“Today lots of brands are faced with bigger ambitions than budgets. Most brands want more impactful, efficient ways to connect than traditional marketing allows. Our session on ‘Speak Challenger’ methodology will show the brand marketing execs at M2Moms® how to thrive in today’s challenging marketplace in spite of tight budgets,” according to Kelley Skoloda, Partner/Director, Global Brand Marketing Practice, Ketchum. The 9th annual M2Moms® – Marketing to Moms Conference, will be held October 23 & 24 in the Chicago Cultural Center www.m2moms.com
“Brand stories are key to ‘Speak Challenger’, which is a powerful methodology grounded in brain science,” Skoloda explained. “Stories harness a brand’s most powerful source of industry leverage: emotional influence. For example, forty years ago, rental car company Avis challenged Hertz – the industry brand leader – and won a larger share of the market by engaging people’s emotions with the story of “trying harder.” The leaders in any market are never invulnerable; they just seem that way before a smart, story-driven challenger brand takes them on.”
“Speak Challenger,” Skoloda continued, “is designed to position brands for game-changing industry leadership. It introduces challenger thinking and story strategy into marketing consciousness to help brand teams understand the brand’s true opportunity and prepare for excellence. No one would argue that we live in challenging times. To survive, consumers, influencers and media have changed their mindset and behavior. They are more nimble, do more with less, act in real-time and challenge the status quo. Some brands have changed in recent times, but not enough to reflect this ‘challenger’ reality, especially older and established brands.”
Skoloda, who is also the author of the benchmark marketing to female consumers book, Too Busy to Shop, will be accompanied in her presentation by Pierre Schaeffer, challenger brand expert and former global CMO at Kodak and Lisa Johnson, story strategist and co-author of Story Juice: How Ideas Spread and Brands Grow.
“I know every brand marketer in the audience will be on the edge of their seat for Kelley’s session,” stated Liz Fongemie, M2Moms® producer. “In today’s environment the right creative/strategic approach is critical to every marketing campaign regardless of the size of the budget. Speak Challenger gives brands a proven method to break through the clutter and reach today’s moms, which is especially important when you consider that mom is the modern family’s most important decision maker in virtually every consumer industry and product category.”
“Moms really are brand-critical decision makers for a broad range of products and services,” Fongemie said. “The Fast Facts page on M2Moms® website is filled with statistics that show that moms buy everything from sports drinks to prom dresses, diapers to dog food, lipstick to laptops, autos to pharmaceuticals. They buy for their kids, their families, their parents, their friends and for themselves. They buy for their homes for their kids’ schools and they plan and pay for the family vacation. Plus, they purchase on every available channel online and off, traditional and new media, they use it all.”
“It is precisely because of moms’ broad purchasing power that M2Moms® draws attendance from a truly diverse and comprehensive list of brands,” Fongemie explained. “Companies that have sent executives and marketing teams include Microsoft, Kellogg’s, Evenflo, IKEA, Mead Johnson, GM, Allstate, Heinz, Symantec, Hasbro, BBC, NBA, Procter & Gamble, Wyeth, Coca-Cola and hundreds more. They all recognize that marketing to moms is critical to continued brand growth and market share.”
“New research, case studies, workshops, peer-to-peer learning and networking, M2Moms® really delivers everything every marketer needs to reach moms on all the different channels moms use to gather and pass along information and purchase,” according to Fongemie. “This year M2Moms® includes over 30 speakers and two and half content-rich days all designed to help marketers improve their marketing and sales to today’s’ moms.”
“In addition to Kelley’s session, we’re especially excited about this year’s lineup which already features the premiere of GfK’s Moms Research Report, WebMD’s insight into what today’s moms are looking for in health, new research presented by Sandy Wax, President and G.M. of Sprout, and a marketing to new moms session from Eric Mower+Associates,” Fongemie said. “Plus, the editorial team from The Bump will show marketers what really works to reach today’s moms. House Party will present an especially compelling brand advocate case study with Hasbro. In addition, we’ve got a great CMO brand panel, and a truly one-of-a-kind session from Mabel’s Labels on marketing to moms of kids with special needs from Mabel’s Labels.”
“We’re also expanding the pre-conference sessions for those who arrive early,” Fongemie added. “They’ll focus on reaching moms through digital, social and mobile media. And we’re very happy to welcome back Destination Maternity’s Zanny Oltman, 2012’s “You Take The Cake” Best Speaker to rock the house again!”
M2Moms® sponsors include Title Sponsor: Sprout; Associate Sponsors: GfK, Mom Central Consulting, House Party, Ketchum, Destination Maternity, WebMD, Mabel’s Labels; WhatToExpect.com; Meredith Parents Network; Showcase Sponsors: GGP, School Family Media, Moms Meet; Workshop Sponsors: The Marketing Store Worldwide, The Bump, Child’s Play Communications, Eric Mower + Associates, Robin Leedy & Associates, PTPA Media, Experian; Video Content Resource: Snippies.
For M2Moms® information: www.m2moms.com or 860.724.2649 x11. M2Moms® is produced by PME® Enterprises LLC, 912 Silas Deane Hwy., Suite 101, Wethersfield, CT 06109.
