The consumer brain is being bombarded by rapid-fire, highly stimulating content that has been designed to provoke and extend attention span. Marketing taps directly into dopamine-driven behavior loops – like the ones behind social media scrolling or online shopping.
In the race for customer attention, companies try a lot of different things. Unhinged marketing presents such a possible divergence from the polished and predictable tone of traditional approaches. It uses trending content, memes, funny and irreverent brand voices, nonsensical content.
In many countries, healthcare professionals maintain a significant power distance from patients, leading to limited communication. The gap between patients’ interests and their actual experiences suggests that both patients and providers have yet to make the move.
Trend jacking has emerged as a sophisticated marketing strategy where brands capitalize on current events, trends, news, or popular topics to amplify their products, services, or brand message. Both efficiency and effectiveness of trend jacking relies heavily on the speed of reaction.
Fast Fashion 2.0 represents a paradigm shift in the fashion industry, characterized by a renewed focus on sustainability, transparency, and direct-to-consumer sales models. Addressing these challenges will require collaboration, innovation, and a concerted effort from brands, consumers, and policymakers alike. Ultimately, the future of fashion lies in striking a balance between profitability and sustainability, where ethical considerations are woven into the fabric of every garment.
In the ever-evolving landscape of marketing, native advertising has emerged as a powerful and innovative strategy. As consumers became increasingly adept at ignoring traditional banner ads, marketers sought new ways to engage their audience. Native advertising emerged as a solution, leveraging the visual and contextual aesthetics. Native advertising has roots that trace back to advertorials in print media, where advertisements were designed to mimic the editorial content of the publication.
Letter X has been a powerful weapon in marketing for decades. Words such as eXtra, eXclusive, eXpertise, eXcitement or eXperience have been popular jargon among marketing professionals. Marketers play with the symbolism of “X” to evoke curiosity or intrigue in their branding. Product names containing “X” make them sound modern, innovative, or cutting-edge – just recall iPhone X, Tesla X, or the X box.
A sales funnel looks at the consumer’s buying journey from a corporate perspective. A sales funnel is based on the idea that a company needs to attract many interested individuals, before narrowing them down until sales happen with some. This cut off is inevitable, although effective funnels convert higher numbers of target audience into buyers.
Although screenagers are a complex and diverse group with a variety of attitudes toward marketing, understanding their values, motivations, and preferences is a key to successful communication. Screenagers skip providers without strong online footprint. Online shopping, home delivery, and cashless transactions are no more alternatives to traditional brick-and-mortar cash-based store experience.
In many cultures, end-of-the-year period is marked with depictions of stars. Stars are called heavenly bodies. Stars are beautiful to look at. A star is a positive symbol of hope, happiness, eternity, faith, and excellence. For marketers, stars are associated with rating and their key feature is the number of them. The more the merrier.
Promotional products, promotional merchandise, giveaways, corporate gifts for business partners and employees have been popular lasting reminders of donors. Sometimes promotional merchandise does not really carry the right message at the right time. And the group of advocates, in fact, believing we all love to receive things for free and that the true loyalty comes from subtle bribery.
Doomscrolling is a label for compulsive consumption of bad news, that are saddening, disheartening and frustrating. Since measures on social distancing were introduced in 2020, many people found themselves lost and detached from physical reality. Many resorted to virtual spaces to find their second selves, some established their second life in metaverse.
Fewer and fewer business meetings are happening in person. Online shopping, corona and proliferation of home office have shifted the center of gravity for sales faster from brick-and-mortar to virtual settings, regardless of whether the focus is individual clients or B2B customers. Being able to deal with various information and communication technologies is a foundation for becoming a successful salesperson in the virtual world.
Food for a modern consumer is merely a way to fill the gap. Whether you prefer sour, bitter, savory, sweet, or umami for your taste buds, there is a meal to spice up every soul. No more food is a quick affair to curb hunger. Food has become a trendy thing to talk about. Elaborate and informed social talk about various kinds of meat, variety of cheeses, coffee preparation …
Climate change has been far too omnipresent to ignore for policy makers, consumers, and businesses alike. Environmental guilt, anxiety or shame have been reported mostly in connection with younger generations and women seeking right and righteous behavioral patterns which would bring balance to modern lifestyle and its environmental impact. Guilty consumers try hard to curb negative environmental consequences of their lives.
Sailing bumpy waters of channel management is still an adventure for many and unlikely to become a comfy cruise ever. Once marketers are able to swim against the odds of the channel divide, they cross the Rubicon of truly united customer experience.
Marketers shall navigate the ship of customer satisfaction before it hits a rock rather than focusing on dealing with customer complaints to reduce collateral (reputational) damages.
It does not seem to be possible to finish off quick marketing updates in the final 2020 issue of this journal without a reference to coronavirus. Merriam-Webster, the famous online dictionary and thesaurus service, just proclaimed „pandemic” to be the word of the year.
Global pandemic has exposed and sped up several recent trends in consumer behavior. Consumers are more likely to try and adopt new technologies, experiment with innovative delivery modes, payment options or interact with providers digitally. Trusted brands and savvy offerings are the most likely winners. Betting on pleasant brick-and-mortar shopping experience, introducing new brands or selling pricy discretionary items have been challenging.
The acronym of VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. It has been proposed as early as 1987 by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus alerting leaders to the need for highly flexible, vibrant, agile and adaptive style of acting and thinking. Such a notion was a little premature at that time, where the only disappearing anchor of the world order was the dissipating bipolar world divided between two world superpowers …
In the aftermath of shock from the rapid spread of coronavirus, its detrimental effects on human lives and wellbeing, there is time to stop for a moment and think consequences. Certainly, the way we used think and project future from past events will be further challenged. Not globalization, digitalization, global warming, migration issues or the rise of nationalism, but a tiny creature no larger than 0.12 microns …
We know well that customers are spoiled and their expectations have rightly been on the increase, as ever greater number of product attributes become a must. It has always been a real challenge to satisfy customers throughout the marketing mix and throughout the product lifecycle. For years, marketers have used mainly psychology to interpret consumer behavior.
We live in a hypercorrect world. Many regulatory bodies safeguarding correctness, fairness and social justice in marketing communications have been getting the wrong end of the stick. Careful segmentation has been in the DNA of marketing, which makes social and societal differences and ability to differentiate offerings for various audiences its primary concern. Political correctness…
Earlier marketing briefs discussed the value of sensory marketing for relevant and sticky communication with customers. Today, our concern will be unconventional marketing vocabulary related to one particular sense: eyesight. Ability to see and foresee, envision, imagine or even dream about future is the key to anticipate important trends…
