Do you need a marketing degree to survive in the industry? Can a logo survive without words? We ask these burning questions and more in this week’s Round-Up.
Skincare you wear, without the tear
Source - L'oreal
L'Oréal has taken yet another leap forward into the future (and another leap past their competitors) with their newest creation, wearable skincare. Their latest piece of innovation comes in the form of My Skin Track, a wearable skin sensor and accompanying app that indicates the pH of the wearer’s skin. This knowledge allows consumers to select and use products which have been scientifically developed to suit a variety of pH measurements and to be kind to the skin. Global vice-president of the L’Oréal Technology Incubator, Guive Balooch, said "Our goal is to use this advanced technology to empower consumers with meaningful information about their skin so that they can find the products that are right for their individual needs. At L'Oréal, we know that health is the future of beauty and we are committed to leveraging technology to bring powerful insights and solutions to our consumers.”
It’s Shutterstock
Source - Shutterstock
The words stock imagery are not ones that incite much excitement. A lot of the time they actually tend to do the opposite, making eyes roll and, when used in the context of the many, many memes they have spawned, make tears of laughter roll too. Shutterstock, one of the world’s highest grossing stock imagery companies, is well aware of this category perception. So much so that they incorporated it into their latest global campaign. With the campaign line “It’s not stock, it’s Shutterstock” the video and picture provider aims to assert how its image bank is unparalleled in quality and depth and acts as an aid to creativity around the world every day. The campaign is set to be launched across the US and Canada, the UK, and Australia in early this year, and rolled out to the rest of the world following that.
Experience VS Education
Source - Marketing Week
A marketing degree does not a marketer make. That’s according to the results of Marketing Week’s 2019 Career and Salary Survey. The study, which featured 4,415 marketers, revealed that “more than half of marketers (53.8%) say they have not studied a marketing-related academic or professional qualification of any kind.” While it is just over half that haven’t studied marketing, a more shocking result is the number of marketers (11%) who studied marketing yet did not find it useful for the careers.
Whether it was that specific discipline or not, something that most marketers do have in common is that the fact that they do have a third level education. “Marketing is an industry of the degree-educated” according to Marketing Week, with a mere 9.9% of those studied being without a degree. Though education tends to be favoured for many trades, some believe that this figure is causing the industry to be gentrified. Chris Chalmers, the marketing and digital director at Express Gifts, said: “the low level of marketers entering the profession without a degree is a missed opportunity from an apprenticeship perspective.”
What’s in a name?
Source - Comedy Central
Drastic changes to any logo are extremely inadvisable for brands. The general consensus with an identifying emblem or symbol is that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. However, every once in a while there is an exception to the rule. 2019’s exception (so far) comes in the form of Mastercard and their bold decision to remove their name from their logo. Mastercard chief marketing and communication officer, Raja Rajamannar, claimed the word ‘Mastercard’ was no longer necessary as the interlocking circles were already universally known. Their now wordless logo simply consists of those unambiguous red and yellow rounds. While many believe that this alteration not only proves the strength of the brand’s recall globally but also explores Mastercards innovative nature, others are a little less agreeable to the change. Upon its release, Twitter, naturally, was alight with negative commentary towards the change. Some of it was smart, à la Comedy Central. More of it wasn’t, with one Tweeter comparing the logo to a human behind. Charming. Either way, for better or for worse, Mastercard has done away with its words and caused quite the stir along the way – not too shabby for a public rebrand.
Nest egg
Source - Nest Bedding
It’s not exactly news when a company makes an announcement that they will be selling their products on the world’s second-biggest online retailer, Amazon. However, the luxury, direct-to-consumer mattress company, Nest Bedding, has made the cut in our Weekly Round-Up following their announcement. Why? Well because their foray with the eCommerce giant is not just about selling mattresses, no, Nest Bedding has much bigger ambitions than that. The bedding business has identified an audience segment that is currently out of their reach.
Nest Bedding’s catalogue of mattresses range from around $900 to $1,800, reasonable for some, but out of the league for many first time buyers. The Flip, the mattress which will retail on Amazon exclusively will be sold for the discounted price of $399. According to online publication, Digiday, “The idea is that those Amazon customers, perhaps a college graduate looking for a cheap, starter mattress or the buyer on the lookout for a guest mattress, will purchase The Flip and then eventually turn to Nest Bedding’s line of upper-end mattresses, the majority of which fall in the $899 to $1,799 range, for their future beds.” Genius? We think so too.
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