Best Marketing Cluj is the baby of Best Marketing Bucharest, a well-known event dedicated to marketing and communications professionals from both sides: companies and media & PR agencies. Marketing trends across industries, case studies from top brands, efficient working flows between clients and agencies, research data and above all inspiration are topics of each edition. Bucharest has already counted the 7th edition in 2017 and Cluj has just blown the second year candle.

It was my third time as a speaker in this conference and the first one in Cluj edition. There were 7 speakers, 2 independent marketing consultants (I was one of them), 2 agency representatives, 3 brand representatives.

Tudor Galos, Senior Consultant, Tudor Galos Consulting 

Irina Roncea, Deputy Managing Director, Golin Romania

Carmen Sterian, Strategic Thinking, Managing Partner, HIPPOS

Iuliana Nedelcu, Senior Brand Manager Coca-Cola Romania & Moldova

Ramona Grigoriu, Online Marketing Specialist Farmec

Matei Psatta, Head of Marketing, vola.ro

From all 7 presentations (including mine:), I picked top 9 insights (why not 9 , why always 10) to share:

1. Growth Hacking & Airbnb. A growth hacker works with the parameters of a scalable and repeatable method for growth, driven by product and inspired by data. He lives at the interesection of data, product, and marketing. Airbnb used this “out of the box” method by working with professional photographers to increase the visual perception of the homes they oferred for rent and made an automated reposting on Craiglist. Look for your own parameter to scale!

2. Drilldown for customers reasons & the 12 hero archetypes. We are all one sort of a hero and we no longer buy products for their benefits but for the experiences they provide. There are 12 hero archetypes, 3 for each of the 4 big self motivators:

• Provide Structure to the World (Creator, Ruler, Caregiver)
• Connect with Others (Everyman, Jester, Lover)
• Leave a Mark on the World (Hero, Magician, Outlaw)
• Yearn for Paradise (Explorer, Sage, Innocent)

If you drilldwon to customer’ hero archetype, you will find the brand which is best responding to its experience needs. By example, if you are an explorer, you are motivated by learning and freedom, therefore a brand like Persil with a communication of “Dirt is good” will be a perfect match for you. If you are a rebel and you are motivared by risk schievement, you will go for Diesel or Virgin. A Virgin flight is priceless, believe me:)

3. Share of stomach and share of throat. Who said share of wallet only? We share you, dear customer, piece by piece:) But there are just a few winning brands and this is happening because they are RELEVANT. Nothing new here, but we had a fresh new study about Romanian consumers perception on brand relevance. Wanna be noticed? Then you need your messages to be

• useful and practical (69% of respondents)
• offer additional info (56% of respondents)
• funny/entertaining (35% of respondents)

More about the study here: http://www.revistabiz.ro/studiu-relevanta-brandurilor/

4. Napoleon Solo versus James Bond. After google searching Napoleon Solo, remember that a mass consumer brand should be etrnally relevant, populist and with a wink of humour. Authentic, Contemporary, Entertaining, Influential, Distinctive, Popular, just think of your own brand fingerprint.

5. From comfort to wellbeing, from consuming to enjoying, from having to being, from individual to social, the social marketing is having an impact. Some brands choose to involve their products in the communities where they are sold instead of investing in media. Because the new generations are guided by three important verbs: live/love/do. How close are you to social marketing versus commercial marketing?

6. Young generation facing a mass brand like Coca Cola. For sure the general tactics and the mass culture are not hip for the teens. But what about a different approach from within their community? Next Big Vlogger campaign is a great example of tools & tactics adapted to the younger audience, with perfect product integration and lots of industry awards.

7. Instagram for your brand in case you haven’t done it because the engagement is better than Facebook and advertising is cheaper also. Farmec was sharing lots of useful tips & tricks on how to create a great brand account and how to integrate bloggers on your account.

8. “In the box” ideas should not be totally ignored. Maybe a bigger hole for the toothpaste tube would be a better idea to increase the toothpaste consumption than spending millions on “out of the box” ideas. Vola.ro has a customer who is constantly buying city breaks for a lady he is admiring, but the lady never accepts them. While they have plenty of reference targets to think of, this one particular customer who uses their product offering in an unusual way can generate great marketing content.

9. Corporate slang or political cant, be it the vocabulary or the topics discussed are no longer fashionable. The trend is to actually say what you mean. And this leads to my presentation topic.

Earlier this year, on the Best Marketing agenda in Bucharest I delivered a presentation about the widespread “corporate slang/political cant/double-talk” or whatever you may call it language that most marketing professionals are using blindfolded.

The presentation title was: What do we tell to each other when we speak in Rom-english? (a word play title inspired by one of Chris Simion’s book and theatre play “What do we tell to each other when we do not speak one with another?

(Ce ne spunem cand nu ne vorbim)

What does a corporate slang stand for?

• vocabulary (tons of acronyms, Rom-english, lots of words that actually say nothing: incrementality, sinergy, cannibalization, holistic, leverage)
• topics (presentations more about the company or person’s PR than about useful tips or ideas for the audience)
• mix&match slides from different sources, kind of a patchwork
• 2000’s communication style, from powerpoint animations, to famous viral quotes, etc. Just a kind reminder, we are in 2017:)
• non-personalized information, so if we replace your brand name with another one, the presentation would still fit 
• your actual social media presence (if I google you what do I read about you, what does it recommend you as a speaker more than your job title?)

No need to mention that the number 10 insight is that whenever you attend such conferences, you get the chance to meet people and ideas. I haven’t met some of the speakers and the marketing community in Cluj before. 

I finally met Vlad Pop, a marketing professional with a heart bigger than all big egos, whom I knew only virtually through all his charity work. Such a blessing!

Do not miss chances to get a bigger perspective!