leadership and marketing excellence serving those who …

OCTOBER 2016

Leadership and Marketing Excellence

SERVING THOSE WHO

SERVE WHAT BRANDS ARE DOING

TO SUPPORT AND HONOR OUR MILITARY AND VETERANS

HOW TO MEASURE BRAND HEALTH

ON LOCATION-BASED MARKETING

SPECIAL SECTION:

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MDevelop Your Location Strategy with The Weather CompanyFor more information visit weather.com/weknowlocation

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ANA.NET // 1

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Leadership and Marketing Excellence

Copyright © The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) 2016. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

Opinions expressed within are not to be considered official expres-sions of the ANA. The ANA assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions appearing within. The ANA reserves the right to accept or reject all editorial and advertising matter. The ANA does not assume any liability for unsolicited materials.

Board of Directors

ROGER ADAMS, USAA

PAUL ALEXANDER, EASTERN BANK

DANA ANDERSON, MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL

LINDA BOFF, GENERAL ELECTRIC

CHRIS BRANDT, BLOOMIN’ BRANDS

ROB CASE, NESTLÉ

GAURAV CHAND, DELL

DAVID CHRISTOPHER, AT&T

CHRIS CURTIN, VISA

JERRI DEVARD

DEANIE ELSNER, KELLOGG

SANJAY GUPTA, ALLSTATE

JACK HABER

JON IWATA, IBM

BRADLEY JAKEMAN, PEPSICO

GERALD JOHNSON II, AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

JEFFREY JONES II

JOHN KENNEDY JR., XEROX

RICH LEHRFELD, AMERICAN EXPRESS

KRISTIN LEMKAU, JPMORGAN CHASE

CHANTEL LENARD, FORD

ALISON LEWIS, JOHNSON & JOHNSON

BOB LIODICE, ANA

ROB MASTER, UNILEVER

NADINE McHUGH, L’ORÉAL

TONY PACE

SUSAN POPPER, HEWLETT PACKARD

MARC PRITCHARD, PROCTER & GAMBLE

RAJA RAJAMANNAR, MASTERCARD

TONY ROGERS, WALMART

DIEGO SCOTTI, VERIZON

JAMES SPEROS, FIDELITY INVESTMENTS

MEGAN STOOKE, GENERAL MOTORS

MARC STRACHAN, DIAGEO

NUNO TELES, HEINEKEN

JIM TREBILCOCK, DR PEPPER SNAPPLE

MEREDITH VERDONE, BANK OF AMERICA

DEBORAH WAHL, McDONALD’S

RODNEY WILLIAMS, MOËT HENNESSY

CONTENTSOCTOBER 2016

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@ANAMARKETERS FACEBOOK.COM/ANA

Executive Editor DUKE FANELLI

Editorial Director KEN BEAULIEU

Editor ANDREW EITELBACH [email protected]

Art Director SORAE LEE

Production Director FREDERICK KNECHT

Publisher KRISTINA SWEET [email protected]

ANA 708 THIRD AVE., FLOOR 33 NEW YORK, NY 10017 212.697.5950

#ANALOGThe content series brewing at Starbucks; reader preference for paper versus digital books; a forecast for the cloud storage market; upcoming events; key stats; quick facts; and more.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPSWhat brands are doing to show their support for the military and the nation’s veterans through their marketing and good works, and what other brands can do to get involved. // BY CHUCK KAPELKE

SPECIAL SECTION:

THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATIONCampaigns based on location data can be very effective, but there are challenges in getting there. // CONTRIBUTED BY JAMIE MOLNAR

BRAND CHECKUPHow to pick the right metrics to get an accurate evaluation of your brand’s health. // BY DAVID WARD

Q&ATanya Franklin of Lowe’s explains how to distinguish trends and fads, deal with executive leadership, and more. // BY KEN BEAULIEU

Get the latest from all of the ANA’s publications in the new ANA Newsstand.

Leave comments, watch video, share online, and more. ana.net/newsstand

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In its first-ever original content series, which launched last month, Star-bucks is aiming to inspire Ameri-cans to be better citizens.

Called Upstanders, the series features 10 different stories that focus on the achievements of individuals who are go-ing out of their way to make a positive change in their communities, from stu-dents who created an app to help food distribution to area food banks to a com-munity that rallied to create scholar-ships for its high school students.

Written and produced by Howard Schultz, CEO at Starbucks, and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, SVP of public affairs at Starbucks and executive producer of its social impact media initiatives, the stories cover a wide range of social issues and are told in prose, video, and podcast for-mats, with corporate branding taking a backseat.

“We’ve asked ourselves what is the role and responsibility of a public company and, as citizens, how we can catalyze hope in a time when we need more optimism, empathy, compassion, and leadership,” Schultz said of the series in a press release. “The upstanders featured in this series are inspiring individuals whose actions are emblematic of the American spirit and what is missing from so much of today’s national dialogue.”

To help drive awareness for the series, Starbucks is promot-ing Upstanders in its stores and on its mobile app through November. To keep the conversation going, Chandrasekaran also hosted town hall–style events based on the series in Mem-phis, Tenn., Dallas, Deerfield, Fla., and Washington, D.C. The events served as a forum to discuss ideas for how people might inspire positive change in their own communities.

Available at upstanders.starbucks.com, the series includes opportunities for readers to upload a photo of themselves to show their support for the project, nominate others making noticeable impacts on their communities, and vote for their favorites. — Urey Onuoha

STORIES OVER COFFEE

“ Don’t apologize for who you are, both as a human being and as a brand. … You can’t be everything to everybody.”

— LAUREN FLEISCHER, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AT IT’SUGAR, SPEAKING AT THE 2016 ANA SHOPPER MARKETING CONFERENCE

Number of U.S. consumers who will use

Snapchat at least once a month in 2016.

source: 2016 eMarketer

58.6 MILLION

Millennials

Gen Xers

ANA.NET // 3

Calendar2016 ANA/BAA MARKETING LAW CONFERENCENovember 9–11Chicago, Ill.

2017 ANA BRAND MASTERS CONFERENCEFebruary 15–17, 2017Dana Point, Calif.

2017 ANA MASTERS OF MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 1–3, 2017Orlando, Fla.

2017 ANA ADVERTISING LAW & PUBLIC POLICY CONFERENCEMarch 28–29, 2017Washington, D.C.

2017 ANA BRAND ACTIVATION CONFERENCEApril 19–21, 2017Chicago, Ill.

2017 ANA ADVERTISING FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCEMay 23–26, 2017San Diego, Calif.

2017 ANA/BMA MASTERS OF B-TO-B MARKETING CONFERENCEMay 31–June 2, 2017Chicago, Ill.

// For more, visit ana.net/events.

Podcast listeners who say they are more inclined to consider buying products and services they learn about during a podcast.

source: 2016 IAB and Edison Research Podcast Advertising Study

The size the public cloud market will grow to by 2020, up 23 percent from 2014.

source: 2016 Forrester Research Forecast

$236 BILLION

// QUICK POLL

We’re curious what you think about the upcoming election, so we’ve

put together a quick, very non-scientific poll to find out who you think

will win the presidential election, and whose presidency you think

would be better for marketers.

We’ll tweet the results October 22, the final day of the 2016 ANA Masters of Marketing

Conference.

Take the poll at ana.net/161001.

source: 2016 Pew Research Center Book Reading Survey

note: Digital books segment also includes audio books

THE YOUNG ARE THE RESTLESSDifferent age groups vary in how likely they are to try another method for reaching a company if their initial outreach for customer service wasn’t resolved within 60 minutes. Millennials are the quickest to lose patience.

PAPER PREFERRED TO PIXELSWhile wearables and virtual reality grow in popularity, and life in general gets increasingly digital, most book readers still prefer the experience of reading from paper.

28% READ BOTH PRINT AND DIGITAL BOOKS

6% READ ONLY DIGITAL BOOKS

26% READ NO BOOKS

40%

31%

19%

20%

Boomers

Silent Generation

Millennials

Gen Xers

source: 2016 Northridge Group State of Customer Service Experience

38% READ ONLY PRINT BOOKS

65%


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Any company can contribute to the effort to support military service members and veter-ans. While some might simply make dona-tions to one of thousands of military- and veteran-serving nonprofit organizations, a select few companies go a lot further, with integrated, multiyear initiatives that bring partners together and have a major sustained effect on helping those who have served.

Consider Verizon, which has steadily ex-panded its efforts in recent years and this year earned the top spot on Military Times’ rank-ing of the “Best Employers for Vets.” The company has a robust Veterans Affairs team and participates in hundreds of career fairs and other events, and it recently developed a digital mentoring platform through which those transitioning out of the military can contact the company’s veteran employees.

“Service members are excellent at working with teams,” says Evan Guzman, head of

How brands acknowledge and support active and retired members of the military, and what other brands can do to get involved BY CHUCK KAPELKE

ANA.NET // 5


military programs and veteran affairs at Verizon, who points out employees with military experience aren’t afraid to work hard. For Guzman, it’s one thing to work with veterans as a way to honor their ser-vice in the military, but “it’s another story to realize that they’re good for your busi-ness,” he says. “We are improving the quality of our hires while at the same time improving our brand equity. It’s a compet-itive landscape, and if you’re not including vets as part of it, you’ve already failed.”

Verizon is not the only company that has realized how supporting veterans and transitioning military members can pay off in diverse ways. “A few years ago, when the veteran unemployment rate was bouncing between 10 and 12 percent, there was a big call to hire veterans because it’s the right thing to do, a moral obligation,” says Lt. Col. Adam Grim, employment director at the U.S. Army’s Soldier for Life, which helps transition and support Army mem-bers and their spouses. “Now the narrative has changed, and companies are hiring be-cause veterans and military spouses make really good employees.”

In fact, the past few years have seen an impressive effort — led by the government, corporations, and nonprofits alike — to support U.S. veterans. The good news is that these efforts are having a huge impact. The number of homeless veterans in the United States has been cut in half since 2010, according to federal government sta-tistics, and the unemployment rate for vet-erans is down to its lowest level since 2008. Still, 4.6 percent of vets remain jobless, and around 40,000 veterans are homeless, with 1.4 million considered at risk of homeless-ness due to poverty, lack of support net-works, and subpar living conditions.

Brands are in a unique position to help themselves while making a meaningful dif-ference for active and veteran members of the nation’s military. Of course, brand marketers need to tread lightly in how they showcase the good work their companies do for vets and the military, particularly as

blowing one’s own horn too loudly can backfire and make the effort seem more opportune than genuine.

For best practices in serving those who serve, here is what a range of ANA mem-ber companies are doing to succeed.

THE HOME DEPOTAs part of its annual, two-month program called “Celebration of Service,” Home Depot stores across America send out “Team Depot,” a volunteer force of em-ployees clad in orange T-shirts who work with local and national nonprofit organi-zations to complete projects for aging, combat-wounded, and home-less veterans. Whether it’s build-ing wheelchair ramps or entire housing units, Team Depot vol-unteers have worked on more than 26,700 homes for veterans in need since 2011.

“On our social media chan-nels, we call it the ‘orange army,’” says Heather Prill, senior manager of national partner-ships at The Home Depot Foun-dation. “There are anywhere from five to 500 associates going out to do a project. They descend upon a neighborhood and get it done. They’re doing the things we teach and do in our stores every day.”

Team Depot uses its Twitter, Insta-gram, and Facebook channels to show-case its work, which The Home Depot then reshares through its own social chan-nels. Last year the brand invited customers to participate by using the hashtag #Ser-viceSelfie on photos; each share triggered a donation to a veteran-serving partner organization. The same promotion is run-ning again this year, ending on Veterans Day. Last month, The Home Depot Foundation announced it would grow its commitment to veteran-related causes to $250 million by 2020. “We wanted our partners and the veteran community to know that we’re committed to this and not going anywhere,” Prill says.

BEST PRACTICE The Home Depot reinforces its brand by integrating its most marketable assets — home repair and building supplies, as well as the expertise of its employees — while helping a wide range of nonprofit partners. “The housing piece makes sense for us,” Prill says.

HORMEL FOODSSome companies have only recently joined the veteran-support bandwagon, but that’s not the case for Hormel Foods. At the food products manufacturer, based in Austin, Minn., the tradition dates back to 1898, when the company’s founder, George

Hormel, gave $10 and the promise of full benefits and a job upon return to three employees who enlisted to serve in the Spanish-American War.

“There’s a deep legacy that goes all the way back, and we continue to be very committed to veterans and the U.S.

GROUND SUPPORTFor companies interested in getting more involved in supporting military service members and veterans, there are thousands of partner options to choose from. Here are a few resources to get you started. — C.K.

Soldier for LifeThe U.S. Army’s Soldier for Life Program serves as the “strategic connection” between the Army and organizations that want to benefit soldiers, including transitioning soldiers or military spouses. “We work with folks who want to hire veterans and help plug them into the Army,” says Lt. Col. Adam Grim. “Some help veterans with resume writing, others might build elevators for veterans’ homes.” soldierforlife.army.mil

Military Spouse Employment PartnershipThis Department of Defense-led initiative helps military spouses find jobs, and facilitates transfers when families are relocated. “Military spouses are an underserved population,” Grim says. “Unemployment rates for military spouses are three times higher than for their non-military peers. Many military spouses have advanced degrees and experience, but they relocate so frequently they have a hard time.” msepjobs.militaryonesource.mil

The Veterans Employment CenterConnects veterans and their families with meaningful employment and career develop-ment opportunities. vets.gov/employment

Paralyzed Veterans of AmericaFounded in 1946, PVA focuses on addressing the special needs of veterans who have experienced spinal cord injury or disease. pva.org

Employer Support of the Guard and ReserveA Department of Defense program established in 1972 to promote cooperation and understanding between Reserve Component Service members and their civilian employers — and to assist in the resolution of conflicts arising from an employee’s military commitment. esgr.mil

Pat Tillman FoundationFounded in 2004 — and named after an NFL player killed in combat — the Pat Tillman Foundation invests in military veterans and their spouses through academic scholarships to build a diverse community of leaders committed to the service of others. pattillmanfoundation.org

Joining Forces InitiativeThis White House-led program enlists public and private sectors to ensure that service members, veterans, and their families have the tools they need to succeed throughout their lives. whitehouse.gov/joiningforces

ANA.NET // 7

military in general,” explains Jeff Baker, group VP of food service at Hormel, who is himself a veteran. “This is part of our culture, not part of our marketing mes-sage. It’s part of who we are.”

Hormel has long maintained close ties to the military, famously shipping SPAM, Skippy peanut butter, and other products to soldiers around the world. By the end of World War II, nearly two-thirds of all Hormel Foods products were consumed by U.S. troops in the European and Pacific theaters. Today, deployed U.S. soldiers consume Hormel products on a regular basis.

“You can either help morale or kill morale by the food you prepare, and they eat our best meats: fire-braised meats, pre-cooked ribs, and a heck of a lot of bacon and sausage,” Baker says. “It’s not just SPAM they’re eating.”

Hormel has integrated the military into its marketing events. Last year, the company launched the “SPAMERICAN Tour,” sending a food truck with celebrity chefs — including Food Network host and Air Force veteran Sunny Anderson — on

a cross-country trip to cook up recipes like SPAM waffles and SPAM jalapeño tacos. The tour stopped at military bases and community events in major cities, along the way generating aware-ness about Operation Gratitude, a nonprofit that collects thank you letters to service members. Hormel pledged a $1 donation for every letter written in-market and online at SPAM.com.

BEST PRACTICE Hormel has recruiters who focus on veterans

and has an active employee resource group, the Hormel Military Veterans Engage-ment Team, to help newly hired service members integrate. “This can’t be a once-a-year recognition program,” says Baker. “If this is just a poster project, or you’re doing it to feel good, then don’t start. This

takes dedication and persistence to build the education throughout your company.”

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUEFew organizations have as massive a plat-form as the National Football League, and in recent years, the NFL’s leaders have ramped up their efforts to showcase mili-tary members’ service to the country.

Every year, the NFL partners with mil-itary financial services and insurance pro-vider USAA to present the “Salute to Service Award,” which honors players, coaches, personnel, and alumni who sup-port the military. The campaign features shows of support that include coaches and players wearing camouflage during games, and last year featured a video of now former player Jared Allen talking about his personal military ties. The league also donates $1,000 to military- serving nonprofit partners for every point scored during designated games.

“It allows the stories to be told, so you’re not just getting short blurbs of in-formation, but hear about 25 to 30 exam-ples around the league,” explains Anna Isaacson, SVP of social responsibility at the NFL. “You’ll hear our players say all the time, they aren’t the heroes, the heroes are the ones in military uniforms.”

The Salute to Service campaign has helped to focus the efforts of teams across the league. “We first saw the strength of this kind of united approach with the work we did around breast cancer awareness,” says Jaime Weston, SVP of marketing at the NFL. “We had 32 clubs doing things in local markets, but we realized our mega-phone can be so much bigger if we show-case this on a national level.”

BEST PRACTICE As with any major marketing effort, the NFL measures the impact of its Salute to Service campaign. “We measure the impact of everything we do across all our platforms, whether it’s breakthrough with fans, positive impact against the NFL brand, or with our player

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community,” Isaacson says. “We know from measuring that Salute to Service is one of top three initiatives that fans are aware of that the league supports.”

UPSIt makes sense that UPS hires an average of 5,000 United States veterans each year: the company’s logistics and operations are on the scale of a global army, as its roughly 444,000 employees deliver more than 18 million shipments every day in more than 220 countries and territories.

“When I came to UPS, I felt right at home,” says Pat O’Leary, who joined the package delivery company three weeks after he left the Marine Corps in 1978 and today serves as Veterans Affairs manager. “There’s so much to get done in a day’s time, with time-critical deadlines, and — not to get poetic here — we do it with aplomb. Our drivers are considered some of the best service providers in the world, and a lot of that resides in the same ethic or attitude that people have in the military — a dependable, mission-focused, hard- working, gung ho, can-do attitude.”

UPS offers discounts on franchise fees to veterans who own stores in more than 250 locations; it sponsors events like the National Veterans Wheelchair Games and the U.S. Marine Corps Marathon; and it even makes 15 percent of its cargo fleet available to the Department of Defense for emergency airlifts. Between 2009 and 2012, UPS delivered 136 million pounds of supplies to Afghanistan, and it has shipped more than $750 million worth of AIDS medication for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

Meanwhile, as part of the White House’s Joining Forces Initiative, the com-pany made a commitment to hire 50,000 veterans by 2018 (which they’ve already nearly reached) and they’ve more than doubled their goal of completing 50,000 volunteer hours. “You know what that means,” O’Leary says. “It’s time to in-crease the goal.”

BEST PRACTICE Put someone in charge of your initiatives who under-stands the military culture, says O’Leary. “A lot of times people don’t know the dif-ference between a corporal and a lieu-tenant colonel,” he says. “There are a lot of resources that can help you learn.”

UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATIONWhen the United States Golf Association (USGA) chooses the host golf courses for its tournaments, it prioritizes forging rela-tionships with nearby military facilities, and offers discounts, and in many cases free passes, to service members to attend events. “The military always has a seat at the table when we are planning a tourna-ment,” explains Dave Aznavorian, senior director of marketing at the USGA.

With a global audience of 20 million television viewers, the USGA tries to use its significant public profile to demon-strate its support for the armed forces. “When you’re an organization with U.S. in your name, if you have colors that are pegged to the American flag, you have to be mindful of how important it is to be celebrating the values you’re putting out there,” Aznavorian says.

BEST PRACTICE Make sure you know why your company is supporting veterans and the military. “Recognize what your objectives are going in,” Aznavorian says. “You shouldn’t start a partnership oppor-tunistically or do something that falls out-side your brand values. It has to be part of who you are if the partnership is going to have roots and longevity.”

APPLEBEE’SThis year, for the ninth consecutive year, Applebee’s will honor veterans and active military by providing them with a free meal from a selection of seven entrees at all of its U.S. restaurants on Veterans Day. Meanwhile, also on Veterans Day, Apple-bee’s sister company, IHOP, is offering

vets and active military members a free stack of Red, White & Blue pancakes.

“The idea was sparked by a touching moment I experienced when seeing someone give up their first class seat to honor a veteran boarding our plane,” says Julia Stewart, chairman and CEO at DineEquity and president at Apple-bee’s. “I wanted to capture that sentiment and do something big in our restaurants to honor their sacrifices that keep our country safe.”

Through an effort supported by digital and social media as well as PR, Applebee’s expects to serve close to one million free meals on Nov. 11, bringing the total to nearly 9 million free meals served since 2008. Applebee’s also supports the Thank You Movement, which gives people the chance to connect with veterans and active military through personal messages of gratitude at thankyoumovement.com.

“Our focus on Veterans Day is not on sales, marketing, or cost, but is meant to create a priceless experience for our veter-ans and active-duty military service men and women,” Stewart says. “We would encourage any company or business — big or small — to honor our veterans in any way possible.”

BEST PRACTICE Rather than talk about all the free food they’re giving away, Applebee’s paints the big picture, in part by creating opportunities for customers to thank service members. “These programs must be heartfelt and focused on the cus-tomer,” Stewart says. “It needs to be about more than free food. We believe it is about creating meaningful connections in our neighborhoods and communities.”

Find more, including more about Verizon’s work with veterans, on our website at ana.net/161002.

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Contributed by Jamie Molnar

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The challenges to building campaigns based on location data and what marketers need to do to get there

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A The study reveals only 5 percent of respon-dents believe third-party data is most effec-tive at increasing customer lifetime value. Still, according to a 2015 survey by mobile ad platform xAd, 78 percent of responding marketers have turned to location-based services as a way to drive a stronger ROI from their campaign efforts. Despite broad adoption, most are still experimenting. Data accuracy, timeliness, and the ability to scale have been big challenges marketers are struggling to overcome.

But overcome them they should. While not all location-based campaigns are equal, location tactics can have tre-mendous results for marketers. Consider that in a 2015 Local Search Association study on improved location services, click-through rates (CTR) for geotargeted and geofenced campaigns doubled where gen-eralized ZIP code segmentation only im-proved by 50 percent. Another study published by SIM Partners in late 2015 shows marketers who improved accuracy of their location data by just 20 percent saw more than 400 percent increases in

page traffic, and on-page conversion rates went up by more than 200 percent.

Marketers who can refine their loca-tion data and use it to better inform their messaging will reap better engagement and conversion numbers; it’s just a matter of getting there.

THE PROBLEM WITH DEMOGRAPHICSMarketers are trained to think in terms of demographic segments. They direct campaigns toward groups based on de-mographic information such as age and gender. Baby product ads are directed at mothers. Truck ads are geared toward men. Ads for retirement communities are directed at elderly couples. For decades this was the best that could be done.

On the surface this approach makes sense until one analyzes actual purchase behavior, and then it becomes evident that basic demographic segmentation is deeply flawed. A heavy reliance on gender-based stereotypes is causing


s more marketing dollars are funneled into mobile and location tactics, the discussion around data validity is getting louder. Savvy marketers who rely on third-party ad networks to deliver targeted ads and build brand awareness are questioning the ROI of their investments. In fact, a 2015 survey of 300 marketers by Econsultancy and Signal shows modern marketers are starting to doubt the wisdom of this approach.

ANA.NET // 11ANA.NET // 11

missed connections with millions of potential consumers.

Delivering messages designed for potential residents of a retirement community limits marketing effec-tiveness by ignoring a good portion of those searching for retirement communities, namely the children of elderly couples. Likewise, mar-keters miss big opportunities when they focus infant product promotions on mothers when, in fact, according to a 2015 Google/Ipsos MediaCT study, 40 percent of all baby product purchases come from households with no children.

The problem of using traditional demographic segmentation will grow as traditional gender roles continue to evolve, and as mobile device use among consumers of all ages continues to skyrocket, further changing purchase dynamics. (To see just how crucial mobile is, consider that in 2014 Shopify reported that mobile purchases accounted for 50.3 percent of all e-commerce traffic on its platform.) Consumers shop on the go, in-spired by what’s happening around them. This makes the timing of advertising messages as important as the audience to which they’re directed.

One way marketers have tried to ad-dress this challenge is to simply create more segments. Instead of only selling baby products to mothers of a certain age, they’re trying multiple messages to varying segments in hopes of reaching everyone. This approach is resource in-tense, expensive, and wastes a tremen-dous amount of advertising dollars. Marketers have a targeting problem.

A much more effective approach is to narrow the focus to those audiences that really care about the offerings. In the case of selling baby products, that means tar-geting mothers, fathers, grandparents, and others who are actually shopping for, or who are likely to buy items for babies. Location-based data allows exactly that —

psychographic targeting of relevant, timely messages that influence purchase decisions when they count the most.

BUILDING MEANINGFUL PROFILESTo implement more relevant targeting (and therefore targeting that’s more cost effective), marketers must understand buyers’ real-world behavior. Intent is more valuable than traditional demo-graphic signals, which are limited to age and gender and force marketers to guess at consumer action, whereas knowing consumer behavior allows marketers to calculate intent rather than guess.

Luckily, marketers no longer have to guess. Nothing reveals more about who a person is than where they go. Best of all, habitual mobile device use has taken the guesswork out of where consumers are going. Location data tells marketers where consumers go, how frequently they visit, how long they stay, and can even signal how they are likely feeling based on the weather at their precise location.

Location-based analysis goes far be-yond geographic targeting to build com-prehensive buyer profiles based on sourced

data. By way of example, here’s data on a hypothetical consumer called Consumer X. From previous pur-chases it’s known that she is a wom-an. Based on location data it’s also known that Consumer X shops weekly at Whole Foods, goes to the gym four times a week, and frequents the high-end clothing store Nord-strom. By combining all of these sig-nals, marketers learn for the first time that this shopper is a health- conscious, high-end luxury shopper. Understanding the profile for Con-sumer X allows marketers to more accurately target and improve mes-sage relevancy than if they only knew that Consumer X is a woman.

By combining the same informa-tion from billions of signals from

shoppers across the country, useful, behavior- based profiles emerge that mar-keters can use to scale their efforts. Not only can marketers deliver the right mes-sage at the right time, with these profiles they can direct a meaningful brand expe-rience to the most receptive consumers.

WHAT LOCATION INFORMATION REVEALSLocation data provides the opportunity for a sophisticated level of analysis be-cause it gives marketers insight into four essential indicators of intent: 1. Rituals are actions or behaviors that are meaningful, satisfying, and empowering to a consumer. While they may or may not be frequent, rituals represent critical action points for creat-ing an emotional connection to a brand. By understanding what activates a ritual, marketers can use location services to de-liver messages that either trigger a ritual or feed off of an existing one. For exam-ple, many commuters get their morning coffee at the same shop every time. Under standing this ritual is helpful, but equally valuable is knowing where and

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A King-Sized Win Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts offers a number of amenities that appeal to business travelers. The brand hy-pothesized that targeting those trav-elers with relevant messages that promote those services would im-prove campaign performance, but finding those travelers at the right time in their journey was a chal-lenge. Leveraging location services to target business users as they checked the weather forecast, the brand doubled its click-through rates. — J.M.


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what that consumer does before and after getting their morning coffee. From this insight marketers can improve the likeli-hood that their messages and promotions appeal to these commuters.

2. Understanding the weather at a consumer’s current location can provide tremendous insight into how they are feeling. “Weather is the single largest influence on consumer shop-ping behavior,” says Paul Walsh, a weather expert and business analyst at The Weather Company. “Weather can tell you what cus-tomers will buy and when, where, and how

customers will shop.” Weather information can be highly valuable to marketers, and in fact research shows that weather is an ex-cellent predictor of mood and can be an effective way to personalize messages that resonate with consumers. This can include customizing images, changing advertising copy, and timing ads to coincide with opti-mal buying periods.

3. Time should never be taken for granted. Promoting last-minute shop-ping tips after local stores have closed is in-efficient at best, and a turnoff at worst. Understanding the consumer’s local time

at the moment he/she sees an ad is critical to relevancy. For example, if a brand had a new vitamin supplement to promote and wanted to target those who worked out at least five times a week, timing messages to coincide with the target’s average gym visit time is likely to improve how well the mes-sage resonates. Only location-based data allows that to happen accurately at scale.

4. Buying characteristics can be in-ferred when analyzing location data across time. What is there to learn by knowing that a consumer visits the com-muter rail five days a week? Or perhaps

The location services (i.e., the

providers) marketers leverage

can make the difference be-

tween success and failure.

When selecting the right

source, marketing organiza-

tions should consider the fol-

lowing characteristics.

1 First and foremost, confirm

location data is accurate.

Analysis is only effective if the

data upon which one makes

decisions can be trusted. An-

swering these questions be-

fore selecting a location data

provider will give marketers

the confidence to find the

best solution for their needs.

• Is the provider using first-

party data at the core of

their analysis, and can the

provider confirm the data’s

integrity?

• How are recent location open-

ings and closings managed?

• How frequently is location

data updated? If marketers

are relying on location data

to target consumers at rele-

vant moments, it’s critical

that location data be re-

freshed every few minutes.

2 Be confident location

data is precise. While lo-

cation data collection can be

remarkably precise, some sys-

tems are only accurate to

within a block or mile radius.

At first this may seem unim-

portant. However, when build-

ing buyer profiles it’s

important to know whether a

consumer visited, say, the lo-

cal park or went to the movie

theater that’s just a few blocks

away from the park. Systems

that are not precise will be

challenged to distinguish be-

tween the two. If the data

upon which marketers are

building profiles indicate

someone is an outdoor enthu-

siast when in fact they are an

avid movie watcher, the mes-

saging will lose significant ef-

fect. Marketers must be able

to trust that the data they are

using to determine if the con-

sumer is visiting the local

track or the Target store half a

mile away is precise enough

to draw conclusions.

3 Ensure location data

scales across a large pop-

ulation for the best insights.

To collect location data from a

consumer’s mobile device, the

consumer must opt in to pro-

viding the data feed. With

data privacy concerns at the

forefront of public concern,

consumers are careful to au-

thorize a data feed only when

they feel they earn value in

return.

Games such as Pokémon

Go! require location services

to work and, as such, are likely

to successfully collect loca-

tion data with some precision.

However, gaming applications

of all kinds have volatile adop-

tion curves and habitual use is

generally limited to a subset

of the population. This limits

the effectiveness of third party-

derived location data from

gaming or other partial-use

applications because the most

valuable analysis requires

long-term data collection. Col-

lecting data over time provides

deep insights, so marketers

need a durable connection to

the device that won’t fade

when the user becomes bored

by the application.

When collecting location

data, it’s important that the

data source does not limit

analysis by time or by diver-

sity of audience. Brands need

to seek sources of data repre-

sentative of the audience

they serve today as well as

those they hope to serve in

the future. Marketers need to

seek data sources that are

used by the widest spectrum

of consumers and ones that

maintain habitual use over

time. — J.M.

Choosing the Right Provider, and the Right Data

ANA.NET // 13

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ANA.NET // 13

that they go to the dog park every Saturday morning? Understanding where consumers go provides in-credible insight into what they care most about. It’s an easy guess that the consumer is commuting to work, and it may even be possible to esti-mate how long they spend on the train. If the commute is long enough, might that not be an indica-tion they are a good candidate for sellers of books and audio pro-grams? Knowing they go to the dog park every Saturday gives marketers a good indication that pet product promotions might be in order, and what’s more, knowing the day they visit the park indicates when the message is most likely to resonate.

THE CONVERGENCEUsing rituals, time, weather, and be-havior signals, location analysis can build insightful profiles that market-ers can act upon at scale. These pro-files can help marketers go beyond simple demographics to target consumers who have interest in their products, un-derstand what those consumers do before and after visiting a store, and find patterns that signal buying intent. What’s more, marketers can home in on specific items that those consumers might have a partic-ular interest in and market to them appropriately.

Marketers can use location-based pro-files to gain a deep understanding of who really visits their stores and finally go be-yond generic assumptions about who makes up their customer base. With loca-tion analysis, marketers can profile those visiting customers by time of day, day of week, even season, to truly understand them. But it’s not just in-store customers; brands can combine online with in-store promotional outreach for maximum con-version rates. With location services, mar-keters can integrate promotional efforts to

reach consumers at the precise moment they’re likely to be making purchase decisions.

One of the more innovative uses of location analysis involves the use of geofencing to target consumers at precise locations. Geofencing uses the location service capabilities of consumers’ mobile devices to identify where a targeted buyer is located. By tapping into these capabil-ities marketers can target consumers who are at a specific place, such as a store, a competitor’s location, or even a nearby restaurant, and deliver promotional mes-sages that resonate. Sophisticated loca-tion services can target consumers who are in a specific location or within a de-fined radius of a specified place. For ex-ample, if analysis showed that moviegoers leaving a theater were likely to seek out a nearby restaurant after 5 p.m. show-ings, a local restaurant could establish a geofence to entice those hungry patrons

with a targeted promotion as they left the theater.

Ultimately, however marketers imple-ment location services, the time has come to stop experimenting and instead build a scalable foundation for their outreach. Brands are constantly challenged to use media dollars as efficiently as possible, even as shopping behavior changes and con-sumer expectations rise. This will require rethinking past assumptions about the value of third-party ad network services.

By using location services that rely on accurate, timely, first-party data, market-ers can provide an important platform for meeting modern consumers’ expectations and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Jamie Molnar is director of product strategy and marketing for global advertising solutions at The Weather Company. You can email her at [email protected].

A Cut Above

A leading fast-casual dining chain wanted to go beyond price-driven industry pro-

motions and elevate its brand among consumers with its revamped menu featuring

new salads and steaks that were hand-cut on premises.

The restaurant partnered with The Weather Company to develop a custom por-

trait consisting of consumers who frequent competitor restaurants such as Ruby

Tuesday, TGI Friday’s, and Chili’s Grill & Bar, as well as lapsed and current patrons

of the restaurant. In addition, the brand leveraged high-impact mobile branded

backgrounds and a custom store locator to visually capture the high quality of the

new menu items as well as drive consumers to its nearest location.

The results are notable, particularly in a promotional-driven category dominated

by independent restaurant operators. — J.M.

LIFT IN OVERALL FOOT TRAFFIC.

7.37%COST PER STORE VISIT,

WITH A $7.44 COST PER LIFT STORE VISIT (CHEAPER

THAN MOST MENU ITEMS!)

$0.51NUMBER OF STORE

VISITS, WITH 47,034 INCREMENTAL VISITS.

685,119

14 // ASSOCIATION OF NATIONAL ADVERTISERS14 // ASSOCIATION OF NATIONAL ADVERTISERS

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Marketers now have almost an embar-rassment of riches when it comes to

information about both their customers and the health of their brand. Not only is there a dizzying array of tools that CMOs and their staffs can use to monitor con-sumer interactions with brands in near real time, but there is also an increasing number of market research and data col-lection companies all clamoring to do that information gathering and analysis to op-timize brand health.

All this is taking place in an environ-ment where, thanks to the rise of digital, social, and mobile platforms, consumers

can experience brand messaging in ways that were unheard of only a decade ago.

“The world has changed in the way consumers interact with brands and we have to follow that,” explains George Ivie, CEO and executive director at the Media Rating Council (MRC). “The emergence of consumers interacting with brands in social media communities now has signifi-cant impact on things like brand health.”

While that doesn’t mean the traditional metrics of profit, revenues, market share, and growth are no longer important, Ivie stresses it does mean that marketers have to be far more proactive in determining how

best to gauge the health of their individual brands, and in making sure the data they’re receiving on advertising and consumer en-gagement is reliable and standardized.

“A brand can look healthy today and then a month from now have a major problem — and that may not reflect itself in some of these financial measurements,” Ivie says. “Marketers should be tracking metrics that are directly tied to consumers throughout the brand monitoring process.”

3MS AND THE PUSH FOR RELIABLE STANDARDSIvie and the MRC have spent much of the past few years working with organizations such as the ANA, the 4A’s, and the IAB to develop standards so advertisers will have dependable ways to measure messaging and ad spends across multiple platforms.

With so much data flowing through such a fast-paced world, how do marketers pick the right metrics to get an accurate evaluation of their brand’s health? BY DAVID WARD

The Brand Health Puzzle

ANA.NET // 15

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The result is the Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative, which in-cludes efforts to shift the industry toward viewable impressions, standards for filter-ing invalid traffic, and the development of digital cross-media currency standards so that digital campaigns can be evaluated in the same way ad spend on traditional plat-forms are measured.

Ivie says the standard for tracking con-sumer social interactions, which debuted last year, won’t by itself enable marketers to put a value on consumer engagement on social media, but it will provide industry-wide definitions as well as best practices. “We’re still trying to figure out the value of social likes and shares,” he says. “We still don’t have a standard for that, but we’re telling marketers they should be tracking and monitoring changes in this traffic and

using that information as a kind of early warning system.”

The long-term goal of the MRC and its partners is to establish standards that re-flect the modern reality of advertising and brand management. “Advertisers don’t just do TV campaigns, they do multisiloed campaigns, including digital, TV, print, and audio,” Ivie says. “What we’re work-ing toward is enabling apples-to-apples assessments of the effectiveness of these campaigns across these silos. We’re trying to help marketers address the age-old ques-tion of if they have one more dollar, what’s the most effective way to spend it.”

THE RIGHT METRICS FOR GAUGING BRAND HEALTHThe MRC is helping to solve one part of the brand health-metrics puzzle, but for

many CMOs the far bigger issue is figuring out exactly which data point, or points, can truly give an accurate reading of their brand — a challenge compounded by the reality that consumers’ taste and percep-tions are continually changing.

“Our metrics for brand health keep changing because customer expectations continue to increase,” says Lori Acker, VP of customer engagement at National Grid, which provides natural gas and electricity in Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Is-land, and also the U.K. Because it’s a utility with a stable customer base, National Grid tends to put the highest value not so much on brand awareness but rather on metrics such as “trust advice” and “favorability,” according to the company.

“Just like the telecom industry, our in-dustry is transitioning with clean energy, privatization,” Acker says. “We need those trust metrics so we know our customers trust that we can give them advice and tell them what’s changing and how they can control their energy needs better.”

National Grid relies on a brand tracker to gauge its brand health on a weekly ba-sis. “Doing it continuously throughout the year gives us the best view,” Acker ex-plains. “And we use third-party services for the majority of our surveys because it does have the checks and balances and it does keep our information confidential — and they make sure we take an honest look at how we’re doing and what we can do to make our brand stronger. That’s import-ant because our customers don’t compare us to other utilities, they compare us to other services, so they want to know where our truck is and when it will get there.”

PUTTING UNDERSTANDING BEFORE METRICSAs National Grid successfully demon-strates, marketers need to first understand what they want their brand to represent before they start to determine the right metrics to use.

“The first question should always be, ‘Do we have the right strategy and archi-tecture and positioning of the brand,’” says


Mark McNeilly, professor of the practice of marketing and or-ganization behavior at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan- Flagler Busi-ness School, as well as a faculty member focused on brand development at the ANA School of Marketing. “You need to have that framework in place so that once the brand health metrics come in, you can determine if you’ve positioned your brand correctly or whether the strategy is right or wrong or if your mar-keting mix is right.”

Donna Bembenek, VP of marketing communications at the YMCA of the USA, echoes that, noting that under-standing your brand goals has to come well before metrics are in place. “In terms of doing the research, you have to be care-ful to choose the right methodology and ask the right questions to get the insights you need,” she says. “Awareness is the first step in measuring. At the most basic level, do people know you exist? From there, you need to determine the general pub-lic’s perception of you and whether they have affinity for what you do.”

While there are more than enough quantitative metrics that marketers can access, Bembenek notes those numbers alone won’t always tell the brand health story. “Quantitative brand metrics only get us so far — they tell us what but not neces-sarily why,” she says. “To get a deeper under standing it’s important to supple-ment our quantitative studies with qualita-tive research, as well as to have regular conversations with the people we serve.”

Because it’s so well established, the YMCA doesn’t necessarily concern itself strictly with brand awareness, Bembenek says. “Our focus is more on perception metrics related to our overall goal of in-creasing the public’s perception of the Y as a nonprofit charitable organization worthy of support,” she adds. “Brand health is no exact science, but by incorpo-rating as many of the tools at our disposal as possible, we get a better picture of

what is working and what is not and how to strategically adjust accordingly.”

THE GOLDILOCKS SOLUTION FOR BRAND HEALTH METRICS When marketers do make mistakes with brand health metrics, it’s generally a result of migrating to the extremes — either try-ing to incorporate far too many metrics or obsessively focusing on only one or two data points to tell the whole brand story.

In recent years, the temptation for many companies, as well as third-party re-searchers, is to try to determine that one single metric that can best describe brand health. This has led to an almost faddish interest in concepts like Net Promoter Score (NPS), which asks customers on a zero to 10 score how likely they are to rec-ommend the brand to others.

Jesse Purewal, a San Francisco–based associate partner at Prophet, a global brand and marketing consultancy, says single metrics like NPS do have value. “The idea that you can distill something down to one metric is both intellectually appealing and organizationally empower-ing,” he says. “And that isn’t wrong, but it is more a focus on the what rather than the why behind a brand’s health.”

Because there are so many complexities that occur in the marketing and branding of a business, Purewal says marketers need a scorecard filled with only the metrics that matter. “Most marketers realize they don’t have the time or the dollars to look at every thing, so our perspective is to look at fewer things and go deeper,” he says. “In particular we like our clients to consider brand relevance as the key determinant of what growth will occur over the time — both revenue and profit growth.”

Chris Murphy, EVP and chief client officer at Millward Brown North America, recommends brand health be determined from concise surveys of consumers across multiple platforms and devices, so that, for instance, a vocal minority on social media or a mobile platform does not skew results.

“If I can ask five questions of consumers I can get a very strong measurement on how healthy a brand is,” he says. “We learned that if a brand is meaningful, dif-ferent, and salient, that brand is much more likely to be selected in the here and now, command a price premium, and is more likely to grow.”

Murphy also suggests brand managers need to balance short-term metrics and decision making when it comes to brand health. “Marketers do have access to so many more data inputs than they used to, and there are signals that can be followed day-to-day that can be quite informative in terms of the management of your mar-keting,” he says. “But you don’t want to focus too much on that alone, so a diet that mixes short-term metrics and long-term metrics is the way to go.”

Ivie agrees that when it comes to brand metrics, more is not always better. “I don’t think gathering all the data you can is the most efficient thing you can do because you can get buried and paralyzed,” he says. “I think the best thing you can do is determine the useful metrics that you want to track as brand-value indicators and stick with those metrics over time.”

5 Tips for Getting an Accurate Gauge of Brand Health1. Have a strategic plan. Take time to understand the brand goals and strategies before gathering and analyzing data.

2. Use short- and long-term metrics. Short-term metrics can show how the creative and the media mix are performing, while longer-term metrics can track broader brand performance trends.

3. Combine first- and third-party data gathering and analytics — and make sure outside brand tracking is being done by accredited companies.

4. Benchmark, using best-in-class practices to measure against past brand performance and the competition.

5. There is no silver-bullet, so focus on the six to 10 metrics that best measure your individual brand’s health.

— D.W.

ANA.NET // 17

Q&A

Foresight Keeps Lowe’s at the ForefrontTANYA FRANKLIN IS ALL ABOUT THE FUTURE. As director of market and consumer insights at Lowe’s she works with the Strategy, Insights, Planning, and Process group to monitor consumer and lifestyle trends to keep the home improvement company at a competitive advantage. If the group identifies changes in consumer behavior, driven by social, cultural, environmental, technological, or economic forces, the insights are disseminated across the enter-prise to help drive new business initiatives.

Domestically and internationally, Franklin’s group supports marketing, merchandising, real estate, strategy, and corporate communications as well as various other parts of the business. Here, Franklin offers more perspective on the group’s work, ex-plains the difference between a fad and a trend, and describes her dealings with executive leadership and marketing.

— Ken Beaulieu

Q What are some of the ways you immerse yourself in today’s culture to discover future trends?

A For nearly all my tenure at Lowe’s, I’ve played some role in monitoring both consumer and lifestyle trends and commu-

nicating these insights across the business. A few years ago, I helped prove the value our team has on business outcomes and was able to recruit a trends manager to elevate our focus on trends and foresight. Together, we were able to significantly strengthen our discipline around how we uncover, monitor, and measure the trends landscape, including developing an internal trends frame-work. We’ve experimented with a variety of initiatives in the past couple of years to help us stay engaged and immersed in what’s going on with our customers. In addition to coordinating smaller insight team immersions all across the country, we coordinate trend immersion trips for our executive leadership. Last year our trend immersions took us to Los Angeles and this year to Austin, Texas. Our Los Angeles trip was even covered by the local NPR radio station and aired shortly after our trip.

Q How do you distinguish a fad from a trend? Do you adhere to certain criteria?

A Yes, we do look at different criteria to distinguish fads from trends, primarily through evaluating what we call “signals”

against the trends framework we’ve built. In short, when we con-sider an occurrence, we evaluate how quickly it has picked up momentum, how evident it is across the consumer landscape, the number of macro forces or drivers from which it stems, and how much consumer behavior it has the ability to influence. By

comprehensively evaluating these “blips” on the radar, we get a more holistic understanding of the lasting power

an event can, or will, have in the marketplace.

Q Do you have a great example of how you applied your work to a current initiative

at Lowe’s?

A While I cannot go into too much detail about how we’ve applied our trends monitoring in-

ternally, the information we monitor covers everything from how and where people will choose to live in the future, how they will want to interact with their homes and engage in their com-munities, the expectations they will look for from retailers in our category space, and how we need to prepare our workforce to meet the future demands of our customers. Obviously, these top-ics can affect many areas of our business, and our trends manager has established a communication strategy that spans from our top leadership all the way into the functional arms of the business. The decisions that are made and actions that can be taken differ based on where we are communicating within the levels of the organization.

Q How do you convince upper management that the consumer shifts you’re seeing need to be acted on? Do

you meet regularly with senior staff?

A Our executive leadership at Lowe’s is completely supportive and realizes the importance of understanding how our cus-

tomers and their future needs impact our business. We engage with our leadership on many levels, from very comprehensive, an-nual trend immersions to weekly share-outs via email communica-tions to a variety of touchpoints in between. We do have a formal process for sharing trends work with leadership every year, which continues to be a highlight of our annual planning process.

Q Tell me about your relationship with marketing and how your insights help inform their decision making.

A Our insights department and those of us who are more ded-icated to monitoring consumer trends have a very solid

working relationship with our marketing department. Our mar-keting leadership understands the importance and value that con-sumer trend insights can bring to shaping future marketing strategies. We regularly engage with our chief marketing officer and other leaders in the department to share what we are learn-ing within our trends work. More and more, we are being called upon for our knowledge and expertise, representing the voice of our customer.

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