Lessons In Retail Marketing From My Daughter’s Birthday Party

It was a Throwback Thursday on Facebook, and the picture that popped up was of my daughter’s seventh birthday.

That year, the jewelry and accessory store Charming Charlie’s had opened in a local shopping center and had captured her imagination. I swear she could hear angels singing when she walked into the store that a friend dubbed the “IKEA of jewelry,” for its low prices, overwhelming product selection, and color-coded simplicity.

So that year, my daughter made an unusual request. She wanted to hold her birthday party at Charming Charlie’s. This is not a birthday party location. They have no seating. No party rooms. No catering packages. It is a retail store. I tried to talk her out of it, but when she was persistent, I thought I’d call the local manager and see about possibilities.

The manager was enthusiastic (although not sure how it would all work), and we started planning the event. She set up a small table in a corner of the store to organize. I limited the guest list and invited some girlfriends to be grownup chaperones. We planned a scavenger hunt around the store, a fashion show (where the girls picked accessories after getting different prompts like “fashion designer” or “your mom”), and we took a lot of pictures.

The girls had fun spending their small gift cards before we headed across the parking lot to a restaurant where dessert was served and “Happy Birthday” was sung.

And the whole experience taught me something about retail and GenZ (which is the emerging generation of my children).

• Shopping is an experience. Retail is a place: My daughter did not understand at all why a retail location couldn’t be an amusement park. She was entertained there and liked the shopping experience so much, she wanted to do it with friends and call it a party. To her, Charming Charlie’s represented an experience. I think that is the future of brand retail. Not just to move product in a location (and trust me, the company benefitted from our party being there that day), but to create a lasting experience and build the brand.

• Shopping is personal and expresses the shopper. Retail is impersonal and reflects the brand: Sure, she is a strong-willed 7-year-old, but my daughter thought the store was there to serve her and her friends. The shopping experience she wanted was a social one. And with some creative maneuvering, that is what we achieved. The store, in fact, was not built for her. And certainly not built for her birthday party. But the shopping experience we orchestrated absolutely was.

Today’s options for shopping and product procurement have never been broader. There are stores you can go to, websites you can visit, apps you can browse, styles you can pin, there are stylists you can hire, pop-up stores to discover, showrooms to browse, appointments with designers to make, and programs you can subscribe to. The choices are endless, and we expect more to come once Uber and Lyft drivers or drones start making package deliveries.

This creates opportunities in retail that cross beyond the brick-and-mortar stores to the full range of customer engagement that is possible. This also creates opportunities for the retail stores to become more experiential, more visual, more engaging--the kind of experience that you can’t have online or on social media.

Perhaps it won’t be long before retailers start offering birthday parties, bridal showers, and other milestone events.

This article was published on CMO.com.

Panel Discussion at SID's Display Week 2016

Left to Right: Paul Apen, Chief Strategy Officer at E Ink Corporation, Greg McNeil, Vice President at Flex, Jennifer Davis, Chief Marketing Officer at Planar/Leyard International, Steve Squires, Chief Executive Officer at Quantum Materials Corporations, Al Green, Chief Executive Officer at Kent Displays, and Sri Peruvemba, Head of Marketing at SID

At SID's Display Week 2016 in San Francisco last week, Jennifer Davis took part on the panel of an Exclusive CMO Forum where industry experts shed light on market trends, solutions for supply chain challenges, industry best practices- and much more. 

How to Package One-Time Events for Permanence (Just Like the NBA)

Recently I heard NBA Commissioner Adam Silver speak about how professional basketball coverage is perishable. Even though games can be streamed days after they are actually played, they rarely are.

Silver said that years ago, games that were played in Los Angeles on Thursday would be played in prime time internationally on Friday, with local commenters creating new wrap-around context for the game, because the final score wasn’t already known globally. That is simply no longer the case.

With the internet, fan apps and feeds, and social media properties, basketball fans can get real-time updates and know the score as the baskets are made. The internet has, once again, revolutionized an industry.

Silver did mention something they have done to fight this trend and keep their content relevant for viewers long after the final score has been posted. He called it “packaging for permanence.” The edited video of game highlights and the coverage of the slam dunk challenge are examples of this.

This same principle and practice can be applied to event-based content for your company. After all, trade shows, product announcements, and grand opening coverage can be just as perishable as a basketball game.

Here are some ways that content marketers can follow the NBA’s lead and package for permanence:

Take photos and videos from the event and use them for general marketing

With all of the preparation that goes into events, companies are often looking their best on event day. Don’t let the moment slip away without making the most of it. Capitalize on your hard work and capture as many photos and videos as you can for later use in your marketing materials.

• Tip: When you post your photos to social media, be sure to include your company logo as a watermark – this will increase brand recognition and provide extra information for viewers who might come across your photo without other context.

Create an infographic (think scoreboard) of the highlights of the event

Want to communicate with your customers and stakeholders quickly and effectively about the event? Use infographics. If your event’s results aren’t quantifiable, you can create a text-based infographic. If you had an event that produced data, use it for an attractive graph or chart that shows the success of your company.

• Tip: If you don’t have a top-notch in-house graphic designer, this is a good time to contract with a gifted expert who can bring the creativity that will make your graphic compelling.

Publish an event recap and send it to customers

Write a news report about the event. Capture the highlights in writing, add some photos, include the infographic if you made one, and send the recap out to your customers and post it online.

• Tip: Less is more. Don’t give in to the temptation to write down all the details or list all the attendees. Keep the newsletter short and sweet and only include the real highlights.

Create a recap video and post it on the company Facebook, Twitter and website so that customers who weren’t there can have an idea of what went on

There are bound to be amazing moments at your live event. Don’t let them perish on the spot. Capture them on video and repackage that video as a recap, a comedy video of a funny moment, a bit of wisdom if something wise was shared at your event, etc.

Each shorter video can be shared on your company’s social media channels and emailed out to customers and stakeholders.

• Tip: If you have enough content to make several short videos, do it. You will get more views, and different clips will appeal to different viewers.

In the world of instant information where events are over as soon as they are over, it is still possible to capture them and extend their shelf life. Plan to package permanence for content marketing success.

This article was posted by The Business Journals.

“I Do Love Fig Newtons”

There is a scene in the movie Talladega Nights, where the race car driver character played by Will Farrell, sells the advertising space on the windshield of his car.  “This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient,” he says. “But I do love Fig Newtons” (the advertiser whose logo was obscuring his views).

What are the Fig Newton ads that you see in the real world?  Ones that cross over the line.  They are everywhere.

Phil Lenger from Show+Tell recently presented at a conference where he showed a picture of advertising gone wild when no one was advocating for the customer or the space in the conversation.  Every single surface of a public market was covered in some kind of messaging or brand language.  How can we ensure that this doesn’t happen in the future?  Is the role of the space owners?  Of government or municipal entities? 

Usually a fan of small government, I think this is an area where governments or public entities need to set and enforce standards based on what the consumers in the community want to experience.  The advertisers don’t have the context to limit themselves.  The space owners have a conflict of interest.  The individual consumers are not powerful enough to set and enforce policy (and the tools that consumers have to use to encourage self-regulation or government intervention, which include organizing rallies, petitions, boycotts, or the like, aren’t very efficient and of marginal effectiveness in a noisy environment with a fickle “news cycle” driven attention span).

Asking the Right Questions

I read recently that we should not ask kids, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Instead, we should ask, “What problems do you want to solve?” This line of questioning promotes thinking about the content of the work and the impact you can have on society.

In the same way that this is a good method to frame things for children, it can also work for executives. I recently reflected on the kind of problems that I strive to solve in my work. Identifying the problems is harder than it would seem.

I could easily identify the activities of my days and even my over-arching objectives, but framing them as problems was a good exercise. Especially because I, like you, consider myself and my company a solution provider, and those who provide solutions must deeply understand the problems they are solving.

These are the problems that I spend my days solving as a marketing executive and product strategist:

Prioritization and Allocation

The challenges of prioritization and allocation of time, energy, and resources to the most important things required for us to grow our business profitably.

Brand and Product

Cracking the code to bring our brand and product offerings to the forefront in the minds of potential buyers and to create identity for our products and harness demand in the market for our products that we can deliver to our sellers globally.

Employees

The problems related to recruiting, retaining, coaching, and celebrating our employees. Talent is at the heart of everything and creating a happy and inspired work environment is key to keeping talented employees a part of your team.

Balance

Solving the balance between my responsibilities in the office (and to our customers, partners, and employees) with my family and with the communities of which we are a part (i.e., the AV community, the business community in all the cities where we have offices, the marketing professional community, our neighborhood, and a group of students and mentors that is served by a local non-profit with which I serve).

What problems are you solving in your role at work? What problems are you solving at home? When you take the time to look at your roles from a different perspective, you might just get your next big idea or at least discover a way to improve your productivity and make your day-to-day more meaningful. We should all be problem solvers first and foremost.

This blog was featured in Women On Business blog. 

The brand formerly known as "Prince": what the rock icon teaches us about branding and legacy

The world said “good bye” to an innovator.  Born Prince Rogers Nelson, the singer, songwriter, and style icon made a mark on the world of music and fashion.

In 1993, Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, something Prince called a “love symbol.”  At the time he was reportedly fed up with his record label, was trying to get out of his contract, and wanted to make a break from the past (according to an interview with Larry King in 1999).  So, he reached out to graphic designer Mitch Monson, with Trollback and Company in Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis, to design a symbol that represented the artist – androgynous, edgy, and whimsical. 

So, as we reflect on the man and his career, what can Prince teach us about branding:

1. The brand does not belong to the company. 
    It belongs to those with a relationship to the brand.

To reproduce the love symbol in print required a special font (which the label had to send out on floppy discs to editors and journalists).  And in the end, most didn’t even try.  The media started referring to him as “the artist formerly known as Prince,” a moniker that stuck.  This became his brand, even after he started using his name again for stage performances and albums.  Even fans, who might have been puzzled by the change, found ways to refer to him.  This is a lesson for marketers who think they can control their brand.  The brand is truly owned by those who interact with the company, it’s employees, it’s products, and in the end, build both a logical and emotional connection.  The best we can do as leaders and brand managers is to influence how people perceive the brand by putting ourselves in their shoes and advocating for what they need.

2. There is power in color

The artist solidified his relationship with the iconic purple shade with his very popular “Purple Rain” album and movie.  In memorials all over the world this week, the color purple has been featured prominently.  It reminds me that in the world of marketing, which is now dominated by data analysis and ROI discussions, that there are some basics that can’t be ignored and one is the power of color.  McDonald’s red and orange, Coca-Cola’s red, IKEA’s blue and yellow, Facebook blue, Amazon’s orange smile (smirk?), John Deere green, Crown Royal’s velvet purple, and many other brand color associations are very strong and help propel the brand’s expansion into new markets and offerings.   Most people don’t have a signature color, but when we think of branding, having a distinctive color way is part of what the leading brands and artists rely on to communicate what they want their brand to stand for.  Purple was perfect for Prince’s brand, as it speaks to royalty, creativity, and the spiritual.  A few years ago, Fast Company published an exceptional article about the impact of color on brand that is worth reading.

3. Brand building involves risk

It is said that his record sales after the name change fell precipitously, but he secured his place as an eccentric and passionate artist who was forging his own path.  Other leading brands have reinvented themselves over the years, to emerge stronger and more engaged with their users, but that isn’t without pain in the process.  I think of what Netflix did with their DVD customers when they moved the brand to streaming and rebranded it’s DVD service as “Qwikster” (a brand they have since shuttered.  We can all think of other rebranding, packaging design, or logo design blunders.  But those who live through the transition (and don’t change for change sake), can reap rewards.

And perhaps the most important thing that Prince taught us about branding this week, is that brands are a legacy.  They have value.  They spark emotion.  They are celebrated and mourned.  And, no matter what tragedy strikes, they live on.

This article was posted on LinkedIn Pulse. 

In the News

Jennifer Davis was quoted in an article by DailyDOOH.

An Icon as a Metaphor

Who designed the now ubiquitous wireless logo?  The one with three curved bars above a dot.  You know the one.  Someone surely was the first to sit down in Illustrator or with a pen and paper and draw out the picture.  The ones that the world now uses.  One of our most powerful and universal icons and it’s anonymous and unowned.  Perhaps that is a metaphor for some of the new, powerful technologies and ideas that will be as disruptive as wireless internet.

Connectivity is the New Electricity

Without power the economy and our civilization as we know it falls apart.  This is why wide scale power outages are always part of the plot of post-apocalyptic movies and strike fear into our hearts.

But now, connectivity is our new electricity.  We simply do not accept that we will not have connectivity.  I just texted pictures from on top of the Great Wall of China.  

In the News

Jennifer Davis' promotion was covered by AV Network. 

In the News

Jennifer was listed in the "People on the Move" section of the February 26, 2016 edition of Portland Business Journal. 

The Audience Business

“We must shift from an asset business to an audience business.” – AdNews, November 2nd, 2015

Advertising networks, like those with ad spots or billboard locations to sell, have long been an inventory business.  More inventory (thus, the invention of the 22 minute TV show) and higher value inventory (ie, Times Square billboard) has been the recipe for growth.  But in today’s multi-channel world with mobile and multi-tasking consumers, it may be less about inventory than it is about audiences.  They may be able to quantify how many people walk through Picadilly Circus each day or would pump gas at a particular gas station during a particular month, but those aren’t audiences.  Those are statistics.

In the News

Jennifer was interviewed by rAVe at the Integrated Systems Europe tradeshow. 

In the News

Jennifer was quoted in a press release announcing Planar's new PlanarView™ Visualization App.

Digital is the new electricity

It’s in the background.  Always on.  Always flowing.  Taken for granted.  Doesn’t need to be mentioned.

Digital marketing is just marketing.

Digital Out of Home (DOOH) advertising is just advertising.

Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality might just be…reality.

Marketing to Today’s “Super-Hero” Customer

A lot has been written about consumer-centric marketing in recent years.  The desire to provide relevant content and position the brand in the context of that value.  Seth Godin’s permission marketing principles.  The move to personalization.  The emotional attachment that brands should create for their customers.  Across all communication channels and at every customer touch point.

Today’s empowered consumer doesn’t just want to be educated.  They don’t just want to be engaged.  Frankly, they want to be super heroes.  They want to be the heroes of their own story and the brands they choose reinforce this perspective. They want to call a car whenever they need it, like the Batmobile, and the adoption of Uber and Lyft is evidence that the on-demand concept is appealing.  They want to have their whims indulged.  They want their news personalized and curated.  They want to keep up with friends of their choosing.

As marketers we have a responsibility to build the customer experience into the core of our company’s DNAs and into every medium or channel through which we communicate. So, how can customers be granted super powers in our marketing? 

First and foremost, today’s buyers must remain in control.  Our terms of service, privacy policies, product quality, production practices, and priorities must align with what customers want.  We start with our integrity when building trust.  I know that many customers might relinquish control without a second thought, but it’s our job not to let them do themselves harm. 

Secondly, we create opportunities for customers to have power on a scale that they couldn’t have without us.  Today’s savvy consumers are impressed with nothing less than super human strength and the ability to fly.  They want to see their name on a can of Coca-Cola.  We help them place a message on a personalized M&M.  We can put their picture on a billboard in Times Square.  We can put a mark on the world.  One that is unique to them. 

This can be part of the product or service we are selling or it can it be something we do in our marketing.  The distinction between the two is blurring and so is the customer’s experience of the brand across all the touchpoints, so marketing has a leadership responsibility.  For instance, the new iPhone camera takes beautiful, high resolution photos and video.  Why not build on the out-of-home ad campaign we have seen where photographs from iPhone users are printed on subway signs and billboards with the caption “taken with an iPhone” by creating a YouTube/Vimeo/Flickr style platform for sharing videos and photos taken with iPhones and have those images featured on the Apple site, social media, and digital billboards and in homes as an Apple TV screen saver? 

Next, we can connect customers visibly within the community.  We can give them something to brag about and some connection to their idols and friends.  It starts with sharing features, but goes beyond that.  We as market leading brands need to make our consumer constituents heros among their peers.  We can provide customers street credibility or expand their influence.  It’s the Apple sticker in the Macintosh boxes on Volkswagens across the country or the look of a teenager wearing Beats headphones by Dr. Dre around his neck.  I see this as a gap in store and airline loyalty programs.  Members with elite status aren’t given rewards that are visible to the community of other shoppers or guests that undoubtedly share other circles of influence.

It is also a limitation with the nearly ubiquitous category of hybrid cars.  Imagine hybrid cars connected with a gamification system that allows one driver to compete with others for fuel efficiency.  Similar to how FitBit users can track steps on a leader board.  Imagine how many more fuel efficient cars would be sold with this kind of gamification?

Consumer fashion brands do this well by offering sponsorships or free product to highly influential individuals, but could that scale to something that other brands could do even if they don’t have a celebrity endorsement program or a full-scale newsroom?  I imagine so, if we were creative in our marketing.

Lastly, we can give customers a mission.  As marketers, we give our customers an opportunity to be involved in greater causes and the power to benefit others with their super powers.  This is what Whole Foods has done with the wooden nickels for “bring your own bag” rewards or Starbucks involvement in (Red).  You could allow customers to donate a perks to non-profits of their choice.  Loyal customers could be allowed to pick charitable giving campaigns from their favorite brands.  Customers could donate their photos from their Hawaii vacation to be featured in the advertising or on the website of the visitor’s bureau for the State. At Planar Systems we recently offered our customers and employees an opportunity to participate in a fun run in Portland, to benefit a local alternative high school.  This example of the “do well, by doing good” approach which is growing in importance and influence among our customers.

With a purposeful emphasis on integrity, giving users power, community connections, and missional marketing, we can transform our customers into the super heroes that will not only show us loyalty, but will attract others to us.

This article was published on Frost & Sullivan's Digital Marketing e-Bulletin. 

Why CMOs Should Drive Product Strategy

When my company reorganized several years ago, we went from a business unit structure to a functional organization, and I was considered for a position that would run marketing as a member of the executive team.

As part of those discussions, I negotiated to have the role include both traditional marketing functions, such as advertising, PR, events, and sales tool development, but also product strategy in the form of product management and road map planning. Why? I had three reasons:  

1. MarCom Is A Pink Ghetto
As a female executive, I was sensitive--sensitive to my observations and the reputation that marketing (and human resources, by the way) had of being places where women got stuck in their careers. Careers focused in these areas resulted in professionals who were often pigeon-holed and excluded from real participation in the business strategy.

I am not sure who coined the phrase, but I had heard it applies here: the pink ghetto. It's a place where women are seen as a support function for other more “important” roles, such as sales, finance, or R&D--roles typically held by men, at least in the technology industry. I didn’t want to get stuck and had worked throughout my career to gain broad experience that made me a better business person, not just a better marketer.

In my role, which combines both go-to-market and market requirements, I have broad impact on the company, and my team is able to impact the direction of the business overall.

2. Marketing Is The Center Of The Hub
Being responsible for products, I am at the center of creative ideas and cleverness. I get to work closely with R&D to determine what can be done and the relevant and high-value applications of technology. I get to work closely with the sales team to determine how to aim them and equip them to capture the market potential of new offerings. My team and I get to be in the center of the hub and are tasked with combining what can be done with what should be done to create new possibilities for the company.

3. Customer Empathy Runs Deep
True innovations are grounded in customer empathy. Understanding the customer problems is the foundation of “solutions,” which companies are so anxious to talk about but execute so poorly. And that customer understanding not only affects the products we bring to market, but how we market them.

This may involve creating sales tools that require a deep understanding of the product in order to simplify the customer experience and accelerate the buying process. Without responsibility for both the product road map and marketing communications, this connection would be more difficult to make and would cause “marketing” to be less strategic and more reactive, instead of leading the charge of innovation in the marketplace.

This article was posted on CMO.com.

Turning Your Marketing Team in Data Wonks

Marketing ROI has never been sexier… or more possible.

With today’s data analytics, digital marketing spend, and marketing automation systems, the opportunities are ripe for changing the ways that we approach marketing and its management.

Direct marketing professionals are ahead of the trends here, having focused on response rates, revenue generation, and list management long before these things rose to their current level of popularity.

See Also

• How to be a champion of data-driven decision-making
• Business Analytics: How small businesses can use 'big data' (Part 1)
• Why big data analytics is no longer just for big companies

There are new positions showing up in marketing organizations to address this need, ranging from marketing operations managers to marketing data scientists. CEOs across industries are now learning a whole new set of acronyms (like SEO and SQL) as the CMO and CIO are working more closely together.

This change has very real implications for the marketing organization overall. People who were attracted to marketing and have performed exceptionally well in their previous roles might make a smooth transition to the new world of data accountability.

Here are three ways to help:

Demystify Data

Wanting to make data-driven decisions is all well and good, but if the data that would drive those decisions are not easily accessible, then the effort is for naught. Make sure that the metrics you want to see are available to your team.

This requires the insight to be in data form (that is, systems and report structures in place) and for the team who needs the data to have permissions to access it. I have heard of organizations where the marketing organization wanted to measure lead-to-opportunity conversions, but didn’t have access to the CRM system from which this data might be pulled.

This article was published in the Puget Sound Business Journal, Denver Business Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal, as well as other American City Business Journals.

The Old Way of Marketing

Modern buyers are allergic to the old ways of marketing.  The unsolicited emails, direct mail, the interruption-based advertising.  If not allergic, then they are immune.  In any case, the old ways don’t work anymore.  And we must find a new way.

The Art Of Marketing Marketing

Many companies devalue marketing, considering it the department that makes pretty pictures or the administrative support for the sales team.  Others strongly value the strategic involvement of marketing in product strategy, branding, strategic planning, and industry leadership.  I am blessed to work for an organization that models the latter, but I certainly am familiar with the former.

This topic is a big one (worthy of more than one post).  To get the conversation started, here are four key questions that you can ask yourself to help you answer the question of how to market marketing in your organization.

1. Can you express your motivation for wanting to market marketing in terms of overall business results?

Do you think that investing in a marketing automation system and nurturing campaigns will generate 20 percent more revenue next year?  Do you believe that improving the brand consistency across the organization will lead to higher customer perception of quality and improve gross margins by 2 percent for the next product launch?  Do you believe that developing a new interactive platform for sharing product benefits with your sales channel will reduce the sales cycle by two months resulting in a 13 percent increase in revenue with the same effort?  These are the types of questions you should be asking, when you are thinking of advocating for anything in a business environment.

If you don’t know how to answer these questions, it could be an indication that you are not yet ready to advocate for a larger and more impactful role for marketing in your company … and that you should get ready.  That in itself should be a call to action to learn more about your business, your drivers of value in the market, your customer problems, your solutions, and overall business strategy … and how score is kept financially.

2. What is the perception of your brand and that of “marketing” in your organization? What should it be?  What is the gap?

Before you would embark on a brand-building campaign, you would always begin with data to identify the “as is” state and to quantify the “to be” state.  And to identify the gap between these states.  Often this is accomplished with surveys, voice of the customer, share of voice analysis, or other tools.  Why not do the same thing within your organization to gauge how far away the organization is from what you envision as the ideal?

It is also important to know whether your brand is strong enough in the organization to lead that charge. What are you known for in the organization?  Why do people come to you?  Does that align with what you need it to be to advocate the change you are advocating?  What can you do to change the perception and reputation?

3. What “marketing” does your customer really need?

This should probably be the first question, as anything (besides that which is required for regulatory, legal, or financial compliance) that isn’t seen and appreciated by customers, probably isn’t worth doing.  It is the definition of waste and the hallmark of bureaucracy.  But coming back to my point, what value does the customer perceive in the marketing you do?

Are they able to make better and faster decisions because of their access to technical information?  Are your resellers able to sell more because of the sales tools you provide?  Are they able to reduce their costs with more accurate quoting resources?  Are they able to achieve business results because of the value proposition of the products you provide?

Some service firms have found that dedicated sales and marketing staff is not nearly as effective as sending their consultants right out to their clients to share expertise directly and wet their appetite for more (a topic covered extensively in Patrick Lencioni’s book Getting Naked).  Some technical engineering firms, website developers, or agencies find that their engineering teams are best equipped to sell and market to their technical buyers and that all that is needed from marketing is some communication tools to help facilitate these conversations. Each business will be different.

4. What is the winning formula that is worth repeating?

Like any system, it is important to look at inputs and outputs.  If you want to answer questions 1-3, a good place to start is your wins.  What are some situations that have gone well that you think are worthy of replication?  Go back and analyze a big order, a design win, or project award and ask everyone involved how it came to be, the touch points with the organization, what sales tools or marketing resources were used, and what made the difference.  There is no sense automating or “improving the efficiency” of things that are not effective.

Photo Credit: DRivers@WorldLaw via Compfight cc

This article was published on the TalentCulture blog.