Retail Pricing Wars… Coming To A Store Near You
By Scott Davis
October 15, 2015
Long ago in a galaxy far far away the Star Wars series of big screen movies captured our collective hearts and imaginations. Beyond that the series didn’t have much effect on the way we humans live. Today however, we are all impacted by a different kind of stellar-sized battle going on in our own back yard. It’s called the Retail Pricing Wars and, like a black hole, it is likely inescapable for mere earthbound retailers.
Warning: Retailing is an endeavor unsuitable for the faint of heart. The competitive landscape, especially in the US, moves and adjusts at a blistering pace and the more time that passes the more of a blur the pricing driven race to the bottom becomes.
There a few primary market components that continue to pressure and drive every aspect of the industry along with all its defining categories. To start, the unhealthy geo-political and economic landscape is causing upheaval and the U.S. economy in particular is unbalanced and ultra-competitive with a growth rate that is slowed to a crawl. Retail is experiencing unprecedented, many times catastrophic, changes due to the transformation effects of the internet, the onset of high tech, and the ramp-up of globalization.
At the same time a rising majority of millennials are knocking on the retail market's front door demanding more personal control, value, and experiences from brands and retail thus requiring paradigm shifts in the industry if established and aspiring retail outlets are to meet this audience's needs.
The biggest wallop of all which is the aforementioned raging race to the bottom of the barrel driven by “pricing wars”- the discounting and incessant cajoling, shoving, and positioning to compete on price…lower price. Sharing the ride down the shoot along side the heavy discounting is the eroding quality of goods across many brands. It’s a trilogy of problems that can’t seem to be stopped let alone managed effectively. I liken it to a Grand Prix race with all drivers, who's original and foremost goal was to win against all others in the field, now counter intuitively jamming on their breaks but to no avail and yet are being propelled hopelessly forward by the competition ahead of them at ever increasing speeds toward a finish line that no one wants to cross.
This retail “race into the abyss”, no matter how sophisticated and capable the category players and business models become, is a business model one that no brand really wants to succeed with... at least not in the long term. The closer retailers get to the bottom and the more they are confronted with the scathing impact of these commodity-inducing pricing tactics the more helpless they appear to become in the marketplace. It’s a very long slippery slope that continues to get steeper by the quarter.
Let’s take a look.
First off, the sluggish economy itself hasn’t changed much for the better, if at all, for many people over the past decade. The results of which we are all too familiar. The primary driver for retailers, in a nutshell, is the lack of disposable income missing from customer pockets. The profound and lasting effects of the great depression circa 2008 has dramatically altered the retail landscape and the residual damaging effects continue to loom and adversely impact the industry outlook forcing even the biggest retailers to succumb to sizable life-saving cuts and major adjustments most of which are time short-term short-sighted fixes. A large part of the current shift in retail is due to the likes of "off-price" conglomerates such as TJX Companies and competing Ross Stores as well as fast fashion front runners H&M, Zara and up-and-comer Primark. Their respective answers to tough economic times is forceful, unapologetic and highly successful. Marshalls, TJ Maxx, and Home Goods, all owned by the TJX Companies, have become increasingly sophisticated in their operations able to drive in traffic by delivering shopping excitement through the “thrill of the hunt” model -that's scarcity combined with the steep discounting approach- offering quality branded goods off-price and many times at up to 60 percent below mainstream retail. This obsessive and addictive “thrill” seeking stems from the constant flow of fresh supplies of new product surprises arriving on a daily basis. Costco another discount chain worth mentioning follows with similar tactics but more so with a weekly rather than daily fresh “surprises” approach. TJX Companies’ older model was known for the steady offerings and discounts on last season’s goods but has now evolved to the point where last season’s good’s make up a comparatively meager 15% of their total sales. They are now sourcing 85% of their product directly from branded goods manufacturers and consist of product overruns, order cancellations, and closeouts with most being in-season fashions. The irony is palpable in that the established brands, providing these goods at close to wholesale, do so for whatever price “above cost” they can get. The oxymoron is that the supplier side name-sake brands are in effect competing against a portion of their own products that are being offered by the off-price chains while continuing to promote their unique brand positions and sell their own branded goods at much higher price points.
TJX Corp. is expertly run and has managed to secure unprecedented relationships drawing upon 900 merchants with access to over 16,000 vendors across 60 plus countries. Putting it in perspective, TJX sales were $2 billion in the early 90’s up to $29 billion in 2014. The TJX Companies forecasts they will reach $40 billion by 2020.
Enter again the big retailers such as Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors and many others. How they build strategy for the future is no doubt being influenced by the likes of TJX Companies, Ross Stores and the fast fashion, vertically integrated, and uber-competitive H&M, ZARA, and Primark. For brands like Ralph Lauren their staple iconic goods such as polos and khakis bring in close to their largest share of revenue and are sold through discounting, outlet stores, and then mainstream retail. It’s all fine and good except when you realize that such a path is indeed following the pricing wars race to the bottom. And it isn’t dissipating; at least not as of this writing. Off-price stores are offering everything- from branded fashion, apparel, accessories, jewelry and shoes forcing all retailers to take notice and forcing them to make critical modifications to their business.
Enter Primark and the Millennials.
The data is overwhelming and the meaningful actionable intelligence makes it clear that millennials are a different consumer all together; one that requires brands and retailers acquiesce. Millennials prefer to shop on their phones and habitually price-compare on those same phones as they scan the racks and shelves in the bricks and mortar stores. They have an expansive array of brand options to choose from and they show higher tendencies to be brand agnostic. So building loyalty in the age of pricing wars/ the race to the bottom is edging toward an insurmountable feat. For millennials brand logos and overtly branded goods aren’t what they were for the baby boomers. This generation’s priority is to show off their individuality as they are less concerned with fitting in with large groups who have allegiance to a particular heritage type brand. Evidence of this phenomenon is again evidenced in the rise of fast fashion mega increasingly ubiquitous chains such as H&M, Uniqlo, Forever 21, Zara and the fast rising interrupter from Ireland, Primark.
These companies are operationally sophisticated in fast fashion, fluent in international markets, and efficient in supply chain management. And they perform it all at warp speed. It’s proving quite impossible to challenge them if you are a traditional retailer resistant to change. The prominent brands built on heritage and requiring consumer pay higher prices for a lifestyle just isn’t as compelling to cost conscious perpetually connected millennials.
The latest monolith is Primark. It recently entered the US market with a proven track record. Primark has more than 300 stores that have been making waves across Europe in Ireland, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Austria and France. By 2014 Primark’s sales rose 45% to $800 per sqft which was more than twice that of H&M and other off-price discounters who were the lead catalysts for industry disruption not so long ago. Primark’s first foray into the States began in Boston and they are exacting plans to build 7 more outlets the Northeast over the next year across Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Primark also has a US-based 677 thousand sqft distribution center in Pennsylvania. Primark products are so inexpensive compared even to their fast fashion and off-price sectors counterparts (40% lower than even Marshalls in many circumstances) that is appears likely those entrenched competitors will find it exceedingly difficult to make the business model adjustments necessary to go toe to toe with Primark. These competitors have spent decades and billions to build and differentiate their successful brands and identities and aren’t likely to abandon their hard work with any ease. Making such drastic changes would certainly harm their market positioning causing confusion in the customer’s eye and would no doubt damage the operating margins they’ve come to expect.
Primark is incredibly low priced offering sports bras, sneakers, 100 percent cotton towels and sweater tops for under $10 dollars. The quality is in step with pricing but they have managed to build the brand using high tech and eye-popping in-store experiences to such an extent that they have silenced the lack of quality issue as a positioning hurdle. Their target audience is the millennials and they are big fans.
The Primark product quality is literally just above disposable but their “experience” approach with visually appealing stores and wow-factor window displays has gone a long way to mitigate quality concerns for its audience. Inherent in the model is another tactic… maintain scarcity. Fast fashion is about short production runs and fast to market supply chains- another way of saying they excel at daily infusions of fresh goods. This delivers scarcity with respect to the newest in-season and very trendy fashions which in turn delivers the ultimate dopamine rush to the ever addicted customer who is checking the latest offerings much more often and at more regular intervals. Compare that to the shelves of established retailers like Ralph Lauren, J. Crew, Gap and Big Box Department Stores such as Macys, Nordstrom, Kohl’s, Dillard’s, and others whose strategy includes keeping products on shelves longer with slower supply chains and much lower refresh rates of edgy fashion infusions all offered at a higher price points. The data is clear and these established players have good reason to be concerned about how to continually attract the millennial.
Shopper “experience” is key. The Primark model has set the bar even higher representing a go-to model every retailer should take note of. Primark stores are high tech, energetic, vibrant and engaging with LED screens throughout displaying cool messaging and lifestyle videos including EPSN in men’s areas. The dressing rooms are roomy and the stores boast brightly colored merchandise, excellent lighting, and great site lines. They offer something for everyone including men’s, women’s, and kids apparel and footwear, accessories, and a plentiful assortment home goods. The Primark value proposition of up-scale in-store experiences while selling low, low priced product is apparently exceeding millennial expectations.
Add in TJX Companies who alone have 3, 355 stores worldwide with 500 in the US and the combined off price and fast fashion discounter takeover numbers are staggering. The market shift must be causing sleepless nights for those at the helm of most long established brands retailers. Look to see the price cutting wars to continue. The big question, at the end of the retailer day, is where will this race take the marketplace in both the near and distant future here in our very own galaxy?
October 15, 2015
Long ago in a galaxy far far away the Star Wars series of big screen movies captured our collective hearts and imaginations. Beyond that the series didn’t have much effect on the way we humans live. Today however, we are all impacted by a different kind of stellar-sized battle going on in our own back yard. It’s called the Retail Pricing Wars and, like a black hole, it is likely inescapable for mere earthbound retailers.
Warning: Retailing is an endeavor unsuitable for the faint of heart. The competitive landscape, especially in the US, moves and adjusts at a blistering pace and the more time that passes the more of a blur the pricing driven race to the bottom becomes.
There a few primary market components that continue to pressure and drive every aspect of the industry along with all its defining categories. To start, the unhealthy geo-political and economic landscape is causing upheaval and the U.S. economy in particular is unbalanced and ultra-competitive with a growth rate that is slowed to a crawl. Retail is experiencing unprecedented, many times catastrophic, changes due to the transformation effects of the internet, the onset of high tech, and the ramp-up of globalization.
At the same time a rising majority of millennials are knocking on the retail market's front door demanding more personal control, value, and experiences from brands and retail thus requiring paradigm shifts in the industry if established and aspiring retail outlets are to meet this audience's needs.
The biggest wallop of all which is the aforementioned raging race to the bottom of the barrel driven by “pricing wars”- the discounting and incessant cajoling, shoving, and positioning to compete on price…lower price. Sharing the ride down the shoot along side the heavy discounting is the eroding quality of goods across many brands. It’s a trilogy of problems that can’t seem to be stopped let alone managed effectively. I liken it to a Grand Prix race with all drivers, who's original and foremost goal was to win against all others in the field, now counter intuitively jamming on their breaks but to no avail and yet are being propelled hopelessly forward by the competition ahead of them at ever increasing speeds toward a finish line that no one wants to cross.
This retail “race into the abyss”, no matter how sophisticated and capable the category players and business models become, is a business model one that no brand really wants to succeed with... at least not in the long term. The closer retailers get to the bottom and the more they are confronted with the scathing impact of these commodity-inducing pricing tactics the more helpless they appear to become in the marketplace. It’s a very long slippery slope that continues to get steeper by the quarter.
Let’s take a look.
First off, the sluggish economy itself hasn’t changed much for the better, if at all, for many people over the past decade. The results of which we are all too familiar. The primary driver for retailers, in a nutshell, is the lack of disposable income missing from customer pockets. The profound and lasting effects of the great depression circa 2008 has dramatically altered the retail landscape and the residual damaging effects continue to loom and adversely impact the industry outlook forcing even the biggest retailers to succumb to sizable life-saving cuts and major adjustments most of which are time short-term short-sighted fixes. A large part of the current shift in retail is due to the likes of "off-price" conglomerates such as TJX Companies and competing Ross Stores as well as fast fashion front runners H&M, Zara and up-and-comer Primark. Their respective answers to tough economic times is forceful, unapologetic and highly successful. Marshalls, TJ Maxx, and Home Goods, all owned by the TJX Companies, have become increasingly sophisticated in their operations able to drive in traffic by delivering shopping excitement through the “thrill of the hunt” model -that's scarcity combined with the steep discounting approach- offering quality branded goods off-price and many times at up to 60 percent below mainstream retail. This obsessive and addictive “thrill” seeking stems from the constant flow of fresh supplies of new product surprises arriving on a daily basis. Costco another discount chain worth mentioning follows with similar tactics but more so with a weekly rather than daily fresh “surprises” approach. TJX Companies’ older model was known for the steady offerings and discounts on last season’s goods but has now evolved to the point where last season’s good’s make up a comparatively meager 15% of their total sales. They are now sourcing 85% of their product directly from branded goods manufacturers and consist of product overruns, order cancellations, and closeouts with most being in-season fashions. The irony is palpable in that the established brands, providing these goods at close to wholesale, do so for whatever price “above cost” they can get. The oxymoron is that the supplier side name-sake brands are in effect competing against a portion of their own products that are being offered by the off-price chains while continuing to promote their unique brand positions and sell their own branded goods at much higher price points.
TJX Corp. is expertly run and has managed to secure unprecedented relationships drawing upon 900 merchants with access to over 16,000 vendors across 60 plus countries. Putting it in perspective, TJX sales were $2 billion in the early 90’s up to $29 billion in 2014. The TJX Companies forecasts they will reach $40 billion by 2020.
Enter again the big retailers such as Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors and many others. How they build strategy for the future is no doubt being influenced by the likes of TJX Companies, Ross Stores and the fast fashion, vertically integrated, and uber-competitive H&M, ZARA, and Primark. For brands like Ralph Lauren their staple iconic goods such as polos and khakis bring in close to their largest share of revenue and are sold through discounting, outlet stores, and then mainstream retail. It’s all fine and good except when you realize that such a path is indeed following the pricing wars race to the bottom. And it isn’t dissipating; at least not as of this writing. Off-price stores are offering everything- from branded fashion, apparel, accessories, jewelry and shoes forcing all retailers to take notice and forcing them to make critical modifications to their business.
Enter Primark and the Millennials.
The data is overwhelming and the meaningful actionable intelligence makes it clear that millennials are a different consumer all together; one that requires brands and retailers acquiesce. Millennials prefer to shop on their phones and habitually price-compare on those same phones as they scan the racks and shelves in the bricks and mortar stores. They have an expansive array of brand options to choose from and they show higher tendencies to be brand agnostic. So building loyalty in the age of pricing wars/ the race to the bottom is edging toward an insurmountable feat. For millennials brand logos and overtly branded goods aren’t what they were for the baby boomers. This generation’s priority is to show off their individuality as they are less concerned with fitting in with large groups who have allegiance to a particular heritage type brand. Evidence of this phenomenon is again evidenced in the rise of fast fashion mega increasingly ubiquitous chains such as H&M, Uniqlo, Forever 21, Zara and the fast rising interrupter from Ireland, Primark.
These companies are operationally sophisticated in fast fashion, fluent in international markets, and efficient in supply chain management. And they perform it all at warp speed. It’s proving quite impossible to challenge them if you are a traditional retailer resistant to change. The prominent brands built on heritage and requiring consumer pay higher prices for a lifestyle just isn’t as compelling to cost conscious perpetually connected millennials.
The latest monolith is Primark. It recently entered the US market with a proven track record. Primark has more than 300 stores that have been making waves across Europe in Ireland, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Austria and France. By 2014 Primark’s sales rose 45% to $800 per sqft which was more than twice that of H&M and other off-price discounters who were the lead catalysts for industry disruption not so long ago. Primark’s first foray into the States began in Boston and they are exacting plans to build 7 more outlets the Northeast over the next year across Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Primark also has a US-based 677 thousand sqft distribution center in Pennsylvania. Primark products are so inexpensive compared even to their fast fashion and off-price sectors counterparts (40% lower than even Marshalls in many circumstances) that is appears likely those entrenched competitors will find it exceedingly difficult to make the business model adjustments necessary to go toe to toe with Primark. These competitors have spent decades and billions to build and differentiate their successful brands and identities and aren’t likely to abandon their hard work with any ease. Making such drastic changes would certainly harm their market positioning causing confusion in the customer’s eye and would no doubt damage the operating margins they’ve come to expect.
Primark is incredibly low priced offering sports bras, sneakers, 100 percent cotton towels and sweater tops for under $10 dollars. The quality is in step with pricing but they have managed to build the brand using high tech and eye-popping in-store experiences to such an extent that they have silenced the lack of quality issue as a positioning hurdle. Their target audience is the millennials and they are big fans.
The Primark product quality is literally just above disposable but their “experience” approach with visually appealing stores and wow-factor window displays has gone a long way to mitigate quality concerns for its audience. Inherent in the model is another tactic… maintain scarcity. Fast fashion is about short production runs and fast to market supply chains- another way of saying they excel at daily infusions of fresh goods. This delivers scarcity with respect to the newest in-season and very trendy fashions which in turn delivers the ultimate dopamine rush to the ever addicted customer who is checking the latest offerings much more often and at more regular intervals. Compare that to the shelves of established retailers like Ralph Lauren, J. Crew, Gap and Big Box Department Stores such as Macys, Nordstrom, Kohl’s, Dillard’s, and others whose strategy includes keeping products on shelves longer with slower supply chains and much lower refresh rates of edgy fashion infusions all offered at a higher price points. The data is clear and these established players have good reason to be concerned about how to continually attract the millennial.
Shopper “experience” is key. The Primark model has set the bar even higher representing a go-to model every retailer should take note of. Primark stores are high tech, energetic, vibrant and engaging with LED screens throughout displaying cool messaging and lifestyle videos including EPSN in men’s areas. The dressing rooms are roomy and the stores boast brightly colored merchandise, excellent lighting, and great site lines. They offer something for everyone including men’s, women’s, and kids apparel and footwear, accessories, and a plentiful assortment home goods. The Primark value proposition of up-scale in-store experiences while selling low, low priced product is apparently exceeding millennial expectations.
Add in TJX Companies who alone have 3, 355 stores worldwide with 500 in the US and the combined off price and fast fashion discounter takeover numbers are staggering. The market shift must be causing sleepless nights for those at the helm of most long established brands retailers. Look to see the price cutting wars to continue. The big question, at the end of the retailer day, is where will this race take the marketplace in both the near and distant future here in our very own galaxy?
Business Method and Software Patents: Where Do We Go From Here?
I was listening to an interview with Carly Fiorina recently. Like most political candidates in the 2016 presidential race her track record was under scrutiny. The primary focus of the piece I saw was covering her time at Hewlett-Packard. At one point, as she waxed about her many accomplishments, she mentioned patents. More specifically she stated that under her watch the company was cranking out 15 new patents a day. I thought whoa.... (read more)
Key Deliverables for the Client; Tactics to Consider
Implement a tight list of vital goals to ensure that your clients find compelling repeatable value that produces clear actionable insights and results specific to concept and marketing needs. Think about what it takes to deliver customer’s conversion rates. read more...
Unprecedented and Unmatched Marketing Campaign Production
Create “responsive” design campaign content across all digital devices. read more...
A Complete Campaign Production Toolbox.
Give clients and their agencies robust features including a rich set of production tools that cover campaign needs start to finish. Include a superior integrated management system that allows monitoring real-time measures of the full range of activities for all participating creatives.
Ownership and Control of the Value Chain. read more...
Dedicated Support Staff
Client service personnel is a must in order to assist with all platform, campaign, and production. Includes marketing, financial, design, and technology support. read more...
Campaign Client Dashboard
Provide real-time data access to and oversight of each respective campaign's progress. Detail out which data measures are most relevant, meaningful, and actionable.
This requires you ahve a thorough understanding of every “high value” step along the campaign timeline (start to finish). see how you drive repeat client participation to long term loyalty. read more...
Industry-Leader A/B and Multivariate Testing of Marketing prior to Retail.
Show the Development model delivers winning results.
Meaningful and Actionable Data Delivery
Data sets cannot be limited to simple demographics.
Your clients as well as the overall industry will buy into, endorse, and remain loyal to the platform if and only if you can continually generate ongoing consumer interest, activity, insights, acquisition rates, marketing results and "D" insights that are proven to show positive consistent changes to the bottom line. Read more..
Production Pain Point Reduction
Reach inside your production software toolbox and offer the features that are enterprise and management friendly for synchronous collaboration across multiple persons and entities. read more...
Leading Cost Effective Marketing Medium
Its possible to beat even the big Industry leaders by including these few critical steps to your model. read more...
Closed Loop System
Output must sync with input for winning results. see these detailed tracking and analytic strategies. read more...
Organization
Seek energetic creative professionals with position and industry experience and expertise, verifiable capacity to execute, leadership skills, industry relationships, and embrace and flourish in a team environment. Teaching and learning program implementation is critical. lay out a framework and remain "Goal Oriented". read more...
Culture
On-board team members capable of excelling in a fast paced start-up environment. Traditional corporate styles can be a drag. Read more...
A look at Technology. next time...
Unprecedented and Unmatched Marketing Campaign Production
Create “responsive” design campaign content across all digital devices. read more...
A Complete Campaign Production Toolbox.
Give clients and their agencies robust features including a rich set of production tools that cover campaign needs start to finish. Include a superior integrated management system that allows monitoring real-time measures of the full range of activities for all participating creatives.
Ownership and Control of the Value Chain. read more...
Dedicated Support Staff
Client service personnel is a must in order to assist with all platform, campaign, and production. Includes marketing, financial, design, and technology support. read more...
Campaign Client Dashboard
Provide real-time data access to and oversight of each respective campaign's progress. Detail out which data measures are most relevant, meaningful, and actionable.
This requires you ahve a thorough understanding of every “high value” step along the campaign timeline (start to finish). see how you drive repeat client participation to long term loyalty. read more...
Industry-Leader A/B and Multivariate Testing of Marketing prior to Retail.
Show the Development model delivers winning results.
Meaningful and Actionable Data Delivery
Data sets cannot be limited to simple demographics.
Your clients as well as the overall industry will buy into, endorse, and remain loyal to the platform if and only if you can continually generate ongoing consumer interest, activity, insights, acquisition rates, marketing results and "D" insights that are proven to show positive consistent changes to the bottom line. Read more..
Production Pain Point Reduction
Reach inside your production software toolbox and offer the features that are enterprise and management friendly for synchronous collaboration across multiple persons and entities. read more...
Leading Cost Effective Marketing Medium
Its possible to beat even the big Industry leaders by including these few critical steps to your model. read more...
Closed Loop System
Output must sync with input for winning results. see these detailed tracking and analytic strategies. read more...
Organization
Seek energetic creative professionals with position and industry experience and expertise, verifiable capacity to execute, leadership skills, industry relationships, and embrace and flourish in a team environment. Teaching and learning program implementation is critical. lay out a framework and remain "Goal Oriented". read more...
Culture
On-board team members capable of excelling in a fast paced start-up environment. Traditional corporate styles can be a drag. Read more...
A look at Technology. next time...
Posts about Marketing, Analytics, Technology, and PAAS
Part 1:
The consumer’s personal data, up to now, has been anything but personal. Marketers, data miners, DMPs (Data Mining Platforms) and an ever-expanding number of data collection services gather, sell, and profit from every consumers personal data…Your Personal Data.... see more
The consumer’s personal data, up to now, has been anything but personal. Marketers, data miners, DMPs (Data Mining Platforms) and an ever-expanding number of data collection services gather, sell, and profit from every consumers personal data…Your Personal Data.... see more
Are you the marketer of the future?
What does it take to excel at marketing tomorrow?
Most every marketer strives to achieve similar results. To succeed marketing professionals must generate creative and actionable ideas that translate into effective campaigns with winning results. The goal, although a bit simplified and readily understood by most, is pretty much the same as it was 30 or 40 years ago. But to achieve success in today’s marketplace even the most talented professionals require a whole new set of must-have tools and a certain knowledge base that cant be ignored. the absence of or even a low level understanding of these modern day assets will no doubt cripple even the most seasoned creative across the industry. It’s simply not enough to rely on the traditional marketing approaches and raw creative talent that satisfied the consumer not so long ago. The marketing landscape is becoming increasing complicated and it means marketers must become intimately familiar with what it is and what it takes to become and remain a marketing leader.
The combination of channel proliferation and the daily mega wave of new technology is not to be trifled with. Side stepping he most current marketing methodologies and the latest tech tools is not a winning tactic. the bottom line is that you are in trouble if you do not learn how to become this...read more
scottdavis-charityguide.weebly.com, scottdavis.weebly.com/marketing.html, [email protected], pinterest.com/scottdavispro, twitter@scottdavis100
Most every marketer strives to achieve similar results. To succeed marketing professionals must generate creative and actionable ideas that translate into effective campaigns with winning results. The goal, although a bit simplified and readily understood by most, is pretty much the same as it was 30 or 40 years ago. But to achieve success in today’s marketplace even the most talented professionals require a whole new set of must-have tools and a certain knowledge base that cant be ignored. the absence of or even a low level understanding of these modern day assets will no doubt cripple even the most seasoned creative across the industry. It’s simply not enough to rely on the traditional marketing approaches and raw creative talent that satisfied the consumer not so long ago. The marketing landscape is becoming increasing complicated and it means marketers must become intimately familiar with what it is and what it takes to become and remain a marketing leader.
The combination of channel proliferation and the daily mega wave of new technology is not to be trifled with. Side stepping he most current marketing methodologies and the latest tech tools is not a winning tactic. the bottom line is that you are in trouble if you do not learn how to become this...read more
scottdavis-charityguide.weebly.com, scottdavis.weebly.com/marketing.html, [email protected], pinterest.com/scottdavispro, twitter@scottdavis100