‘Marketers are now curators of brands’
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Marketers have become curators of brands rather than creators, according to Unilever’s marketing chief.
Speaking at a conference hosted by the Advertising Association today (February 29), Unilever chief marketing and communications officer Keith Weed said consumers are increasingly in control.
Weed added: “We are curating brands rather than creating them and the consumer is a big part of that.”
The Unilever marketer said the industry has the opportunity to better target consumers as technology is increasingly changing the way brands interact with consumers.
He told the audience that through improved targeting brands can offer consumers “something better”.
Weed said that with 6 billion mobile phones worldwide “lifestyles were going to change more,” and that “it’s going to change the way we interact with consumers.”
The Unilever marketer said, for example, that friends sitting in Hyde Park on a sunny day could be targeted with adverts of three nearby ice-cream vendors on their mobile phone.
Weed said that in an increasingly connected world, the division between traditional and digital advertising is becoming less relevant.
Talking about when TVs connect with the internet, Weed argues that “there won’t be a difference between traditional and digital advertising, whether it’s on a smartphone…it’s still a moving picture on a square screen.”
He added: “You could say that with capitalism at a cross roads, so is marketing. At Unilever we have stopped our quarterly forecasting and reporting every six months. We’re thinking more long term.”
Readers' comments (2)
Melvin Toast | Fri, 2 Mar 2012 5:38 pm
They buried the lead in this story. What is truly important here is that Unilever and other companies may, in fact and at long last, be making plans that extend somewhat beyond their next stockholder's meeting.
What is completely irrelevant and, in fact, erroneous is this notion of the consumer as the "curator" of the brand.
Consumers, as long as there have been surveys and focus groups, have always been in charge of driving innovation. It has always been the company's job to "give 'em what they want,” not what they need. And wherever a need is not present, advertisers would create them: Coke and deodorant come to mind.
No harm in this. It's just advertising.
But where this article fails miserably is in understanding the nature of people who use "smart" phones and their relationship with the incessant nosiness of these machines.
The example given above has three friends sitting in Hyde Park who are hypothetically badgered to buy ice cream by the ghost in their handheld machines.
Really?
And what really happens when this "miracle" of GPS technology is actually employed? One person is diabetic. The other is overweight and the third is lactose intolerant. These three need laxatives far more than they need ice cream.
But how is this device they hold in their hands supposed to know THAT?
How indeed. And therein lies the Orwellian rub.
Advertisers need to break out of this dystopian view of the future NOW before it is too late and the whole Occupy Movement catches on with the majority in the middle and those slightly to the right who are SICK and TIRED of advertisers, almost literally, crawling up their backsides.
Back off. Now!
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Jonathan Salem Baskin | Mon, 26 Mar 2012 7:25 pm
I’m fascinated by a few facts: museums had maintained their authenticity and credibility while most other brand “institutions” (commercial or governmental) have lost theirs. Further, museums rely on expertise for identifying, presenting, and supporting content that is hundreds of years old. So I studied it -- including serving as a senior fellow at the Smithsonian -- and combined it with my 30 years of experience as a brand marketer to come up with CuratorCamp, which is a half-day workshop that helps marketers learn how to curate like the real experts do. Here’s the link to it on my website. I’d love to know what you think.
JSB
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