Economist Mastering Brand and Marketing Strategies in the Digital Era Conference March 2008

I have just attended the Economist Conference in San Francisco on Mastering Brand and Marketing Strategies in the Digital Era. The conference was clearly aimed at marketing professionals and had an excellent line up of speakers including AT&T, Dell, eBay, HP, General Mills, Chevron, Microsoft, Adobe, Linden Labs, Lenovo, Bank of America, McKesson Pharmaceutical, and Clorex.

Rather than do a live blog as I did at TED in Aspen I decided this time to just pull out the key points and insights from the 3 days.

• Brand is about a promise - if you make the promise you need to keep it! Failing to do so will severely damage your brand - particularly with the blogosphere now available.
• One strategy that has been employed by AT&T is to build the brand through association/partnership as they have done with Apple and the iPhone and more recently Starbucks.
• AT&T have implemented a culture change program within the organization called AT&T 2.0 which engages the employees in common goals - simple, understandable - with a clear vision and mission.
• Key trends in marketing were discussed: Aging, Globalization, Disparity of Income, Digitization, Social Networking, enabling Individuality
• Engagement is the word in marketing for 2008 - one of the key questions posed was how to measure it effectively.
• ROI - which once meant Return on Investment was cited as now meaning Return on Ideas or Information - there were felt to be the new areas of value for companies.
• "Know me and be Relevant" was a mantra cited by a couple of the speakers. Consumers want to be known and understood.
• Participation is the fifth 'P' of marketing along with Product, Price, Promotion and Place (Distribution)
• There are no 'integrated' agencies today - integration is taking place within companies rather than in the agencies etc.
• Sustainability is finally coming on to the company radar - in 2006 51% didn't care about the environment - in 2008 33% want to do everything they can to minimize their footprint.
• Sustainability is a becoming a key part of brand energy.
• "What role does brand play in your customers life?"

Comments

[Aneta]

Honestly, I am getting a little doubtful of marketers who, all of a sudden, shift their brand to become more environmentally friendly. Don’t you think it is a bit suspicious that in two-years time they switched from hardly noticing the environment to being “highly engaged?” Some may say “better late than never,” but I am hoping that this effort can be sustained for more than just the next two years until something newer and more fashionable comes around.