Marketing Archives

November 27, 2023

The Taylor Swift Effect

It’s difficult to come across news articles these days that don’t mention Taylor Swift in some record-breaking way. Whether it’s multiple tracks of her album dominating the Billboard 100s, concerts selling out shows – breaking Ticketmaster to the point of policy change and entirely shifting/boosting the American economy – concert movies breaking theater records in an era where the movie theater industry has been struggling to fill seats, or her dating life with football star Travis Kelce revitalizing interest in the NFL for a new demographic, Taylor Swift has become somewhat mythic in the pantheon of American idols. The simple authenticity that permeates her songs about crushes, love, and imagination have remained resonate across ages, and it’s come to the point where Taylor Swift’s presence has developed into an homage to girlhood, to Americana-core, and to the sort of long-standing powerful nostalgia that is difficult to find in an era where trends come and go faster than water.

It's difficult to know what an ordinary individual can learn from this level of superstardom. We as consumers can only marvel as spectators, enjoy her music or her shows, or simply nod passively in acknowledgement at the name if we’ve never really resonated with her material.

But what I think is interesting about the Taylor Swift Effect is that it brings to attention the power that loving a thing can not only have on an individual, but on an entire community.

America is in a period of deconstruction. Deconstruction of once long held American values, of religion, of identity, of politics, of media, of society, and the list goes on. The tentpoles of what used to easily hold our American ideologies together under a neat bow come into question daily as the world undergoes intense changes and diverse challenges. Changes and challenges that are now more visible and accessible than ever with social media and the internet. And while change is not only necessary but inevitable, one disheartening side effect of it becoming such a spectacle is the loss of belief.

The loss of belief is the loss of easily loving a thing for not only what it means to you but what it means to a collective. It’s the loss of being in awe of a symbol, and for being in awe in general. It’s a moving experience that can reorient a person in the direction of purpose and motivation and joy. But it’s also a simple experience, unencumbered with the complexity and nuance we often ask of our leaders, our teachers, and ourselves especially as media bombards us with a million new views. So, to choose into the experience of simple joys especially in an age where everything is visible, we must find ourselves indulging all the way, incautiously, wholly, and deeply into things that bring us together.

Something important to remember when it comes to the work we do, no matter the industry we’re in, the role we have, the person we are, is to enjoy and pay attention to things that cause this kind of unity and excitement. Even if you don’t listen to her music, it’s hard to ignore her impact. And maybe you don’t even like Taylor Swift, her personality, or her music. Because again, so many others do.

So, to find the Taylor Swift effect in our ordinary lives is to be excited about the shows everyone is watching at the office, to talk about the commercial at the Superbowl everyone remembered, the meme circulating social media, the trend we decided to participate in, the client everyone loved, or even the day at work where everyone was on the same wavelength. To find the Taylor Swift effect is to find anything that collectively revitalized our beliefs in what it means to find lively meaning, together. Even if on a much smaller scale.

When we all do this, we not only revitalize our personal economies, communities, and experiences, but we also allow significance to re-enter the daily grind. Maybe not at Ticketmaster-breaking-box-office-smashing levels. But levels, nonetheless. Deeply personal levels that make you remember what you like about your job, the people in your life, or the little rituals of your day.

When we do this, we allow ourselves to be excited by the value of it all, to celebrate that we don’t only exist in vacuums of lonely existential consciousness but exist among other people whose experiences are just as actual as ours. We allow ourselves to be a fan in the back row of a Taylor Swift concert, screaming about the agony of an unrequited crush at the top of our lungs among a sold-out show of tens of thousands, in total admiration that everyone out there is fully present.

Just like us.

Published by Ariele Lee in Agency, blog, Branding, Marketing

Tags: Branding, Communications, Marketing

August 29, 2023

MarTech Stack Fundamentals

A well-built MarTech stack that works together cohesively, will allow your organization to amplify its marketing efforts and achieve measurable results, while fostering collaboration, drive efficiency, and enhance the customer experience.

Building Your MarTech Stack:

Identify Your Goals: Start the process by identifying your marketing goals and objectives. This will guide your selection of tools and ensure they align with your overall strategy.
Core Tools: Your toolkit should include a customer relationship management (CRM) system, marketing automation platform, content management system (CMS), and analytics tools. These tools will allow you to manage your customer data, automate marketing processes, and measure performance.
Specialized Tools: Your business’ needs might call for specialized technologies. These could include email marketing software, social media management platforms, search engine optimization (SEO) tools, advertising platforms, and more. These critical tools will enhance your stack's capabilities and allow you to target different channels and tactics.
Integration: Ensure that your tools can communicate and share data with one another seamlessly. Integration eliminates data silos, provides a holistic view of your marketing efforts, and enables efficient collaboration across teams.
Scalability and Flexibility: Your MarTech stack should be scalable and adaptable to your evolving needs. As your business grows, you might need to add or replace tools within your stack. Choose tools that offer scalability and flexibility, enabling you to adjust and optimize your stack as required.

By carefully selecting and integrating the right tools, you can unlock new levels of effectiveness and creativity in your marketing efforts.

Published by Rosemary Poppe in Agency, Marketing, Technology

Tags: Efficiency, Marketing, Optimization, Technology

May 25, 2023

Brand Activism: Deterrent or Loyalty-Builder?

Anheuser-Busch's recent collaboration with transgender social media influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, sought to generate publicity for Bud Light during the NCAA March madness tournament this spring. What resulted was an enormous controversy that sparked a mass call to boycott the brand. The overwhelming backlash that Anheuser-Busch received for working with Mulvaney will undoubtedly have significant repercussions into the future as corporations weigh the outcomes of explicitly promoting their values in marketing campaigns, or even just implicating their values as was done with this recent collaboration with Mulvaney. With a backdrop of increasingly divisive politics in the US, brands must decide whether to advocate for social issues and risk alienating some of their consumer base or remain neutral in the face of heated current events.

Brand activism isn’t new

Partisan politics appearing in marketing is not a new phenomenon. Issues like abortion rights, BLM, LGBTQ+ visibility, and gun laws are just several of the hotly debated topics that have surfaced over the past couple decades as businesses engage with brand activism. Over ten years ago, JC Penney launched a campaign that featured a lesbian couple and their daughter. The campaign was met with outrage from some, including the conservative mother’s group One Million Moms who protested the company on the basis of “protecting their children” (Block, 2012). Other brands have similarly incited controversy due to treading in political waters. For example, Disney’s CEO Bob Chapek explicitly opposed Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill,’ resulting in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to revoke the corporation’s special land tax status. In 2018, Nike featured Colin Kaepernick in their Just Do It campaign with the message “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” after the football quarterback kneeled in protest during the National Anthem. Nike initially lost 3% in its share prices, but within four days the brand’s online sales increased by 31% (Birch, 2022).

Consumer Brand Identification: a theoretical framework

So, is the risk of controversy and negative press worth it for these companies to engage in brand activism that could potentially generate stronger customer loyalty? From a theoretical perspective, Consumer Brand Identification Theory explains how self-identification affects loyalty (and disloyalty) to certain brands. This framework posits that agreement/disagreement between the self and the brand is the basis for consumers’ decision-making in supporting or renouncing a brand. Researchers Sourjo Mukherjee and Niek Althuzien found that brand-identification produces an asymmetric effect, contrary to previous studies demonstrating that self-brand agreement generally leads to positive marketing results (2020). That is, while self-brand disagreement regarding a brand’s values produces negative attitudes toward the brand, self-brand agreement did not generate a significant change in attitude toward the brand. This asymmetric effect on consumer attitudes and behaviors would suggest that taking a social stance only results in negative outcomes, and not vice versa.

Behaviors and attitudes in the real world

Consumer brand-identification is a strong theoretical foundation, but real people seem to have different perspectives about brand activism. According to a 2018 study by Sprout Social, almost two-thirds of consumers want brands to connect with them, regardless of political affiliation. On top of that, the survey found that 78% want brands to use their social presence to bring people together.Despite the seemingly asymmetric effects of brand-identification theory, real consumers want and expect brands to use their social platforms to spread positive values and connect people. Data from the 2023 Edelman Trust survey corroborates these results with 63% of consumers saying that they buy or advocate for brands based on beliefs and values. Consumers recognize the power of social media and are looking for companies to speak about relevant socio-political issues on their platforms.

The jury’s out…

The jury’s still out on whether activism in marketing is advantageous in the long term or if it risks driving away consumers. Some argue that brands’ addressing social issues only exacerbates political polarization and alienates customers with opposing views (Zahn, 2022). However, there is also evidence supporting the idea that taking a stance can lead to increased consumer loyalty. The Edelman survey found that when customers felt connected to brands, more than half would increase their spending with the brand and 76% would buy from them over a competitor (2023). With all this said, brands need to prioritize the issues important to their customer base to build stronger connections and ultimately increase sales. Aerie, for example, has incorporated #AerieREAL into their branding which celebrates body inclusivity and fosters much stronger customer relationships. There’s a lot to consider when connecting with and appealing to a certain consumer base – customer expectations and age demographics just to name a couple of things. Ultimately, the choice to engage in socio-political brand activism relies on building a connection with consumers, leading to greater brand loyalty and increased sales for the company.

Published by Katelyn Masse in Branding, Marketing

Tags: Activism, Branding, Communications, Marketing

May 12, 2023

Breaking the Mold: Creative Risk Takers

Sometimes, creatives get a bad rap. There’s this conventional wisdom that they are difficult or have fragile egos. They are called prima donnas, although rarely to their faces. They are lumped together as a “type” as in, “oh, you know, he’s a creative type”. Of course, these problematic behaviors are worth putting up with to receive the products of those inventive minds. To those claims I call bullshit – creatives are in fact the soul of marketing.

In reality, creatives inspire a thoughtful workplace. They try things, push boundaries. They are risk takers. And when they fall short, they always make it better the next time.

Creatives possess a unique capacity and are amazingly capable of taking critical feedback to their work. They have been trained to look at assignments as an evolutionary process and are rarely pissed or disappointed when you provide constructive criticism.

In truth, I have enormous capacity for dumb ideas — my own and those of others. How will we get to the great ones if we don’t throw it all on the table? I don’t mean to imply that it’s a free-for-all — we do have discipline in place. We use creative briefs and other guiding tools to keep the team focused and on point. Chaos in the classic sense is not part of any creative process.

We mostly leave our creative team to its own devices. The account and strategy teams set out to be clear in their expectations and direction with particular regard to deadlines. They classify and illuminate when needed. After that it’s the creatives’ responsibility to deliver.

Check out The Top 16 Reasons to Work at a Small Agency. Except for the last two reasons, that are a bit tongue-in-cheek, all are meaningful to me. But I think the most important may be #6. When we challenge each other, it’s not company politics. It’s about doing our best work. For the client and for ourselves. There is enormous satisfaction in seeing an idea play out, through inspired graphic design, razor-sharp writing and overall execution that just crushes it.

To a person we all value everyone on our team, and we show that through words and actions. A core value here is to preach and practice respect; I appreciate generosity of spirit and hope that I exhibit the same. And I am grateful for the creatives who with their own interpretations bring our concepts to life.

I can’t be the only one. What’s your experience working with creatives? True to the stereotype or pleasant surprise?

Published by KingFish + Partners in Design

Tags: Constructive Criticism, Creatives, Marketing, Risk Takers, Workplace

April 10, 2023

The Creative Process: Start With Discovery

Marketing is one of the most cluttered industries in the working world. There are thousands of companies calling on agencies every day to help sell their products and services through effective deliverables and measurable results. Over the years, KingFish has carefully crafted a five-step approach that yield just that:

1. Discover

2. Strategize

3. Create

4. Launch

5. Measure

One core element to the KingFish process is the first, also known as the discovery phase. It’s the foundation of our entire approach and is the point we uncover the insights that drive a company, its mission, and its marketing objectives. Along the way, this exchange often identifies holes a client did not know they had in their business and marketing strategies.

Passion drives inspiration

When you ask someone what they love about their role, their eyes light up inevitably. There is a reason behind why people do what they do, and we see this passion come alive during the discovery phase. We see this excitement from our clients during our early conversations that shape the concepts and content that will be created throughout their campaign. Our clients’ passion sparks our inspiration.

Knowledge fuels creativity

When we speak with clients, we want to know what makes them tick. What colors motivate them? What words would they use to describe their employees? Our creativity is fueled by each nuance of their business.

There’s strength in diverse perspectives

A client’s perspective and knowledge of their company runs deep. When paired with our marketing expertise and unique insights — we can shine a new light on workable solutions to each marketing challenge.

What is the bottom line? When you take the time to understand the passion that drives individuals and businesses, your purpose, and direction becomes that much clearer.

Published by KingFish + Partners in Agency, Marketing

Tags: agency, Marketing, work culture

March 13, 2023

When Emotions and Experiences Are Sacrificed

We're throwing it back to 2018 — when Target celebrated the opening of its new storefront on the Lower East Side, Target — and when production partner, David Stark, created fake storefront facades m irroring the street as it was in the 70s. Included was an “homage” to famed NYC dive bar/music venue CBGB (the venue was shuttered in 2006). CBGB is considered the mecca of punk rock and new-wave, the place where bands like Blondie and the Ramones cut their teeth. The installation featured Target-branded exercise bands, and band-aids (get it?), as well as a poster inscribed with “The Resistance”. The installation was met with the expected outrage and ire, forcing Target to issue an apology.

Why were people so miffed about a squeaky-clean brand co-opting the likeness of a dingy, dirty, club? It comes down to authenticity, or the lack thereof.

Among many things, the internet has afforded us the opportunity to find our tribes, and our identities as individuals are linked to these groups — and to be honest, brands toe a fine line when trying to connect with these communities. Whether you are a yogi or a gearhead, you can sniff out fraud from a mile away.

As a brand, you must be aware of the emotional connections that people have to their tribes. If you do not take that into consideration, the results are cringe-worthy and can derail your standing within that group. Trust us, you will know when you missed the mark. (One should never underestimate the power of the comments section. People can be savage.) Musicians, fitness buffs, makeup artists and nerds are all passionate about their niches. Everyone knows you are trying to sell them something. How do you execute on that pitch? Well, therein lies a world of subtlety. As an agency, our role is to help brands understand what makes tribes tick, and then to find the best ways to speak their language.

But language extends beyond words. Color, photography, and tone of voice must be in lockstep with each other. Not only do you have to create an emotional connection, you must position yourself as an insider, someone who has been in the trenches with your customer. You saw the Talking Heads play at CBGB. You, too, get up at 5 AM to flip tractor tires. You know the best drug-store mascara. These kinds of insights are revealed through talking with your customers, and most importantly, listening to them. It must feel real, and that is hard.

As a creative partner, and as members of many different tribes, we bring a diverse set of beliefs and experiences to the table. We can be that objective eye. Let us help you understand your customers and deliver creative that truly connects. The last thing you want is to be the TRGT of an angry tribe.

Published by KingFish + Partners in Branding, Marketing

Tags: Authenticity, Branding, Marketing, Metrics