Thoughts by Joel Rubinson, Chief Research Officer of The ARF
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Traditional marketing theory tells us that the purchase is the successful outcome of consumer-directed messages that create awareness which begets interest, desire, and action.
what happens when that is wrong? What does marketing do when it STARTS “store back” with the purchase? Based on shopper insights research, I believe that, for grocery products, over half of first-time purchases are unplanned;

Last year, social media was still a little theoretical. Now it’s real. The advertising models are starting to emerge, consumer-created beverages via Facebook and proprietary environments have gotten launched. Listening is now being used a source of shopper insights that manufacturers are sharing with retail partners.

The word “consumer” is marketing-ese for slicing off that part of daily living that relates to what you can sell someone and throwing away the rest. When you study consumers you get incremental ideas; when you study humans you get breakthroughs.

Social media is not just a “thing”; it will be integrated into EVERYTHING. Verizon Fios is integrating social media (Facebook, Twitter) into TV. Facebook and twitter apps and web access are now fairly common in cell phones. On the other hand, it is important to realize that social media is part of mobile life, not the other way around.

Someone who hacks a game finds a different way. Let’s hack marketing. Make something important that wasn’t important before to consumers. Social media offers the ability to hack and even reprogram the marketing game…for both the marketer and the consumer.

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