All posts tagged: trends

Building brands in the connective economy

Speaking in Wellington this week

By Mark Di Somma

As some of you know, I’m working with Pete Canalichio on a new book about how brands can rethink their growth strategies. Together we’ve been studying how and where many of the world’s most successful brands partner up to reach consumers, how they grow engagement with their brands by expanding their market sector reach, and what that means for business models. On Thursday evening, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on how the strategies of global brands can be applied to businesses of all sizes looking for growth and profitability in today’s super-competitive environments. Building Brands in the Connective Economy Level 2, 318 Lambton Quay, Wellington Thursday 13 October 5:00-7:00pm Admission is free, but please register at Future of Business. Hope to see you there.      

Brands, commodities and branded commodities

Brands, commodities and branded commodities

By Mark Di Somma

If you’re a marketer, commodity status is a bad thing for your brands. It indicates that your product or service is undifferentiated, that it rises and falls with the market and that it carries no inherent value beyond that. That’s fine when things are going well, and supply cannot keep pace with demand – it’s not so good when the dynamics are reversed. I explain how and why perceived brand value degrades to commodity status here.

Introducing experiences to on-demand brands

Introducing experiences to on-demand brands

By Mark Di Somma

The sharing economy is substantial. Uber’s valuation just hit $50 billion. Airbnb is valued at around $20 billion. And Entrepreneur believes the sharing economy’s size in five key sectors will reach 335 billion by 2025. As this article explains, “The catalyst behind the sharing phenomenon are technology platforms—big data and mobile—allowing consumers to share anything, anywhere, and anytime at an affordable price. Sharing is ubiquitous today.”

Brand priorities - an increasing dichotomy

Brand priorities. An increasing dichotomy

By Mark Di Somma

This thought-provoking presentation includes some interesting observations on the contrasting effects of brands on the world. On the one hand the Y&R planners point out, brands are responding to consumer expectations that they will drive social change, spending around $18 billion a year on charitable efforts and using their financial clout and influence to affect real change. On the other, some of the biggest brands now know more about us as consumers and individuals than government agencies and we have no real ways of knowing how they will use that information, and to what effect, going forward.

Lessons and opportunities for global FMCG brands

Lessons and opportunities for global FMCG brands

By Mark Di Somma

It wasn’t that long ago that competition took place between products, and the criteria for choice between rivals was customer benefits. Product vs product. Today, for globally scaled brands, the competition is really between the reach and co-ordination of different configurations of value chains, and the criteria for choice for customers is the quality of the experiences delivered as a result.

Why consumer brands are increasingly personal

Why consumer brands are increasingly personal (and what that means for you)

By Mark Di Somma

This is the year of wearables it seems. Morgan Stanley are predicting shipments will top 70 million this year and grow to 248 million by 2017. But the thought that wearables themselves will feature in consumer and business spending across areas ranging from fashion and fitness, healthcare and insurance also points to escalation of another trend. Products and services are now less about what consumers have or get and more about who they are and want to be.

A Short Virtual Coffee with Nir Eyal

Hooked on Brands: A (Short) Virtual Coffee™ with Nir Eyal

By Mark Di Somma

Nir Eyal spent years in the video gaming and advertising industries. I first became aware of his work through his articles (his work can be found in Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic and TechCrunch) and his blog. In the book “Hooked” he promulgates a process that he says successful brands can embed in their products and communication approaches to subtly encourage shifts in customer behaviour.

From CMO to CEO

From CMO to CEO: the next era of brand leadership?

By Mark Di Somma

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) haven’t had it this good for some time. As Jack Trout observed the average tenure not so long ago stood at less than two years. Now it’s close to double that. The reasons why things got so bad, according to Trout, could be attributed to both internal and external forces. Internally, politics and competing functions combined to make it tough to get and keep the resources that CMOs needed to do an effective job. Externally, prima donna agencies with a hotline to the CEO also caused problems. Not helped, he says, by the fact that in most organisations the CEO is the ultimate CMO. The decisions they make essentially provide the marketing team with their licence to operate.