Marketing Mix Examples

Complexity beats simplification in beauty; that's L'Oreal's masterclass. And they make it look so easy. While we're crunching the numbers and gathering more input for 2025, here's a holiday treat from our team: some headlines from our growth playbook. 💡L'Oréal has achieved what most CPG brands aspire to: 7X growth over 30 years, $47B in revenue in beauty (76% larger than Unilever), and category dominance representing 33% of the Top 8 global cosmetics market ($141.2B). The playbook summary below synthesizes L'Oréal's proven strategy with emerging competitive dynamics. 𝗣𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗥 𝟭: Portfolio Architecture & M&A Mastery Your Strategic Principle: Complexity as a competitive advantage through strategic optionality at scale You need to build a portfolio across all price tiers, no exception. 1. Mass Market (Volume drivers): Maybelline, L'Oréal Paris, Garnier 2. Professional (B2B + loyalty): Matrix, Kérastase, Redken, ColorWow 3. Active Cosmetics/Dermocosmetics (Medical credibility): La Roche-Posay, CeraVe, SkinCeuticals, Vichy 4. Luxury (Margin maximizers): YSL, Lancôme, Kiehl's, Urban Decay, now Creed + Gucci/Balenciaga licenses Each tier serves different channels, price sensitivities, and consumer occasions—creating portfolio resilience against market volatility. 𝗣𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗥 𝟮: Channel-Specific Optimization - Cerave dominates Amazon 1P - Lancôme owns Sephora counters - Kérastase Paris leads salon professional - La Roche-Posay USA controls pharmacy 𝗣𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗥 𝟯: Retail media leadership will give you wings, so you should implement category-leading retail media investment. 2025 Benchmarks (Beauty & Personal Care) from ecommert Navigator Global Retail Media Benchmark Allocations Report (you can find it in the comments) 👇 - 22.7% of total ad spend (US: 23-27%, EU: 18%) - 2.35% of net revenue on average - $6.60+ ROAS when executed well 💡Beauty leads ALL #FMCG categories in retail media maturity—treating it as core infrastructure, not experimental spend. 𝗣𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗥 𝟰: You must master consumer behavior and data-driven personalization. Step 1: Build the first-party data ecosystem to capture first-party data from minimum 30%+ of your consumers within 18 months. Step 2: Leverage AI for hyper-personalization, use LLM beauty assistants, predictive replenishment and launch conversational product discovery. Step 3: You'd better master the "Niche-to-Mainstream" funnel 🚨Old Model: Mass production → broad distribution → heavy discounting 💡New Model: Limited drops → atelier collabs → data-driven micro-batches → TikTok → Duty Free (in weeks, not quarters) 𝗣𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗥 𝟱: Digital excellence requires robust organizational design, so revamp your org. Investment benchmark: Winners invest >10% of revenues in digital technologies and #eCommerce. Size doesn't guarantee growth; omnichannel execution + retail media optimization does. More to come, stay tuned. #FMCG #Beauty #Growth #Strategy

The best ad I've seen this week Nailing 4 basic principles of advertising. I saw the new Corona campaign whilst walking home last night. Clocks had just gone forward, it was sunny and WOW I wanted to head to the park and crack open a cold one. It really made me think about why I love outdoor advertising. This simple ad isn't actually simple; decades of marketing expertise have been refined to achieve it. Specifically, four key advertising principles. 1. Show them when to use it. Many ads fail because they aren't rooted in an occasion; when should I even think of this brand in the future? Easy: at the end of the day. Alcohol businesses literally call this category of drink "sundowners" for a reason. 2. Make them feel it. Show them how it'll make them feel. Emotions are far more powerful than convincing someone. They build memories and preferences for years, not minutes. An emotional idea that is as engaging as this is gold dust. 3. Always be yourself. Distinctive consistency. Corona's brand strategy has always been centered on simplicity and nature, resulting in refreshment. You can feel that in this work. In 'Compound Creativity', I showed consistent brands report DOUBLE the profit. But they're also consistently using their strongest brand assets. The corona bottle shape and logo do all the heavy lifting. 4. Ads live in the real world. Using the context (time and place) as part of the idea itself superpowers it, driving relevance. A brand of its time, not dusty and 'iconic' like some beers gun for. You can't drink iconic. Launching this as daylight saving happens is smart. They've also acknowledged that they are using out-of-home advertising. I've researched #OOH for years with System1 and JCDecaux, testing hundreds of campaigns to understand how creative choices drive effectiveness. If there's one overarching principle, it's KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). This consistent, distinctive, emotional idea is simple enough to understand in a couple seconds whilst reminding you that Corona is great at the end of a long day. It takes a while to create something as simple as this. Or as my partner put it when he saw it: "Oooh that's pretty". Bravo Felipe Sampaio and team. If you'd like to learn more about creating effective outdoor advertising, I've linked my research in the comments. I share #advertising and #marketing insights daily, follow for more. AB InBev

The failure of Five Guys in Germany is more than just a story about overpriced burgers — it’s a masterclass in cultural misalignment. When American brands expand into Europe, I always say: market entry is the ultimate pressure test for your marketing playbook. If you haven’t defined your value proposition sharply enough, you can’t adapt it to local culture and friction is guaranteed. Five Guys entered Germany with a US-centric model: premium fast food, higher prices, low marketing, and the belief that quality would speak for itself. But in Germany, it didn’t. A good example is their German Instagram channel. One of their posts promotes Milkshake Mix-in flavors of “Reese’s ” or “Cinnamon Bun”. In the US, these are nostalgic, beloved, high-recognition brands. In Germany? Reese’s has niche awareness, Cinnamon Bun is not a cultural staple, and neither triggers emotional resonance. To be successful in Germany you need to understand the Germans: 1. Price sensitivity & uncertainty avoidance – Germans value structure, reliability, and rational decision-making. Paying twice as much for a burger with no clear differentiation simply didn’t add up - and the macroeconomic environment didn't help. 2. Individualism vs. collectivism – American brands often sell an emotional “have it your way” narrative. In Germany, shared experiences and consistency matters. 3. Long-term orientation – German consumers reward brands that invest locally, adapt to culture, and show commitment — not those that copy-paste global playbooks. Localization isn’t about translation. It’s about resonance. It’s understanding what people value, what they expect from brands, and what will actually make them care. In my work with US companies expanding into Europe, I’ve seen it repeatedly: those who adapt thrive. Those who don’t become case studies. #Localization #GlobalMarketing #BrandStrategy #CulturalIntelligence #Hofstede #MarketEntry #FiveGuys #MarketingLeadership

For me, it was a cue card in an episode of India's Got Latent. I paused, went back, and realized it wasn't just another prop but part of McNROE Consumer Products Pvt Ltd Wild Stone's integration with the show. And that's what made me appreciate the strategy behind it! You see, the best product placements are almost invisible. They don't interrupt the content. They become part of it.📌 Same goes here! Samay Raina didn't suddenly switch into "brand ambassador mode." The integration stayed true to the show's format, the audience's expectations, and his style of delivery. It never felt like the content took a break for an advertisement. What made it even more interesting? People across the internet started pointing out that Samay was literally holding Wild Stone's brief in his hand. The variant names were written right there, in plain sight. Just a simple, straightforward brief that quietly became part of the conversation. Many brands still don't get it. They chase visibility when they should be chasing believability. And when believability is right, familiarity follows. When familiarity meets frequency, recall becomes effortless. As marketers, we often talk about contextual marketing, but it's surprisingly hard to execute well. And Oh Boy! Wild Stone did.👏🏼 And it did so well that everyone is now talking about them; when it should be Latent! Hehe.

the traditional marketing team structure is killing your results. most leaders think the answer is hiring more specialists or chasing every new channel. they're wrong. the difference? successful organizations are dismantling their channel-focused teams and rebuilding around customer behaviors and outcomes. think about it: your customers don't care about your org chart. they move fluidly between channels, loop back through stages, and make decisions in ways that defy our linear models. here's what's working instead: ↳exploration teams own discovery and understanding, not channels ↳validation teams drive confidence, not engagement metrics ↳trust-building teams create advocacy across every touchpoint specialists (paid, SEO, social) work across all teams, focused on outcomes bottom line: the future belongs to organizations built to thrive on change, not fight it. your marketing team isn't just due for an update - it needs a complete rebuild. remember: success isn't about having the largest team. it's about having the right structure that empowers people to own outcomes that matter. just published a deep dive on this transformation. curious to hear your thoughts. #MarketingLeadership #MarketingStrategy #OrganizationalChange #MarketingTransformation

Category strategy can sometimes be hard to deliver in mature categories, but here is a great example... Tesco Power aisle yesterday: clearly anchored around a big Fairy NPD execution, with P&G brands Ariel, Bold, Lenor and Flash all in strong support. But it’s not just a one-supplier showcase, or 6 bays of the very best-selling SKUs. It’s a great example of category strategy done right. What’s working here: ↳ Scale + reassurance Fairy NPD anchoring, supported by a range of big brands from P&G, Unilever & Reckitt to drive the traffic ↳ Retail media done right Big, confident storytelling that earns attention and encourages Shoppers to engage ↳ NPD, properly supported As well as Fairy, Lenor Scent Boosters still being heavily supported - a reminder that meaningful NPD often needs sustained visibility to really unlock its potential ↳ Specialists and Challengers doing real work Ocean Saver, Tallow + Ash, Ecover, Dr Beckmann and INEOS all collectively bringing new formats, price points, values and need states into the category — the kind of breadth that drives real growth, not just share shift Big brands and retail media set the pace, but it’s this combination: scale, sustained NPD support and credible specialist roles that grows the whole category. 👏 This is what total category thinking looks like when it makes it out of a deck and onto the shop floor. 📣 Let me know your view: – What, if anything, would you tweak or build on here? - and What other good examples of Category Strategy have you seen recently?

Performance marketing is fishing with a spear. Brand is building a net. One gets you today’s catch. The other sustains you for quarters to come. Les Binet and Peter Field’s research across 1,000+ campaigns shows: The ideal media mix is 60% brand, 40% activation. Here's why: • Brand builds mental availability (So when the customer is ready, they remember you.) • Activation captures existing intent (But only works if people already know and trust you.) Here’s the trap: Most brands over-invest in short-term performance. Cost per acquisition rises. Clicks fatigue. Growth plateaus. The smarter play? • Use performance to drive precision — and learn fast. • Use brand to create memory, emotion, and pricing power. • Align both to a unified customer journey, not siloed KPIs. The brands that win long-term aren’t just optimizing, they are orchestrating a long game. It’s not brand or performance. It’s brand as performance — just with a longer timeline. Do you agree?

The most effective marketing rarely feels brilliant. It feels obvious. In one strategy session, a campaign continued to grow more complex with each iteration. Additional angles were introduced, more proof points were layered in, and differentiation became increasingly detailed. On presentation slides, it looked sophisticated. But when the idea was explained out loud, it became difficult to articulate clearly. No one could repeat it back in simple terms. That moment highlighted an important principle. If a message is difficult to express, it is equally difficult to sell. The campaigns that perform best rarely appear revolutionary in hindsight. Instead, they feel inevitable. After they succeed, the reaction is often, “Of course that’s what customers wanted.” That outcome is not accidental. It is the result of disciplined simplification, where unnecessary complexity is removed until the message becomes clear and intuitive. Complexity often feels reassuring within organizations because it signals effort. But markets do not reward effort alone. They reward understanding. When an audience can quickly grasp a message and restate it without assistance, the marketing has achieved real clarity. This week’s newsletter explores why effective marketing often feels obvious after the fact, the psychology behind that perception, and how teams can intentionally design clarity into their campaigns. For those focused on creating marketing that resonates because it is clear rather than clever, it offers a valuable perspective.

Sometimes the smartest marketing move is the one no one sees coming. In one of the most inventive brand plays of the last decade, Burger King sponsored Stevenage FC, a little-known football club in England’s League Two. In the FIFA video game franchise, players can transfer global stars like Messi, Ronaldo and Mbappé to any club. Including Stevenage. Burger King recognised that by getting their logo on the team’s kit in real life, it would automatically appear in the game too. Then came the challenge. In 2019, Burger King launched the #StevenageChallenge, encouraging gamers to play as Stevenage, score goals, and post their best moments online in exchange for free food. Suddenly, some of the world's best-known players were "wearing" Burger King shirts on social media. The results were staggering: * 25,000+ goals shared online in Stevenage kits * Stevenage became the most-played team in FIFA Career Mode * Over 1.2 billion campaign impressions * Viral reach that would have cost millions through traditional ad buys As Stevenage’s CEO put it “It’s PR you couldn’t buy as a League Two club, unless you reach the third or fourth round of the FA Cup.” This was an awesome example of understanding how people behave in culture and finding a way to insert the brand into a moment of play and self-expression. It’s a masterclass in how unexpected placements can unlock massive visibility. The lesson here is don’t just ask, “Where do we advertise?” Ask, “Where are people already engaging, sharing or having fun?” Then find an authentic way to show up there. This is how brands showing up in unexpected places works.

Some brands spend crores on advertising. Others just use your metro seat and your head. I came across this ad from BengaliShaadi.com on a Kolkata Metro seat and it’s a perfect example of how contextual marketing and guerrilla advertising can work together to grab attention without burning cash. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary poster. But then I noticed something clever — the person sitting in front looked like they were wearing a Bengali wedding crown. That illusion wasn’t an accident. It was smart visual positioning designed to make the ad interactive in real life. Every time someone sits, they unintentionally become part of the campaign. That’s user-generated visibility at zero cost. From a marketing perspective, it nails three things perfectly: → Audience targeting: Metro commuters = young, tech-savvy Bengalis (the brand’s ideal users). → Emotional trigger: Humor mixed with cultural identity creates instant connection. → Viral potential: The setup encourages people to click photos and share them online — organic reach without paid ads. This is what happens when creativity meets consumer insight. It’s not about how loud your ad is, but how smartly it fits into people’s daily environment. A small idea. Massive recall. What do you think — marketing genius or just lucky timing? #marketingstrategy #brandpositioning #contextualmarketing #guerrillaadvertising