Marketing is all about an exchange of value. But how can you create and share value if your customers don’t know or believe you have it? That’s why influence is so vital to successful marketing. Just as there are many ways to skin a cat, there are many ways to say the same thing. Some make an impact, and others don’t. My guests will share their approaches to the art and science of influence to show you how to let your customers sit up and take notice of the value you have to offer.

We Are What We Buy

Influence is Not a Four-Letter Word

The traditional luxury consumer values heritage, scarcity, craftsmanship and status. But times are changing. What does luxury mean today, and how should marketers think about it? Our three experts discuss what customers think about luxury in a world where many material objects have lost their appeal.

The New Luxury Consumer

It seems that almost everyday we hear new alarms about the environment. How can marketers prosper but still minimize the negative impacts of waste and pollution? Our three guests bring years of experience at doing just that. They will share their insights about marketing innovations that encourage consumers to shop for and use sustainable products and services. Their experiences demonstrate that it is indeed quite possible to do well by doing good.

Green Marketing: Doing Well by Doing Good

Many products play a key role in defining who we are – even if they are just everyday things. Blue jeans are a great example. Sure, they are durable and yes, comfortable as well. But blue jeans are more than that. Denim brands often tell a story, and sometimes this story links to important cultural milestones. Levi Strauss jeans have been a part of popular culture for many years, and icons such as James Dean and Bruce Springsteen have helped to cement their place in our society. Today’s show focuses on this powerful relationship. Jen Sey is the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Levi Strauss. She will talk about how the company values this products place in popular culture, and how it works to continue this tradition. Henry Stafford is co-CEO of Revtown jeans, a brand new brand. He will talk about how a startup with no history can try to earn a place in our culture as well. Ordinary blue jeans are not so ordinary after all!

Encore: We Are What We Wear The Psychology of Blue Jeans

More than 20 million Americans are involved in direct selling, where independent distributors sell to customers in non-retail settings such as homes and offices. On this program, three C.E.O.’s of direct selling businesses talk about why they choose to use this model and how it works.

The Direct Selling Model: What 20 Million People Know That You Don't

Although many of us love to spend time on social media, in many situations we still rely upon professional salespeople to help us to learn about, evaluate and purchase products or services. That's especially true for B2B situations, where the salesperson is key. How is the sales function evolving, and what are the changes we can expect as technology plays a bigger role in the sales process? Two experts on sales and sales training weigh in. They'll help you to understand why -- contrary to the title of the famous play -- the salesperson is alive and kicking today.

Death of a Salesman? The Role of Personal Selling Today

Retailers want you to come in—and stay. Careful store design increases the amount of space the shopper covers, and stimulating displays keep them in the aisles longer. Because marketers recognize that a store’s image is an important part of the retailing mix, store designers pay a lot of attention to how a physical space's design impacts the shopping experience. We'll hear from three retailing experts who will share tips about how to design a space shoppers will love.

What's In Store for Customers: The Physical Shopping Experience

The social media revolution has changed our lives -- for better or worse. Today we might revise our show's focus on We Are What We Buy to We Are What You Post. In this episode, I talk to three experts who share their insights on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms. They share valuable insights about how organizations can interact with consumers, and how we can start to make sense out of the avalanche of social media content that seems ready to engulf us everday.

You Are What You Post: How Social Media Impacts Our Lives

We Are What We Buy - October 17th, 2019

We assume that most of what we know about a brand, store, or organization comes from what we see. But the reality is that we hear is crucial as well. For many years of course we've listened to product jingles that you can't seem to get out of your mind, but today some marketers are taking the audio dimension to a whole new level. Now we see more of a focus on sonic branding -- how the product sounds and how sounds in the purchasing environment influence our experiences in profound ways. This program's three guests are experts on sonic branding and the science of sound. They will tell us how forward-thinking brands and platforms like Pandora think about sound today. We all need to listen carefully.

Music to Your Ears... and Wallet

Each of us is bombarded with commercial messages -- by some estimates, as many as 5000 every single day! How can a brand or organization break through the clutter? And, what can you do to energize jaded customers who just aren't that interested in what you have to offer? Our guests on this show will provide three quite different solutions: Online sales promotions, scintillating advertising messages, and the hot new technique of gamification. Get engaged: Tune in!

I Want It NOW! How to Engage Your Customers

Successful marketers satisfy their customers' needs. But how can they do that, if they don't know what those needs are? This episode reveals three different perspectives on collecting customer insights. My guests will talk about how their companies try to understand consumers in stores and during their daily lives.

Decoding the Mind of the Consumer

Coke or Pepsi? Ford or Chevrolet? Swipe left or swipe right? Everywhere we turn, we need to make choices. Ironically for many of us our biggest problem is not a lack of choice. It is too much choice. How do we sift through the mountains of information out there to make a good decision? And how can marketers better understand the processes we use so that they can boost their chances of being the chosen one? My three expert guests will shed some light on this issue. Heather Lutze helps clients to up their search marketing game to increase the likelihood that a company will come out on top when people go online to find products and services. Prof. Barbara Kahn at Wharton is an internationally recognized expert on retailing; she’ll talk about aspects of the shopping experience that determine what we buy. Finally, we’ll talk to John Greco, who was CEO of both the Direct Marketing Association and the Yellow Pages Publishers Association.

This or That? How We Decide What to Buy

We Are What We Wear The Psychology of Blue Jeans

Businesses succeed when they satisfy their customers’ needs. But how can you do that unless you understand what those needs are? The reasons we buy aren’t as obvious as they seem. That’s because we don’t buy product features, we buy the benefits they provide. Two brands that seem very similar may mean something very different to consumers, and sometimes even they can’t tell you why they prefer one over another. We Are What We Buy helps YOU to understand what drives your customers. On every show, we dive into a topic that helps you to decipher the reasons your customers buy or don’t buy. Michael applies over 30 years of doing research on consumer behavior to talk about what drives us. He’s helped by industry experts who share their experiences from the trenches. We Are What We Buy gives you clear and actionable insights you can apply to your business the next day to help you understand what drives your customers.

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We Are What We Buy

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