Marketing Today With Alan Hart

In this week's episode of "Marketing Today," Alan talks with Michael Platt, who is the James S. Riepe University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds three professorships there: in marketing at the Wharton School; in neuroscience at the Perelman School of Medicine; and in psychology at the university's School of Arts and Sciences. In addition, he is the director of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative.In the course of their discussion, Pratt talks at length about an article he co-authored with Leslie Zane, "Cracking the Code on Brand Growth," as well as a yet-to-be-published study regarding people's feelings about and affinities for their smartphones and how that relates to brand choice and loyalty.He also touches on the risks big brands face in not innovating, the even greater impact neuroscience will have in the future on marketing, advertising and design, and, last but not least, how his polymathic ways fuel his passion. "I'm very passionate about what I do; I'm very passiona

This week on "Marketing Today," Alan talks with Steve Lucas, the former CEO of Marketo, which was acquired by Adobe in 2018. Now, Lucas is senior vice president of digital experience with Adobe as he continues to lead Marketo as an Adobe company. In addition, Lucas is the author of "Engage to Win: A Blueprint for Success in the Engagement Economy." In talking about the Engagement Economy, Lucas details the importance of attention and how it is expended. "In particular, attention is absolutely a currency in the Engagement Economy," says Lucas. "Because people, now more than ever, have a finite amount of attention to spend. No matter what you do – even if you never slept – you only have 24 hours of attention. It is a finite resource that we, as humans, have. So we have to carefully choose where we apply our attention." Lucas goes on to add, "And it is not just a belief, it’s an unequivocal assertion on my part, that people will spend that currency of attention on companies and brands that they believe align wit

This week on "Marketing Today," Alan talks with Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, who is the C. Knox Massey Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has taught for 13 years. This is an encore performance on “Marketing Today” for Steenkamp. In Episode 40, he provided a master class in global branding.This time on the show, Steenkamp discusses his latest book, “Retail Disruptors: The Spectacular Rise and Impact of Hard Discounters,” which he co-authored with Laurens Sloot. Steenkamp describes the retail war taking place on the U.S. grocery landscape, where we're seeing insurgents like German chains Aldi and Lidl, as well as Trader Joe's, swooping in to take share from established U.S. grocers, particularly regional players. During the podcast, Steenkamp also touches on such topics as private labels, corporate social responsibility, and the future of Tesla.Highlights from this week's "Marketing Today" podcast include:Steenkamp discusses his motivation in writ

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Andrew Konya, CEO of Remesh, a company he co-founded in 2014 with the mission to create a technology that could truly represent the will of the people and amplify their collective voice. In that pursuit, Remesh uses AI to enable brands to engage with their audience quickly and more deeply to generate actionable insights, and, during the podcast, Konya is quite illustrative in discussing the methodologies that help Remesh accomplish that.In the course of their conversation, Konya again and again returns to something both he and his company value above all else: the truth. “It has become my obsession and now our company's obsession,” says Konya “to evaluate everything we do by this one simple question: ‘Does building this bring our customers closer to the truth?'"Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast include:From the laboratory to the boardroom: Konya talks about his background as a physicist and how

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Jason Jedlinski, senior vice president and head of consumer products for Gannett and the USA Today Network.Prior to joining Gannett and USA Today, Jedlinski spent seven years with the Tribune Company as well as serving a brief stint in the world of ad tech. In his current role, he is responsible for everything the consumer sees from Gannett and the USA Today brands.During the course of their discussion, Jedlinski addressed a number of topics, including his take on the monetization of content, the evolution of digital advertising, and what he means when he talks about the “atomization of content.”In speaking about the atomization of content, Jedlinski points out ways Gannett and USA Today endeavor to reach consumers with content they're curious about and can use. Not only that, he points out how the interactions consumers have with the content make it that much more vital. “It's really thinking about how we can leverage

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Jill Baskin, CMO at the Hershey Company, where she's been for just over a year now. Previously, Baskin spent 20 years on the agency side before moving to the client side, joining Mondelēz International. There, she worked on brands like Oreo, Halls, Chips Ahoy! and Cadbury Chocolate.During the course of their discussion, Baskin talks about the reorganization at Hershey and her development of a small but nimble and effective in-house creative agency. And she also discusses the recent campaign work, “Heartwarming the World,” for the Hershey brand itself, what it's like to work with nontraditional partners, and her views on the future of the agency model.Baskin also talked about the impact creating Hershey's in-house agency has had on people at the company and their partners. “It brings an air of magic to brand management,” says Baskin. “It is so great for the organization. People are so excited by this, and so excited by be

This week's “Marketing Today,” is an untraditional episode, but it's packed with insight, humor, compassion, and, yes, a marketing lesson or two. Alan sat down to talk with Cal Fussman, journalist, best-selling author, and writer at large for Esquire — where he has served as lead interviewer for the magazine's notable “What I've Learned” series. During the course of his career, he has interviewed and written about famous people from Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Ted Kennedy to Jack Welch, Al Pacino, and Muhammad Ali, as well as countless others. His personal essay, “Cocktails Before the Collapse,” written about his time as a sommelier at Windows on the World, the restaurant that sat perched atop the World Trade Center, won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2012.During the course of their conversation, Fussman touches on many of the powerful experiences and pivotal moments that shaped his life and career. But, perhaps most notably, it was his decision as a secon

This week on “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Siddarth Taparia, senior vice president and head of marketing transformation at SAP, where his duties include overseeing partner marketing and strategic transformation.During the course of their discussion, Taparia talks about his 13-year career at SAP, including his transition to marketing. He also discusses the efforts by SAP to transform their brand — both internally and for its clients. In talking about that transformation, Taparia said, “I firmly believe that transformation starts and is successful with people. Everything else is an ingredient. But the thing that really makes it work is that the people have to transform — there has to be a transformational mindset.”He later added, “Any type of brand transformation is driven by how your customers perceive you, what they think about you, and how they champion your products and solutions.”Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast include:T

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Ryan Bonnici, chief marketing officer for G2 Crowd. A self-admitted unconventional thinker, Bonnici started his career in an unconventional way — as an international flight attendant. But Bonnici used his time in the air to talk with the executives in first class and gain an understanding of the way they think. More importantly, a connection he made provided him with a conventional opportunity: a job at Microsoft.In addition to Microsoft, Bonnici has worked for companies like ExactTarget, Salesforce, HubSpot, and now with G2 Crowd. In this freewheeling and frank conversation, Bonnici reveals some of the decisions he's made — that have paid off big — and the thinking behind them. And like a lot of successful marketers, Bonnici believes in taking chances, even if you don't always succeed: “The best way to learn,” say Bonnici, “is just to do and to fail — and to learn from that.” Highligh

“Marketing Today with Alan Hart” once again comes to you from Brooklyn, where it was recorded during the Incite Group's Brand Marketing Summit, which took place in October of 2018. This week's episode features a conversation with Kristi Argyilan, who is a senior VP with Target, where she is in charge of media, guest relations, and measurement. She also leads strategic partnerships with media companies like Google, Facebook, Pinterest, and NBCUniversal as well as with Target's agency partners Mother, Deutsch LA, GroupM's Essence, among others.During the course of the podcast, Argyilan kept returning to the importance of the relationship Target is fostering with Gen Z, which includes partnerships with influencers, the creation and use of video in social media, and members of Gen Z pitching business ideas to Target through its incubator program. “We're really leaning in on this idea of marketing becoming commerce,” says Argyilan. And we're pushing that technology in whatever way we can.” She goes on to add:

This week finds “Marketing Today” on the road again. This time the destination was Brooklyn and the Incite Group's Brand Marketing Summit, where Alan Hart moderated a track — Customer Understanding and Personalized Experiences — and took the opportunity to talk with some of the marketers there about their brands: what was top of mind for them, key insights they had about the Brand Marketing Summit, and their thoughts on the customer journey and experience. They also talked about sources they turned to for information, the best pieces of advice they've received, and even things they love and hate. The four marketers Alan spoke with are:Michael Blash, chief commercial officer at Ink BenchAlegra O'Hare, VP of global brand communications at adidasCasey Hall, former director of social media at Thompson ReutersAbinav Varma, president and CEO at UNIBEESHighlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast include:Michael Blash describes Ink Bench as a company that is “built on active creative collaboration that

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In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” it's déjà vu all over again. Bob Hoffman, The Ad Contrarian, returns for his third visit on the podcast. Bob and Alan can't decide if it's a case of the third time being a charm or if it's three strikes and you're out. In any case, it's a treat for the listener because Hoffman is, as always, blunt, profane, and hilarious —and he takes no prisoners.During the course of his conversation with Alan, Hoffman talks about the state of advertising as he sees it, his recent contribution to “Eat Your Greens,” published by the APG as part of their 50 Years of Planning celebration, his take on Facebook, and his new book, “Laughing@Advertising.” The book is a compilation of articles from Hoffman's blog, The Ad Contrarian, and Hoffman describes it as “the silliest, most injudicious and, perhaps, irresponsible marketing book you've ever read.”But we all know that really means the book is filled in equal measure w

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with George Hammer, chief content officer at IBM. In his conversation with Alan, Hammer discusses current trends in content creation as well as his vision for the way IBM operates in the creative realm and how it has changed “business as usual” at IBM.Hammer talks about the current trend we're seeing of so many companies bringing create in-house and how the content creation model at IBM — “IBM Originals” — is different. “I believe that we can actually do better,” says Hammer. “And so, for me, no — we're not building an in-house agency. And I think if you just simply think about that, you're missing the opportunity to do something bigger and greater. And there are all sorts of opportunities that are unlocked when you have an IBMer sitting next to an IBMer working together to make something.”At the same time, Hammer recognizes what outside talent can add to the IBM mix: “Th

This week's episode of “Marketing Today,” finds Alan talking with Kim Wijkstrom, CMO for OneMain Financial. In his role there, Wijkstrom is responsible for development and execution of the company's brand marketing, and he has overseen OneMain Financial's first-ever brand campaign: “Lending Done Human.”During the course of his discussion with Alan, Wijkstrom talks at length about what led him to join OneMain Financial, his belief that the company provides a necessary and responsible service, and the company's new brand campaign. He also revisits his time at TBWA Chiat Day, where he worked on some of the world's most iconic brands, including Apple and Absolut Vodka.Working on Apple set the tone for Wijkstrom's career. “I don't think, at the time, I realized how lucky I was to be thrown into that situation,” says Wijkstrom. “It was more trying to absorb as much as possible from the moment and roll with it and make sure that we could deliver on the relationship.” H

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Richard Shotton, author of the book, “The Choice Factory: 25 Behavioural Biases That Influence What We Buy,” which was published earlier this year.Shotton started in advertising as a media planner, working on brands such as Coke and Lexus, before becoming inspired by the idea of applying behavioral psychology to business problems. Presently, he is head of behavioural science at Manning Gottleib OMD. In addition, he recently founded the consultancy, Astroten.During his conversation with Alan, Shotton outlines the thinking and methodology that went into writing his book. And he discusses just how much he relishes the freedom to conduct his own experiments to bear out his hypotheses. “What I have most loved is the freedom to go out and run a test to prove a point,' says Shotton, “not to have to rely on other people's findings. It's so easy to set up a psychological experiment. I find that really exciting and liberating — starting a project, not knowing

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Dave Knox, marketer, consultant, and author. His book, “Predicting the Turn: The High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips,” was an Atticus Awards Grand Prix winner in 2017.Knox has worked for Proctor & Gamble and was chief marketing officer at Rockfish. Now, he is co-founder of The Brandery, a startup accelerator, and co-founder and managing partner at Vine St. Ventures, a seed venture capital fund.During his conversation with Alan, Knox pointed out one reason why a lot of big companies struggle with innovation: “A CEO used to be rewarded for the five-year vision of how they were going to grow the company,” says Knox. “And today they're being measured whether they hit a quarterly number or not. And that's a really dangerous kind of short-term thinking that I think is stifling innovation in a lot of different ways.”Highlights from this week's “Marketing Today” podcast inc

This week's “Marketing Today” features a very special guest. Alan talks with Seth Godin, author of 18 best-selling books, including “Free Prize Inside,” “Purple Cow,” and “The Dip.” And now he's written a new one: “This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See.”In his conversation with Alan, Godin discusses his new book and what it's about: creating change and a modern way of thinking about marketing. Godin also touches on Nike and Colin Kaepernik, Brexit, and why, when trying to reach people, it's important not to try to transform them or get them to admit they're wrong, but simply to dance with them.And while he is a best-selling author and thought leader, Godin considers himself, first and foremost, a teacher. “I decided a bunch of years ago that I was a teacher,” says Godin. “And I decided that the best, most comfortable way for me to teach would be to notice things and try to explain them. And, if I do it well, pe

This week on “Marketing Today,” we revisit one of our earlier episodes. In it, Alan talks with Kim Whitler, an assistant professor in the marketing department at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. Prior to joining the world of academia, Whitler was head of marketing strategy at PetSmart and served as CMO for both Beazer Homes and David's Bridal. She's also written for Forbes on issues facing C-level marketing leaders today.During the course of their discussion, they talk at length about research Whitler was conducting at the time, the results of which were recently published in the Journal of Marketing in an article titled, “When and How Board Members with Marketing Experience Facilitate Firm Growth.” They also touched on how it's critical for a CMO to not only understand how their competencies should dovetail with their role, but also what their organization's expectations are for them. And lastly, she made this comment on what marketing means for companies seekin

In this week's episode of “Marketing Today,” Alan talks with Julie Eaton, vice president and general manager at Corian Design, a unit of DuPont. Eaton's 23-career at DuPont started in manufacturing and technology before evolving into roles in product leadership, first with Kevlar and now in her current position with Corian Design.During the course of her conversation with Alan, Eaton discussed the “new” DuPont, the challenges of launching a brand inside a larger company, and how she always strives to bring learning with her to every new role she takes on. And she talked about what it means for Corian Design to transition from product brand to master brand, “As we looked at where we were headed, we saw the possibility to be so much more,” said Eaton. “We are so proud to be a part of DuPont, which continues to stand for innovation and differentiated high-performing products that make a meaningful difference in the world.”And she added this about Corian Design's ne