Category — Roundtables

Authenticity in brand identity is hard to fake. A discussion featuring Tony Pace of Subway, Jeff Murray of the University of Arkansas, Jim Geikie of Burt’s Bees and Dave Fiore of Catapult.

What makes a brand authentic? Jeff Murray: I see three or four strategies at work. One is what I call a “staged” authenticity, where a larger company tries to connect locally in some way. Walmart is doing this with its smaller format stores, for example. A second strategy is to mark your competitors as inauthentic, which Dove does with its “Real Women” campaign. It’s their way of saying that they are honest and transparent, while implying that their competitors are inauthentic … read >>

Satisfying simple needs at retail is more complex than ever. A roundtable featuring: Scott Finlow of PepsiCo, Dorlisa Flur of Family Dollar, Jim Figura of Colgate-Palmolive, Raymond Burke of Indiana University and Ben DiSanti of TPN.

What is the one thing that shoppers want most? Scott Finlow: On a conscious level, shoppers are looking for both individual and family solutions, and they are “redefining value” as they do that. They are not just looking for lower prices, but rather a broader occasion that suggests what you get over what you pay … read >>

The future of retail is whatever and whenever shoppers want. A discussion featuring Karl Haller of Brooks Brothers, Shawn Dennis of American Girl, Dan Flint of University of Tennessee and Paul Price of Acosta Sales & Marketing.

Where is the magic in retail today? A lot of the magic is happening at non-traditional retailers. Probably the biggest thing that’s happening — at least in fashion retailing over the last three years — is the growth of the flash-sale sites such as Gilt, RueLaLa, HauteLook, and Ideeli.

It’s almost like a blue-light special, where the retailer makes a good product from a good brand available for a limited time. It’s a great opportunity that no one was tapping into previously, and I’ve been amazed with how quickly these flash-sale retailers have scaled up … read >>

Ideas are only as good as their marketplace salience. A discussion featuring Larry Wendling of 3M, Tom Kelley of Ideo, Lisa Rose of Ciba Vision and Robert Rivenburgh of Mars Advertising.

Can innovation be managed or is it magic?

Larry Wendling: At 3M, we practice a bottom-up, grass-roots model of innovation and so usually it’s very difficult to predict the specific outcome. But we can manage innovation to the extent that we can create an environment that supports the freedom of the individual to pursue new ideas.

Creating that environment is very much about having a clear understanding of how innovation relates to the company’s business model. Developing rewards and recognition is also very important. And you need to tie innovation metrics to business metrics, although we certainly don’t go metrics crazy at 3M … read >>

A discussion featuring Bob Anderson of Ahold USA, Dan Cooke of Kellogg Company, Kevin Kells of Google and Jason Katz of Catapult Marketing.

Kevin Kells: In the past, most industries tended to focus on emerging media as a transactional or direct response driver. But people increasingly are realizing the brand-building promise of emerging-media platforms. That’s a big switch from a headset standpoint. Brand-building and transactional are not mutually exclusive; they are highly linked … read >>