It’s always good to know what your competitors are doing. And, according to an article on venturebeat.com, they may be bolstering their market position by cherry picking the best marketing talent.

What will get a marketer (or marketing company) snapped up these days? Article author Dharmesh Shah listed more than a dozen in-demand, “modern” skills that employers are seeking to meet the requirements of marketing today.

Shah, founder and CTO at HubSpot and co-creator of the inbound.org online community for marketers, created the list for job seekers, but it also indicates where marketing is and where marketing dollars are being spent.

His “Most In-Demand Marketing Skills in 2015” include:

– Content creation, especially as it supports inbound marketing

– Web development

– Web design with user experience expertise

– Search engine optimization

– “Agile marketing” that incorporates quick release cycles and an iterative approach

– Social media marketing

– Video production and marketing

– Community management for relationship building

Other “must-haves” on his list include the technical knowledge to put individual tactics in place – a BIG addition to the traditional marketing job description.

So, that may be what the “other guys” are doing, but how about you? Are these marketing skills in your toolbox or at least on your radar?

If not, maybe they, or at least some of them, should be.

It’s something to think about – but not too long. As marketers often have said: “Buy now. Supplies are limited.”

I’m sitting here staring at the back of an Esquire magazine (and not just because the cover shows a rear view of two nude comedians for reasons I neither can nor want to discern).

What has grabbed my attention – as it has in the past – is a Cadillac print ad for its “Dare Greatly” campaign. I love it. I’ve even thought of framing it.

But will it work?

In the past, brands such as Cadillac stuck to the aspirational school of marketing, that is, setting your product up to be something a small segment can afford and a larger segment will desire. The key is that, though it might currently be unattainable, the possibility exists for future ownership.

This new campaign, however, is more inspirational, speaking less to what you could own, but who you are or might want to be – and applauding you, even if you don’t achieve it.

In case you haven’t seen it, the ad (some say shamefully) paraphrases Theodore Roosevelt to read:

It is not the critic who counts:

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

Who strives valiantly;

Who errs, who comes short again and again;

Who knows great enthusiasms;

Who spends himself in a worthy cause;

Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,

And who at the worst,

If he fails,

At least he fails while daring greatly.

General Motors reportedly is giving the controversial campaign a couple of years to gain traction and get cars on the road.

Whether it works or not, “Dare Greatly” is itself a bold effort, tying an upscale car to an emotional message based on inner goals vs. outer signs of prosperity.

And that’s the naked truth.

Is Instagram becoming the chosen social platform for brands? According to Branding Magazine yes, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that Instagram has surpassed Facebook as the social media platform of choice for brands.

Allow me to explain further. A recent study has found that Instagram has become more than just a popular photo-sharing app used for recreational purposes. With over 300 million active users, Instagram has continued to experience exponential growth in both individual users and business users since its launch in 2010 while interest in Facebook declines. The study also found that brands pay much more attention to Instagram because they post to this platform an average of 9.3 times a week which is already a large increase from last years average of 8.8 times. This recent phenomenon has a number of contributing factors. When using Facebook, brands need to spend dollars for increased exposure while everything on Instagram is free; brands are more cognizant of the organic nature of Instagram. Unlike with Facebook, Instagram fans are generated through visually stimulating content and organic networking.

Over the years Facebook has become increasingly saturated with self-serving advertisements, not to mention that they seem to regularly change their algorithm and interface. This has resulted in many users growing tired of the constant and sporadic alterations (as you probably know people like consistency). Since its launch in 2010, the basic interface of Instagram has remained fairly constant and simple (people also like simplicity). Instagram allows brands to tell the stories of their products and allows fans to share their own perspective with the rest of the community. It provides users the unique opportunity to solicit user-generated content through an activity they already perform everyday: taking and sharing photos!

Lifestyle publications, beverage makers, newspapers, fashion labels, celebrities and television networks are using Instagram to convey their personalities and values through the use of visual content. Because it’s such a simple, intuitive platform, there are not a lot of rules and regulations on how brands should be using it, which gives them a great deal of creative freedom.

Instagram has proven and continues to prove that it can be a well-working instrument for personal communication as well as generating brand awareness. It has managed to integrate various potential use cases in one app without causing the confusion about the app’s actual purpose that other platforms have been suffering from since they came into existence.

Dated logo, bland colors, non-responsive website. Sound like your business? If so, it might mean a new look is in order. Don’t stress – a corporate rebrand can be fun. Sure, it’s hard work and it’s a bit intimidating at first, but it’s well worth the challenge.

But before you go diving head first into daunting design waters, take some time to come up with a plan (and read this blog!)

Define your mission. If there’s one thing businesses often forget, it’s how to sum up their offerings in 20 words or less. Take the time to define, or redefine, your mission and use that as your develop your new brand. And a little old fashioned brainstorm never hurt anybody, so take an hour to sit with your team (no laptops invited) and really dig deep into your brand.

Remember your identity. As the times change, so does corporate design. But instead of jumping on every change or trend, let your creative team explore design options that work for your brand now and 10 years from now. Stay practical and true to your company’s personality, and don’t be persuaded by what’s hot this week.

Start from the inside out. A new look can be confusing for employees, so it’s important to make sure your team understands why the rebrand happened, and what the new look and feel means. Take the time to educate every department on how the rebrand affects their day-to-day work, and what they can do to help customers understand the changes.

10 seconds until launch. The launch of your rebrand can be daunting, but taking the time to develop a project plan, budget and timeline will pay dividends at the time of the launch. If possible, a general rule of thumb is to launch the entire rebrand simultaneously so there is little to no confusion about what is old and what is new. There will always be backlash from confused customers, but a fresh look is best achieved when everything is released at once.

Tell everybody! Your rebrand shouldn’t be something you try to hide. Be proud of your company’s new look and share your enthusiasm with the world. Use your social channels, website and even newsletters to encourage consumers to explore your new logo, colors, website, collateral, etc.

Your brand is your first impression. Take the time to consider how you want your customers to see you in the marketplace, and make sure your new look is sustainable.

If your company is in need of a facelift, we’re happy to help. We’re just about to start a rebrand of our own so we’ll be right there with you.

According to a 2012 Nielsen social media report, nearly half of all U.S. consumers are using social media to ask questions, report satisfaction or complain. This can be daunting as many organizations have multiple social media pages with thousands of followers on each one. However, providing attentive customer service on social media sites does not need to be stressful if you are prepared and organized.

Many social media managers are relieved to see positive and neutral comments and feel no real urgency to respond to them. However, responding to positive comments is an easy win and shows users that your brand is polite, ready and willing to engage with the public on social media. Mentioning a person by name and tagging them is a great way to create a courteous atmosphere and show positive feedback is well received.

Questions are another form of consumer feedback that should be answered as quickly and politely as possible. This will build trust with your audience.

Now it’s time to address the elephant in the room: What to do when presented with negative feedback. It’s inevitable that some unhappy customer will take to social media to express grievances with your product or service. We know it can be hard to keep a level head especially when someone is attacking the reputation of the company you work so hard for. However it’s important to respond calmly, timely and respectfully. Add a personal touch to the response to avoid sounding robotic. Perhaps give them your direct line so they don’t explain their issues to someone who has no context of the situation. This will also make the customer feel like their needs are heard and they are a valuable enough customer to warrant a personal response.

How about dealing with truly offensive of vulgar comments? That’s a tough one, but one of the worst things you can do is ignore them; this will not make them go away. The best way to minimize this is to call it out, monitor it closely and intervene when necessary. Maybe it would behoove you to write up a social media code of conduct and refer to it in times of need. Perhaps include a clause on reserving the right to delete offensive comments when they get out of hand.

Any brand that has a social media presence should be prepared to offer social customer service on its social media channels. Whether you want them to or not, customers will talk about your brand and seek help on social media so it is best to be prepared and have a system in place. It’s important to learn as you go. Don’t be afraid to say thank you to positive feedback and learn from negative feedback. Maintaining successful customer service on social media can be as simple as checking in on your pages two to three times per day and responding to comments.

Every year Super Bowl commercials create a lot of buzz, and this year is no different. With one 30 second spot costing $4.5 million, one would hope they generate a lot of buzz. It was a big year for Super Bowl advertisers, especially first timers, as there were 15 newcomers to the Super Bowl advertising world, the most since 2000.

But what do all the successful ads have in common? What is the recipe for a well-received Super Bowl ad?

They all contain at least one of three important elements that make them a success: sentimentality, nostalgia and humor. People want to feel good. Sarcasm and negatively toned ads don’t play well on the Super Bowl stage. Nationwide for example, was the most mentioned Super Bowl advertiser on social media, but not for the right reasons. The insurer’s campaign featuring the ghost of a dead boy has been slammed on social media with viewers calling it “depressing.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Budweiser reprised the adorable puppy for the second year in a row to kill the audience with cuteness. It must have worked because this ad was the most shared on social media. (Sentimentality, check!)

Snickers scored big by featuring Marcia Brady of the Brady Bunch transformed into Danny Trejo, an angry action movie star, keeping with the company’s “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign. (Humor, check!)

Unilever’s Dove Men+Care was one of at least three companies to celebrate the joys of fatherhood. The company showed loving dads rushing to help an upset child or dancing at a daughter’s wedding (Nostalgia, check!)

Some ads aimed to reach viewers on an emotional level, others used humor to convey their message and some missed the boat altogether and were “sacked” by poor reception. Nevertheless several new players took a massive risk by spending that $4.5 million with hopes that they would be on the nation’s radar after being on such a large stage.

What was your favorite Super Bowl ad campaign?

Given YouTube’s popularity, it’s no secret that most people love to watch internet videos. As this trend continued to grow, marketing pros tapped in and found ways to sell their brands through creative, organic videos.

Building brand awareness and loyalty is a crucial part of a brand’s overall success, so what better way to do it than through creative visuals? According to a recent article on ClickZ, almost 60% of consumers say they would watch a video on a brand’s website. That’s nearly two-thirds of a brand’s customer base actively participating in their marketing efforts. You can’t pay for that kind of engagement.

But brand videos aren’t just online commercials or advertising; they’re about creating meaningful content that resonates with consumers. There are some brand videos that we’ve all watched, shared and watched again like Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches or Virgin America’s Safety Video. They’re charming, funny and informational – but most of all they inspire us. They offer something more than a traditional ad or marketing campaign. They tell us a story, teach us something valuable or inspire us to take action.

Whatever the angle — funny, sad, inspirational – one thing is key: organic, natural content. An ad is an ad is an ad. We’ve all made them and we know how to pick one from a lineup. But a branded video is different. It’s intriguing. It acts as a catalyst to share real, useful information, not advertising jargon that pushes another product onto consumers. Some of the most amazing branded videos out there have little to do with a product, but they connect the brand with an idea that resonates with consumers. It gives customers something to relate to, and makes them feel excited to support the brand.

What’s the best brand video you’ve seen? Share it with us on Facebook or Twitter!

Adweek recently featured several high-profile brands that are constantly trying to find new ways to reach their customers. According to the article, Westfield launched “Westfield Labs” in an effort to continue improving its customers’ experience at its malls and with its retailers. The idea behind its lab is simple: Create and test new experiences for customers in real-time. The ideas that stick will be translated to a larger scale, and made available to Westfield shoppers globally.

Innovation labs are sprouting up all over the country. From high-tech to retail, industries across the map are consistently finding new ways to engage consumers and connect with audiences of all types. It’s truly marketing at its finest – and it’s working. Westfield is a great example of a company that is on the forefront of innovation. It brings its ideas to life by testing them first in a safe environment before translating it to a real location.

As the article notes, these labs also connect the digital world with the physical. They allow consumers to connect with and access the retailer from anywhere, at anytime. This is increasingly important as more and more technologies are integrated with consumer brands.

Last holiday season, Westfield partnered with ecommerce giant eBay to connect online retail with mall shoppers. Three large screens were placed in the mall with options for shoppers to swipe through more than 100 products and then buy them from a mobile phone. This combination of the digital and physical world is just one example of the many types of retail conveniences developed in the innovation lab.

Is your business doing anything new to connect with your consumers? We can help. Connect with us to get started.

If you’re ever invited to a VIP Tasting event, just say yes. Especially if it’s part of a major rebranding effort, and double-especially (I used it, so now it’s a real word.) if it involves pizza. Actually, the only pizza included in this one was the new Sunny Side Up Bacon + Potato pizza. You’re correct:  two eggs on top. Now that’s what I call planning ahead if you want cold pizza for breakfast!

It’s mid-afternoon at the California Pizza Kitchen in Tampa, and the staff feels energized. This tasting is a show within a show, surrounded by actual paying customers. One reason they’re pumped up: they’re pioneers. For now, this “Taste the Next Chapter” rebranding movement only includes about a dozen of the more than 250 CPK locations. So, the general manager and the servers—all top notch and double-extremely well prepared for this matinée show—are already insiders, the advance team, the elite culinary forces sent to the front of the front to ensure all-out success for all the rest of the locations that will follow.

Ideally, the staff at all the other locations will catch this excitement, when it’s their time, because that’s actually one of the most powerful benefits of a major rebrand of this nature:  the enthusiasm and pride of the new translates into a more engaging, positive, and memorable experience for the customers. And so the business grows. Keep in mind that this large-scale rebranding effort is going on without a single tweak to the company’s logo. This is a personality change, not a logo facelift. It’s all about expectations. The experience.

The CPK rebranding project goes way beyond the menu, too. The restaurants are all going sustainable, with as many elements as possible being repurposed from elsewhere. In Tampa, they’ve created one wall entirely from a patchwork of wine crate sides. It has “Let me take a selfie”  written all over it. Not literally. I’m just saying. I’m pretty sure the old CPKs don’t have real bars where you can hang out; this one definitely does. You can twist around at the bar to watch the action in the kitchen—pizza tossing included—if the game on the flatscreen is not going your way.

Back to the new menu: The non-pizza entrées are getting the spotlight, along with the drinks. You know you’re going upscale when the menu includes suggestions for wine pairings. The Fire-Grilled Ribeye topped with creamy bleu cheese butter likes to hang out with Rodney Strong, a Cabernet Sauvignon. If you like drinking Clos Du Bois Unoaked Chardonnay, then you might want to pair that with the Hearth-Roasted Halibut. Or vice versa. (Full disclosure:  I didn’t actually see a hearth.) Being more of a beer guy myself, I love that the suggested pairing for the Mahi Mahi Tacos is Corona Extra. I didn’t make that up. Go see for yourself.

The staff continues the barrage of new dishes and sides, actions that are not lost on a table of “regular” patrons nearby. Perhaps the staff has shifted a bit too much service to our side of the house and neglected others by mistake. If anyone from CPK is reading this, you might want to bring around some samples to everyone and tip them off as to what’s going on.

Anyway, as we’re doing our best to put a dent in the desserts—this is, after all, about the tenth course of all the new items—the regional marketing guy asks us if anyone feels adventurous enough to go back to the kitchen and throw some pizza dough. And that’s when I remembered:  This is a pizza place.

Building a brand that resonates with consumers on a high level is no small task and is only becoming increasingly difficult. Despite having the benefit of learning from past successes and failures, the world we live in now has never been more fast paced, connected and over-saturated with companies claiming to be the next Apple, Nike or Google.

Many of these brands, however, fail to create value and establish the necessary presence they need to attract and retain loyal customers.  So how do you navigate this ever -volving landscape? Branding Magazine claims there are three essential P’s you must focus on to create and maintain a successful brand.

People 

In order to understand what exactly will resonate with your consumers, you not only need to have a fundamental understanding of people as a whole, but you need to understand your target audience on a comprehensive level. What drives them? What makes them tick? Conducting research and gathering data is quintessential to the branding process as this data will allow you to not only better reach your target audience, but also allows you to personalize consumer experiences. Take Facebook, Amazon, Netflix or Google, for example; these leading brands have taken personalization to a whole new level using people’s personal preferences to make the consumer experience much more intimate.

Purpose

Returning to the question of what drives people, we know many are looking for a sense of purpose in life, something that gives their lives meaning and direction. Consumers look for the same thing in a brand. They want a brand with a clear purpose and one that is invested in an important cause. Your brand needs to go beyond the simple purpose of making a profit and creating wealth. In order to retain consumers, your brand should be socially, environmentally, and economically conscious. It needs to clearly define the higher social purpose it serves and make sure it’s an authentic, credible and proven part of its brand story. It is the emotional tie people can identify with.

Participation

Once you understand your consumers and define a clear purpose, you must get people to experience and participate with your brand. People are no longer satisfied with only being on the receiving end of a brand’s cause — they want to influence it, be influenced BY it and make it their own. Participation is ultimate and most effective way to interact with people. The relationship a brand builds with people needs to be less transaction-focused and more interaction-based.

And there you have it, the three P’s of branding. Brands must focus on these concepts in order to stay relevant in this crazy world we live in.

Here a Next-Mark we believe a brand is everything, and know having a clear defined brand message is vital for your organization’s survival. If you we can assist you in any way please feel free to give us a call at 941.893.3140.