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Reports of Amazon’s poor have dogged the retail juggernaut. have cited long hours, unfair wages, mandated standing, repetitive stress injuries and—because breaks are allegedly forbidden—. Amazon has repeatedly denied these claims, yet its employees continue to assert otherwise. On Prime Day in July, workers in Minneapolis went on strike to protest, , being treated like robots.

Amazon was also accused of employing robots when it tried to mitigate the damage in August. The company had previously designated certain fulfillment center workers—warehouse employees—as “FC ambassadors,” tasked with sharing their experiences on social media to combat misperceptions about Amazon. These employees, with handles such as “Dylan – Amazon FC Ambassador,” were deployed when Twitter once again erupted with criticism. “Everything is fine, I don’t think there is anything wrong with the money I make or the way I am treated at work,” , while other FC ambassadors contributed equally canned, . Twitter users were convinced they were interacting with bots.

The ambassadors themselves insisted on Twitter that they were not paid to blindly endorse Amazon, and a representative from the company that the content of the posts came from personal experience, not company talking points. Even if the accounts aren’t bots, Amazon is still paying $15 an hour for the ambassadors to pounce on social media; it’s unlikely the chosen employees would want to bite the hand that feeds.

While Amazon’s tactics were questionable, the concept of enlisting employees as brand ambassadors is appealing to companies. “We’ve got roughly 55,000 employees in the U.S. alone, with over 240,000 people globally,” says Reggie Walker, chief commercial officer at PwC. “You could say that gives me 55,000 to over 240,000 marketers, because if I can put stories in their hands and activate their networks and know they can tell our story, I’ve just amplified our message around the world in a way that a lot of organizations can’t.”

The thought of a quarter-million brand representatives not under direct supervision is certainly daunting. If employees can say whatever they want on social media, the brand risks the spread of proprietary information, unsubstantiated rumors and generally negative attitudes. On the other hand, monitoring your employees too closely leads to less employee creativity, , writing for Time. Here’s how to best construct an ethical social media policy that encourages employees to organically join your company on social—without invoking comparisons to Big Brother.

Simplify Your Policy

“The standards and guidelines that our people are all required to review and sign off on are not very long … and not overly complicated,” Walker says. “We learned a long time ago that if you put out a billion standards, people aren’t going to follow [the policy].”

PwC’s social media policy outlines a few simple concepts: Only designated employees are allowed to speak on behalf of the company to the media. Other employees must avoid posting about clients or vendor relationships. New hires learn about this policy on day one, when they begin training at PwC.

“You’ve got to lay out what your non-negotiables are, those things that are fundamentally important,” Walker says. “You’ve got to keep these policies clear, but simple.”

Media agency Spark Foundry further simplifies its social media policy. The company relies on the rules its parent company—Paris-based Publicis Groupe—has put in place. The policy boils down to, “Be careful discussing any proprietary work as related to the agency or its clients,” says Spark CMO Scott Hess.

Hess adds that the straightforward policy affords employees the chance to ease up and express themselves on social media. “Publicis Media fully supports our employees being their authentic selves on social media and other online platforms, provided they follow that guideline,” he says.

Encourage Employees to Post ���������t Themselves

The only times Spark Foundry encourages the content of its employees’ social posts—if those employees decide to post at all—are during social campaigns centered around holidays or seasons. For Mother’s Day and Father’s Day 2018, they shared the hashtags #TheSparkofMotherlyLove and #TheSparkofFatherhood, then asked employees to post photos of their parents to social media using the designated hashtag. A small committee voted on who shared the best photos and awarded prizes.

“We view social media as a window into our people, our culture and our work,” Hess says. “We believe that the Spark Foundry brand is in large part the sum of our people—how they live and show up in the world.”

Maintain Flexibility

No company can construct a perfect social media policy on its first try, particularly when the landscape can seismically shift at a moment’s notice. To better serve the changing whims of its employees and the social sphere, PwC maintains an open culture of communication.

“If there’s something they don’t think that they can do, or they have concerns about [the policy], we absolutely encourage that dialogue,” Walker says. “There have been people who have raised points in the past, and we take them into consideration.”

Monitor Sparingly

While PwC does comb social media for mentions of the company, it doesn’t find the need to keep tabs on every employee post. PwC doesn’t have the resources to watch over hundreds of thousands of employees, and Walker feels it’s a fool’s errand.

“That’s not who we are,” he says. “We all have to recognize that social media is an everyday part of our lives. You can only control so much.”

Instead, both Walker and Hess advocate placing their faith in employees to self-regulate.

“Our approach to social media is based in trust,” Hess says. “We encourage our people to highlight their own unique personalities [and perspectives] when posting about their experiences at the agency, and we trust that they will do this in a way that supports and is beneficial to the agency. And so far, I’m happy to say we haven’t run into any problems by taking this approach; in fact, we’ve found that when our people are empowered to be themselves, they are truly our best spokespeople. That’s what I would recommend: Start with trust and build your policy from there.”

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Years before she became a marketer, was jarred awake one morning by a ringing phone. Get to the newsroom as soon as possible, she was told—Myers, then a TV producer for NBC News in New York City, was resting for a night shift but quickly got dressed and into her car. It was Sept. 11, 2001. Myers fought through traffic from her New Jersey home, finally opting to take the lone working subway line from Jersey City into Manhattan. She spent the day crying as she worked, spellbound and horrified. Nearly two decades later, Myers reflects on whether anything in her marketing career has come close to being as hectic as that day. “Well, hmm,” Myers says. “I haven’t had any bad days.”

Years before he became a marketer, worked on a political campaign (“That wasn’t my jam”), waited tables at Chicago fine-dining restaurant Charlie Trotter’s (“I needed to kill time to figure out what I want to do”) and worked for a cryptocurrency company (“I realized the startup thing wasn’t going to work out the way I had hoped”). He left these jobs feeling unsatisfied. There had to be something else.

Before he became a marketer, studied engineering and worked as a project manager for a manufacturing line at Unilever. The job was fine, relevant to his major, but what truly attracted him was the company’s brand mission. “I found that it’s pretty damn cool to work for a company that is really invested in making the world a better place,” he says.

Myers, Rojas and Wise were all on paths that didn’t obviously lead to marketing—but eventually did. Their stories aren’t uncommon: found that less than a third of college graduates worked in a job directly related to their college major. When they change paths, people often find a marketing job, according to a 2019 report by labor market analysis company Emsi, titled “.” In three of the majors, marketing became one of the top three outcomes by the graduate’s third job. It’s as though marketing has a gravitational pull, says Rob Sentz, chief innovation officer of labor analytics firm Emsi.

“If you think about the core functions within business, you’ve got to make things that people want,” he says. “And once you figure out how to make those things, you have to make sure people are aware of those things. That’s the role of marketing, to do all that strategic communications. That is a huge part of our economy. We just probably don’t talk about it as much as we should.”

Many graduates with these degrees had likely never considered marketing, which Sentz believes is the fault of the university system for not being realistic with students. Universities don’t often tell English majors, for example, that a marketing profession is a common outcome for people who earn an English degree. So when students hear the common question of, “How are you going to make a living with that degree?” they are often faced with unrealistic answers. But Sentz says that these students should know that marketing is a good option for people with a language degree, a path that others have successfully traveled. Marketing may not be their goal, but it’s a good option.

That decision is an especially good one with the current demand for marketers. Marketing positions are incredibly popular—Sentz says that there were 2 million ads for marketing positions posted between May and July of this year—and there’s demand in these roles for the skills held by non-marketing graduates. In terms of major occupation categories, marketing is a top-20 area of growth across the entire country, Sentz says. “Other examples in that category are transportation, statisticians, nurse practitioners, financial examiners,” he says. “Marketing really stands out as playing a key role in the economy.”

Sentz says that people with transferable skills only find marketing through market demand—a needlessly long route. He says that students should be given shortcuts to marketing, such as showing them statistics of career outcomes for those who possess their skills. But they needn’t be dissuaded from their current degree path.

“We shouldn’t tell them, ‘You need to switch your major,’” he says. “It’s good you majored in English and you’re worried about what you might do with the English degree—[marketing] is a really interesting area of application.”

Non-marketing majors can apply their skills to marketing and fill the demand of a hungry market. Sara Eide, vice president of technology staffing services at HR consulting firm , says that unemployment in creative professions was far below the . Unemployment of PR specialists, for example, was less than 1%. This means that firms looking to hire for these roles likely aren’t getting grizzled veterans every time they post a job opening. More likely, they’re realistic enough to look for someone who has transferable skills.

“The net definitely gets cast wide,” Eide says. “From a recruiting standpoint, we always start with specific marketing skills, but we’re always talking to clients—especially with this shortage of talent that we’re seeing. The marketplace across the country is so tight for marketing and digital professionals that we’re asking every client to stretch a little bit.”

If organizations are straining to hire more marketers with less of a requirement for marketing experience, the time is right for non-marketers to make their move. The road to becoming a marketer is a well-traveled path with plenty of demand, even for graduates of the following majors.

Communications

Common skills of communications majors: research, writing, analysis, decision-making, problem-solving, social media, media relations, public speaking

TV news is a young person’s profession, says Myers. After working in NBC’s newsroom amid the chaos of 9/11, she helped launch MSNBC, often working seven days a week from night until early morning. Sometimes, she misses the urgency of the big story, of being the first to hear about important news. More often, she’s glad that she found another career in which she excels and that doesn’t require mortgaging her sleep schedule.

After Myers earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and spent 15 years in news, she transitioned into marketing and communications in 2007, working as a consultant, producer and communications manager in industries such as media relations, politics and food. This year, at 51, she received her master’s degree in technical and professional communications and got a job as director of marketing and communications at the , a nonprofit focused on improving business performance.

“The skill set really does cross over,” she says of both her journalism career and communications degree. “A lot of what we do today is content marketing. We’re always telling stories and we’re trying to engage people with information and tell them why they should belong to a nonprofit organization or support it.”

Communications majors most commonly end up as marketers. Emsi’s report finds that while communications majors start in journalism and PR, the bulk of graduates (20%) become marketers by their second job. “Communications majors are engaging both in the analytics and digital communications that drive marketing strategy, and the systems management needed to implement that strategy,” Emsi’s report says, adding that many also end up in digital marketing with a focus on SEO and analytics.

Marketing can be seen as the ultimate communications profession, Emsi’s report says—it’s creative, analytical and largely web-based, all skills that communications majors often learn in school. Myers agrees, as people with communications backgrounds can write well, make quick decisions and are trained to tell the best stories.

Sentz says that nearly every marketing job posting now mentions management or communication. The natural managers, he says, seem to come from degrees such as liberal arts, social sciences and communications.

“When we talk about marketing at the highest level, what businesses continue to signal in the market is their need for excellent communicators,” Sentz says. “And I would say in the case of marketing, it’s strategic. … Strategic communicators are able to operate really big picture stuff across the web, newsletters and different conferences. They are absolutely critical in the economy. This is how companies distribute their products and services. There’s clearly a huge need for it; the four big degree areas—social sciences, liberal arts, business and communication—all feed it. The more we can make people aware of that, the better.”

Language, Philosophy and Social Sciences

Common skills of language majors: communication, interpreting information, conveying meaning, leading discussion, giving presentations

Common skills of philosophy majors: logical thinking, problem-solving, analysis, attention to detail, research, breaking down complex ideas

Common skills of social sciences majors: research, critical thinking, organizational skills, interpersonal relationships, oral and written communication, analysis

In his undergraduate years, Hunter Rojas majored in political science, philosophy and macroeconomics, a trifecta of topics he believes taught him how to think analytically. “I didn’t really have any concrete skills, but I knew how to digest a lot of information [and] distill it down to the main points,” he says.

While analytical abilities may not have come in handy on a political campaign or in fine dining, Rojas says that it has been essential in working with clients at an ad agency. Now, Rojas is associate director of marketing sciences at the agency , where he must have technical knowledge but also be able to translate complex chunks of information to clients in ways that they can comprehend.

“It’s really [about] convincing the client that you guys are moving in the right direction,” Rojas says. “If you want to stay bleeding-edge, you have to do things that are radically different than what was done maybe even five or 10 years ago.”

Those who earned these degrees—after years of struggling with the arguments of philosopher Emmanuel Kant, the writings of author James Joyce and the antipositivism of sociologist Max Weber—are likely better equipped to explain to clients why a radical change is needed. They can read through thick reports and research industry trends and determine how the changes should be made to the client’s business. They can funnel complex sets of information into easily digestible reports and conversations.

Emsi’s report finds that philosophy and language graduates who get marketing jobs—the fourth most popular job out of college of these majors and the second most popular as their third job—are “highly digital,” with their strongest skill being analytics. Similarly, social science majors who turn to marketing—their fourth-most popular job out of college and third-most popular as a second and third job—are also highly digital, working with analytics, SEO and social media.

“I wouldn’t recommend a homogenous approach to getting people into marketing,” Sentz says. “That said, we probably need to do more to help people from English and social science degrees understand that marketing is a common outcome and how they can translate what they’re learning into that area in the same way that a business-communication student [knows]. We should make them more aware of the likelihood of that outcome.”

Information Technology and Business

Common skills of information technology majors: planning, troubleshooting, problem-solving, organizational skills

Common skills of business majors: problem-solving, analytical thinking, organizational knowledge, logical thinking, report writing, communications

Rojas earned his MBA in IT management as he worked in startups. In his spare time, he learned to code through the , which he hoped would help familiarize him with cryptocurrency and the startup world. When working as a web analyst at Wisconsin’s Great Wolf Lodge, Rojas noticed that his agency counterparts seemed to be having a lot of fun, so he worked his way into an analytics role at an agency and hasn’t looked back since.

Rojas says that he wasn’t much of a math person before learning to code, but it has been invaluable to his agency career. By learning to code, Rojas was able to grasp , which required an understanding of scripting languages such as Javascript. It also gave him better domain knowledge, which has helped him build practical, predictive models, a skill he says many people lack, especially those who are new to analytics.

“How do you configure an ad server? How do you deploy tags? How do you deal with the complexities?” Rojas asks. “Web designers don’t really understand any of that very well. Unless you’ve worked in the ad ops environment or had a job in that space, no one else would be able to teach you how to do that.”

Marketers—whether they feel that they’re “math people” or not—need both technical skills and business know-how. Those who possess both may have an easier time segueing into a marketing career. Emsi’s report finds that 9% of business and 3% of IT graduates go into marketing, making the transferable skills rarer and likely more in demand. Robert Half’s Eide says that many companies are now looking for marketers with web and mobile development skills, as well as user interface and user experience skills.

“It’s all around data and how we’re using it,” Eide says, adding that she believes marketing will soon pull in more technology- and data-minded people.

Engineering

Common skills of engineering majors: technical skills, problem-solving, project management, teamworking

Brian Wise worked in engineering at and as he studied industrial and systems engineering at college. He noticed that much of his work, even on machines and factory lines, eventually focused on communication and project management, which he found engaging. Although Wise says that he enjoyed his early engineering jobs, it was the Unilever brand that resonated with him most. The corporation lists one vision across all its brands: “To make sustainable living commonplace. We believe this is the best long-term way for our business to grow.”

Wise got his first taste of marketing in college, starting his own retail company by buying items from Alibaba and flipping them for more money on Amazon. “I realized that I was [practicing] marketing,” he says. “Marketing is really just about the profit and loss statement and finding some ways to … purchase something and connect the consumer with their need. I asked Unilever if I could do an internship in marketing.”

The company gave Wise an internship at Hellmann’s and Best Foods in summer 2017, then made him an assistant brand manager for the company’s product line. “I found that marketing really ends up being the same thing as engineering in terms of project management,” Wise says. “My engineering education became incredibly valuable.”

Like Rojas, Wise saw that marketing is now based heavily in data, modeling and statistics, something he says has helped him greatly. When Wise studied to be an engineer, he learned a lot about statistics and was two classes away from a mathematics degree, something he’s noticed that few career marketers have. “That grounds me so well to … be able to manipulate a [profit and loss statement], but also understand the statistics and media,” Wise says.

For engineering graduates, marketing gains popularity over time, Emsi’s report finds. Marketing is the seventh most popular job right out of school for engineers, but it becomes the fifth most popular by their third job. By then, Emsi reports that marketing employs 5% of all engineering graduates.

Wise says he’s learned that engineers who go into marketing must strike a balance between their focused, analytic mind and big-picture thinking. Engineers can execute ideas and projects, being strategic and methodical, but Wise says that they often become hyper-focused on a single problem. Someone once told Wise that, in marketing, if you can’t see a solution from where you’re looking, you don’t look harder. Instead, you must look at other facets of the project and avoid hyper-focusing.

Making the Move

When Eide has a non-marketing client she’s trying to place in a marketing role, she first has to sell the organization on why someone without the role’s desired background should be considered. For professionals trying to break into marketing, this means having relevant skills—soft skills, motivation and technical skills—that could transition onto a marketing team. It also means being able to communicate these abilities to recruiters and potential employers, with which many people—marketers and non-marketers alike—struggle.

“They’ve got to be able to sell themselves,” says Eide. “They need to do a little bit of research and be able to be a consultant on their own behalf, to tailor their résumé. They need to make sure that they’ve highlighted the pieces they think would be beneficial to the marketing team.

“Don’t go in with a defeatist attitude—that ‘I’ll never get into marketing’—when the market is so good right now,” she says. “Go in with confidence. You’ve got to be able to market yourself. … If you want to get into marketing and advertising, but you can’t explain why you yourself would fit in, I would question what kind of strategy and creativity you’re bringing to this team.”

Wise says that marketers are automatic leaders within a company, but they first need to understand their own skill set and how it will be used by the marketing team. Potential marketers should figure out what would differentiate them, how their unique insights could fit onto a team and what they want to do at work.

For someone who has never made a career move before, jumping into an entirely new field may seem scary. But Myers found her career change energizing and fun—“If you look into different professions and different ways to use your skill set, you can make yourself more marketable,” she says. To improve your marketability, Myers suggests accumulating additional credentials, whether that be another degree—she took online classes to get her master’s in communications—or a new certification.

Rojas, admittedly a man of many interests, says that it’s rare for someone to know exactly what they want to do as they start their career. He suggests that everyone—especially new graduates—expose themselves to as many different roles as possible.

“The people who are able to pivot well are the people that are really curious,” he says. “It’s not just about sending an email and then getting the response that you need to finish your project, it’s asking, ‘Why did you do that?’ and ‘How did you get there?’ so you understand the whole process. It’s those kinds of people who are able to get a good feel for all the opportunities that are available in the space. They’re the ones who start making that pivot early.”

Rojas suggests living by a “startup philosophy” of failing quickly, early in a career. Go after the work as fiercely as possible, but be honest and ask yourself: Do you like your job? “Don’t just keep that job for 18 months because you’re afraid that if you leave too early it’ll look bad on your résumé,” he says.

No matter where a future marketer is coming from, there are ways to transfer the skills they learned in college and early in their careers. Sentz says that there should be no rush to switch majors or pit one major against another—the contents of a degree are often worth far more than its title.

“The name of the program is not the name of the job,” he says. “We just need to help them understand that better.”

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New Coke is back in the news. Earlier this year, The Coca-Cola Co. announced a limited re-release of New Coke as a promotional tie-in with the third season of the Netflix show “Stranger Things.” The science fiction series’ third season is set in 1985, the year that New Coke replaced the original Coke formula, which was reintroduced and rebranded “Coca-Cola Classic” less than three months later.

There’s no shortage of books or videos on New Coke, one of the most scrutinized product introductions ever. Only Ford Motor Company’s Edsel model rivals it for Monday morning quarterbacks replaying what should have been done instead. New Coke’s hold on popular imagination is evidenced by the fact that, despite all that has been written and said, a limited run of 50,000 cans still commands big headlines.

The truth about New Coke has been lost in the fog of legend and lore. But when you sort through it, New Coke teaches an important and oft-forgotten lesson about the power of narrative.

In 1975, in an effort to jump-start retail sales in the South where Coke had a commanding lead, PepsiCo experimented with local ads in the Dallas market that showed a blind taste test in which Coke drinkers chose Pepsi, dubbed the . The spot was an instant hit that Pepsi rolled out nationally. Pepsi is a sweeter cola, and sweeter beverages tend to win in so-called sip tests. This made for great advertising—and it got under The Coca-Cola Co.’s skin.

Other events surrounding the lead-up to New Coke set the stage for the Pepsi Challenge to leave an indelible impression. PepsiCo had already shaken things up with its Pepsi Generation lifestyle campaign launched in 1963. In turn, Coke modernized its image with its 1971 ad, “.” In 1982, The Coca-Cola Co. introduced Diet Coke in a break with its long-standing policy against using the brand name for any product other than Coke. Pepsi upped the ante in 1983 when it signed Michael Jackson to a record-setting contract as the celebrity endorser for its “” campaign.

The cola wars during this era were about change, mirroring the social upheaval of the times. Both brands were taking chances by throwing out the rule book—and every chance taken was rewarded. Breaking the rules looked to be the safest bet.

Underlying what The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo were doing, though, was a divergence of perspectives not fully appreciated at the time. Simply put, PepsiCo was trying for a better narrative while The Coca-Cola Co. was trying for a better product. While PepsiCo was pioneering lifestyle advertising about its consumers, The Coca-Cola Co. was introducing Diet Coke with the product-oriented tagline, “Just for the Taste of It.”

It would be unfair to say that The Coca-Cola Co. did not appreciate narrative. In fact, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that it invented brand narrative. Long before the cola wars, the Coke brand had established itself as an icon of American life. But Coke became so dominant that The Coca-Cola Co. field of view contained little besides the fabled product itself. When Coke rolled out “It’s the Real Thing” as its tagline in 1969, the message was about the product—the thing itself.

This is why the Pepsi Challenge was so annoying for The Coca-Cola Co. It was an affront to the Coke product that could not go unanswered. With rule-breaking in ascendance as the new norm, The Coca-Cola Co. embarked on a multiyear journey to beat back this product challenge by breaking its biggest rule of all: The company decided to change the hundred-year-old Coke formula that was supposedly hidden away in an underground bank vault. But the power of narrative got lost in the mix.

The head of research for The Coca-Cola Co. at the time was an industry legend himself. Trained as an econometrician, Roy Stout was a stickler for data. In the company’s quest for a better Coke product, Stout designed and oversaw a sophisticated, years-long research program to identify a data-proven improvement to the formula.

This research was conducted in the strictest secrecy, and blind testing prevailed. Stout didn’t want the brand to influence the results, nor did he want respondents telling their friends that the Coke formula was being tested. Eventually, this research led to a superior formula. The taste-test data made it overwhelmingly clear that New Coke was a better-tasting product. Without any doubt, the data showed that New Coke was preferred to both Pepsi and the original Coke.

On April 23, 1985, at a press conference in New York City, New Coke was unveiled. Although The Coca-Cola Co. had tried to keep this under wraps, word leaked out. PepsiCo stole a march on The Coca-Cola Co. with a full-page ad in The New York Times that same day, reprinting PepsiCo CEO Roger Enrico’s all-staff letter proclaiming that “the other guy just blinked.” On the very day that The Coca-Cola Co. rolled out an incontestably better product, Pepsi rolled out an ad that shifted the narrative against New Coke.

An outcry ensued. The vocal protests of a few were amplified quickly by media outlets caught up in the drama. Resistance to New Coke soon became a bandwagon that everybody jumped on. On July 11, 1985, a mere 80 days after taking the original formula off the market, The Coca-Cola Co. held another press conference to announce that it was bringing it back.

The Coca-Cola Co.’s initial response to the clamor over New Coke was to insist that the product would win people over eventually, just as the taste-test data had shown. But the data was incomplete. Stout always made clear that identified testing was conducted, but in an effort to maintain secrecy, Stout missed an ambiguity in the protocol. When people were shown New Coke side-by-side with the original, they were never told explicitly that the original was going to be replaced and taken off the market. Given the iconic status of the brand, it was only natural that respondents would assume New Coke would be in addition to—not instead of—the original.

This is where The Coca-Cola Co. overlooked the power of narrative and where PepsiCo understood it better. The person who created the Pepsi Challenge said it was designed as a blind comparison because “[w]e were convinced people were drinking the trademark.” Indeed, they were.

The clamor over New Coke had the unintended consequence of reminding everyone why they liked Coke so much. It reminded The Coca-Cola Co., too. As Stout said to The New York Times the day after the original formula was brought back, people “fell in love with the memory of old Coke.” People had been given a better product when what they really wanted was the better narrative about their lives that Coke symbolized.

As it always does, narrative trumped data. A demonstrably worse-tasting product was preferred because it was associated with a better story. After the original formula was brought under the name Classic Coke, sales shot up. Narrative, not taste, was the bigger driver of sales.

Stories motivate people. The power of narrative is the real lesson of “The Real Thing,” and one that matters to brands more than ever.

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By Peter C. Verhoef and Peter S.H. Leeflang

Appeared in Journal of Marketing, 73 (March 2009)

In a nutshell: This study investigates the influence of the marketing department and assesses its determinants and consequences.

Practitioner takeaways: The authors suggest a dual relationship between the marketing department’s influence and market orientation. A marketing department’s influence is related positively to market orientation, which in turn is related positively to firm performance. How can a marketing department be more influential? The accountability and innovativeness of the marketing department are the two major drivers of influence.

By Frank Germann, Peter Ebbes and Rajdeep Grewal

Appeared in Journal of Marketing, 79 (May 2015)

In a nutshell: Skeptics from marketing academia and practice alike are unconvinced about the CMO’s performance implications in terms of firm outcomes. The authors set out to address these skeptics: Using data from 155 publicly traded firms over a 12-year period (2000–2011), they find that firms can indeed expect to benefit financially from having a CMO at the strategy table.

Practitioner takeaways: The authors conclude that firms benefit from having a CMO among the top management team. Conservatively, the data and analyses suggest that Tobin’s q of firms that employ a CMO is approximately 15% larger than that of firms that do not employ a CMO, and CMO presence has a positive impact on excess stock returns.

By Hui Feng, Neil A. Morgan and Lopo L. Rego

Appeared in Journal of Marketing, 79 (September 2015)

In a nutshell: Using a new objective measure of marketing department power and a cross-industry sample of 612 public firms in the U.S. from 1993-2008, this study shows that, in general, marketing department power increased during this time period. This finding matters because the authors also show that a powerful marketing department enhances firms’ longer-term future total shareholder returns beyond its positive effect on firms’ short-term return on assets.

Practitioner takeaways: Senior managers should value a powerful marketing department because it contributes to a firm’s short-term profitability and longer-term shareholder value (even beyond its effect through marketing capabilities).

By D. Eric Boyd, Rajesh K. Chandy and Marcus Cunha Jr.

Appeared in Journal of Marketing Research, 47 (December 2010)

In a nutshell: Which kinds of firms benefit most from having a CMO? This research identifies a few firm characteristics signifying that a CMO is a good fit.

Practitioner takeaways: In general, firms should consider appointing a CMO when customer power is low. If a firm faces considerable customer power, a CMO with the right background and experience can still help; role-specific experience is most important in this case. Moreover, CMOs will be more successful in firms with a larger scope and size and greater past performance. Recruiters should investigate the experiences of prospective CMOs when they consider whom to pick for the job, and CMO candidates should carefully assess the level of discretion that would be available to them before they plunge into a new CMO job.

By Kimberly A. Whitler, Ryan Krause and Donald R. Lehmann

Appeared in Journal of Marketing, 82 (September 2018)

In a nutshell: Boards with members who have deep marketing experience are better positioned to make growth a firm-wide priority and to increase the effectiveness of revenue growth strategies. The authors’ data shows that firm re​​​venues increased by 5.8 percentage points annually when a marketer is on the board.

Practitioner takeaways: The theorizing and analyses can help CMOs better understand how those above them affect their ability to deliver results. This research illuminates the value of having marketing-experienced board members and should motivate CMOs to inspect board composition and other factors that will enable them to exercise their skill sets and wield influence before they accept a CMO position.

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At first glance, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk seems an odd choice to sponsor a cycling team. Why would it trouble to court controversy and sponsor a pro cycling team amid the sport’s near-constant doping and drug scandals? The company’s backing could be perceived as a cynical joke.

But its sponsorship of American is an authentic relationship, according to , a professor of marketing at the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business. Cornwell met with executives at Novo Nordisk this summer and found that their sponsorship was forged with care: The company produces insulin therapies, and the cycling team it sponsors consists entirely of .

“They’re inserting themselves into a conversation you would think would be explosive for them,” Cornwell says. “But actually, it’s quite good.”

In her 2019 paper in the Journal of Advertising—titled “”—Cornwell writes that brands have traditionally used sponsorships as they would billboards or TV ads, but sponsorships have the potential to give consumers an experience and win brand loyalty.

“In most markets, brands are no longer satisfied with logo placement as the central value of sponsorship and are no longer willing to accept prepackaged property asset bundles,” she writes in the paper. “At the same time, consumers are becoming wary of ubiquitous sponsorships and the commercialization of so many spheres of life.”

Perhaps worse than wary, consumers often ignore impressions-based sponsorship, according to Patrick Heffernan, senior vice president and director of strategic planning at branding company . “You may notice [the sponsorship] the first time, but unless you can answer the question, ‘Why is the brand there and what value do they bring?’ … those impressions fade away instantly.”

found that $24.2 billion was spent on sponsorship in North America alone, with spending increasing to $65.8 billion across the entire world. That’s a significant amount of money being spent to allow impressions to fade.

Create Authentic Links

The need for authentic sponsorships was showcased in a 2014 paper—titled “”—written by Cornwell and co-author Ravi Pappu, a marketing professor at the University of Queensland. They examined how consumers feel about ill-fitting sponsorship deals, specifically looking at how the Red Cross would be perceived if it took a sponsorship from a fast-food chain that consumers perceive as healthy (Subway) versus one considered unhealthy (KFC).

Cornwell says that when a sponsorship relationship is seen as authentic, it’s helpful to both brands’ reputations. But when the sponsorship is seen as inauthentic, the relationship and perhaps reputation can be tarnished. In the 2014 study, participants saw a potential relationship between KFC and the Red Cross as inauthentic. As one person quoted in the study said, “It’s quite ironic that the Red Cross is about saving lives and KFC is in the fast food industry, which is the cause of a lot of health issues.”

Perception of the relationship may be the most important aspect of a sponsorship, Heffernan says. Another pair of food companies may be the best example, he says, as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s each had different levels of success in sponsoring the Olympic Games.

Coca-Cola has sponsored the Olympics since 1928. Although the producer of sugar-packed soda seems at odds with an event built on peak athleticism, the company was able to create an authentic, long-lasting link to the Olympics brand. Heffernan says Coca-Cola has thrived by billing itself as a drink that can break down barriers and be shared among people, even competitors from distant lands.

McDonald’s, on the other hand, recently ended its sponsorship of the Olympics after 40 years. “They could never crack that code,” Heffernan says. “And it came down to connecting it back with brand purpose.”

To succeed, Heffernan says that brands must first understand why they’re sponsors, then flip the question and answer it from the consumer’s point of view: What value will the consumer get from this sponsorship? If the answer is simply to know the brand’s name, the impression will fade quickly.

Engage the People

Cornwell writes that there needs to be a satisfying, emotional bond for both the sponsor and sponsee. But that bond must be forged by more than frequency of interaction—brands must engage consumers in an experience.

Cornwell cited Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers. The stadium features a Levi’s retail shop, a Levi’s branded “” party room and regular involvement from the Levi’s marketing team to engage with fans.

Successful sponsorships are set apart by what Heffernan calls “activate before you negotiate.” Before brands sign a sponsorship agreement, he says that they must focus on what purpose the brand will communicate to audiences, and how.

“You can push for different types of assets if you’ve thought it through,” Heffernan says. “You can push for more content opportunities, if that’s important to how you activate. A lot of brands take what’s initially packaged and get it out there, which is usually traditional name-generating, impression-based assets—signage in the outfield—versus the opportunity to host a kid’s clinic when the team is away.”

Measure the Engagement

When sponsorships are measured, Cornwell says that it’s often for exposure, emblematic of the classic sponsorship-as-advertising model. Even brands measuring attitude change and ROI are basing their metrics more on the advertising model than engagement, Cornwell says, as ROI and attitude don’t measure the experience of the consumer.

Cornwell suggests that brands measure relationship authenticity: Here’s what they think about us right now, here’s what happened in the first year, is the relationship authentic?

Similarly, Cornwell says that brands can measure the return on objectives and purpose of a sponsorship. This means that brands must know, from the start of the sponsorship, its theme and what it wants to communicate.

“I have to think about what characteristics our brand has and what characteristics [the sponsee] has and how combining them might have genuine potential for engagement,” she says. “And if I don’t have that part, I probably shouldn’t go forward. Once I have that, even if I’m a lesser-known brand or I haven’t done anything like this before, then the combination should speak to people.”

From here, the brand can set an objective. Is the aim for more people to know about the brand? More people taking a specific action? People changing their attitudes on a topic? “I can measure my before and after on those points of awareness or attitudes,” Cornwell says.

Extra Points

Avoid faraway sponsorships: Cornwell says that sponsorships by brands that are located far away from a sponsee can feel distant and inauthentic to consumers. If you’re a brand looking at a faraway sponsorship, Cornwell says that you should tell a story explaining that your support is about more than just advertising.

Sometimes impressions matter: Heffernan says that although it’s best to get impressions through less expensive means than sponsorships, there are opportunities where a sponsorship could work well. A large Chinese company coming to the U.S., for example, may successfully win a lot of public awareness through a well-placed sponsorship. “But that’s the minority,” he says.

Smaller sponsorships must still engage: Even if you’re a local or regional corporation sponsoring a small event, such as a 5K run or a mid-tier golf event, you must still engage consumers. At a run, for example, Cornwell says that brands should have a place for runners to meet and get refreshments after they finish. At a golf event, brands can open a pop-up shop or restaurant. “It’s more about meeting people in the community or giving back,” she says.

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Goal

Oscar Mayer’s branding and awareness work tends to skew sillier, with strong viral potential. In the past, the company created a and , a cryptocurrency backed by the brand’s bacon. Oscar Mayer once even drove its signature to deliver hot dogs.

For a recent social media campaign, which earned the meat mavens a Shorty Award, they tackled an issue that has been weighing heavily on the minds of many: Is a hot dog a sandwich? They declared that it was, and demanded their Twitter followers call in to convince them otherwise.

The jury is still largely out on this debate. , while the . In 2018, food-focused website The Takeout spent 34 pop culture figures on the topic, including actors, journalists and athletes. The results showed 55.9% answered “no” and 26.5% said “yes.”

Oscar Mayer was paying close attention. “We’ve seen the debate pop up about [whether] a hot dog is a sandwich,” says Matt Riezman, associate director of marketing for Oscar Mayer. “It was something we knew you could get people excited about on a personal level, pretty much no matter where in the world they were. We decided that, [since] we knew that we were experts in hot dogs as one of the leading brands of hot dogs, we have some serious expertise in sandwiches.”

For a recent branding campaign, Oscar Mayer leaned heavily on the propensity for social media to ignite hyperbole and debate in order to drive engagement. The brand threw down the gauntlet: After declaring that a hot dog was a sandwich, Oscar Mayer gave followers 24 hours to reply.

“We thought we owed it to people to weigh in on this debate,” Riezman says. “It’s increasingly important to have a relationship with consumers; we wanted to build those relationships and establish our authority as a leader in meat.”

Action

We get it… Chicago people love sandwiches.

— Oscar Mayer (@oscarmayer)

After a lot of internal debate, this argument is indeed bologna. Good try though.

— Oscar Mayer (@oscarmayer)

Advertisement

We’ll be open till 8 AM

— Oscar Mayer (@oscarmayer)

“We knew a hotline has a high barrier to entry,” says Randi Schwieger, account director at mcgarrybowen in Chicago—Oscar Mayer’s agency of record. “People barely call their friends and family anymore … [but] we felt like there was an opportunity to get the most passionate to go above and beyond and thought that could be really fun. That proved very fruitful.”

Schwieger and Riezman wanted to ensure each impassioned message could be shared immediately to spark social media dialogue and ultimately drive more calls to the hotline. They created visual templates that could be populated with noteworthy messages as they came in, then pushed those images out on Oscar Mayer’s social channels. “This wasn’t all set it and forget it, pre-recorded or pre-created messaging,” Schwieger says. “We could take people’s opinions and push them back out to continue to fuel the debate.”

The team went live a few days before International Sandwich Day in early November 2018. Oscar Mayer gave no warning to its followers that the campaign was coming, only offering a single message that morning with the hashtag and a note: “A hot dog is a sandwich! Try and change our mind 1-833-SNDWICH.”

The language of the post was worded to intentionally kick off a heated debate. “‘’ is obviously native behavior in social,” Schwieger says. “Inviting consumers to engage with us in that way felt like it was right for social. And we’re absolutely up for the task of trying to change your mind.”

The calls came quickly and reflected the fervor they expected. Many messages were minutes-long and some called repeatedly to continue their argument. One man quoted the Cartesian coordinate system, arguing that along the xyz plane, a sandwich is eaten on the x-axis but not the y- or z-axis, whereas a hot dog also exists along the z-axis. Another caller threatened to visit the company in person and make his case.

Other tenacious callers phoned corporate headquarters, which surprised other Kraft Heinz employees. “I was scolded by our consumer response team for not telling them [about the campaign],” Riezman says.

The phones closed after a tight 24 hours, and the moment had arrived to reach a verdict. “We wanted people to understand that this wasn’t going to drag on forever, that there will be a decision,” Schwieger says. “It created a little bit of urgency and an understanding that there [would] be some resolution pretty quickly.”

Results

First thing’s first: According to Oscar Mayer, a hot dog is, indeed, a sandwich.

“After 24 hours, we had to listen to all of the messages,” Schwieger says. “Ultimately we had a decision to make. We decided, as a group, that there was no argument powerful enough to change our minds.”

Their decree sparked more phone calls. The line received 1,638 voicemails within 48 hours, with 608 coming in during that first 24-hour window. Social media exploded with 4.6 million impressions and 628 mentions of the associated hashtag on Twitter. The campaign did well on traditional media sites as well, earning 427 million impressions and 258 earned placements. The campaign also won Oscar Mayer a Shorty Award in the “Polls and Surveys” category in “Food and Beverage.”

The brand continues to question sandwiches—or at least produce questionable ones of their own. In August, it introduced a hot dog-flavored ice cream sandwich containing candied hot dog bits, hot dog sweet cream ice cream and spicy Dijon mustard gelato. This aberration also proved quite popular on social media.

“One of the biggest effects we’ve seen is that people are increasingly interested in interacting with us as a brand and are almost expectant in certain situations—especially if those involve hot dogs or sandwiches,” Riezman says. “We’re seeing that [interacting with Oscar Mayer] almost feels like talking to a friend that you haven’t seen in a while, but they remember you.”

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I was recently honored to be a speaker at the in New York City, and I had the pleasure of introducing , the father of modern marketing. Kotler has become a dear friend over the past five years, and we met over Chinese food the night before our speaking engagement. I had so many questions for Phil, but I barely had a chance to ask any because I was answering all of his! I told my fiancé that I was disappointed I didn’t ask my questions, but she wisely responded, “That’s how he became so smart.”

My speech at the Creating Value conference included a reimagined version of the venerable 4 P’s of marketing that many universities still teach today. The framework has been reinterpreted, evolved and expanded by many. Most versions meet the test of reasonableness and some are managerially useful adaptations in response to the changing role marketing can play in society.

I’m not an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of guy. Things don’t have to be broken before they can be made better and more valuable. This obvious fact is the basis for the first “P,” which stands for product. But try to reimagine “product” as “solution.” Nobody wants your product—they want your solution. Looking through the lens of “solutions” vastly widens the aperture for innovation.

When it comes to the second “P,” which stands for price, I believe there’s another element that may figure more importantly in your value equation: time. Think about the disruptors in our economy; most either saved or gave back time to their customer. Friction is a waste of time. Poorly trained customer service is a waste of time. Out-of-stocks are a waste of time. Slow page loads are a waste of time. When you look across consumer product and customer service data, you’ll find “waste of time” to be the No. 1 complaint.

The third “P,” which stands for place or distribution, is what I often refer to as the Cinderella of the 4 P’s. Long ago, marketers forfeited their seat at the table on supply chain and logistics because it wasn’t as sexy as storytelling. Marketers are addicted to storytelling as the panacea for every business challenge. Now, thanks to smartphones and other technology, this “P” is about unprecedented insight into context, around-the-clock access and real-time immediacy. This makes it the most important “P,” which I now reimagine as “omni-channel” to mean all distribution and media channels combined into one powerful marketing muscle for creating customer value.

The fourth “P” requires perhaps the most important evolution. Instead of “promotion,” this element should be reimagined and expanded to “participation.” What I like about the term is that it aptly captures the new dynamic of customer engagement: a direct transaction, meaning a direct behavior or desired action by your customer; and an indirect transaction, measured by likes, followers, shares, feedback, etc. Without an indirect transaction with your customer, you only have revenue. Without the direct transaction, all you have is gossip.

The advent of social media has ushered in an expectation by brand owners that they don’t just want purchase behavior, they want positive social affirmation as a complete expression of an engaged customer. Conversely, consumers don’t just want to buy, they want to be understood. By thinking of the opportunity in terms of participation, you ensure the customer’s voice is actively monitored and understood. Ideally, it leads to inspiration for co-creation.

My new acronym is S.T.O.P.: Solutions, time, omni-channel and participation. My advice is to STOP using the 4 P’s and start reimagining your brand in this way.

In the end, done right, the value of marketing will evolve to a world where everything is bought and nothing is sold, a world where marketing has less to do with buying and more to do with belonging.

Only then does the field have a fighting chance to reverse the decades-long decline of trust from consumers and CEOs alike.

Kotler’s first words on stage after my presentation were, “Russ Klein just crushed the 4 P’s!” That’s an endorsement I will treasure all my life.

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You’ve just established a juicy new design project, and now you need to find the right design partner for the task. Some brands need a big agency, and sometimes a boutique agency fits the bill. But how do you know which is most appropriate for you?

Large companies and brands have myriad resources at their disposal, including design managers, marketing directors and senior management with plenty of expertise and usually larger budgets. Even if your company has substantial internal resources, a case can be made for retaining external agencies and design firms. Volume of work is one reason, but more importantly, retaining an external firm provides high levels of expertise, focused attention and new, creative ideas that can help grow your brand.

Small- to mid-sized companies may also have internal resources but require external, specialized agencies to provide guidance, strategy, breakthrough creative and overall management. Start-ups may attempt to manage creative brand work on their own, but often need to bring on an external agency to minimize headcount and maximize impact.

Design firms and agencies are specialized in the craft of managing a brand’s identity, including strategy, positioning, research, design, marketing communications, digital design, brand planning and identifying white-space opportunities. They are adept at understanding the intricacies of target audiences, channels, consumer behaviors, delivery methods, cultural dichotomies and local and global implications. They create real, tangible value.

Selecting a design firm is as much about chemistry (emotional) as it is about scope of work, budget and chops (rational). To begin the consideration process, I recommend creating a decision-making tree to keep the process organized, formal and objective.

Identify the Size of the Brand or Company

Are you a small, regional brand that markets two or three products? A major consumer packaged goods brand that’s distributed globally? A corporate brand with a specific trade audience? Compose a detailed explanation of your brand or company, its mission and its audiences.

Define the State of Business

Is your business in good health or does it face significant challenges, such as waning relevance to its legacy target? Does the brand need a revitalization? Do you seek a new consumer relationship, such as a different generation or lifestyle?

Define your white-space opportunities to better leverage the brand in unfamiliar categories and to new audiences, identifying and understanding consumer segmentation strategies. This degree of definition will help prospective agencies understand the successes, challenges and opportunities of your company or brand, and whether they may be the right fit for you.

Determine Scope of Work and Level of Partnership

Do you need a firm to support ongoing or sporadic project work? Ongoing collaboration with a firm creates a stronger sense of partnership. The firm will know your business more intimately, be more likely to bring you new ideas and continually observe and audit relevant categories of business. It’s tougher to engage agencies on less frequent work, as they don’t tend to remain as invested in your brand and need time to get up to speed on your business, making them less agile and potentially less creative in their work output. The more committed your agency partner is, the more likely they are to provide 24/7 access, if that’s a requirement.

Identify a Short List of Agency or Design Firm Contenders

Throughout my career, I’ve found great success tapping into peers for references and referrals of professional services. Trustworthy peers can provide first-hand experiences working with creative agencies, which can help narrow down your list of prospective candidates. Referral sources can also provide insight into candidates’ day-to-day relationships, communication styles, creative output and strategic thinking.

Agency Size Matters (Sometimes)

Small or boutique agencies tend to be scrappier—more willing to do whatever it takes, faster and more fiscally responsive. However, smaller firms may not have all the capabilities bigger brands need. Larger firms vary in size, scale and personnel layers. They can be global powerhouses with the bandwidth, extensive capabilities and local or cultural expertise that multinational brands require.

Determine Budget and Payment Structure

Knowing your budget helps you understand what’s realistic for the type of firm you’ll select. Budget estimates also help agencies understand whether they’ll have the appropriate staff for the relationship and whether the budget meshes with the work required.

Retainer-based relationships are rare in today’s agency and client landscape, so understanding compensation at the onset is critical. Will the agency bill you for project-based work as accrued or will the compensation model include fees and performance-based rewards (i.e., an equity stake or a percent of sales compensation tied to business results)?

Set Staffing, Communication Preferences and Relationship Expectations

Some firms will send the A-team for the pitch, but will use the B-team for projects once they score the business. Inquire about the account lead, regular contacts and creative team lead. Clarify your preferred mode and frequency of communication. Also determine level of access: If there’s a burning issue at 8 p.m., will a call to the agency lead feel like a natural step or an annoyance?

Hold a Paid Pitch ‘Shootout’

You never know what it’s like to work with a firm until you’re engaged with it. If budget permits, narrow your list to two to three contenders and ask the firms to compete on a real project.

Your company may have other considerations, such as an agency’s location, specialized expertise or specific market segment experience, but one thing is certain: If you are purposeful about the process and invest the time, you can create a winning relationship.

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How did your family of bears come to represent the Charmin brand?

This may come as a surprise, but most humans have delicate sensibilities around any kind of bathroom banter. Butt we bears aren’t shy when it comes to talking about a better bathroom experience. And singing about a “Shiny Hiney” or Charmin “Booty Smile” sounds a lot better coming from a cute and cuddly animated bear.

Your new (12-inch diameter) is an innovative step forward for TP. How important is sustainability to Charmin?

The forest is our home, so it’s very important to us! One hundred percent of our paper comes from responsibly managed forests. The Charmin Forever Roll eliminates 100% of plastic wrappers, reduces the amount of cardboard inner cores we use by 80% and ultimately translates into fewer trucks on the road.

For animals that typically do their duty outdoors, how come you spend so much time indoors?

Don’t get us wrong, there’s nothing better than answering the call of nature while in nature … but we’ve also become accustomed to the niceties that indoor living provides. Luckily, Charmin travels well, so we can enjoy the go regardless of our environment!

Any potty-training tips to share?

Be a “roll” model for your cubs! They are little sponges, so it’s important to repeatedly demonstrate the process of wiping, flushing and washing your paws. And be generous with praise. It takes time to learn, so encourage them along the way and celebrate the big milestones—like when they realize how much better their bums feel using Charmin.

What makes you so enthusiastic about proper bathroom etiquette?

In this modern world, bathrooms tend to be the last bastion of solitude. A few minutes of “me time” in the bathroom is all some people get, so we want those few minutes to be the best, cleanest and most enjoyable experience possible.

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