Business Execs: 3 Tips to Engage Millennials

“I’ll have my sandwich with a side of social impact, please.  Oh, it comes with social outcome metrics?  Great….I’ll take two.” 

As a business executive, you need to know  that today Millennials are demanding products and services that provide a positive social impact and are rewarding the businesses who offer this value.  And it’s not just through the sandwiches they buy, but also through the financial investments they make.  This is called impact investing.  Millennials want to buy from and invest in businesses they know are making a difference in the world.  And yours can be one of them. 

As a marketing professional with a decade of experience in the social change movement – and a Millennial myself – I write this blog to help you filter the buzz around social impact investing and cut to the chase.  What do you really need to know?

Millennials want to use their money to help others

Millennials grew up with social media, global online platforms and advanced technology that has allowed them to be more connected than ever before.  This has allowed them to have a deep understanding and awareness of global cultures, relations, and tensions.  Now more than ever, Millennials want to see - and be part of - positive social change.

According to Motif Investing, 69% of Millennials feel investment decisions are a way to express their social, political and environmental values.  This is important because this year is the first year that Millennials will surpass Baby Boomers and become the largest living generation.  This means investment companies are expecting a significant increase in impact investing.

 www.blog.ourcrowd.com

Investment management companies are measuring social outcomes

To accommodate Millennials, financial planning and investment management companies are seeking out more options for impact investing.  Just last month, the world's largest money manager BlackRock, Inc. rolled out its first impact-labeled U.S. mutual fund.  To determine which companies are socially-conscious, BlackRock (and others like it) have created algorithms “to identify investments and track outcomes.”  They look for attributes such as high employee morale, meeting sustainability requirements, and conducting research around public health.

Three tips for business executives

This trend has taken off and can only grow larger, as Millennials earn more money and an even more tech-savvy generation follows them.  As a business executive, here are 3 things you can do to stay on the cutting edge of this trend:

1.       Understand your target audience – Conduct market research to better understand how your target audiences feel about social impact

2.       Measure social outcomes -- Begin to measure the social outcomes of your business

3.       Incorporate social impact -- Consider what it would take to incorporate social impact into your business model (Example: Make it organic and locally-sourced ingredients on that sandwich)

Start small.  Start simple.  But start now.  The most successful businesses are sure to be the ones that can innovate and help change the world.  Yours can be one of them.

About the Author: LuCinda Hohmann is a communications professional with expertise in public relations, marketing, and consulting for business and non-profit sectors.  She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications with Medill at Northwestern University. You can follow her on Twitter @lucindahohmann.

Entrepreneurs: 3 Tips to help avoid failure

    As we all know, there are only no more than 5 star-ups can survive over a hundred.  What are the major reasons cause their failures?  Two VC managers give their experience about the most important thing CEO should focus on.  Also, three tips to keep start-ups on the right track are listed at the end.

    Sun Zhichao, a famous VC manager stated in his article About Start-ups: one of the most important reasons that a lot of start-ups fail is they didn’t focus on one thing.  The resource and time are very limited for start-ups.  They should concentrate these to the most essential product.  Sadly, what start-ups usually do is to try different things as much as they want.  Then they realize that they are short of time and money.  So they talk to VC for more money and reduce meeting time with clients, further decentralize their energy and lead to vicious circles.  Here is the link to About Start-ups: http://sunzhichao.baijia.baidu.com/article/40935

    Another article from Zeng Liqing listed 9 major problems in start-ups: wrong industry, lack of capability, wrong partner, problematic equity structure, lack of communication, distraction, over optimistic, too early and too slow.  All these problems will harm start-ups in the long run and are difficult to solve.  Among these 9 problems, the most serious is obviously the problematic equity structure.  The problem is usually occur when two partners have equal weight.  Even the start-up does not see the problem now, it will encounter difficulty when two partners have different opinions on the firm's operation.  Employees will also have trouble balance the work from two partners.  Comapny is distracted from core business as a result.  The expected outcome of a equal-weighted equity is a breaking-up relationship.  More details can be found at : http://cy.51zjxm.com/chuangyezixun/20120827/20322.html

    To avoid failures, entrepreneurs can follow the three tips listed:  Firstly, write clearly in the term sheet who is the only CEO of the company.  Secondly, meet with the whole team and VC to make sure what is the main function or product.  Thirdly, set milestones in each period and stick to it.

 Shang Lin

 Investment manager assistant of Innovation Works, VC

Participated in the investment of Douyu TV, Triopen Studio, etc.

    Fine me on LinkedIn and Twitter @GloriaLike:

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=AAMAABZv4MEBVTgwi63Kwe2kRcXfUFI0sIHIbpA&trk=hp-identity-photo    

https://twitter.com/GloriaLike

 

Automotive Execs: 3 tips for hybrid cars marketing

Hybrid cars are absolutely the future of the automobile markets. Luxury cars such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi from the high-end market have entered the hybrid market with certain cars in their product line. How will they seize the trend and make full use of the social marketing for their hybrid cars market is one of the keys to standing out from this competition.

From the perspective of a student from Medill IMC, I have found two articles to give the solutions for this problems and give you the ideas on how to deal with this problem.

The first article is written by Alex Davies in the Wired magazine named The Real Winner in the VW Diesel Scandal? Hybrid Cars, here is the link:

http://www.wired.com/2015/09/volkswagen-diesel-cheating-scandal-is-good-for-hybrid-cars/

You can tell what this article is talking about through the title. Automakers love diesels because they help them meet increasingly stringent fuel economy standards. They offer lots of torque for great off the line acceleration, don’t suffer from the cost or range anxiety associated with electrics, and finding a place to refuel is generally easy. A slow increase in the sales of hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and fully electric cars—which now account for about three percent of US car sales—over the next 10 years. Charging will get easier as infrastructure spreads. Customers will get used to plugging in instead of pumping. Most importantly, the costs will drop.

The second article is written by Stephen Edelstein in the Green Car Reports website named Easier Electric-Car Charging: BMW ChargeNow, Nissan EZ Charge. The link:

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1091616_easier-electric-car-charging-bmw-chargenow-nissan-ez-charge

One inconvenient aspect of electric-car ownership at present is the need to set up multiple accounts, cards, and fobs to access different public-charging networks. However, two carmakers are working to simplify public charging for the owners of their battery-electric cars. BMW is set to roll out its ChargeNow program with the launch of the 2014 i3.

After reviewing the two articles and my marketing knowledge in IMC, I have developed three tips that Luxury car CMOs should consider:

·      Maintaining the regular cars sale

As Alex says in the first article, Electric cars will expect a slow increase in sales over the next 10 years, so to maintain regular car sales in the market is still the key for traditional car makers.

·      Promoting the sustainability concept

From the support of the US government, the federal government has poured billions into helping automakers build electric cars. These luxury car makers use their influence in the market to promote the sustainability concept.

·      Improving the supporting infrastructures for EV

Stephen said in the second article that Car makers like BMW has already started to improve its charge stations by launching ChargeNow program.

In conclusion, CMOs from these luxury car brands should use their profound company culture to lead the hybrid car market, not only to increase its sales on hybrid cars, but also to manifest company’s profound insight on making the changes and being the precursors in the industry.

My name is Chendi Wang, a M.S. candidate in Project Management at Northwestern University, specializing Real Estate Development and graduating in December 2015. My past internships in Mercedes-Benz and BMW motivates her goal to help Luxury car brands engage with customers in a more meaningful way regarding to hybrid car sales.

Contact via Twitter @wang_chendi or LinkedIn. 

Athleisure: Catch the Trend, Try it!, Make your Call

In the past athletic apparel has been confined to the gym, but with the emergence of Athleisure, these clothes have been breaking down this barrier allowing people to feel confident, athletic and empowered outside the gym.  As a graduate student in the Northwestern Medill IMC program, I believe that athleisure is a trend that is here to stay. 

In the article, Lululemon, Nike and the Rise of ‘Athleisure’, written by Greg Petro and published by Forbes discusses the rise of athleisure in American culture and why he believes it’s a lucrative shift in the retail and fashion industry. Petro defines athleisure as “athletic apparel that people can wear in non-athletic setting”, and that many analysts believe this to simply be a passing fad. After explaining the incredible growth that both Nike and Lululemon have experienced in the past year, Petro concludes that investors are missing out on one of the “most lucrative opportunities the retail and fashion industry has to offer”.

           

Dana Blankenhorn, an author on amigobulls.com agrees that athleisure is a craze that shows no sign of ending in his article Getting in on Athleisure Craze with Nike Stock.  Dana compares brands like Nike and Under Armour showing that both their net incomes and shares on revenue have increased dramatically over the last year, Under Armour slightly more. She even discusses Lululemon and Skechers as brands that have experienced growth due to their products being designed with athleisure in mind. Dana agrees that “athleisure is not going away” siting that with executives at Silicon Valley and CEO’s sporting athleisure, the trend is sure to stick.

After reviewing these articles and from my experiences in the Northwestern Medill IMC program, I have developed three action items you must consider.

1.     Catch the Trend: Understand what athleisure is and the articles of athletic apparel that it includes.

2.     Try it! : Wear  your athletic apparel in your everyday life, to class, on the train, to the store, out to dinner or even on a date!

3.     Make your call: Experience all the benefits from athleisure and then take your stance on if it’s a trend you want to be a part of.

Athleisure: a trend no one foresaw but one that is taking the nation by storm, one that is here to last.

[Northwestern, Medill, IMC, Athletics, Lacrosse, Nike, Under Armour, Lululemon, Skechers, Athleisure, Athletic Apparel, Gym, Clothes, Shoes, Sneakers, Greg Petro, Forbes, Craze, Trend, Stock, Dana Blakenhorn, Amigobulls, CMO, CFO, CEO]

After completing my undergraduate degree at Northwestern University while competing on the Women’s Lacrosse team for all four years, I decided to stay and complete my graduate degree through the Medill School of Journalism’s Integrated Marketing Communications Program. I will be graduating in the summer of 2016 and plan to pursue a Marketing career in the athletic apparel industry. If you wish to contact me my LinkedIn name is Paige Jones, and my Twitter handle is @IMCpjones14.