From all my years in research and consulting, I think I’ve learned a thing or two about marketing worth sharing. Enduring fundamentals, mostly yet often overlooked. So, this year, I’m sharing some for your consideration. I hope they’re helpful. This week’s thought: Marketers are trend-followers, not trend-setters.
Years of reorganizations, restructuring, buying and selling assets, and accumulating enormous debt have finally led to the downfall of one of America’s oldest brands, Del Monte. This past week, Del Monte filed for Chapter 11. Founded in 1886, Del Monte’s history spanned the miracle of canning, the pineapple fields in Hawaii (before Hawaii was a US State), coffee, pet foods, and more. Just read the dizzying facts about all the assets and sales on Wikipedia....
In October of 1980, The Conference Board (the business and economics organization focused on corporate governance, HR, business ethics, global corporate citizenship and corporate performance) held a conference titled “Marketing Under Economic Adversity.” The title is apt for today as we are experiencing enormous economic and fiscal uncertainty. There appears to be declining consumer sentiment. Consumers are changing shopping behaviors, cutting back on more conspicuous consumption products. Prices are on the rise to cover the...
Let’s put the rhetoric and posturing aside for a moment. There is a brand issue with Tesla that continues to create a serious problem.
There has been a steady erosion of time spent shopping over the course of this century—since roughly the take-off point of digital media, social platforms, and Big Data. This trend is likely to continue, and it is not unexpected. Online shopping, particularly mobile shopping and social commerce, has been touted for efficiency. But speed comes at a price, which is an ongoing decline in the time consumers spend with marketing and retail. The era ahead...
