This past week, the Promotion Marketing Association hosted their Annual Integrated Marketing Conference in Chicago. After two full days of insightful sessions, we noted several recurring themes.
Of course, the overarching theme was integrated marketing. By definition, integrated marketing is “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time” – according to the American Marketing Association. Meaning that brands are working to ensure that they are sending consistent and relevant messages using the most relevant media methods to reach their audience and all other plans, whether they be sales, operations or dealer, must be integrated into the marketing plan as well. Marketing can no longer be tacked on at the end of the planning process to “add some creativity” to it. Although some would argue that marketing by nature, should be “integrated,” as Mark-Hans Richer, CMO of Harley-Davidson pointed out during his keynote presentation.
Other notable themes included:
- Value-Add – In this economy, shoppers are looking for quality and value in their purchases. As marketers, we must demonstrate a product’s value to the shopper in order to drive purchases. Product differentiation, creativity, and innovation all create value in the shopper’s eyes. And only those brands that can prove it, will stay in the game.
- Power of People – At bds mktg, we deeply believe in the power of people to bring brands to life at retail, both by activating brands to shoppers and retailers, and by inspiring your corporate employees. This point was emphasized by many during the conference.
- Shopper-Focus – More than ever, today’s brands must be truly shopper focused. We must understand how shoppers live their lives. What life stage are they in? Simply knowing a demographic won’t cut it any longer.
- Social Media – Social media is here to stay. Shoppers have embraced social media, they participate in it and so must we. Brands must find out where their shoppers are online and discover how they can target them, according to Penry Price, VP of Advertising Sales for Google.
- Creating Content isn’t Enough – Mr. Price also stated that “if you build it, they won’t come.” Implying that marketers can’t just produce content and expect customers to find it. We are all aware that shoppers are overwhelmed with messaging. When producing content, we need to decide where and how we are going to push it out to our audiences.
- Experiential Marketing – In this new day of shopping, another key way for brands to connect is through experiences. David Brot, SVP of Leo Burnett, explained that experiential marketing is an essential method of cutting through the “visual pollution” of over-messaging. Brands such as Apple and Jeep are finding ways to offer more than just a product through experiences such as the Apple Genius Bar and Camp Jeep.
At the end of the day, shoppers are shopping differently and so we must learn to market differently – or risk being left behind!
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