*Marketing 101: Verse Group and Jupiter Research surveyed senior marketers at 101 companies and subsequently released the "A Shift in Marketing" study, which revealed that
marketers believe that brand marketing is ... well, broken. Among the key findings:
- Traditional brand positioning and advertising have lost their effectiveness;
- Companies that adopt new narrative approaches to branding will outperform those who stick with the traditional brand positioning approach;
- 89% say that marketing is under greater scrutiny than ever before; and,
- Top three trends are shifting to nontraditional media, adopting brand stories and using design for competitive advantage.
Source: Verse Group & Jupiter Research
*Making Green by Going Green: The question of sustainable business practices' actual contributions to bottom-line profits is oft-debated, but a new report released by the
Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Cisco, HP, Qualcomm, SAS, Abbott and UTC makes a compelling argument in favor of corporate citizenship's moneymaking abilities. The
report's findings were summarized in the following points:
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To be successful, corporate citizenship must be driven from the top. But leaders of this initiative are needed at all levels of the firm.
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Significant companies find ways to channel the passion of their employees into corporate citizenship activities. Such activities help firms to recruit better-quality
workers and retain them.
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To convince senior executives that corporate citizenship is effective, the financial benefit must be clear. Companies must set ambitious goals, along with ways of keeping
track of progress toward them.
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Companies have discovered that financial advantages can accrue from forming partnerships with nontraditional stakeholders, including state and federal government, activist
groups and NGOs.
As for the survey results, highlights include:
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When asked what their companies' primary motivation for corporate citizenship was, the highest percentage of respondents--16%--cited revenue growth and increasing
profits;
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74% believe that effective corporate citizenship can help improve their companies' bottom line;
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54% said corporate citizenship initiatives are "somewhat important" to their overall business strategies;
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71% believe business sustainability depends on effective corporate citizenship;
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When asked which groups their companies proactively engage on corporate citizenship initiatives, 40% said employees; 36% said educational institutions; 28% said government;
24% said shareholders; 23% said both public-private partnerships and consumers; 19% said advocacy groups; 18% said social entrepreneurs; 16% said NGOs; and 14% said media;
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14% of respondents say employees are involved in setting corporate citizenship strategies to a great extent; 56% said to some extent; and 19% said not at all;
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In terms of the most profitable areas of corporate citizenship, the highest percentage--19%--cited education as "very likely;" and,
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The highest percentage of respondents (37%) said the CEO/president/managing director was responsible for setting corporate citizenship strategies, followed by the board
(34%).
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
*Business Travel Makes Emergency Landing: According to a recent Ipsos poll of U.S. adults, 37% of business travelers who planned to travel through the remainder of 2008 say
their travel plans have been impacted by the current financial crisis, which could have major implications for the PR conference circuit in 2009. Additional findings:
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13% of American business travelers say they plan to substitute some of their 2008 business travel with conference calls and webinars where appropriate;
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47% of the business travelers in the U.S. expect to continue with their business trips as planned;
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40% say they expect to travel less often for business in 2009 compared to 2008;
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22% expect to travel more for business in 2009; and,
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38% say they expect to travel the same amount for business in 2009 as they did in 2008.
Source: Ipsos