Dollar Shave Club came up with a refreshing new approach to shaving ads. No more brooding-looking models self-congratulatory rubbing their chins after using a
three four five-bladed razor just a guy in a warehouse, a dolly camera and freshly-employed Alejandra. Oh, and a bear. Of course.
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Marketing Supply Chain Institute interviewed Liz Miller (VP, Programs, CMO Council) and Mike Perez (VP, Marketing and Business Development, NVISION) on optimizing the supply chain. Both agree that its an unpleasant but very necessary part of Marketing Operations. As Liz Miller points out, we live in an era where we have to make every marketing dollar count.
A poorly managed marketing supply chain can have a negative effect on your brand and your budget, says Mike Perez. But companies that have been willing to assess and review the effectiveness and efficiency of their marketing supply chain have seen considerable (20-30 %) savings and an improved time-to-market. Money that is well spent in other areas of marketing, Miller stresses: we need to find every dollar to grow our business and build our brand.
Watch the video below to learn more about marketing supply chain optimization.
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Business process management (BPM) delivers significant benefits to organizations, but some organizations have faced many problems due to wrong turns along the way, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner analysts have identified five BPM threats BPI (business process improvement) leaders need to be mindful of as organizations progress on their BPM initiatives. John Dixon, research director at Gartner, commented:
Considerable attention has been paid to the value of BPM and the dramatic transformation it can bring to an organization, but undertaking BPM isnt easy and BPI leaders and practitioners often stumble along the journey. BPM can be fraught with challenges due to the scale and breadth of skills, attributes and tools needed to be successful. BPM also presents innumerable challenges in areas such as organizational change, measurement systems, communications, business analysis, improvement methodologies and vendor selection.
With this in mind, Gartner has compiled five BPM pitfalls to avoid. Read More
In the world of business, the term silo almost always has negative connotations. It’s typically used to describe a department or other business unit that does not communicate or share common goals with other functional units of the enterprise. Functional silos usually lead to duplicated business processes, a lack of innovation, and the inability to respond quickly and effectively to customer needs and changing marketing conditions. Therefore, silos often result in excessive costs and process inefficiencies, and they can depress revenue growth and profitability.
The silo concept has also been applied to data/information and to information management systems of various kinds. In this context, an information silo is an information management system that does not exchange or share data/information with other technology systems in the same enterprise or, in some cases, with systems used by customers, vendors, or business partners. Information silos are particularly pernicious because they prevent enterprise leaders from getting a complete and holistic view of business issues and business performance. Therefore, information silos contribute to inappropriate decisions. Read More
The company claims it now has over 100 customers using the product. The company also recently doubled the Spark sales team to support the swiftly growing small business channel. Read More
Sometimes its good to remember that marketing while of course a deeply creative profession and a source of operational challenges is about persuading people to buy things. The key to happiness lies in buying this product, advertising tells us, and sometimes we tell ourselves that. While having money does not necessarily make you happy, spending it in the right way can.
Take a look at this lovely infographic by Ravi Iyer, which shows that buying experiences makes people happier than buying products. Going skiing, going to the movies or reading a book is more satisfying than buying new things. So how are you going to spend(!) your free time this weekend? .
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HP knows where youre coming from they didnt just develop a Marketing Resource Management solution, they tried it out on themselves first. Perhaps HP is a bit too forward in claiming they came up with a breakthrough idea, but the results are pretty impressive. After streamlining their marketing processes, they went from 1000 agencies to 300, and from 850 suppliers to 300, achieving a combined savings of a staggering 100 million dollars. Starting with an assessment of bottlenecks and challenges in the marketing supply chain, HP promises to deliver a complete MRM solution. Have a look in the video below.
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Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the Worlds Greatest Companies. Its the brand. Or, to be more specific, a companys brand ideals: the values the brand stands for, and the basis for the consumer to connect with a brand.
Stengel conducted a study of 50.000 brands all over the world and identified a relationship between strong brand ideals and business growth. If a company is able to present a strong and consistent brand image that is associated with positive values, there is a lot of consumer goodwill to be won, which will eventually translate to business growth, according to the author. In addition to the report, he has published what he calls a manifesto, in which he calls for action: business should no longer focus on cold, hard profits, but on brand ideals. Growth will follow: Read More
With the arrival of ever more and ever newer forms of (social) media, the opportunities for brands to communicate their message and position their image increases. But so does the pain for marketers. How do you make yourself heard in the chaos of media messages fired at the consumer every day?
In this presentation, JESS3 co-founder and President, Leslie Bradshaw, shares her insights on how to approach the monumental task of creating around-the-clock content for an always-hungry digital world. Because:
Creating content for brands is a delicate balance between business objectives, creativity and user goals.
The left brain and the right brain, in other words. In order to create and maintain a strong and relevant (online) presence, brands need to think and act like publishers, producing content in the form of blogs, images, infographics, and videos to keep the consumer entertained and interested. From the importance of good design to the employment of your own personal army of copywriters, this presentation outlines the work required for producing great content.
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Obsolete marketing materials constitute a major problem for many companies. The CMO Council has said that obsolescence creates an epidemic of waste that undermines the development of an efficient marketing supply chain. In a recent CMO Council survey:
A waste of Marketing spend
Obsolete materials represent a complete waste of marketing spend. The cost of obsolete materials is essentially an investment in marketing communications that never reach the intended audience. A closet or storeroom or trash container filled with obsolete materials is a visible manifestation of budget funds that could have been used to support productive marketing programs. Read More
