Articles
06.11.2022
What Sgt. Pepper And A Great Marketing Book Can Teach Us
It was 20 years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. Well, actually, it’s 55 year ago that Sgt. Pepper was released in 1967, and we learned about the band who wanted nothing but to delight its audience, and really didn’t want to stop the show,
29.10.2022
Why Process Eats A Bigger And Bigger Breakfast
A few weeks ago I asked my LinkeIn network their view on how best to achieve excellent marketing performance. I did a simple poll with three options: Great marketing strategy? Great marketing skills? Or Great marketing processes?
19.02.2021
Surviving as a retailer post-pandemic
Behemoths will pervade our everyday lives! The other day one of my former colleague at Levi’s® posted a clip on LinkedIn with retail expert Doug Stephens. In the clip, Doug Stephens gives us insights to the changing retail landscape, a change that has already begun.
15.02.2021
What’s The Key To Strong Marketing Performance?
I recently did a poll on LinkedIn, asking “What’s the best way to improve marketing performance in your organization?” The result was as follows on the chart.
14.01.2021
Are We Forgetting The Brand, Again?
Is marketing history repeating itself? 20 years ago, I entered my first real digital marketing job as Head of Digital Marketing at Levi’s® Europe. Right at this time, the evolution of digital media and how brands used them was going from one phase to another.
07.03.2017
A Primer in Costumer Loyalty, Part 1
Customer loyalty is an approach to marketing and brand building in which a company focuses on customer retention rather than (just) customer acquisition. In this primer we look at the ins and outs of customer loyalty and programs.
07.03.2017
The rise of the marketing operations director
The complexity of modern marketing means companies are increasingly splitting marketing into operations and strategy, and increasingly they’re looking for marketing operations directors.
07.03.2017
A Primer in Customer Loyalty, Part 2
How is the concept of customer loyalty developing, what are the trends, and who is doing interesting stuff?
26.08.2013
When marketing strategy is worthless
Imagine the following scenario: it’s the annual brand strategy seminar for a large, multi-national B2C company. The VP of Marketing goes on stage to present the new marketing model.
13.06.2013
Marketing’s influence is not the goal, part 2
When marketers complain about the lack of influence at executive level they’re grabbing the wrong end of the stick.
12.03.2013
What does ‘switchmode’ mean?
Switchmode – or switch-mode – is the name of a certain kind of power supply. Why is this power supply interesting?
11.03.2013
Marketing’s influence is not the goal
Marketers want more influence within the business, with the ultimate validation being a seat on the board. But is this the wrong goal?
01.03.2013
Choose also what not to do
According to this article in Business Week, the essentials of strategy can be summarized as follows: Ditch the To-Do list and start a Not-To-Do list.
21.02.2013
Switchmode in the media
Switchmode Consulting and Helene Venge is featured in Business Traveller Denmark, a special interest publication about business traveling. Read the feature here.
21.02.2013
Marketing analytics is not important
No, marketing analytics is essential. A new study about the use of marketing analytics referred in Strategy + Business concludes that
09.02.2013
From cardboard and crayons to content and convenience
“I know of a pharmaceutical company that only calls in a marketer when it wants to decide on the color for a new pill.” (Philip Kotler).
22.01.2013
Branding is dead, Long live the brand!
Branding is dead, long live the brand. What do I mean by that? All companies are building their brand(s) every day, it’s inevitable. But many don’t realize it and have no plan or system for it which can have dire consequences.
17.01.2013
Supporting an executive consulting firm
Switchmode is currently helping a Danish executive consulting firm upgrade their marketing practice.
17.01.2013
Switchmode joins IAA event committee
Switchmode has joined the International Advertising Association‘s Danish Chapter as member of the event committee.
09.01.2013
Will 2013 be ‘the year of the marketer’?
“2013 will be the year of the marketer”, the CMO Council’s new global State of Marketing report declares.
01.01.2013
What is user-driven innovation – and what is not?
Have you noticed the surge in user-driven innovation? Or rather – the surge in companies and consultancies who say that they do user-driven innovation? Well, I have and it’s causing me a great deal of concern.
19.12.2012
European head of marketing at strong international brand
Are you looking for your next senior marketing role? Switchmode is helping an executive search firm find relevant candidates for a senior European marketing role for an international apparel brand.
15.12.2012
Feel-good branding
The other day I received a letter from my storage company. I rent a box there where I keep all sorts of stuff that I have no room for a home. I was so delighted to get this letter.
09.12.2012
What Steve Jobs and Michelangelo have in common
According to Fast Company Steve Jobs gave the following business advice to Nike a few years back when they launched the iPod/Nike collaboration: Get rid of the crappy stuff.
19.11.2012
The opposing forces of every business
“Every business faces the opposing forces of the pull for more growth against the pull for more profitability;
19.11.2012
Loosen the reins
“We have to strike the right balance between being in touch and being in control.
27.10.2012
Officially ®egistered
Today my trademark attorney and I received the certificates from the official, international authorities that Switchmode Consulting, the Switchmode logo, and the Switchmodel are now registered trademarks. With an ®.
23.10.2012
Try before you buy
Adidas has launched a new shoestore in Japan, in fact it’s a shoe store and and running club in one, Adidas Runbase.
22.10.2012
Walk the talk
“Advertising is sexy, PR is influential, and design is uplifting; but it’s the substance of what you do that matters most”.
22.10.2012
Free your mind and your assets will follow
Jon Bains has written an insightful and entertaining post on his blog about media-neutral marketing.
22.10.2012
Honesty, passion, competence
Honesty, passion, and competence. These were the three values that underpinned the Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page tells us in the documentary It Might Get Loud about the three guitarists Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White.
22.10.2012
Celebrating Drucker
While Peter Drucker died more than 7 years ago, 94 years old, his ideas are more relevant than ever.
22.10.2012
Why marketing does a terrible job of marketing itself
… And why it’s no longer about controlling the brand but about guiding it through its network of users,
22.10.2012
How does marketing and CSR relate – and should it?
The other day I was talking with an acquaintance of mine. We were pondering the changed marketing landscape, and companies’ and their marketing departments’ changing role as a result;
04.10.2012
Give and give more – and then Ye shall receive
Stop selling and start giving. The other day I sent out a message to all of my LinkedIn connections who are in some way or another occupied with marketing on a professional level.
04.10.2012
Transmedia communication – one of many techniques
“Calling [the impact of a banner ad] an ‘impression’ is a terrible lie, because it isn’t making an impression on anybody.”
04.10.2012
The experience enigma
Brand experience is the experience of the brand that companies want to give. Customer experience is the experience of the brand that customers get. Unfortunately, these two are often not the same.
04.10.2012
Attention all media folks
There’s a brilliant article in Harvard Business Review, “Branding In the Digital Age“, on the new and necessary approach to media spend and paid vs owned vs earned media, among many many interesting things. All media folks should read this. Brand and marketing folks may knock themselves out, too.
04.10.2012
Why we ‘like’ a brand
This report from PSFK looks at why Facebook users choose to ‘like’ a brand on Facebook.
03.10.2012
Twats on Twitter
Like a lot of other people I twitter. I post little 140-sign statements on this, that and the other on twitter.com.
03.10.2012
New broadcast communication – the telemegaphone
In a time when marketeers are nervously contemplating how to get their (no doubt very important and life-changing) messages out and
22.09.2012
Quality is a means, not an end
Quality is often the main message brands want to convey. However, this is not an effective branding message because quality is relative and even expected. Quality is not your end-game, but the starting point, and should be treated that way.
11.09.2012
Think big, think different – and then do it
“The purpose of this design is to create a low-cost portable computer so useful that its owner misses it when it’s not around – even if the owner isn’t a computer freak…”
04.09.2012
Remember the basics
Don’t worry so much about being a brand or being ‘authentic’. Be true to yourself and good to your customers. That’s what matters.