Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Dec 12, 2011, 4:00 am
This post first appeared in MENG Blend: ========================================================== Wouldn’t we all love to have “the viral video” on our brand? Case in point:  Evian’s “skating babies,” a classic of viral earned media, has been viewed over 16 million times on YouTube. It...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Nov 1, 2011, 9:54 am
Pop quiz !!   Please answer the following questions True or False:   True    False _____  _____   Differentiating our brand is a vital marketing task _____  _____   Who we compete with depends on the positioning of our brand image _____  _____   Mass marketing is dead and is no longer c...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Oct 12, 2011, 6:00 am
Almost 20 years ago, I first set foot in developing China, and into the early boom years of that country’s remarkable transformation. As the first Marketing Director for Procter & Gamble China, over the next 3 years I saw the incredible vibrancy, growth and opportunity of a developing market first...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Aug 30, 2011, 7:43 pm
Social media defies all manner of definition and understanding for many Marketers. For many, it’s like the proverbial blind men touching the elephant of social media: It’s for listening It’s about “likes” It’s the fans that count It’s an engagement platform It’s Facebook It’s YouTu...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jul 19, 2011, 5:00 am
Unlike many conferences, the recent Spencer Stuart CMO Summit in New York featured a panel discussion of “protagonists” – people charged with being provocative and, well, protagonistic. On the one side were the “Mobile is the Future” crowd. Included in this groups were representatives of G...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jul 5, 2011, 5:00 am
My first boss once offered up this gem of wisdom: “numbers are your friend” By this, he meant that data and analysis could usually win the day in supporting your case and getting people to agree to what you were recommending. Imagine my surprise then, when I first looked at a comparison of media...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jun 20, 2011, 5:00 am
Christopher Rollyson is a leading social media thinker and leads CSRA. This post was originally published in MENG Blend. ***************************************************** In most brand organizations, marketing investments rest on 20th Century marketing principles whose results are diminishing ev...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jun 6, 2011, 5:00 am
I was recently interviewed by Innovate 1st for Innovate eZine’s “Conversations on the Cutting Edge” series. Following are excerpts from the interview, which was conducted by Doug Berger, Managing Director, The INNOVATE Company. To read the full interview series, start with my earlier blog po...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - May 23, 2011, 5:00 am
Disdain is probably not too strong a word to describe how I used to feel about Direct Marketers. They were all numbers–no creativity, no equity focus, no nothing except whatever worked. Well guess what? I’ve belatedly come to the conclusion that direct marketers have long known something that br...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jan 10, 2011, 5:00 am
I was recently interviewed by Innovate 1st for an upcoming edition of Innovate eZine’s “Conversations on the Cutting Edge” series. Following are excerpts from the interview, which was conducted by Doug Berger, Managing Director, The INNOVATE Company. To read the full interview series, start wi...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Dec 21, 2010, 8:02 am
I was recently interviewed by Innovate 1st for an upcoming edition of Innovate eZine’s “Conversations on the Cutting Edge” series. This is the 2nd set of excerpts from the interview, which was conducted by Doug Berger, Managing Director, The INNOVATE Company. To read the full interview ser...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Dec 16, 2010, 8:47 am
I was recently interviewed by Innovate 1st for an upcoming edition of Innovate eZine’s “Conversations on the Cutting Edge” series. Following are excerpts from the interview, which was conducted by Doug Berger, Managing Director, The INNOVATE Company. ******************************************...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Dec 6, 2010, 5:00 am
Things are not always what they seem. Two TV ads score the same—in copy testing or in market—so they’re equally effective, right? Not always. TV ads don’t just deliver awareness, message recall, etc. They drive behaviors—some of which are digital–and good for your brand. Cross Platform A...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Nov 22, 2010, 4:00 am
Marketing is a complex blend of art and science, and if you talk with anyone in the profession today, they’ll tell you it’s only getting more so. Audience fragmentation, new media form factors, the rise of social media, etc. is making life more complex, not simpler for CMO’s. Enter Occam’s R...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Nov 15, 2010, 5:00 am
This post is part of a continuing series of guest posts. Diane DiResta is CEO of DiResta Communications, Inc., a New York City consultancy serving business leaders who want to communicate with greater impact. *********************************************** Having coached a number of marketers on th...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Nov 11, 2010, 4:00 am
Heavy users are every Marketers dream segment. Large sales, highly profitable (usually), and inclined to stay with your brand forever. Large sales: yes;  highly profitable: usually;  inclined to stay with your brand forever:  not necessarily.   Do Heavy Buyers Really Stay Heavy ? Jenni Romaniu...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Oct 25, 2010, 6:00 am
I’ve often said that the best CMO is a CEO who believes in Marketing. But beyond this, what makes a great CMO? This is germane not only to CMO’s whose average tenure is about 2 years, but also to CEO’s who need Marketing to drive results. CMO Competency Research Egon-Zehnder International (EZI...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Oct 18, 2010, 6:00 am
This post is part of a continuing series of guest posts and was originally posted on MENG BLEND. Christopher S. Rollyson is founder of CSRA, Inc., Architect of The Social Network Roadmap(sm) & Managing Editor at the Global Human Capital Journal. *********************************************** Word o...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Oct 4, 2010, 6:00 am
This post is part of a continuing series of guest posts and was originally posted on MENG BLEND. Drew McLellan is founder of McLellan Marketing Group.   ***********************************************  All the indicators and trends suggest that smart phones will be our primary access point to the...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Sep 27, 2010, 5:00 am
“Wow, dad, that was way cool!” That was the reaction of one of my kids after seeing Toy Story 3 in 3D at our local movie theater. What if your TV ads could get the same reaction? And more to the point, with 3D TV’s imminent arrival, could they?  3D TV – What We Know
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Sep 20, 2010, 5:00 am
In a recent global consumer survey, 8 of 10 consumers told Nielsen that they would stop using a website if it begins charging for content (disclosure: I work at Nielsen). Most consumers believe they can get the content they want for free—so why pay? Is free content good for Marketers—or not?  ...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Sep 13, 2010, 5:00 am
In-store communications, long the backwater of advertising, is getting a fresh look. Increasingly, Marketers are realizing that the in-store environment is a critical marketing communications touchpoint, and one that they need to get right to succeed.  In-Store Communications — Why It’s Import...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Sep 6, 2010, 8:00 am
What do Bose, HSBC and Boeing all have in common? On the surface, not much, but all three brands “own” a slice of media. Not just any media, but a specific media touch point over an extended period of time. Should your brand do the same?   3 Examples of “Ownership” Media Bose / Parade –
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Aug 30, 2010, 5:00 am
This post is part of a continuing series of guest posts. Dorothy Crenshaw is CEO and Creative Director of Crenshaw Communications. ***********************************************  If “Mad Men” depicts the golden age of advertising, we just might be living through a similar era for public relati...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Aug 23, 2010, 5:00 am
One of the hotter trends in the on-line advertising field is the rise of real time bidding (RTB). One journalist, Nick Saint, even went so far as to headline a recent RTB article “The Rise of Real Time Bidding is the Biggest on-Line Advertising Story of 2010.” How important is RTB and could it e...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Aug 16, 2010, 5:00 am
From my July 11th guest post on Meng Blend:   In the old advertising paradigm, Marketers worshipped at the altar of pre-market “copy-testing,” myself included. The belief system was simple: get great TV advertising—measured by above norm copy testing results—and in-market success would fol...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Aug 9, 2010, 6:00 am
Are you spending too much or too little on advertising? Don’t know the answer to this question? You’re not alone–it’s a big issue for almost all Marketers. Think about it for a minute: how do you make this decision for your brands? The most common answer for many, it seems, i...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Aug 3, 2010, 5:00 am
I recently came across an interesting Q&A with Professor Byron Sharp from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science. Byron was commenting on the validity, or lack thereof, of various brand equity measurement approaches:  Interviewer: But you don’t like these brand tracking services ?  ...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jul 27, 2010, 5:00 am
What happens when you take two hot growth areas—Social Networks and Mobile–and combine them with good old fashioned shopping? You get a phenomenon people are just now beginning to understand: the convergence of Social, Mobile & Shopping—let’s call it SMS for short.    What’s the SMS ...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jul 19, 2010, 12:02 pm
A friend recently sent me the CramerSweeney branding quiz, which is a lot of fun and only takes a few minutes to complete. Beyond the fun of seeing how many of the great brands you get right, it reinforced for me just how powerful great branding really is. In my job at Nielsen, I routinely
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jul 12, 2010, 6:00 am
How often have you watched TV while using your laptop? Have you ever used your PC while keeping an eye on the TV in the same room? If you’ve done either, you’re like an increasing number of consumers who are multi-tasking in the new media world. In many previous posts, I’ve talked abou...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jul 5, 2010, 6:00 am
The post title really says it all—or does it? The advent of DVR’s has generated all manner of concerns about their potential impact on advertising. A menace, a threat, the potential end as we know it to effective TV advertising. But are DVR’s really making your brands TV advertising less effec...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jun 28, 2010, 6:00 am
I recently spoke at Nielsen’s annual Consumer360 conference (disclosure: I work for Nielsen). My session was humbly titled  “Answering John Wanamaker’s Question:” “I know that 50% of my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half.” Here are a few key points from the presentati...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jun 21, 2010, 6:00 am
How much does media really matter once your brand has great advertising? Is “reach” all that counts? We now know from research that media “form factors” and “personality” likely matter greatly to advertising performance—they are performance amplifiers whose volume can either dial up or...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jun 14, 2010, 6:00 am
In a recent post, “Digitizing the 1st Moment of Truth,” I wrote about the advent of UPC driven Smartphone apps that have the potential to radically change the point of sale shopping experience. This is really just part of a larger shift to a “Digital Shopping Funnel.” Today’s consumers li...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Jun 7, 2010, 7:00 am
When I was the Marketing Director for P&G China, our Regional Head, A.G. Lafley (later the P&G Chairman and CEO), used to come to Guangzhou, China every quarter. Part of the “review” ritual was going on in-home visits and store checks. Naturally, these visits were less about CEO learning and mo...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - May 31, 2010, 6:00 am
When you think of Donna Karan, you think of fashion, right? Right, but Karan, known most for her Donna Karan, DKNY and Urban Zen brands, should also be known for something else:  Marketing savvy. At a recent M50 CMO Summit I attended, Donna Karan talked at length about her business philosophy ...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - May 24, 2010, 6:00 am
Momentum can be a powerful thing, especially when it’s on your brand’s side. I’ve worked on numerous brands over the years, and seen firsthand the effect of both positive and negative momentum.   Almost every Brand building article or book I’ve ever seen focuses on the fund...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - May 17, 2010, 6:00 am
This post is part of a continuing series of guest posts. Louise Ainsworth, Managing Director, EMEA, The Nielsen Company, looks at four scenarios for the future of media research. The media industry has been subject to massive disruptive influences in the last ten years and they seem set to continue...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - May 10, 2010, 6:00 am
I was in Bangalore, India last week, and it seemed that cell phones were everywhere.  Increased cell phone penetration – now estimated at over 500 million — and the ability to access the web cheaply and from anywhere, is driving rapid change.  In fact, a headline in The Economic...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - May 3, 2010, 6:00 am
In case you haven’t noticed, TV’s are going wireless. According to research from the Leichtman Research Group, 24% of all households have a TV connected to the internet. What does this mean for advertisers? All Wireless Connections are Not The Same Users differ in how they’re wirel...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Apr 26, 2010, 6:00 am
Should you be investing more behind Mobile Marketing? With penetration of web viewing by U.S. Mobile users at 44% of home based web penetration, it’s not a trivial question.   In my frequent discussions with CMO’s, here’s the truth:  few are spending much of anything on Mob...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Apr 19, 2010, 6:00 am
Is “easier” better for your brand? Consider this excerpt from the article “Easy = True” by Drake Bennett:  Imagine that your stockbroker…who’s always giving you stock tips–called and told you that he had come up with a new investment strategy. Price-to ear...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Apr 12, 2010, 6:00 am
When I was in 8th grade, I was a pretty good basketball player who aspired to the NBA, but never noticed that my father was only 5’10″ tall. The more scientists learn about our genes, the more they learn that while they’re not destiny, they do increase the likelihood that we will ...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Apr 5, 2010, 6:00 am
Did You Know That: On-line video ad spending grew +41% in 2009 — even during a down advertising year? 72% of all internet users in the U.S. viewed on-line video last year? More U.S. consumers watch video on the web than watch recorded TV on DVR’s? All of this adds up to something very in...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Mar 22, 2010, 6:00 am
What do consumers think about advertising? Is it broken? As I noted in a recent post, “The 5 Truths of TV Advertising Effectiveness,” single source and syndicated ad effectiveness studies generally line up on the side of advertising continuing to be effective. But, as they say in NASA speak: &...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Mar 15, 2010, 6:00 am
This post is part of a continuing series of guest posts. Jenni Romaniuk is an Associate Research Professor of Brand Equity, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, University of South Australia. *********************************************** This post is a summary of an Ehrenberg-Bass Institute corporate member ...
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Mar 8, 2010, 6:00 am
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Mar 1, 2010, 4:00 am
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Randall B. posted an article on Randall Beard's Blog - Feb 22, 2010, 5:00 am
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