What has been the most significant change in consumer behavior in the last 10 years, and how has it impacted the way you think about marketing and communications?
Rise of social media, and related democratization of news, information, and marketing. Social media enabled brands and individual influencers to have the one-to-one brand conversation marketers dreamed of in the days of mass media. But the downside has been the growth of mis/disinformation, chasing “clicks”, and lack of trust in traditional media and branding.
What do you read, listen to, or watch to keep track of developing issues and consumer dynamics?
Prefer to read than listen or watch because it allows greater control to digest the messages. Regularly read multiple industry newsletters from SmartBrief and MediaPost. Also routinely read NYTimes, WSJ, and The Economist. J. Walker Smith from Kantar Futures is my go-to for all things on consumer trends.
Has there ever been an issue, trend or dynamic that you thought was going to be bigger than it turned out to be?
The metaverse. Perhaps it’s too soon to tell about this one, but a few years ago, this trend seemed to tap into multiple threads – technology, individuality, creativity, escapism. The execution hasn’t yet lived up to the promise.
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Can you give an example of a marketing or communications strategy from a different sector that inspired you at some point during your career?
After spending the first 7 or 8 years of my career in food companies, I was approached to join the global marketing team of what was then Citicorp. I hadn’t considered changing industries, but what inspired me to consider it was then-CEO John Reed’s vision of the bank reaching 1 billion customers worldwide. After working in cereal, where a 1% share was considered a hit, reaching 1 billion customers worldwide was awe-inspiring. Citi never reached that goal for a number of reasons, not least of which was the merger with Travelers Group. But the vision still said something about what Citi wanted to be.
Looking into the future, which fast-moving issues and and consumer dynamics will marketing and communications leaders need to be aware of?
Tribes, truth, and lies. The devolution of communities into tribes may have enhanced people’s commitment to shared senses of purpose and identity, feelings of being connected. But it’s also created stronger barriers between people, and enabled filters for what information people will accept, share, or reject. Tribalism makes brand loyalty more difficult to sustain, because one whiff of negative content – be it real or fake – will sever that loyalty immediately.
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What has been the defining moment of your career, and why?
A piece of work I did early in my career is still one of my most memorable. I was working on developing new cereal brands, and we didn’t have a well-defined innovation strategy at the time, as our division president used to harangue us for regularly. At the same time, Nielsen had developed a product-based category segmentation for the established cereal brands. It was basically a panel-based brand switching analysis showing which brands households tended to purchase together. I was curious how Nielsen’s learning could influence our innovation. We were fortunate to have consumption info internally about all cereal brands.
So I took those consumption demographics, applied Census forecasts to those demos, and forecast which Nielsen segments would grow or contract based on demographic and consumption patters. I then applied our market development to each segment, and recommended which segments we needed to focus our innovation on and which we could exclude. From there, we investigated consumer beliefs and attitudes for those priority segments, and developed new concepts. Out of all that work came Frosted Cheerios, at the time the most successful new cereal on the market in years. I was proud of what we created, but more than that, I was proud of the influence my insights had on our strategy and the impact the work had with our leadership.
What one piece of advice would you share to those starting their career in marketing and communications?
Start with the end in mind. Before I went to business school, I worked for a small consulting firm run by a Wesleyan University professor. He had been a student of R. Buckminster Fuller, and carried Bucky’s principles into our work. And he taught me something Bucky had taught him: envision yourself as an older person, sitting in the rocking chair on your porch perusing your life’s memories. What memories do you want to see? Think about what you want in that scrap book, and then make decisions going forward that will make those memories into reality.
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