#marketing-strategy

#marketing-strategy

Most entrepreneurs obsess over their competition. They study their competitors' pricing, analyze their marketing, and lose sleep wondering how to differentiate themselves. But what no founder wants to admit is the threat isn't competition-it's obscurity. Lack of interest may not be the problem My company has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs who are exceptional at what they do. These clients offer incredible products, game-changing services, and decades of expertise.

To achieve ambitious targets during continued economic uncertainty, marketing strategies must evolve and adapt. This begs the question: how do we need to adjust our plans to better serve our consumer's needs? Let's first hone in on the biggest challenges we're currently facing as an industry. Understanding your customer and their needs Consumer shopping behavior is vastly different now than in 2019 and, while looking back on past data is still essential, we can't use it as robustly to predict trends.

Marketing & CX Leadership

Although McDonald's remains a fast-food giant, even the most established brands are fighting harder than ever to stay relevant. In a crowded market shaped by economic uncertainty and intensifying competition, legacy companies can no longer rely solely on their name. In recent years, McDonald's has weathered some turbulent times, including declining sales and slowing consumer traffic. Yet the company has managed to reverse those falls, thanks partly to a strategy that reflects a major shift in consumer preferences.

At the same time, learning technology buyers are under pressure. Budgets are scrutinized. Buying committees are larger. Risk tolerance is lower. Decisions that once involved a single L&D leader now require alignment across HR, IT, compliance, procurement, and executive leadership. In this environment, vendors are not evaluated only on functionality; they are evaluated on credibility. This is where thought leadership marketing becomes a strategic advantage rather than a branding exercise.

Nike has been on a downward trajectory; its share price tanked under the previous CEO, John Donahoe, who was ousted last September in favour of Elliott Hill, a 32-year veteran at the company who was brought out of retirement to lead it back to growth. At the heart of its problems was Donahoe's hyper-focus on growing direct-to-consumer sales. Before Nike, he was a leader in the tech space (eBay, PayPal and ServiceNow) and came in with a vision to have more shoppers buy directly from Nike.com.

For basketball fans, a new year means one thing: March Madness is right around the corner. This jam-packed month has historically been a goldmine for brand marketers. The three full weeks of the tournament, not including the lead up, is an opportunity to capitalize on a pool of highly engaged consumers - whether they are the lucky fans watching in-person, tuning in at restaurants and bars, or catching the highlights from their phones or couch.

Apple has spearheaded the Super Bowl halftime show since 2023, building a complex array of advertising, teasers, playlists, and other content across its many platforms for Rihanna (2023), Usher (2024), and Kendrick Lamar (2025). Since the start of this $50-million-per-year sponsorship deal, Apple has treated the halftime show like it might be one of its products, with all the marketing and advertising bells and whistles it has at its disposal for things like the iPhone and Apple Watch.

To view this video, please enable JavaScript and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Media Summit and Experiential Marketing | Nov 8, 2022 Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing Officer of Mastercard (US), explores how the world of marketing is embracing more sensory and experiential approaches. And looks at what all marketers can learn from this broader approach.

One of the first points is uncomfortable but practical: sometimes the fastest way into a new lane is a short, intentional stint working for free. Ranft frames it as an access trade when the door is locked, not a lifestyle, and he's blunt about using discretion so you don't get exploited. The emphasis is on choosing situations where the learning is real, the stakes are real, and the experience creates proof you can show later.

Marketing organizations are racing to adopt AI while simultaneously trying to contain it. About 76.6% of marketers now have AI policies in place, up from 55.3% just a year earlier, per the Association of National Advertisers' January 2026 survey (registration required). Investment is also surging. Nearly 89% plan to increase AI spending, and two-thirds would maintain that investment even during an economic downturn.

If you look it from an ROI point of view, the cost of paid social has gone up so substantially over the past few years while the effectiveness is down trending,

The brand sits right at the warm, gooey center of everyone's subconscious. That's how Hershey's bars can sell on American store shelves for 125 years, in the same boring candy bar wrapper - dull gray letters on a field of brown - without much emphasis on paid media at all. So when Hershey's takes the rare step of overhauling its brand marketing creative and communications platform, it is news. And this Wednesday marks the beginning of Hershey's first major brand marketing campaign since 2018,

The role of social media as an insights engine - instructing you on what audiences like, dislike, and are willing to buy - is unparalleled. This information can be crucial in guiding creative projects. It's impossible for a single creative director, no matter how great, to be able to understand the zillions of online communities and subcultures. Social media has helped culture become less homogeneous and that's a good thing. So let's use it to listen to those many diverse cohorts.

High-performing marketing teams connect firm strategy, market demands, client insights and performance data. They help leaders answer hard questions like: Which industries should we double down on? Which services are scaling and which are not? Where is demand coming from, and where are we misaligned? This means marketing leaders need to turn data into clear direction, and teams must see how their work supports the firm's overall growth, not just individual campaigns.

For years, marketing to the "general market" was a reliable path to growth. Broad reach, consistent messaging, and scale-driven efficiency helped brands build awareness and momentum.

Marketers spend billions trying to persuade consumers that a product is right for them. But our research shows that sometimes the most effective way to market something is to say that it isn't for them. In other words, effective marketing can mean discouraging the wrong customers rather than convincing everyone to buy. We call this "dissuasive framing." Instead of saying a product is perfect for everyone, a company is up front about who it might not be for.

Last year was exhausting for many people for many reasons. It's not just job and family stress, or changes in our industry. But as the book title says, it's everything, everywhere, all at once. It felt like I was constantly cartwheeling from one thing to another, from the news to the stock market, the impact of tariffs and so much more. There's always one more thing to deal with.

A few years ago, the art of the brand collab most often involved bringing together two brands that already had overlapping design styles, fanbases, or product categories. Recall partnerships like Nike and Apple's successful 2016 Series 2 Watch launch, for example; or Dolce & Gabbana's elevated designs for Smeg in 2019; or even Lego's 2020 collection with Ikea. All of these pairings make some measure of intuitive sense. But over the past couple of years, something has clearly changed.

On the consumer side, one of the things we talk about from a Gemini perspective is the fact that it is easily integrated into our Google Suite, which we think is our biggest differentiator. We always lean into the ability to supercharge productivity as well as creativity, and being able to do that 10-fold if you compare it to the competitors in the marketplace, because we have an integrated stack.

There is an enormous disconnect between marketers' perceptions of AI's impact on customer experience and how consumers actually experience it. According to Invoca's " B2C AI Marketing Impact" report, 86% of marketers believe AI is enhancing the customer journey, only 35% of consumers agree. This gap in perception represents more than just a difference of opinion-it risks eroding trust and diminishing the very experience AI is meant to improve.