Becoming a Marketing Leader In Your Industry

What is the one thing Bobson College, State Farm, and Coca-Cola have in common: they are marketing leaders in their industry. They are able to excel in the 5 diemsnions of being a marketing leader: impactfulness, distribution, personal, purposeful, and mind share. Companies are marketing leaders when they can honesty address issues in their industry, express empathy with solving customer issues, while delivering a fresh message not heard of in their field before. This article looks at the qualities of a marketing leader and how to get  there, with examples from each of these brands.

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Become The Leader In Your Market

Executive Summary

• A marketing leader is able to hone their message by being impactful, focusing on distrbution, creating a persona, and is purposeful
• Getting to marketing leadership means having honest with industry issues, serving cutomers with empathy, while bringing a fresh message
• Bobson college is a marketing leader for marrying the world of hollywood and entrepaneurship to the stories of their alumni
• Coca Cola leads as a marketer by speaking to the values of people on virutally every continent
• State Farm meets customers by bringing a fresh and memorable message as to why we need insurance

What does a Marketing Leader Look Like?

A marketing leader is able to help a brand transcend time and cultures, enabling people from a wide range of demographics to relish a company's product or service. Leading your industry in marketing is often boiled down to these qualities:

• Impactfulness - an ability to explain the wonder and joy a company takes in providing the service and product they offer along with having the most attractive message to the consumer
• Distribution - a closely integrated strategy and execution on distribution including the right channels at right time, to the right audience 
• Persona - Create qualities that should be associated with the product and those who purchase or use it
• Purposeful - Identify the big picture and how a brand is working towards something bigger and better than itself
• Mind share - a brand is a leader if it is the most discussed and talked about amongst customers and prospects

A deficiency in any of these categories leads to some very unfavourable outcomes for a brand, in example

• Issues without  impactfullness - If a company isn't excited or values it work, customers will also find it challenging
• Deficiency in distribution - no one gets your message or the wrong people might receive it instead
• Problems without Persona  - when individuals puchase products/services only based on utility once that need is gone the brand is less enduring
• Perdicament without purpose - humans needs are complex and without a greater purpose that a brand aligns to it simply can't hold up to being a brand that stands the test of time
• Mind share drain - without a lasting presence in the consumers' discussions or mind share, a brand may truly only have 15 seconds of fame rather than being present in the minds of consumers in crucial purchasing decision moments (i.e. when hungry, needs insurance, requires services, etc.)

Moving your Team Towards Marketing Leadership

Getting your company to marketing leadership requires honest, empathy, and creativity. Getting to marketing leadership in your industry can be helped significantly by incorpoating the following principles helping an organization to address industry concerns, meeting customer needs, while also providing a fresh new message.

1. Address Industry Concerns with Honesty: every industry has areas of improvements. Both the manufacturing and technology industries struggle with environmental stewardship because the resources depleted and required for their business. Marketing that can speak to this issue and demonstrate how a company is closing this gap is recognized and eventually it becomes industry standard.
2. Target Emerging Customer Needs with Empathy: Most people at one point travelled happily on horses but as technology became available and cities began popping up further and further away: this is an example of an emerging need. Marketing message must speak to both technical needs like the efficiency of travelling with something faster than a horse, along with persona needs like being identified as  forward thinking and risk taking by travelling by locomotive or steam ship to carry on the illustration.
3. Convey a fresh message using Creativty: identifying a fresh mesasge in your industry requires studying also what is currently being said and picking up on the gaps between what isn't addressed in a consumer's needs both on a technical and persona level. Often this includes creating a hero narrative for the brand with the problem the company solves becomes the antagonist, other cases brands simply share the wonder and awe that they create with their offerings.

Marketing Leader in Higher Education Capturing and Sharing the Dream

The achievements of higher education marketing is quite incredible in the way that families and students go into debt and on average spends $10,000 a year is something that no other business or entity has yet to accomplish. When we look at the income of these students during their academic year, academic schoalrships put aside, no other institution is able to get people with such low annual income to spend so much year on year. In fact Hanover Research in a report mentioned that one of the main trends in universities is the appointmet of a chief marketing officers. 

Babson College in Massachusetts now has 3000+ students from 90 different countries and was one of the first schools in the USA to cater Entrepenurship programs. They've received awards for 1 school for their speciality as well as top school for return on investment in payscale. Their marketing leadership is demonstrated by this ad that bridges the world between hollywood and the aspirations of business students to be entrepaneurs. The awe and aspiration comes from Babson alumni founding over 100 companies across 50 countries is an impressive narrative to explore along with positioning Babson as the choice for catalyzing entrepenuers. Babson is also the leader in entrepenurial college programs and this campaign not only creates a unique mesasging but rings true to the heart and spirit of the American college.

Source: Babson College

Here is how Babson become a Marketing Leader in Higher Education over many years

• Entrpaneurship is tough class and they found a way to teach it and show results
• They spoke to the aspiration of business students to be entrepaneurs
• Babson was supported by university owned marketing agency, while executing across multiple cities and half a dozen media channels
• Key messaging: Babson provides a message that resonates with its demographic, being an entrepreneur is where the action, drama, spotlight, and acclaim is.

Marketing Leader in the Food and Beverage Industry where Distribution Meets Fresh 

Coca Cola is one of the most recognize brands in the world, and it was once a medicinal product. The store of Coca Cola and it's gargantuan share of the beverage and food industry is incomparable to any other business. It is a clear marketing leader and has navigated numerous challenges like aging consumer base to their core product of Cola alongside a rising awareness to healthy consciousness. To that end Coca Cola was able to position their brand from being an unhealthy product to the drink that brings young people together for exciting everyday moments. At a time where the industry and also it's nation was divided on inclusion and security Coca Cola this year during the super bowl brought people together by offering an impactfulness, superb distribution during the top coveted advertising timeslot, creating a persona that integrated with many demographics, and driven by the purpose of cultures in unity.

How did Coca Cola get to where they are

• They focused on distribution by getting bottles in major retail and fast food chains
• Coca cola targets virtually every culture and established market with bottles being served even in Africa
• Coca cola revitalizes itself regularly delivering a fresh message to people from polar bears to happiness factory
• Why the Message Cuts the Noise: Coca Cola has aligned itself as the drink of choice for good times and happiness a theme that resonates with many cultures and demographics versus traditional consumables that focus on meeting physical needs or hunger.

Marketing Leader in Insurance Industry with Content Marketing Breakthrough

State Farm is one of the biggest insurance companies in North America and it became a pioneer in content marketing in 2016. A testament to that fact is that State Farm Insurance Youtube videos have gone viral multiples times with one reaching over 4 Million views. Contently details how State Farm and 2 other insurance agencies decided to shake up their industry by being content creators instead of interruptions. This quote captures the impactfulness of the strategy:

"The goal is to create engagement,” Matt Johnson the former head of  digital marketing at State Farms said. “You are battling for share of the mind of this human being. For something like insurance, these people don’t know that they’re going to [need it]. So when that happens, they’re going to research two or three companies. We need to be top of mind.”

To this end State Farm became a content creator connecting it's personal as a local and approachable brand by hosting numerous concerts by celebrities in their home towns under the banner of the #neighborhoodsessions campaign. The result was that State Farms became top of mind when it bleneded it's physical brand persona with it's digital one , then going on to sponsor Gawker's backups site during a climate disaster further cementing it's position as a company that brings peace of mind and security while meeting clients where they are.

How did an insurance company become increasingly memorable and connected to their customers and land marketing leadership

• They sought to connect with their, a fresh message starts by being at the table
• State Farm created opportunities to express their empathy for customer issues like in the commercial previously featured
• SF also used content creation to connect to families by using creativity and honest by having local heroes and celebrities perform in their home towns
• Why the Message Cuts the Noise: It's messaging and branding helps connect it to local markets while also creating mass appeal to the unfortunate and blissfull scenarios of life when insurance matters

Market Leaders Empowered by Digital Agencies

One of the common threads between each of the market leaders we've featured in this article is that they each employ the work and talents of a digitel agency. Some like Coca have multiple agencies helping improve branding and digital presence. Market leaders know that despite being flawless their qualities of marketing leadership there is still room for more creativity. This is because Marketing leaders know that no one has a monopoly on creativity and empathy, theres plenty to go around.

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