We’re living in a marketing paradox right now — people may have money to spend, but it’s not burning a hole in their pockets. People are playing it safe, and today’s marketing leaders need to adapt their strategies to connect to this new wave of consumers; people who have changed just as dramatically as the world around them.
We asked some of our expert speakers to share their insights into how marketers should adapt their strategies to better connect with and evolve alongside their target market.
Looking for more information on this topic? Contact us to learn more about our speakers and what they can bring to your next event.
Authenticity
Ron Tite
Purpose-Driven Leadership and Marketing Expert
Named one of the “Top 10 Creative Canadians” by Marketing Magazine, Ron Tite’s entertaining and enlightening keynotes not only inspire people to align their actions with purpose, but gives them the tools to do it.
Marketers thought post-pandemic work would be a storm of party streamers as consumers sprinted to over-consume. Instead, they got chaos and confusion.
Consumers have big savings but also face economic headwinds. Marketers could invest in sales-capturing tactics, but they don’t know if they’ll have the product or staff to fulfil. Marketers want to do the right thing. They’re just not sure what the right thing is.
As always, follow this guide: THINK DO SAY
THINK: Double down on your existing purpose. This isn’t the time to revisit.
DO: Be nimble, act with intent, and focus on solving the customer’s emotional, financial, or logistical problems that emerge from this confusing time.
SAY: Utilize brand assets to help build trust and familiarity. And ditch the auto-tune that marketers often apply to communications. Be real. Be authentic. And communicate like a person, not a corporation.
Seek Zero-Party Data
Swish Goswami
CEO, Surf | Startup Canada’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Today’s consumers rarely receive news and information via traditional media outlets. For a brand to compete in today’s age, they need to show that their bottom line can sustain this radical shift. Swish Goswami shows them how.
As we get out of the pandemic, we are entering a privacy-conscious world. Chrome is stopping cookies next year, the Apple iOS 14 changes continue to impact mobile advertisers, paid ads continue to lose effectiveness (partially due to ad blockers rising), and countries around the world are introducing their own GDPR-like regulations.
With all these changes, marketers need to stop relying on third-party data and instead seek zero-party data to engage and understand consumers. Zero-party data — data proactively shared by consumers for compensation — is the most direct way marketers can understand consumer interests, behaviours, and trends. It is data that is ethically sourced and can provide marketers the ability to navigate a privacy-conscious future.
Empower Your Teams
Scott Stratten
Expert in Un-Marketing
Scott Stratten is an “unmarketer” and an expert in viral, social, and authentic marketing. Covering both online and offline methods, he shows audiences proven ways to connect with their target market now more than ever before.
I would say listening, but not in the typical way. Not to the marketplace, industry, or your customers. Listen to your team. Not only can they prevent you from being “that company” in marketing that’s doing it wrong, but the farther down the org chart they are, the better they usually understand the actual tools and strategies out there. You focus on the big picture, but let your team tell you when, how, and where to take the shot.
Leverage Organic Partnerships
Nicole Verkindt
Tech Entrepreneur | Angel Investor | CEO, Buggy
Drawing from real-world data, Nicole Verkindt breaks down today’s biggest consumer trends to help audiences adapt their sales and marketing strategies to excel in this new world of retail.
B2C marketing has completely changed yet again. With the iOS update restricting key data sharing for privacy reasons, online marketing became a much bigger challenge. Plus, ecommerce completely exploded during the pandemic, making online advertising that much more competitive and expensive. Creating a community through much harder organic channels, including leveraging your partnerships, will be the name of the game again. This is a much slower, challenging process to get right.
In addition, companies need to look at their service offering and realize the pandemic created a new baseline of expectations, and today’s consumer, especially the younger ones, have very high service expectations. People want things instantaneously. They don’t want to wait for a scheduled time or even the next day for a lot of items. At Buggy, we’re promising under 15-minute delivery by owning inventory in small micro warehouses across the country and we have seen a huge uptick in demand. If you can get a pair of nylons in under 15 minutes from an app, why wait for the next day?
Hailing from the trenches of advertising, entrepreneurship, and content creation, contact us to learn more about our expert speakers and how they can help ensure your marketing efforts stand out.
