- Think Small in
Marketing: CPG on
05/10/2017
Fifty years ago this summer, Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" hit American movie theaters. The film's protagonist, Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman, is provided with some career advice in a
penultimate moment when his parents' smugly successful friend suggests - "One word: Plastics." The moment captured the disillusionment of Baby Boomers and the desire to drop out instead of embracing a
steady paycheck - and a seemingly spiritless life in chemical manufacturing.
- Advertising In Echo Chambers in
Marketing: CPG on
04/12/2017
During last year's election season, we heard pundits and politicians bemoan the effect of algorithms on what news we see, serving up content that reinforces and echoes choices and preferences we've
demonstrated through past behavior. Because I happened to watch the Billy Bush bus video, does that make me a Trump supporter? Or if I happened to get click-baited into watching a shark video, does
some data engine tag me as an Animals Attack! fan? The answer to those questions appears to be, largely, "yes" and therein lies a problem for our society (we are confined to a machine-determined
perspective) and for practitioners of CPG marketing. Is media fragmentation making it harder and harder to create broadly popular CPG brands?
- 'The Shark That Can't Stop Swimming' in
Marketing: CPG on
03/08/2017
That's how "Fortune" recently described 3G's business model. The magazine goes on to say, "A central feature of this model is that it can't work forever. It builds value only by buying more
companies."
- A Rejuvenating Plunge Into Innovation in
Marketing: CPG on
02/08/2017
If you spend any time in CPG product innovation, you're likely using a"Jobs To Be Done" (JTBD) approach. Created by Harvard Business School professor and disruptive innovator Clayton Christensen, the
JTBD approach simply suggests people don't buy products, they hire them to do specific jobs.
- Wanted in
Marketing: CPG on
01/11/2017
Hollywood has largely equated the idea of being wanted in America with criminality. Whether it is westerns or gangster flicks or TV's John Walsh, we typically associate this word with the desire to
capture the most despicable and dangerous of criminals.
- Is CPG Advertising Boring The Industry To Death? in
Marketing: CPG on
12/14/2016
Ten years ago, the partners at our ad agency did an offsite meeting to plan our future. We were small and scrappy and talent-laden, but like the vast majority of agencies, we lacked any real point of
differentiation.
- Unchanging Man And The Lizard Inside in
Marketing: CPG on
11/09/2016
I am bombarded by content claiming to provide me with the insight to unlock the mystery that is marketing to Millennials. Born between 1981 and 1997, Millennials formed a crest of childbirths of 66
million during those years, considerably higher than the 55 million Gen Xers that came before, if not quite the pig in a python that was the Baby Boom at 76 million.
- Good, Fast, Cheap in
Marketing: CPG on
10/12/2016
"Good, fast, cheap - pick any two" is a common phrase that defines the constraints on any initiative. If used as a lens through which to view the post-war packaged food industry, "fast and cheap" was
clearly the choice of U.S. manufacturers and consumers. Indeed, the USDA reported that we spend significantly less on food than our grandparents did.
- Optimizing Nutrition Apps for Broad Consumer Adoption in
Marketing: CPG on
09/14/2016
Apple recently announced a partnership with Nike, linking its Apple Watch with the Nike+ running app. I wish more collaboration between tech giants, food and beverage manufacturers and grocery
retailers were keeping nutrition apps apace.
- Sunday Morning Coming Down in
Marketing: CPG on
08/10/2016
I confess. I'm a junkie for the Sunday morning political shows: "Meet The Press," "Face The Nation," "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," "Fareed Zakaria GPS," and "Fox News Sunday."