Reaching Today’s Consumers
The recent Wharton Marketing Conference, entitled “Pioneers in Marketing,” looked at new ways to find and influence the ever elusive consumer. Fragmented markets, borderless competition and what’s referred to as “market overload” are making it harder than ever for the $1 trillion global advertising and marketing industry to come up with creative approaches to help differentiate and sell their products. Participants in Knowledge at Wharton’s coverage of this event spoke on topics that included promoting global brands, responding to new definitions of “luxury,” pricing and positioning for entrepreneurial marketers, and extracting value from digital content.
The Luxury Market: Trying to Hit a Moving Target
As the notion of luxury changes, marketers of high-end products are wrestling with the challenge of maintaining brand exclusivity while reaping higher sales, according to executives who spoke on a panel titled, “The New Luxury: Balancing Volume vs. Elite,” during the Wharton Marketing Conference. Participants discussed such topics as licensing, counterfeiting, trading up and new definitions of affluence.
Why L’Oreal’s Jean-Paul Agon Believes He Is on the Winning Team
Before the Wharton Marketing Conference’s afternoon keynote address even began, the stage was set for Jean-Paul Agon, president and CEO of L’Oreal USA. L’Oreal gift bags – full of L’Oreal brands ranging from salon and luxury products to cosmetics – balanced on the edge of every chair. Introduced as a “marketing pioneer” responsible for “innovative and high-performing” techniques, Agon proceeded to describe the “Five Elements of the L’Oreal Strategy,” ranging from “believing in the science of beauty” to adopting a “global or nothing” presence for all brands.
Show Me the Money: Extracting Value from Digital Content
The effect of digital content and new technology on the entertainment and media industries is: a) a devastating body blow; b) a profit-spewing bonanza or c) the creation of a promising market in its infancy. The answer is all three, depending on whether you are talking about the beleaguered music industry, the fortunate movie industry or the cable business’s hopes for digital cable. That was the message from industry executives who participated in a panel discussion during the Wharton Marketing Conference.
Pricing and Positioning for Entrepreneurial Marketers
According to Wharton marketing professor Leonard M. Lodish, “positioning and pricing are the most important entrepreneurial marketing decisions that you can make … Before you go out and raise a lot of money, before you invest in research and development, before you start spending serious money, you must find out if there is a demand for your product and whether or not you can price it so you can make money.” It was back to school for participants at the Wharton Marketing Conference who turned out to hear Lodish’s primer on how to combine entrepreneurial aspirations with savvy marketing.
