Are You Getting Your Fair Digital Share?

Virtually all marketers are grappling with the question of how much time and effort to invest in digital communications and where those investments should be focused. The competitive landscape is an important aspect of these decisions. Brands should consider how well they are competing across digital touchpoints, just as they have historically done for other media. However, the multifaceted nature of the digital environment has made it difficult for brands to understand how well their efforts stack up against those of competitors.

Who’s Still Afraid of the DVR?

In 2006, we launched the Millward Brown Point of View series with “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad DVR?” by Nigel Hollis. In that POV, in the face of considerable concern that DVRs would enabIe viewers to avoid TV advertising and render it worthless, Nigel suggested that panic was uncalled for. DVRs, he said, would not lead to “the end of TV advertising as we know it.”

Integrated Planning: Standing Out in the Cloud

Businesses spend a lot of money on brand communications because they know that effective communications are vital to brand health and wealth. The imperative is to build brand preference among consumers and to hold onto it in the long term. But the risk is greater than ever that communication will not hit home or that it will be counteracted by uncontrolled influences.

Social Media: Fans and Followers Are an End, Not a Means

The last few years have seen some massive changes in our world. The financial bubble that reached its peak in 2007 popped, leaving us to enjoy what has been dubbed "The Great Recession" The Dow Jones plummeted, along with consumer confidence. The subsequent road to recovery has proved to be long and uncertain.

How Strong Brands Can Lead to a More Sustainable Future

We all know the trends: population growth, consumption growth, resource depletion, water shortages, and climate change. It seems that right now we are at a tipping point. Will we be able to turn things around, live within the planet’s means, and guarantee that our grandchildren have the same quality of life that we do? It is frightening to think that the answer might be no. Yet as individuals we feel helpless in the face of such huge systemic problems.

Solving Puzzles Delivers Answers; Solving Mysteries Delivers Insights

At a recent ARF conference, Stan Sthanunathan of Coca-Cola exhorted the market research industry to move beyond understanding consumer needs to understanding consumer motivations. If we are to accomplish this, we need to go beyond observed behaviors and their attendant inferences to truly immerse ourselves in the “why”: why consumers choose one brand over another; why they decide to “like” something on Facebook; why they buy certain products at certain stores.

Brand Equity: What’s Price Got to Do with it?

Perceptions about a brand’s values, personality, and heritage all factor into consumer sentiment toward a brand. Typically, price is seen as something separate and distinct from other elements of brand equity, a factor that consumers weigh against their feelings about a brand.

It Is Not a Choice: Brands Should Seek Differentiation and Distinctiveness

The book How Brands Grow by Professor Byron Sharp and the researchers of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute makes an important contribution to the science and practice of marketing. We find ourselves in agreement with the authors on many of their key points.

Branding China: From Maker To Innovator

Imagine a time when you are shopping for a television, refrigerator, car, or personal care product, and you find that the brand you aspire to own (not the one you choose because it is offered at the lowest price) is a Chinese-designed brand

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