The MASB organization is now getting back to work after being consumed by the Summer Summit. It was worth it! The Summit was very successful. I’d like to give our many thanks to our hosts at the DePaul Kellstadt Graduate School, who enabled us to gather right in the center of Chicago, and to our presenters and panelists. Congratulations to this year’s winner of the Joe Plummer MASB Trailblazer award, Bobby Calder, and to Brand Finance, presented with MASB audit certification.
As usual, and perhaps more so than usual, the Summit stood out for the very high level of attendee discussion and engagement. I think every single person there contributed to the debate around Marketing Opportunities in the Era of Uncertainty.
Many areas of uncertainty were highlighted:
- Marketing’s uncertainty – Dave Stewart set the scene with data that shows that marketing has reached new lows in accountability and in credibility with the CEO and the Board. Many iconic brands, such as Disney are struggling. The big ad agencies are suffering. Companies are in a state of suspended animation this summer, waiting to see what will happen. No-one is spending.
- AI disruption – Creativity pushed aside at Cannes, in favor of Big Tech and influencers. As Jay Milliken from Prophet put it, rapid acceleration in AI is rewiring rules for relevance, content and customer expectations. MASB’s Universal Marketing Dictionary has been hit by an “AI apocalypse.”
- Education’s uncertainty – Sue Fogel, head of DePaul’s marketing department emphasized the tremendous uncertainty that universities face now, not only international student visas being threatened, which impacts the bottom line, but moves towards dictating what they teach and a growing disdain for higher education amongst some of the population.
- Volatility – J. Walker-Smith’s gripping presentation began with the dramatic increase in volatility since the turn of the century; Y2K, the dotcom bust, global terrorism, the iPhone, the financial crisis, 15 years of global protest, the pandemic and the emergence of hybrid lifestyles, populist movements high jacking politics, wars in Ukraine and the Middle Ease.
- A new world view – Record levels of anxiety among GenZ, especially girls. The importance of mental health. And, a selfward shift. Consumers increasingly say that priorities are things about me, not saving the world. A yearning for predictability. But for marketing, uncertainty creates opportunity. People want change, they are open to new things, new ideas, new brands.
Here are ten of the opportunities that came up:
1. Demonstrate marketing’s financial impact. We need MASB more and more. Focus on revenue, that’s all CEOs care about, someone said. Someone suggested applying marketing KPIs to strategy. But the KPIs must be ones that senior executives relate to. No marketing speak. You have to make the soft side hard. Show what marketing is doing that is contributing to the financial outcome of the business.
2. Educate marketers. As Jim Meier emphasized, the incompetence of CMOs is part of the problem. As more financial assets are intangibles, as Brand Finance demonstrated, the CMO has the most control over the important assets that aren’t on the balance sheet. The chief asset steward should be the CMO. Is it? No. To manage them properly would require the CMO to understand the business. “And those CMOs haven’t got a clue.” We need to educate the marketing department to speak the same language as the rest of the organization, employ the same rigor, get everyone to understand that marketing is fundamental to driving growth.
3. Invest in marketing and innovation. Jim demonstrated how “old” brands can survive in the current environment with two contrasting examples. Procter & Gamble vs. Kraft Heinz and Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper. Kraft Heinz and Pepsi’s woes can be directly attributed to stripping back their marketing spend. Zero based budgeting eviscerates a marketing budget. Prophet found that ‘uncommon growth’ companies spend 3x as much as other companies on sales and marketing.
4. Invest in innovation. Balance tradition with innovation. As Bernard Arnault insists, brands must have ‘one foot in the past and one in the future. Apple and P&G understand about innovating. Hostess, as Eric Yoch said, became a turnaround that had to be rescued because it stopped innovating. Kraft Heinz and Pepsi not only stopped investing in marketing, but they also stopped innovating.
5. Be obsessed with customers. Prophet’s ‘uncommon growth’ companies build their brands around knowing their customers and what’s relevant to them. They also understand the importance of culture, the development of employer brands that meet GenZ’s higher expectations. Prophet’s new version of a customer funnel was widely debated. No-one has replaced the traditional funnel. An opportunity for MASB.
6. Put AI to positive use. Sunstar marketing sees AI as a huge opportunity. Customers are looking to Sunstar to integrate AI and provide what they need in a faster and more organized fashion. INTA sees that AI can be used to: better protect trade secrets, increase the speed of underwriting, make it possible for companies to conduct more accurate brand valuations faster, and communicate this to the C-Suite with up-to-date data. The audience saw “a huge opportunity to use AI to create general rules of thumb where none exist today,” for example for acquisition vs. loyalty cost for different industries or segments, as discussed in Bern Skier’s presentation on “New vs. existing customers.”
7. Localization and personalization. The panel sees this application of AI as truly beneficial for marketing. Helena spoke about a dog adoption agency that is updating information real time in shopping malls, Sponsorium about tailoring sponsorship programs to different clientele, ages and locations, Eric about a quantitative research study he launched before he went to bed and had the answers when he got up in the morning, others about multiple opportunities in healthcare.
8. Address new needs. A major opportunity brought up by J. Walker-Smith. Brands can help people cope with the volatile world around them, by improving their sense of well-being—comfort by stressing how boring and predictable they are, empathy, by offering mood management products. They can address demographic change—products for smaller households and the growing 65+ population, which has all the money. They can give time back, by making life easier, fixing customer service problems.
9. Find new sub-categories. David Aaker’s answer to disruption is for brands to create a game-changing new subcategory that is defined by “must-haves.” They must use insights and vision to find them, adopt challenger personalities, emphasize the ‘must-haves’ and create barriers to competition.
10. Manage Strategic Risk. Mark Frigo and Bobby Calder gave us both theory and an example. The idea? Apply risk management framework which tests multiple scenarios for risk outcomes, is integrated across functions, leads with purpose and fulfilling customer needs and which he has shown results in superior ROI, disciplined growth and superior shareholder value creation. Bobby followed Mark’s framework with a very entertaining discussion of the Totoaba, an ancient Mexican fish as an illustration of how to connect corporate strategy with brand purpose and how to mitigate a strategy to avoid risk.
For the many who couldn’t attend, due to academic terms starting early, summer vacations, school holidays and illness, I hope this gives you a good idea of the Summer Summit. I urge you to download the presentations from the MASB website.
We’re reviewing the timing for the next Summit. We know it won’t be in August! This Summit was focused on uncertainty and brand. The next one will tackle hard challenges of data and measurement and applying AI.
Joanna Seddon
MASB CEO