Articles

Opinion

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,

Opinion

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?

News

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.

Opinion

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.

Opinion

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.

How-To

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.

Story

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.

How-To

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?

Story

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.

Story

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. 

Story

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?

Story

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?

Story

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.

News

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.

Story

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

Story

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).

Story

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.

News

17.01.2013

Supporting an executive consulting firm

Switchmode is currently helping a Danish executive consulting firm upgrade their marketing practice.

News

17.01.2013

Switchmode joins IAA event committee

Switchmode has joined the International Advertising Association‘s Danish Chapter as member of the event committee.

News

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. 

Story

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.

News

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.

Story

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.

Story

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.

Story

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;

Story

19.11.2012

Loosen the reins

“We have to strike the right balance between being in touch and being in control.

News

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 ®.

Story

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.  

Story

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”.

Story

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.

Story

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.

Story

22.10.2012

Celebrating Drucker

While Peter Drucker died more than 7 years ago, 94 years old, his ideas are more relevant than ever.

Story

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,

Story

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;

Story

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.

Story

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.”

Story

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.

Story

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.

Story

04.10.2012

Brand-bonding

Brand-bonding is the new brand-building.

Story

04.10.2012

Why we ‘like’ a brand

This report from PSFK looks at why Facebook users choose to ‘like’ a brand on Facebook.

Story

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.

Story

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

Story

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.

Story

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…”

Story

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.