Content Remains King
Nothing earth shattering here but an important concept to keep in mind as we race to be the most creative, the most innovative and the one that really stands out. We can do all of that but if our content isn’t relevant and engaging, we will sell no widgets.

Coolest Title of the Year – CCEO
Chief Customer Experience Officer seems to be the new “C Suite” title as I met a few in 2011. I applaud the focus being put to customer experience and am most intrigued at where these CCEOs are coming from. The three I met in 2011 had all risen through different functions in a corporation: From IT, Customer Service/Operations and Marketing. And they all reported into different areas – none directly to the CEO (Chief Executive Officer). My own crystal ball forecasts a continuing focus on customer experience and I would like to think that more marketers will embrace the expanded role of ensuring engaging and relevant relationships with current and prospective customers.

Social Media is Still a Playground
While we’ve all likely heard of a few social media aha moments, overall, the playing field remains wide open and I don’t believe anyone has unlocked the true potential of this new media. What we did see in 2011 is many more companies entering the playground and interacting on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook (among others). I’m hoping that in 2012 we will learn more about the infrastructure necessary and the need to actually target in this wide open space. A solid strategy with metrics and measurability will be key to sustaining spending support.

Dawn Marchand

Marketing lessons from Episodes 1-3 here.

Recipe to Riches: Episode 4
Marketing Lesson: Culture Counts

In this episode, the two finalists were Melaney Gleesen-Lyal of First Nations descent and Wayne Reid who grew up in Jamaica and was passionate about his traditional island cuisine. Wayne joined our team at Quizative and his bold personality was right at home in our boardroom.

Immediately it was clear that the two distinct and unique cultures would play a role in defining their brand and deciding who would win this week’s $25,000 prize. What could have been a stand-offish battle between the two very different competitors seemed to instead be about mutual respect. Wayne’s words summed it up well when he said it was about “two cultures battling out for the best taste. Canada is such a multicultural country!”

Wayne’s product was a new take on a traditional Jamaican paddy and was stuffed with salted codfish and ackee fruit. Like many, we weren’t familiar with the popular Jamaican fruit but food trends are in favour of healthy alternatives including fish. Wayne’s original name idea was “Ackee and Codfish Stuffed Yummy Dumpling.” It didn’t take a team of agency experts to know he had to move away from this mouthful of a name! We wanted to embrace the healthy fish aspect and absolutely wanted to feature the Jamaican cultural roots of the product. We explored with Wayne what Jamaican culture meant to him. In doing this, we came across an interesting term “Grab & Yum” (pronounced Grab ‘n Yam). This essentially means ‘take and eat’ or the habit of eating on the run which was perfect for his portable paddy. Our recommendation at Quizative was to name it the “Grab & Yum, Jamaican Fish Pie.” His branding and advertising also leveraged traditional yellow and green Jamaican colours and his event included traditional Jamaican music and themes.

On the other team at FUSE Marketing Group they pursued a similar strategy and decided to fully embrace the First Nations culture that inspired Melaney and her recipe. Her product was named Savoury Bannock Pie. She had a great tagline, “From my Family to Yours” and her event was a vivid display of First Nations culture.

In the end, all the judges loved the integration of unique cultural stories that inspired the naming, design and experiential events to launch the products. When it came down to it, they selected Melaney as the winner and the judges unanimously disagreed with Wayne’s decision to pull the word ‘fish’ from his name despite our recommendations against it.

The lesson: Culture Counts. In a world of parity and multiple competitors, you can stand out from the crowd by leveraging a unique cultural story – but make sure you do it in a genuine way.

Adrian Capobianco

Walter Isaacson wrote a 571-page biography of Jobs, which went on sale earlier this month. The book confirms what we know today: Jobs was focused on exploring new and interesting ways of doing things. There's even a Facebook page dedicated to WWSJD (What would Steve Jobs do?).

Here are three themes that marketers can use as guideposts when developing marketing strategies:

1. Get your thinking "clean to make it simple"

“Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end.”

We often hear about the need to “keep it simple” in marketing campaigns. But most marketing strategies don’t follow this principle. For example, in product development today, the emphasis is on new variants instead of original product ideas. A twist on keeping it simple is to start with a simple concept and stay true to the original brand idea. Jobs summed it up really well- “it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important”.

Steve Jobs told Fortune magazine in 2008, "Apple is a $30 billion company yet we've got less than 30 major products. I don't know if that's ever been done before". He went on to add:

"Certainly the great consumer electronics companies of the past had thousands of products. We tend to focus much more. People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of many of the things we haven't done as the things we have done. The clearest example was when we were pressured for years to do a PDA, and I realized one day that 90% of the people who use a PDA only take information out of it on the road. They don't put information into it. Pretty soon cell phones are going to do that, so the PDA market's going to get reduced to a fraction of its current size, and it won't really be sustainable. So we decided not to get into it. If we had gotten into it, we wouldn't have had the resources to do the iPod. We probably wouldn't have seen it coming.”

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google and former Apple Board Member said in an article in Bloomberg Business Week, “One of the things about Steve is, he was always in the realm of possibility. There was a set of assumptions that Steve would make that were never crazy. They were just ahead of me.” He added, “he had a level of perception about feelings and emotions that was far beyond anything I’ve met in my entire life.”

At Arcus, we have found that the biggest insights and ideas come from observing and analyzing in real time how consumers interact with products in their daily lives. Jobs believed that technology can be a tool for individual definition and self-expression. A pink iPod is about much more than just listening to music. Simple insights can lead to great campaigns. This goes against conventional thinking about market research. Focus groups and quantitative research generate insights but these tools will never match the depth of understanding that observing feelings and emotions of people in real life situations can offer.

3. Anticipate surprising and completely new strategic directions

“Creativity is about connecting things.”

We live in a connected world. Interaction between brands and customers has never been more complex with so many touch points. However, some things never change. Good ideas are scarce. No matter how complex we think marketing has become, the most successful strategies tend to have a simple premise that captivates and delights audiences. Jobs' last advice to the new Chief Executive Officer of Apple Inc., Tim Cook, was to 'never ask what Steve would do'. He would suggest, ‘Just do what’s right’. He felt that followers tended to spend all their time thinking and talking about what someone else would do.

Merril Mascarenhas

Perhaps it's because I'm writing this on a MacBook Pro. Perhaps it's because we have over a half dozen Apple devices in our home. Perhaps it's the way I see my 3 year old daughter effortlessly using an iPad and technology without a second thought. Or perhaps I still remember when I first used a computer (Apple IIE) and how it was a moment of 'child-like wonder'.

I'm sure you have heard, Steve Jobs the founder of Apple and until recently its CEO, passed away yesterday due to the scourge of cancer. He left behind a wife and young family. He also left behind a legacy as an innovator and someone who demanded excellence. Someone who never contented himself or his company with the status quo.

Indeed I had the privilege to work at Apple but I only saw him once from a distance when I travelled to headquarters in Cupertino, California. But let me tell you that you felt his presence throughout the Apple and it was firmly ingrained within the company DNA.

Words that come to mind as it relates to Steve Jobs and Apple as a former employee? Excellence. Drive. Innovation. Marketing. Simplicity. Financial Performance. Ruthlessness. Secrecy. Vision.

Now I'm not about to suggest that Steve Jobs was perfect. But really who amongst is? He was no deity but one would be naive to deny the tremendous impact Steve Jobs had on marketing, technology and perhaps our society at large especially in the past decade.

Whether it was the founding of Apple. Being later unceremoniously removed from the very company he founded. Returning back to Apple to help it rise like a phoenix from the ashes and the precipice of bankruptcy. Taking Pixar Studios to the next level and making it a blockbuster company in terms of computer animation. Steve Jobs consistently made his mark.

Steve Jobs took an almost bankrupt company (with financial help from Microsoft) and made it one of the largest companies in terms of market capitalization on the planet. He did so by launching innovative and revolutionary products such as the MacBook, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Each of which significantly raised the bar in terms of the quality of products that companies in the consumer electronics industry produced. Each also severely disrupting other established industries such as music and entertainment.

So here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. Like Steve.

Sulemaan Ahmed
Twitter @sulemaan

When I go grocery shopping, I try to get in and out as quickly as possible. I plan a route through the store to minimize the time required, and if I can’t find something I need I would rather leave without it then ask the 17-year old clerk where I could find the pumpkin puree and be forced to retrace my steps.

Does this sound similar to the way that you shop? Probably NOT.

It turns out that most people will have their own way of shopping, which will often vary depending on the product category. This presents a great challenge to retail brands. Shops want to make their in-store experience as pleasant as possible, but what is pleasant for one customer could be misery for another.

How can brands deal with this conundrum? Here are some ideas that you could try.

• Provide multiple paths of discovering products while shopping: Amazon provides a great example. Amongst the home page merchandising, category browsing, keyword searches, recommended products and listmania, there is a way to find new books that will suit the needs of most shoppers. The increasing role of mobile in retail will give brands even more opportunities to cater to different needs.
• Create personas: Developing multiple groups of different personas based on similar attributes is a technique pioneered in politics but can easily be applied to retail brands. Be sure to go beyond simple demographic data and include emotional and interest-based attributes to create these personas. When you have key groups for your brand, make sure that you are meeting their needs.
• Determine the most valuable customer groups: Brands can’t be all things to all people, but luckily not all customers are created equal. Don’t lose sleep if you sacrifice the needs of low value customers as long as you are hitting the mark for the most important ones.
• Train staff for flexibility: Even with extensive planning and careful design of your in-store experience, you must remain flexible to meet the diverse needs of your customers. While you can’t change the physical layout of your store every day, you can train your staff to recognize and adapt to different types of shopping behavior.
• Do one thing really well: Some retail brands have done a great job creating a very clear expectation of the experience you will have in their store. When I go to Walmart, will the staff adapt and respond to my unique needs? No. Do I expect them to? Definitely not. A clearly defined retail brand will convey clear expectations to customers. Just be sure that you can deliver on those expectations.

This list is not exhaustive and not all suggestions should be tried together. What works for Amazon won’t work for Walmart and vice versa. The most important thing you can do is to keep your retail experience true to your brand.

Ben Wise

Coca-Cola tested its Freestyle vending machines in 2009 and is rolling out the machines in the US this year. The machines offer consumers a touch-screen with an incredible 100+ different beverage choices ranging from Diet Cherry Coke to Dasani waters. Customers can even create their own combinations of flavours. Already, Coke lists a portfolio of more than 3,500 beverages, from diet and regular sparkling beverages to still beverages on its website.

In today’s mature markets, a popular strategy has been to take mass customization to the next level, to create highly personalized brand experiences for existing products. Coke has launched apps for social networks that allow consumers to create and name their own drinks. In the future, it may be possible for an app to create a bar code for a customized flavour that a vending machine can create.

Customization is driving collaborative consumption

The buzz word for C2C (Consumer to Consumer) commerce is 'collaborative consumption'. An example is Airbnb. Less than four years old since launch, the website provides accommodations in nearly 11,000 cities in 180 countries. According to Inc Magazine, Airbnb’s popularity has exploded recently, growing more than 800% last year. Airbnb reports it has booked 1.6 million night stays in other people’s homes to date. Airbnb allows its members to customize their vacaction accomodations based on a number of variables.

Five steps to deploy collaborative consumption

1. Explore surprising vectors of innovation of your products.
2. Define the relevance of these vectors. Which ones delight customers?
3. Create an experiential component to the brand. How will customers create unique experiences for themselves?
4. Create communication channels to allow customers to share ideas and innovations.
5. Stay true to the brand position. Look for innovations that reinforce the brand idea.

What other examples of mass customization are working for brands?

With such a massive flood of new participants, it would seem that, surely, Google+ is the next big thing. Right? Unfortunately, I think we've neglected one key variable when making this comparison: ease of adoption. Like hundreds of millions of other people, I use Google's webmail service Gmail. That means I have a Google account that allows for customized searching, mapping, panda video watching, et. al. The list goes on and on, each hook connected to the last. Much of what I do online is connected back to them. So, when Google+ was launched, they had an easy opportunity to reach me. I signed into my email one day and Google+ was right there in front of me. The sign-up process was lightning fast and easy. Which makes sense, considering they already had a swarm of info about me in their database.

My point is this: when it came time for Google to recruit new users, they had a vast pool of extremely warm leads to draw from. Now, let's compare this experience to, say, Facebook. I had never heard of Facebook when it came out. I received emails from friends inviting me to join, but I was skeptical because these things don't always catch. Then there was the privacy issue. It was weird to give some (at the time) unknown entity a bunch of info bits about where I went to school and what personal info I wanted to share with "friends". I had to visit a new website - nay - an entirely new form of the Internet, and say "yeah, I'll give these guys a chance to impress me".. Google+ grew fast because the high-level trust with the brand was already there. Facebook and Twitter had to overcome a lot more barriers to win us over. And in my opinion, it's far more impressive - and perhaps a better indicator of future success - to win people over based on the offering itself vs. the brand behind the offer.

Perhaps Google+ is destined to become the next big thing. All the face-value indications are pointing in that direction. But I'm going to sit on it before predicting mammoth success. Because it's one thing to sign up - but it's another to keep signing in.

Brook Johnston

Ahh back to reality... (and now that summer is here not too harsh of a reality). Yesterday I was at the Royal Botanical Garden -a beautiful venue - where I was practising what I preach; networking after a networking workshop I did for the Burlington Chamber. While sipping on wine we got to talking about wineries. Living a half hour drive from Niagara wine country we lamented how good the wine tastes when you are at a winery and the winemaker is passionately telling you about the grapes he selected, why he selected them and his entire process from vine to bottle. Top that off with tasting tips on how to best enjoy it in the glass (letting it breath, swirling before smelling and tasting – you get the idea). One of my fellow networkers Rick lamented “and then you buy three cases but it just doesn’t taste the same at home”.

We are sensory beings ruled by emotion vs. logic (although we like to think the contrary). We respond to stories, are stimulated by sight and sound. It’s how we’re wired or hard wired according to Evolutionary Psychology which tells us our brains haven’t changed all that much since we roamed the Savannah. It is indeed the emotion we feel from experiences that shape our lives.

As a business we have an opportunity to create a mediocre or spectacular experience. So what kind of an experience are you giving your customers? Is it happen-stance or have you carefully crafted it to meet their needs. Is it consistent and memorable or easily forgettable? Back in my advertising days, one of my key messages to clients was “I can get them in the door, what are you going to do keep them”. Before you discard the concept, thinking your business is different, you don’t sell wine or food, think again – a transformational experience is possible in any business, it simply needs to be gift wrapped uniquely for your customer. And the bonus – companies that provide exceptional experiences are rewarded with loyal customers that happily pay a premium. Perhaps it’s time for your company to move into brand prominence.

Shelley McQuade

AC Nielsen has published some very intriguing data on how mining the differences between the generation gaps can provide specific insight that can be applied to everything from ad planning to promotional assortment: This could be the next generation (no pun intended) of shopper marketing.

How a 60 year old and a 20 year old prepare for -and execute- their retail shopping trip is quite different, however they still may buy the exact same soda, soup, and sandwich bread once they get to the store. Their interactions with the brands to get there may be different, but the end goal of the individual marketing activity remains the same: to help people make better purchase decisions along the way.

The brands that people love, the shoppers that buy them, and the retailers that provide the environment (either physical or virtual) to sell them are all beginning to embrace the opportunities that generational analytics can provide.

Brands
With the growing focus many brands have on activating the path to purchase, there has been an enormous amount of consideration put on the common traits shared by their target shoppers. We are seeing a tremendous amount of innovation in things like packaging in this respect. Some products targeting the 55+ set are changing theirs to specifically address vision impairment, so their products show up more easily on shelf. Other products are putting QR codes or augmented reality markers on their products in order to allow a completely different level of interaction and engagement with the brand at retail. Some brand media plans are being reconstructed to better align with shopping habits, with focus moving from TV to retailer web, from outdoor to on-shelf communication, going where the generational target can have their purchase consideration most affected.

Shoppers
The faster marketers can adapt to the shopping habits of their targets, the better they will be able to optimize the messaging that will generate awareness and purchase intent. It is curious to note that even though shoppers of the “greatest generation” are the ones who most rate shopping as a ‘chore’, they are also the most likely to spend time walking the entire store – leaving them open to incremental signage and opportunities for impulse purchase. On the flip side, Millennials – who shop the least of any segment- actually love shopping, but research first so as not to spend as much time on the actual store floor. They key with them is pre-shop activities via SEO, social, WOM, and electronic couponing. The fundamental truth to engaging shoppers is the understanding that the act of shopping is not just a behavior, but also a generational mindset.

Retailers
You can read articles over and over regarding the impending arrival of US mega retailer Target and what they will do to the general merchandise landscape in Canada. The Nielsen article rightfully describes how Target has created a niche by catering to the Gen X and Millennial segments through trippy advertising, with fully designed shopper marketing executions and promotion of “now” celeb tie-ins like Todd Oldham and Giada De Laurentiis. Those of you who have made the trip past our southern border to pay them a visit may find the advertising and shopper executions around Loblaws new Everyday Essentials lineup rings a little familiar. Loblaw however, has done some fantastic work merging their segmentation research and shopper marketing executions on the grocery side, parlaying it into four massively supported Insiders Report executions around their core generational constituencies (Back to School, Summer BBQ, Holiday Entertaining, and Health and Wellness). Both the retailer and manufacturer communities are taking notice. It’s also notable that retailers like Shoppers Drug Mart are adopting a generational shopper approach for their promotional planning, where diverse tactics like social media, solution-set orientation, loyalty programming, and seniors days are being employed (and integrated) to cater to the interests of their shopper continuum from 18-68 years and beyond.

The Nielson article reference is for US data… Feel free to share any great examples of generational marketing delivering innovative shopper experiences in Canada!

Jason Dubroy

• South Asian and Chinese Canadians (SACHIN) markets are the fastest growing segments. South Asian Canadian market grew by 37% and Chinese-Canadian by 18% during the last reported census period, compared to 5.4% total population growth during the same period.
• Many businesses are reaching out and selling to SACHIN markets. Few are doing a decent job, majority are testing the waters or executing “also-ran” campaigns.
• Despite fast growing, SACHIN is a niche market. Businesses allocate a small marketing budget that fall short in developing, integrating and implementing strategic marketing campaigns.
• Market research costs are high and do not justify it in many cases. Thus Shotgun-marketing initiatives are launched with minimal research and pre & post campaign surveys.

Challenges

• Smaller ad spend do not provide for hiring / retaining best marketing and strategic minds. Most multicultural ad & media agencies are either creative houses that can also do media placements or vice versa and lack strategy to drive creative and media.
• Marketers tend to work with one agency for ease of operations, either Chinese or South Asian, catering for both the markets. This results in sub-par performance in one of the markets and wasted ad spend.
• Agencies present channel-heavy tactical campaigns to maximize revenues from smaller ad spend. These campaigns are not most innovative and cost-effective options.
• Market research and ad monitoring often get short-changed resulting in less than optimum market understanding and learning, which are so vital for operational efficiencies in nascent markets.

Solution

• Multicultural markets give a carte blanche to marketers to build brands and grow. Approach these markets with a long-term strategic outlook and a two-year plan in place to grow their market share from x to y.
• Though many consider multicultural marketing budgets inadequate, I recommend better targeting and improved accountability to stretch marketing dollars. Media inflation will come later.
• Instead of engaging one creative or media agency for both the SACHIN market segments, work with a dedicated agency for each segment to leverage segment expertise. Moreover, I recommend working with marketing agencies or consultants who can lead with great strategy that drives creative and media. Marketing consultants or agencies bring more to the table in the shape of integrated services, that is, market research, strategy, creative development, media buying and branded content.
• Use cost-effective online surveys that can help all stakeholders (marketers, media and ad agencies) circumvent costly market research, get useful insights and justify investments in it.
• We hear a clarion call for channel-neutral ad campaigns that engage customers beyond traditional media. Channel-neutral campaigns are not focused on media only and may engage customers with outstanding message, direct marketing, social media, experiential marketing and branded content. It may get less touch points but is high on engagement. I recommend approaching marketing objectives with a channel-neutral mindset and then opt for a high touch-point and/or high-engagement execution to achieve your objectives.

Fazal Siddiqi
(Full Disclosure: the writer works as a multicultural marketing consultant)