In this episode of the Business Review, American Greetings CMO Alex Ho explains the strategy of marketing to millennials.
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In this digital world, according to American Greetings’ Chief Marketing Officer Alex Ho, businesses need to understand the modern consumer’s desire to have an impact on the world. The solution, Ho says, is to channel marketing in ways that will connect to customers through genuine empathy.
“One of the things that we have done recently at American Greetings is the magnify what our company stands for, our purpose. Purpose-driven marketing is really important for that alignment as well as for consumers, now more than ever, especially millennials and our purpose is to make the world a more thoughtful and caring place. We have seen a shift in consumer behavior where what’s really important is being able to be real, being able to be authentic. And so, that’s really affected the products we develop, the language we use in the product, as well as the marketing we do.”
Ho says the company’s mission is to help people make meaningful connections.
“Between our very close partnership with our ad agency, and our internal resources and consumer insights and data and foresights in trends, we collectively mine what’s real and with this understanding that consumers increasingly want authenticity - they don’t want anything false, we’re almost compelled to take that and turn it into the basis for our communications. When you can find an insight or something that everyone can relate to, then that’s what creates that empathetic bond, and that’s what makes the work so much more powerful.”
The Business Review is a production of KWBU, Livingston and McKay, and the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University.