#marketing

Anyone else questioning this rationale? A diversion from Model E losses or a move in the right direction for Ford?

The latest dust up in the news cycle about the rebranding by Cr--ker Barrel got me thinking. There are obvious similarities with the companies and products listed in the thread title. All made poor marketing decisions that alienated their core customers.

Coke pivoted, apologized, ditched New Coke, and still thrive.

Anheuser-Bush doubled down on their DEI message and still hasn’t recovered. I keep their products page open in a browser tab on my phone and haven’t had one of their products since.

Cr--ker Barrel is TBD but seem to be doubling down. Going to be interesting to see what the board does with the CEO.

SAS came out with Viya and went all in trying to sell a technology that wasn’t wanted or needed instead of slowly rolling it out. The fact Viya also didn’t have a workable migration path to move customers that were interested from SAS 9 to Viya should have been an obvious red flag. It was marketed almost exclusively to new customers and we literally stopped marketing SAS 9. If customers weren’t interested in Viya they were ignored. I even heard of sales reps, who have a Viya sales target, withholding SAS 9 invoices (which means no renewal setinit) trying to force customer to move to Viya.

There was sort of a mea culpa a few years ago and a SAS 9 division in R&D was established. The new division was announced with little fan fare yawn. The good news is that SAS 9 is entrenched in the day-to-day operations of many organizations and performs well for them. But for how long? I’m just guessing, but I would bet software revenue for SAS 9 is still at least 95% of the total. Not based on facts though. Would love to see the real numbers. At least Viya will always have the hosting and consulting revenue going for it!!

IMO we need the following to bring in more clients:

-“TIAA ETFs - some attractive ETFs that compete.

• Fidelity offers others’ annuities. Can’t they offer TIAA Traditional? Get that thing on other platforms!

• Expanded fund lineup. Where’s the sector funds? The specialized funds? Our lineup is so 1995. It’s ok to to risk some assets!

• A hot brokerage app. How can we compete with Schwab and Fidelity with a trading app that’s eh at best? Make it hot then market it. Name it something more memorable than TIAA. Then market it like crazy.

I feel we’re too conservative and this perceived safety is actually detrimental to growing assets over a long term.

Thoughts? What else should we do? Why don’t they ask us these things? How do your other firms compare?

The marketing person that came from Peloton. The new logo has been nothing short of spectacular and customer growth is at a record pace. Keep up the good work and don't ever leave.

Welp, there goes the neighborhood!
Some marketing and product but not sure who else

Another 7 or 8 people from marketing let go this week.

Is anyone else feeling like a certain new leadership hire in our marketing org is steering without a clear destination? There’s been a noticeable lack of transparency, empathy, and strategic vision. Morale all time low and the only remaining talent left is disconnected from the top-level decisions that affect our futures. No one will submit a complaint with the fear of retaliation and organization RIF being held over our heads. Anyone with me?

So according to our CMO, we don’t need to worry about the presence report any more - she seemed surprised at how much people couldn’t stand it. And market based culture is just about focusing on the customer, not Amazon-style rank and yank sweatshop BS - he barely ever used the word customer in his screed. There does not seem to be a lot of alignment here.

I think we all know who broke up with who.

F5 Networks, a multicloud application services and security company, has conducted layoffs in the past, including a significant round in early 2023 that impacted 620 employees (9% of their workforce). While there's no indication of current layoffs on August 12, 2025, F5 has a history of workforce reductions, including some related to marketing and content production. The company has also stated it doesn't anticipate layoffs in its current fiscal year ending in September.

Alright then, we are now going to get marketing advice from IBM... because marketing fails because of "fragmented operations" now... (some study they did says)

IBM Says that CMOs Must Fix What’s Beneath the Surface to Fully Unlock AI

(...) "study of 1,800 marketing and sales executives found that 81% of CMOs see AI as a game-changer, yet 84% say rigid, fragmented operations stop them from using it to its full potential."

(...) Jonathan Adashek, tech giant IBM’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, explained that many companies don’t have the structure needed to make AI truly transformative. On top of that, only 21% of CMOs believe they have the right talent to meet their goals over the next few years.

As a result, IBM has been addressing these challenges through its “client zero” approach, which means testing AI tools on its own operations before offering them to clients. In human resources, this approach has automated one million tasks and resolved 95% of employee requests without escalation. This allows HR staff to focus on more complex work like coaching, workforce planning, and talent development. In marketing, AI has reduced the amount of time employees spend on repetitive tasks, thereby giving them more freedom to try new ideas and original projects.

However, Adashek believes that the key to unlocking AI’s full potential is to first get a company’s data in order. Indeed, strong, integrated, and flexible data systems, along with privacy protections, make it possible to detect patterns and make better strategic decisions. Interestingly, Adashek compares AI to an iceberg: the 20% above the water is the flashy, visible technology, while the 80% below represents the deeper systems, processes, and data that truly drive transformation. Focusing on that hidden 80% can boost productivity and help businesses scale better than chasing the latest shiny tool.

https://www.tipranks.com/news/ibm-says-that-cmos-must-fix-whats-beneath-the-surface-to-fully-unlock-ai#google_vignette