NYC Marathon Weekend: How Small Acts Build Up Over Time

Marketing Lesson of The Week

► Why The Words You Use Matter

Around the world, we’ve become more divided, partisan and tribal. At its core, these changes are rooted in our divisive hurtful language expressed in-person and via media. It fills every form of communication.

Without strong leadership, people are afraid of the unknown and listen to the loudest voices aligned with their views.

Last week, the Speaker of the US House of Representative’s husband was attacked with a hammer. It shows that extremist thinking can be interpreted as permission to act.

As Gabriel Sterling in the Georgia Secretary of State’s office said in the aftermath of the US 2020 election:

“Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed,… It’s not right.”

“It has to stop…, Mr. President [Trump], you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up. And if you take a position of leadership, show some.” (Source: NPR- December 1,
2020)

With the best of intentions, our founding fathers conceived of a new form of democracy. It was an enlightened experiment that may be nearing its end.

Like many countries, America has a long history of various forms of discrimination that predate the founding of this country. The language enshrined in important documents like The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights and The Federalist Papers  contains the seeds of these differences and inequalities revealing the shortcomings and biases of our Founding Fathers.

What can we do as marketers?

We need to stand up and say enough. We need to change the language of our interactions. We need to choose to settle our differences without symbolic language filled with extremist calls to action.

Brand Beats

► What’s The Biggest Selling Coffee Brand In The US?

To answer this question, first consider the many ways to buy and drink coffee. Coffee can be purchased for take out or home use, comes in a variety of flavors, and can be made using  different methods.

By the Numbers:

• Americans drink about 146 billion cups of coffee per year or about 400 million cups of coffee every day. (Source)
• US retail coffee market is $47.4 billion in 2022 measured in terms of revenue.

Based on Clayton Christiansen’s “Jobs To Be Done” or JTBD approach:
“Your customers are not buying your product, they are hiring it to get a job done.”

What jobs do coffee drinkers need done?

• Morning coffee gives a boost to the start of the day;
• Break coffee gives relief from daily routines, and
• Coffee allows people to linger over their meal.

► On-the-go Breakfast Coffee Options:

• Starbucks changed a cup of coffee into an experience. In the process they increased the price making it an affordable indulgence. Starbucks has expanded into other markets. They’ve moved into Barnes & Noble stores. According to the CEO, “The profit margin on a cup of coffee is significantly higher than on the average book.”
• Dunkin is the on-the-go option for people who also want baked goods. They’re located in transportation hubs, stations, along highways, and in food plazas. Where possible, they offer drive-through service. They also sell their beans for home use.
• McDonald’s sells coffee with their breakfast specials and drive-through convenience. Unlike Starbucks and Dunkin, their coffee is a low priced addition to their morning offerings.

Despite selling a lot of coffee, these food establishments focus on out-of-home experiences.

► Don’t Forget To Count The Beans!

For large coffee sales, focus on the simple coffee bean, not an augmented product. When you shift your focus to these bare, utilitarian beans, consider where people can buy them in large quantities at low prices to consume in the privacy of their home.

Then your sales options include:

• Supermarkets which vary by region in the US,
• Walmart stores, and
• Buying clubs like Costco.

These sales options offer a variety of brands and sizes, so longevity and price matter.

Over 150 years old, Folger is the clear winner in terms of amount sold.

► How To Rebrand Your Grandmother’s Coffee

Despite selling over $1 billion of ground coffee per year in the US, most of their consumers view Folgers as their “grandmother’s coffee”, especially among Millennials and GenXers who are in their high spending years.

So what did Folgers do to increase sales in key markets?

According to Geoff Tanner, the Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer at J.M. Smucker,

“We could certainly see it in our sales numbers. We had been losing market share for quite some time… The brand had been losing relevance, particularly with younger consumers.“

First, Tanner and his team tested the product and found it performed well. This is an important step in re-branding since if your product is bad nothing will improve sales.

Next Tanner and his team assessed other aspects of the Folgers brand. Post-pandemic, consumers sought ways to reduce spending, Fortunately for Folgers, not drinking fancy out-of-home coffee
drinks yields real results in your wallet immediately.

Despite the negative grandmother image, Folgers decided to  leaned into it with a fun twist. They changed their tagline to: “Think of us as grandma’s coffee? Heck yeah we are!” (Source: NPR, November, 2022)

Actionable Rebranding Marketing Tips:

• Know your audience. To understand how your audience feels about your product and your competitors talk to them. Where possible, go into supermarkets and observe how customers make purchase decisions in-store.
• Test your product. Does it live up to their standards? How does your product fit into their lives? Consider cost and convenience.
• Create several significantly different creative approaches. Include visual, text and voice. Determine what role your history will play. Also, who will represent your brand?
• Get management buy-in at every step. Follow Tanner’s lead, he tested a wide range of elements of the Folgers brand.

Voice Notes

► Get The Inside Scoop On Voice22

At Voice22 I presented, Voice Marketing Made Easy: How To Attract, Nurture and Grow Your Audience,

Voice marketing is a new form of marketing. The Seismic Shift in marketing has made the emergence of voice marketing possible. Marketers who embrace Voice Marketing will move towards Web 3.0.

For marketers, the biggest and clearest message from Voice22:
Voice marketing has come of age and is the path to Web 3.0.

► 3 Top Marketing Take-Aways From Voice22

1.  Extend your brand beyond text and visuals to include sonic elements consistently  across your organization and products. This increases your brand’s memorability and adds value to your Balance Sheet

To-date, the most in-depth sonic branding case study is Mastercard. They viewed their sonic brand as part of a larger initiative to create a more holistic relationship with their consumers.

2.  Experiment with voice across your brand. To capture the Earth one sound at a time, National Geographic created Soundbank. This pilot audio database gathers sounds recorded by its explorers and photographers on assignment around the world. Their goal: To enhance the future of audio storytelling by embracing spatial audio.

3.  Market Research Required Beyond Proof of Concept. Shyamala Prayaga, author of Emotionally Engaged Digital Assistant: Humanizing Design and Technology, spoke about technology’s need to get beyond “Proof of Concept” and understand who its audience is and what they want your voice technology to do.

Content Communicates

► Media Is Key To Any Form of Marketing, Especially Content Marketing

Why do you need media?
To distribute your messaging and communications beyond your audience and employees.

In addition the number of media outlets continues to expand. Heck, even the AMG Newsletter is a media outlet!

Before considering using AI-powered content creation, people are mired in information across every aspect of our lives.

How do consumers deal with this?

• They find methods to cull their content input to get the information they want. Unfortunately in the process, this information becomes more and more tribal and partisan due to algorithms so they only listen to people they agree with.
• They choose the platforms whose world view they agree with. 

In the US, 24/7 cable news stations are a prime example of this information glut. Instead of traditional, rigorous journalism, cable news stations fill their schedules with branded celebrity newscasters. These glorified talking heads interview a variety of guests and other journalists about the new.

Actionable Media Marketing Tips:

• Schedule consistent content publishing whether live or prerecorded. Once per week is sufficient.
• Exchange presentation of videos and voice content with similar but not competitive businesses to expand your reach.

Social Scene

► Platform Upheavals

With the massive changes across social media platforms, you don’t have quality information to inform your social media marketing strategy.

Consider these two facts:

• The latest social media upheaval took place a week before the US Midterm Elections. Does this mean an outside or angry player is involved to stir up emotions and cause further erosion of truth? Russia has tried to interfere with US elections in the past.
• Or, is this social media upheaval a technology market correction following Elon Musk’s layoffs and cost cutting? Since many major financial indices include one or more of these tech companies, it could be part of market uncertainty.

Actionable Social Media Marketing Tips

Regardless of what actually happens, these tips will make your business more secure and trustworthy.

• Check that your corporate security technology is in place and up-to-date. Review your technology stacks both internal and external. Update your technology contingency plans. Loop in your PR team so they know how to message any potential problems.
• Add an extra level of identification to logins across the organization. Require they change their passwords via email codes where possible. Change wording on website email and text.
• Stop all paid social media advertising programs. Prices are highly volatile and you don’t know who will see your ad or where it may appear.
• Decide if you want to remain on organic social media and what you will do there. At a minimum, use your social media profiles to redirect visitors to your main website. Also offer a phone number and email to help visitors.
• Use your email marketing strategically. Think beyond pushing sales. Make your employees and customers feel that their information is secure and that you’re proactively taking action to protect them.

Marketing Reads

With the major changes across the media environment, it’s a good time to refresh your understanding of the differences in media options and how to best use them to distribute and keep your media visible over time.

Start by understanding what media is with this 15 Point Media Definition Checklist:
The Ultimate Media Definition: 15 Point Checklist

Are you taking advantage of all of your owned media options?
Owned Media Platform Guide: 40+ Options You May Be Missing

► The Essentials of Marketing – 2022

The Essentials of Marketing – 2022 Kit brings together the latest in information, coverage of important developments, and expert commentary to help with your Marketing related decisions.

Get this FREE 4-Book Kit from TradePub today!

Plan Ahead: Mark Your Calendar

► Open Voice Network – Interoperability Workshop November 9,  2022 – 10am EST / 16:00 CET

A FREE, 3-hour workshop with presentations and conversations on making our smart devices work with each other.  Register Now!

►SparkTogether 2022
November 10, 2022 – All day, paid virtual event.

Organized by Rand Fishkin and his team, this event won’t be recorded.

►2022 Holiday Gifting Trends & Expectations
November 10, 2022 – Live Webinar at 2PM ET

An annual study of U.S. holiday shoppers reveals eight key themes retailers should expect and prepare for this holiday season.
A Free webinar offered by Retail Dive’s studioID and GiftNow.