As personally as rewarding as it is, Marketers and Brand Managers carry a heavy load of responsibilities. They need to make sure product launches happen on time, monitor labeling and packaging, tv commercials, consumer research, and other activities supporting their brand. Brand Managers get to do all the creative things associated with marketing. Using consumer insights to make every project better than the last.
Brand managers for Fortune 500 companies are dynamic and open to new ideas. They continuously seek creative ways to increase their brand awareness and raise their revenue. Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) are in the spotlight right now and continually sell out. Today challenges go more hand in hand with securing enough production and optimal supply.
So far, 2020 has changed how we do things; many innovations that blossomed from this crisis came to stay. Having a highly cross-functional role means Brand Managers will have to surveil and ensure profits keep increasing steadily.
Analytics and an eye for aesthetics are essential skills for marketing professionals as well as tolerance and the agility to adapt to evolving markets. So what have the CPG giants been up to since the world turned upside down? Some CPG Brands have experienced an increase in demand, and they’re genuinely committed to keep improving. However, there are several challenges CPG household names will have to acknowledge due to fast-changing circumstances.
The CPG power-players are thriving in a crisis. Without sounding harsh to other industries, this appears to be a happy problem—Reckitt Benckiser with their disinfectant brands, Lysol and Sagrotan, P&G with cleaning and personal care products. Unilever is selling stratospheric volumes of its soap brands Lifebuoy and Dove. In contrast, people are not using as much shampoo nor deodorant, ewww. Bayer has also seen an increasing demand for contraceptives. Coty announced last month that they would be buying a stake of KKW beauty. Heineken had a boost in its online sales, delivering taste through e-comm. Demand in specific categories has shifted, and we can't ignore it any longer.
The art of Brand Management is not a simple task. It has a direct impact on the company’s revenue. Brand Managers and their assistants must be strategic to reach their goals and attract their target customers. Marketers and key stakeholders must be competitive, concerned about the brand’s profitability, and, most importantly planning for a new kind of future.
1. Shift on advertising channels
Shift to digital marketing is evident. By now, if you are not in e-comm, let me tell you, things will start turning south. The future is here, and after joining the e-comm club, you'll have to start coming up with creative ways to achieve active targeting and communication.
Mobile-first, if consumers were already glued to their phones, now they’re truly inseparable. If there’s anything that has to live online, make sure it’s compatible and fully functional with consumers’ mobile devices.
Until the past month's advertisers threw their content out to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and experimented with Tik Tok. Nothing lasts forever, but lately, the change appears to come out of nowhere. Tiktok is facing the risk of being banned in the US due to suspicion of mishandling users' personal data and Chinese government espionage. On the other hand, Facebook is facing a boycott from many power brands. We're all wondering what this means for advertisers and the people in charge of brand management.
Entire boards of directors had specialists evaluate the risks of making such bold moves. It's not like one day the company's leaders decide to step out altogether just because they felt like it. Considering the cost of opportunity is necessary. PR efforts and brand awareness might be at stake. But on the other hand, speaking out is well received by consumers. Brands need to take a stand. It’s no longer acceptable to be neutral about essential matters.
Elections are right around the corner, and companies and brands will no longer tolerate the spread of misinformation and hateful speech. All complaints were piling up. Businesses have historically disliked Facebook's auction-based ad system, and they're making their point heard.
According to the Washington Post, around more than 750 advertisers are boycotting Facebook and asking for better policing of hateful content. Among the companies are Starbucks, Diageo, Verizon, Unilever, Hershey’s, Coca-Cola, Clorox, Adidas, and Reebok. Microsoft also did so but without causing that much buzz since May. Procter & Gamble is still reluctant to make a bold move but has stated that they will not disclose advertising decisions until further notice.
The New York Times said Facebook cashed in around $17 billion in advertising revenue in this year's first quarter alone. According to Pathmatics data, the highest-spending 100 brands accounted for $4.2 billion in Facebook advertising in 2019; that's about 6% of the platform's ad revenue.
Change is definitely not welcomed by many, and fear tends to kick in. But today, we find ourselves laying a foundation for a new generation of everything. Thanks to companies' stand, stakeholders of power brands and smaller players are evaluating if it's worth it taking a stand or is better just to stay neutral. Some possibly don't have the luxury of just not advertising anymore, but it might be possible to diversify channels while integrating communications.
Demanding these platforms to update their policies to surveil and curate content is necessary to change the way we do business. There's plenty of advocacy to stop harnessing hate from certain groups to profit. Facebook's stock price tumbled since CPG companies and other industries began to release these statements supporting the improvement of advertising policies.
New platforms are gaining popularity, and influencers are organizing themselves to migrate their followers and expand their content to sites and apps such as Twitch, Dubsmash, Likee, etc. CPG brands will not stop advertising, but they will shift their spending from specific platforms to others.
2. Marketing under delicate circumstances
Don’t blow your position! Even if you are within the companies boycotting Facebook and the other platforms, brands that go dark during a pandemic take an average of 5 years to recover. This doesn’t mean you should jump out of these sincere efforts to change the way social platforms ethically operate.
After a few months, brands are thinking more clearly and not panicking that much. Taking action and being bold is required. However, brands must be capable of acknowledging the situation and being sensitive to matters going on around the globe. We live in a society where we are still fighting for equality in the workplace, for the LGBTQ community's rights, and race equality. Let's not forget we are in the middle of an unprecedented health crisis and massive unemployment because of it.
Listening to your audience will be crucial to understanding and acting upon consumers' insights. It's important to not jump out of social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram just yet. Having an overview of what your consumers are sharing and feeling will allow brands to share content that's ad hoc and sensible.
Overseeing advertisement placements is delicate; you’ll also have to surveil where and when your ad will appear and around which circumstances. Today you must operate with creativity and flexibility. We wouldn’t advise programming your post schedule that much in advance, nowadays everything is possible, and things are shifting way too quickly.
3. Managing High Volumes of Content
Executing an omnichannel strategy has its perks and challenges. You have to consider the stages and comprehend how a brand is owning the experience, reenergizing your relationships with your customers, and adapting and integrating a brand’s communication across channels successfully.
CPG brands can’t miss out on selling directly to consumers; that’s why supporting their social channels that lead to e-comm is key. Ideas can be great, but the key is in the quality of the execution.
The most successful Brand Managers and Assistant Brand Managers know how to choose their partners and employees carefully. Creativity as a soft skill is being sought after platforms such as LinkedIn as well as in others. External service providers must be pre-approved by the procurement department and be ready to step in when the job calls.
Third-party agencies help brands launch new ad campaigns, develop new products, and create creative and overall media strategies, including digital. The good ones know how to turn and to maintain a product as a household name.
As consumers, we’re already used to consuming advertising, but great ads won’t even feel like ads. It’s valuable that brands take advantage of the underrated power of content. Choosing the right social platform for specific types of content is key to consider.
Typical constraints, when partnering with third-party agencies, are, for example, estimated delivery times. As a Content Powerhouse, we act as a dependable partner for global CPG companies to maintain and ensure brand consistency.
Speed in implementation
In an uncertain environment, we must act decisively and fast. As campaigns and digital assets have to be on point with ever-changing specs, and circumstances, brands need a partner that can adapt and implement faster than anyone.
Brands highly praise responsiveness, and our signature speed is what makes us stand out. 121 has an army of expert designers and video specialists that produce first-class content for all your power brands.
Maintaining content flowing through all your social and e-comm platforms shouldn't be a problem. Integrating your brand's communication will inevitably lead to higher conversion rates. Harness the power of content and keep your audience tuned in. You can always count on us; remember that our purpose is to make you shine!
This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their 'Personally identifiable information' (PII) is being used online. PII, as used in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website.
What personal information do we collect from the people that visit our blog, website or app?
When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your name, email address, phone number or other details to help you with your experience.
When do we collect information?
We collect information from you when you subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form or enter information on our site.
How do we use your information?
We may use the information we collect from you when you register, make a purchase, sign up for our newsletter, respond to a survey or marketing communication, surf the website, or use certain other site features in the following ways:
• To send periodic emails regarding your order or other products and services.
Consent
We’ll ask for your consent before requesting any type of information, it’ll also be optional to do so. You can also easily withdraw it or change it at any time. However, failure to provide that consent will prevent us from delivering content and other experiences to you.
Where do we storage your data?
We store all your data exclusively on our servers for at least a year, and we are the only ones that have access to them.
How can you access to your data?
You can exercise, at any time, the rights of access, rectification, cancellation and opposition of your personal data via email, addressed to privacidad@121corp.com indicating your name, surnames, telephone number, attaching a photocopy of your ID or official document that proves your identity and clearly indicating the right you wish to exercise.
How to ask us to delete your data?
If you would like to unsubscribe from any of our communications you may do so by sending us an email to privacidad@121corp.com. Otherwise, by continuing to interact with our emails, you provide us with permission to manage and use your data as described above.
How do we protect visitor information?
We do not use vulnerability scanning and/or scanning to PCI standards.
We use regular Malware Scanning.
Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. In addition, all sensitive/credit information you supply is encrypted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.
We implement a variety of security measures when a user enters, submits, or accesses their information to maintain the safety of your personal information.
All transactions are processed through a gateway provider and are not stored or processed on our servers.
What happens if there’s a data breach?
We will inform all of our users within the first 72 hours.
Do we use 'cookies'?
We do not use cookies for tracking purposes
You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies.
You do this through your browser (like Internet Explorer) settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser's Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.
If you disable cookies off, some features will be disabled that make your site experience more efficient and some of our services will not function properly.
Third Party Disclosure
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information.
Third party links
We do not include or offer third party products or services on our website.
Google
Google's advertising requirements can be summed up by Google's Advertising Principles. They are put in place to provide a positive experience for users.
https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/1316548?hl=en
We use Google AdSense Advertising on our website.
Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our site and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
We have implemented the following:
• Google Display Network Impression Reporting
• Demographics and Interests Reporting
We along with third-party vendors, such as Google use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions, and other ad service functions as they relate to our website.
Opting out: Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt out by visiting the Network Advertising initiative opt out page or permanently using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add on.
California Online Privacy Protection Act
CalOPPA is the first state law in the nation to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law's reach stretches well beyond California to require a person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting personally identifiable information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals with whom it is being shared, and to comply with this policy. - See more at:
http://consumercal.org/california-online-privacy-protection-act-caloppa/#sthash.0FdRbT51.dpuf
According to CalOPPA we agree to the following:
Users can visit our site anonymously
Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page, or as a minimum on the first significant page after entering our website.
Our Privacy Policy link includes the word 'Privacy', and can be easily be found on the page specified above.
Users will be notified of any privacy policy changes: • On our Privacy Policy Page Users are able to change their personal information: • By emailing us
How does our site handle do not track signals?
We honor do not track signals and do not track, plant cookies, or use advertising when a Do Not Track (DNT) browser mechanism is in place.
Does our site allow third party behavioral tracking?
It's also important to note that we allow third party behavioral tracking
COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)
When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under 13, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation's consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children's privacy and safety online.
We do not specifically market to children under 13.
CAN SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.
We collect your email address in order to:
To be in accordance with CANSPAM we agree to the following:
If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can email us at
• Follow the instructions at the bottom of each email. and we will promptly remove you from ALL correspondence.
Contacting Us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy you may contact us using the information below.
www.121corp.com
7315 Winsconsin Avenue, Suite 400 W
Bethesda, MD 20814
USA
privacidad@121corp.com
Last Edited on May 25, 2018