MARKETING INNOVATION: Nestlé and NFL Discuss Marketing Changes

Technology has moved fast than ever. Especially since the first industrial revolution. No we are now living in times in which technological advancements are changing everything. And at an almost inconceivable pace. Scientists and economists like Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, have begun to call this moment in time the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is fundamentally different from the previous three. Because in Schwab’s words, “new technologies are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds. They impact all disciplines, economies and industries. And they challenge ideas about what it means to be human.”

All this talk about digital disruption and marketing innovation has marketers wondering exactly what this revolution will mean for the marketing industry.  What will be new marketing innovations examples be? “Technology has changed consumer behavior as much as it has changed everything else. Shopping has become a social activity,” writes Craig Thornton, VP, Business Mobility at Telus. “They hardly buy anything without first checking to see what previous purchasers have to say about it.  This level of research used to be reserved only for big-ticket items such as major appliances and cars. However now we google which toothbrush is best.” As Thornton says, marketers need to change to face these dramatic changes. We asked two members of Portada’s Brand Star Committee, Nestlé’s Multicultural Marketing Champion Margie Bravo and NFL’s Senior Director of Marketing and Fan Development Marissa Fernandez, to share their thoughts. What is next in marketing… and how to get ready.

Marketing Innovation, the Consumer Knows Best

It’s no secret that for some people, and particularly for the world of marketing, technology has brought data as a sort of all-encompassing math God that could reportedly solve all of our consumer-related needs. “Technology is evolving quickly, the media landscape is becoming more complex, and we need to use data to learn about that and invest wisely,” says NFL’s Marissa Fernandez. “But ultimately I think that no different from brands that existed 20 or 50 years ago, brands that actually understand their consumer and are delivering an unmet need are gonna continue to win in the marketplace.”

As Nestlé’s Margie Bravo points out, “It’s been outstanding how much talk there is about data, how data is changing, and what you need to do with it.” All over the world, but particularly in the U.S., “Now you have more diverse, more multicultural consumers. So […] the idea of analytics, the idea of really having a good gage of what is happening. Where is your growth coming from? What are the consumer behaviors that you need to take into consideration… Everything lathers up to asking ‘How can I create those opportunities for my consumers?'”