Behind the Fluff

Behind the Fluff

By internationalbunchBusiness
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Behind the Fluff episodes

  • Is humaning just a failed buzzword - or does it actually have longevity?

    If you're paying attention to what's going on in marketing over the past week, you may well have heard of 'humaning'. Firstly, let me explain what this is.

    Mondelēz International, the global snack food company with brands like Cadbury, Oreo and Philadelphia, have crafted a new concept aligned to their diversity and inclusion strategy called 'humaning'.

    Here's the definition in their words:

    "Humaning is a unique, consumer-centric approach to marketing that creates real, human connections with purpose, moving Mondelēz International beyond cautious, data-driven tactics, and uncovering what unites us all. We are no longer marketing to consumers, but creating connections with humans."

    Now that to me is a mouthful and could do with an extra full stop/period to make more of an impact.

    You can read more on their website, however, the content has since disappeared due to the uproar it has caused. But those in the know can go to Wayback Archive - The Internet Archive and see the page that was archived. (Just to note, this is a free service like Wikipedia that is always looking for funding.) Here is the page for your reference: https://web.archive.org/web/20201112102335/https://www.mondelezinternational.com/News/New-Approach-to-Marketing-Humaning

    Why has it caused such an uproar?

    Since its launch, this new marketing strategy 'humaning' has been heavily criticized. While their intentions clearly came from a good place, it has gone down like a lead balloon facing criticism from the media, PR and marketing professionals and many on social media. I feel sorry for the people that bought into this new concept - we're all human and we've all had moments where we have a failed campaign or sent something out with an error etc. So, should we cut them some slack, or is 'humaning' just another failed buzzword fuelling the 'marketing is fluff' fire?

    Mondelēz International chief marketing officer Martin Renaud has defended this new strategy. Ultimately he said that he expected some criticism but hoped people would look at what has been achieved so far and where can they accelerate the journey. He welcomes the criticism as a form of feedback, though they will continue to adopt this strategy and hope people will start to concentrate on 'why' they created the word - not what the word is.

    He goes on to say: "Humaning is when storytelling becomes storydoing." Now, I have a problem with this. Why take such a great concept like storytelling and try to spin into something new called 'storydoing'? I get what they are trying to achieve, with one being telling the story to someone and the other being those individuals actually taking action. But if they really understood storytelling, they'd know it was more than about action - it's about that feeling you get inside, the connection you feel, what resonates and what you do because of that. If anything, storydoing is just a part of storytelling. It's like saying when marketing becomes events. Events sits under the umbrella of marketing: events is part of the ideology of marketing.

    When I first saw 'humaning' last week, it didn't resonate with me. I understood what it was trying to achieve in the grand scheme of things, but it just doesn't work for me and it left me feeling confused. I applaud them moving from a financially driven mindset to a consumer-centric one with human connection at their core. I like that their marketing team has four key areas of focus now: leading with purpose; making each product "right"; mastering creativity, and being digital-first. But humaning and storydoing.... no, not for me. Only yesterday someone mentioned to me that idea of marketing being fluffy - clearly as marketers, we know it's not, but how can we move away from that when we're creating buzzwords like this?

    If you are interested in reading more, here are some additional sources:

    https://www.marketingweek.com/ritson-humaning-mondelez-marketing-rubbish/

  • https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/mondelez-cmo-defends-calling-marketing-strategy-humaning/1700239

    Let us know what you think...Facebook Twitter LinkedIn with #humaning

    5 min
  • 4 marketing basics to consider when successfully launching a new journal
    Launching a new journal is an exciting yet hectic time for all involved. Added to this is the pressure of creating an effective, agile and measured marketing plan to ensure the journal launch is a success.
    When you’re not an experienced marketer, this can sound daunting. That's where we come in to help. A marketing plan doesn’t have to be pages and pages of text, it can be as brief and basic as you want it to be - but what it needs to be, is strategic.
    In this podcast, we share our advice for how you, a publisher/society/academic institution, can maximize the launch of a new journal.
    Check out our recent masterclass on 'Journal Marketing - Covering The Basics' where we talk further about strategy, marketing planning, journal lifecycle, stakeholders, hints and tips and next steps. Or simply get in touch with us for bespoke training for editorial and marketing colleagues - [email protected].
    Why do I need to think about marketing when launching a journal?
    There are many definitions of marketing, but HubSpot sum it up nicely – ‘marketing is the process of getting people interested in your company’s product or service’. So for your new journal, its success depends on its visibility, reach and position in your specific subject area. Having a carefully considered agile marketing approach is a smart way to help you achieve your journal goals. Ultimately, you can:
    improve the journal's impact in your subject niche
  • disseminate key messages with your audience aligned to your strategy
  • improve the visibility of your journal and it’s articles
  • encourage conversations around your journal/articles/topics
    1. Be clear on your strategy
    Before doing anything, it’s important you define your strategy and have clear objectives where you want the journal to be in a specific time period e.g. one year, three-five year vision etc. Whether it’s to maximize awareness or gain high-quality submissions, you can then use these overarching goals to formulate your journal's objectives. There aren't enough hours in the day so you need to prioritize say your top three objectives for that year you are planning. What is most important - reach, impact, discoverability, quality or accessibility? Maybe a mixture of a few.
    Your objectives should be SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely – to ensure you can track the effectiveness of your marketing and adapt and change to the current landscape. What does this even mean?
    I'll give you a mix of examples for a journal launch and beyond - you need them to be specific enough with a deadline and a way that you can measure them:
    Launch xx [journal] on 1st March 2021 to the global chemistry research community - the journal needs to launch by a certain date to meet the objective and to a specific community - that is how it is measured as a success
  • Reach an audience of over one million across social media through the 2021 launch campaign on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn - here we have given the specific campaign, social channels and our key performance indicator (KPI) one million
  • Launch [journal] email sent out 1st March 2021 to existing institution relevant contacts to have a unique click to open rate above industry average at 15% and a call to action to submit - this is specific to an email campaign and rather than focusing on click-through rate, this focuses on those that are engaged and opened the email that have then actually then gone on to click through
  • XX submissions to [the journal] in March 2021 - we are giving a KPI here and by the launch month of the journal
  • Increase submissions from the US by 10% in 2021 - this one relates to regional growth and will have specific objectives about how to achieve - this could be a high-level objective that filters down through marketing, sales and editorial to have their own department-level objectives to support the journal
  • Publish 20% more articles in [journal] in 2021 than 2020 - this is using a previous year as a benchmark and using growth as a key strategy
    Whether you are a small society or a large global publisher, you can only market your journal effectively with the resources you have available. Keep that in mind so what you are setting out to do is achievable and realistic.
    2. Identify your key messaging points and who your audience is
    Thinking about the following points will guide your messaging and help you target your specific audience:
    Identify what the journal’s scope is and which niche it will resonate most with
  • What is the most important pain point or challenge your journal is addressing?
  • Think about all the stakeholders - not just the researchers, authors and readers - but the advocates - librarians, funders, internal staff and colleagues, and finally the public who are more engaged in research than ever before
  • Align your key messaging with your defined strategy to ensure you achieve what you set out to do, and don't get sidetracked - keep focused
  • Tell the story of your journal - engage, inspire and motivate your community to get involved
  • Communicate to a global audience - think about simple clear communications
  • Help your journal stand out from the crowd and be UNforgettable
  • Identify the best tools/platforms to effectively reach your target audience
    When creating your copy, it’s important you focus on the ‘why’ – why are you doing what you are doing? For more advice on copywriting including what writing formulas you can use to create an emotional connection with your audience, visit our previous blog post, explore our storytelling masterclass or get in touch for bespoke training at [email protected].
     
    3. Select your marketing mix
    Now it’s time to select your marketing activities. Remember, the magic ingredient of marketing is tailoring campaigns to suit your audience so copying what you’ve done previously for another journal might not work. Consider how you can best reach them – what social channels do they use? Do they attend any events? We recommend justifying why you want to use each tactic in relation to your audience(s) and goal(s) to keep you on track. Here are a select few to think about:
    Discoverability – being search friendly is important in today’s digital world so make sure the journal homepage and articles contain up-to-date information and is search engine optimized. For example, Wiley states that more than 50% of traffic to Wiley’s Online Library comes from online searches so getting this right can make a massive difference to your impact. Also, think about where is your journal content indexed and which directories is your journal on - how accessible is your content? Is your content aggregated?
  • Printed collateral – traditional marketing tactics like printed promotional materials such as posters, business cards and flyers can be key to raising the visibility of your journal at events and conferences, but they can be hard to measure the effectiveness of. Many publishers are now looking to reduce their costs and environmental impact by hugely cutting back what they print
  • Online media – digital marketing is becoming increasingly important and can result in better response times, improved customer interaction and provide clearly measurable results. Having journal-specific social media accounts can be an effective way of disseminating key messages and published content - or having subject level social accounts so you can share the responsibility of populating social channels with colleagues. Don’t forget to include links to the journal homepage or individual articles within your posts to make it easy for your audience to access. Once you decide on a social media channel, you need to be committed to it and have a strategy in place. Social advertising gives you greater flexibility and more targetted approaches and may be worth considering. We've got a series of hints and tips for YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit and WeChat for you to check out - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzZ3BrpL2eGso7yhy-x-Aiq6Th6mQ5Vny
  • Promotions – dependent on your strategy, you could be looking to have exciting and sought after promotional items at events, encourage opt-ins to TOC alerts and journal newsletters through competitions, and have giveaways - just be mindful of the legalities around
  • Email campaign – sending out a series of emails to your existing audience is an easy way to spread the message of your new journal amongst your list of already relevant and engaged contacts. Do not send out an email to everyone in your list - you'll end up spamming people not interested, increase the likelihood of opt-outs and have poor engagement metrics. Carefully consider who really wants to know, and how engaged have they been in emails over the last year as a couple of examples
  • Digital banners – whether you have budget available for digital advertising like MPU banners or are just creating social banners, these can be an effective way to target your audience. The content of the banner needs to clearly inform the end-user and contain a specific call-to-action, e.g. submit to the journal. It’s important to select a site that is both relevant to your subject and is a place your target audience visit regularly. Of course, banners don't have to be just for websites and social channels but can be used as email signatures too. Animate your banners, include videos and GIFs rather than just static text for better engagement. We found this handy Google doc listing up-to-date social media image specifications for a number of social channels - https://www.internationalbunch.com/social-media-specifications
  • Email signatures – including links to your social media profiles and journal homepage on your email signature is an easy win to help widen your reach, as well as create an email signature banner - though be aware that images in emails like in signatures can cause your email to be flagged to sensitive spam filters
  • Press release – create a press release to alert the media of the launch. Make sure the story will be of interest to the wider public. Check out Class PR for guidance on how to write a press release
    There are lots of other exciting activities you can do beyond launch - all, of course, dependent on your journal strategy and position in the lifecycle - but you need to carefully consider and be aware of legislation like GDPR. Think about keeping the conversation open with surveys, and help the community with funding and grants to attend events.
    4. Track results and return on investment (ROI)
    We can’t emphasize how important it is to measure the results of your activity. You need to stop doing what isn't working and carry on doing what is. Be brave, and agile with your approach - the landscape will change over time - you only have to have a global pandemic to see that! Measuring what you do will inform and guide your strategy going forward.
    Discover our agile marketing masterclass to explore how you can adapt to your landscape:
    Receive specialist help
    If you would like more expert help or advice with journal marketing, please do get in touch with us at [email protected]. We’d love the opportunity to share our knowledge with you.
    17 min
  • What does Pay Per Click (PPC) mean?

    Hi, this is Lou Peck from The International Bunch, and I'm going to talk to you about Pay Per Click in under 60 seconds.

    Pay Per Click (also known as PPC) is an online advertising model where the advertiser pays each time their advert is clicked. Search engine advertising is one of the most popular types of PPC. Keywords form the foundation of a PPC campaign.

    Advertisers bid to place their ad in a search engine’s sponsored links section when someone searches a related keyword with real-time bidding. Ultimately the person clicks on the link to complete the call to action.

    There are several tools available to help research and select the right keywords. Ensure that PPC campaigns are carefully targeted and relevant (e.g. be niche). Search engines reward efficient campaigns by charging less per click.

    Successful PPC campaigns share – campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ad text and landing pages

    Discover more helpful resources at www.internationalbunch.com/resources     

    1 min
  • Getting started on social media - 9 top tips

    Social media is a powerful platform that can help you build brand awareness and generate leads. It’s also one of the most effective tools to help you maintain and build relationships with your customers.

    Nowadays, consumers live on social media. In fact in the UK in 2019, it was reported that people spend nearly 2 full hours every day on social platforms (1 hour 50 to be precise). Over the past decade, social media has quickly become one of the most important aspects of digital marketing.

    However, the world of social media can be daunting.

    Many small businesses shy away from social media because they don’t know where to start or think there’s a high cost involved. Luckily for, us it’s completely free! This means you aren’t limited and have the same opportunity as every other brand, including your competition.

    So what is the key to success on social? It’s all about creating, executing and monitoring your social media marketing strategy. This may not mean much to you now, but continue reading and you’ll set yourself up for success.

    Below are our top tips to help you create a strategy and succeed:

    1. Define your goals – first of all it’s important to identify what you want social media to help your business achieve. Examples of goals are to increase awareness amongst your audience or generate new business sales/enquiries. Also think about how you can measure these to make sure what you're doing works and you're not wasting your time.

    2. Identify your target audience – identifying your customers and understanding who they are is an essential aspect of marketing. Think about their interests, their online activity (when they go online and why) and how they use social media. It’s important to always have this information in mind, particularly when planning your content. Most importantly you need to identify your niche and resonate with them - by concentrating on your niche you can focus on those that are most important to what you are offering and have better engagement.

    3. Decide which platforms are right for you – recent statistics show that there are over 75 live social media platforms. It’s not an effective use of your time or money to manage an account on every network. Instead, you should consider the platforms which allow you to engage with your target audience the best. As a starting point, we recommend launching two or three platforms and once these are more established, then look at expanding onto other networks if it will help you achieve your goal(s).

    4. Keep personal and business accounts separate – your family might enjoy receiving updates of your child/pet however clients probably don’t, and vice versa. Keep your accounts separate to avoid your customers becoming less engaged with you.

    5. Choose suitable account names – when choosing your account names, consider how easy the handle (account name) is for your customers to find. Make sure the name is clearly associated with your brand and even consider the spelling. If your spelling is unusual will it restrict who can find your account?

    6. Conduct competitor analysis – keeping an eye on what your competitors are doing on social media is a great way to identify what does and doesn’t go down well with your audience. It can also help you highlight any gaps in your own strategy or give you inspiration.

    7. Find inspiration from other accounts that you admire – this is a great way to find inspiration and use as a benchmark. Look at what accounts you engage with regularly personally and if you can, find out what accounts your audience admire.

    8. Consistently share a range of content – whilst it might be important to share your products/services/brand, don’t make this all you post about. Share anything your audience will be interested in. In marketing it’s called the 80-20 rule – use 80% of your content to inform, educate or entertain your audience, and the other 20% to promote your product/service/brand. No one likes a robot, be human and post great content.

    Check out our Storytelling Masterclass for inspiration.

    9. And finally, be yourself – make sure your content shows off your personality, after all, you is what makes your brand/business unique!

    If you follow all of our advice, it will take your social media strategy to the next level!

    Develop your skills

    If you want to learn more about social media marketing:

    we have a range of hints and tips videos, recorded webinars and live webinars

  • check out Google's range of Digital Garage online courses - a set of excellent short videos that cover the basics of digital marketing and are completely free. Upon completion of the full set, you'll also receive a nice certificate!

  • alternatively, if you're short on time, check out this tutorial on YouTube - How to start social media marketing (4 essential tips for beginners).

    Get in touch

    Please get in touch if you would want to find out about our services and how we can help your organization grow.

    10 min

About Behind the Fluff

From the publisher's feed

How often have you heard marketing referred to as fluffy? If only they knew what was really behind the fluff! We're here to keep marketing connected and power progression. Join us for hot topical…