Digitally Ahead
During the course of my master’s in marketing program, Six Sigma became somewhat of a scary name. The certification was difficult and time-consuming to obtain. Any mention of Six Sigma gave me flashbacks of sitting at my computer listening to lectures. However, the experience taught me what Six Sigma is actually for and how it…
Marketers oftentimes decide who to target by segmenting consumers into groups based on collected data. While creating these clusters, sometimes marketers fall into a trap of enforcing stereotypes, whether they be social, cultural, or based on gender. During these trying times where protests to ban discrimination are rising in many areas of our country, it’s…
As COVID-19 rapidly spreads throughout the world, people were urged to stay inside. Being one of the world’s hardest hitting pandemics since the Spanish Flu, people heeded these warnings. The pandemic swept through businesses and affected some so profoundly by disrupting supply chains that many went out of business in a matter of weeks. Many…
Marketing and sales are two areas of business that are so closely related, many people don’t realize the difference. After all, they are both directed at increasing revenue. In many smaller businesses, the same team of people oftentimes perform tasks in both of these areas. This makes sense because both these areas of business go…
Hi everyone! Aliciamarie here. I had a chance to sit down and speak with a Product Marketing Manager and ask her some questions about the industry. If this is a career you’re considering, you might want to watch to find out more!
Technology has had a major influence on how we sell and an even bigger influence on how we purchase. With the evolution of the internet and everything digital, retailers have switched over from selling products out of conventional brick-and-mortar stores and have begun selling virtually, or via a mix of physical and virtual stores. However,…
A good customer experience has become essential in order for a business to skyrocket to the very top in its class. It requires putting buyers and their needs first. Omnichannel marketing allows marketers to do just that and cater to customers with the care they expect. What’s special about this form of marketing is how…
Goal setting and strategy are two very different ideas that are often confused with one another, especially when used in the context of marketing. It is essential for marketers to understand the difference between the two. In order for a business to function smoothly, it must have a plan that works. Both strategy and goal…
Have you ever canceled a subscription to anything? Maybe you decided you wanted to switch gyms and so you cancelled your subscription to LA Fitness in order to join Orangetheory. Maybe grad school was keeping you too busy and you decided it was best to cancel your Netflix subscription. If you have, you contributed to…
Worldview involves our beliefs as human beings about the nature of reality and the word. Think of it as a mental model of reality—a comprehensive framework of ideas and attitudes about the world, ourselves, and life. It’s mostly formed by things like our upbringing and background. It involves parts of our personality and our emotional…
Can you think of a time where you were ever in a situation where you felt that a salesperson had sketchy intentions? Being a woman, I have dealt with this a few times when it comes to cars, for example. I also recently experienced this with a pushy realtor when I bought my first home…
As technology continues advancing and marketers continue to find new and creative digital ways of advertising, consumers have become proficient in ignoring more traditional advertisements such as television, newspapers, and magazines. The internet has also started to deal with clutter that never ceases to expand. As a result, marketers have had to develop alternative marketing…
It’s easy to get lost in all of the marketing jargon. What does B2B and B2C mean in the first place? Well, for one, B2B and B2C marketers try to garner the attention of two different audiences, in two different ways. If you’re an up and coming marketer, you may be wondering what’s more profitable—B2B…
Channel marketing essentially focuses on the distribution of products from the manufacturer to the consumer. Many manufacturers don’t sell directly to end users, meaning they have to use a marketing channel in order to allocate their products. One good thing about channel marketing is that it really helps businesses expand their revenue. The choice of…
It’s a popular belief that our behaviors are determined as a result of our attitudes. However, according to the theory of planned behavior, more goes into predicting behavior than solely understanding a person’s attitude. The theory is useful in predicting the way consumers will actually behave. One of the most obvious reasons that people may…
Why go crazy searching for information when the internet places it right at your fingertips? With a quick Google search, you can find any information you need in a matter of seconds. In fact, according to a Google report, there are about 63,000 searched made per second. This number is mind boggling. Each of these…
Is it possible for people to fall head over heels for a brand? Although having a variety of options when it comes to products makes it very difficult for consumers to build meaningful and emotional connections with brands, when they do it can be a match made in heaven. Brands that can learn how to…
People tend to buy products and brands because of the way it allows them to say something positive about themselves, since they are consumers of that particular brand. One of the factors that affects consumer behavior is buyer self-concept. In other words, depending on the self that we have in mind, our purchases are affected….
In our digital era, social media is one of the best and proven ways to build a community. This doesn’t just apply to people, but to businesses as well. Rather than using social media platforms to self-promote products or services, there are steps that brand can take in order to make the most of what…
Did you know that we can form a first impression in under a second? It may sound a little “out there” but actual research by Princeton psychologists assures us that this is true. Our reptilian brain takes over and we often make these decisions with a little help from our subconscious. When marketers partake in…
Facebook is perhaps one of the most effective social media advertising platforms. According to Statista, there are almost 2.5 billion monthly active users on Facebook, meaning there is huge potential to reach people. Still, there are other reasons that it tends to be a preference amongst marketers, advertisers, and businesses alike. Facebook ads are a…
One of the most useful and insightful quotes is attributed to Maya Angelou. She famously said, “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” This statement even holds true when it comes to marketing! Semantics aren’t just important when it comes to everyday conversation, but especially matter…
Being a digital marketer is by no means easy. The constant presence of the internet in our lives means there is a ton of content out there in cyberspace. So how is a marketer supposed to stand out in a mountain of information? The answer is by understanding your audience and what most interests them….
Target audience analysis is a vital part of many marketing strategies. Without understanding who you should be marketing to, and what it is they want to know about a brand or product, marketers wouldn’t have a clue what to talk about! A brand’s target audience is made up of anyone who might potentially be interested…
For marketing strategies to be successful, they must find a way to tap into the consumer’s senses and emotions. In order to build a brand, marketers must work to reinforce the image that the brand triggers in the minds and hearts of current and potential customers. A brand’s reputation is incredibly important, but the one…
Marketers are not exactly psychologists, but they do need to have an understanding of psychology in order to successfully put together marketing strategies. When marketers implement basic psychological marketing principles in their social media activities, they begin to attract, engage, and form emotional bonds with their target audience. It’s a way of connecting with current…
Although market segmentation and cluster analysis are sometimes used interchangeably, there are differences between the processes of segmenting markets and clustering data. Cluster analysis is basically a stats tool that allows marketers to group data based on the similarities and statistical connections that they share. This means that data can be categorized and organized depending…
Growth hacking. It’s one of the latest buzzwords, but what does it actually mean? An article by marketing expert Andrew Chen mentions that growth hackers are the new VP’s of marketing. Still, this gives little insight into what exactly it is and what makes it different from marketing as we know it. Growth hacking is…
Some of the best insight that marketers can receive is understanding why consumers make purchases and what they are purchasing. With this information in hand, marketers can understand how to market products in such a way that sales will be successful. Picture this: You’re standing in the shampoo aisle trying to select a new product….
Small details can define whether a website is successful or a total failure. This is why statistics and website metrics are so important. By at least tracking some website metrics and using data in order to understand what is positively pushing the website over what isn’t contributing at all, marketers can understand what areas to…
Global branding is when products or services are marketed under the same name in various different countries. These products have similar marketing strategies with their advertising, positioning, personality, and look and feel remaining mostly unchanged from one country to another. According to an article by Small Business, “global branding means using standardized global advertising and…
Actionable insights are actions which are direct and meaningful that are taken when raw data is analyzed. However, not all insights are considered actionable. An insight becomes actionable when information is analyzed, and conclusions can be drawn, and decisions made. This means that when actionable insights are available, strategic and well-thought-out decisions can be made,…
Brand tracking is extremely important for organizations. Because a brand tends to be a company’s most valued asset, it’s crucial to take care of it. Brand tracking continuously measures the health of a brand in terms of how consumers are using it, and what their thoughts are on it. Good brand tracking programs display a…
Often times, in order to make important marketing decisions, companies must go beyond just using data points and present analytical data to clients visually so that they can best digest the information. According to an expert on Research Gate, “Visual analytics is a body of knowledge that allows us to use techniques with interactive visualization…
Storytelling is one of the best ways for marketers to engage customers. A brand’s story focuses on the history surrounding a company. These stories speak to consumers by demonstrating how companies do business, why they do business, and how they can help customers solve their problems as consumers. A brand’s story really brings personality and…
The boom of the internet means that businesses have had the opportunity to develop their online presence and grow quickly. In addition, the way marketing strategies are executed has also changed because it has been perfected. One way in which digital marketers are able to successfully send out marketing emails is by using relational databases….
What if there was a way for marketers to study the brain’s responses to advertising and branding in order to adjust the messages they feed to the public and ensure audiences are buying? Does this sound unethical or invasive to you? Now what if I told you that this revolutionary field of marketing already exists?…
In order for marketers to make important decisions within their careers, they must collect enough information to be able to do so. Whether marketers are most interested in improving the number of customers retained, how many customers engage with social media, or whether markets are penetrated or not, it’s crucial to analyze all sorts of…
Marketers know how important it is for companies to have strong brand reputations. Companies with strong positive reputations attract loyal customers. They are perceived as brands that provided value, in turn allowing them to charge a premium. As a result, their customers tend to not only be loyal but also buy a variety of products…
Finding ways to distribute marketing budgets is an important priority for many marketers. When marketers are getting ready to run advertising campaigns, they must know where the best areas are to spend money and have the best return on investment possible. In order to come up with an efficient mix of marketing dollar disbursement, marketers…
Giving a brand a personality is essentially giving it human traits or personifying it. When a brand is described as unique, “trustworthy, beautiful, or funny, it is being assigned adjectives and characteristics that are normally given to a person. It might seem like a bit of a strange practice, but it is actually an essential…
A whole lot goes on online. There’s a lot of content generated between social media, google searches, and so much more. Content marketers work to understand where a particular brand or company is talked about, what exactly is being talked about, and who is outranking the brand in terms of reputation. When it comes to…
The meaning of a brand plays a huge role into why we purchase them. Brand management is essentially about managing what brands mean. When brands have strong meanings, it is easier for a strong brand to be built. Once a brand meaning begins losing importance in the life of a consumer the brand begins to…
With accessibility to the internet has come accessibility to all sorts of online data. According to Towards Data Science, around 2.5 million terabytes of data are generated every single day and by 2020, for every single person, there will be 1.7 MB of data created every second. In other words, this is a massive amount…
A brand isn’t just an image or a logo. The term is used loosely and so many consumers do not realize that there is so much more to a brand, including feelings and emotional relationships. A brand is a relationship and along with a brand comes brand image and brand identity—two pieces that are crucial…
I am not and have never been a numbers person. As a matter of fact, looking at numbers and data intimidates me and quickly bores me. I have witnessed various project presentations–whether related to math, science, or social sciences. One problem that many data presentations tends to have in common is that they are not…
Marketing your brand to users on their cell phones is known as mobile marketing, and it is a practice that has become increasingly important due to the rise in technology. According to the blog Rebrandly, “Mobile marketing is already happening, with projections that 72% of marketing budgets to be spent on mobile advertising in 2019.”…
There was a time when marketing decisions used to be made by intuitive feelings and hypothetical guesses. However, with big data analytics, marketers now have the tools they need in order to make better informed decisions. Big data analytics refers to the processing of large and complex data sets which cannot be decoded using traditional…
With the rise of social media marketing, social influencers have become a hot topic. Social influencers are people with a plethora of knowledge and experience in their industry. They usually gain traction by voicing their opinions on products or services and reviewing or recommending products for the public. One way to think of these individuals…
Data, information and insights are sometimes used as interchangeable terms but are not the same thing. Sometimes people use “data” and “information” to refer to the same sets of information, but the reality is that they are in fact very different. The best way to think of these categories is by separating them into a…
