tag archives / trajectory

Feb
19

Brand Marketers: Letting You In On My “Gilty” Pleasure…

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Here’s a tip for brand marketers – my heart races every single day before noon and then again around 9 PM. Unbelievably, it’s not caused by stress at work or my decompressing thereafter. Rather it’s the anticipation of my pending brand engagement – receiving a series of finely tuned email alerts that update me (as an “insider” of course) on the day’s latest, curated flash sales for the world’s most coveted beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands.

My daily fix is Gilt Groupe – a one-stop shopping experience that speaks to me (figuratively that is), helping to create ongoing brand engagement with them multiple times a day (who could miss “Today’s Top Picks” as well as the full spectrum of lifestyle brands they feature). I’m one of those brand advocates that shares the love with friends and family (for a $25 incentive of course) so they too can be inspired by Gilt’s consumer marketing prowess, not to mention the amazing limited-time sales on prestige products like Yves Saint Laurent handbags, Delman shoes and Dr. Hauschka skincare.

The Art and Science of Fashion & Beauty Marketing

But what intrigues me most is that Gilt understands it has to be more than a pretty face.  Engaging customers like me means going beyond having a beautiful website.  It means understanding us. Knowing us. Catering to us on a very human and personal level.

Lessons can certainly be learned from other sophisticated ecommerce sites, including Amazon and Nordstrom, where there is a clear focus on understanding their customers and reflecting this in how they serve up content to address their every want and need. Content is king. Every action is analyzed to determine what sells best and what customers are looking for. What’s hot, and what’s not. How to proactively address customer wants before they (or I for that matter) even know.

Everything ties back to creating customer value (and ROI of course), and only rich customer data can provide that insight. According to WWD, many fashion and beauty brands like Kate Spade, Burberry and Sephora excel in their space because of the attention paid to the science (customer data and analysis) as well as the art (creative and brand marketing).  In fact, it has been said that “data scientists” are going to replace social media managers as the hottest jobs among multi-channel retail, luxury and beauty companies alike.

The fine balance of science and creativity shines through at Gilt

I enjoy the multi-faceted user experience – from Pinterest (who can resist the “Accessories to Die For” and “Shoe Porn”) to my “Gilt on the Go” mobile app (and everything in between).  They deploy great content coupled with proven consumer marketing techniques that create further brand engagement (glad they brought back February Freefall sales).

Yet in today’s time starved and frenetic world, surrounded by stimulus hitting us at every turn, marketing to consumers to capture their attention (and loyalty) is increasingly difficult. Targeting every aspect of the shopping experience based on unique, personal preferences is not an easy task, but probably a required one moving forward.

Today, many fashion and beauty marketers analyze every customer action across every channel (on and offline), identifying key triggers that can increase sales. From customized emails highlighting the latest beauty products or Spring shoes (they know what I shop for), to using data to behaviorally target me on other sites with reminders of the products I just viewed on their sites (but never closed the deal), to tying my actions on social channels to website activity to see what helps me pull the trigger. Again, science (with a healthy dose of creativity) may win when it comes to winning the hearts and minds of customers, moving them from brand engagement to true brand activation.

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Feb
12

The evolving nature of healthcare marketing

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Screen shot 2013-02-12 at 11.09.09 AMIt’s potentially an industry-changing time for healthcare marketing. You just need to seize the opportunity.

As consumer interest in pursuing healthier lifestyles and a higher quality of living is on the rise, health has come to be viewed in more holistic ways. As such, the lines between traditional healthcare marketing, health marketing and wellness marketing are blurring. For healthcare system and hospital marketers, the implication is that you have a real opportunity (based on a powerful cultural trend) to become a catalyst in helping your service area communities achieve their optimum health and optimum quality of life (where non-physical ideas of well-being are just as important as physical well-being).

Just one example of this opportunity is the research of Julia Boehm, research fellow in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at Harvard School of Public Health. She found that “factors such as optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness are associated with reduced risk of CVD regardless of such factors as a person’s age, socioeconomic status, smoking status, or body weight.” “For example, the most optimistic individuals had an approximately 50% reduced risk of experiencing an initial cardiovascular event compared to their less optimistic peers,” she said. It also appears (based on a review of more than 200 studies published in two major scientific databases) that these factors also slow the progression of disease.

There will always be people who are sick. Your key service lines – whether cancer, heart, obstetrics, orthopedics, neurology – will always have a captive audience. And they’ll always be important. But the game is changing, as it does across all industries.

To be relevant, you need to follow the lead of the consumer. And in this case, they’re telling you that they don’t compartmentalize their healthcare. Their attitude is that their overall lifestyle and their health care are closely connected. In turn, this presents you with an opportunity to build around your core traditional services and own a bigger place in their lives. Which provides so many more ways for you to create new value.

Consider the combination of your different audiences, the different actions they could take (and you could promote, support and participate in) and the different places in which they could achieve their desired health/quality of life. That’s a lot of possibilities!

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Feb
09

Leveling the Field In The Female Dominated Beauty Marketing Category

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Beauty Care Marketing

Beauty marketing has a new face… a new major player has emerged as male consumers continue to demand products specifically suited to their needs. Men’s perception of “personal care” has changed significantly – baby boomers understand the effects of aging, and are turning to products that help them look and feel younger. And younger people are growing more conscious and becoming more “proactive” about their appearances. As a result, these consumers have created a “new market” opportunity that both global beauty brands and new & emerging brands are rapidly responding to.

We’re seeing new category players like Bulldog, finding their way into the market historically dominated by the “big” beauty brands. So, how is the industry responding? There’s a shift of focus on product lines and brand marketing strategies that appeal to men’s sense of necessity – offering products that are convenient, multi-functional, and easy to wear. According to manufacturers at Happi, “men want basic items with real benefits, and tend to shy away from products perceived to be pampering – they want something that is unique to their masculinity.”

Brands are clearly gaining traction as this category grows at exponential rates. According to Global Industry Analysts “the global male grooming products industry is expected to generate more than $33 billion in revenue by 2015, and will continue to drive expansion in the wider global cosmetics market.” Already demonstrating great promise for new category players, are early adopter brands like Anthony and Jack Black, who identified this trend over a decade ago.

There is strong brand advocacy for male grooming products as well. Male-oriented lifestyle magazines, such as Maxim, GQ and Esquire, are touting the benefits of skin and hair care regimens. We’re seeing male role models, such as entertainers and athletes, using these products. There are numerous online product sites such as the Grooming Lounge that enhance the users experience by offering men a forum to comfortably seek and share personal care advice. And, women’s beauty sites like Sephora have dedicated sections exclusively for men’s products.

As we can see, opportunity and interest to engage this consumer is growing and the brands that establish a strong product positioning and place in men’s lives – delivering products that meet their unique lifestyle needs – will be at the forefront. We will continue to observe the men’s personal care category, as it is a natural extension of our beauty care marketing expertise. If you have anything to additional to share, I welcome your comments.

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Jan
30

Leisure marketing at the intersection of healthy lifestyle and business travel

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Here’s an example of leisure marketers creating new customer value – as hospitality brands roll out new and more varied options for health and fitness on-the-go. For both guest and hotel, it’s a win-win proposition. For business travelers, it fills a need to re-energize in the midst of high-pressure road trips. For hoteliers, it’s a way to create more value and boost guest satisfaction at what can be low incremental cost.

Multiple hotel brands (e.g. Kimpton, Affinia, Peninsula, etc.) are centering their “healthier” offering around the increasing popularity of yoga, as noted earlier this month in the NYTimes.com article A Moment of Zen, on the Go. Acccording to a recent study released by Yoga Journal, Americans practicing yoga jumped 29%, to 20.4 million — or 8.7% of American adults — since the previous study in 2008, when 15.8 million practiced.

The newest “healthy travel” hotel is International Hotels Group Even, which is scheduled to open its first hotel this year, with a target of 100 hotels in five years. Designed to make wellness a natural part of travel, amenities will include fitness that extends beyond the best-in-class gym to in-room workout spaces with exercise equipment available for checkout, spa-like showers, hypoallergenic linens, healthier food options, signature flavored and filtered drinking water, among others.

We see this same health trend in two of the verticals in which we specialize. For our healthcare marketing clients, consumer interest in pursuing healthier lifestyles and a higher quality of wellbeing is leading them toward “well care vs. sick care” strategies. And in the seemingly very different world of beauty marketing, health benefits are even finding their way into nails and nail care.

There’s a common thread here of consumers increasingly seeking health and wellness (quality of life) through the way they live, shop and use brands. As such, we see a strong opportunity for marketers to integrate a health and wellness idea and to drive growth by executing programs and tailoring messages that relate to the type of health and wellness-seeking consumer their brand speaks to.

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Jan
23

Healthcare Marketing Insight: Pew Internet’s Health Online 2013

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Pew Internet just released their new nationwide study – Health Online 2013.

When you get past the more obvious things like 81% of US adults use the internet and 59% say they’ve looked online for health information in the past year, there’s some good actionable learning for healthcare marketers to integrate into their planning. Some highlights include:

1. In the past year, 55% of internet users have gone online specifically to try to figure out what medical condition they or someone else might have. Pew refers to this segment as “online diagnosers.”

2. Nearly half (46%) of these people felt that the information found online led them to think they needed the attention of a medical professional.

3. Nearly 8 out of 10 health inquiries (who Pew refers to as “health seekers”) started at a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. This trend has remained steady since Pew’s first study in 2000.

4. The social life of health information is reflected in the fact that 26% say they read or watched someone else’s experience about health or medical issues in the last 12 months.

5. But among people looking for health advice, traditional offline conversation with clinicians remains high. 70% of U.S. adults got information, care, or support from a doctor or other health care professional.

I think there’s good information here for healthcare marketers to takeaway for consideration. Some of these include: how to create more value through your marketing, where your online efforts might be focused, how patients might access service lines, how to connect prospective patients and physicians and even for creating potential partnerships and affiliations.

Hope you find some good thought-starters here.

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Jan
07

Brand marketing insight: get customers to market and sell for you

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The timing of this article from Bill Lee at HBR Blog Network is perfect – Memo to the CEO: Customers Are the Key to Growth.

I read it following a blog post I wrote last week about Kiehl’s Since 1851 – a great brand backed by an equally brilliant consumer brand marketing effort. Instrumental to the success of this effort (dating back to the early days of the brand) is that the advocacy of their passionate and loyal customers continues to propel and distinguish this brand from its competitors.

Bill’s article (based on research he’s done for his new book) speaks to the fact that key to creating organic, sustainable growth is getting customers to market and sell for you. Out-performing companies (like Kiehl’s) are developing new approaches and competencies that focus on one thing: customers.

Here are three important points from Bill’s article (you’ll need to read it to learn the other two):

1. Get customers advocating for you right now. We know that prospective buyers these days trust one source of information above all others: their peers. Keihl’s has been benefiting from the “pull” of “customer peer” word-of-mouth for years. Creating beautiful interesting stores, wonderful products and living its philosophy of purpose beyond profit compels customers to do their advertising for them as one by one they spread Kiehl’s secret with their friends.

2. Find your customer product developers. In many industries, the source for most of the commercially successful new products is customers, not R&D. Too many efforts, based on Bill’s research, are isolated from customers. His example from 3M’s medical-surgical business is pretty compelling.

3. Get serious, and systematic, about learning what your customers value. Too many companies really don’t know what customers actually value in the products and services they buy. The problem is lack of systematic and meaningful conversations or other engagement that can uncover this. Companies that make the effort can put serious distance between themselves and competitors.

Unleashing the full passion and potential of your customers can spur dramatic growth. But this requires (as the author states) dramatically expanding the value you provide to them — value that goes substantially beyond the value they derive just from your product or service.

Businesses like Kiehl’s understand that their brands can, and should, play a larger role in the lives of their customers. Their brands deliver dramatically more value, and create separation from others, by serving as platforms to help move customers forward to a better place – making them more knowledgeable, more capable, more fulfilled. And when this kind of relationship exists – the value that customers receive adds value back to the brand and the business.

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Dec
30

Profile in brand + marketing energy: Kiehl’s Since 1851

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In helping one of our clients to see in new ways, we were brainstorming about consumer brands that have both a long history and have been purchased by an industry giant. We were interested in understanding if they had the same brand energy as they did pre-purchase.

In just a few days, Kiehl’s Since 1851 will be 162 years old. That’s a pretty good run in anyone’s book. It’s also been ten years since L’Oreal, the world’s leading beauty company, bought the business that began as a little pharmacy on Manhattan’s lower east side.

So, is Kiehl’s as energized as it was pre-L’Oreal? Beyond Kiehl’s strong and consistent growth (sales were up 42% in 2011), here’s why we think the brand still has its mojo:

Basis. The brand has a great back story which starts with its name – since 1851 – as an apothecary business in NYC’s lower East Side owned and managed over four generations as a family business. But integral to Kiehl’s continued success, it’s a story that continues to evolve, capture the imagination of its passionate advocates and emotionally bind them to the brand.

Many other skin care brands have a celebrated past – Lancome (another L’Oreal brand), Nivea (which I worked on years ago at Beiersdorf), Olay, etc. But none are as intriguing or as unconventional as Kiehl’s.

Credit L’Oreal for understanding the value of Kiehl’s brand essence and how it needs to be nurtured as the story is re-told to the next generation of Kiehl’s customers. This keeps the brand magic alive, which in turn powers business success and shareholder value.

Belief. There aren’t too many people who stand around talking about the ingredients and physical benefits of their skincare products. But they do talk about Kiehl’s greater sense of purpose – brought to life through its approach to products, distinguishing community-based retail experience and socially-driven activities (reminding me of The BodyShop, albeit less so since the passing of Anita Roddick).

Behavior. Everything Kiehl’s does, every experience they create — with employees, customers, and the public in general — supports and enhances their story and is executed with brilliance.

Products. The Kiehl’s philosophy is (true to its heritage) about choosing the very best naturally-derived ingredients – based on herbal and pharmaceutical formulas. The look of their products also reflects the brand’s apothecary roots – as they have a homemade look that feels like they are individually made in the back of the store. Some of Kiehl’s product formulations also date back decades.

Packaging. Simple, efficient, and made of recyclable materials. And true to its pharmacy origins, detailed descriptions about ingredients, benefits and directions for use.

Retail Experience. Even though the brand now has 500-plus stores around the world, the Kiehl’s brand team recreates the look and feel of the original New York boutique wherever you find the brand.

Why would Kiehl’s have a vintage motorcycle in their store? Because it’s core to the story and the brand’s visual expression. The trademark vintage Ducati motorcycle found in every Kiehl’s store is there because the founder liked them. Just another detail that differentiates Kiehl’s from the (literally) hundreds of other skin care businesses.

The brand also maintains its close ties with the medical community from which it was born. As such, Mr. Bones (the skeleton you see in every store) serves to pay homage to the industry.

Word-of-Mouth. L’Oreal has faithfully adhered to the founding family approach of not advertising the Kiehl’s brand. For Kiehl’s, it’s all about the ‘pull’ of word-of-mouth. Creating beautiful interesting stores, wonderful products and living its philosophy of purpose beyond profit compels customers to do their advertising for them as one by one they spread Kiehl’s secret with their friends.

Sampling. Kiehl’s diehards know one of the most fun things about going to Kiehl’s is snapping up all the samples. Each year they distribute over 40 million samples from their range of 300+ products. When you leave with your purchase, you’ll also be going home with at least three trial size samples to introduce you to another element of their range (knowing you’ll also spread the word to your friends).

Before you know it, you (and the friends you shared with) are heading back to buy the full size, full priced item and leaving with another new sample to try at home.

Benevolence. Kiehl’s just doesn’t give to multiple causes, it participates. And there’s a difference (for today’s more discerning customers) between just writing the check and demonstrating your commitment.

Community service is in the DNA of the brand. It dates back to WWI when John Kiehl’s donated cream to soldiers for their dry, chapped hands. Kiehl’s Gives is the name of their global CSI initiatives worldwide, and their focus is threefold:

• HIV AIDS
• Children’s causes
• Environmental issues

Kiehl’s is also active in the communities where they have established their shops. One example of this is that their stores can be used by local associations to conduct business.

Bonding. Beyond customers interacting with Keihl’s, the brand is a platform for its advocates to share with one another – through Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Bold. The brand continues to surprise and delight, by adding new collections and addressing new concerns, and delivering on its mission “to improve in some way the quality of the community…making for better citizens, better firms, and better communities.”

In summary, if you’re a consumer products marketer and want to create a more passionate and loyal fan base, visit and learn from Keihl’s.

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Nov
27

Nurturing next-generation branding and marketing professionals

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I topped off my Thanksgiving vacation break by doing a series of healthcare branding and marketing guest lectures at Emory Goizueta Business School.

Through highly interactive sessions with Goizueta Marketing classes, each comprised of between 50-60 students, I stepped through a Trajectory case study featuring Reading Health System. We just rebranded and executed the system-wide healthcare marketing relaunch for this PA-based organization, so the timing was perfect. Emory also has a significant healthcare campus, so all students could easily relate to the Reading Health System case study.

Here are my key takeaways from this experience:

• I think I learned just as much from the students as they did from me, based on the great interaction and large number, and high level, of questions. These kids are really smart!

• Kudos to professor Ashish Sood, as these students crave real-world experiences, and he’s constantly satisfying their appetites by bringing in guest lecturers.

• Students are highly interested in the more recent realities, and challenges, of managing organizational transparency, integrating social media into brand-building and managing change based on what even they realize is a fluid and not necessarily favorable business environment.

• There’s a wonderful eagerness to challenge traditional concepts, e.g. the more we limit our view to, and attempt to compete with, traditional competitors, the more we can actually end up sounding and acting the same; consumers don’t care at all about a client’s business definition, but rather about how a brand can fit into their world.

• It’s very apparent that our future is in good hands, indicative of the energy and intelligence of these next-generation branding, marketing and finance professionals.

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Nov
18

How one mustache led to a global healthcare marketing movement

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Can one mustache on a dare lead to raising $126 million in 14 countries for prostate cancer research? Yes it can.

Watch Adam Garone’s inspiring video: Healthier men, one moustache at a time.

Adam is co-founder of Movember, an initiative to raise awareness for men’s health, by having men grow out their mustaches every November. It’s a great testament to the power of passion and persistence, as Movember has now grown to become a worldwide healthcare marketing movement.

Proof that game-changing ideas are only limited by our imagination!

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Nov
14

Creating new healthcare brand energy: Reading Health System

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It’s an exciting, fulfilling and proud day here at Trajectory, and for one of our clients – as The Reading Hospital is now Reading Health System.

We rebranded and relaunched them today, after more than a year’s worth of branding and marketing discussion, debate, planning and creating.

By unveiling a new system name, logo and tagline, a simplified brand hierarchy and naming structure, and a more compelling set of promises and market positioning that better reflect the organization’s collective vision, they’re building on their strengths to more effectively advance in the changing world of healthcare.

The new tagline – Advancing Health. Transforming Lives. – conveys the essence of the Reading Health System brand. It’s genuine to their desire to advance the health of their communities beyond “sick” care, and conveys their desire to transform lives by being a source of energy, optimism, knowledge and support.

Congratulations to our client, Reading Health System – and to its wonderful physicians, nurses and staff. Not only for the previous 144 years of service to your communities and your region, but for the many years of Advancing Health and Transforming Lives to come.

You can see our internal brand vision video, along with some of the new external marketing campaign television, on our YouTube channel.

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