123 eGuides

123 eGuides. 3 Proven Steps, Just 3 Bucks.

123 eGuides are authoritative guides published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost. Every 123 eGuide is just 3 bucks or less ($2.99 to be exact).

123 eGuides are designed for today’s reader who wants information in a quick, convenient, easily readable format. Each 123 eGuide is intended to provide a functional overview rather than a detailed roadmap. Every 123 eGuide always includes additional resources if the reader wants to learn more.

Check the "Available 123 eGuides" link above to see what's available. 123 eGuides are available wherever eBooks are sold, including the Amazon Kindle store and in any eBook format at Smashwords.com.

1 Minute Advice: Hotel Brands Proliferate

One category of brands seems to be exploding non-stop: hotel brands. According to The New York Times, hotel brands add brands at a blistering pace to differentiate their offerings and appeal to different audiences. As of June 2018, reports hotel research firm STR, there were 180 hotel chains with more than five U.S. properties.

Major hotel chains have brands across many segments, from budget to luxury. For example, Hilton and Hyatt each offer 17 brands. Marriott now has 30 brands after its acquisition of Starwood hotels in 2016. Some of Marriott's brands actually compete with one another, but they've retained them all. “We were able to push these brands apart and continue to provide varied experiences,” says Tina Edmondson, Marriott's global brand officer. Phil Cordell, Hilton's global head of brand development, warns, “If brands get too focused on a specific segment, that’s where things can run off the rails in the longer term...“The more you have, the more you have to be incredibly disciplined in ensuring that difference is there. Bigger isn’t always better.”

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: McKinsey's Considerations to Modernize Marketing

Marketing innovation is proceeding at a blistering pace, particularly when it comes to digital marketing. This requires marketers to keep up with modern demands. Consulting firm McKinsey shares six "governing considerations to modernize marketing" that could help organizations' marketing function excel:

1. How to centralize guidance and oversight
2. How to bring together marketing and IT (heart and brain)
3. How to build collaboration and agility
4. How to reinvent HR to meet talent demands
5. How to build flexibility into resource planning
6. How to make cultural change a continuous task.

According to McKinsey, "Modernizing marketing is a process that relies on multiple factors for success. Only by understanding what these are and by focusing on how to address them can marketers hope to get real value from digital."

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: What "Brand Loyalty" Really Means

Marketing Charts reports on Nielsen data that indicates more than half of U.S. shoppers believe they are exhibiting loyalty to a product if they have purchased it at least three times. But only 9 percent of U.S. consumers say they are loyal to brands or products they have always bought. Among U.S. consumers, 55 percent say they sometimes try new brands and products.

Why do consumers switch brands instead of remaining loyal? On a global scale, 38 percent of consumers will choose a new brand or product because of "value for money," while 32 percent say "price or promotion" causes them to switch. Other studies confirm that loyalty to a single brand has waned. A survey of U.S. consumers indicated that a whopping 86 percent said they are open to switching brands, with 72 percent saying that when they make a purchase, they consider 2 to 4 brands.

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: Three Rules of Social Media Engagement

As a marketer, engaging with prospects and customers via social media is essential today. Creating true engagement, however, requires adherence to certain rules. Writing for Social Media Examiner, Luria Petrucci identifies three of the most vital rules for social media engagement:

1. Be consistent - "You must consistently create quality social media content for people to want to engage with you."
2. Ask specific questions - "Too often, marketers think they’re asking for engagement when, in fact, they’re not. If you’re not getting super-specific with your request for people to comment, chances are they won’t."
3. Include an element of fun - "What works today is personality. A sense of fun and your unique personality is what will drive engagement more than anything else because people don’t engage unless they enjoy the content or feel something about it. "

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: Brands Need to be Cautious with Consumer Data

As data privacy and data breaches continue to make news, it heightens consumer awareness of how personal data is being used. A recent survey of consumers by content management solutions provider Acquia reveals that 65 percent of respondents will abandon a brand that is dishonest about how a consumer's personal data is being used. Still, consumers are generally willing to share their data with brands: almost half (49 percent) will share personal data with brands that have a physical store, but 59 percent say they wait at least a month before doing so.

A more telling statistic from the survey is that 65 percent of consumers don't know how brands are using their personal data. Tom Wentworth, a senior VP at Acquia, tells MediaPost, “Brands have a responsibility to educate consumers about data usage, proving that they can trust the Internet again," indicating that we are at "the beginning of a new paradigm where businesses need to find personalized ways to engage consumers without going too far."

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: Eco-friendly Packaging on the Rise

In response to the groundswell of concern around plastics, large consumer companies are starting to think creatively about eco-friendly packaging. Two encouraging examples:

1. Nestle has come up with a special recyclable polymer-coated paper that can be used in high-speed packaging production but degrades within six months in the ocean. Even more impressive is the fact that the company is making the technology available to food manufacturers rather than patenting it.
2. PepsiCo is using a 100% recycled product for one of its water brands and will introduce aluminum can packaging for its Aquafina brand to eventually replace plastic bottles.

In addition to these examples, an industry movement is underway in a pilot program that tests the concept of multi-use containers being reused and returned by the consumer. Sounds like the good ol' days of glass milk bottles, doesn't it? Everything old is new again!

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: "Primetime" is Now Anytime

The old notion of primetime television -- a specific period of time when the most viewers are watching -- is ancient history. According to Google, primetime is "no longer a single daypart on a single screen. It’s the minutes and hours people are choosing to tune into content they’re most passionate about, whatever and wherever that might be." The implications for marketers are enormous: Instead of the traditional practice of scheduling ads at specific times, marketers need to be serving up relevant ads when viewers are engaged during "personal primetime."

Google offers four specific examples of this new emerging strategy. Admittedly, they are large advertisers using Google's YouTube to create a very customized media experience. Still, the examples are good ones, and they certainly address the changing definition of "primetime." Check it out: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/advertising-channels/video/youtube-personal-primetime/?

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: Adjusting to the "Age of Convenience"

Writing for Forbes, Rebecca Brooks calls attention to the fact that, for brands, technology is driving the "age of convenience." She says, for example, "The desire for barrier-free shopping continues to rise," and that means in many cases, consumers don't even have to go into traditional stores anymore, because they can find just what they want online. What does that mean for brand packaging -- and the way consumers used to interact with brands on shelves?

Brooks believes the age of convenience requires marketers to think differently, making three big shifts away from traditional brand marketing approaches:

1. "Dig into the context."
2. "Focus on a recent event."
3. "View everything from your category's unique landscape."

Brooks writes, "we must start to align our research with the real world and focus on connections with an increasingly elusive audience. Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/06/05/why-brand-building-must-change-in-the-age-of-convenience/#14cd28a51966

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: Most Valuable Global Brands

BrandZ, a division of WPP, uses a brand valuation methodology to rank the most valuable global brands. For 2019, here are some of BrandZ's rankings:

Top 10 Most Valuable Global Brands
1. Amazon
2. Apple
3. Google
4. Microsoft
5. VISA
6. Facebook
7. Alibaba
8. Tencent
9. McDonald's
10. AT&T

Top 10 Most Valuable B2B Global Brands
1. Microsoft
2. IBM
3. SAP
4. UPS
5. Wells Fargo
6. Accenture
7. Intel
8. Cisco
9. Adobe
10. Salesforce

Top 10 Risers in Brand Value
1. Instagram
2. Lululemon
3. Netflix
4. Salesforce
5. Adobe
6. Shiseido
7. Amazon
8. Uber
9. LinkedIn
10. Chipotle

You can find the complete BrandZ global brands report here: https://brandz.com/admin/uploads/files/BZ_Global_2019_WPP.pdf

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?

1 Minute Advice: New Retail Report Focuses on Convenience and Connection

The sixth Annual "Future of Retail" report is now available without charge from Walker Sands Communications.

Key themes from this year’s report include:

1. Consumers have grown comfortable shopping online because of the convenience. 46% of consumers are more open to purchasing a big-ticket item online than they were a year ago. 
2. Consumers want to feel more connection with items they purchase and the brands they purchase from. With this want for connection, 66% of consumers say they are buying less than they used to.
3. There are opportunities to leverage the combination of convenience and connection to drive commerce forward. Despite online stores providing free and fast shipping, 25% of consumers feel more connected with brands when they go to a store.

The study outlines key insights about the shift in population size between the boomer and millennial generations and its effect on the world of retail.

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Have you heard about the book, Boomer Brands?