The blog

Let’s start with the story of the plastic bag. Go back 10 years to the days when it was normal to use a new plastic bag every time you went to get groceries. Your behavior has probably changed by now. And although this change in behavior can be put down to a number of drivers, your retailer is certainly an important one. By charging a small fee for plastic bags and making sure reusable ones were easily accessible at the check-out, retailers helped change their consumers’ behavior.

With business moguls such as Elon Musk tweeting about Doge coin, cryptocurrencies continue to make headlines. Sure, everyone has heard about Bitcoin and Ethereum, but what few people know is how blockchain, the technology behind these digital coins, works and that in reality its application stretches far beyond that of digital currencies alone.

The mission: Define a digital channel strategy A team of digital channel experts was in search of their overarching digital (channel) strategy, in order to align themselves as one team, with one clear vision on digital channel marketing. The team, consisting of specific channel experts, were struggling to align on the broader picture. That is when this large Belgian retailer called in the help of The House of Marketing, to get a central perspective.

Green is the new black. Sustainability seems to be on every marketer's mind nowadays, and that’s how it should be. Driven by a clear shift in societal relevance, more and more companies are looking into how they can make their business offerings and processes sustainable. And we couldn’t be happier about it!

2020 will be remembered as the year we started to do things differently. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we suddenly changed the way we work, teach and socially interact. What did companies that were successful during this crisis do differently? What can we learn from them?

We’ve embarked on a new year and are putting 2020 behind us, a very strange year marked by a global pandemic that has changed the world and our habits for good.

Two weeks ago, the Belgian Association of Marketing (BAM) organized their annual congress. The theme of this year’s congress was meaningful marketing and the importance of being purpose-driven. It also addressed how marketing is evolving and will continue to evolve in the coming years. Of course, we at the House of Marketing attended this event and are excited to share our vision and take-aways with you.

Let’s go back 4 years. It’s 2016. Donald Trump is about to become the US president, Brexit is a thing and we’re all catching pokémons on our smartphones. 2016, however, was also the year of ‘digital transformation’. As technological developments drove significant changes in customer behaviour, we were forced to rethink ways to drive growth by ‘going digital’. What that meant was different for every company, but strategic plans were drawn up and we were all going to be at the digital forefront within 4 years.

Looking back at the past few months, there’s no doubt that Covid-19 has only intensified the need and desire to go digital, also in the pharmaceutical industry. Meeting physically has become more difficult, if not impossible. This has prompted a dramatic increase in the number of pharma companies reaching out to the same target group, via the same digital channels, to create a personal, but now digital dialogue.

With the increased importance of digital acceleration over the last years, companies have been reaching out for help. A few common challenges that we see are misalignment of management teams, no (shared) vision to the digitization and the increasing importance of improving up their digital capabilities and presence.