Jay Popli took an unorthodox route into marketing, majoring in physics and first working to develop medical lasers as an engineer. Now Senior Director for Lunesta, Popli pointed to lessons learned at Surgical Laser Technologies for his career change. Like any good scientist he still believes strongly in empirical data, and effectively sorting the mountain of information thrown at marketers is one of his keys to a good night’s sleep. He shared other insights with Brand Connections’ founder and CEO Brian F Martin in a recent podcast.

Named BrandWeek’s marketer of the year in 2006 for his work on the Lunesta label, Popli helped break Ambien’s stranglehold on the sleep medication category and almost doubled parent company Sepracor’s sales overnight. Popli says his ability to glean the most salient market research and focus groups data accounts for much of his personal success. “As a marketer or general business person there are a million things you can be working on and you can drive yourself ragged,” he says. “The most important thing is to figure out what are the three or four most important things to do and really focus in on those. If you get those right, people will forget about the other 20 things you didn’t do.”

Interpreting the numbers is only part of the equation when it comes to achieving commercial success. “The science is making sure that you listen to [consumers], but the art is not only listening to the words but really trying to delve down and say what is that emotional connection or that emotional desire.” Keeping your brand at the forefront of consumers’ minds has never been harder, even when armed with such insights. The advent of Internet and mobile phone ad delivery has reshaped the game, and marketers must go beyond traditional delivery methods to capture prospective customers and build brand loyalty, according to Popli.

“I think the biggest challenge marketers face now is quite frankly the same challenge we’ve always faced – and that is keeping our products and our communications relevant to our consumers and our customers. What’s made that particularly challenging in today’s times is the rapid change that’s undergoing, not only in products … but also the rapidly changing face of media.”

That point is evidenced by the unprecedented changes influencing the Product and Promotion components of the Four P’s. Though most Internet pages can still be broadly divided into content delivery, commerce, and “brand” sites, the industry continues to play catch up. Some products remain best served by simple information delivery sites, but savvy marketers are drawing more eyeballs by incorporating consumer dialogue components into their branded sites, Popli says. “The revolution is to allow that two-way street to happen, and I think we’re just in the early stages of that.”

Popli remains undaunted by the media fragmentation trend. Though marketers usually describe it negatively, he says it’s not entirely without benefit. People who do their homework are now able to better target their advertising – once they identify where to cast their nets. Locating a media stream whose audience is more homogenous offers opportunity for customized message delivery that is more relevant to consumers, he says.

Still, reading the innermost thoughts of a customer will never be easy. To improve results, Popli suggests checking personal preconceptions at the door. “We all walk in with a bias, but the hard part is to leave that in your back pocket as much as you can and really let your customer or consumer guide the conversation and let them take it where they want to take it….Earlier on, when you’re really trying to get that insight, removing as many filters as possible I have found to be very valuable.”

“What we do here matters.” That’s the attitude Joe Scalzo, President and CEO of WhiteWave Foods, brings to work every day. It’s also one of the messages the Broomfield, Col.-based operation is successfully broadcasting to the consumers and retailers it’s counting on for continued top- and bottom-line growth. In a recent Q-and-A session with Brand Connections’ CEO and founder Brian F Martin, Scalzo explained how WhiteWave has leveraged its commitment to shareholder, environmental, and community stakeholders to mint meaningful marketing.

Still shy of his 50th birthday, Scalzo has already compiled a resume most would be happy with in their dotage, and a rundown of his recent employers reads like a CPG company All-Star list: Gilette, Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid, and Procter & Gamble. While each stop has presented its own unique challenges, Scalzo begins forming his general strategies by asking “Where are we going?” and “How are we going to get there?” Once answered, “surround yourself with great people,” he says, “and then get out of the way.”

Cognizant of the media fragmentation and media overload effect on today’s consumers, WhiteWave’s marketing approach relies heavily on a consumer education model. “We are very much in the information-sharing business, much less about the persuasive sell,” says the company chief. “It’s much more about putting information in the consumer’s hands. We feel pretty confident that when given that information they’ll make an informed choice and that choice will be organic, and then by association [they’ll pick] our brands because we brought them the information necessary to make those choices.”

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Dean Foods also goes to lengths to engage with retailers. “We spend a lot of energy at the point of sale helping consumers make more informed choices, normally by making the local clerk or department manager much more educated about who we are and the benefits of our categories and our products.” So far the bifurcated approach is paying dividends in the emerging, but quickly-growing, organic foods sector.

But other challenges remain. Scalzo said he believes marketers will have to more creatively integrate their messages to fully harness the aging traditional delivery vehicles. He also shared some insights that CPG companies would do well to consider:

• • “Get less internal. Get more external.” It’s easy to get caught up in infrastructure, but interacting with retailers and consumers in leading-edge cities is critical.
• • “Be willing to fail and try lots of things.” Spend less time in the development and validation phase and allow the marketplace reaction to determine what sells.
• • “Change the model.” Emulate the venture capital model of scaling-up reasonable ideas as opposed to swinging for the fences with a single homerun idea.
• • “Connect the people.” Use the Internet to connect to consumers and influencers to build your brand.

It’s evident that growing consumer and retail power are fundamentally changing the marketplace. Appealing to a better educated audience, while monitoring perception of your brand via the Internet and blogosphere, has never been more important. But as always with marketing, relationship building remains key, both internally and externally. To become a marketing success you have to have a desire to make a difference and transmit it to your coworkers Scalzo says. “You have to have a passion for it. You have to really want to love the psyche of what makes people tick; make the choices that they make.”

Launching a new consumer product in today’s crowded marketplace and building it into a recognized brand remains a daunting task for any marketer. Creating a top brand in just four years without television or radio is another matter entirely – but that’s precisely what CV Technologies did in Canada and now plans on doing in the U.S. with Cold-fX. Steve Wallace, the firm’s Senior Director of Marketing, recently spoke with Brand Connections’ CEO and founder Brian F Martin, revealing which non-traditional methods he utilized north of the border and his plan to crack the cold code in the U.S.

Previous work with Mars’ Uncle Ben’s, Beiersdorf’s Nivea, PepsiCo’s Gatorade and Colgate-Palmolive’s Softsoap and Speed Stick had afforded Wallace ample opportunity to master traditional advertising, but COLD-fX posed a new challenge. “If you’re a classic consumer packaged goods marketer and you’re not allowed to go on TV or radio, how do you create a buzz around the product and create a brand that is the No. 1 cold and flu remedy in Canada overnight?” Wallace prescribed a cost-conscious triple-dose of celebrity word of mouth marketing, guerilla tactics, and PR positioning.

Conquering the cluttered U.S. market is the next step for Cold-fX. Compared to Canada though, Wallace says the domestic playing field is much different. “In the U.S. there is a lot more homeopathic [competition] and a lot more spin-offs from other products, like Echinacea, or zinc, or what have you, that have had some sales in the category.” With that in mind he enacted a direct response campaign reliant on radio, print and Internet to introduce the product, while using side channels to import some of the buzz that made COLD-fX the Canadian market leader. He even utilized non-traditional channels such as advertising to busy travelers on airplanes by placing ads on seat back tray tables.

Brand marketers shouldn’t underestimate the value of getting consumers to talk about your brand, because they are spokespeople for your brand and they can end up telling the story to hundreds of people, according to Wallace. COLD-fX found its perfect pitchers in business executive frequent fliers that can’t afford to become sick. Having emerged early on in Canada as strong brand supporters, CV Technologies worked in the U.S. to woo the easily identifiable and influential group of early adopters with campaigns at airports and in air travel materials.

The mix of marketing techniques is keeping domestic retailers happy and healthy so far, but Wallace stresses the non-traditional ingredients are crucial for the product’s continued growth. “We’ve had big hits when it’s come down to TV stories on the product and radio stories on the product and newspaper articles about the product. That really is helpful because we know what kinds of consumers pay attention to those media,” says Wallace, noting COLD-fX’s target audience is comprised of heavy readers and Internet users. “We’ve been able to get a better payback with PR and communications in and around the brand than with traditional media.”

Wallace’s parting lessons are three-fold: 1) Know thy consumer, 2) Focus on product benefits rather than simply enumerating product features and 3) Have fun with marketing, like you’re supposed to.

It never hurts to build your immune system either.