GEMA NY HOSTS SPEAKER SERIES EVENT - FALL 2009

“Marketing to Today’s Consumer”

On Sept 29, the New York chapter of the Georgetown Entertainment & Media Alliance (GEMA) hosted a marketing panel at the Cornell Club of New York to discuss the opportunities and challenges of connecting with today’s consumer. About 130 GEMA members, Georgetown alums and their guests gathered for the event.

Jill Rosengard Hill and Natalie Suski (C’04) of leading research company Frank N. Magid Associates shared results from a research study. The findings highlighted that millennials’ favorite source of entertainment is the Internet versus boomers who are the TV generation. Millennials’ most popular activities online include emails, reading news and playing games, with online video viewing reaching critical mass. 43% of Internet users watch online videos weekly. Consumer-created video clips and professional short form video are the most popular video genres.

Ms. Hill moderated the hour-long panel discussion with the following panelists: Pete Carter (C '80) Director of Brand Building and Integrated Communications, P&G Americas; Frank Cooper III, Chief Marketing Officer of Sparkling Beverages, Pepsi-Cola North America; Lisa McCarthy (B’88), Executive Vice President of the Client Development Group, Univision Communications Inc.; and Keith Reinhard, Chairman Emeritus, DDB Worldwide and President of Business for Diplomatic Action.

In response to the challenges marketers face in today’s fragmented media environment, Mr. Reinhard kicked off the conversation by quoting a song lyric: “the fundamental things apply as time goes by.” He asserted while consumer behavior may change, the importance of the brand and human connection doesn’t change. Therefore, communications principles must be upheld in new media. The key difference is that today, technology makes it even easier for consumers to participate so brands can no longer employ one-way storytelling. Marketers need to engage consumers in telling stories about their experience with brands and even in shaping the brands.

Mr. Cooper said he finds this a fascinating time to be in the marketing and communications business. From his perspective, one of the main challenges companies face is a 20th century management structure that runs like an assembly line, which is a complete mismatch to the non-linear way consumers, the market and media function today. He also asserted that creativity is the most important asset. To deal with a world of uncertainly requires leaps of cultural creativity. Brands, he said, need to play the role of curators, and the most important brands create experiences.

As a leader at P&G’s internal think tank, Mr. Carter agreed that corporations need to update their managerial structures because the current model makes it far too easy for marketers to get stymied by “systems”. He also pointed out that the risk-reward structure works against brand managers: responding to today’s challenges requires taking risks, but many brand managers fall back on strategies and tactics that achieved good ROI in the past.

Ms. McCarthy’s advice to the audience was to “get more comfortable with being uncomfortable.” This advice was intended not only to encourage others to take risks in the new media environment, but to take risks in their careers and open themselves up to opportunities. She cited her move to Univision, where she is educating marketers and advertisers alike to embrace opportunities in the growing Hispanic market.

The panelists shared examples where their brands are innovating in the face of new challenges. Pepsi is finding opportunities in the music business with Mountain Dew launching its own record label, and P&G has added service components to some of its products. To fuel innovation, companies are looking to cast bigger nets when conducting research to learn more about the lives of consumers and to adopt new research methods that apply techniques from neuroscience and behavioral economics.

While no one claimed the ability to predict the future, the panelists shared their views of “what’s next” in the industry: the increasing importance of channel planning, the evolution of the agency’s role, and structural changes to business models that will affect the way marketing teams and agencies integrate across disciplines and across countries.

A reception followed the panel presentation and audience Q&A.

Many thanks to Frank N. Magid Associates, Georgetown Alumni Career Services, Univision Communications, Inc. for sponsoring this event and to GEMA volunteers for their help.