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Sustainable marketing is a great way to promote the eco-friendly aspects of your company, as long as you get it right

It’s natural for a business to use all of its genetic makeup to promote itself and stand out in its market. For example, SMEs frequently use grassroots beginnings or a local focus to give them a unique tone of voice, while larger companies pride themselves on winning industry awards. Another strategy that is becoming more popular for companies looking to make their mark is sustainable marketing. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming a more common brand value, with the most recent Conference of Parties (COP) highlighting its 2023 objectives as: Reducing emissions Helping countries adapt Climate finance Responsibility for the climate crisis is shared by governments, businesses, and individual consumers. So sharing your eco credentials could help you win more business accounts or increase customer loyalty, depending on your goals. However, it…

Personalized marketing, as we know from our experiences as brand-lovers and as marketers, is the make or break of any e-commerce marketing strategy in a competitive environment

Personalized marketing is all about offering improved user experience (UX) by serving relevant content, or targeting key messages in the funnel, based on your customer’s e-commerce activities and behaviour. Personalized marketing unlocks tactics for retailers to form personal relationships with their customers during their online experience (CX), to nurture leads and drive more sales from digital marketing. During a global 2022 survey of consumers who purchased something online in the past six months, 62% stated that a brand would lose their loyalty if it delivered a non-personalized experience. This is no secret to marketers who have watched a growing trend of personalization customer expectations and e-commerce investment to match. In fact, the chart below shows current customer experience personalization and…

How has the definition of branding evolved to reflect the modern business context?

If you type ‘what is branding’ into a search engine, you’ll be presented with two choices: “making a mark with a branding iron” Or, “creating a distinctive design to promote a product or service” Branding in today’s world is not just about standing out, but about creating a truly consistent omnichannel experience across all customer touchpoints. To achieve this, it means fully integrating brand strategy across every customer interaction, not just about creating aesthetically stable collateral. To outpace competitors in the current business climate, branding requires a data-driven, customer-focused approach to marketing. Our marketing tools and templates help you build a winning marketing strategy that supports your business objectives and boost revenue. What's more, all our marketing strategy resources are integrated across the RACE framework to drive the results you need to reach your goals. …

Discover our framework to plan, manage, and optimize your brand positioning strategy in the era of omnichannel consumer branded goods

In its best form, a brand positioning strategy for a company unifies all customer-facing comms and marketing activities. It highlights who the target audience is, and why they need your product (and how you're going to make sure they know that). More importantly, in today's age of digitalization, with Debenhams and Arcadia Group being bought by online giants Asos and Boohoo, and now GAP planning to close stores in UK, France, and Italy as part of their European review, positioning your brand online is more important than ever. That's where RACE comes in - a dedicated marketing structure your brand can use to integrate your customers' experiences of your brand,…

A successful brand strategy means your business' channels, digital experiences, and tone of voice need to home in on what your key customers want.

We've got marketing training to strengthen your branded consumer goods company's relationships with your target audiences. In order to build a loyal fan base, your brand strategy and style need to reflect your overall vision for the business. Having a brand strategy that jars with your product/service will put customers off and confuse them about who are and what you offer. However, integrating your marketing strategy can be hard, especially today in the age of digital disruption where every customer has an omnichannel experience. That's why our complete marketing training covers all the key elements you need to build a strong brand strategy.

The RACE Framework for consumer branded goods

Our popular RACE Framework is a simple, actionable planning structure for marketing leaders looking to streamline their omnichannel marketing strategies and…

'Strategic marketing beyond a single campaign metric': Brand evaluation requires deeper analysis of your campaign KPIs

A single brand evaluation metric such as 'brand awareness' can get a bad press as a marketing KPI. It's easy to see why, after all, just because I'm aware of your brand, it doesn't mean your marketing has been all that successful in driving demand or sales for a product. To give a trite example, I'm aware of Donald Trump, North Korea and Protein World. It doesn't mean I like any of them. Nor does it mean I'd ever buy from them. Oh and before you say 'You can't buy from North Korea Rob you idiot'- I think you'll find you can. Strategic brand evaluation runs much deeper. It's time to aim for strategic marketing beyond a single campaign metric. "Strategic marketing beyond a single campaign metric" Boosting brand awareness isn't pointless, far from it.…

More choice means it not only becomes harder to persuade customers to engage with a particular proposition but also to retain their interest post-transaction.

Digital has leveraged the greater array of choices available to consumers now, which is much more than at any other time in our economic development, representing a real challenges to build brand loyalty for marketers. At the same time, it has made it this choice available to far more people than in any previous period of history. This combination of choice and availability does two things: It disrupts traditional or established relationships, particularly where the choice becomes limited or stale. It creates an enhanced set of expectations for customer experience. As a consequence, it not only becomes harder to persuade customers to engage with a particular proposition but also to retain their interest post-transaction. In our experience, this is primarily down to a failure to deliver the best possible…

Chart of the Week: 64% of consumers are now belief-driven buyers who want brands to deliver on societal issues, as well as products

We all know that trusting a brand increases the chances of a customer buying from it. Building trust turns customers into advocates, providing priceless word-of-mouth marketing. On top of this, brand trust means customers keep coming back, which is hugely beneficial considering the fact that customer retention is cheaper than acquisition. But exactly what does brand trust mean to customers and how can it impact their decision making? Today, brand trust is everything to customers, meaning that once you’ve lost it, you’ve likely lost them. [si_guide_block id="50995" title="Download our Business Resource – Brand storytelling guide" description="This guide helps you explore the fundamentals of developing powerful authentic brand stories."/] In fact, according to Edelman’s latest research, businesses are trusted even more than governments, showing…

Facebook's Community Standards update, New brand loyalty research, new playable Facebook ads, consumer views on Netflix advertising and Twitter's new live stream with guests feature

This week, Facebook has updated us on how it is enforcing its Community Standards with its third report. The report includes new data in a bid to make sure its enforcement is more transparent. New research has revealed that brands who form emotional relationships with customers are likely to see better brand loyalty, showing that the human element and storytelling really do benefit companies. Facebook has launched its new playable ads, aimed at providing users with a trial of advertised mobile games. As Coca-Cola announces working with Netflix on Stranger Things season three, a study has found that most subscribers are totally against ads being added to the video streaming service. Finally, Twitter has announced a new feature. Those who live stream will now have the opportunity to add audio-only…

Instagram to stop recommending 'borderline' content, the UK government is proposing new rules for social media companies, Amazon Alexa conversations being listened to by people, Netflix is testing new subscriptions in India and Lego named as the UK's favourite brand

A big focus this week across the board is social media and the spread of harmful content. Instagram has announced that it is set to stop recommending 'borderline' content that isn't quite breaking its rules but could be seen as potentially harmful. On top of this, the UK government is seeking to make social media in the country as safe as possible with proposed new regulations and sanctions for platforms failing to ensure users' safety. In other news, Amazon has admitted that some recorded Alexa conversations are listened to by people, raising security concerns. Netflix is seeking to grow its market share in India by offering new subscription services in the country, including weekly subscriptions. Finally,…