The New Marketing Organization - Sas Institute

WHAT DOES YOUR BRANDSOUND LIKE?BY LAURENCE MINSKY AND COLLEEN FAHEYBranding is one of the top concerns of CEOs and CMOs, and smartfirms are investing as much as ever on branding initiatives — evenonline. For instance, back in August, eMarketer reported that inthe digital area alone, U.S. advertisers will spend approximately“ 17.46 billion on branding, or 41.6% of total digital spend. By 2017,[the online] branding spend is expected to grow to 29.33 billion, ora 48.5% share.”But with most B2B and B2C organizations using virtually the samebranding tools, they’re arguably seeing less advantage as a result oftheir efforts — if they’re realizing any advantage at all.To gain advantage on this leveled playing field, there’s one powerful branding tool that has been generally overlooked — or perhapsundervalued — by most marketers: sound. With of our increasinglyaudio-enabled media environment, the strategic use of sound canplay an important role in positively differentiating a product or service, enhancing recall, creating preference, building trust, and evenincreasing sales.Called audio branding, sonic branding, sound branding, or acousticbranding, cognitive studies show that relevant sounds and musicalcues can truly influence people in ways marketers want. Accordingto research presented at the 2012 Audio Branding Congress, congruent sound cues can increase the speed of a visual search for products (a key for success in both online and retail settings), as well asimprove the perceived taste of food and wine (PDF).Some marketers have long employed sound and music as part oftheir brand experience, including the familiar chime of an AppleComputer launching, the pop of the Snapple lid, and the aggressivehowl of a Harley in rev mode.While these are within the realm of audio branding, the true practices are actually more sophisticated than an isolated packaging orproduct sound, the singular use of a now quaint jingle at the end ofa radio spot, or a discrete audio logo such as the one attached to theIntel inside button.Rather, audio branding entails the creation of an entire audio language for the brand based on its essence, values, promise, and personality — a language that gets expressed across all touch points,from the web and apps to trade shows to TV to the retail environment and even the product itself. Just as the verbal or visual brandexpression is optimized at each medium, the audio expressions arealso sensitively adapted across the touch points, so they’re psychologically appropriate to the medium.The French national railway, SNCF, did just that. They launched anaudio branding initiative in 2005 for two key reasons. First, alreadyin competition with airlines, they were beginning to compete withGerman and Italian railroads. Second, consumers, when asked,associated SNCF with “strikes and delays.”They started their initiative by conducting a study of the all theaudio in their competitive set, revealing a lack of distinctiveness.They then created an audio DNA with the goal of communicatingtheir leadership along with the comfort and caring that distinguished the brand.It was introduced with a film that drew the connection between thecompany’s heritage and its new position.To bring the audio DNA to life, the music was interpreted in variousways. Station messages, for example, took into account travelers’anxiety. For those, the music was calm and reassuring.Though the TV end frame uses the same tune, it has a more authoritative sound with more emphasis on rhythm.The customer service line draws from the same audio DNA butprovides surprises and variety to make the wait feel shorter. Thenow-familiar music was also adapted to the needs of meetings, corporate messages, brand advertising, and communications needs allthroughout the company.While the audio DNA has remained intact, the expression has evolvedsince its launch, keeping with the developing brand. The first appearance in 2005 had to capture leadership, which led to a dynamic andauthoritative musical universe, employing a rhythmic approach anda distinctive sound. Then in 2008, to emphasize its eco-mobility, theinstrumentation became more natural and acoustic.And finally, in 2012, the brand needed to impart its new vision ofsimple, direct and easy mobility, so sounds were simplified and awhoosh of speed was introduced.SNCF made a bold decision to give up the usual codes of the category and create something to which no link to the past existed,but that underscored its then current leadership and brand values.FROM THE HBR.ORG INSIGHT CENTER “THE NEW MARKETING ORGANIZATION” 3

As a result, the audio brand has turned into a significant asset forSNCF. For instance, they found that they are correctly identifiedin testing by 92% of the listeners — and that 88% of these listeners correctly identified the brand upon hearing just two notes. Andperhaps more significantly, 71% of them now see the brand as being“attractive” or “very attractive,” and SNCF has experienced an 18%increase in the perception of leadership.Just as the earliest visual logos and branding programs are iconictoday, audio brands will likely become iconic tomorrow. If you donot have an audio brand, the time is now to get started. Done right,your efforts can provide rewards for years to come.FROM THE HBR.ORG INSIGHT CENTER “THE NEW MARKETING ORGANIZATION” 4

BRANDS AREN’T DEAD, BUT TRADITIONALBRANDING TOOLS ARE DYINGBY JENS MARTIN SKIBSTED AND RASMUS BECH HANSENBack in the days when the internet was young, many believed thatas it grew brands would become a thing of the past. Leading information economy thinkers propagated this view, including CarlShapiro and Hal R. Varian, who published the highly influentialbook, Information Rules, in 1999 (Varian is now chief economist atGoogle). The book predicted that the power of brands would shrinkas people had access to more and more free information. This hasclearly turned out to be wrong. In fact, the web has become dominated by, yes, a few big brands.Still, the notion that a bigger world wide web means smaller brands issurprisingly resilient. Most recently Stanford professor Itamar Simonsen and author Emanual Rosen have argued in their new book Absolute Value: What Really Influences Customers in the Age of (Nearly)Perfect Information and in their recent blog post here that marketersneed to reevaluate the idea that brands are critically important in consumer’s purchasing decisions. They claim: “ brands are less neededwhen consumers can assess product quality using better sources ofinformation such as reviews from other users, expert opinion, orinformation from people they know on social media.”The case for the decline of big brands follows a strikingly clear logic:The primary role of a brand is to make it easier for consumers tochoose which products to buy. If consumers have immediate accessto information that helps them make those decisions such as userreviews and expert opinion, the value of a brand will fall. Proponents of this theory point to the explosive growth of the mobile webas compelling evidence. It’s undeniable that we are not far from afuture where most Western consumers have instant access to theaccumulated mass reviews of every product that Simonsen andRosen describe.But this doesn’t make the “death of the brand” theory any truerthan it was 15 years ago when Varian and Shapiro put it forward.In fact, the exact opposite is true. As digital disrupts more marketplaces, brands become more important and more valuable. Take alook at the various brand rankings: Digital brands such as Apple,Google, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, and Samsung are in the top 10 ofmost rankings. This is not because the likes of Coca Cola, McDonalds, and Mercedes have become less valuable. The digital brandshave just turbocharged past them. If brands are truly unimportantin a digital world, why is it so brand dominated? Why do so manypeople choose Google search over Bing when only experts can tellwhich has the most accurate results? Why has Apple become themost valuable company in the world with over-priced products andinferior functionality?Because brands still matter immensely. The mistake Simonsen andRosen make is to confuse the value, role, and meaning of a brandin today’s digital economy with the methods used to build thebrand. What sets the Googles and Apples of the world apart fromolder brands is how they’ve built their brands. Google has hardlyspent anything on traditional advertising (although the companywisely, as all its profitable revenue comes from advertising, doesn’tbrag about it). Instead, the company has kept the brand meaningfuland relevant to people’s lives through free services and cool ideas.Apple relaunched the brand with the ad campaign “Think Different”, but has since withdrawn from image-building ads and kept amuch smaller marketing budget than peers, focusing it brand effortson creating an insanely well-designed, holistic product experience.The company’s advertising is limited to boring product shots.The role of a brand is—and never was—just about solving an information problem. It’s about providing meaning and satisfying emotional needs. These fundamental human needs have not changed.To the contrary as consumers experience information overload,there might be a tendency to gravitate toward what’s known andcomforting. Sure, disruptive digital services explode and take overthe world in an instant, but to go from being a popular service likePinterest and Whatsapp to a brand that commands a proper pricepremium is still a long road.So instead of discussing “brand versus not brand” marketers andexecutives should ask themselves: How can we strengthen ourbrand when the traditional tools such as advertising, corporateidentity programs, and PR are becoming impotent?Part of the answer is in making the brand more—not less—central.In a hyper-transparent digital world, consumers instantly know thedifference between what a company says and what it does. Organizations can no longer draw clear lines between marketing and product development, between communications and services. Brandbuilders must embed themselves across the customer value chain.Products and services must be able to tell a story and communicatevalue without an extra advertising layer on top. As information ismore and more available and the importance of brands increases,the ability to tell a meaningful story through actions and products,not words, is the only way to win.FROM THE HBR.ORG INSIGHT CENTER “THE NEW MARKETING ORGANIZATION” 5

MARKETERS NEED TO THINKMORE LIKE PUBLISHERSBY GREG SATELLIn 2010, Pepsi pulled its Super Bowl ads and invested 20 millioninto its Refresh project, which employed crowdsourcing to supportgood causes. It was an astounding social media success, with morethan 87 million votes cast.2. Identify analogues. Marketers like to cut through the clutter andget noticed. They focus on “unique selling propositions” and wanttheir marketing messages to be distinctive. By looking, sounding,and feeling different, they hope to grab the consumer’s attention.Unfortunately, as this Harvard Business School case study pointsout, it was an abysmal business failure and Pepsi eventually fellto third place in the soda category, behind Diet Coke. For all of thehype and hoopla on social media, sales suffered dearly.But marketing in the digital age is less about grabbing attention andmore about holding attention. That goes double for publishing. Youneed to create an easy-to-navigate experience that will make consumers want to come back. The best way to do that is by adoptingfamiliar conventions.Pepsi’s ambitions were far from unusual. Research by the ContentMarketing Institute estimates that 90% of consumer marketers areinvesting in content. Unfortunately, most of those efforts will fail.In order to succeed, marketers will have to learn to think like publishers. That will mean more than a change in tactics or even strategy, but a starkly different perspective. Here’s what you need to do:1. Define the mission. All great publications have missions. HelenGurley Brown sought to make every girl feel that she can be beautiful and confident. That’s Cosmopolitan’s mission. Henry Lucesought to create a better-informed public and Time magazineembodies his vision even today. Vogue is a fashion bible becauseAnna Wintour believes a stylish world is a better place.Marketers need to take the same approach. Nobody is going tobelieve that the CEO of Pepsi wakes up in the morning thinkingabout how she can build better after-school programs and biketrails, which is why Pepsi Refresh didn’t resonate. Others, likeAmerican Express Open Forum succeed because they are in linewith the brand’s mission.Coke has taken an interesting approach with its sustainability initiative. Water quality and energy efficiency are important to Coke’sbusiness and it has built up considerable expertise in that area.People who have an interest in the issue appreciate the companysharing it and if they can get an occasional coupon in the process,so much the better.Most content marketers start with implementation ideas, such associal media or a video. That would be like John F. Kennedy proposing his man-to-the-moon idea by focusing on rocket technology,rather than America’s aspirations for the space age.Start by figuring out what you have to offer the world. Most companies usually actually do have quite a bit to offer, but get boggeddown because they haven’t identified their mission.That’s why content development should always start with betweenthree and five analogue products. You need to ask key questionslike: Who’s done this before? How did they do it? What can we add?What can we subtract? For example, if a cosmetics brand wanted topublish content, would their reference be Cosmo, a Sephora store,or Sex and the City?Starting with analogues is the best way to get everybody on thesame page and define what you want to achieve. From there, youcan find your own voice.3. Identify your structures. Possibly the most important — and certainly the most overlooked aspect of content creation — is structure. Every content discipline has its own rules and every contentproduct is defined by the rules it chooses to break.Magazines have clearly defined “brand bibles” that designate flatplan, voice, and pacing. Radio stations run on clocks. TV showshave clearly defined story structures and character arcs. The rulesnot only set audience expectations and make content easier to takein and enjoy, but form the crucial constraints in which creativitycan thrive.So when marketers approach publishing, they must go beyond theusual advertising conventions of target and message. Instead, theymust think seriously about the format in which information will bepresented. You may not need the detailed brand bible of an established publication — which can run up to 100 pages — but you haveto start somewhere.Every great publishing product combines consistency and surprise,so it’s okay to break some rules now and again, but you have to firstestablish what the rules are.4. Create a true value exchange. It used to be that awareness coulddrive sales. If you spent lots of money on TV, you could be sure thatFROM THE HBR.ORG INSIGHT CENTER “THE NEW MARKETING ORGANIZATION” 6

consumers would know your brand and be more likely to buy yourproduct. But today, brand awareness is less likely to result in a tripto the store and more likely to lead to searching behavior online,where your competitors can retarget your consumers.That’s why it has become so important to build a relationship withconsumers. Publishing can be a great way to build unique bonds,but there has to be a true value exchange rather than just a promotion. Gimmicks won’t work. You need to build trust and credibilitythrough content that makes an impact because it informs, excites,and inspires. The Michelin Guides, which started out as basic handbooks for road-weary travelers (presumably traveling on theirMichelin tires) are the classic example. A more modern example isMailchimp, the email marketing service, which sends tutorials onhow to get the most out of its product after you sign up.Most of all, great publishers lead. People like Helen Gurley Brown,Henry Luce, and Anna Wintour created legendary brands by driving trends, not following them. They do not seek to merely join theconversation, but to lead it. If you expect people to listen to you, it’sbest to have something meaningful to say.If marketers are ever going to be successful at content, the first stepis to start thinking more like publishers.FROM THE HBR.ORG INSIGHT CENTER “THE NEW MARKETING ORGANIZATION” 7

CMOs AND CEOs CANWORK BETTER TOGETHERBY JEAN-BAPTISTE COUMAU, TOM FRENCH AND LAURA LABERGEWhen Deborah DiSanzo took over as CEO of Philips Healthcare inMay 2012, she knew that engineering would continue to drive innovation. But she also realized that the company needed to developgreater marketing muscle to drive a commercial transformation. Asshe put it, “Our markets are going through dynamic change. Whoshould lead our transformation? It must be marketing. Marketersneed to know where their markets are going and where their customers are going, and then lead the rest of the organization.”DiSanzo started by consolidating an astounding 600 different marketing titles into eight consistent job areas with specific and clearareas of responsibility. She also took the unusual step of installingthree CMOs who could help provide detailed insights into three ofthe main business groups of the company. And she put marketingin charge of an organization-wide growth program.The changes in healthcare — consolidation, restructuring, regulation, spending pressures — that are necessitating a transformationat Philips Healthcare are a subset of a series of powerful forces inthe business world that have catapulted marketing from an oftenisolated support function to a critical capability for driving aboveaverage growth. Marketing has become increasingly essential fordiscovering meaningful insights, designing strategies and offersbased on them, and delivering them to the marketplace. We haveseen these forces at work in many different industries around theworld, requiring a decidedly closer working relationship betweenthe CEO and CMO.The CMOs will need to be much more attuned to the businessobjectives and strategies of the company in general and the CEOin particular, while the CEO must become more immersed in thecustomer perspective. In our experience, there are specific stepsCEOs and CMOs can take to develop a working relationship that isdynamic and useful.Here are our recommendations for the CEO:Give the CMO a seat at the executive table. The CEO can raise theCMO’s profile and communicate the heightened importance ofmarketing in a number of both formal and (often just as important)informal ways. Giving the CMO a clear rol

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