoming platforms for upset animal-lovers alleging health problems caused by the product, such as a Does Bravecto Kill Dogs? Facebookgroup that’s been live since early 2015.

But Jager pushed back, arguing that people would create such pages with or without Bravecto’s presence. To her, there was more danger in forgoing social media altogether and removing Bravecto’s messaging from online conversation. 

, director of external communications for Merck Animal Health, helped clarify the reasoning behind marketing’s request for a social media push. “We did want to know if [a customer] had some adverse event. But we also knew that we had a very safe and effective product, and we wanted to make sure that in this space where people talk … and they rely on their friends and family for advice, that we didn’t lose that opportunity to give information so that people can make choices about this product,” Firsching says.

The company ended up recruiting YouTube influencers of yoga-practicing-Chihuahua fame to create a series of videos around anti-flea and -tick messaging.

RESULTS

Building a global campaign in two months, without conducting the tests that serve as a safety net if something goes wrong, is not for the faint of heart. When the time came to present the new concept to her partners, Jager admitted to being anxious. 

Fortunately, the individual country teams responsible for the marketing in specific nations loved it. And while the top-level executives were never completely won over, the fact that the rest of Merck Animal Health’s marketers were on board secured their go-ahead.

The campaign proved to be a big hit, not only with pet owners but with veterinarians, too. The latter is arguably more important and surprising since a prescription is required to obtain Bravecto, and previous vet-based marketing had been less emotional and more straightforward B-to-B. 

“It’s not only pet owners, it’s also the veterinarians that are really emotionally involved with the animal,” Jager says. “We trade on the emotional experience. Pet owners talk about the biker. But also our professional partners, the veterinarians, think it’s cool.”

According to Jager, Bravecto is the No. 1 product in its category in Europe, Brazil and South Africa, and it’s growing in the U.S. as well. 

Bravecto was a large reason that Merck’s animal health segmentin the second quarter of 2016, up 8.6% from the previous year, according to company earnings reports.

In July, Merck Animal Health for a second Bravecto product, this one a topical solution. It’s expected to be available for cats by the end of the year and for dogs in the first quarter of 2017. 

Because prescriptions are currently required to obtain Bravecto, it cannot compete with over-the-counter medications operating in the same space. But if that day comes, Jager says she’ll be ready to trust her gut on how to reach out.

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“Do you not see me? Do I not exist? Do you think it’s alright to ignore us?” yells Grace Hanson, the retired cosmetics mogul played by Jane Fonda on “,” a Netflix comedy about two women navigating new challenges later in life. A cashier and others at a grocery store are ignoring Grace and Frankie Bergstein, played by Lily Tomlin.

Grace apologizes to Frankie for her outburst, but asserts: “I refuse to be irrelevant.”

“We are 100% invisible to marketers. That’s pretty easy to establish,” says , author of  and . “You only have to look at what’s online, what’s on television, what’s on radio. We are such a pop-culture country and in this country—in every country, I think—pop culture is defined by the young because it’s about novelty and it’s about what’s different and what’s exciting.”

 released a report in 2013 titled “.” Surveying 200 female boomers, the report found that 53% felt overlooked by product advertising and marketing because of their age. The survey also found that 68.3% of respondents felt advertisers never or very rarely target their age group on a regular basis, while 31.7% said advertisers sometimes target their age group. No one in the group said they were targeted by advertisers often or almost always.

Between experts and boomer women themselves, there is little debate that this demographic is not a main focus for marketers, despite its size and spending power.

Baby boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964, making them 52 to 70 years old, and the  puts their population at an estimated 74.1 million in the U.S. The estimated number of female boomers is 38.44 million. According to a 2012 Nielsen study, “,” boomers will control 70% of the country’s disposable income by 2017. Boomers made up almost $230 billion in sales for consumer packaged goods in 2012, 49% of total sales. In addition to their existing funds, baby boomers are set to inherit $15 trillion over the next 20 years. Add to this the fact that women drive 70% to 80% of all consumer purchasing, and it’s pretty clear who spends the most.

Despite these figures, Nielsen estimates that less than 5% of advertising dollars are targeted to adults aged 35 to 64. According to the report, “Typically, once a group of consumers reaches the so-called ‘cut-off’ age of 49, marketers ‘go back to go,’” the report says.

“Most of the female baby boomers feel as if marketers don’t really understand them, and they’re not making a really strong, concerted effort to speak to them as an individual,” says Dave Austin, managing director of marketing agency , a division of  Services. Austin puts the portion of advertising dollars targeted to those 50 years and older at a marginally more encouraging 8%. “It’s slowly changing, but honestly we see both ends of the spectrum.”

Read More:

• The Age Factor
• Boomers: Keeping Up with Marketing’s Most Valuable Generation
• Senior Moment

The demographic of female baby boomers is itself a wide spectrum. An age range of 52 to 70 encompasses varying degrees of education, for example. The younger end of the range may be computer-savvy, while the older end is less compelled by digital outreach. For example, a  found only 6% of women 65 years and older learn about new products from friends’ and family’s social media accounts, and 9% learn about new products from blog posts or other digital content from magazines and newspapers. The survey didn’t offer information on those between the ages of 35 and 65, but the Nielsen report suggests younger boomers must be using the web: the 50-plus segment spends almost $7 billion online. The internet is also boomers’ primary source of intelligence when comparison shopping for major purchases.

“We consider them to be at the forefront of using technology for both information-gathering and shopping,” Austin says. “There’s this misnomer that boomers are not technology- or digital-savvy, which is just not true. They’re one of the first generations to use technology in every portion of their life, whether that be looking for their retirement plan, helping a child find something for school or helping their parents manage through retirement and older age.”

This age range also includes a variety of caretakers: some are still caring for their own children, some have welcomed adult children back home and others are caring for their parents. Women of this generation are often amid a “mom-to-me” shift, the transition between caring for children and focusing on herself, which changes spending habits. “There are major changes in lifestyle that happen when you don’t have to devote all of your resources to the kids,” Barletta says, speaking on buying for the family’s needs versus buying for her own wants. “Now you can devote the resources to yourself again.”

While the female boomer may be defined by her age, the group includes variations in education, family management and economic status, to name only a few. They may also be better consumers than their male counterparts.

“Not hit as hard during the recession as men, boomer women in particular are reaching their peak career goals and earning potential in their 50s and 60s,” Girlpower Marketing CEO Linda Landers says. “Those that do retire often don’t stop working. Instead, they start their own consultancies or other businesses.”

Marketing Missteps

Statistically, it would appear that baby boomers are an obvious group at which to target marketing efforts, but there would be one major hurdle to that: the 18-to-34-year-old demographic. This group, currently populated by the millennial generation, is the long-desired consumer. The only (rather major) problem is that they don’t have the spending cash.

The  shows for the second quarter of 2016 that of the 4.995 million men in the workforce ages 20 to 24, the median weekly earning is $516. Of the 15.59 million men in the workforce ages 25 to 34, the median weekly earning is $791. In comparison, of the 8.66 million women in the workforce ages 55 to 64, the median weekly earning is $795. Of the 1.72 million women in the workforce ages 65 and older, the median weekly earning is $736.

On average, boomer women are making more than millennial men. This isn’t counting student loans, as estimates the average millennial is saddled with loans valuing $30,000. Plus, according to Landers, women older than 50 control an overall net worth of $19 trillion.

Despite these figures, the marketing focus remains on the younger generation. “I agree that 18 to 34 is still the celebrated demographic,” says Denise Fedewa, ’s executive vice president and strategy director. “There’s both ageism in our culture and ageism in our profession of marketing. But some of it’s not even malicious ageism. Some of it is just, ‘I want my brand to feel young and modern and youthful, and the only way to do that is to be targeting it to the young and modern and youthful.’ But that’s simplistic thinking.”

Barletta echoes this, saying the focus on this younger demographic has blinded marketers to the fact that those actually making the most purchases are 50 and older. She gives the example of a recent campaign by a luxury hotel chain that featured a millennial male. The likelihood of someone his age being able to afford such a stay could be disputed, but she wonders whether marketers fear that showing a boomer means a millennial won’t be interested.

“You market your product,” Barletta says. “You don’t market to the age group. Somehow people are convinced that if you’re going to market to somebody who’s 50 years old you have to say something about being 50 years old or older. They seem to believe that once you’re 50, you live behind a wall, and you’re completely different from other people in what you want from

The conversations about boomer women within agencies also may not be happening because women aren’t always there. Only 11% of creative directors in the U.S. are women, according to The 3% Conference, so named for the number of female creative directors when the conference was launched in 2010.

“We could see more women in positions of authority in some of these creative industries and that would probably help,” Fedewa says. “The female point of view is getting into the work, in terms of talking to boomer women, but that ageism is as big an issue as scarcity of female creative directors.”

The Myths of the Boomer Woman

For a marketer to begin to understand the female boomer audience, certain misconceptions must be corrected. For instance: that she’ll use the same brand of detergent she started using at age 28.

Barletta says there is a myth of brand loyalty surrounding female boomers, which may have been concocted when the market only consisted of a handful of brands. She says brand proliferation has completely changed the marketplace since the tenet of marketing established that once a brand snags a young customer, she is theirs for life.

“We do an annual study on marketing trends and the thoughts and feelings of boomers in general,” Austin says. “Well over 80% of respondents said they’re willing to try a new brand or new experience, and not just based on price.”

He says his research suggests that more than 70% are willing to try a new brand, particularly if there’s greater value. “And by value, it’s not just a discount,” he says. “They’re willing to try a new brand if there’s better customer service, as opposed to a better price.”

Leading to the second myth: boomers are saving for retirement and are not looking to spend their money.

“That’s another thing that marketers miss,” Barletta says. “They assume that people in their 50s and 60s, why would they buy anything? They have a house, they have furniture, why would they buy anything? Because it’s our turn now, not the kids’.”

Austin explains that there is a perception that boomers are so-called “early bird specials shoppers,” looking for a deal and not out to spend. “That’s not the case. They’ve worked all their lives to save this money and to spend this money, and they’re looking for new experiences. They’ve lived their past 20 to 30 years raising their families, and now they’ve got—the empty-nesters in particular—time and the dollars to spend, and they’re looking for something new in their lives.”

As Barletta notes, the new purchases baby boomers make are often those items they “really” want, now that one of their prime roles is no longer caregiving. Perhaps they are looking to get rid of the minivan and purchase a sportier car, buy nicer furniture to update the house or purchase a new tech device.

One of the most common misconceptions of female baby boomers, or any boomer, is that they are the grandparents of yesteryear, wearing cardigans and sitting in rocking chairs as (literally and figuratively) the sun sets. “When boomer women were growing up, women in their 50s were very different than women in their 50s are now,” Barletta says. But marketers haven’t reset their templates for what these women look like. There are plenty of examples of female boomers that marketers can look to, including comedienne Ellen DeGeneres, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and entertainer Madonna.

In some cases, advertisers go in the opposite direction from showing female boomers as far older than they are, instead portraying them much younger. They sometimes show them engaged in extreme sports and other high-energy activities.

Both types of imagery wind up being incompatible with how many boomers see themselves, says Fedewa. “It’s like they’re either showing them as a feeble person who’s no longer relevant, or you’re showing them as this uber-in-shape person who can do what a 25-year-old can do,” she says. “That’s not relevant, and that doesn’t resonate with people, either. Those are some of the clichés we need to overcome.”

Rediscovering a favorite consumer

For many years, advertisers were enamored with female boomers.  sought teenage boomer girls in the 1960s to convince their mothers to use Crisco cooking oil. In the 1970s,  suggested young boomer women could keep their skin looking soft with the company’s dishwashing liquid. The generation learned not to leave home without their  in the 1980s.

“Today’s 50-plus females are the healthiest, wealthiest, most active and influential generation of women in history,” Landers says. “Unlike the generation before them, they wield unprecedented buying power and influence. But with that buying power, they expect the same level of attention from advertisers and marketers that they grew accustomed to in their youth, but are no longer getting. And that’s why 91% of women say they feel marketers don’t understand them.”

In addition to boomer women’s spending power, this group also holds an enormous opportunity for marketers across categories such as luxury goods, consumer technology and financial services, Landers says. The trick is knowing how, exactly, to speak to the audience.

“There is a constant attempt by marketers to say their marketing efforts for the 18- to 34-year-old is going to hit the boomer, which just isn’t true,” Austin says. “They need to see themselves in the advertising, and they need to be spoken to directly.”

Landers says boomers see themselves as a decade or more younger than they actually are, so she cautions against referring to them as golden, mature or senior. She recommends using the appropriate imagery, which means showing boomer women pursuing their own interests, not just appearing as part of a couple. Landers adds that marketers looking to target women should be authentic, relevant and transparent. She also recommends using a boomer woman’s peers. “Peer influencers have a much greater impact than young celebrities,” she says.

Girlpower Marketing offered an example in its report on the power of speaking directly to boomer women. The Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty,” launched by Unilever in 2004, featured women of all shapes, ages and races. Within the first two months of the campaign’s launch, product sales rose 600% in the U.S.

Source: “Boomer Women: The Invisible Goldmine” by Girlpower Marketing

Conversely, there may be ways to reach the female boomer without specifically naming her or featuring her image. Fedewa ran LeoShe, a Leo Burnett effort that focused on marketing to women 45 years and older. The study found that women took pride in their wisdom, experience and in feeling good about their current phase in life.

“Yes, it would be nice for society and culture to acknowledge boomers a little more, show them a little more inclusively, to include them in visuals and so on,” she says. “But there are also certain universal insights, certain formative times in your life, that people have. They continue to be able to relate to those experiences for the rest of their lives. I don’t want to say the only

way to appeal to boomers is to show boomers or to portray insights about boomers, because sometimes it’s just human experience insights that will resonate with them, too.”

Landers explains it by way of the strong right-brain connections women have. This, she says, is the home of emotional memory, intuition and experience, so marketers should tell boomer women a story and explain why the brand is relevant to them.

These women know who they are and what they want, and they do not appear interested in letting marketers define their demographic for them. A common theme of AARP is to disrupt aging. As Austin explains it, this is particularly about disrupting the perception of what it means to age. “Get rid of the stereotypes,” Austin says. “There is some advertising out there that puts boomers and women in such a negative light that it’s going to actually hurt their brand and acquisition efforts.”

Fedewa says much of her work at Leo Burnett has considered the voice of the female consumer and the older consumer, and she also espouses the idea of changing the story. “We feel really energized by this opportunity to change the conversation,” she says. “We have almost taken it on as a mission for ourselves.”

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The ���������’s first intellectual agenda is meant to serve as a source of guidance and inspiration for marketing professionals as well as academics. In it, we lay out the “seven big problems” marketers face in the boardroom and in the marketplace. These problems are a large part of that intellectual agenda, and will help us hone in on how we inform and inspire you, the marketing community.

Here, we dive into the questions that stem from each of the seven problems. ��������� thought leaders discuss the “what” and “why” of each pillar problem, while we leave the door open indefinitely on the “how.” After all, marketing is about rolling with the punches.

Corey Koberg
Cofounder and Senior Partner at Cardinal Path

Customers are frustrated when brands don’t take their past behaviors into account. Brands need to think about how they can orchestrate consistent experiences across all channels. That’s the vision of true omni-channel marketing. You start by mapping the customer journey—the process of tracking and describing all the experiences that customers have as they engage with your brand. Design the right data architecture. Start with a strategy that includes collecting, connecting and managing your enterprise data. Make omni-channel operational by moving to a culture of customer centricity, and deploying “centers of excellence” across the business. Activate your data by building a measurement framework, and optimize these activations based on value.

Maria Winans
CMO at IBM Commerce

Customers are creating an incredible amount of data that’s overwhelming marketers. But understanding these data and developing an omni-channel strategy doesn’t have to be daunting thanks to cognitive technologies. Cognitive tech’s ability to understand, reason and learn over time provides marketers with the expert, real-time advice needed to meet customer needs. When it comes to omni-channel, cognitive allows marketers to keep tabs on how shoppers behave on each device, when they shift between them and where they ultimately take action. With this insight, marketers can develop and execute personalized strategies catered to the needs of each customer

George Skaff
CMO at TouchCommerce

Half of U.S. customers will abandon their online purchases if they cannot find a quick answer to their questions. Three-quarters say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service. It is critical that B-to-B markets embrace an omni-channel strategy. Companies that are able to seamlessly engage customers via phone, digital, mobile, chat, web, social and retail channels with a powerful set of intelligent, automated and agent-assisted interaction solutions will best position themselves ahead of competing brands.

Developing an omni-channel strategy requires a deep understanding about which customer channels are most important. You will then need to identify how customers interact with those channels, capturing every interaction along their customer journey. With that history stored, every interaction provides context and data, which will help any live or automated assistance provide a solution.

Christopher S. Penn
VP of Marketing Technology at SHIFT Communications

With the data gold that exists in our marketing systems, it’s almost criminal not to make data-driven decisions to create better-informed budgets, more conversions, more strategic plans and a more successful year. By combining the voice of the customer with user experience and analytics, we have a better understanding of the digital customer experience in an omni-channel world—and can use that to our advantage.

To truly understand where customer and prospective customers want to buy, it’s critical you consider the customer journey. Thus, you can be there whenever your client needs you to be.

This strategy is crucial for all business, especially B-to-B, where buying cycles can be quite long. Instead of “meeting your customer where they are,” creating a seamless user experience will help ensure you’re adding value along every step of the buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration and evaluation.

Tony Brown
VP of Marketing and Business Development at Teradata

We’re all customers who don’t always know the channel we will buy through next. We might prefer to buy via web, mobile or in retail, but at any point, the channel of choice may change depending on time of day, location, urgency or type of product. With this in mind, figuring out where a customer wants to buy is tough, so why bother? When you have an offer or message for a customer, create it once and make it available simultaneously in every channel. You perhaps use e-mail to generate interest, but be prepared to fulfill through any channel, on the customer’s agenda.

Meghan Keaney Anderson
VP of Marketing at HubSpot

Retailers of all sizes need to be using all available product-discoverability touch points. Customers are increasingly blurring the lines between commerce points of sale—whether that be offline, on your website or via a marketplace—which is making key tactics like optimization and personalization essential. If your products don’t appear when and where a customer searches for them, you won’t be closing any sales. Instead, you’ll likely be losing those sales to a quicker competitor—one who is constantly watching the industry and prepping their e-commerce backend to better serve as a hub, rather than a stand-alone.

Jennifer Nuckles
CMO at Doctor On Demand

With consumers increasingly engaging with brands across multiple touch points, it’s important for marketers to provide a seamless consumer experience, regardless of medium or platform. At Doctor on Demand we apply a data-centric, segmented understanding of our customer’s behaviors to reach a broader target audience when and where a customer is open to our message. We maintain top-of-mind awareness via an integrated marketing campaign approach to drive conversion when our customer needs the assistance of one of our doctors. Consistent messaging and creative is leveraged across all of our channels—owned, earned and paid. Each channel plays a specific role in our marketing mix, and the communication varies depending on the channel and its ROI, while simultaneously delivering against a single consumer strategy.

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One of the ���������’s Seven Big Problems facing marketing leaders is “generating and using insights to shape marketing practice.”

InsightsCentral, Inc. recently spoke with , a strategic global marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience in fast-moving consumer goods, shepherding high-profile brands such as Mentos, Hershey’s and Airwick. Buxton’s career spans the U.S. and Canada, as well as global and regional roles. She currently leads U.S. marketing for Perfetti Van Melle, the third-largest global candy and chewing gum manufacturer. 

Q: The ��������� says that generating and using insights to shape marketing strategy is a big problem facing marketers. As the marketing leader in your organization, what are some of the issues you see related to this topic?

A: Certainly, this can be a very challenging aspect of marketing in today’s reality. The key focus areas for me are how to manage the ever-increasing volume of data, as well as the rapid pace of technological and social change.

Technology has changed and continues to change the ways that people interact with each other, our brands and the world. Honing in and generating insights from all this data is a challenge. It’s like trying to drink from a fire hose. There is so much information available, how do you avoid paralysis by analysis?

With this technology-driven glut of information, the challenges can also be capability-based. Do we have the right people with the right skills in marketing and marketing research to understand the difference between data and insights? 

There are also systems and process challenges in generating insights from the vast amounts of available data and information. Are we utilizing the best technology to facilitate synthesizing data from multiple sources, allowing our team to generate usable insights?

Q. How has your product category—candy, gum and mints—changed recently, and how are you adapting? 

A: For those of us working in an impulse-purchase category, we are also impacted by technology-driven changes in shopping habits. Self-scanning checkout lines, buying online and home delivery of groceries are all growing trends that remove our consumer from easy access to purchase our candy products at checkout displays. 

Another marketing challenge related to advancing technology is the increasing pace of life. Everything is faster. Attention spans used to be 15 seconds; studies have shown they are now down to eight seconds. How do you communicate with consumers about your brand given those new realities? And by the time you test a new media communication approach, 50 more options have popped up.

In the past, many brands lived to be 100 years old. Now, the brand cycle is two to five years—10 if you’re lucky. Companies have to think creatively and do things less expensively because the investment needs to pay back in a much shorter time frame.

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