Hot Business Issues

1. Consumers are researching the offer
Consumers will be putting more time and energy into finding good values, reading the labels and the service agreement and will be more informed on nutritional facts, environmental impact and ethical business practices

2. They are also looking for stability
While many economic indicators point to a light at the end of the tunnel , consumers will continue to be cautious and will be hesitant to commit when it comes to important purchases.

3. Necessity allows emerging market products to enter the developed world.
Products designed for emerging markets are increasingly becoming popular in the developed markets, where consumers are accepting them as cheaper and simpler alternatives to existing choices.

4. Green is entering our lives
As the ecological influence increases, producers will pay more attention to the environmental costs of packaging, and brands will increasingly switch to bottles, boxes and other solutions that reduce waste .The trend will be to reuse, recycle, remove and renew.

5. The disclosure trend is intensifying
Legal requirements and competitive pressures will force producers to fuller disclosure about everything from ingredients to carbon footprints and sourcing

6. Real time revolution
The Web is evolving into a constantly updating stream of real-time information, conversation, memes and images.

7. Products and communication will have an open eye for the older generation
As the world’s population grows older, we should be ready for a proliferation of products and services that cater to this demographic segment as they strugle to live independently for as long as they can. Communication will also be adapting to the habits and life style of this group.

In today’s “experience’ economy, consumers have the ability to match their values with every buying choice they make. Modern brands create value beyond their functional mission and they assume a major role in expressing the personality and mood of their clients. Thus we can argue that modern Branding is about building emotional and experiential values that fit the customer’s needs.

We, the consumers, are identified by our experiences: what we do and dream. We are extensions of our friends, our style of life, the music we hear, the car we drive, the entertainment mode we chose. Today, in part because of the emergence of social media, we are less biased and more courageous than ever, looking for every opportunity to discover new things, new friends and to collect new experiences. We travel, surf the Internet, experiment with new tastes and hobbies to a degree that was impossible in past.
On the other hand we feel more than ever the need to be different, and we want that to be made clear to all around us, friends, associates even our immediate family. Why is this happening?
Recently a lot of things have changed! We can have access to knowledge for numerous products and services, we are more open to new ideas. and the most important fact is that we are able to communicate literally with thousands fellow citizens like us easily.
The recent recession probably influenced marketing and gave a push to the price factor. However the oposite strategy to low price is the emergence of the need, now more than ever before, for boosting the image of our brands and investing in improving our reputation and strengthen the trust our customers have for our brand and our company.
Today, more than ever before, our products and services need to build a unique emotional bonding with our customers. If we succeed our business will be better off when the crisis is over.

During recessionary times, do-it-yourself is influencing not only home and office furniture but a whole range of categories, including food, entertainment, beauty and fashion. Examples are organizing and promoting our own parties and events and rushing to IKEA, to youth formulating their very own beauty treatments. Today we realize that the habit of DIY is becoming increasingly pervasive.
A number of factors is shifting this movement to the mainstream, chief among them the anxiety brought on by the present recession. Most of us realize that DIY is simply cheaper than the alternatives. DIY also seems like the trendy thing to do at a time when frugality and anti-consumerist sentiment are booming. Another factor that helps this consumer habit is the Internet and social media where dialogue and friendly discussions are thriving.And in a world where mass-produced goods dominate, DIY allows for a sense of discovery and a way to stand out from the crowd.
A recent JWT study explores how DIY ideas and attitudes are affecting consumer behavior and purchasing habits in a range of categories, and investigates what this means for marketers and their brands

Key Questions asked

• How is the DIY trend translating across a range of product categories? And how is it helping to encourage entrepreneurialism?
• What factors are driving this trend?
• What does DIY mean for brands and marketers?

Key Findings

DIY is a trend that was already growing before the recession, and the downturn is only helping to accelerate it.
This may sound as bad news for brands. If you DIY, where does this leave companies that sell ready-made goods?
However, brands and marketers can learn a lot and exploit this trend if they can understand how to become part of the trend and build the DIY experience into their own marketing plans
Indeed, as the JWT study concludes “DIY doesn’t mean consumers are opting out of the economy; instead, they’re reconfiguring it, taking a greater stake in the production process. Marketers that can complement consumers’ DIY efforts, serving as partners in this reconfiguration, will serve their brands best.”

http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=140549
It seems that the debate for the roles of traditional, digital agencies and recently the role of the production shops is raising the players’ blood pressure. Advertising Age is leading the debate with some eyeopening stories. Up to now we were experiencing the rising importance of the digital agencies who are challenging traditional advertising. I believe this challenge should be seen in a positive way and lead us in finding ways of fruitfull cooperation rather than jumping on each others throats. On the other hand recent developments as the recent AdAge article points out digital production aencies seem to be on aspree trying to eleiminate the “middleman” and appeal directly to the client/advertiser. The pot is boiling and we will watch with great interest of the outcome.

Advertising Age Why Digital Agencies Aren’t Ready to Lead
On two of my earlier posts I dealt with this issue concerning the changing form of communication. (On Oct 17th: “Advertising will not be the same a few years from now”, and on Oct. 8th: “Traditional vs Digital Advertising: and the winner is..”)
Both posts analyzed and presented new evidence on the overwhelming influence exerted by the web on the advertising industry. On the quantitative side I pointed to evidence that in many countries digital is growing fast and overtakes traditional ad expenditures. On the qualitative side I presented the way the web and digital advertising is leading the way in creating needed content and building close relationships with the customers.
But only a few days ago a great article in Advertising Age points out to a simple truth.
Digital agencies are excellent in Exploration, that is thinking and creating new things, uses and applications for communication while advertising agencies are excellent in Exploitation, they are accountable and systematic and on target with the marketing needs of their clients.
It remains to be seen which of the two will improve on their weaknesses and build on their strengths.

In a recent paneuropean research among decision makers commissioned by Burson Marsteller and executed by PSB (Penn Schoen and Berland Associates) some very interesting and critical findings were unearthed
In business a crisis is never far away.
Almost two-thirds of those polled have had a crisis and of those, 59% experienced a crisis in the last year
Not all companies were prepared for the crises.
Only 53% had a crisis plan and some of these plans were not felt to be adequate.
Yet it is clear that those without a crisis plan can expect to be hit harder in terms of loss of revenue and layoffs than those companies that are better prepared
Those with a plan can expect to recover faster, gaining a competitive edge over the competition. 59% of those with a plan recovered within 6 months compared with 42% of those without a plan
Furthermore, the study shows that 94% of those with plans think it saved them money in a crisis- on average over a third of the cost of a crisis.

With the emergence of social media, consumers are looking for greater personal relevance in the media they use. Today consumers want information and services that are relevant both to their place of residence and to their stage of life. It’s hard for centralized communication to do that, especially advertising. Even services like Google’s sponsored links and Amazon’s recommendations don’t feel personal, even though they are in many ways personalized.

The term “Personal” requires the existence of a real person. Marketers have always known that personal recommendations and word of mouth are the most powerful forms of brand advocacy. Today interactive technologies make personal recommendations no longer limited by physical constraints. With the multiplicity of social media consumers can create their own networks. As more and more people participate in these networks, they will begin to compete directly with traditional media..
A recent trend topic researched by JWT predicts that millions of influential individuals will develop their equivalent of a personal CPM rate card. A personal CPM assumes that people are their own media properties and, as such, should be applied some worth by the brands they advocate. As the JWT report indicates “the larger and more influential their social networks, the more valuable these individuals are and the higher the CPM they will be able to command. But as their influence grows, they will need to remain truly objective—consumers are too savvy to trust those who recommend the brands that pay them the most”.

Facebook is now amplifying this trend via a new advertising plan. The social networking site is combining user recommendations with hyper-targeted advertising for what it calls SocialAds. As an Advertising Age article describes it, “Under the system, actions users take when they’re not on Facebook, can be broadcast to their Facebook friends. Brands also can create Facebook pages users can interact with, and those interactions are communicated to their networks. This was also reported by Ad Age: “the more you enable person-to-person communication, the more opportunities there are for individuals to influence each other.

For centuries since Guttenberg books have remained virtually unchanged.
But today the Internet has changed the way we process information, even the way we read and eventually all information will be digital. Publishers especially those who realize they’re in the story business, not the paper and printing business, have adopted the digital generation from social networking to mobile phone novels to multimedia add-ons, to electronic readers. The most recent example is Amazon’s Kindle.

A recent study by JWT has possed the following questions and then went on to answer them.

Key Questions
• How will books change format to fit the habits of generations of readers accustomed to on-demand access to information?
• How are authors and publishers experimenting with different forms of media? How are they digitizing to better engage readers?
• How is the digital age changing reading habits?
• How are authors and publishers changing their marketing strategies and tactics in response to these developments?
• Can the digital revolution actually help save the book industry?

Key Findings
Some of the results are mentioned below:
Internet and digital media is changing the way we process information. The image of the reader, the book and a quiet place is being replaced by a busy noisy environment where we are hearing music, driving through windows of info dozens of times in the span of an hour. Our minds have become reluctant to stop in one place for too long—the digital age has created an urge for diversion that one academic calls
“acquired attention deficit disorder.”

Some believe this spells the death of reading—but consider that literacy has always leapt forward when more information is made available to more people. And ultimately it’s not the thing book lovers are taken with, it’s what’s inside the thing—the ideas, characters, possibilities. Expanding a good story into the digital realm opens numerous opportunities to attract consumers. Authors and publishers are finding ways to engage the digital generation. And e-readers like the Kindle speak to consumers who increasingly expect information on demand, on the go and online.
Eventually, books will have to evolve even further, and even faster, if they are to survive. For example, Millennials (see my post ….) will demand content be made available digitally. Some might look at these developments with disdain, but ultimately an evolution will result in engaging more people in the written word.

To illustrate what we mean by the above statement, imagine your marketing staff has just completed the plan to build your brand equity over the next three years. They have agreed to next year’s advertising and promotion activities and budgets and are ready to celebrate a job well done. They are absolutely certain that next year the plan will win the customers and increase sales and market share.
The only problem is that they have only done half the job required in building a strong brand and achieve their goals because a brand is much more than visual image, advertising and promotion. Actually your brand is your business strategy. It has to prove your uniqueness and real competitive advantage
A critical element of the business strategy is that it must be differentiated, and authentically delivered by the behaviours of your employees when they are in contact with your customers. Your brand is your ‘trust mark’. It is your reputation.
Whatever the promise, it’s the experience of the customer that counts. And a key part of the experience is what your people deliver – either personally through direct customer contact and service, or indirectly by creating and maintaining a fulfillment process.
Interactions between customers and representatives of the brand – the employees – can either reinforce or sabotage the brand.

“ At the end of the day, as Federick W. Smith founder of FedEx said, FedEx is not the logo or its advertising or its sales force. To the customer, FedEx is the person who comes to your door and doesn’t let you down.”
This post draws on the philosophy and experience of TMI and its partners around the world. http://tmiworld.com

Workplace culture and values are undergoing a major transformation.
The global recession has forced organizations to reconsider their business models and their workplace
At the same time it is changing people’s attitudes towards work vs private life and for many people, it is affecting how and how much they work.
Emerging trends including the rise of telecommuting and freelancing, the growing influence of the Millennial way of thinking (introduced by those who were born during 1980’s to mid 90’s), and the adoption of mobile devices and Enterprise 2.0 tools will create an entirely different work and office culture.
A recent study by JWT poses the following questions and findings

Key Questions
• How will the recession and new ideas about worker productivity affect the traditional eight-hour day and five-day workweek?
• How will the shifts we’re seeing in office culture affect workplace design and the physical office space?
• What factors are contributing to the growing rise of freelancing and contract work?
• How will companies need to change to accommodate Millennials? How are Millennials redefining professional success?
• How will Enterprise 2.0 tools help to drive changes in workplace culture?

Key Findings
The following summary of the findings illusrates the changes that are already happening.
“Today’s always-connected workers, the recession and new ideas about worker productivity are changing the traditional 9-5 workday. The recession has prompted some workers to reassess the why behind work and seek
greater work-life balance. Meanwhile, companies are reassessing scheduling—instituting shorter workweeks or ultraflexible hours—and focusing more on what people get done rather than how long they spend doing it.
Work-life balance is one factor fueling the rise of freelancing. While freelancers once mostly took on small odd jobs, now they fill contract positions for a growing range of specialties.
With more workers freelancing, telecommuting and working non-standardized hours, businesses are increasingly open to flexible workspaces and virtual offices; design focuses on easing flexibility and collaboration. Cost-cutting has also forced many companies to rethink their operations from the brick and mortar up. By allocating space more smartly, businesses will be able to shrink physically and make better use of their real estate.
Millennials, the newest entrants to the workforce, are motivated more by their passions than by paychecks or promotions. Given the sheer size of the generation, they are certain to force changes in the workplace; many
businesses are already adjusting in order to retain the strongest young workers.
Millennials are helping to drive adoption of Web 2.0 tools in the workplace; what’s known as Enterprise 2.0 will be key to the flatter, faster and more flexible business of the future. Smart organizations will put as much focus
on evolving a 2.0 culture as adopting the tools that go with it.”