Feb 07, 2019
On Brands, Bias and Super Boring Football Games
By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView GroupThe Patriots “brand” was on my mind during the Super Bowl on Sunday. Let’s be honest, you had to occupy your brain in some other way because the game didn’t offer much stimulation. The New England franchise has become a model for how to run an organization, not just a football team. They are great, I get it. But, I rooted against the Patriots and Tom Brady. I see all the evidence and know all the facts, but I’m just...
Jan 16, 2019
9 Ways Marketers Can Activate Their Front-Line Teams in 2019
By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView GroupWith a new year comes new initiatives. That includes product launches, new brand campaigns, new pricing and promotions. Marketers will be judged on how effectively they can drive results around each one, so there is no time to wait around for someone else to take charge. Unfortunately, launching new initiatives is not easy. Getting the new strategy from the management team down to the frontlines requires a lot of coordination and time. According to new research from Tom Steenburgh from...
Dec 19, 2018
What’s Marketing Insurance and Why Do You Need It?
By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView GroupThere are no guarantees in marketing. That is why the CMO role has a higher turnover rate than any other in the executive suite. The entire cycle of brining a product or service to market – from early concept to getting it in front of customers – is challenging. As a result, a lot can go wrong. That doesn’t mean companies are going to stop introducing new things for customers to buy or investing significant money to make sure they...
Dec 07, 2018
Building a Customer-Centric Brand: 3 Challenges to Marketers
By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView Group (originally posted on the AMA Philadelphia website)On Thursday, November 8, the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) hosted an event focused on building a “customer-centric” brand. The guest speaker for the evening, David Norton, has extensive experience helping brands build an infrastructure to better serve customers. In his role as Chairman and CMO of GALE Partners and past positions such as CMO of Caesars and Harrah’s Entertainment, David’s expertise is in bringing brand strategy to life through innovative customer experiences. I was lucky enough...
Nov 15, 2018
New Strategic Initiative? Prepare for a Marathon.
By Diana Finley, Co-Founder, Client JourneyNew Strategic Initiative? Prepare for a Marathon. By Diana Finley, Co-Founder, Client Journey Leader Have you ever run a marathon? Even if the answer is no, think about the preparation involved before standing at a starting line with 26.2 miles ahead of you. For most, there is a big shift in day-to-day habits. There is commitment to a training schedule, getting up earlier than normal to fit in long runs, adjustments to diet and so much more. Still, after all...
Nov 01, 2018
4 Reasons Internal Marketing is Different from Internal Communications
By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView GroupWe are in an era where “employee engagement” is both extremely important and horribly misunderstood. Organizations know they need to find new ways to energize their employees, yet they seem unable to break their old habits. They continue to pile on more details, more information and more priorities without changing their approach. Many of our clients have internal communications teams to manage the flow of company information and priorities. Accordingly, when a company is looking to mobilize their workforce around...
Oct 17, 2018
Everyone’s in Marketing
By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView GroupI grew up in the corporate world believing the idea that “everyone is in sales”. Daniel Pink’s “To Sell is Human” is one of my favorite books. However, “selling” has not evolved as much as organizations would like and is still in many ways an individual pursuit. Good salespeople find a way to get the job done, while companies struggle to figure out what to do with the other 75%. The more time I spend working with large corporations, the...
Oct 04, 2018
Bold Brand Move? Don’t Forget to Prep Your Employees
By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView GroupNike’s recent launch of their Colin Kaepernick ad campaign made waves well beyond the world of sports. Some referred to the move as “bold”, others called it “radical”. Whatever adjective you use, Nike knew that linking their brand with a polarizing figure was going to ruffle some feathers. Nike isn’t the only company that has taken a stance on a political or social topic lately. There is a fine line between a brand taking a position and a publicity stunt....
Sep 19, 2018
The Audience Your Marketing Team is Overlooking
By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView GroupWith all the attention and investment marketers are putting into audience segmentation, there is one critical audience that marketers tend to overlook – their own employees. Employees, specifically customer-facing representatives are the link between the company’s marketing strategy and the actual customer experience. Too often, brand advertising tells customers it will deliver one thing, but oftentimes, customers don’t end up experiencing what the brand promises. How can companies expect customers to be committed to their brand promise if their own...
Sep 06, 2018
5 Reasons Your Customer-Facing Employees Should Push Brand Over Products
By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView Group5 Reasons Your Customer-Facing Employees Should Push Brand Over Products Would you rather have the people who interact with your customers understand your products or believe in your brand? Of course, the urge is to answer “both”, but the reality is companies are choosing between these two paths every day. Both goals require an investment of time and money and those resources are in short supply. The most common path is to invest in product training that will make your...
Aug 22, 2018
Marketing has a Training Problem
By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView GroupMarketing has a Training Problem By Christopher Wallace, President, InnerView Training is not a topic that most marketing or brand teams spend a lot of time thinking about. The marketer’s job is to get the message to the customer, while internal partners in training or sales are responsible for getting customer-facing teams bought-in the to the story. But as we have written about previously, that message is not making its way to the front lines. Our research shows that two-thirds of marketers...
Aug 08, 2018
Marketing Accountability is Shifting: What’s Out, What’s In, and What to Do
---By Christopher Wallace and Mike Blumberg--- In 2018, consumers will spend half of their time interacting with online media, more than any other medium. As the consumption has shifted more to digital, so have the marketing dollars, with companies on track to spend $119 billion on digital marketing by 2021. While digital has given marketers new options to reach their target audiences, it has also forced them to learn new disciplines, understand more in-depth metrics, and make investments in channels...
