So very few people expect anything from soda anymore that its category came in last in growth (9%) in Brand Keys’ annual Consumer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI). Expectations for non-alcoholic beverages were dwarfed by the top five sectors: online social networking and entertainment, up 35%; technology, up 32%; B2B services and equipment, up 30%; cosmetics, up 28%, and personal products and CPG, up 26%. Such soaring customer expectations are creating an increasingly challenging environment for products and services. The 2017 Brand Keys CLEI examined 83 categories and 740 brands — from automotive and OTC allergy medications to computers, fast-casual dining, retail, smartphones, and alcoholic beverages. Brand engagement leadership shifted dramatically in 49 of the 83 categories or 58%. On a cross-category basis, expectations have increased 23% over 2016 while brands have improved by only 4%, leaving a huge gap between what consumers want and what brands are seen able to deliver. About the low expectations of soda, Brand Keys president Robert Passikoff tells Marketing Daily, “The offerings out there are all the same, totally undifferentiated. I mean, I guess there’s cola and there’s lemon-lime but come on. Other values have been created and people look to other categories to fill their needs — values like an energy boost and, then, energy drinks have grown so popular. And the desire for unadulterated things has forced people to turn to bottled water even if it’s tap water. “When there is growth in other areas, you can’t just say, ‘Oh, well, consumers just stopped drinking this stuff.’ No, they stopped drinking your stuff.” In other areas, “we saw some perennial engagement experts rise to the tops of their categories again,” says Passikoff. This year the best of the engagement best included Avis, JetBlue, Hyundai and Ford, Dunkin’ and Starbucks, Apple, Discover and American Express, GEICO, Konica-Minolta, Amazon, Domino’s, Facebook, Google, Chanel and AT&T. “Categories where brands have anticipated expectations are always the brands that seem to do real well,” he notes. "In athletic gear, there’s Nike leading the way. You can see it in their profitability.” Contrarily, “why is Apple not doing as well as it used to? It used to be the best in design, it was the leading edge. Now you can find five other smartphone brands that have better cameras on them.” Brands showing up on the CLEI list for the first time as engagement champions include: Allegra, JPMorgan Chase, Coors, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, L’Oréal and Kiehl’s, Sabercat, Magnum Ice Cream, Hyatt, State Farm, Major League Baseball, Trader Joe’s, Zara, Nordstrom, Johnnie Walker and Fidelity.com. For 2017, Brand Keys added 11 categories, including energy drinks, snack brands, toys, yogurt, and AM/PM cable news. First-time engagement winners include Red Bull, Doritos, Fritos, Planters, Fox News, Lego, Chobani and Yoplait. “The whole point of brand engagement is, if you’re not providing what I want, there are so many options to go for. There’s a progression in all of this. For example, everyone, particularly the millennial generation, has taken to the film La La Land. Older viewers might see it and say, ‘So, it’s a musical.’ You can track the value progression from vaudeville to silent films to talkies to CinemaScope to CGI. It’s all about expectation.” For the 2017 CLEI survey, 49,168 consumers, 16 to 65 years of age from the nine U.S. Census regions, self-selected the categories in which they are consumers and the brands for which they are customers. Seventy percent were interviewed by phone, 25% via face-to-face interviews (to identify and include cell phone-only households), and 5% online. A complete list of the CLEI’s 83 categories can be found at http://brandkeys.com/portfolio/customer-loyalty-engagement-index.
Ellevest, an investment platform with algorithms designed for women’s lives, is encouraging women to take control of their financial future. A digital spot, “Invest Like A Woman,” shows women that investing should never be one-size-fits-all and 2017 can be the year where every woman starts to close her personal investment gap. The company says the gap exists because women aren’t getting their fair share because the investment industry and its tools are designed for and by men. The video includes facts and stats that highlight how even women who are “getting theirs” are still getting less because of the gap. The video has a call to action that aims to leave women feeling confident to invest and ready to earn financial equalities. Ellevest also launched outdoor ads on bus stops and telephone booths around New York City with a similar message. The ads have an outline of President-elect Donald Trump in the background with the text “Women of New York: Cover your a$$.” The ad itself plays on comments made by Trump during the election and challenges New York women to think about the next four years (not just finances) and what they can do to help protect themselves. The video, which was created in conjunction with Revere, a DJE Holdings company, encourages women to think about realities such as that they live longer, their salaries peak sooner, and they often have career breaks to raise children, which leads to periods of significant income variation. On average, women have less salary increases during their careers and women are more risk-aware when making decisions in their financial portfolios. When the algorithms that determine investment strategies take these factors about women’s lives into account, the result is an investment portfolio that can actually support the real lifespan of a woman, ensuring her real financial independence, equality and power, according to the company. On average, women have fewer salary increases during their careers and women are more risk-aware when making decisions in their financial portfolios. When the algorithms that determine investment strategies take these factors about women’s lives into account, the result is an investment portfolio that can actually support the real lifespan of a woman, ensuring her real financial independence, equality and power, according to the company. The spot is running on digital channels including BuzzFeed, Facebook and Instagram. It initially runs through early February but an extension is possible.This is the company’s first brand video articulating why women need an investment platform built for their goals and needs due to the gender investing gap, according to a spokesperson. The Ellevest target client is the professional woman who either has her own money or has agency over her family’s money. She is among the 75 million women in the U.S. workforce who want to take financial control and is looking for a straightforward way to achieve her dreams on her own terms. She is also comfortable with an online experience.
Big Red soda reports impressive results from a regional shopper marketing partnership with Weber grills and Kroger stores last summer. The program was tied into Big Red’s national “100 Days of BBQ” marketing campaign, which featured instant-win prizes (using under-the-cap and other packaging codes) and a grand prize of a trip for four on a three-day tour of famed BBQ joints. As part of that broader promotion, Big Red became the first beverage brand to sponsor Weber Mobile Grill Academy classes. Big Red sponsored more 25-plus “5 Steps to Burger Brilliance” classes in the region’s Kroger stores, teaching participants grilling basics and how to make unique meat and vegetarian recipes using the soda. The shopper marketing program, which was executed by Big Red, Weber and Kroger teams, was supported with Big Red and Weber in-store promotional displays. Results: In participating stores, Big Red saw a 15.7% increase in dollar sales (on a 20% unit increase), handily beating the program’s 10% goal, reports a Big Red representative. The shopper marketing campaign contributed to Big Red’s outpacing the sales performance of the carbonated soft drinks (CSD) category as a whole in Louisville last year, according to the brand.
Trust in institutions such as the media, government and business leaders continues to decline all over the world. According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer, faith in the media is at an all-time low in 17 countries out of 28 surveyed, while trust in government dropped in 14 markets across the world, and is the least-trusted institution in half of all countries evaluated. Trust in business leaders is also imperiled, dropping in every market surveyed. Indeed, more than half (53%) of the global respondents felt the system was working against them, offering little help for the future. (Only 15% believed it was working for them; the remainder felt uncertain.) Although trust was higher among informed members of the public, more than half of them said the system was failing. “We see a growing and continuing disparity in trust levels between the mass population and the informed public, with the mass substantially less trusting than those with higher levels of income and education,” Kathy Beiser, global chair of Edelman's corporate practice, tells Marketing Daily. “This crisis in trust has profound implications for institutions and their leaders—the mass population simply doesn’t believe the system works for them anymore.” The decline in institutional faith suggests the organizations need to adopt a “new operating model” that moves beyond the traditional top-down, siloed structure to one that suggests shared responsibility in creating solutions, Beiser says. “For business, it requires a long-term mindset that looks beyond quarterly numbers,” she says. For marketers, the implications mean a continued need to work on consumer engagement, rather than top-down marketing. According to the research, consumers find a company’s social media channel more believable than its advertising. “With employees now the most credible spokesperson for an organization on any topic, business needs to empower and leverage these individuals to reach their stakeholders, a trend that has profound implications for how marketers approach consumer engagement,” Beiser says. They also need to spend time explaining the thinking behind innovations and take steps to ensure people don’t get or feel left behind by them. “Marketers have done an excellent job telling people about the benefits of their innovations, but we believe they have to also address the downsides,” Beiser says. “If we remove cashiers from stores and drivers from cars, for example, what kind of commitment is business going to make with regards to the jobs that are lost as a result? Business must partner with government and its peers to help find solutions to these issues; otherwise, we believe that trust—and the corresponding stability of our societies — will continue to diminish.”
While plenty of retailers are crawling out of the holiday period with bumps, bruises and layoffs, the bigger picture is far more upbeat, with total spending making it the best in the last five years. In its final tally, the Visa Retail Spending Monitor says retail sales grew 4.8% on Visa payment products, with e-commerce spending on those climbing 19%. (In the prior year, it had gained 14%.) As a whole, e-spending accounted for 24%, an increase from 21% in the prior year. And the National Retail Federation, in its final report, says total spending rose to $658.3 billion, a 4% gain, and better than its initial forecast. Its tally of non-store sales, which includes online spending, is $122.9 billion, up 12.6% from the prior year. (Initially, the NRF called for a total gain of 3.6%, and online sales improvement of between 7 and 10%.) Both Visa and the NRF attributed the overall strength of the numbers to low unemployment, growing wages and generally confident consumers. “The economy was clearly stronger in the fall and consumers were more active during the holiday season than they had been earlier in the year,” NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz says in its release. “Economic indicators were up, retailers offered great deals, confidence improved and all of that empowered consumers to spend more.” In addition, he says healthier real estate markets and gains in stocks also brightened consumers’ spirits. The NRF’s calculations are based on data from the U.S. Commerce Department, a broader set of data that also includes cars, gasoline, and spending at restaurants and bars. While those numbers showed gains in categories like furniture and furnishings (up 4.8%) and health and personal care (up 6.7%), the news was bad for department stores (down 7%), electronics (off 2.3%) and sporting goods (1.7%.)
There is no surprise in the news that FTC Chair Edith Ramirez is leaving the agency. And not just because a Republican will take the chair. It is because the FTC will basically cease to exist. The regulatory agencies still have not entirely regained the momentum lost in the Reagan administration, when GOP foxes were appointed to guard the henhouses of government and feasted on chicken dinner for the next 12 years. Of course, Donald Trump has trumped even The Great Deregulator, offering the Department of Education to Betsy DeVos, who wishes to dismantle public education via white-flight vouchers; the Environmental Protection Agency to Scott Pruitt, a climate-change denier; the Department of Labor to fast-food tycoon Andy Puzder, who has agitated against a higher minimum wage; and the Department of Energy to Rick Perry, who campaigned on disbanding it. It's a conservative wet dream and a societal nightmare. But even among those ongoing catastrophes, the Federal Trade Commission will stand out. Because Trump personally violates the most fundamental rules for consumer protection almost every day. For starters, of course, he is a pathological liar. If he were Procter & Gamble selling soap instead of a demagogue selling fear, he would be tied up in enforcement actions for all eternity. “Let me tell you: the miners in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which was so great to me last week and Ohio and all over, they're going to start to work again, believe me.” No, I don't believe you, because it isn't true. Even if there were a growing market for coal (which there is not and never will be again because of uncompetitive financial and environmental costs), the jobs disappeared decades ago, when strip mining replaced subterranean mining. It was the emptiest of promises and a naked lie, but Appalachia bought his goods. Voters equally bought his angry-sounding tirades about China's trade cheating and U.S. corporate offshore manufacturing when he used Chinese steel in his own developments and manufactured his Trump apparel in China. What the FTC calls this sort of behavior is “consumer deception.” Then there is his sordid history of actual consumer fraud. Trump University was a scheme built on a foundation of fabrication, not least of which the guaranty that Trump “handpicked” the instructors who would teach enrollees the secrets of real estate. In a 2012 deposition in the fraud case against him, Trump could not identify a single instructor. That's but one reason the man who “never settles” paid $25 million to get the lawsuit behind him. Sad! And illegal. One area in which the FTC has been active in the past 8 years is the regulation of commercial endorsement on social media. It has cracked down on celebrity tweets that are undisclosed or insufficiently disclosed as paid endorsements. Now, there is more than one way to be paid. Quid pro quo is not measured only in cash money. (Although, you know, sometimes unlawful cash contributions from foundations do work wonders to make Florida criminal fraud allegations -- like Trump U. tuition money -- just disappear into nothingness.) This can express itself in many ways, from sudden reversals in foreign policy regarding Russian tyrants to a sudden love of the outdoors for a man who never stepped on earthly soil unless between tee and green. Donald J. Trump Thank you to Linda Bean of L.L.Bean for your great support and courage. People will support you even more now. Buy L.L.Bean. @LBPerfectMaine It is, of course, highly irregular and probably unprecedented for a president to explicitly endorse a business. But it's not as though Bean were a vocal Trump booster who had donated a fortune to his campaign. Oh, wait. Yes, she was. Yet somehow Trump did not label his bizarre tweet as a paid endorsement. Warner Bros. and Lord & Taylor did the same thing, and got their ears boxed for their omission. So, no, there is no earthly reason for Edith Ramirez to remain in the FTC henhouse. To paraphrase Shakespeare very slightly: “When good manners shall lie in one or two men's hands and they unwashed too, ‘tis a fowl thing.”