Contemporary Issues in Marketing in 2024

Honoured to be invited back to guest lecture to 3rd Year Business Management Students at St Mary’s University, Twickenham on "Contemporary Issues in Marketing".

Always a topic that causes some reflection - many “issues” haven’t changed for, coughs, decades (understanding the customer, building a point of differentiation, being smart on channels, sales/marketing alignment, etc. etc.). But thinking on "contemporary" issues I picked these five:

💥 Consumer Choice - the war for attention / how the customer controls the purchase journey / lack of brand loyalty.
💥 Channel complexity - so many choices, so little budget / using creativity to cut through the digital noise / the yearly rise of new social channels.
💥 Sustainability - driven by millennials, consumers demanding greater brand transparency on DEI & sustainability.
💥 Skills - marketers needing to be much more multi-faceted across business, creative, data & program management / tools change, skills don’t.
💥 AI - of course! No tech is ever a silver bullet and our track record of implementing tech in marketing is, quite frankly, poor. But those who embrace AI will win over those that don't.

There are many more I could've added…

Lots of great questions from the students too on (unsurprisingly) AI, innovation and ethics in marketing.

Great to see such an engaged group. Thanks again Lucy Timms for the invite!

#marketing #learning #marketingstrategy

No customers. No brand campaign.

🚀 No Customers. No Brand Campaign. 🎯

Tech companies love talking about their products – the amazing features, the cutting-edge tech, the “best in class” everything. It’s simple - our tech is quite simply the best (cue Tina at Sales Kickoff. You laugh, but I’ve been there for Steve Ballmer’s Eye of the Tiger! 🎤🐅).

But here’s the reality: before you get to the features and the tech, customers need to know three simple things:

1️⃣ Do you solve my problems?
2️⃣ Where have you done this before?
3️⃣ Who have you helped that’s just like me?

This lesson hit home when I led Adobe’s Global DX Brand Campaign working with then-CMO Ann Lewnes. Her mantra? “No customers. No brand campaign.” 💡

Those words shaped how we built campaigns that not only featured customers but integrated their success stories at every stage of the campaign journey. We went about involving customers in our ads, then continuing with consistent imagery and video testimonials on our website (spotlighting brands like The Coca-Cola Company, Sydney Opera House and Virgin Atlantic Airways). And creating community and events around the concept of customers who were “Experience Makers”, language which I’m proud to say still lives on some 7 years later.

We showed prospects what success looked like – in their own language.

Why does this work?

✅ It bridges the gap between brand and demand - you can take the idea into all sorts of of activations.
✅ Customers see your promise.
✅ And most importantly they see your delivery.

Remember, a great story doesn’t just sell products – it sells trust, credibility, and proof. Cue Tina! 🕺

#Marketing #BrandBuilding #CustomerStories #B2BMarketing