Snijders - Eat your greens: fact-based thinking to improve your brands health

EAT YOUR GREENS

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CONTENTS

Sarah Newman

Wiemer Snijders

Wiemer Snijders and Charles Graham

Shann Biglione

Mark Ritson

Peter Field

Rory Sutherland

Ryan Wallman

Tess Alps

Jerry Daykin

Shann Biglione

Julian Cole

Becky McOwen-Banks

Anjali Ramachandran

Ryan Wallman

Rich Siegel

Rich Siegel

Mark Earls

Eaon Pritchard

Robert van Ossenbruggen

Philip Graves

Robert van Ossenbruggen

Robert van Ossenbruggen

Brandon Towl

Phil Barden

Byron Sharp and Amy Wilson

Helen Edwards

Paul Feldwick

Richard Shotton

Kate Richardson

Wiemer Snijders

Phil Barden

Adam Ferrier

Paul Feldwick

Bob Hoffman

Kate Waters

Costas Papaikonomou

Tom Goodwin

Mark Barden

Doc Searls

Sue Unerman

Patricia McDonald

Gareth Price

Rosie and Faris Yakob

FOREWORD

Stimulating better thinking

Eat Your Greens is an eclectically excellent collection of papers by some of the best thinkers and practitioners in marketing and communications. But the apparently eclectic nature of the contributions belies the seriousness of the endeavour, which is to bring together a body of evidence-based thinking in one useful and inspiring reference book.

The original idea for the book is Wiemer Snijders. The APG got involved part of the way through the project because we were keen to support the idea of bringing evidence-based thinking closer to the heart of creative strategy. While the world we occupy is apparently awash with data and facts, it is as hard as ever to find rigorous analysis combined with practical prescription, and in a form that is usable and stimulates better thinking.

Encouraging creative thinking and fuelling effective creativity are a fundamental part of the APGs purpose. The last few years have seen a number of real advances in thinking about how creativity works, and how to plan for successful communications. These ideas have taken root precisely because they are based on thoughtful interpretation of data collected carefully, and applied with understanding and flair.

The contributors cover a broad and diverse selection of subjects, but they are united by passionate personal interest and great intelligence, and cover many of the things that are uppermost in our minds as strategists: long versus short-term thinking; the fallacies of an obsession with communications and digital toys; brand equity; a female future, and so much more.

Wed like to thank all the contributors for their greens. We find the analogy rather delightful, and I should say that its the very best of freshly prepared and high quality intellectual produce that appears in the book. Wed also like to thank Wiemer for his unfathomable wells of energy, and all of you for embracing the idea that fact-based thinking has the power to create change and nurture the best of creativity.

Sarah Newman

Director, APG

INTRODUCTION

There is an abundance of data and technology available to better understand the people to whom we are selling our products and services. However, it is useless if we dont know how to use it effectively.

Progressively, this industry relies on short-term metrics, as they produce instant feedback. But we seem to have forgotten that the business of building brands is also a long game. It is one thing to measure whether someone has clicked on your ad, but the true effect of advertising is something you might have to wait several years for to effectuate. As marketing analyst Daniel Yankelovich described, disregarding what cannot be easily measured in favour of measures that do is artificial and misleading. But the ultimate step is to say that what cant easily be measured really doesnt exist which he considered suicide.

We also seem infatuated with metrics and tactics that have little relation to our actual buying behaviour. Things like tweets, buyer personas, NPS (Net Promoter Scores) and engagement rates. We convince ourselves that, with enough multivariate analyses (emphasising small differences over similarities) and significance tests (flagging differences where there arent any), we will get a better grip on peoples purchasing behaviour. Unfortunately, these things are mostly figments; cast on our office walls by projectors, flip charts and sticky notes.

So, if marketing is out of touch with reality, how can we fix it?

Thankfully, there exists a large body of knowledge that provides a more realistic view on how we can effectively sell more, to more people, and for more money. Dr Archie Cochrane introduced the concept of evidence-based medicine to the world, from which many benefited. It is Andrew Ehrenberg who did the same for the marketing industry. And its effects are starting to take hold, in part thanks to the continuous efforts made by Byron Sharp and his colleagues. But even amongst those who know and read such academics, the question of how to apply these learnings remains the subject of much debate.

And herein lies the objective of this book: not only to counter some of the hype and what we believe to be nonsense in the industry, but also to provide perspectives on how marketing can better itself, inspired (not contrived) by the advances in marketing science.

Some of the papers (or, for the purposes of this book, chapters) are written by some of the best-known thinkers and practitioners in the industry; others are written by people you might never have heard of, but from whom, nonetheless, you will no doubt find inspiration. The brief to all of the contributors was simple: tell us how you apply or find inspiration from marketing science in a short, easy-to-digest paper (some provided more than one paper). I did not ask them to write to a particular topic; this was intended as a bag of nutritious mixed greens, but as it happens, the papers did fall naturally into loose categories. The book starts with a contemporary view of the marketing industry (). The chapters offer a mix of perspectives, and varying styles: some are more academic in approach, others less formal. All are interspersed with some lively cartoons from Tom Fishburne.

These writers, these people from the trenches, dont have all the answers, and at times can be found a little at odds with each other, but they have all been willing to share their unfiltered views on how to make marketing much more effective and simpler. After all, eating your greens is meant to be good for you