Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications (JIMC)

Northwestern University's graduate student-run Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) featuring articles by leading IMC professionals on topic concerning issues or opportunities facing the industry.

1. JIMC
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0
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2. 2
Journal of Integrated
Marketing Communications
Copyright © 2016 by Medill,
Northwestern University
All rights reserved.

3. Letter from the Editor
Foreword
The Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications (JIMC) provides a bridge between the
academic world and the day-to-day uses of concepts and tools. This year’s version explores
several ideas from Northwestern University’s Integrated Marketing Communication curriculum.
The team of graduate students who worked on the journal this year have done an outstanding
job of finding both academics and practitioners to describe what’s new and how to apply it. For
12 months, these students have worked together to produce this journal. In addition to finding
articles, they edit, design and produce a work product that represents what the school is all
about: quality, curiosity and creativity. On behalf of the team, we hope you will enjoy reading it.
Frank Mulhern, Ph.D.
Professor, Associate Dean & Department Chair
Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor
Medill IMC Department
Northwestern University
Nancy Hobor
Senior Lecturer & Faculty Advisor
Medill IMC Department
Northwestern University
Greetings and welcome to the 2017 issue of JIMC! This journal is a culmination of the diligent
work of a student team in Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) graduate program
at Northwestern and insightful articles from industry and academic professionals with extensive
understanding and experience in the IMC field.
JIMC is made up of associate editors who assist authors in the writing process and a leadership
team that reviews the articles in effort to identify a common thread across the wide array of
topics, industries, and perspectives. Some common concepts were: technological evolution,
cultural and digital engagement, and brand expansion. These words were indicative of what
is a constant factor in IMC — change. But how will IMC practitioners address this ever-present
reality? Answer: Innovation.
Introducing the 2017 theme: “JIMC in an Innovative World”
In the spirit of innovation, this year’s journal introduces the “Purple Pages,” with articles written
by Northwestern alumni, as well as a dedicated “Northwestern” section to display IMC faculty
articles and research. It is my hope that this spirit enlightens and motivates you about the growing
opportunities in the field of IMC.
A very special thanks to: Frank Mulhern, Nancy Hobor, and Robin Young. JIMC Leadership Team:
Roberta Pedotto, Paul Fourçans, Elizabeth Fontana, and Anna Klutho; the associate editors and
our esteemed authors. Your tireless hard work and dedication to making the 2017 edition of JIMC
a success is greatly appreciated.
With warmest thanks,
LaVern Thomas
Editor in Chief
Copyright © 2016 by Medill,
Northwestern University
All rights reserved.

4. Medill’s Approach to IMC
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a strategic approach through which
organizations drive performance by engaging, serving and communicating with customers and
other stakeholders.
IMC combines qualitative understanding of consumers with large-scale analytics to develop
communications and content that build and maintain strong brands. Grounded in advertising,
IMC has emerged as the premier way for organizations to manage customer experiences in the
digital age.
JIMC
advisory board
Jonathan Blum
Senior Vice President
Chief Public Affairs and Global Nutrition
Officer
Yum! Brands, Inc.
Clarke A. Caywood, Ph.D.
Professor
Medill IMC Department
Northwestern University
Sara Webber Laczo
Senior Director
Corporate Communications
McGladrey
Jack Modzelewski
President of the Americas & Senior
Partner
FleishmanHillard
Joe Woodard
Manager
Analytics
Jet.com
Andy Bosman
Principal
National Marketing and Sales Leader
McGladrey
David Grossman
Founder & CEO
The Grossman Group
Emily London
Manager
People Advisory Services
Ernst & Young
Elisabeth Ritz
Founder & President
Ritz Communications
Jane Flis
Associate Director of Digital Marketing
Medill, Northwestern University

5. Lynn
Pedotto
EDITORIAL
DIRECTOR
Before pursuing her
graduate degree at Medill,
Lynn worked as a freelance
content creator, publicist
and social media manager
for various authors,
entrepreneurs, and small
business owners. She
holds a bachelor’s degree
in history and Spanish from
Presbyterian College.
At Medill, Lynn is
concentrating in content
strategy and public
relations.
JIMC
leadership team
LaVern
Thomas
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Prior to Northwestern, LaVern
worked as an adjunct faculty
at DePaul University teaching
mixed media and ESL writing,
executive editor for The Hip
Hop Democrat, and currently
serves in leadership positions
on two non-for-profits
assisting with marketing
and fundraising campaigns.
LaVern holds a MA in Writing,
Rhetoric, and Discourse and
a BA in History from DePaul
University.
Anna
Klutho
COPY EDITOR
Anna worked as a content
and communications
coordinator for an executive
leadership events company.
Prior, she was a marketing
strategy intern with Disney
Vacation Club. She holds
a bachelors in business
administration (marketing)
from Seattle University.
Liz
Fontana
PR DIRECTOR
Liz worked for a SEO
marketing agency in which
she optimized websites
and improved natural
organic search results.
Prior to that, she managed
the social and digital
campaign for a Tallahassee
hospital. She holds her
bachelor’s in marketing
and communications from
Florida State University. At
Medill is concentrating in
brand strategy and digital
Paul
Fourçans
CREATIVE
DIRECTOR
Before coming to
Northwestern University
to pursue a M.S. degree
in Integrated Marketing
Communications,
Paul received his B.A.
in Marketing and
Communication from
the Ecole Française des
Attachés de Presse in Paris,
France. Paul started his first
company when he was 21,
ACID for Clothes, which he
still runs today.

6. JIMC
associate editors

7. Brit’ney
McTush
Allison
Chen
Sonam
Roteria
Alison
Golensky
Smriti
Khanna
Ruben
Bravo
Chinye
Osamusali
Christina
Dreher
Peishan
Ouyang
Mariana
Arana
Lindsay
Menk
Joseph
Macdougall
Jessse
Daniels
Sharon
Liao
Liang
Liu
Marissa
Pederson
Megha
Ghildiyal
Natasha
Smith
Qiulin
Peng
Olavina
Harahap
Yudi
Gao
Rebecca
Yeng
Euphonia
Xu
Sunny
Yu Wang
JIMC
associate editors
Sakhile
Richards

8. What Is IMC?
Alice Marder
So Your Bull’s-Eye
Consumer Tweeted
at Your Brand.
Now What?
Joe Sargent
Driving Business with a
Consistent Brand
Charlie Chen
10 12 13
From The Funnel to Dual
Buckets: Rethinking Our
Campaign Objectives
Frank Wong
Decoding the
Millennial Enigma
Amanda Slavin
Personal Branding &
What It Means in 2016
Jeff Willinger
14 15 16
The Importance of
Innovation in Elevating
Brand Relevance
Shari Matras
Transforming into an
Analytical Organization
José Antonio Murillo Garza
Telling a Memorable
Story with Your Data
Cyndi Greenglass
17 19 20
Authenticity, Democratization of Information and
the Changing Nature of Influence
Jake O’Leary & Smriti Khanna
22

9. Table of
Contents
The Importance
of Social Media for
Brands
Matt Augustin
Personalized Marketing
@ Scale
Abhishek Jadon
The Influence of
Influencer Marketing
Tara Chang
23 24 25
Platform Businesses
“Float Costs,”
Consumers
Run Businesses
Tony Poidomani
Brand-Driven
Innovation
Ariel Goldfarb
An Exploration of
Online Customer
Reviews
IMC SRC
27 28 30
A Non-Writer’s
Guide to
Storytelling
Kirsten Longnecker
Public Relations Means
Business
Dr. Matthew W. Ragas
A Brief Look at the
State of PR in Mexico
Olga Oro Coppel
33 34 35
Don’t Panic, Plan
Stephanie Kneisler &
Therese Van Ryne
Preparing Your CEO for the
Role of Senior Statesman
Marjorie Benzkofer
Speaking the Millennial
Language
Andrea Sanchez Ferro
36 37 38

10. 10
1. Communicated the core value that
Cars.com and our suite of solutions
delivers to customers
2. Drove traffic and “staying power” to
our booth and other Cars.com hosted
events
3. Cut through the vendor clutter
4. Elevated our brand position as the
automotive industry’s digital marketing
leader
The overall campaign goal was to position
ourselves as an innovator and leader in the space.
Expressed through a campaign thematic called
Dominate Digit@l, the core message was that
when it comes to car buying, Cars.com is the only
way dealers can dominate the conversation, dominate the
short list and dominate sales.
5. CROSS-FUNCTIONAL
INVOLVEMENT
Cross-functional buy-in, commitment
and resources was needed to successfully execute
the strategy. With support from the product,
operations and sales teams, we accelerated the
development and launch of two brand-new,
groundbreaking products, which led to record
in-booth sales.
The team succeeded in owning Dominate
Digit@l from all angles with a highly promoted
appointment setting contest, insights-driven
content, innovative paid and social media,
advertising, PR and direct marketing. Dealers
also enjoyed in-booth amenities and relaxed at
our customer appreciation event. This theme
acted as the cohesive thread connecting all of
our marketing efforts with an intricate plan
reaching dealers before, during and after NADA.
6. EVALUATING RESULTS
Cars.com succeeded in dominating
NADA and San Francisco. The results connected
back to our business objectives, far exceeded all
expectations and set revenue records! This was
all done in a truly integrated and collaborative
fashion as one team with one goal.
What Is IMC?
Alice Marder
imc
Edited by Sonam Roteria
Senior Manager, Integrated Marketing,
Cars.com
WHAT IS IMC?
Whether it’s at a networking event or
while talking to friends or family, I am often
asked, “What exactly is Integrated Marketing
Communications? You make ads, right?” I always
smile and just say, “Not exactly . . . it’s a bit more
than that.”
To me, it seems like such a simple and
logical concept but to most folks — both
marketers and non — IMC still seems a bit foreign.
I define Integrated Marketing Communications
(IMC) as: “The comprehensive management of
all communications to build positive and lasting
relationships with customers and stakeholders –
both internally and externally.” This means that
all components of marketing communications
are rooted in research and insights, and work
together to deliver a single and consistent
message.
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO ACHIEVE?
Organizations have a tendency to work
in silos. While folks believe they’re doing what’s
best for the company or their job, too often they
are only focused on their function and immediate
impact to their team or area of business. IMC
requires cross-functional integration and helps
to build awareness, alignment and accountability
of strategic objectives. It provides guidance
for messaging and communication to reach
customers (B2C & B2B) and prospects at every
step of the purchase process — before, during
and after. IMC processes thus help present a
coherent brand position by implementing synergy
through all internal and external touch points.
HOW DO WE DO IT?
As with many things, the devil is in the
details. One of my favorite campaigns in my
tenure at Cars.com, and one that I take great
pride in, is an IMC campaign we developed
for the 2015 National Automotive Dealer
Association (NADA) Convention & Expo. Each
year, 22,500+ professionals from across the
country attend NADA, the automotive industry’s
largest tradeshow. But the challenge is always:
how do we break through this highly cluttered
and competitive environment?
Let’s break it down into the key planning steps:
1. DEFINE GOALS & OBJECTIVES
In attending NADA, we set out to achieve
the following business objectives:
• Drive revenue growth
• Capitalize on the opportunity to meet
with key decision makers
• Build and nurture relationship with
key influencers, media and partners
• Build Cars.com brand awareness
2. IDENTIFY TARGET NEEDS
In understanding the needs of our target
audience, we worked from the insight that car
dealers need to stand out and be everywhere car
shoppers are to ensure a presence on the buyer’s
“shortlist” for purchase decisions.
Our approach: we gave dealers a broad
range of solutions via our products offerings
with which they could target the highly engaged
Cars.com consumer audience. Additionally, we
offered access to our team of dedicated digital
consultants and detailed reporting and metrics.
All this gives dealers the power to not just take
part in digital but to dominate it, so they can
stay in front of customers and ahead of their
competition.
3. ESTABLISH A CORE TEAM
To ensure functions were on the same
page, a core working team met on a weekly
basis. This team was responsible for internal
and external communications to ensure that a
singular vision and mission for the campaign
was established across all stakeholder groups.
4. CAMPAIGN DEVELOPMENT
To achieve our business objectives, we
developed a multi-channel campaign with tactics
that:
Alice Marder is the senior manager of integrated
marketing at Cars.com. She leads and unites cross-
functional teams in the development, execution
and measurement of key business initiatives in
support of the organization’s aggressive growth
strategy. Prior to joining Cars.com, Alice was the
manager of marketing integration at U.S. Cellular
and played an integral role in the development and
successful implementation of the organization’s
new integrated marketing approach. Previously,
Alice held positions at various agencies including
MindShare and DraftFCB. Alice is a graduate of
the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned
her M.S. in integrated marketing communications
from Northwestern University.
NU Alumni
INTEGRATED MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS AT CARS.COM

11. brand.

12. 12
marketing team can now identify sales tied to
Whatever through retail execution. This is key
because purely experiential campaigns can
have successful KPIs, like high social media
impressions or increased long-term brand
health, but those are incredibly difficult to
translate into real dollar value. Many product
categories, like beer, are trending downward in
volume; therefore, the ability to quantify results
is paramount with pressure mounting to turn
these businesses around.
So what’s the value of a tweet about my
brand?
That answer is somewhat moot.
In the future, my work will focus on
creating programs that deliver a consistent
message at all consumer touch points.
Experiential marketing remains a powerful tool
to connect brands with consumers, but focusing
on it alone would be shortsighted. From the
consumer perspective, one great event with
no follow through falls flat. From the business
perspective, the benefits of that tweet are too
far removed from the sale.
The value of a tweet is nothing without a
strong program supporting it.
So Your Bull’s-Eye
Consumer Tweeted at Your
Brand. Now What?
Joe Sargent
brand
Edited by Marissa Pederson
Brand Manager,
Wilson Sporting Goods
What is the value of a tweet about my
brand?
This is a question I have asked myself
multiple times in my various roles exploring
experiential marketing. As all marketers know,
understanding the consumer is at the foundation
of a successful program. Companies spend
millions trying to understand every aspect of
their consumers’ lives.
• “What does she watch on TV?”
• “What are her shopping habits?”
• “How much of our products does she
consume?”
All of these questions feed the research
that informs media plans, retail planograms
and volume projections. However, there is still
a gap when it comes to connecting with these
consumers.
This is where experiential marketing plays
a vital role. Creating an immersive experience for
consumers can turn the curious into fans and
fans into advocates. These advocates not only
purchase products, but also persuade others
to do so as well. In the best cases, experiential
marketing helps brands express their core values
and physically engage the senses of potential
and current fans.
And the best part? Brands have the full
attention of everyone in attendance. They
are able to engage their audience much more
effectively than by having an expensive TV
commercial that gets skipped via DVR or is
missed while a viewer checks her phone.
So why wouldn’t every brand spend all
their money in this space?
In my experience, companies are hesitant
when it comes to experiential marketing for a
number of reasons. It tends to be expensive on
a per-consumer basis versus a radio or TV spot.
To make a splash, the prevailing thought is that
a brand has to spend millions of dollars to reach
a few thousand consumers at most.
This represents a gamble for decision-
makers. Do you invest a million dollars into an
experiential activity or create another TV spot?
We have reams of information on the ROI of TV
commercials across multiple product categories.
In contrast, many experiential activities do not
directly impact sales. Considered together, it is
no wonder that experiential marketing activities
are often marginalized.
How, then, does a brand successfully
execute experiential programs?
Consider Bud Light’s Whatever USA
campaign.
Bud Light flew several thousand people
to a small town in Colorado and met them
with a nearly complete takeover of the area,
including live music, larger-than-life activations
and, of course, lots of Bud Light. The activation
was supported with TV spots, and entries were
accepted via social media as well as at retail
locations.
The brand claimed the promotion was a
success, saying that sales increased during the
summer, which is the most important season
for sales in the beer industry. Equally important,
more than 200,000 consumers auditioned to be
a part of the campaign. This led to an increase
in brand affinity with its key consumers.
As this example shows, the key to
successful experiential marketing is expanding
the message beyond those attending the
event and creating an integrated program that
maximizes consumer awareness, retail activation
and experiential activities.
When an integrated program is
executed successfully, evaluating ROI becomes
much easier. Post-campaign, the Bud Light
Joe Sargent is a Detroit sports fan by birth with
a soft spot for brand marketing. Having lived in
several states for work and school, Joe has shared
triumphs and miseries with several fan bases. He
currently works as a brand manager at Wilson
Sporting Goods in Chicago and has several
years of experience in lifestyle marketing and
experiential activation.
Creating an immersive
experience for
consumers can turn the
curious into fans and
fans into advocates.

13. 13
advanced telecommunication technologies, self-
developed mobile chipsets, mature hardware
and software platforms, Huawei strives for
perfection and makes the impossible possible.
Consumers should get a phone with the
performance they would never imagine —
the best camera, the thinnest body, the fastest
speed, the longest standby time, you name it. No
longer shaky, Huawei firmly committed to high-
end product development and the pursuit of the
perfectness of inspired experience.
In February 2013, Huawei launched the
“Make it Possible” global branding campaign.
A line of premium products including Ascend
P6, P7, P8 and Mate 7 and 8 have been released
to the marketplace. The new products gained
many awards, and Huawei rapidly increased
its market share to become the third largest
smartphoneprovider in the world. In 2014,
Huawei became the first Chinese brand that was
listed as the Best Global Brand by Interbrand.
many awards, and Huawei rapidly increased its
market share to become the third largest smart
phone provider in the world.
Just as Abraham Lincoln said, “Character
is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The
shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real
thing.” Huawei’s investment in its brand paid
off, and the company is still dedicating itself to
consistently delivering its brand promise to the
customers in all three business groups.
Driving Business with a
Consistent Brand
Charlie Chen
brand
Edited by Liang Liu
President,
Triwin
THE PRACTICE OF HUAWEI
In the past 30 years, China has grown into
the second largest economy in the world, and
a number of competitive Chinese companies
burgeoned in this period of time. A lot of
companies are trying to establish themselves as
leading brands in the global market; however,
they are facing various challenges. The most
serious one is shifting the mindset from a
product-driven to a brand-driven business.
Branding strategy is no longer the
execution of the business strategy but a driver
to the business strategy. Huawei, the only the
Chinese brand that was listed as the Best Global
Brand by Interbrand, is a great showcase of that
practice.
DEFINE BRAND DRIVEN BUSINESS
It was challenging to figure out a top
brand strategy that drives the entire business.
Huawei owns three business groups that serve
three distinct groups of customers — carriers,
enterprises and regular consumers. There had
been debates about whether to build a house
of brands or a branded house strategy. Finally,
considering the low brand awareness among
regular consumers at the time, Huawei adopted
branded house strategy to strengthen its brand
image.
Then how did Huawei define and build
one single brand with three distinct business
groups that developed different products and
faced different customers in different markets?
This is where the pipe strategy came into place.
Despite Huawei’s different customer groups,
Huawei is, in essence, in the business of
information transmission. Huawei compared
the carriers to the Mississippi River and the
Great Lakes; the enterprises to the reservoirs
and pipes in the city; and mobile devices to
water taps. The solution Huawei provided
are pipe networks that can handle the digital
tsunami that carries and sends huge amounts
of data from one place to another. Therefore,
Huawei defined its brand promise as “building
a better connected world” with three major
characteristics — ubiquitous broadband, agile
innovation and inspired experience. These
characteristics drive future product development
in all three business groups.
POSITIONING IN THE B2C MARKET
Knowing and being yourself is essential
to a brand. Huawei went a long way to position
itself in the B2C market. Before 2011, Huawei
was confused about the target consumers and
positioning in this market. When Apple and
Samsung products attracted consumers’ attention
with their luxury fashions and fancy functions,
Huawei also wanted to establish a fashionable
and fancy brand image. But that was not who
Huawei is. When launching the new product
Ascend P1, Huawei invited a famous director
from London to shoot a commercial, where an
old man (representing wisdom) and a white horse
(representing beauty) ran into each other, and
the phone was born in the collision. However,
without a clear positioning, all these efforts were
in vain. The audience were totally confused about
what the commercial was intended to express.
Huawei realized that that the brand was
not a fashion leader. The real heritage of Huawei
is the dedication in advanced technologies, the
spirit of perseverance and making the impossible
possible. After months of brainstorming and
debates, consumer business group executives
finally realized that “Make it Possible” is exactly
the positioning they were looking for. It best
answers what Huawei is and what value Huawei
is bringing to the consumers — “make the
impossible possible!” With the advantages of
Charlie Chen is the co-founder and the president
of Triwin Investments International LLC. Before
Triwin, Charlie was the vice president of Huawei
Technologies, a Fortune 500 company, and
was in charge of Huawei corporate branding
and communication department. Charlie held
several leadership positions in Huawei in the
areas of R&D, sales and marketing. He earned
his doctorate degree in electrical engineering
from the South China University of Technology in
Guangzhou, China.
Branding strategy is no
longer the execution of
the business strategy
but a driver to the
business strategy.

14. 14
is important that we factor in the element of
time when picking the metrics to measure the
success of our campaigns. Immediate, trackable
revenue is great but if the sales cycle takes a bit
longer, measuring lift in consideration or pure
product awareness might be a better choice.
TWO BUCKETS — CREATING
DEMAND VERSUS CAPTURING
DEMAND
So if awareness exists throughout the
funnel, is there another way to categorize a
campaign?
In my world as director of digital media
at Hyatt Hotels, I’ve scrapped The Funnel
perspective and have been instead using a new
method of categorizing most of our digital
campaigns into two major buckets — creating
demand and capturing demand.
To use a simple example: During the
harsh winter in Chicago, you put out a TV
commercial telling people to visit Miami (and,
of course, suggesting they stay at a Hyatt hotel).
In this scenario, you are trying to generate
demand. On the other hand, when consumers
are actively reading articles about traveling to
the Bahamas, and you put your ads right next
to the article, you are trying to capture demand.
Many companies organize their teams
into retention and acquisition; this same
concept of targeting can also be applied within
those two groups. For existing customers, you
can generate demand by encouraging them
to purchase more. Then again, if you realize
your existing consumer is considering other
brands for a service that you provide, wouldn’t
you want to win them back by capturing such
demand? Technology these days allow us to
easily identify those users, and marketers should
take advantage of such targeting capabilities as
much as possible through tools like Google’s
remarketing lists for search ads.
So the next time you run a campaign, you
might want to think about if your product or
your campaign message is unique enough to
generate consumer demand or you just want to
target those in-market consumers and simply
have a piece of the market share. Not a lot of
marketers can create an entire market like what
De Beers did with diamonds back in the 1930s,
but I can entice consumers to travel more with
photographs of exotic destinations.
From The Funnel to Dual
Buckets
Frank Wong
brand
Edited by Rebecca Yeng
Director, Digital Media,
Hyatt Hotels Corporation
When I first got into marketing eight
years ago, everyone talked about The Funnel,
and we used this framework extensively at the
agencies. Even after I transitioned to the client
side, I still see The Funnel being used quite
often. I’ve used it myself occasionally as well,
but the more I think about it, the more I think
that the purchase funnel needs a little tweak.
“AWARENESS” IS THROUGHOUT
THE FUNNEL
Many marketers categorize their
campaigns as awareness and direct response.
The awareness campaign focuses on the top
part of the funnel while the direct response
campaign focuses on the middle to bottom part
of the funnel.
However, the term “awareness” has been
very loosely used, and I believe that awareness
doesn’t just exist on the top of the funnel. Let’s
begin by defining “awareness” more clearly.
Awareness of what? Your particular brand
in general? A particular action/need that the
consumers haven’t been thinking of? Or a brand
new product within your brand portfolio?
Let’s keep it simple and say you want
consumers to be more aware of your V8
Vegetable Juice. You can put a TV ad out
there, which is usually considered a top-funnel
execution. As for a mid-funnel execution, you
can run paid search ads targeting consumers
searching for “healthy drinks” to make them
aware of your product. Alternatively, you can
have the right shelf placement, putting the
V8 next to other health drinks targeting the
consumers who are actively shopping in those
aisles, and this would be considered a bottom
funnel execution. If we follow the traditional
purchase funnel categorization, the last two
scenarios are usually considered to be direct
response campaigns.
However, didn’t the consumer just
became aware of your product in those two
scenarios? Therefore, consumer can become
aware of your product throughout the funnel.
It is important to know that although awareness
is throughout the funnel, the purchase path
remains the same. Consumers still need to go
through the process below. The key difference
is that consumers at the bottom of the funnel
usually make their decisions faster than those at
the top of the funnel.
SPEED TO PURCHASE IS THE KEY
WHEN MEASURING SUCCESS
Have you ever wondered why your TV
ad or homepage makeover is not giving you an
immediate return? Why do we see such high
ROI when bidding on our competitors branded
terms? That’s because the speed to purchase
varies drastically depending on when consumers
are exposed to your brand. When consumers see
your ad in the comfort of their couch at home,
it’s probably going to take longer for them to
pick up your product as compared to those who
are already in the grocery store but just learned
about your product walking down the aisle.
When the speed of purchase is not
immediate, several factors such as loss of
tracking (think cookie deletion) or change
of mind could affect a campaign’s ROI. It
In his role at Hyatt, Frank Wong is responsible
for developing digital roadmaps and executing
strategies across various digital channels
including paid search, meta search, display, paid
social and search engine optimizations. Frank
is a big believer in data-driven marketing and is
passionate about user experience. Prior to joining
Hyatt, Frank spent four years at Digitas, where
he worked on the Bank of America and Sprint
accounts. Prior to Digitas, Frank spent two years
working as a financial and operations consultant
at Huron Consulting Group.
RETHINKING OUR CAMPAIGN
OBJECTIVES

15. 15
In order to do this, start marketing to
millennials internally. Forbes states that 77%
of connected millennials choose to work at
a company because of its sense of purpose.
Millennials demand flexible work hours; they
demand creative ways of communication; they
demand meaningful context and narratives
and the truth. Focus on creating a structure
that provides opportunity for upward mobility,
entrepreneurial activity, remote working and
consistent personal growth. Once you provide a
safe space for your team to express themselves
(and work hard), turn attentions to inspiring your
team to share that passion with your audience.
Externally, remember the secret ingredient
to a meaningful, millennial-engaging experience
is the fact that it isn’t about you — it’s about
them. Millennials know their power; they have
seen their leverage through social media in
movements they have created, and they know
the amplification of their voice. Ask yourself —
what is your purpose? Why do you exist? What
is the value you are offering the people you are
selling to?
Sources:
Dan Schwabel, “10 New Findings About the Millennial
Consumer.” Forbes. Jan. 20, 2015. http://www.forbes.com/
sites/danschawbel/2015/01/20/10-new-findings-about-the-
millennial-consumer/#7e30049928a8.
Erin Mulligan Nelson, “MIllennials Want to Party
With Your Brand on Their Own Terms.” Advertising Age. Aug.
2, 2012. http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/millennials-party-
brand-terms/236444/
Image Source: (picked by the JIMC) http://www.
azcommerce.com/media/468319/the-millennials_lowres.jpg
AUTHOR BIO p 39.
Decoding the Millennial
Enigma
Amanda Slavin
brand
Edited by Sakhile Richards
CEO/Founder,
CatalystCreativ
A MESSAGE TO BRANDS LOOKING TO
ENGAGE THE ELUSIVE
GENERATION
$200 BILLION PER YEAR
$10 TRILLION OVER LIFETIME
64% WANT TO MAKE THE
WORLD A BETTER PLACE
77% CHOOSE TO WORK AT A
COMPANY BECAUSE OF ITS
SENSE OF PURPOSE
SAY THEY ARE LIKELY TO
BECOME LOYAL
CUSTOMERS BECAUSE OF
BRAND ENGAGEMENT ON
SOCIALMEDIA
Millennials 80 MILLION
To many brands, millennials are an
enigma. The reason why so many brands care
about engaging millennials is because they
are a powerful group. According to AdAge,
millennials are 80 million strong with $200
billion a year in spending power (starting in
2017), amassing to $10 trillion in spending by
the end of our lifetime. So, it is no wonder that
brands are desperately trying to figure out what
makes millennials tick.
There are many blanket statements
regarding millennials; below I have provided
research to back up the most accurate
assumptions. Millennials want brands to be
authentic; they want brands to be vulnerable
and transparent; they want brands to care about
making the world a place that will surpass their
lifecycle.
Based on a survey by Forbes, “62% of
millennials say that if a brand engages with
them on social networks, they are more likely
to become a loyal customer. They expect brands
to not only be on social networks, but to engage
them.” Millennials use the power of technology
to not only be a passive listener to brands but
also to be an active participant in a brand’s story;
they want to feel heard. Because they have so
many microphones to amplify their voices
(Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram),
there is no reason for brands to solely have
one-way conversations with their millennial
audience. When thinking about brand alignment
at CatalystCreativ, a company that focuses on
helping brands with millennial engagement, I
always ask myself the question, “Would your
consumer want to date you?”
That is the way to look at the millennial
consumer to a certain extent. There needs to be
a two-way conversation — you need to listen,
you need to ask their opinion and to be a part
of the narrative, and you need to care about
what they say. You need to create a meaningful
experience so they want that second date, third
date, and eventually to go “steady” with you.
You want your consumer to love you because
now they have the ability to share that love,
or in some cases, that disdain, instantly with
thousands of people.
According to a study conducted by
Deloitte, 64% of millennials say it is a priority for
them to make the world a better place. This isn’t
surprising, as the world they have been brought
up in has been fairly bleak. With issues like
climate change, obesity, drought and terrorism
as consistent topics in their day-to-day to life,
it is not surprising that they believe the most
powerful communication tools (brands) should
be investing their time, energy, attention and
money into ensuring that the world they live in
still exists in 20, 30 or 40 years.
At CatalystCreativ, we think of it as
not only engaging millennials but engaging
“millennial-minded people.” Who doesn’t want a
better world or to be listened to? Millennials force
businesses to have better practices, internally and
externally. By listening to what millennials want,
you can actually become a better company and, in
the long run, attract loyal customers that act both
as consumers and brand ambassadors.
Ultimately, millennials are exactly the
audience you want. You want someone whose
loyalty you can’t buy, but that you have to
emotionally earn. Once you engage a millennial,
they’ll be invaluable assets to your brand. I
promise you they will never disappoint.

16. 16
showing how you can solve the tough problems
that keep customers and potential employers
awake at night. Knowing how to use the social
media tools to assist in building a personal
brand that connects you to unprecedented new
opportunities and makes you invaluable to your
employer and your clients.
One of the keys to a successful personal
brand is building your own storyline and online
identity — beginning to “live” your brand and
connecting your online brand and “in-real-life”
brand. The key for me was choosing the social
media tool that “put me on the map.” Twitter
helped me by letting me add a biography that
was 140 characters, so I was able to put myself
out there, live my brand and meet my goals by
supercharging my social media channels on a
regular basis.
I then added a blog as the hub of my
social media wheel and used it to tell my story
far more effectively. I decided to commit to a
monthly post on a topic relevant to my personal
brand. In my case, it was SharePoint, internal
communications and ways to drive adoption
and engagement around intranets. I was able
to find content from such sources as Mashable,
Tech Crunch, Harvard Business Review and
Sloan Management Review to complement my
personal ideas.
I have been able to avoid the killer
mistakes too many business social networkers
make by not oversharing, rather being a constant
resource to my colleagues and connections in
both real life and online. Given my experience,
here are things you will need to keep top of
mind to positively shape your personal brand:
• Build a powerful social network that
feeds opportunities to you.
• Connect with influential people that
will help build your brand.
• Use the best tools and solutions for
brand building.
• Create a great personal profile that
sells.
• Build a personal brand that will get
you promoted.
By building a recognizable personal
brand, you’ll find that opportunities find you
effortlessly. Whether it’s at work or at play, you
will become a magnet for the opportunities
you’re most interested in.
Personal Branding
& What It Means
in 2016
Jeff Willinger
brand
Edited by Olavina Harahap
VP, Digital Inspiration,
Rightpoint
What is a personal brand? Building a
personal brand will earn you more money, give
you better career options and make you virtually
immune from unemployment. When I think
about my personal brand in 2016, it has occurred
to me that it is similar to when I first heard the
term in 2005. I had always thought of the term
“brand” as pertaining to companies and brands
like Tide (P&G’s flagship reliable laundry
detergent for cleanest clothes), McDonald’s
(trusted hamburger fast food chain) and Avis
Rental Cars (“We Try Harder” to be your best
rental car experience). I rarely ever thought of
Jeff Willinger as a brand. And then something
changed — I had sold my company of 15 years,
Graphic Packaging, which had defined my being
for most of my business life, and knew I had to
figure out what this Jeff 2.0 was going to look
like.
This was when social media was just
coming into its own, and companies like Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn were coming to the
forefront of people communicating a whole
new way. Working out loud and collaboratively,
I had the good fortune of being one of the early
adopters on many social channels and was able
to “put it out there” what I wanted to be and
then build my brand from that point forward.
I was able to use social media to build a
great personal brand and learned how to present
myself as the best solution to customers’ and
employers’ worst problems. By living my brand,
I was able to learn the right ways to sell my
knowledge capital and demonstrate my value
to prospects and potential employers, while
also rebranding myself. I was able to connect
my online and offline networking together to
successfully navigate my next career change
— and the one after that. In today’s turbulent
business environment, millions of people are
seeking to strengthen their personal brands
and demonstrate far greater value to potential
customers and employers. Many of them
are seeking to rebrand themselves as they
move towards entirely new jobs and careers.
Fortunately, social media offers powerful new
tools for building personal brands, strengthening
business and personal relationships, and
Jeff Willinger is the VP of digital inspiration at
Rightpoint. He is an internationally recognized
online influencer, analyst and expert on all things
web collaboration, enterprise social networking
and enterprise IT strategy. With experience
spanning more than two decades, he is a global
speaker and expert in all CMS solutions and
is a technology and business evangelist with
deep expertise in user experience, information
architecture, enterprise content management
and web 2.0 technology strategy. He is the
president and founder of the Social Media Club of
Chicago and serves as EVP for Business Marketing
Association.
One of the keys to a
successful personal
brand is building your
own storyline and
online identity

17. 17
expanded its offerings beyond shoes over time
to become “a maker of athletic shoes, apparel,
sports equipment and recreational products.”
Realizing athletes’ needs extend beyond shoes,
Nike saw opportunity; thus, as consumer
needs evolved, Nike developed technology,
enhancing performance in shoes to equipment.
Technologies such as Nike Air or Lunarlite
Foam create true product relevance for
consumers, continually reinforcing the brand’s
relevance. Nike’s marketing campaign involving
current athletes also continually built relevance,
reinforcing the performance message and
speaking to amateur athletes in an inspirational
way. Without these innovations, I am not
sure Nike would have been able to maintain
relevance. Through foundational understanding
of needs and providing technology to better
deliver, Nike has remained on top of its game.
Through intentional cannibalization, they have
remained victorious.
Innovation is critical in today’s marketing
toolkit. I would argue that without innovation,
a brand will be hard pressed to grow, let alone
remain relevant. Going back to foundational
learning and truly understanding consumer
needs to better define brands then innovate for
the long term will allow brands to position for
future growth.
The Importance of
Innovation in Elevating
Brand Relevance
Shari Matras
brand
Edited by Qiulin Peng & Peishan Ouyang
Senior Director, Innovation Global Nutrition Group,
PepsiCo
It seems that all companies, sectors,
and industries are suffering today. Why is
brand performance declining? I would argue
underperformance is largely driven by brands not
keeping pace with what consumers want.
Let’s face it — it’s easiest to continue to
do what you’ve always done, make what you’ve
always made. Some products have been around
for 100+ years, and as the company seeks growth
each year, they take out salt, sugar or make the
packaging thinner to save a penny on the bottom
line. And as a result, consumers leave the brand,
find other solutions or become annoyed, which
ultimately decreases usage and hurts the brand’s
relevance.
But how to elevate brand relevance? I
believe the secret lies in the foundations of
marketing — give the consumer what she
wants. It’s really that easy — so why ignore the
consumer? Big companies think they don’t need
to do research; they already have all the learnings.
But they fail to realize that consumer beliefs,
behaviors and preference evolve, and sometimes
change radically, in a couple years’ time. Instead,
they rush to market, then wonder why the product
fails. Small companies are just as guilty. I see them
like children — in a hurry to grow up, sometimes
not thinking or looking before crossing the street.
Both end up with short-term thinking instead of
the foundations needed for long-term growth.
I believe the key to long-term success
starts and ends with consumer insight — not
only truly understanding the consumer, her needs
and desires, and what she wants today, but also
anticipating her future needs. Clear consumer
understanding allows you to identify a space
broad enough to encompass today as well as
position for tomorrow. With thorough consumer
understanding, only then can you identify
innovative ideas to deliver against future needs.
P&G, for example, reframed the Old Spice brand
to expand from an aftershave brand to a full line
of men’s personal care products. They realized
the brand had lost relevance and therefore set
out to better understand the needs of today’s
consumer. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, a man’s personal
care routine was limited. Personal care was
largely for women. Perhaps he’d use aftershave,
if he went to that extreme! By the ‘90s, however,
men required the same array of toiletries and
offerings as their female counterparts. With this
shift in consumer behavior, P&G broadened
their thinking beyond the product form to the
consumer need. Creating a full line of products
including body sprays, deodorants, soaps, hair
care and styling products also created a brand
halo, allowing it to rise from its ashes like a
phoenix, reinventing the brand for future
growth.
Additionally, Old Spice’s user base was
declining. To rebuild penetration, P&G needed
to get more people to buy the brand. Changing
to target younger consumers broadened appeal,
growing penetration. This was a bold move,
potentially alienating current users; however,
P&G saw the opportunity in the risk. Today, the
brand encompasses a full line of personal care
that, “Helps guys improve their mansmells,”
targeting a younger, male audience.
Throughout its 52-year history, Nike has
focused on relevance. Did you know Nike has
been around since 1964? Probably not. Why?
Because Nike has always stayed on top of what
consumers want, leveraging technology to
better deliver against consumer needs. Named
after the Greek goddess of victory, Nike
Shari Matras has more than 20 years of
experience in marketing and innovation. She has
led the launch of notable brands such as Orbit
Gum, Orbit White Gum, Gevalia Kaffe Roast &
Ground Coffee, and K-Cups for Maxwell House
and Gevalia Kaffe. Prior to joining PepsiCo, Shari
led the innovation team for Kraft Foods’ coffee
business. She has also held significant roles at
the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, Le Cordon Bleu
Culinary Schools and Recycled Paper Greetings.
Earlier in her career, Shari held positions for
companies/agencies representing Kraft Foods
and Taco Bell, Sara Lee, Ellio’s Pizza and Lunch
Makers. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s
degree from Northwestern University.
Clear consumer
understanding allows
you to identify a
space broad enough
to encompass today
as well as position for
tomorrow.
NU Alumni

18. data.

19. 19
some of its top management sponsorship
capital in assuring end-to-end implementation
of the chosen projects. The transformational
effort at Banorte initially focused on the credit
card business because of the project’s value and
the willingness from the business partners.
An analytics team obviously requires
quantitative skills, and the organization has
to make a substantial investment in data and
technology. However, these prerequisites
are not enough to transform an institution.
Banorte’s experience has shown that two soft
skills are vital — the ability to build consensus
and to have good team players who respect the
business acumen of their counterparts. Business
lines expect the quants to be a partner, not a
lecturer.
Finally, rooting analytics within the
organization requires measurement. It is not
uncommon for an organization on its path to
transformation to undertake several initiatives
at the same time, and it may prove hard to
disentangle the contribution. The analytics team
should not assume that results are self-evident
— a detailed report to the top management
must be produced periodically. Furthermore, it
is easy to stray from value by undertaking only
the projects from willing partners. At Banorte,
measurement has assured sponsorship and has
kept analytics on track.
Transforming into
an Analytical
Organization
Dr. José A. Murillo Garza
data
Edited by Mariana Arana
Ph.D, Chief Analytics Officer,
Grupo Financiero Banorte
BEYOND DATA AND TECHNOLOGY
Analytics within a traditional organization
often starts as a top management initiative aimed
at increasing productivity. Implementation
faces several challenges, and top management
sponsorship could quickly fade away. Banorte,
the largest Mexican financial group, is under
way to successfully transform into an analytical
organization. This experience offers five lessons
to start out such a transformation:

1. Gain credibility by delivering short-term
results that assure long-term sponsorship
from top management.
2. Set the right incentives for the
organization to embrace analytics, avoiding
rivalry between analytics and the business
lines.
3. Do not take for granted that analytic
projects are a priority for the whole
organization — hold the analytics group
accountable for end-to-end
implementation.
4. The analytics team members beyond
quantitative skills require the ability to
build consensus across different
stakeholders within the organization.
5. The contribution from analytic initiatives
must be measured.
A traditional organization that aims to
become an analytical firm with the capacity
to deepen and extend its relationship with its
customers starts its journey with some leaders
envisioning a future for the company. It is not
uncommon to find contrasting visions within
top management of what should be the future
— some subscribe to the old Texas adage, “If
it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This should not be a
surprise since companies have limited resources,
and there are competing projects that respond
to existing customer demands. Hence, when the
organization embarks on the transformation
path, it is clear that the analytical camp prevailed,
but this does not mean that the traditional camp
was convinced. Top management composition
is not static, and suddenly the forward-
thinking camp that once prevailed to launch
the transformational analytic initiative might be
outnumbered. Assuring continuity requires the
analytic team to gain credibility with both camps
of the organization. A high short-run ROI does
the trick. Analytics in Banorte during its first year
of operations contributed 10% of the group’s
total net profit, gaining credibility and resources
to advance with medium-term projects
A high yield from analytics is a necessary
but insufficient condition. Analytics and the
business lines must establish a partnership that
will face some hurdles. Analytics will disrupt
the way business has been conducted, and
rivalry between groups might arise. Both groups
speak different languages — one group has
business experience while the other talks with
statistics and models. The business lines have
many concerns — devoting scarce resources to
unproven projects, the credit they will get in case
of success, or the blame they will share if failure
occurs. These concerns must be addressed by
the design of an incentive scheme that aligns
the interests of analytics and the business lines.
Banorte solved this problem by setting a shadow
target for analytics that did not rival the business
lines targets, but rather analytic projects helped
business lines attain their targets.
Non-rivalry between groups does not
guarantee that the business lines and other
stakeholders will enthusiastically embrace
analytic initiatives to change the way they
have been working. Stakeholders within the
organization are unfamiliar with analytic
initiatives, and they certainly have other projects
top of mind. It is of an utmost priority for
analytics to find partners willing to champion
initiatives that can set an example to the rest of
the organization. Analytics will need to invest
José Antonio Murillo Garza serves as managing
director of analytics at Grupo Financiero Banorte,
S.A.B. de C.V. José also serves as general director
of analysis at Banco Mercantil Del Norte, S.A. Prior
to this, José was the director of price analysis for
regional economies and information at Banco
de México. He holds a degree and Doctorate in
Economics from Rice University.
Business lines expect
the quants to be a
partner, not a lecturer.

20. 20
need to master some basic concepts that can
help you generate the best visuals, including:
1. Determining what you are trying to
visualize and what kind of information
you want to communicate.
2. Knowing your audience and
understanding how they process visual
information.
3. Using a visual that conveys the
information in the best and simplest
form for your audience — if you need
to spend more than 30 seconds explaining
the chart, it isn’t working.
4. Understanding that reporting is easy —
recommending is hard. Don’t take the easy
way out and simply report out a bunch
of metrics and numbers. Take the time to
understand what it means and add value.
But you also need to be careful not to
go overboard in your storytelling. Some of
the biggest mistakes I see marketers make in
creating visual stories from data include:
1. Death by PowerPoint — Too many
slides with too much information on
each slide. Remember that you should
never have more than one slide for every
two minutes. Combine the slide with your
narrative for added impact.
2. Too good to be true — Too much
animation, flash or pizazz diminishes the
value of the data you are presenting.
Strive for purity and simplicity.
3. The infographic that killed the whale —
Taking every single data point you can
possibly imagine and turning it into one
great, big, long infographic. No one
wants to look at infographics that cannot
be viewed “above the crease” or on one
simple, horizontal slide.
CONCLUSION
As an integrated marketing professional,
you will need to communicate and tell your
story to other colleagues in the organization
who are not as well versed in the statistics
and the numbers, and who may be completely
unfamiliar with the techniques and metrics of
integrated marketing. Take the time to truly
understand what the data means so you can tell
your audience the story it is telling you — and
what meaningful actions they can take based on
that story.
Good marketers get good results, but
great marketers are great communicators and
get great results. By mastering the art of data
visualization, you can build trust and respect,
gain credibility and create collaboration among
your peers, your colleagues and your boss.
AUTHOR BIO p 39.
Telling a Memorable
Story with Your
Data
Cyndi W. Greenglass
Edited by Allison Chen
SVP, Strategic Solutions,
Diamond Marketing Solutions
data
We’ve all heard the phrase “a picture is
worth 1,000 words.” It turns out that this is
more than just an old saying. Research dating
back to the 19th century has proven that our
brains can grasp, process and retain pictures
with much greater meaning than numbers or
words alone.
This is called the “picture superiority
effect,” and understanding this basic human
dynamic is critical to integrated marketers. It
means that it is faster for people to understand
many data points when they are displayed in
charts and graphs rather than poring over piles
of spreadsheets or reading pages and pages of
reports.
Let’s consider the marketing director who
is trying to explain why she wants to devote
more of her online media budget to mobile
and digital advertising. Her boss is a big fan of
magazines and is questioning the soundness of
her decision. She needs to find data to support
her position.
She could tell her boss that a 2015 industry
report shows the continuing decline of print in
favor of digital advertising and that this trend
is also being seen among marketing budgets.
Or she can show the following slide with an
accompanying verbal narrative in a presentation.
Which do you think is more compelling?
TELLING THE STORY
There are many different ways to analyze
and interpret data — as Ronald H. Coase
famously said in his Essays on Economics and
Economists, “If you torture the data long enough,
it will confess.” Therefore, as marketers, we
must have a very clear understanding of our
objectives in order to protect against too much
bias in our analysis. It is equally important to
express yourself in a way that people will
understand and retain, and to ultimately gain
their collaboration and support. And nothing
builds collaboration like storytelling. The story allows
you to answer the meaningful questions you
have as a marketer, as well as the questions your
boss will ask, such as:
• What is working, and what is not
working?
• Did we succeed?
• And in all cases — WHY?
To be a successful data storyteller, you

21. digital.

22. 22
shared goals, interest, activities, understanding
and trust.
To achieve a strong and mutually
beneficial relationship with influencers you need
to:
• Know the type of influencer that is
right for your brand
• Understand their needs
• Make a memorable first impression
• Ensure the value exchange is
mutually beneficial
• Demonstrate long-term intent
5. Influence Can’t Live Without Content or an
Experience
People need something to react to and
share. Experiences and content are how we learn,
what we remember and a way to connect to the
world. As a result, you need to be consistently
evolving and tailoring your approach to keep
your influencer and audience base interested.
By creating memorable, personalized content
and experiences, you are more likely to interest
Authenticity, Democratization
of Information and the
Changing Nature
of Influence
Jake O’Leary, Smriti Khanna
Edited by Smriti Khanna
Global Head of Brand Marketing, Youtube Music
& IMC Graduate Student, Northwestern University
digital
Many marketers still have the perception
that those who can make the most noise or create
the most outrageous stunt will cut through the
clutter. However, while these things may have
worked in the past, millennials are looking
something different. This is a generation that
hunts for, and cares about, real stories from real
people.
Platforms like YouTube have led to the
democratization of content and information by
allowing almost anyone the freedom to express
their ideas and opinions, the opportunity to be
discovered, the chance to find their community,
and gain access to the information of the world.
Millennials today decide who, where and when
they want to consume. To hear or see someone
explain a raw emotion or an experience helps
them understand if they are justified in their own
personal feeling or experience. This change has
elevated the importance of influencer marketing
within the overall marketing mix.
As brand builders, we need to understand
and embrace this major shift in the nature
of influencer marketing as an integral part
of brand strategy. This is a departure from
the commonplace, last minute, surface-level
advocacy at the launch of a new product or
campaign. Too often, influence can be reduced
to a short-term transaction in attempt to rent
social media impressions. Whilst this “buzz” is
good for drumming up awareness, it falls down
when trying to build an iconic brand.
Coming from a more traditional CPG
background, my current role at YouTube has
shown me firsthand how the landscape of
influence is rapidly changing. While the concept
of influence is not new — as humans, we all
have the ability to exert influence through
relationships — it is the nature and scope of
influence that has changed over the last decade.
YouTube is a platform that enables one-to-one
relationships by facilitating rich, immersive
experiences through video that echo the feeling
of being in the same physical space as the
creator of the content. Experiences that were
once limited are now available to anyone with
a computer or a smartphone. Top executives
no longer decide what content people consume
— the people do. This changing landscape, and
the sheer reach of individual influencers, has
opened a major opportunity for brands to tell
their stories outside of traditional advertising.
FIVE PRINCIPLES FOR BRANDS
AIMING TO BUILD BRAND
ADVOCACY WITH INFLUENCERS
1. Quality Beats Quantity
Segment your brand’s user base to
figure out who actually influences them. Once
you understand who truly has clout with your
users, it is imperative to work closely with a
manageable group of individuals capable of
spreading advocacy, both digitally and in person.
Passionate support from someone with modest
influence should always rate higher than a tepid
vote of confidence from someone with a large
audience.
2. Start Niche to Reach Mass
Audience size does not necessarily
equal influence. The ideal state of influencer
marketing is to reach a large audience by working
with a few, targeted individuals. Get enough of
the right people onboard, you have a chance of
creating a groundswell.
3. Treat People as Humans, Not Algorithms or
Data Points
The very reason brands want to work
with influencers is for their unique cultural
position, perspective, writing style, on and
offline following or strong social presence. For
this reason, being too prescriptive or micro-
managing is not the way to go. Each influencer
has a unique voice — try not to stifle it. Each of
them may have a different way of talking about
your product or brand, and that is ok.
Influence is a human behavior, prone to
emotions with swift changes in tone, focus and
sentiment. Embracing the unpredictable nature
of influence and being agile in your thinking
and actions will not only endear your brand
to influencers but ensure that the brand stays
current, relevant, and most of all, credible.
4. Create Relationships, Not Transactions
Influencer marketing is much like any
relationship. Great relationships are built on
Jake O’Leary leads brand marketing for YouTube,
the biggest music platform in the world. Not
content with serving more than a billion users, he
launched the new YouTube Music app on Android
and iOS, which trended globally on Twitter (#2)
and collected 591 million impressions in the first
twelve hours. Jake was almost solely responsible
for bringing the app to the world, from working
hand-in-hand with product & engineering execs
to identifying development scope based on
consumer feedback. Jake previously spent his
working life playing music and marketing world
leading brands, including Pantene and Gillette.
Smriti Khanna is a full-time student in the Medill
Integrated Marketing Communications program.
She has worked in brand management in the
CPG industry for the last four years in Asia. While
working across a variety of brands and markets,
the growing importance of Big Data and the
increasing shift of control to consumers intrigued
her and brought her to Medill. Smriti holds a
bachelor’s degree in psychology and marketing
from Singapore Management University.

23. 23
proper targeting with which brands can ensure
true success.
Do not mistake this for the fact that
people are not tuning into traditional media
sources such as television shows and movies.
However, according to a Deloitte survey, 92%
of U.S. consumers are multitasking while they
are watching television. That means that they
are tuning out during commercial breaks and
missing brand messaging. While this may sound
detrimental to a brand, this is a key opportunity
where brands can not only just reach consumers
on their televisions but also on their mobile
devices that connect them with the world
around them.
Despite all of this, there are those who
feel as if social media is solely for younger
generations, choosing to stick with their
traditional marketing methods instead. This is a
vital misstep as 58% of U.S. consumers check
social media daily, and millennials aged 19-32
stated that recommendations from their social
media circles have surpassed the influence of
television advertising (Belson, Westcott, &
Lippstreu, 2016). Now imagine if we ignored
millennials. Brands that are not tapping into
this market are missing out on a generation
that is projected to spend $200 billion annually
starting in 2017 and $10 trillion over the course
of their lives (Nelson, 2012). Though that is just
an overall snapshot and educated estimate, one
thing cannot be ignored — that social media is
crucial for the success of brands in today’s day
and age.
The Importance of
Social Media
for Brands
Matt Augustin
Edited by Brit’ney McTush
Social Strategist,
Fitzgerald & Company
digital
Sources:
Belson, G., Westcott, K., & Lippstreu, S. (2016,
March 23). Digital Democracy Survey: A multi-generationl
view of consumer technology, media and telecom trends. Retrieved
April 1, 2016, from Deloitte: http://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/
pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/digital-
democracy-survey-generational-media-consumption-trends.html#
Bendtsen, C., Dolliver, M., Johnson, M., McNair, C.,
Minsker, M., Orozco, O., . . . Williamson, D. A. (2016). US
Social StatPack: Usage and Ad Spending. eMarketer, 1-72.
Nelson, E. M. (2012, August 2). Millennials Want to
Party With Your Brand But On Their Own Terms. Retrieved
April 1, 2016, from Ad Age: http://adage.com/article/
digitalnext/millennials-party-brand-terms/236444/
In today’s day and age, social media serves
as more than just a medium for pushing products
and services. It allows consumers to connect
with their friends, family, strangers, and — most
importantly for marketers — brands. Long gone
are the days in which marketers could throw
something at the wall after meeting with select
focus groups and wait to see if it sticks. The age
of looking for the needle in the haystack has
transitioned to one where consumers can interact
not just when the brand says but on their own
terms.
Social media has totally shifted control
from brand to consumer. With anyone able to
tweet or find out what their friends are doing
on Facebook, it has become an epicenter for
communities of consumers to rally around
their interests and create amplified subcultures.
With this, social media has also become a
source for not only providing content but
also a tool for targeting the right content to
the right people at the right time. This makes
social media invaluable, and brands need to
ensure they capitalize effectively. Social media
is a key opportunity for brands to reach crucial
audiences and ensure their ad spend is used
effectively and strategically.
So why not just take what you’re already
doing on traditional media and push it on
social? The reason is because one size does not
fit all. Each platform requires specific strategies
working in tandem with one another in order
to effectively reach users where they are.
According to an article by eMarketer, there are
more than 150 million people in the U.S. using
mobile phones to access social networks, with
58.6% of them accessing social networks at least
once a month. This means that the dynamic of
how consumers are choosing to engage with
the world around them has drastically shifted
— especially when it comes to interacting with
the brands. Even with Facebook being the most
trusted source for branded content, consumers
still get to choose what they engage with. That
means that marketers have to know exactly what
type of content goes where. Using the same
content from traditional media where consumers
are force-fed ads on a platform where users get
to choose what to engage with will result in poor
results. Instead, media strategies should work in
tandem to ensure a healthy mix of exposure and
Matt Augustin is the first social media strategist
at the McCann Network’s Fitzgerald & Company,
where he develops the social strategy for brands.
With a heart for service, Matt spearheads the
social media strategy for the Marcus Graham
Project, a program that aims to serve as an avenue
for minorities to truly change the face behind the
lens in the advertising industry. Matt also serves
on the local executive board for MAFA, a Chicago-
based networking group that coordinates events
and opportunities for diverse men and women
to connect with powerful professionals in the
advertising, marketing and PR communities.
92% of U.S. consumers
are multitasking while
they are watching
television.

24. 24
and then eventually from visitor to purchaser.
This identification or “traits” are important, as
these data points help in knowing more about
the user’s intent and then segmenting users into
the right groups. Bottom line is that with the
amount of big data available, marketers can
use it to their advantage to purposely inform
targeting by creating useful microsegments.
DESIGN
With key identified microsegments
comes the need to create relevant messages
that are aligned to the need state of a user. For
example, if you know that this group of users
has browsed a particular section of your site
(like baseball equipment), you know that the
only creative that would resonate the most to
this audience is about baseball. This is where
you can apply a customized site experience or
media ad for this group, including a personalized
call to action.
DISTRIBUTE
Once you have dynamic creative
optimized for a particular segment, another
challenge is placing the marketing messaging in
right context. This means deciding how to serve
a tennis creative to potential prospects when they
are looking for tennis news. In today’s marketing
world, the right placement is fundamental to
success as much as the right creative. If you
focus on the intent of the consumer, it provides
a direction for you to place the message at a
relevant place. We have seen examples where
when users go to a sports news site after a big
game win, they see offers to buy apparel/gear
featuring the hero of that game. This is where
you can take design and distribute to scale in a
contextual manner to drive impulse behavior.
In the end, by leveraging marketing
technologies, brands that extend digital media
targeting beyond consumer demographics and
focus on the “intent” of the consumer will see
higher results.
AUTHOR BIO p 39.
Personalized Marketing
@ Scale
Abhishek Jadon
Edited by Megha Ghildiyal
Senior Manager, Digital Strategy, Gatorade,
PepsiCo
digital
While browsing through the Internet,
have you ever noticed that when casually visiting
webpages or clicking on content, some ads
feel targeted and contextually relevant (seeing
advertisements featuring same apparel you just
viewed after visiting a fashion e-commerce
site), and sometimes what gets served is not
contextually relevant and, in some cases, the
message does not even fit the destination
environment (a pharmaceutical ad on sports
news website).
The fundamental difference between the
two situations is a marketer’s focus on delivering
contextually relevant, impactful communication
while keeping consumer’s intent at the core —
simply said, delivering the right message to the
right person at the right time.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
We live in a hyper-connected digital
world, where consumer behaviors are constantly
evolving. In the last five years, the way we
consume media, which devices we consume it
on, or even how we interact or share the media
has evolved drastically.
While the attention of today’s consumer
is shrinking to seconds, the desire to get
interesting and relevant content is still high. In
fact, studies have proved that consumers today
are open to receiving marketing messages or
advertisements if they either provide value or
are contextually relevant.
As the digital landscape continues to
evolve and as technology allows us to better
tag, serve and analyze digital media, the pressure
on marketers to adapt to this new way of
“personalized marketing” will only increase.
With the emergence of data management
platforms (DMPs) that allow better tracking
and understanding of consumer behaviors and
interests, this data coupled with any 3rd party
or owned analytics will provide clear, actionable
insights to serve more relevant and compelling
advertisements, thus delivering higher results.
DMPs will help segment audiences, and
brands will be able to serve different creative to
different microsegments. For example, if you
are a sports apparel e-commerce site, instead
of serving everyone with generic sports-based
banner ad, you would be able to segment your
total audience and serve a tennis-interested
audience with tennis-featured creative.
The key element is to learn from consumer
behavior on many attributes such as preferences,
platforms and purchases. Technology has
advanced to allow us to consolidate all these
behavioral data points and identify the intent of
consumer within the marketing funnel to deliver
a more compelling message.
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Beyond implementing any technology
solution, the future is taking a strategic approach
to collecting data and applying it across all digital
touchpoints to ultimately gain longitudinal
behavioral learning of your consumer. It starts
with recognizing your core consumer and
understanding the intent of that consumer and
where the person is in his/her journey on path
to purchase.
The three-stage framework below
outlines one possible approach to personalized
marketing through an example of a sports
apparel e-commerce site:
DATA
This stage is about identifying the key
attributes of your consumer that you want to
track. For example, as an e-commerce site, the
focus is to convert every prospect to a visitor
DATA
DISTRIBUTIONDESIGN
MAGIC
PERSONAS
ENGAGEMENT
CONNECTED
ECOSYSTEM
DEFINED
PLATFORM
DYNAMIC
CREATIVE
Right Person,
Right Message,
Right Time.

25. 25
digital
CONSUMERS AS EVANGELISTS
With consumers exposed to more than
5,000 ads a day (according to Yankelovich), their
attention is short. Consumers are not looking to
see the same ad that was on TV last week — they
are looking to be evangelists for new content.
They are excited by the opportunity to be the
first to share information with their friends
because that allows them to continue building
their online reputation. Brands must understand
that content is fleeting, and the value of being
relevant in the “now” moment of a consumer’s
mind is one of the most valuable places a brand
can be.
Influencer marketing is changing the way
modern marketers connect with consumers,
and it is time to embrace this new way of
marketing. Brands have been slow to adopt
influencer marketing, but forced advertising is
no longer effective. We can see a new wave of
influencer marketing emerging where brands
are in the conversation — they are driving the
conversations, and they are connecting with
consumers on a more personal level. Consumers
are your most important assets, and when
consumers love a brand, they are the strongest
advertising any brand will ever see. It is time
for marketers to invest in influencer marketing,
and we assure you that your brand will see the
impact.
The Influence of Influencer
Marketing
Tara Chang
Edited by Chinye Osamusali
Co-Founder,
Women’s Innovation Lab
Did you know that 31.2 million Facebook
messages are sent every minute? And 300 hours
of videos are uploaded to YouTube every
minute? With the rise of new social media
platforms, consumers are becoming more
connected than ever. Instead of turning to
brands to tell them what’s hot, they are turning
to their online communities and influencers to
find out the latest trends. Brands are no longer
able to bombard consumers through mass media
messaging because consumers have learned to
tune-out traditional advertising. With only 10
percent of consumers actually reading the copy
of ads (as noted by George Gallup’s research
with Young & Rubicam), smart marketers have
learned that it is essential to become part of the
consumer conversation.
There is a fragmentation of trust that
is plaguing the traditional advertising world.
Marketers are battling for consumers’ share of
attention and are being forced to adapt to new
pathways to connect with consumers. One of
the most effective ways is to partner with social
media influencers to help become a part of the
consumer conversation. Influencers are able to
organically reach consumers and brands now
have an opportunity to relate to customers at the
right place and in the right way.
THE CENTER OF INFLUENCER
MARKETING - SOCIAL CURRENCY
Influencer marketing has created a
new economy of social engagement where
individuals are able to capitalize on their own
user generated content. Their self-produced
content has become their online voice and
brought them social fame. Influencers are the
ones who hold the power of social currency.
By partnering with influencers, brands are able
to share their messages with their audiences
without being invasive. More importantly, they
influence the perception of the brand. By
partnering with these influencers, companies
are able to align their brand with a particular
message and online community. Marketers
should heed the opportunity to partner with
influencers to become a part of the conversation
with consumers.
SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE
While influencer marketing has proven to
be successful in gaining brand trust, it is only
possible when brands speak the language of
their consumer. If an auto company aligned
themselves with a 15-year old EDM (electronic-
dance music) influencer who doesn’t have a
driver’s license, consumers would question the
credibility of the influencer or could even have
a more negative view of the brand. So how do
brands find the right influencer to partner with?
It is about knowing the brand DNA, not just
who its target is. Many brands aim to capture the
attention of millennials, and it is essential that
the messaging be genuine. Instead of forcing a
brand message upon an influencer, many brands
have been successful by sending products to the
influencers. Consumers are trained to ignore
forced advertising, and a key way to effectively
communicate with them is through an honest
connection.
GIVE THE INFLUENCER FREEDOM
Influencers are focused on staying true
to their own brand. Some influencers will look
to partner with brands to generate revenue,
but the best influencers will do the same due
diligence on a brand as brands should be doing
on the influencer. Without giving influencers the
freedom to craft content that will resonate with
their fans, the resulting partnership content will
not be as effective. Despite predictive analytics
tools that can help determine the effectiveness
of content, influencers are the ones who know
their audience the best. They know the best type
of content that will keep their fans engaged.
HOW BRANDS BECOME PART OF THE
CONSUMER CONVERSATION
Tara Chang is the co-founder of Women’s
Innovation Lab, a leading female empowerment
platform that partners with corporations to drive
gender equality. As an expert in new marketing
technologies, she has served as the former vice
president of sales at Visible Measures, a leading
video advertising company, and as an advisor
for Revfluence, a social platform for influencer
marketing. She received her education from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University
of Oxford and the Kellogg School of Management.
Tara has won various awards and competitions
from DARPA, Facebook, Cisco, Macy’s and the City
of Boston.
Influencers are the ones
who hold the power of
social currency.
NU Alumni

26. Northwestern
University

27. 27
and match consumer demand. “Pipeline” hotel
companies are facing an economic challenge
to ensure that the asset commitment and, in
turn, high fixed costs generate occupancy rates
to deliver profitable outcomes. The disruption
generated by platforms and the consumer direct
involvement is impacting the volume needed for
these companies.
Pipeline companies are taking a look
at operating like a platform business. For
example, General Electric is re-inventing many
of its business units. In jet engines, GE is
building capabilities to capture data intelligence
resulting in lower maintenance costs, increased
efficiencies and product feature improvements
through community collaborations from
engineers and academics around the globe.
Consumers represent more than 2/3
of the economic GDP in the United States.
With a tough job market, many consumers
have taken personal reflective action. They are
motivated by the ability to create businesses on
their own and “float their personal assets” to
the marketplace for value. With advancement
in platform applications and social media, the
demand can be generated for a potentially
successful endeavor.
Beware, industrial age businesses will
need to protect their assets, their cost structures
and their profits by continuing to attract large
volumes of transactions. Consumer businesses
do not need to attract large volumes of
businesses to be successfully profitable. The
barrier to attract consumers, allows the smallest
of companies to be disruptively successful
through direct relationship delivery execution
using platform systems.
Advice for both pipeline and platform
businesses — be flexible, dream big, get direct
consumer relationships and “float” your assets
and costs into the marketplace.
By the way — garage available for winter
storage rent, anyone interested?
Platform Businesses
“Float Costs,” Consumers
Run Businesses
Tony Poidomani
Northwestern on digital
Edited by Joe Macdougall
Lecturer, Medill IMC Department,
Northwestern University
Have you ever experienced a taxi ride
without getting into a taxi? How about enjoying
a room accommodation without entering a
hotel? Consumers today are in a position to
deliver value as service suppliers and to become
demand generators. Technology platforms
created by companies such as Uber and Airbnb
are empowering consumers to take market
share through direct relationships and run
profitable businesses. Peer-to-peer commerce is
flourishing, and industrial age companies built
on 20th century processes are taking notice.
In a new book, Platform Revolution: How
Networked Markets are Transforming the Economy
and How to Make Them Work for You, the authors
Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne and
Sangeet Choudary offered the following to
characterize industrial age companies and new
technology platform companies:
• Pipeline businesses are built on
linear flows that link infrastructure,
people and processes. Assets are
leveraged and carry high fixed costs. The
value created is the transformation of
inputs to finished products.
• Platform businesses bring together
producers and consumers dynamically
in high-value exchanges of an
“ecosystem.” An “ecosystem” consists
of networks of partnerships, scores of
users and cooperation of governments to
deliver “on demand” services for the
economy. Assets are provided by the
consumers and costs are variable in
nature. The value created is derived
from the increased number of users
generating positive experiences and
defining themselves as communities.
Airbnb is a great example of a platform
with an “asset-lite” business model. The Airbnb
platform aggregates a personal consumer supply
of rooms with an easy-to-use app to capture
Tony Poidomani is an adjunct lecturer of financial
accounting at the Medill IMC program. For more
than 20 years, Tony has been an Executive MBA
instructor of accounting at Lake Forest Graduate
School of Management, receiving accolades for
Professor of the Year in 2007. Tony is currently a
partner in Azure Services, which delivers analytics
as a service, as well as a consultant, assisting
CFOs in project management, continuous
improvement and daily services.
Consumer businesses
do not need to attract
large volumes of
businesses to be
successfully profitable.

28. 28
Steve Jobs famously said, “It’s really
hard to design products by focus groups. A lot
of times, people don’t know what they want
until you show it to them.” This exercise is less
about having customers tell you what they want
or voting yes or no. The goal is to uncover the
reasons behind their vote. Getting to the “why”
helps uncover insights that provide guardrails for
innovation efforts.
For example, a clothing brand desiring
to become a lifestyle brand discovered it could
succeed with ideas that had strong functional
benefits, but it lacked the equity needed to
support self-expressive benefits. So any types
of innovations that had a high self-expression
quotient (like watches, perfume, purses, or
dress shoes) were out. Things like book bags,
sports apparel, gym accessories and casual travel
accessories — all quite strong. In a business
environment in constant search of growth,
this kind of information helps with go/no-go
decisions.
5. Prioritize the Most Promising Ideas
The previous efforts will yield an
assessment of your existing ideas and will likely
also generate additional ideas that emerge as part
of activities. At this point, emphasis shifts from
exploration to analysis, where the strongest ideas
undergo more comprehensive scrutiny and due
diligence to help management make a go/no-go
decision.
6. Assess Business — and Brand — Impact
In addition to typical business-oriented
metrics, it’s helpful to understand whether your
new offering helped to strengthen your brand’s
equity. Measuring brand awareness and meaning
with target audiences lets you know if your
innovation efforts are paying dividends back to
your brand.
Innovation is risky but necessary for any
thriving brand. Leveraging your brand’s equity
and using innovation pathways to bring structure
to the process helps reduce risk, accelerate
decision making and improve the chances for
success.
Sources:
1. Nielsen Breakthrough Innovation Report for Europe
2014, Fast Company, April 4, 2012
Brand-Driven Innovation
Ariel Goldfarb
Northwestern on brand
Edited by Sharon Liao
Adjunct Lecturer, Medill IMC Department,
Northwestern University, & Managing Partner,
CurtisAlan Partners
LEVERAGING THE INHERENT EQUITY
OF YOUR BRAND TO REDUCE RISK AND
INCREASE THE SUCCESS OF
INNOVATION EFFORTS.
Ariel Goldfarb is an adjunct lecturer at
Northwestern’s Medill IMC program and a
managing partner at CurtisAlan Partners, a
consultancy focused on helping organizations
become more customer driven. Ariel teaches
strategic brand management courses and is a
recipient of the 2010 Faculty Teaching Award.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from U.C. Berkeley
and a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing
Communications from Northwestern University.
Many things need to go right between
the germ of a new product or service idea and
its successful launch into the market. But if the
idea itself is small, so is the reward. This article
focuses on the beginning of the process: helping
marketers create bigger ideas and bigger rewards
— with less risk — for their brands.
BRAND “PATHWAYS” FOR
INNOVATION
While all innovation is risky, your brand
is a tool that can help reduce that risk. Using
brand equity and a brand’s innovation pathways
— the natural, intuitive means by which brands
extend — you can improve product development
efforts and inspire teams to try for bigger, more
rewarding innovations for your brand.
BABY STEPS VERSUS BIG LEAPS
Success statistics on innovation efforts are
not pretty. Numbers vary, but in general, failures
are estimated to be 40 to 75 percent. Given the
perceived challenges, companies make smaller,
safer bets in order to get a win. This tends to
promote incremental innovation — a new flavor
profile, an added ingredient or a new packaging
format. Not only does this deliver similarly small
incremental rewards, but also contributes to
product proliferation and cannibalization. It is the
bigger leaps — extending into new categories —
that offer bigger rewards: creating new customers,
increasing brand awareness, enhancing brand
equity and creating new franchises. Brand-driven
innovation leverages the equity in your brand to
help make these bigger bets a little bit safer.
There are generally six steps in pursuing
brand-driven innovation:
1. Understand Your Brand – Map Brand Equity with
Target Audiences
Customers use brands to help them
make decisions. Whatever associations they
have — that’s the brand’s equity. It’s not just
awareness but the subjective thoughts, feelings
and perceptions they link to your brand. These
are the gatekeepers of purchase decisions. For
example, would you feel more comfortable
buying a self-driving car from Nikon or from
Hello Kitty? If you dig in a bit to ask yourself
why, you’ll see it’s the associations you carry for
each brand — each brand’s equity — that helps
you make your decision.
2. Position for Growth – Articulate Future /
Aspirational Brand Equity
Brand-driven innovation leverages your
brand’s existing equity to increase chances
of success for your new offering. But there
is a second goal — each new offering should
ideally further strengthen your brand’s equity.
This happens when new offerings are well
received and seem to “fit” with the brand.
They in turn create additional strong, positive,
unique associations that strengthen and expand
the meaning of your brand. For example, by
creating their own salons, Aveda expanded their
meaning from just haircare products to haircare
and styling. To do this, you need to know where
you want to take your brand. This is done
through brand strategy, and more specifically,
positioning. In positioning your brand, you
define the future meaning your brand will create.
3. Team Task – Generate Ideas Using Innovation
Pathways
Having an understanding of where your
brand is today and where you want to take it
going forward sets the stage for exploring your
brand’s innovation pathways (see callout for the
paths). These are simply paths of logic by which
customers perceive the appropriateness and fit
of a new offering. An idea can travel multiple
paths but usually has a primary one. The more
paths it is perceived to travel by target audiences,
the greater the likelihood for success.
4. Explore the Possibilities with Target Audiences
Enlist your target audiences to test your
ideas and also generate new ones. It’s a research
exercise that incorporates creativity, as well as a
creativity exercise that incorporates research. The
brand innovation pathways are used again here.
The goal is to see which paths target audiences
are most comfortable traveling down, how far
they are willing to go, and most importantly, why.

29. 29
Northwestern on brand
Higher-level benefits derived from
origin products and services
- 7th Generation products (diapers,
light bulbs, cleaners, etc.)
- Coach leather in Lexus cars
Emotional Benefits
Products and services relating to the
brand’s identity
- Swiss Army fragrances
- Ralph Lauren paint
Brand Identity
Perceived to be within the competencies
of your company
- Kellogg’s Breakfast-To-Go
- Coleman backyard products
Core Competency
Perceived similarity to origin products
and services
- Jeep mountain boards
- Rolls Royce jet engines
Product Attributes
Low-level benefits derived from origin
products and services
- Tide-To-Go instant stain remover
pens
- Clorox mop and disinfecting wipes
Functional Benefits
Products / services relating to the
brand experience
- Nike golf camps
- Toro lawn irrigation systems
Usage Context
© Copyright CurtisAlan Partners LLC
Brand-Driven Pathways
There are six innovation pathways used internally to generate ideas and externally with target audiences
to assess the fit of your ideas. In addition to definitions and examples of each, the framework below can
be used to visually map idea rankings:

30. 30
to read the review .
Kim et al. (2016) focuses on situations
where consumers are actually reading reviews and
finding the “right” length of review. The “right”
length of a review probably depends on the
category, where consumers may be willing to read
longer reviews for a high-involvement purchase
(such as a washing machine) but less willing
to read a long review for a low-involvement
purchase (such as shampoo).
TAKEAWAY: Understand the circumstances in
which reviews have uncommonly high and low
influence on purchases.
THERE’S A GREATER IMPACT FROM
ACTUAL, VERIFIED BUYERS.
From “Understanding and overcoming biases in customer
reviews” (2016a)
Askalidis and Malthouse (2016a) explore
the difference between verified buyers and
anonymous reviewers. Nearly all reviews from
verified buyers were in response to an email
sent to customer after purchase, where the
customer can submit a rating with a single click.
Anonymous reviewers must find the webpage for
a particular product and create a login to write a
review. Depending on the retailer, the valence of
reviews from verified buyers is between 0.5 and 1
star higher than from anonymous reviewers. An
explanation for this finding is the self-selection
bias —those who had a negative experience
are more likely to invest the effort to find the
right page to write the review, while responding
to an email is much easier and includes a more
representative set of customers.
TAKEAWAY: Consider incentivizing reviewers
to write reviews to obtain more reviews from
verified buyers.
Sources:
Askalidis and Malthouse (2016a), Understanding and
overcoming biases in customer reviews, under review at Decision
support systems.
Askalidis and Malthouse (2016b), The value of
online customer reviews, accepted at ACM Conference on
Recommender Systems.
Kim, Maslowska and Malthouse (2016), Disentangling
the Effect of Online Product Review Features on Purchase Behavior,
ICORIA, Ljubljana.
Maslowska, Malthouse, Bernritter (2016), Too good to be
true: The Role of Online Reviews’ Features in Probability to Buy,
International Journal of Advertising.
Maslowska, Viswanathan, Malthouse (2016), Do
Customer Reviews Drive Purchase? The Moderating Roles of
Review Exposure and Product Involvement, under review at
Decision support systems.
AUTHORS BIOS p 39.
Evidence of the Influence and
Value of Customer Reviews
for Purchase Decisions
Spiegel Research Center
Northwestern on data
Edited by Chinye Osamusali
Edward C. Malthouse, Ewa Maslowska, Yorgos
Askilidis, Su Jung Kim, Tom Collinger, Vijay
Viswanathan, Chinye Osamusali
Now, more than ever, consumers
have more control over how they share their
brand experiences — good or bad — with
the global audience. Online customer reviews
(OCRs) are becoming increasingly important
— various surveys report that consumers trust
recommendations or opinions from other
consumers more than traditional forms of
advertising such as commercials or product
placements on mass media. Given the importance
of OCRs, the Spiegel Research Center (SRC)
conducted a series of studies to help companies
understand the effects of reviews on consumers
and help marketers better manage OCRs.
MODEL TO ASSESS IMPACT OF
REVIEWS ON A BRAND AND
CATEGORY.
From “The value of online customer reviews” (2016b)
Askalidis and Malthouse (2016b) devised a
method to assess the overall value of reviews to
a brand. The method studies how the conversion
rate changes as more reviews are added to a
brand. The difference between the conversion
rate with no reviews and the conversion rate with
a large number of reviews is the value of reviews.
The overall conversion rate is low when there are
no reviews and increases 270% as the number of
reviews increase (see graphs on p.31).
TAKEAWAY: Forecast the impact of reviews on
sales.
REVIEWS HAVE A GREATER EFFECT
WHEN THERE IS A HIGHER VOLUME.
From “Do Customer Reviews Drive Purchase? The
Moderating Roles of Review Exposure and Product
Involvement” (2016)
Additionally, Maslowska et al. (2016) expect
for the average star rating (valence) of reviews to
have a greater effect when there are many reviews
than when there are few for several reasons: (1)
it could signal to the prospective buyer that the
product is popular; (2) it shows that other people
who have purchased the product care enough to
make the effort to write a review; (3) the volume
may indicate reliability and trustworthiness; or
(4) consumers will rely on the summary valence
measure rather than reading individual reviews
(see tables on p.31).
TAKEAWAY: Encourage customers to write
reviews after purchasing a product.
PERFECT RATINGS MAKE OCRS
SEEM “TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.”
From “Too Good to be True: The Role of Online
Reviews’ Features in Probability to Buy” (2016)
While valence has a general positive effect
on purchase, Maslowka, Malthouse and Bernritter
(2016) are able to qualify this conclusion. This
study shows that when a product has all five-star
reviews (so that the valence is 5), the purchase
probability is a bit less than when valence is less
than 5, that is, when not all reviews are perfect.
The purchase probabilities peek when valence is
about 4.5 stars, across the eight categories and
four companies researched. An explanation for
this finding is that consumers perceive a product
having all five-star reviews as being too good to
be true and become skeptical.
TAKEAWAY: Do not filter out negative reviews,
as they may positively influence sales.
OCRS HAVE A GREATER EFFECT
ON CUSTOMERS WHO CHOOSE TO
READ THEM.
From “Do Customer Reviews Drive Purchase? The
Moderating Roles of Review Exposure and Product
Involvement” and “Disentangling the Effect of Online
Product Review Features on Purchase Behavior” (2016)
According to Maslowska et al. (2016),
there are several reasons why a customer may
choose to read reviews. Many times, it reflects
the consumer’s uncertainty about the product.
Someone who does not choose to read reviews
either does not trust them or does not need
additional information, perhaps because they
have purchased the product before. Either way,
we would expect the valence of the reviews to
have a stronger effect on someone who chooses

31. 31
Northwestern on data
Graphs
Tables
Effect of Number of Displayed
Reviews on the Conversion
Rate
The Effects of Average
Star Ratings on Purchase
Behaviours

32. communication.

33. 33
A Non-Writer’s Guide to
Storytelling
Kirsten Longnecker
Edited by Natasha Smith
Director,
Kasasa
FOUR SHIFTS TO BETTER MARKETING
THROUGH MESSAGING
• Limit the types of graphics under
consideration.
You’ll create opportunities to intrigue
and engage with the sheer unexpectedness of
creativity.
4. Think in Fractals
Good marketing is like fractal geometry,
where smaller patterns are reflected in the makeup
of a larger pattern. When every user interaction
both reflects the whole and stands out singularly,
you’re headed in the right direction.
Make sure each piece of collateral and
every part of the reader journey reflects the larger
roadmap you’re setting forth for your audience.
There are simple ways to do this, and they relate
back to the previous tips.
START STORYTELLING
Probably the hardest part about becoming
a better storyteller is embracing that you’re
in charge of perception. Second hardest is
embracing your unique skills at crafting story. At
risk of a Swiftian slip, I encourage you to shake
it off and just start. Start with a foundation of
authenticity and transparency — that’s being
generous with your reader. Layer on metaphor
that’s meaningful to your demographic, which
provides shared context and predictive clues.
Create purposefully within the parameters
your team agrees on to rev up creativity and,
therefore, response.
Whether you’re a natural storyteller or
find yourself responsible for messaging as part
of your role, writing for marketing should feel
like an anticipated journey when you execute
these ideas. You’ll connect more genuinely and
more often.
If you’re in marketing, you’re a storyteller.
Whether you’re tweaking online ads or dreaming
up the “Case Study That Disrupted the Industry”
— and whether or not you’re even aware —
you’re storytelling. As the publisher of persuasive
ideas, you’ll do a better job when you apply more
spit and polish to your writing skills.
How could something as basic as writing
make such a difference to the consumer decision
path? Because poor writing is a mental speed
bump. When readers are jarred from in-the-
moment enjoyment of shared understanding,
of illumination, of converging thought, they’re
bumped back to a mindset of skepticism. Or
worse, they bounce. Anything that creates a
feeling of “this isn’t for me” at any stage of the
user’s brand experience is a lost opportunity.
When you clear the path of obstacles with
transparent, generous and intriguing messaging,
you create a real relationship with readers that
extends beyond page or screen.
Even better than the “we’re in this
together” feeling that good storytelling creates
is the fact that YOU created it. Here are four
mental shifts you can make today to be a better
marketer by being a better storyteller. You’ll see
immediate improvement in connectivity, clicks
and conversions.
1. Pass the B.S. Test
Readers can tell when you’re trying to
manipulate them. How many times have you
heard in a meeting, “But what are we trying to
get them to do?”
For all the eye-pattern tests and CTA-
button conversations that go on, the real road to
connection is authenticity. And the way to get to
authenticity in copy is to ask yourself continually,
“But why?” Peel back the layers of justification
to reveal the kernel of what you’re offering
and what you’re asking in return. Transparency
forces you into a WIIFT (what’s in it for them?)
mentality. You’ll shift naturally to using the word
“you” more often, and your messaging will shed
language that doesn’t sound like the way real
people talk.
Talk in truths. Truth builds trust; trust
builds relationships; relationships build business.
2. Make it a Mashup
A mashup is when two seemingly disparate
things come together. Think the a capella songs in
the Pitch Perfect movies. Layering the song “Just
the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars with “Just a
Dream” by Nelly infuses new melodic texture
and meaning to lyrics with which we’re familiar
(or with which our kids are familiar).
Now apply that idea to messaging. When
you create a messaging mashup, you’re layering
metaphor with a marketing pitch. Applying
metaphor to a story arch gives it the structure
it needs. Better yet, it automatically makes your
content more accessible to the reader.
Mashups are shortcuts to understanding.
They smooth the speed bumps, leading to the
metrics we so love in marketing, such as increased
time on page, social sharing and clicks.
3. Create Within Confines
“Draw your frame,” the professor said on
day one of Drawing 101. At the time, I thought
it was redundant to draw a border within the
border of the sketch paper. Soon I came to see
the method to his making-me-mad-ness, and I
learned a larger lesson — creativity thrives within
parameters.
Tight turnaround times, limited color
palettes, compliance regulations, word-count
maximums — these are the realities of our
industry. When you reframe these “frames” into
creative challenges, you switch your brain’s track
from check-the-box mode to problem-solving
mode.
To turn on your creative, problem-solving
self, try these self-imposed practices:
• Write with economy.
• Edit with impunity.
• Artificially shorten deadlines.
communication
Kirsten Longnecker oversees corporate
communications, PR, social media, content
strategy and client panel research for Kasasa
(formerly BancVue). From her early days
writing rhymed pentameter for Hallmark Cards
to architecting communication for a highly
regulated industry, Kirsten trusts that creativity
thrives within confines. At Kasasa, she and her
badass team drive engagement for community
financial institutions while maintaining brand
awareness for the Kasasa suite of free reward
checking and savings products designed to give
the megabanks a run for their money.
Poor writing
is a mental speed
bump.

34. 34
Public Relations Means
Business
Dr. Matthew W. Ragas
communication
Edited by Jesse Daniels
Associate Professor & Academic Director, PR &
Advertising, DePaul University
ADDRESSING THE NEED FOR
GREATER BUSINESS ACUMEN
• Also, for senior leaders, get every
member of your team — not just
corporate and financial communicators —
listening to the quarterly earnings
conference calls of your company,
competitors or clients. SeekingAlpha.
com is a free source for accessing earnings
call transcripts. Your team will become
more business savvy by understanding
how Wall Street analysts and investors
think (and react).
Bottom-line, public relations can have
the greatest impact when it serves as counselor
on C-suite decisions before they are made not
simply playing message manager after the fact.
To earn this role means having a business-savvy
communication function from the top on down.
Sources:
1. “The New CCO: Transforming Enterprises in a
Changing World.” AWPageSociety.com. Arthur W. Page
Society, March 2016.
2. Neill, Marlene and Erin Schauster. “Gaps in
Advertising and Public Relations Education: Perspectives of Agency
Leaders.” Journal of Advertising Education, Fall 2015, pp.
5-17.
3. Ragas, Matthew, and Ron Culp. Business
Essentials for Strategic Communicators: Creating Shared
Value for the Organization and its Stakeholders. Palgrave
Macmillan: New York. 2014.
Public relations is growing up. The chief
communications officer (CCO) increasingly has
a seat at the table alongside the chief marketing
officer (CMO) and other C-level executives.
Public relations professionals no longer simply
craft messages announcing policy decisions that
have already been made but often now have a
hand in the development of such policies.
With such greater responsibility comes
greater expectations and a shift in the skills and
competencies needed among all communication
professionals. The Arthur W. Page Society, an
association for communication leaders, sees the
future of the CCO along three dimensions: the
foundational CCO (business leader/counselor,
enterprise reputation steward, effective
communicator), the integrator and the builder of
digital engagement systems.
To fulfill this mandate, PR and
communications professionals — from junior
ranks on up — need a deeper grounding in
“the business of business.” In today’s complex
business environment, the best communicators
are businesspeople with an expertise in
communication that can make a business case
behind their recommendations.
Research bears out that business acumen
is increasingly seen as a must-have skill for young
communication professionals but that universities
and training programs are generally falling short.
For example, recent research by Marlene Neill
and Erin Schauster, based on interviews with PR
and ad agency executives, found that business
acumen was the second most identified skill
lacking in graduates, topped only by writing skills.
This deficiency is not just limited to
young professionals but even in the more senior
ranks of the profession as well. For example,
Gary Sheffer, former CCO of General Electric,
openly shares that when he joined GE (his first
“corporate job”), he did not know what “organic
growth” meant. Sheffer at that point had deep
professional experience in journalism and public
affairs but needed to engage in a crash course in
business and finance upon joining GE.
Given this gap between the need for
greater business acumen and professionals
falling short in this competency area, I offer the
following four actionable recommendations:
• For younger professionals, become an
expert in the language of business and
finance by making business news part of
your daily routine. There is perhaps no
better place to start than The Wall Street
Journal and CNBC. Also, read Warren
Buffett’s annual shareholder letter.
• For mid-career professionals, take
advantage of in-house training programs
on the business of business and seek out
opportunities for external training. This
might mean earning a graduate degree,
such as an MBA. Or it could mean
completing the CFA Institute’s Claritas
investment certificate or NIRI’s new
Investor Relations Charter (IRC) program.
• For senior leaders, quickly build
constructive relationships across the
enterprise before you need them with your
colleagues in finance, legal, accounting,
marketing, human resources and other
C-level functions. Tap into the institutional
knowledge of these colleagues to learn
the nuances of the business, the industry
and the organizational culture.
Matt Ragas is an associate professor and
academic director in the public relations and
advertising graduate program in the College
of Communication at DePaul University. An
award-winning researcher and teacher, Matt
has authored three books and more than 60
articles, book chapters, papers and reports.
Prior to academia, he worked in financial
journalism, investment research and strategic
communication consulting. He holds a Ph.D.
from the University of Florida, as well as an M.S. in
management and B.S. in business administration
from the University of Central Florida.
Business acumen is
increasingly seen as
a must-have skill for
young communication
professionals

35. 35
A Brief Look at the State of
PR in Mexico
Olga Oro Coppel
Edited & Translated by Ruben Bravo Castano
President, PRORP Asociación A.C.
& CEO, Mex PR Digital
The way in which we understand public
relations has been changing over the past few
years.
The bulletins, newsletters and press releases
which were once created by media departments
in public offices to help the government
communicate with its partners are now produced
by firms and professionals that specialize in
managing information and, specifically, in the
art of communications. Globalization and the
economic and political players’ needs to inform
their internal and external stakeholders about
what happens across the country have forced
both firms and the government itself to rely on
the experience of public relations agencies to
recover their credibility.
With technological development that allows
us to access information in a blink, the practice
of public relations has become increasingly
professionalized. Public relations changed
qualitatively, becoming a communications
channel through which organizations present
their strategies and their operations to the
public. Public relations have become essential to
organizations. The end consumer requests more
information and with higher quality, not only
about the products and services they consume
but also about the character and values of the
company that produces them.
One of the major transformations that
has happened in the world of public relations is,
precisely, that the people who are in charge of
them are no longer just simple spokespersons
but also storytellers for the organizations they
represent. They now tell us a more comprehensive
story about their organizations, their products,
the industries they belong to, the mishaps they
have overcome and how sometimes their crises
have become opportunities.
The hard data and facts coming from the
public relations sector show steady economic
growth, an undeniable professionalization
of those who work for niche and specialized
agencies and the corporate public relations
departments. According to the figures extracted
from the annual survey conducted by Asociación
Mexicana de Profesionales de Relaciones
Públicas (PRORP Asociación, A.C.), the industry
of public relations was valued at $6.268 billion
in Mexican Peso in 2014, showing an apparent
tendency toward investment in growth. This
growth is fueled by the increasing focus on
corporate reputation management and intangible
elements, such as credibility, trust, engagement
and authenticity, that have become more valued
in this digital era. This survey shows the level
of maturity of the industry and how this new
discipline has been accepted in the market.
Public relations in Mexico have changed.
Without a doubt, the most efficient way to reach
a target market or a niche for a public relations
professional is no longer talking about a product
or service. Their communication strategies need
to express an organization’s values, its philosophy,
its compromise and its responsibility to the
environment and society in general.
communication
Olga Oro is a public relations and strategic
communications professional with more than
30 years of experience working with companies
such as Microsoft, Intel, HP and SAP. Currently, she
is the CEO of Mex PR Digital, a strategy consulting
firm in México City, and teaches the digital PR
course at the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios
Superiores de Monterrey. Olga is the immediate
past president of PRORP, one of the largest PR and
communications associations in Mexico.
The industry of public
relations was valued
at $6.268 billion in
Mexican Peso in 2014.

36. 36
Warren Buffet said, “It takes 20 years to
build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If
you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Today’s high-tech, competitive marketplace
leaves little room for error for any organization
trying to protect its reputation. What starts as
an unknowingly lax approach to email security
turns into a massive data breach. Within minutes,
an organization can slip into crisis mode with
little chance of coming out unscathed. The
problem — no matter the size or intention of
an organization, issues will happen. The solution
— manage the issue before it becomes a crisis by
developing a well-defined preparedness plan led
and managed by the corporate communications
function.
THE POWER OF A PLAN
Nothing is less motivating than planning
for the worst. But it’s the planning that will
allow an organization to mobilize quickly when
an issue arises. Depending on the severity of
the issue, there may only be hours to address
the problem before it negatively impacts an
organization’s reputation. This is particularly true
once news media get involved. A well-organized
plan allows you to anticipate the potential issues,
assign a team to resolve them and have a clear
approach to messaging, policies and other
protocols. When problems are contained and
addressed quickly, an organization’s reputation
is more likely to remain intact.
Don’t Panic, Plan
S. Kneisler & T. Van Ryne
communication
Edited by Alison Golensky & Yudi Gao
Senior Manager, Business Communications
& Director, Global Public Relations,
Zebra Technologies
HOW TO STRUCTURE A CRISIS
COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM
TO PROMOTE PREPAREDNESS
4. Guidebook Building
Gathering scenarios, teams and processes
into a single document will serve as the foundation
of the program and house critical messaging
that will make crisis mobilization efficient. This
guidebook should reflect the structure of the
plan and, more specifically, detail approved
messaging for each scenario. Given the sensitive
nature of the information, the guidebook should
be hosted on a password-protected intranet or
file-sharing site and printed as a hard copy in
a secure area if computer and internet access
becomes unavailable.
MAINTAINING MOMENTUM
A dated, inaccurate plan can be as
ineffective as no plan, so it’s critical to ensure
crisis plans are consistently reviewed and
updated. This can be done both in real time
and through a quarterly review. During a regular
review, you are evaluating whether scenarios
are still relevant and if there are new, potential
issues to add. You are also identifying and
confirming members of the response team and
engaging with them to ensure their awareness of
their roles. To keep the plan content fresh and
the team energized, executing a bi-annual team
call and/or quarterly newsletters around the
plan and processes are a simple way to ensure
the continued momentum you started when
first bringing your crisis plan to life.
PROGRAM BASICS
1. Scenario planning
A solid crisis communications program
starts with understanding your organization’s
potential issues. Some common scenarios include
workplace violence and labor relations; other
issues are industry specific such as product recalls
or supply chain problems. To identify the most
relevant issues, survey an array of company
leaders to learn what is top of mind for them.
You will soon be able to identify key themes for
a detailed and actionable plan, capturing only the
most relevant scenarios.
2. Role definition
Once scenarios are defined, build a crisis
response team and divide roles by strategic,
tactical and communication responsibilities
(Figure 1).
3. Protocol identification
It’s critical to define how the crisis team
will mobilize when an issue arises. This includes
creating an escalation process and workflow for
sharing information. Not all issues require the
same response and mobilization, so understanding
the differences of severity will enable you to
respond more efficiently. For example, defining
issue escalation with “yellow-orange-red” will
determine if a small group monitors a minor
situation (yellow) or if you mobilize all levels
of the response team to address a massive issue
(red).
There are many app providers that specialize
in crisis preparedness. A password-protected
app gives on-demand access to crisis
communications guidebooks and provides
a quick way for your crisis response team to
identify and resolve issues.
Did you know ?
Stephanie Kneisler is the senior manager of
business communications for Zebra Technologies.
In her role, she is responsible for global executive
and employee communications, which includes
developing communications platforms for
key leaders in the business to enhance both
their internal and external brands and ensure
messages are received and properly understood
by all Zebra team members to influence
employee engagement and lead to meaningful
dialogs across the organization.
Therese Van Ryne is the director of global public
relations, industry analyst relations and customer
references for Zebra Technologies. In this role, she
is focused on helping grow company sales and
awareness by driving Zebra’s thought leadership
strategy aligned with core business goals and
objectives.
Strategic
Level
Tactical
Level
Communi-
cations /
Support Level
Role within Company Role within Crisis
Response Team
General Responsibilities within
Crisis Response Team
C-Suite, legal
Select business leads (e.g., leaders
of various levels who align to the
issues identified and should be able
to represent their function well and
make business decisions)
Corporate communications,
IT, subject matter experts (as
needed)
Preparedness
Resource Management
• Planning
• Training and exercises
• Personnel and equipment certifications
• Identify resources
• Mobilize resources
• Reimbursement
• Develop information policies
• Develop and manage communications systems
• Develop and use common terminology and
interoperability standards
• Disseminate communications
Incident Management • On-scene command and control procedures for
the issues that pertain to their company role or
department function
Communications and
Information Management
Figure 1: ROLE DEFINITION

37. 37
communication
writers; some are good on camera and others not.
Know your CEO and put them in environments
where they can most authentically tell their story.
Two heartfelt speeches (that can be repurposed
in many ways) can be more valuable than 100
tweets.
4. It’s a team sport
Leadership is the job of more than one
individual. If the higher cause is women in
leadership, then the actions and narrative must
be carried by leaders through all facets of the
company like HR, operations, sales, R&D and
legal.
5. Silence is not an option
The executive may believe that the risk of
being more visible outweighs the benefits, but
silence can be as damaging as it is deafening. By
opting out of the conversation, you’re admitting
you have nothing to add, you let others narrate
your story and you miss an opportunity to make
even greater gains.
Today, those CEOs who will have the
most lasting impact on the world are those who
can authentically create more value and purpose
by demonstrating a wider concern for those
who work for, with and around them. As senior
communicators, we can help them understand
why reaching for that greater purpose is worth
the risk — for them, their business and society.
Sources:
“How authentic companies behave in a more demanding
world.” The Authenticity Gap Report 2015-16.
Preparing Your CEO
for the Role of
Senior Statesman
Marjorie Benzkofer
Edited by Christina Dreher
Global Managing Director,
Reputation Management Practice,
FleishmanHillard Inc.
There is a need for a stronger voice of
leadership in the C-Suite, but many executives
struggle to articulate how and why their business
matters to society.
As communicators, we must be better
prepared to help guide these executives to tell
the story beyond managing the company and
articulate its relevance to society and the larger
issues of the day. Today’s most influential CEOs
will not only be captains of their enterprise but
also senior statesmen in society.
Numerous studies show that society
believes business is more likely than government
to solve tough societal problems. Business
has perhaps the most influential role in how
we tackle job creation, healthcare, affordable
and sustainable access to food, and balancing
environmental preservation and commerce.
Research done each year by
FleishmanHillard on how companies can behave
more authentically shows there is a growing gap
between our rising expectations for management
to do the right thing and our declining experiences
of seeing those leaders make decisions or
take actions motivated by a greater good. That
widening chasm undermines credibility, threatens
growth and slows progress.
Despite our growing expectations, today’s
titans of business often struggle to find their
voice and play a role as leaders of our time. Today,
we need a new kind of leader — one I’ll call the
Human CEO — an individual who demonstrates
principle, passion and purpose. And one who
does so not from atop the corporate ladder, but
alongside us. A new study from the WP Carey
School of Business found that humble CEOs
are perceived as stronger because they motivate
the people around them. A purpose-driven
CEO becomes even more important in leading
internally as the workforce approaches being 75
percent millennials, a generation that is attracted
to and motivated by purpose.
There are two types of CEO leadership —
those who are deeply focused on most efficiently
and effectively running their business and driving
growth, and those who understand that rolling up
their sleeves and diving into some larger, messier
issues beyond their business can have far greater
impact. CEOs don’t always stay cast as one or
the other. When crafting any CEO strategy, it’s
important to know where your executive lives at
the moment.
There are some important principles to
keep in mind in counseling a CEO into the role
of statesman:
1. Vision
Too often vision statements are simply an
aspiration for the company. It should be about
how the present can be changed into a desirable
future, both at the company level and, even more
meaningfully, at a larger societal level. Articulating
how is the key to talking about more than just
the company and finding a broader platform that
speaks to a larger societal need.
2. It’s a conversation
Often CEOs shy away from speaking
about larger problems because they don’t have all
the answers, and their companies aren’t without
blemishes. Being a statesman and a leader
can mean simply being willing to convene a
conversation about these tough issues. Whether it
is access to affordable healthcare or fair working
conditions, a corporate statesmen – the Human
CEO – is willing to stand up and say we need to
talk about solutions.
3. Authenticity is about quality, not quantity
Every CEO has a different communication
style. Some are better on their feet in live Q&A
than scripted; some are natural orators but terrible
Marjorie Benzkofer works at the intersection of
brand and reputation, helping organizations
close the gap to better achieve business goals.
As global leader of FleishmanHillard’s reputation
management practice, Marjorie leads the
firm’s work around authenticity – customized
business solutions that improve organizations’
ability to more authentically engage with their
stakeholders. Marjorie regularly works with
CMOs, CCOs and C-Suite executives to manage
both brand and reputation. Marjorie has put
together award-winning programs for clients
that help align employee performance behind
an organization’s goals. She graduated from
Northwestern University.
Humble CEOs are
perceived as stronger
because they motivate
the people around
them.
NU Alumni

38. 38
How can a brand engage with a 30-second TV
ad to this target? It is not about being just on TV
or just in social media. There is an obvious trend
of advertising shifting gears to be mostly online
oriented, but you don’t want to allocate 100% of
your budget from TV to social media because
your competitor is certainly not going to do it.
It is more about spending the right mix in each
channel and having a smooth transition. Think
about the message your brand is delivering, and
make it disruptive.
MAKE THEM FEEL A PART OF THE
EXPERIENCE
Most millennials are not brand loyal —
they resonate with brands that understand their
personality, and they especially do not like to
be marketed to. In fact, they are looking for the
experience and the added value a brand can give
them.
Therefore, it is our responsibility as brand
owners to understand what millennials are looking
for, know the latest trends, and most importantly,
enhance the brand experience to which they are
exposed. In fact, for this target, it not only about
the price, but it is more about what is the best
deal they can get on a differentiated experience
from a brand who understands them.
In order to continue being a top choice
brand for millennials, it is key to be aware of
these trends. And as a brand owner, you and your
team should be constantly looking for what is
next. Adjusting fast, but even more importantly,
understanding what is relevant for your target in
order to make a difference on the results you can
accomplish.
Speaking the Millennial
Language
A. Sanchez Ferro,
Edited by Chinye Osamusali
Former Latin-America Brand Manager,
Kimberly-Clark
The marketing landscape is ever changing
with millennials being hard to reach and
expecting more from companies and brands
than other generations.
As a BCG Perspectives article quotes,
millennials represent the consumer market of
the future, and they expect something different
from brands than previous generations — they
expect reciprocity, a two-way mutual relationship
with companies and brands. In fact, it is
not about just targeting millennials as a group
— there are at least six different types of sub
segments, as this BCG report shows. Therefore,
it is key to be mindful of these differences
before building a marketing strategy to reach this
very relevant target.
So, is there a seamless but impactful way
to talk to millennials and become their brand of
choice?
Connecting to these consumers in the
right place, at the right time and in the right
way is easy to say but not easy to accomplish.
Brands need to understand what this generation
is looking for and how to become part of their
world by learning about their personality.
BE FAST, BE PRESENT
Many millennials are early adopters —
they enjoy trying new things and are looking for
real-time responsiveness. For this generation,
having an instant gratification is one of the
most relevant things that a brand should take
into consideration.
Imagine being a busy and tech-savvy
millennial who is working in a cybersecurity
startup during the day, developing his own idea
in his free time, and obviously also wanting to
share time with friends. So to accomplish all of
this in just 24-hours, there is no time for this
millennial to wait for a seat in a restaurant or
stand in line to buy groceries or, even more,
go to a clothing store, try several outfits and
wait in line to pay. This generation wants to
devote the least amount of time to these tasks
and more time to fulfilling their dreams. This
is why companies such as Instacart, Uber or
Venmo are attracting more users because they
focus on learning about their target’s needs and
motivations, as well as making things happen
fast — with just one click.
TELL A STORY, BUT THE SAME
STORY
One of the most common mistakes that
many brands make is trying to be in every social
media platform. They do not take a step back to
realize if it is relevant for them to be present in all
of them or if their brand message is consistent in
every touchpoint.
One can visit a brand’s website and then
go to their social media channels and find a
completely different brand tone and message.
Having an Omni-channel strategy, which is based
in providing a seamless shopping experience to a
customer, helps a brand deliver its message across
all the online and offline target touchpoints.
MULTI-SCREEN CONSUMERS
Another challenge is not only learning
what is the best way talk to millennials but also
how to grasp their attention. This generation has
managed to challenge what advertising means
and how it is executed.
Picture a day in a millennial’s life — they
are multi-tasking, using their smartphones
and laptops, while watching TV and being
surrounded by friends —all at the same time.
HOW TO SPREAD YOUR BRAND
MESSAGE AND BE RELEVANT
Andrea Sanchez is originally from Peru and has
been working in brand management for more
than five years in CPG companies such as Colgate
Palmolive and Kimberly Clark. Prior to Kellogg,
she managed Kleenex and Huggies brand for the
Latin-American region in terms of the strategy
planning, innovation pipeline and advertising
campaigns. In addition, she has a passion for
teaching and during her free time, she taught
marketing classes to undergrads in a well-known
Peruvian University and volunteered to help low
income entrepreneurs to build business plans.
For millennials, having
an instant gratification
is one of the most
relevant things that a
brand should take into
consideration.
communication
NU Alumni

39. 39
Amanda Slavin is a millennial and Generation Z
expert and the CEO/founder of CatalystCreativ,
an experience studio focused on helping cities,
brands and institutions flourish by developing
educational and inspirational strategy, along with
on and offline campaigns to engage millennials.
Amanda and CatalystCreativ have worked with
brands spanning from NPR, Dell, Ekocycle and
Starwood Hotels. Amanda was listed on last
year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 for marketing and
advertising. She is a founding advisory board
member for NPR’s millennial arm, GenListen, and
an advisor to Mama Hope and I Am That Girl.
Abhishek Jadon leads content and data strategy
for Gatorade. In this role, he is responsible
for developing digital branded content that
focuses on authentic storytelling and for the
implementation of marketing technologies
to drive media optimization and content
personalization at scale. He brings 11-plus years
of experience in executing digital campaigns,
conceptualizing digital strategy and leveraging
technological trends at leading CPG companies,
including Pepsi, Kraft and Cadbury. He provides a
unique perspective informed by a global mindset
developed through an international exposure
of living and working in four different countries
along with roles within cross-functional teams.
Cyndi W. Greenglass is a founding partner and
senior vice president of strategic solutions at
Diamond Marketing Solutions, a $100M data-
driven communications company. Cyndi is a
member of the executive management team,
where she manages the strategic planning
process and participates in strategic acquisitions.
Cyndi was named into the Top 100 Influential BTB
Marketers by Crain’s B@B Magazine twice and is
the 2012 CADM Chicago Direct Marketer of the
Year. She is an adjunct instructor at both Aurora
University and WVU and lectures on data-driven
marketing strategies nationally.
Edward C. Malthouse is the research director of the
Spiegel Digital & Database Research Center and
the Theodore R. and Annie Laurie Sills Professor
of Integrated Marketing Communications at
Medill. He is an expert in applied statistics, market
research and media marketing. His research
focuses on the intersection of consumers’
experience with media, customer value,
marketing strategies and interactive marketing
technologies.
Ewa Maslowska is a post-doctoral research
associate of the Medill IMC Spiegel Digital &
Database Research Center. She earned her Ph.D.
in the persuasive communication program in the
Amsterdam School of Communication Research
at University of Amsterdam. Her dissertation
explored how personalized marketing
communication influences consumers.
Yorgos (George) Askalidis is a doctoral student
in the Computer Science Theory group at
Northwestern University. He received his B.S.
and M.S. in mathematics from the University of
Athens. His research revolves around online user-
generated reviews. His area of focus is around
the relationship between reviews, biases and
usefulness of information to potential buyers.
Su Jung Kim is an assistant professor at Iowa
State’s Greenlee School of Journalism and
Communication. She was the first post-doctoral
research associate of the Spiegel Digital &
Database Research Center and continues her
work in areas such as cross-platform media use,
social media and media industries.
Tom Collinger is the executive director of the
Spiegel Digital & Database Research Center;
senior director of the Medill Distance Learning
Initiative; and an associate professor at Medill. He
is a widely recognized expert and speaker in the
areas of integrated marketing communications;
direct, database and e-commerce marketing
management; customer loyalty; customer
relationship management; and channel
integration.
Vijay Viswanathan is an assistant professor in
the Medill School of Journalism in media and
integrated marketing communications, and
a research associate of the Spiegel Digital &
Database Research Center. His research interests
include media choice and multitasking, brand
management, consumer psychology, marketing
strategy and marketing mix models.
Chinye Osamusali is the data visual director for the
Spiegel Research Center impact marketing team
and a full-time student in the Medill Integrated
Marketing Communications program. Prior to
her enrollment at Northwestern, she worked for a
year at SAP doing field marketing and earned her
B.A. in english rhetoric and professional writing
from University of Waterloo in Canada.
Additional Author Bios
Spiegel Research
Center
HTTP://SPIEGEL.MEDILL.
NORTHWESTERN.EDU/
ARTICLE p 30.
“Decoding the Millennial Enigma”
p 15.
“Personalized Marketing
@ Scale” p 24.
“Telling a Memorable
Story with Your Data”
p 20.

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The Buggles
Video killed the
radio star,
in my mind and in
my car, we can’t
rewind we’ve
gone too far.

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