Brand Refresh: Biggest Challenges and Opportunities

For any brand marketer, the challenges and opportunities presented by a brand refresh are both exhilarating and daunting. A brand refresh is a critical moment for any organization, as it involves revitalizing the core elements of a brand to better reflect its vision, mission, and values and it must be handled properly.

A brand refresh presents a myriad of challenges that must be addressed to ensure its success:

1. Resistance to change: Employees and stakeholders may resist the changes associated with the refresh.

2. Maintaining brand consistency: Ensuring consistent application of the refreshed brand across all touchpoints.

3. Balancing heritage and innovation: Finding the right balance between preserving the heritage of the brand and introducing new elements.

4. Staying relevant: Ensuring the refreshed brand stays relevant in a constantly changing market.

5. Managing expectations: Managing the expectations of stakeholders and ensuring they understand the goals and objectives of the refresh.

6. Securing buy-in: Ensuring key stakeholders and decision-makers support the refresh.

7. Budget constraints: Limited resources may impact the scope or execution of the refresh.

8. Timing: Ensuring the timing of the refresh aligns with other business priorities.

On the other hand, a brand refresh presents enormous opportunities:

1. Increased relevance: A brand refresh can help a company stay relevant and competitive in the market.

2. Improved customer perception: A refreshed brand can improve customer perception and create a more positive image.

3. Differentiation: A refreshed brand can set a company apart from its competitors and create a unique position in the market.

4. Increased engagement: A refreshed brand can generate excitement and increase engagement among employees, stakeholders, and customers.

5. Enhanced brand loyalty: A refreshed brand can create a stronger emotional connection with customers, leading to increased brand loyalty.

6. Increased brand equity: A successful brand refresh can increase the value and equity of the brand.

7. New growth opportunities: A refreshed brand can open up new growth opportunities and markets for the company.

8. Better alignment with company vision: A brand refresh can help align the brand with the company's vision and goals for the future.

How Marketers Can Use ChatGPT to Build Their Brand

In today's digital age, building a brand is more important than ever before. As consumers become more savvy and discerning, businesses need to work harder to establish a strong brand identity that resonates with their target audience. One way that marketers can do this is by using ChatGPT, an AI language model that can help businesses build their brand in a number of ways.

• Develop a brand voice

One of the key elements of building a brand is developing a distinct brand voice. This is the way in which a business communicates with its customers and represents its values and personality. ChatGPT can help businesses develop a brand voice that is consistent, engaging, and reflective of their unique identity. By analyzing customer interactions and language patterns, ChatGPT can help businesses understand the tone and language that resonates with their target audience, and create content that reflects their brand values.

• Personalize customer interactions

Another way that marketers can use ChatGPT to build their brand is by personalizing customer interactions. By analyzing customer data and behavior, ChatGPT can help businesses create personalized messaging that speaks directly to individual customers. This can help businesses establish a deeper connection with their audience and build loyalty over time. For example, ChatGPT can be used to create personalized product recommendations, respond to customer inquiries, and even provide personalized content based on individual interests and preferences.

• Create engaging content

Content marketing is an essential part of building a brand, and ChatGPT can help businesses create content that is both engaging and informative. By using natural language processing and machine learning, ChatGPT can help businesses create content that is optimized for SEO and is more likely to be shared and consumed by their target audience. This can include blog posts, social media updates, email marketing campaigns, and more.

• Automate marketing tasks

ChatGPT can also be used to automate marketing tasks, allowing businesses to save time and resources while still building their brand. For example, ChatGPT can be used to automate customer support, lead generation, and social media management. This can help businesses focus on more strategic tasks like product development and customer acquisition.

• Gather customer insights

Finally, ChatGPT can be used to gather customer insights that can inform marketing strategies and help businesses refine their brand messaging. By analyzing customer interactions and behavior, ChatGPT can help businesses understand what resonates with their audience and identify areas for improvement. This can help businesses refine their brand messaging, create more targeted marketing campaigns, and ultimately build a stronger brand.

In conclusion, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can help businesses build their brand in a number of ways. By developing a brand voice, personalizing customer interactions, creating engaging content, automating marketing tasks, and gathering customer insights, businesses can use ChatGPT to establish a strong brand identity that resonates with their target audience. As such, marketers should consider incorporating ChatGPT into their marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competition and build a brand that stands out in today's crowded digital landscape.

Will Clubhouse take the crown from Podcasting?

I want to start by saying that Podcasts have been a huge part of my life since their 2005 beginning. They gave me a way to listen to the news, shows, and conversations I wanted to hear and at my own time. On the subway, bus, plane, Uber, or train - they comforted, informed, and educated me as I headed to work in the city each morning. 

Then exactly a year ago March 12th, 2020 happened…

After a few weeks of shock every Podcast I subscribed to was speaking about COVID. And what I soon realized is that podcasts for me are typically a solo endeavor, an escape from the surrounding stimuli of the commute, work, life, and family obligations. I could no longer escape to my podcast world as my commute was now from my bedroom to the kitchen office.

So I just stopped listening to them.

Then along came Clubhouse and once again I was able to listen to passionate people speak about what motivates them across all of the topics I cared about and ones I had no idea I cared about. An open SXSW conference with virtual stages that never stop. Topics on everything, all day long from across the globe. Millions of humans socializing, sharing and raising their hands to participate. It's definitely a bit rough compared to a high production budget podcast, but it is live and interactive and I always preferred podcasts that weren't overproduced.

Clubhouse is genuine, real, authentic, participatory, accessible conversations or any of the buzzwords that define social media.

I remember when Twitter first came out and people spoke about how the ability to participate would change the news forever. The same thing comes to mind now as Clubhouse gives us access to experts, celebrities, other passionate people in a way that connects our humanity by the genuine sound of our voices.

While I’m sure that Podcasts will survive and remain immensely popular, the fact that they are one-way "broadcast" media and Clubhouse is truly "social" media will relegate them to take a back seat for a while (at least for me). Would love to know what you think?

#clubhouse #podcasting #socialmedia

Live From SXSW 2019 Trends

Here is a link to the Google Doc.

Top Retail Trends For 2018

Our shopping habits are changing. Retail is becoming even more personalized, efficient, automated, nuanced, intelligent, fresh, virtual and fast. While most changes are positive, others are disrupting our habits and creating transitional discomfort along the way. Below you will find ten exciting retail trends that I believe are important for anyone who does business in 2018.

Global eCommerce sales are expected to increase to 4.5 Trillion by 2021. What the f is a trillion anyhow? How do we even wrap our head around 4.5 of them? It’s massive, increasingly borderless and is quickly becoming the norm for many businesses. Needless to say, it’s an exciting time to shop.

Physical stores are getting smarter, digitized, more personal and overall more relevant by blending into the way we live our lives. Some of the big players like Apple and Nike have consistently lead the way by using data to predict where customers are and what they are more likely to buy. By providing extra services like the genius bar, product training sessions, sneaker bars, drive-through pick-up windows and even an app connected sock vending machine they have been able to stand out, but others are stepping up their game.

Rebecca Minkoff stores have smart mirrors in fitting rooms, allowing you to browse for other sizes or products that might complement whatever you’re trying on. Minority Report-ish smart walls suggest new styles when you walk by and you can even order champagne while you browse.

Lowe’s ‘Lowe Vision: In-Store Navigation’ works in conjunction with Google’s Tango AR technology, it provides indoor mapping, allowing customers to search and quickly find items inside their massive often confusing stores.

There is a lot happening out there in retail land and I’m hopeful and excited for the future of shopping.

MOBILE MONEY MADNESS

Mobile is king and mobile payments are popping up everywhere. Fingerprints, facial recognition and easy one-click payment methods are simplifying the purchase process. Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, Apple Pay and mobile banking are becoming the norm. Tap and pay is taking over and it’s fun. It’s sooo easy and convenient that Starbucks had to reimagine how they serve customers who use their app, as the lines for pickup where becoming longer than the normal line. Growing pains for sure.

NEED IT NOW

Price, Selection and Convenience are Amazon’s core retail values. The best price available, an endless selection of products and the convenience of ordering from anywhere, anytime and having those purchases delivered to you quickly. It’s obviously working, AMZN market cap is almost a trillion dollars. With their recent move into physical Amazon Go stores, their Whole Foods purchase and many new pick up spots for same-day delivery, Amazon is making sure THEY ARE the most convenient and others are following suit.

NEVER ENDING NEW

Shopping is human and humans are complex. Our needs are constantly changing and we must ensure that our store environments are satisfying those needs. People expect new products, new experiences, new spaces and new ways of interacting. Then fairly quickly these new ways become the norm and we must innovate again and create new ways, on top of the “old new ways”, it’s never ending innovation…

PERSISTENT PERSONALIZATION

People want things personalized, but 64 percent of shoppers don’t believe retailers understand who they are and how they shop. Knowing that personalization can lead to a 4.5 times higher cart rate & 5X higher per-visit spend, it’s imperative that retailers increase their ability to recommend the right products to go with our unique personal tastes. Even if it is a unicorn shower head.

ROPO DOPE

With the rise of ROPO — Research Online, Purchase Offline, customers prefer to research products online and then buy them in-store. They can talk to someone, touch the product, get the right price, rub elbows with other shoppers and take the product home immediately. Pure shopping satisfaction all around.

IMAGE OVER EVERYTHING

It goes the other direction as well. Take a picture of something in a store, upload it to eBay and see if that product is cheaper online and buy it. Image search and product recognition tools are everywhere and it’s important to give people the option to search and shop by images. Make sure that you have great photos of your store, your products and everything in between, otherwise someones bad photos will represent your brand. 
Pinterest’s Shop the Look feature takes this a step further. You see an image of a style you like, you find details about clothing directly within the Pinterest app and then you seamlessly purchase. Boom.

V IS FOR VIDEO

In addition to great imagery, your product videos also need to be great. They should connect to the lifestyle of your customer and answer key questions about how the product looks, works, and make their lives easier. Video is one of the best tools to deliver this critical information. When people can’t feel and touch the product, a video can ease their concerns and help close the deal. Whatever you spend on video at the moment it’s not enough. True investment is needed.

HEART HEALTH

Brands that stand for something tend to do better both financially and socially. People want to contribute to the greater good and offering a way to give back to the community is not only a nice thing to do, it’s now expected.

LOYALTY > LOYALTY > LOYALTY

They say that 80% of your sales come from only 20% of your customers and keeping your base loyal is what keeps your business stable. 57% of people join to save money and 38% join to receive rewards. Points, rewards, miles, coupons, bonuses, deals and everything in between — having a sustained loyalty program increases the average customer spend by 67%.

VOICE COMMANDING COMMERCE

Voice Commerce is picking up steam with smart speaker owners. 70 percent have used a voice assistant “at least” once in something shopping-related. Most of the time it’s “Where’s my order?” but it’s slowly becoming an important user interface to the shopping experience. We have a long way to go, but it’s important to get in early as it will be ubiquitous before we know it.

“Getting higi with it” - How Health Retail Is Getting Up Close and Personalized

Higi (rhymes with “jiggy”) believes that being healthy should be fun, simple and rewarding. As we all debate health data sharing, they are quietly transforming pharmacies and health retail experiences by helping people play an active role in their personal health. Higi helps you to track health and lifestyle data from higi health stations and integrates with fitness trackers like Garmin and Fitbit, and MapMyFitness. 

At Sam’s Club, higi offers free self-service health screenings to customers at over 600 locations with pharmacies. People can self-check their blood pressure, pulse, weight and body mass index using integrated health devices, activity trackers and apps. The information is stored on a secure online platform peoples vitals are gamified, and converted to a single “HigiScore,” which represents a user’s overall wellness. 

At Wegmans people can share their data with the pharmacy team through an integration with the McKesson Clinical Programs Solution (CPS) platform. The Biometric data collected enables pharmacists to connecting the dots and react in real time to each consumer’s health concerns.

While higi is doing exciting things one of the more interesting trends is the “FaceTime” doctor diagnosis also called telemedicine. Walgreens has partnered with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital to develop private rooms with telemedicine kiosks inside stores. Patients are provided with instant diagnosis services as well as treatment for non-life threatening illnesses and injuries through virtual access to board-certified Weill Cornell Medicine emergency medicine physicians via a video-conference connection.

2017 Innovation Trends

Technology and consumer trends are evolving so quickly, it’s difficult to see what’s next. Here’s a quick 2017 trend report summary to help you navigate the vast sea of change.

Your smartphone battery life is about to double which will help us when we ride 15,000 miles on the world’s longest bike trail in Canada, or when we take a private trip to the the moon with Moon Express, or when we watch the total solar eclipse pass over the US in August - all while checking Instagram Live to see what President Trump is broadcasting from the oval office. Needless to say, 2017 is going to be a wild ride. Get ready people! 

AR / VR is quickly becoming mainstream and the ability to layer an augmented virtual experience over a real experience is the future. We will begin to see Pokemon GO like mobile apps in all aspects of our lives. Office, retail, school and public spaces will all allow us to dive deeper into what goes on around us. Imagine a gamified world where we compete against fellow students and coworkers all while learning and experiencing a deeper connection to our environment.  Top 20 AR Apps 

Marketers must tell stories across all retail touch points and all content must sell by being connected to a direct path to purchase. Retail brands will immerse potential customers into their ecosystem of social content, influencers, product experts, loyalty tools, AI bots and REAL customer service people.  The ability to buy at any point online and/or walk out of the store frictionless like Amazon Go will transform retail forever.  Stores will feel more like home, inviting people to relax, touch and talk to knowledgeable staff all while incorporating their mobile device in a sophisticated but simple customer experience. The future of retail is the future of technology. 

Did you know the world’s population is is almost 7.5 billion and 2.5 of them are on social media? It’s no wonder brands have spent almost 10.9 billion dollars trying to connect with them there. It’s where we all live and social is evolving quickly with each new update of Instagram and Snapchat. Live Video is here and it’s growing more each day. Youtube Live, Instagram Live, Facebook Live, Periscope Pro are front and center and if you don’t have a Live strategy yet you are missing the boat. It’s no longer just pretty pictures, clever copy and beautiful produced video, it’s Live and it’s now. As brands are now publishers, they also need to be Live broadcasters.  

Messaging Apps are the holy grail of that one on one connection that marketers salivate for. Getting to the most personal of spaces is a tricky business and Facebook, Apple, WeChat and many others are sending in the bots to take on this challenge. The bots are coming, the bots are coming, everyone open up your Messaging App of choice and let them in because you know, robots are so personal.   

Internet of Things: 50 billion “Things” will be on the Internet by 2020. If you have walked into a Best Buy lately you will see that the first section is all IoT related. Connected devices, Wearables, Amazon Echo and Dash buttons, Google Home, Apple Watches, Fitbits, lightbulbs, speakers, locks, security camera’s, refrigerators, toasters, toothbrushes… You name it and its going to be connected to the Internet of Things. If you make anything moving forward it must connect to the IoT or be left behind. 

Transformative Spaces - Interactive walls and immersive digital experiences lead by technology are becoming almost expected in the experiential world. Interactive wallpaper, 3D art wall paintings that move, 3D retail touchscreen walls, touch screen kitchens, talking walls, musical walls, sports walls - It's all about transforming spaces with technology and interactivity baby. http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/interactive-walls

I spent my Thanksgiving yelling over my nephew and son trying to control Alexa. They wanted her/it to play “My House” at volume level 6 and I wanted “Holiday Music” at level 3. It was fun and annoying at the same time and much like yelling at my Xbox for the past three years, only this time she/it talked back to me. My sister says she uses it to order things all the time from Amazon and now I’m stuffing stockings this year with Google Home and Amazon Echo's, including one for myself. Even though we have Siri with us at all time, we love the idea of yelling across the room to a AI speaker. Much like bots, voice activated AI is the future. “Computer, set a course for the future...” 

Happy Holidays Everyone!