Escape from Nightmare Alley

Editor's note: Robert Passikoff is founder and president of Brand Keys Inc. He can be reached at robertp@brandkeys.com.

COVID-19 has had consumers, supply chains and brands under siege for three years. Social activism and political tribalism have never been higher. Emerging technologies like AI and the metaverse and the unrelenting quest for marketing ROI are some of the worries keeping marketers up at night, according to a recent Brand Keys Marketing On My Mind survey. 

Thirty percent of marketers’ bad dreams are new to the 2022 list of problems receiving mentions by 75%+ of the 407 CMOs and brand managers who participated in this year’s survey. Marketers’ nightmares include dealing with COVID-19 issues, product availability (or lack thereof), inflation, optimizing CX, brand engagement and dealing with ever-increasing customer expectations. And, of course, the bogeyman of marketing, return-on-investment, always No. 1 on marketers’ lists. 

Brand Keys asked CMOs and brand managers, “What issues keep you up at night?,” with the following results. Percents indicate frequency of mention, numbers following indicate changes from pre-COVID 2019.

1. ROI and ROMI (98%, +1%)

2. COVID-19 and pandemic-related employee management issues (95%, new)

3. Supply-chain snafus and product availability (94%, new)

4. Inflation (92%, new)

5. Competition from new brands (91%, new)

6. Addressing innovation, AI, technology, the metaverse and marketing automation (91%, -1%)

7. Optimizing and owning CX and the customer journey (90%, new)

8. Establishing trust between my brand the consumer (90%, -5%)

9. Consumer expectations regarding privacy, transparency and corporate social responsibility (90%, --)

10. Deployment of predictive consumer behavior analytics and technologies (90%, +4%)

11. Proliferation of digital channels (89%, new)

12. Developing long-term/new strategies that align with corporate growth goals (88%, +8%)

13. Keeping consumers engaged with my brand (86%, +11%)

14. Managing agency relationships (84%, new)

15. Creating relevant and engaging advertising content and storytelling (83%, -5%)

16. Growing consumer expectations and the gap between consumer desire and brand delivery (83%, +1%)

17. Dealing with consumer tribalism and political dogma (82%, +5%)

18. Data security issues (80%, -15%)

19. Dealing with consumer advocacy and social activism (80%, -5%)

20. Protecting my brand’s equity (80%, +1%)

21. Creating an “unlearning curve” to move away from legacy marketing metrics (79%, +4%)

22. Being replaced by a chief revenue officer or CFO (77%, +2%)

23. Better cross-platform synergy for brand marketing (75%, --)

24. Creating marketing synergy among different generational cohorts (75%, --)

Make sure research has adapted

COVID-19 has changed consumers and the marketplace forever. To help get a better night’s sleep, CMOs and brand managers need to make sure their research has adapted to those new consumers in this new marketplace. This is particularly true about brand engagement, #13 on this year’s list, but one that connects to many other nightmare scenarios because emotional brand engagement is the 21st century paradigm for loyalty, which is something that keeps all marketers from getting a good night’s sleep.

Serendipitously, targeted research and marketing insights have a marvelous way of mitigating nightmares. Researchers need to take a hard look at methodologies dealing with consumer-to-brand emotions because the consumer decision process has become far more emotional than rational. Real loyalty assessments, for example, measure the emotional engagement between the consumer and brand versus the consumer’s perception of their category ideal. The best research will measure what consumers really expect. Brands that measure up always see loyalty. Those engagement levels can also be used to identify differences between loyal customers and casual customers or someone just buying out of necessity, all of which provides CMOs and brand managers with sleep-aid insights in a COVID-19-converted marketing arena. Emotional brand engagement research will vary from category to category but it is a predictive measure of positive consumer behavior toward a brand. And a leading indicator of ROI.

ROI and ROMI are #1 on marketers’ lists of nightmares but happily they can be research-addressed in several very effective ways. A good first step would be to analyze the outcome of past marketing efforts to identify and define which marketing activities showed positive returns and which efforts did not add meaningful value. Modern technology and analytics make it much easier to conduct both quantitative and qualitative ROI analyses. 

Applied right now 

New research technologies will ultimately help analyze the performance of individual marketing activities but readily available research techniques can be applied right now. Most marketing KPIs can be measured daily, making it much easier to analyze effects of each indicator on the marketing ROI. Marketing mix modelling is an econometric analysis used to attribute past sales to the contributions from changes in differing attitudinal and behavioral causal drivers. Conjoint research allows marketers to link specific perceptual brand attributes to changes in brand preference and brand choice. Driver analyses allow individual attributes to be categorized into groups either through statistical analysis, e.g., factor analysis or logical grouping, a data reduction analysis which can identify a smaller number of statistically independent factors that a CMO or brand manager can leverage. Both for better sales and a better night’s sleep.

Supply-chain snafus and product availability issues have led to the appearance of embryonic brands, new to sectors and new to established brands. Dealing with competition is part and parcel of brand marketing and management life. But today’s CMOs and brand managers have expressed worries about “new brands.” The nightmare that has taken on monster-in-the-closet status is “keeping consumers engaged with my brand,” which increased 11% from 2019. Combine that increased brand expectations and the terror of new brands entering the marketplace and you can understand why CMOs and brand managers face sleepless nights.

Competitive market research can focus on finding and comparing key market metrics to help identify differences between a brand’s products and services and those of the competition. Comprehensive market research can help establish the foundations for effective sales and marketing strategies that can help a company differentiate products and services, engage consumers, and increase sales and profits.

Competitive research can be conducted for both old and new competitors to provide evaluations of brand and product strengths and weaknesses and identify threats and opportunities that can help create an environment for a more restful night’s sleep. 

Competitive research can help identify your brand’s point of differentiation, unique selling proposition, value proposition, brand equity. Call it what you will, but well-designed market research can inform CMOs and brand managers of what they can do to keep their brand relevant and profitable. Nothing provides CMOs and brand managers with a sense of peace than when they know where their competitors are falling short – and they aren’t!

Faster than brands can keep up

Bad dreams regarding optimizing and owning CX and the brand’s customer journey can be allayed with research that addresses consumer and customer expectations. Awake or asleep, marketers’ anxieties regarding expectations are very real because expectations grow at the speed of the consumer and generally faster than brands can keep up. Research has shown there’s an enormous gap between what consumers truly desire and what they see brands delivering. Expectation research can identify that gap. That expectation gap presents a strategic opportunity. And what should put managers’ minds to rest is the fact brands that best meet expectations are always category leaders with largest shares-of-market and, axiomatically, the largest profits, which also addresses ROI issues.

Data science permits brands to apply a wide range of research skills to analyze data from various channels, which provide brands with actionable insights to enhance personalization and customization, deliver more relevant advertising and recommendations and improve the overall customer journey. Research has shown that 86% of customers are more likely to purchase from a brand that provides them with a personalized experience and presents them with relevant and customized offers and recommendations. 

Technological innovations – including AI, decision intelligence and machine learning and the metaverse – are all poised to transform the marketplace. Uncertainty makes marketers uneasy and creates a foundation for bad dreams. Research can help identify market trends of end-users seeking specific technology capabilities and can identify how brands can best use them. Applications research can identify where and when marketers should shift focus. Modern data platforms and AI-driven technology allow brand managers and CMOs to identify and use multi-source datasets to uncover what the customer is really looking for, much like Netflix recommendations of new content based on past activity. The metaverse is a little too new to identify effective research recommendations. That said, tech-based research insights can be converted to more-certain, actionable recommendations for increased consumer engagement and more effective and resonant content. Certainty (or just a little more certainty) has a way of reducing complexity and maximizing marketing efficiency, another set of items sure to scare away night terrors.

Comfort and confidence 

It’s been said of all the things you choose in life you don’t get to choose your nightmares. But the scope and effectiveness of research methodologies available today should provide CMOs and brand managers with some comfort and confidence and a few more evenings of nightmare-free sleep.