The core responsibility of any marketer is to maintain, sustain and build the strength of their brand. The discontinuation of a brand, then, is the ultimate failure. We’ve seen the demise of some once-iconic brands in the recent past.
Lehman Brothers, once a major force in corporate finance, is no more. The Pontiac brand of cars is on its way out. Compaq computers – the pioneers of portable computing – absorbed into HP. Airline brands seem to come and go with alarming frequency – alarming, that is, if you rely on them for safe transport.
So what will become of BP? Retailers carrying the BP brand try to deflect the negative public sentiment toward the oil giant by saying they aren’t part of the BP corporate entity. They also claim that BP gets only a tiny benefit from any sale of their gasoline. I am skeptical that the buying public is going to ignore the signage of a gas station based on these arguments.
Previous versions of “The SIG Chronicles” described my experiences that led to my chairing the Healthcare SIG. This edition covers my attempts to get a handle on what the group needed to accomplish as I took on this responsibility.
Title: February Big Game Ad Review Luncheon Location: BOMA Link out: Click here Description: Each year, the finest marketing minds in central Ohio converge to review, rate, discuss and laugh at the best and worst commercials from the one big game (that we shall not mention for fear of legal action.) It’s the biggest TV ad day of the year and we promise the commentary and company will be worth the price of admission!
This must-attend luncheon will be moderated by the incomparable Artie Isaac and will feature a panel of industry experts, so come see what the greatest advertising minds have in store for us this year! Start Time: 11:30 Date: 2010-02-09 End Time: 13:00
Chelsea Hamilton, the Field Marketing Communications/PR Manager for Bob Evans, spoke at the Columbus AMA January Luncheon at BoMA held on January 14. The title of her talk was “Digital Marketing Down on the Farm.”
Bob Evans Restaurants core customers are 65+ and it’s “down on the farm” feel doesn’t give it a modern vibe at all. But they’ve embraced the 21st century and are using digital marketing to make it all happen. Chelsea talked about how Bob Evans has gone digital without losing its core values. In fact, its authenticity provides a strong base from which to launch communications using social media. They really want people to get to know the company and digital media speaks to alot of people who are new to Bob Evans. Using social media allows a level of engagement that communicates the qualities of the brand very effectively.
The Columbus AMA’s Community Relations Committee is dedicated to helping non-profit organizations developing winning marketing strategies. If you need our assistance, please contact us for an interview at: communityrelations@columbusama.org.
Fear has played a major role in the current recession and affected many industries. The healthcare industry is not immune to reacting to fear, especially Fortune 500 company, Abbott Nutrition. Columbus AMA President, Nick Iannitto, spoke with Kevin Garleb, Director of the Abbott Nutrition Health Institute at the Columbus AMA November luncheon about how fear plays into marketing health marketing products. What do you think? We’d love to know.
Do you think the biosciences market holds no opportunity for your company’s products or services? You might be surprised.
From the 2008 Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)-sponsored Battelle Memorial Institute Report, biosciences comprise agricultural feedstock & chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices & equipment and research, testing & medical laboratories. In 2006, employment stood at 1.3 million with the total employment impact of the biosciences sector reaching 7.5 million jobs. Further, these data demonstrated the biosciences sector still outperforms the total private sector in terms of employment (5.7% biosciences employment vs 3.1%.)
BIO reports that publicly traded biotechnology companies’ total value reached $360 billion as of late April 2008 and those companies spent $27.1 billion on research & development in 2006.
Think you need a scientific background to target this market for your goods or services?
You might be surprised. For example, do you sell packaging? Cardboard boxes? Dry ice? Is your business overnight shipping?
Biotechnology laboratories receive near-daily overnight shipments of reagents, consumables, etc. in cardboard boxes with much of their orders packed in dry ice.
With all of those scientists unpacking their orders, there are plenty of co-marketing opportunities.
Further, the scientists themselves are worth closer examination. Again from the Battelle report, the biosciences sector pays their workers an average annual salary of $71,000 compared to the private sector’s $42,000 annual salary.
These workers tend to be highly skilled residents of larger metropolitan areas, often on the east and west coasts of the country.
From a general marketing perspective, the biosciences sector may seem off the beaten path but opportunities exist for the savvy marketing professional.
Wish you could read the minds of your latest market research participants?
Some of the latest research into the human mind may allow you to do just that. By combining brain scans with pattern-detection software neuroscientists now have a window into the human brain.
Called neural decoding, over the last several years, researchers have been able to use patterns in brain activity to successfully predict what pictures subjects are viewing, their location in a virtual environment and what decisions they are poised to make. At the recent Society of Neuroscience meeting in Chicago, scientists Jack Gallant and Shinji Nishimoto demonstrated that they could recreate moving images that volunteers were viewing and make guesses to what they were remembering.
How does neural decoding work? In Gallant and Nishimoto’s research, they mapped different patterns of activity in the visual cortex through brain scanning in study participants while they watched movies. A computer program then mapped different visual aspects of movies, such as shape, color, and movement. The program was fed more than 200 days worth of YouTube video clips to help program predictions for brain activity that each clip would produce in a viewer. When the participants then watched another movie while being scanned, the computer picked YouTube clips it predicted would create similar brain activity (as what was being recorded by participants) and merged these clips. The result: crude, blurry footage of a movie that the person was actually watching.
Other researches presented data showing that neural decoding could be used to read memories, future decisions and even to diagnose eating disorders. In research done by John-Dylan Haynes and colleague Ida Momennejad, they were able to use brain scans to predict intentions in subjects planning and performing simple tasks. While other researcher could predict which nouns, for example ‘celery’ or ‘airplane’, a subject was thinking.
Of course technology that could give such intimate details into information that you only you are thinking and could know is raising ethical concerns. Of specific concern is that advertisers, the government, or our employers might exploit this technology. Fortunately, neural decoding is currently limited in its abilities and applications. It only works if someone’s brain has already been scanned multiple times under very specific and controlled circumstances. However, if practical implications become more than just a figment of our imaginations – or brain activitiy – the ethical concerns should be considered now. We need to carefully consider what the technology can and cannot do and how it can be put to best use. For example, if the technology comes to fruition, we may be able to decode the thoughts of patients with neurodegenerative diseases, but we may also be able to deny employment based on an employee’s thoughts.
So, about mind reading the thoughts and decision process of your likely customer – for now, market research is still the most reliable way to gain information about a product or its newest advertising campaign, but maybe someday, all we will need are a few brain scans and the latest neural decoding software.
Want to know more, please check out these links about neural decoding and brain imaging:
