Influencers

How will the role of the Corporate Communications team - and its partners - evolve in the near future? In the last 24 months of repeated disruptions, distortions and discontinuities in the business world, the role of Corporate Communications has been elevated to a critical position in the company ecosystem. Speed, calmness, accountability, flexibility, and resilience are required skills as strategic and tactical stories are carefully managed across all stakeholder groups in what can only be described as 'turbulent times.' Join us for a wide-ranging discussion drawing on the data from The Conference Board's recent research and the front-line, practical experience of Edelman's leading Corporate Affairs practice. We will explore these topics and deliver informed insights on how the future of the Corporate Communications team – and its partners – is likely to evolve. Ivan Pollard, Center Leader of the Marketing & Communications Center at The Conference Board, is joined by Jim O'Leary – Edelman U.S. COO, Corporate Affairs Practice Chair, and Global Chair of Impact & ESG.

How to Tell a Coherent and Authentic Sustainability Story In this podcast, Alex Heath, Managing Director and US Head of Social Impact & Sustainability at Edelman, talks with Denise Dahlhoff, Senior Researcher, Consumer Research, about the growing expectations for companies by various stakeholders—from customers to investors to employees and beyond—to address sustainability and what that implies for telling a coherent, authentic sustainability story to different audiences. Tune in to hear about the following topics: What do corporate sustainability and social impact entail? How do employees and consumers think about sustainability? Does corporate purpose make employees more productive? How to tell a coherent sustainability story, including challenges and goals yet to be achieved, to different stakeholders?

In this episode of “Influencers,” Peter McGraw, a marketing professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and an expert on emotions and behavioral economics, talks with Denise Dahlhoff, Senior Researcher at The Conference Board, about his latest research on an underexplored topic: singles. Listen to this episode to learn about: The economic importance of singles and their demographic diversity Marketing to singles, including examples and underleveraged potential Different psychographic segments of singles, including eternal singles and hopeful romantics Opportunities for employers to better target singles

Listen to our Influencers Podcast as Mike Moran, a Senior Fellow of the M&C Center and the Chief Product Officer of SoloSegment, an AI powered martech company that predicts which content should show on your website, uses his real intelligence garnered from 30 years in the space to illuminate what you need to know about the Artificial side of intelligence.

How does the use of financial services vary across Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White (Non-Hispanic) consumers in the US, and how can companies address existing services gaps? And how do multicultural consumers use restaurants, travel, personal services, education, and other services to express their ethnic origins, and what this all means for companies as US demographics are changing?    Listen to this conversation by Ivan Pollard, Leader of the Marketing & Communications Center, with Dana Peterson, Chief Economist, and Denise Dahlhoff, Senior Researcher, about The Conference Board's latest findings from its multicultural research series in collaboration with General Mills.

The Conference Board's timely annual survey of C-Suite Executives is out and it provides fascinating insights for marketers and communicators. What are C-Suite executives focusing on and how will it help marketers navigate what lies ahead with more certainty? Join Ivan Pollard, Leader of The Conference Board Marketing and Communications Center, and Denise Dahlhoff, Senior Researcher as they unveil the data from this year's C-Suite Outlook through the lens of Marketing & Communications.

Ever since the mass adoption of all things digital, the job of a Chief Marketing Officer has become increasingly complex, changeable, and challenging. In 2008, Professor Christine Moorman at the Fuqua School of Business, launched “The CMO Survey” to quantify these challenges and understand how CMOs around the world were feeling about them. To discover the good news from the latest CMO Survey, join Christine and Ivan Pollard, leader of the Marketing and Communications Center at The Conference Board, as they discuss the new results and what lies ahead for marketers.

How is a company’s true value measured?  And why is there such a discrepancy in corporate valuations between Wall Street, Main Street, employees and investors? In this informative discussion, Tim Koller, Partner and Core Leader of the Corporate Finance Practice at McKinsey & Company and co-author of the book, Valuation, helps us solve these apparent contradictions with our Marketing Institute Leader, JP Kuehlwein – and also offers his own expert guidance on how to properly assess a corporation’s value.

How does one craft the right name for a brand or business? Should one evolve and extend it over time? David Placek, Founder and President of Lexicon, boasts over 30 years’ experience in the naming business. His agency has developed some of the most famous brand names, such as Dasani, Impossible Burger, Swiffer, and Febreze. In this fascinating conversation, The Conference Board Marketing Institute Leader, JP Kuehlwein, discusses with David how the right name can be used to tell the product’s story, and how it relates to other important branding elements like design, visual identity, and communications.

How might COVID-19 impact where, what and why we buy - even long after it’s gone? JP Kuehlwein, The Conference Board Marketing Institute leader, speaks with Paco Underhill, Founder & CEO at Envirosell, as well as a guru when it comes to the shopping environment and its impact on our behaviors, to discuss this question. Join this conversation as Paco explains some of the instincts we all have as shoppers to help us understand how retailing might change – or not – in the near future. How do people interact with the shopping environment and the product proposition? And what can we learn from that as we try to predict what will happen next?

The swift spread of COVID-19 has dealt a significant blow to the retail sector. During these troubling times, many business leaders are wondering which brands will fail, which will survive, and which may even thrive due to the current health crisis. Join JP Kuehlwein, Marketing Institute Leader at The Conference Board, for a fascinating discussion with investment banker and co-founder of Triangle Partners LLC, Richard Kestenbaum, about the impact COVID-19 has had on retail. Discover the different ways various sectors within retail are being impacted, where non-essential retailers should consider investing their money, why essential grocers and manufacturers are seeming to struggle with their supply chains, and how the pandemic has accelerated the evolution of retail away from traditional brick and mortar stores.

Alison Cayne is busy in normal times: The mom of five has founded a cooking school, café, events space and packaged food brand in addition to writing books, hosting podcasts and otherwise sharing her insights, energy and excellent cooking. But these times of crisis bring her exceptional, ethical, entrepreneurial leadership and strategic thinking and acting to light even more.  Alison shares how she is tackling the challenge as a boss, business partner, borrower, supplier… and her insights can serve as inspiration to business and brand builders large and small. Take a listen.

You want to let people know you care and provide relevant offerings without coming across as profiteering. You also don’t want to bore consumers with worn-out platitudes. So, what is a brand to do and say?  Join JP Kuehlwein, Marketing Institute Leader, as he speaks with Dan Fietsam, an award-winning creative and copywriter. Dan has experience developing advertising in the context of crisis. During this discussion, JP and Dan will review how organizations are continuing to advertise their brand against the backdrop of this pandemic and what might be the most appropriate ways to communicate now and going forward.

Today, we find ourselves in one of the most disruptive periods in modern history. Public discussion about ESG has taken the backseat to surviving and getting through the COVID-19 pandemic. Part two of this podcast further explores how corporate communications can support your company’s ESG initiatives, and how to use ESG to guide your company through the COVID-19 crisis response. Host: Craig Carroll, Communications Institute Leader, The Conference Board Guests: Kelly Semrau, former Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs, Communication and Sustainability, at SC Johnson and Senior Fellow with the Marketing and Communications Center at The Conference Board Devry Boughner Vorwerk, former Corporate Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs, CEO of DevryBV Sustainable Strategies, former CCO  and Global Corporate Affairs, Cargil, and Senior Fellow with the Marketing and Communications Center at The Conference Board Jessica Adelman, former Group Vice President of Corporate Affairs for The Kroger Co. and Senior Fellow with the Marketing and Communications Center at The Conference Board

Join us for the first in this mini-series which focuses on what brands and their leaders should say and do (or not) in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.  In this episode, JP Kuehlwein, Marketing Institute Leader at The Conference Board, interviews Martin Karaffa, Associate Partner at Hofstede Insights. Martin has spent over 25 years in the global advertising industry working with brands such as Diageo Daimler Benz, Citi Financial, Johnson & Johnson, Kit Kat, Kellogg, Listerine and … yes, Purell! In this discussion, JP and Marty will discuss what brand owners should focus on as they decide what to do and talk about to their customers while they are both dealing with the pandemic. They will also talk about how different cultures, organizations and personalities behave differently in times of crisis, and how that impacts their relationships to brands and customers.

Today, we find ourselves in one of the most disruptive periods in modern history. Public discussion about ESG has taken the backseat to surviving and getting through the COVID-19 pandemic. This podcast explores how corporate communications can support your company’s ESG initiatives, and how to use ESG to guide your company through the COVID-19 crisis response. Host: Craig Carroll, Communications Institute Leader, The Conference Board Guests: Kelly Semrau, former Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs, Communication and Sustainability, at SC Johnson and Senior Fellow with the Marketing and Communications Center at The Conference Board Devry Boughner Vorwerk, former Corporate Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs, CEO of DevryBV Sustainable Strategies, former CCO  and Global Corporate Affairs, Cargil, and Senior Fellow with the Marketing and Communications Center at The Conference Board Jessica Adelman, former Group Vice President of Corporate Affairs for The Kroger Co. and Senior Fellow with the Marketing and Communications Center at The Conference Board  

Should the Chief Marketing Officer issue public messages about what the organization is doing in terms of public health and safety? Craig Carroll, Communications Institute Leader at The Conference Board, chats with a team of experts, with a view from three perspectives: marketing, communications, and corporate social responsibility. Host: Craig Carroll, Communications Institute Leader, The Conference Board Colin McConnell, former Chief Brand Officer with Prudential Steve Dowling, former Vice President, Communications, Apple, and former Silicon Valley Bureau Chief for CNBC Kelly Semrau, former Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs, Communication and Sustainability, SC Johnson

Join JP Kuehlwein, The Conference Board’s Marketing Institute Leader as he discusses the role of sound in brand building with Michael Boumendil, a pioneer in audio branding and the Founder and President and Chief Creative Officer of SixiemeSon, the world’s leading audio branding agency since 1995.

As the COVID-19 outbreak continues, communications leaders face the growing challenge of supporting the safety of staff, the reputation of the company, and the viability of operations. At the same time, the risks of missteps are significantly compounded by social media activism, misinformation and the critical gaze of international observers. Craig Carroll, Communications Institute Leader at The Conference Board, chats with Lisa Davis, Senior Counselor, The Walker Marchant Group, former Corporate Vice President for Communications and Worldwide Executive Team member at Northrop Grumman, and Steve Dowling, former VP of Communications for Apple and former Silicon Valley bureau chief for CNBC. They will discuss insights and recommendations that will be helpful as you formulate, implement and manage your crisis communications response strategy. Some of the questions they will address: How should companies be thinking about their communication efforts? What exactly are some of the things that companies need to be communicating right now? What types of outcomes should companies be looking to achieve through their communication efforts? How exactly should companies go about these things (messages, accomplishing outcomes)? What are some of the challenges that companies need to keep in mind when they are creating and announcing policies?

So often we here that we need to think out of the box. However, a great start for change and transformation is to think INSIDE the box. In this short and engaging podcast you will see several actionable boxes for your leadership journey. This podcast is based on Lars Sudmann’s TEDx talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/lars_sudmann_great_leaders_transform_organizations_by_thinking_inside_the_box. 

Does branding still matter? Is retail dead? When does a company need a CMO? Who is bringing back the magic of creativity? If you want to better understand people, brands and the future of marketing, listen to our conversation with Ivan Pollard, Chief Marketing Officer of General Mills. Ivan believes that the future is rather bright for large, traditional scale players, such as his very own company. He also believes that creativity, equity, and relationship building are essential ingredients for long-term brand success, critical qualities often overlooked by many agencies and the start-ups they chase. These are just a few of the topics Ivan and JP Kuehlwein, leader of the Marketing Institute at The Conference Board, cover in this fascinating discussion. Tune in to hear Ivan’s position on whether the role of the CMO is evolving, should the “FANGS” (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) be disbanded, and (breaking news here!), what does Ivan eat for breakfast?

The World Health Organization has declared the novel coronavirus outbreak an international public health emergency, acknowledging that the virus now represents a risk beyond China. How can organizations prepare for and manage the potential impact of this fast-moving, deadly outbreak? What are the short and long-term economic implications? How can companies respond to a major health outbreak from various functional perspectives? In this timely podcast, Ataman Ozyildirim, Senior Director, Economics & Global Research Chair, The Conference Board, sits down with leading experts to discuss these and other critical issues. Participants include: Rebecca Ray, Executive Vice President, Human Capital, The Conference Board; Erik Lundh, Senior Economist, The Conference Board, and an expert on the China economy; Denise Dahlhoff, Senior Researcher, Consumer Research, The Conference Board; and Craig Carroll, Executive Director, OCR Network, and a global expert on corporate reputation.

This interview talks about both, how Virginie Helias as a Marketing Leader discovered Sustainability to be a positive business driver and how she helped the P&G corporation to embrace it as such, formulate a mission and operationalize it.  An undertaking she illustrates with many examples and which is still ‘work-in-progress’ across the company and the industry, as JP Kuehlwein and  Virginie discuss. JP is (co-)leader of the Marketing- and Communications Institutes at The Conference Board, author, Adjunct Professor of Marketing at NYU and Columbia University and founder of strand strategy advisor Ueber-Brands.

The ever-more environmentally conscious consumer is on the lookout for companies and brands that produce sustainable products through low-impact operations. Since 2001, TerraCycle has led the way by recycling hard-to-recycle materials and turning them into new products. But can a company inject a sustainability mindset beyond its own operations? In this month’s Center Chat, Marketing Institute Leader JP Kuehlwein talks to TerraCycle Founder and CEO Tom Szaky about how to build a sustainable brand.

In this “Influencers” podcast JP Kuehlwein talks with Sangeet Paul Choudary about the unique and exponential business- and brand building opportunities the platform business model offers – but also its limitations.    Web-based platform businesses seem to have grown into becoming dominant players in the most diverse industries like transportation (think Uber), hospitality (Airbnb), social media (Facebook), entertainment and communication (Apple and iTunes) or knowledge management (Google), retail (Amazon) and so forth.  They have become some of the most highly valuable assets in the world – it seems like overnight.  -- No wonder that there is an army of start-ups trying to convert yet more sectors to be organized by the platforms they design.  And no wonder that traditional manufacturers and service providers try to figure out how to counter this development or – increasingly – get ahead of it and become platforms themselves.  Jp and Sangeet will talk about the essential components of platform business and how to harness ‘network effects’.  They will discuss how to predict if a platform will grow to become a desirable brand and financially attractive business long-term.  What drives the success of an Amazon, Uber or Facebook? How can traditional ‘pipeline businesses’  compete?  What are the  vulnerabilities and downsides of this business models when it comes to branding, financials, operations and organization?    JP Kuehlwein is Leader of the Marketing and Communication Institutes at The Conference Board and Principal at Ueber-Brands Consulting, New York. He consults, writes and teaches on the subject of brand elevation applying over 20 years of marketing and management leadership experience in the Consumer Products industry. His clients include CPG blue-chip and platform-based start-ups, alike. Sangeet is a consultant based in Singapore and entrepreneur in residence at the renowned INSEAD Business School as well as a fellow at the Center for Global Enterprise. He has co-authored what has become the ‘bible’ on how platforms work -- entitled “Platform Revolution” in 2017 together with Prof Geoffrey Parker of Dartmouth and Prof Marshall Van Alstyne of Boston College and continues to research what drives success and failure in the platform space. www.platformthinkinglabs.com. To get an invite-only access and a 100% discount code to Sangeet's course on platforms, write to liz@platformthinkinglabs.com with the Subject: Playbook Access. 

What are the sustainability and social impact priorities driving global C-suite executives today? Hear how Kimberly-Clark, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, is addressing the fast-evolving customer demand for more sustainable products and services. Based on recent findings from The Conference Board research as well as insights on Kimberly-Clark’s sustainability initiatives, join Chuck Mitchell, Executive Director, Knowledge Content & Quality, The Conference Board and Lisa Morden, Vice President, Safety and Sustainability, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, for a look at the challenges ahead in sustainability and social impact.

How does an active wear brand become an activist icon? Deliberately or despite itself? Can product, purpose, profit, and politics mesh—or do they risk unraveling? And what’s the story behind the unconventional Patagonia beer? These questions and more will be answered in The Conference Board Marketing and Communications Center's April Monthly Chat. 

The Edelman Trust Barometer reports annually on the state of trust in the world’s key institutions: business, government, NGOs, and media. In recent years, the research has revealed that businesses face some of the most challenging times in history in terms of the trust that the public has in them. Jennifer Cohan, President, New York, Edelman, Joins The Conference Board’s own President and CEO, Steve Odland, to discuss the 2019 results.

Join Joe Cohen and Judith Harrison as they discuss Diverse Voices: Profiles in Leadership, which features interviews with more than 40 top multicultural corporate and PR agency leaders who share candid anecdotes about their successes, the obstacles they’ve had to overcome, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.

In August 2018, CNN ran a two-part story entitled “Escape from the Mayo Clinic: Teen accuses world-famous hospital of ‘medical kidnapping’.” The article reported that an 18-year-old patient and her family accused Mayo of “medically kidnapping” her. In the first installment of the Marketing and Communications Center Chats, Mayo Clinic’s Amy Davis dispels the myths that underpinned CNN’s reporting and explains how she and her team set the record straight.