How to Build a Brand That Truly Connects

If your brand doesn’t resonate on a deep level with your target audience, then pouring time and energy into aesthetics and clever messaging is a waste of resources.

Real brand power is based on your brand’s identity: knowing who you are as a company, and how your ideal customer experiences life in relation to your offering.

Search Engine Journal’s Editor-in-Chief Katie Morton sits down with Mordy Oberstein, founder of Unify Brand Marketing, to go deeper on how to build a brand with a solid foundation.

Watch the video or read the full transcript below.

Start With Brand Identity

Katie Morton: Hello, everybody. It is I, Katie Morton, Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Journal, and I’m here today with Mordy Oberstein, who is the founder of Unify Brand Marketing.

So, Mordy, what are we going to talk about today?

Mordy Oberstein: Hi there, everybody. Last time we spoke about what brand marketing is fundamentally and how to approach it. Today, I’m gonna talk about how to actually develop a brand and run through that process.

We’re gonna try to be jargon-free about what brand development actually looks like and what the stages are, and how they should all flow one into the other.

Katie: That sounds great. OK, so what’s the first concept?

Brand Therapy: Don’t Fear a Niche

Mordy: OK, this is where I think brands get really messed up. If you feel like you’ve lost traction, like you don’t have direction or you’re all over the place – whatever it is – most problems come down to this issue, which is… (I’m not going to say the jargon word) but it comes down to: Who are you?

And this is where you’re doing therapy for your brand. You’re trying to figure out who you are in a real, deep way. Kind of what we talked about last time – about building some meaning for yourself. You need to think about: Who are you? Where do you want to be? How do you want to be seen? How are you seen? How do you want to be seen going forward?

This is the part where it gets a little bit scary. I’m going to ask you: What scares you? Because this is where brands kind of feel like, “Maybe we’re going to pigeonhole ourselves.” But you’re not.

I’m not going to use the identity word – wait, I said identity – used jargon. Darn it!

This is where you kind of feel like maybe we’re going to pigeonhole ourselves if we have too much of a pigeonhole kind of audience. Don’t. It’s scary, but you have to do it.

This is where brands get off the rails. You have to understand who you are in a real way, because who you are rolls right into who you’re for.

Know Your Core Audience

Mordy: If I was dating my wife back in the day and my wife didn’t like sports at all, I’d be like, “Oh, my wife’s not for me. I’m a sports nut,” which is not true. That’s not how dating actually works.

Knowing who you are rolls right into: Who are you for?

Once you know who you are, the next step is: Who’s actually interested in you? Who’s your core audience? And this is a direct outcome of who you are, which is why it’s important.

The next stage in brand development – once you know who you are and who you’re for (that doesn’t mean you have to be only for them, but they’re your core) – is what problems does that audience have?

And by problems, I don’t mean USPs (which I know is a jargon word, but I’m going to use it so we know what we’re talking about). I’m not talking about pain points.

I’m talking about: What’s going on in their lives as it generally relates to your product or service?

Let me give you an example: Minivans. Why do I always use minivans? If I was making minivans, I would want to know: What’s the context? What’s the life situation of the parent or guardian driving and schlepping these kids around? What’s happening in their lives around the product?

It’s not a pain point. It’s not a USP. It’s what’s happening in the life of your audience, as it relates to generally speaking about the product/service, whatever you do.

Now that you know that, the next step in brand development is: How do you fit those needs?

This is where your “USP stuff” kind of comes in. And by the way, everything here should align from who you are to your audience, to what their problems are, to how do you fit those needs (because you know who you are now, obviously)?

Build From The Ground Up, Messaging Comes Last

Mordy: Because of who you are, how do you now solve those problems that your audience or people or consumers are dealing with in their lives? Now, once you know that, stage five would be, how do you actually communicate that? Or rather, what’s important about that to communicate?

We now know who we are. We now know who we’re for. We now know what the problems and the life situation is of the people we’re for. And we know how we solve and deal with those situations with who we are as a product, as a service, as an offering.

What’s important to tell the audience about who we are and how we solve their problems?

Don’t try to refine it here. Don’t try to have it snappy and snippy. Nothing catchy. No taglines. Just what’s important conceptually as a framework to communicate to your audience.

What’s conceptually important – what should the audience understand?

And the last step is to refine that. It’s not going to come in one shot. It’ll take multiple iterations to do it. It’s not going to be perfect, and you’ll never be 100% happy with it. It’s better that it’s honest and genuine than it is perfect.

If we want to zoom out and use the jargon, we just ran through:

• Creating brand identity.
• Using identity to define the target audience.
• Understanding the audience’s life context.
• Positioning the offering.
• Developing key messaging.
• And then refining the message.

Katie: I like it.

Mordy: No jargon, I almost got through it!

SaaS Doesn’t Have To Mean Utility

Katie: I think it speaks to our audience to use a little bit of jargon in there. And speaking of that, I’m sure a lot of people you talk to and a lot of people in the Search Engine Journal universe are SaaS, software as a service.

I like the minivan example because it’s easy to wrap your head around. It’s an obvious life circumstance. You just say that word ‘minivan’ and it’s giving you a picture of being married with a bunch of kids, driving them around. You say one word, and it paints this whole picture. With SaaS, it’s so different.

And what would it be like, as a thought exercise to go through this, if you invent a software that’s a rabbit food feeding timer?

Mordy: Okay. A set that feeds your rabbit on a timer.

Katie: Something that’s life-oriented, right? Like, think about our universe, which is really kind of abstract, right? In terms of people’s day-to-day. And they’re really using software, probably in a professional sense, and probably not in their home life for the most part, let’s say like a marketing software or, you know, ads like PPC.

Mordy: I consult for a marketing software, so I’m not going to use a marketing software because I’m biased. Let’s say I use like a video editor tool – does that work?

Katie: Yeah, that works.

Mordy: All right, cool.

Brand Identity is the Foundation

Mordy: First of all, the most important thing is where I think brands get everything wrong. It’s not like one stage, and you go from stage one, which is brand identity to messaging refinement, which is, what, stage six?

Don’t think of it as a line. I did one, and now I go to the next one, then I go to the next one. Think of it like you’re stacking a building. You’re building a building.

The foundation is a brand identity, and then you build the next floor, the next floor, the next – and the top floor, the roof is the refinement that everybody can see from the helicopter.

But they’re not—if you imagine they’re in a helicopter looking down on this roof – they can’t see all of the other layers, but you can. And you have to start with brand identity.

And this – particularly for a SaaS tool – because SaaS, it’s really easy to get stuck in being a utility. “We’re just a utility.”

The problem with being a utility is that there’s no actual connection. And as soon as somebody else finds another utility that’s better, cheaper, or whatever, they’ll move. There’s no loyalty, which is literally what I did… I used another tool. I found it a little bit cumbersome. The pricing wasn’t super clear, so I moved to this one.

Now, I don’t love this one, by the way. If something else came along, I would totally move to the other one.

There’s no identity. I don’t know what separates CapCut from the other one I was using.

I don’t use Camtasia anymore only because I have an old license. I don’t want to pay for a new one. So if I’m going to pay for a new one, I find it a little bit cumbersome.

I have no actual loyalty to any of these platforms because I don’t know who they are and what makes them different.

You know why I don’t know who they are and what makes them different? Because they don’t know who they are.

A Connection With Your Audience Gains Customer Loyalty

Katie: If they worked on connecting with you as a brand and developed that emotional bond, you’d be more likely to stick with them, even if something better came out, a better feature.

Mordy: Because it’d be more for me. Right. They have to ask themselves – and I can’t do this for them – I don’t even know anything about it other than the tool. Someone recommended it to me and I use it.

They have to figure out: Why are you doing this? Why do you want to do this outside of making money? Why do you find this meaningful?

“Oh, because…” Let’s just say, “Because we help. Because we are into the idea of being able to do X, Y, and Z.”

Oh, okay, CapCut. Let’s just say their big thing is (because I use this part of their tool, so I like it—they automatically remove my background and put a new one):

“We’re all about people who don’t have a professional setup feeling like they have a professional setup.”

That’s just really important because we see the value in that. “We want to democratize video content,” etc. That would be an actual brand identity.

So now I know who I’m for. I’m not for a professional. I’m a big brand, I have a whole studio, I’m Coca-Cola, I have a whole in-house studio on site. [I’m not for them.] I’m for this audience.

Now, what are their problems, and what’s going on with them, and what’s happening with them?

Now it’s kind of easier to see.

“I really want to create professional-level content, but I don’t have the skills to do it.” I’m also not an idiot, either. So I kind of know what it’s supposed to look like. I kind of know what it’s supposed to be. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the technical know-how. I don’t want to pay anybody to do it.

These are my problems. How do you come in and solve that?

Katie: So it’s like the entire market proposition is tied into that.

Mordy: But they only realize to talk to me about my problems, and how they solve my problems, once they figure out who they were first.

But everybody skips that step. Everyone goes right to the roof—because that’s the only thing you can see.

Katie: That’s fascinating, Mordy. Brick by brick – you’ve got to stack it up before you get to the helicopter view.

Mordy: Gotcha. It’ll all come crumbling down at a certain point. The messaging won’t work. It’ll all fall apart. That sounds really doomsday-ish.

Katie: It does. But I do think that I will be checking out CapCut’s branding – to see what are they doing over there?

All I know is their little logo that I see frequently at the end of some of my favorite creators.

Mordy: So that’s good branding. It’s not great branding, but better than nothing.

Katie: Exactly. Better than nothing.

Wrapping Up: Shout Brand From The Rooftops

Well, Mordy, this has been very enlightening, and I want to thank you for coming on and sharing with me today.

What’s next?

Mordy: I was going to shout “brand!” from the rooftops. That was so like a dad joke.

Next time, we’re going to dive deeper into Stage One, which is building brand identity, and what that actually looks like, and how you do it.

Katie: That’d be fantastic. All right, everybody, thanks for joining us. And check us out: searchenginejournal.com.

Mordy, what’s your website?…

Mordy: Oh, I should know this – good branding! unifybrandmarketing.com.

Katie: Awesome. All right. See you next time, everybody.

Katie & Mordy: Bye!

More Resources:

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Why Meaning Matters Most In Branding (And How To Build It)

Building a genuine emotional connection is crucial for forming a meaningful bond with your audience and transforming them into your most loyal customers.

In this episode, Katie Morton, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Journal, and Mordy Oberstein, founder of Unify Brand Marketing, explore why meaning is the foundation of successful brand marketing.

They break down how branding compounds over time, why emotional connections matter, and how to differentiate between surface-level and deep emotional engagement.

You can watch the full video here and find the full transcript below:

Why Meaning Matters Most In Branding – And How To Build It [Full Transcript]

Katie: Hey, everybody! It’s Katie and Mordy, and we’re here to talk about brands.

I’m Katie Morton, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Journal, and this is Mordy Oberstein, who is the founder of Unify Brand Marketing. He’s an expert on branding.

I’m so excited to be doing this series with Mordy. I know that I’m going to learn a lot, and so will you.

Mordy: I’m stoked about this. I see that; I have pure self-interest. I see a lot of performance marketing and brand marketing fusing together.

People on the performance side are talking about brand, which I’m excited to show them. Like, okay, here’s exactly why: If you’re on the performance side, you should be talking about brand.

Katie: Yeah, well, especially these days, right? So, today, we’re going to talk about – well, Mordy’s going to teach us a lot about why meaning matters most in branding and how to build it. Tell me about “meaning in brand.”

Mordy: Meaning matters most because meaning is absolutely everything for brand.

Brand is fundamentally about connection – everything starts from there. And that’s kind of why branding – it’s compounding over time, which is a little bit different than, say, performance marketing, where you’re just running PPC ads.

Brand compounds over time. Just like you don’t get married after one date (unless, I guess, you’re in [Las] Vegas) – you don’t form a bond with an audience after one activity, one asset, or one moment. Connection compounds.

It’s also very associative. Think about Nike back in the day, building up associations off the back of Michael Jordan – literally off the back of Michael Jordan – and reverse, but at the basis of all of that is meaning.

Fundamentally – I know this might sound a little bit weird – we as human beings are creatures of meaning, not utility.

Everything we do, in a weird way, is a search for meaning. The search for meaning is the search for being, the search for existing.

Wow. I know we just got super existential like two minutes in, but that’s actually good because branding is super existential. And that’s why the glue that holds the connection together is meaning. And I’ll prove it to you.

The More Meaningful You Are As a Brand, The Deeper The Connection

So, imagine you had a friend – which, for me, is hard to imagine – but every week, you and this friend went to a baseball game.

Every day (that would be impossible because they don’t play baseball every day, and they stop playing for five months), but imagine they played all year round, and you went every single day for five years.

Or, let’s say you played Dungeons & Dragons in your mom’s basement (whatever floats your boat) once a week for five years. That’s got to be a good friend to keep doing that for five years together.

But that’s nowhere near as close as you are to, let’s say, your mom – assuming that you are close. Conceptually, even if you hardly ever see your mom, you’re still far closer to her. Why?

Because your friend, in this case, helps you relax, have a good time, and connect over common interests.

Your mom, though – your mom helped shape who you are. She provided for you. She gave you life. All of that deeper stuff. And that’s far more meaningful than what your friend provides you with in this particular case.

The more meaningful, the more core to actual existence, the more connection is possible. The more core you as a brand are to your audience’s actual existence, the stronger the bond.

The more meaningful your brand is, i.e., the more it speaks to things that are core and integral to your audience and their very being, the more connection you’re going to have with them.

So, there is no brand without meaning because there’s no genuine connection without meaning. Meaning has to be at the core of your brand strategy.

And I will tell you, 99.9999% of the time, it is not.

The net outcome of that is you spend tons of time either trying to build up a brand that doesn’t work or trying to elicit a reaction, whether it be a payment, social media engagement, or whatever it is, from your audience.

It’s like moving a mountain. If you want your performance not to be like moving mountains, you need to have a brand that has meaning. If you want to push user activations, you first have to connect in a meaningful way.

Because what you’re basically asking a user to do when you ask them to convert or whatever it is, you’re basically asking them to give you a loan for, I don’t know, $500, whatever you’re charging for your product.

You’re asking them to do it for a total stranger. When was the last time you opened your wallet for a total stranger? I mean, you should – it’s good to be generous – but this is business, not charity.

I know, but I do want to say there are practical things to do here.

I know that was very conceptual, but I did that on purpose because brands should be conceptual. I didn’t want to start with the pragmatics of it, but there are actual practical things you could be doing.

So, just to run through a few of them:

Takeaway 1: Think Micro Level

One thing that helps me is to think about it at the micro level.

When you start talking about connection, audience, creating relationships, and getting people to be motivated, when you keep it at the micro level, like between you and a friend or you and another person, it’s really easy to see how that works.

But for some reason, when we zoom out to brands and companies, we start to lose that basic sense of reality, and those things become difficult. So, fine – keep it at the micro level.

What works for actual relationships, identity, and resonance between two people also works at the macro level. Extrapolate from there.

Takeaway 2: Differentiate Between Surface-Level Emotions And Core, Integral Emotions

The second thing – and I probably should have started with this because it’s more important – is to differentiate between surface-level emotions and core, integral emotions.

You have to be honest about that.

For example, fun is a very surface-level emotion, whereas things like connection or overcoming struggle are much deeper and more meaningful.

So, you need to be honest with yourself and understand what kind of emotional targeting your brand identity actually goes after. If it’s surface-level, don’t do that.

To help you do that, you can use a rubric to break down those emotional experiences.

If you’re trying to elicit an emotional reaction from an audience, targeting an emotional state of mind rather, with an audience, ask yourself: Is the emotional state you’re targeting surface-level? Neutral? Mildly deep? Does it have significant resonance? Is it deep or dripping with meaning? Or is it existential – does it produce a visceral reaction?

Like when you’re watching a movie – mine is Field of Dreams. When the dad and the kid play catch, you just can’t help yourself from crying.

If your brand can produce that kind of emotional connection, you’ve hit the mark.

Takeaway 3: Lean Into What’s Meaningful To You

The third thing is to lean into what’s meaningful to you.

It’s a two-way street. You can’t just target the audience – it’s a relationship.

So, what’s meaningful to you matters also. You can’t fake it till you make it. You have to understand who you are, what’s meaningful to you, and how that fits into the audience’s context.

Takeaway 4: Tap Into Who You Already Are

You should think about this more as tapping – I know we say building brand, but it’s more like tapping – into yourself, and understanding and really being honest with who you are, what you are, and what you’re trying to do, versus building something.

It’s more of tapping into something that’s already there – super helpful.

Katie: That was awesome. That was so profound of me. That’s awesome, Mordy. Cool.

Mordy: Like, hey, Paul, I interviewed Paul McCartney. Remember when he was in the Beatles? Yeah, that was awesome, man. I’m dating myself with that skit, by the way.

Q&A

Is It Universally Applicable? How Do You Apply It To An Unemotional Product Or Service?

Katie: I have a question for you. Is this universally applicable? Let’s say you are selling Mordy’s Widgets and Shakes, and you’re a company that sells cogs for wheels and milkshakes.

Mordy: Strong brand identity right there – cogs and milkshakes.

Katie: Right? Yeah. So, but, you know, milkshakes – people emotionally eat. And so, like, that’s an easier one, obviously, to connect with people on.

But cogs are really, like, they’re pretty – you know, like, the clockwork thing might be pretty unemotional.

So, would you appeal to people’s need for control or accuracy or precision?

Like, how do you apply this to something that might seem like an unemotional product or service?

Mordy: So, people ask me this kind of, like, all the time. What I just outlined is a process, and that process is universal. So, I’m not talking like – it always will look slightly different when it’s applied.

But the thing with brand, maybe different than maybe other disciplines, is that it’s all about process, and the process should be relatively universal.

So, let’s say you’re talking about widgets. First off, there’s a reason why you went into that business.

There’s a reason why you think it’s important that people have this widget.

There’s a reason why – there’s an impact that you’re trying to make on people’s lives. There’s a story there, right? There’s meaning in that. If there wasn’t meaning to that, why are you doing it?

Katie: Right? Even if it’s something like efficiency or cost savings.

Mordy: Yeah, no – like, just doing something, right? And then, but I would always – like, if it’s an efficiency – like, people will stop. Why is that efficiency important to that person? Like, what’s going on? Imagine it’s, like, a busy parent, and you’re making their lives more efficient.

So, we say, “Our product makes it more efficient.” I wouldn’t stop there. Right? Go to the next: What does that efficiency look like to that person? And why does it matter? Yeah.

Katie: How would that touch them emotionally – to feel like their life works, that they have a car that they can trust?

Mordy: I feel like a cog in a machine.

Katie: Don’t we all at times, Mordy? Don’t we all?

How Do You Bring Messaging To A Deeper Level?

Katie: So, and then, the other question I actually wanted to ask you is this: So, what if – let’s go back to the ice cream. What if it just feels surfac-y and it doesn’t feel deep? How do you bring it to that deeper level?

Like, as opposed to, like, you know, “I had a bad day, and I want to eat a pint because I know it’ll feel better.” It’s very surfac-y. But, like, what’s under that? How do you go deeper?

Mordy: So, personally, in that particular case, like, what’s going on is making you want to eat like that? Like, there’s clearly something going on.

Now, you know, as someone who would sit down with a pint, this inevitably pops up. I’ll tell you where it pops up a lot – where you have, like, a year in the vertical – I’ll say digital marketing agencies.

We all kind of sound the same. Sorry. We offer PPC and SEO, and, like, well, what else do we say?

So, again, it’s all about tapping in. If you can tap into why digital marketing is meaningful to you, like I said before, it’s a two-way street.

There has to be part of you involved in this connection – the meeting of two identities: your audience’s identity and your identity.

So, if you were like, “Oh, tap into yourself. Why did you get into digital marketing? Why do you think it’s important for people to have this? What do you think it does for them?”

Again, all of that motivation and reasoning and story behind what you did and how you got here – there’s usually an underlying level of meaning in there that you just haven’t sat down and really gotten in touch with.

Think of it like therapy for your brand.

Katie: Yeah, I really like that, Mordy.

Wrapping Up: What’s Next?

Katie: So, I think that in future episodes, we will get more into things like, “So, how does that translate into messaging or calls to action?” Or, you know, all the various things that brands can help with.

So, just teasing that a little bit – there’s definitely more to come.

Mordy: We’re going to get into a lot of, “How does brand actually impact your performance?” I’ll give you a spoiler alert: It makes it a lot cheaper.

Katie: Nice. All right. All right, Mordy, do you have any final thoughts for today, or should we wrap it up?

Mordy: Oh, no, I’m saving my thoughts for the next episode. Tease.

Katie: Yeah. No, all good things. All right. Well, that’s it for today. Have a good one. I am Katie Morton. This is Mordy Oberstein, signing out. Bye.

Mordy: Bye.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

How CMOs Can Tell Stories To Manage Change [Case Study With Mondelēz International] via @sejournal, @gregjarboe

Chief marketing officers should evaluate and synthesize success stories to learn from past marketing efforts, identify repeatable strategies, and demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of their work to stakeholders.

Ultimately, this can help to drive better future campaigns and business outcomes.

As Steve Jobs once observed, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”

Telling Stories To Manage Change And Uncertainty

Storytelling is important because it’s a fundamental way that humans connect, share experiences, and learn.

It fosters empathy, creativity, and emotional intelligence while also helping to build relationships, convey complex ideas, and inspire action.

Mondelēz International, a Fortune 500 company in over 150 countries, generated around $36 billion in net revenue in 2024.

Its well-known international and local brands include Oreo, Ritz, and Tate’s Bake Shop cookies and baked goods, along with chocolate favorites like Cadbury Dairy Milk and Toblerone.

(Disclosure: I was a member of a team of subject matter experts who taught a bespoke digital marketing training program for hundreds of marketers at Mondelēz International. I can share its story now without violating my non-disclosure agreement because it has since made this information public.)

Mondelēz International’s Journey To Customer-Centric Growth

The challenge for any Fortune 500 CMO is navigating the ever-evolving consumer behavior and technological advancements.

Mondelēz International, a global snack giant, offers a compelling blueprint for not only reacting to change, but also proactively shaping it.

Its journey, spanning several years, highlights the critical elements of foresight, collaboration, and a deep commitment to understanding the customer.

Embracing Empathy At Scale

Back in 2019, Mondelēz recognized a fundamental shift in consumer expectations. The desire for generic brand messaging was waning, replaced by a craving for familiarity and personalization.

This insight spurred a strategic pivot, moving the company from a margin-focused approach to one centered on growth, fueled by increased marketing investment and a concept it termed “empathy at scale.”

This wasn’t just about collecting data; it was about establishing the right connection with the right customer at the right time.

The early days of the pandemic underscored the wisdom of this shift.

While consumer behavior was in flux, Mondelēz’s prior investment in digital maturity and flexibility provided the agility needed to adapt.

The bedrock of this strategy was a profound understanding of its consumers, allowing it to create genuine value, a principle that remains timeless in the face of uncertainty.

Mondelez India’s Automation-Driven Success

Mondelez India has achieved remarkable success through automation, particularly in the diverse Indian market.

Its innovative approach to ad personalization has demonstrated the transformative power of marketing automation and machine learning in creating deep customer connections and driving significant sales.

During the Diwali festive season, Mondelez India recognized the immense value of local relevance for its Cadbury Celebrations gift boxes.

It ingeniously leveraged voice AI and ML to create ads featuring megastar Shah Rukh Khan, in which he personally named local stores selling their products.

This technology enabled the efficient generation of a staggering 130,000 videos, each tailored to a specific store.

Using YouTube’s advanced contextual targeting, the campaign matched ad versions with the right audience based on their proximity to local stores.

This hyper-local approach resonated strongly, resulting in a 60% increase in YouTube engagement, 42% growth in sales at local stores, and 33 million gift boxes sold during the festive season. The campaign underscored the power of making consumers feel directly seen and acknowledged within their local context.

Mondelez India further pushed the boundaries of ad personalization with its campaign for Perk, a chocolate brand popular among youth.

Recognizing the cultural phenomenon of “cancel culture,” the brand aimed to inject humor and encourage levity.

Using AI to identify 2.5 million of the most searched videos, it created custom disclaimers that playfully warned viewers of potential “triggers” within the content, such as a carrot being aggressively chopped in a cooking video.

These short, pre-roll ads were seamlessly integrated into each of the millions of trending videos using Google’s custom-built API and Director Mix technology.

The campaign’s clever and highly contextualized approach resonated with viewers, bringing in an impressive 84 million views, 635 million impressions, and a 20% spike in sales.

It demonstrated how injecting timely cultural relevance, powered by automation, can capture attention and drive business results.

Bridging The Art And Science Of Marketing

The execution of “empathy at scale” demanded a fundamental transformation in how Mondelēz operated. It wasn’t enough to have insightful data; the brand needed to activate it effectively.

This required a powerful synergy between the “art” of marketing and the “science” of data.

A pivotal element was the strong partnership between the chief marketing and sales officer and the architect of their data infrastructure. This collaboration was the engine driving their digital transformation.

Recognizing the need for robust data management, Mondelēz partnered with Google Cloud to build regional data hubs for first-party data.

Critically, it also invested in training its teams to leverage these new capabilities. This wasn’t just about technology adoption; it was about empowering its people to harness the power of data.

This strategic overhaul yielded impressive results. By integrating previously siloed data, Mondelēz gained a holistic view of its consumers, enabling it to deliver personalized content that cut through the noise.

This human-driven strategic shift, augmented by technology, resulted in significant ROI increases globally and in the U.S., laying a solid foundation for sustained growth.

Leveraging AI To Scale Personalization And Reach New Audiences

The marketing landscape continues to evolve, with audience fragmentation across media platforms becoming a significant challenge.

For brands with deep heritage, like Cadbury, the added complexity lies in extending their reach beyond traditional channels to engage new generations.

The story of Cadbury’s Creme Egg offers a powerful illustration of how to navigate this challenge.

Faced with increased competition and cost-of-living pressures impacting consumer spending, Cadbury recognized the need to connect with Gen Z and Millennials, who were less engaged with traditional TV advertising.

Building on its existing digital presence, particularly on YouTube, the brand explored the potential of AI-powered video advertising. Initially, adapting its existing TV ad for digital seemed like the most cost-effective approach.

However, it discovered that YouTube’s AI ad formats, specifically Video Reach Campaigns, required a diverse range of creative assets built from the ground up. This realization highlighted the importance of platform-specific creative strategies.

Through a collaboration with Google’s Creative Works team and its creative agency VCCP, Cadbury embraced this challenge. It developed a series of assets for an AI-driven campaign centered around its iconic “How do you eat yours?” slogan.

Leveraging consumer research, it highlighted different eating styles, creating quirky and engaging video statements in various formats, from six-second bumpers to longer ads with compelling story arcs.

By providing a diverse content ecosystem, Cadbury empowered YouTube’s AI to effectively match the right Creme Egg message with the right viewer at the right time.

This approach, managed through a single campaign, allowed the AI to optimize ad delivery based on business goals and audience signals far more effectively than manual adjustments.

Despite economic pressures, the success of this AI-powered campaign, which focused on maximizing unique reach, led to increased investment in both production and media, demonstrating the power of AI to enhance campaigns while underscoring the enduring importance of human creativity.

Key Takeaways For CMOs

This series of Mondelēz International case studies offers valuable insights for CMOs seeking to navigate the complexities of modern marketing and foster customer-centric growth.

Several key takeaways emerge from these examples.

1. Customer Empathy Serves As The Foundational Element For Sustainable Growth

Mondelēz’s early recognition of the necessity to prioritize understanding its customers over solely focusing on margin proved pivotal.

This “empathy at scale” approach became the cornerstone of its subsequent achievements.

This goes beyond mere data collection; true empathy involves utilizing those insights to generate genuine value for the customer by deeply understanding their needs and desires.

The resilience of this customer-centric strategy was particularly evident during the pandemic, enabling Mondelēz to adapt swiftly due to its preexisting strong understanding of its consumers.

2. Hyper-Personalization Implemented At Scale Drives Significant Results

The success of Mondelez India with campaigns for Cadbury Celebrations and Perk illustrates the transformative potential of marketing automation and machine learning in delivering personalized experiences on a large scale.

The Cadbury Celebrations campaign brilliantly demonstrated the impact of hyper-local personalization, making consumers feel directly seen and acknowledged within their own communities.

Furthermore, the Perk campaign highlighted the effectiveness of incorporating timely cultural relevance, powered by AI, to cut through the noise and resonate effectively with audiences.

3. Bridging The Gap Between The Art And Science Of Marketing Is Essential For Success

Effective marketing in today’s landscape demands a strong synergy between the creative aspects of marketing and the analytical power of data.

Achieving this requires critical cross-functional collaboration, particularly a strong working relationship between the CMO/CSO and the data infrastructure architect to drive digital transformation.

Investing in robust data infrastructure is only part of the equation; CMOs must also prioritize training their teams to effectively utilize these new capabilities.

Ultimately, integrating siloed data to gain a holistic view of the customer enables more effective personalization and improves overall return on investment.

Summary

While AI is a powerful tool for scaling personalization and reaching new audiences, it necessitates a strategic approach.

AI can assist brands in overcoming the challenge of reaching increasingly fragmented audiences across numerous platforms.

However, it’s crucial to recognize that platform-specific creative is often necessary, as simply repurposing traditional creative for digital platforms may not be optimal.

AI-powered ad formats often require tailored creative strategies developed from the outset.

Despite the capabilities of AI, human creativity remains essential. Compelling and engaging creative, driven by human insights, is still fundamental to campaign success.

Even during periods of economic pressure, investing in AI-powered campaigns focused on maximizing unique reach can yield significant results and justify further investment in this technology.

The Mondelēz journey underscores the importance of a fundamental shift towards customer-centricity, enabled by strategic investments in technology, data, and talent.

By embracing these principles, CMOs can equip their Fortune 500 companies to not only weather the storms of change and uncertainty, but also to emerge stronger and more connected with their customers.

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Featured Image: StockLite/Shutterstock

To Navigate AI Turbulence, CMOs Can Apply The Flywheel Model via @sejournal, @gregjarboe

Right now, as technology changes daily, chief marketing officers face exceptional levels of change and uncertainty. But it’s not for the first time (or the last).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly two-thirds of CMOs in Fortune 500 companies overcame the extraordinary challenge of navigating change and uncertainty.

This resulted in 65% of CMOs who exited their roles after an average tenure of 4.3 years  “being promoted to more senior roles” or “making lateral moves to other attractive CMO positions.”

However, what was a pandemic obstacle course has been followed by an AI Olympic steeplechase.

To navigate these turbulent times, CMOs should consider analyzing marketing research and applying digital trends to:

• Discover consumer insights for effective marketing in a dynamic market.
• Unlock exceptional marketing results and increase return on investment (ROI) with the power of AI.
• Reach customers across search, video, social, and shopping platforms.
• Drive progress in marketing by championing the latest innovations and ideas.
• Transform their data into a tool for building a lasting business advantage.

To lead their teams, CMOs could also apply the flywheel model, a customer-centric approach to business growth.

Adding AI To The Traditional Flywheel

Recently, based on a survey of 2,000 global marketers, Think With Google wrote:

“The traditional flywheel has always existed in marketing. Now, leaders are adding AI to multiply its momentum.”

Screenshot from Think With Google, April 2025

The article provides CMOs with a framework, built on four interconnected pillars:

1. Measurement and insights.
2. Media and personalization.
3. Creativity and content.
4. People and process.

This framework outlines how AI is amplifying the traditional marketing flywheel.

Measurement And Insights

The first pillar, stresses the importance of aligning key performance indicators (KPIs) with business performance metrics like profit and ROI.

Implementing modern, AI-powered measurement tools is crucial for accurate data and insights while respecting privacy.

A foundation of well-defined KPIs, historical data, and first-party data enables outcome-based planning, where AI predicts and improves campaign performance, optimizing budget allocation.

The future involves an AI-powered Marketing Engine for continuous, real-time optimization.

Media And Personalization

The second pillar, focuses on AI’s role in delivering the right ad to the right person at the right time.

Leading marketers scale successful AI-powered campaigns, shifting budgets for maximum ROI and flexibility.

AI identifies engaged, high-value audiences across channels, revealing valuable consumer behavior insights.

The ultimate stage is AI-powered media transformation, where an AI engine autonomously creates and refines media plans in real time based on continuous measurement.

Creativity And Content

The third pillar, explores how generative AI aids in brainstorming impactful ideas to help develop innovative content.

AI identifies and amplifies top-performing assets, and AI-powered “creative studios” accelerate time-to-market.

AI also enables pre-launch testing and optimization, bringing the goal of real-time, personalized creative delivery closer to reality.

People And Process

The fourth pillar, emphasizes collaboration, extending to the C-suite.

Sharing prioritized AI opportunities early is vital. Transformative leaders restructure organizations to fully leverage the AI engine.

Scaling AI success requires investing in AI talent to develop new operational methods, which are then formalized and disseminated.

Leading marketers design improved workflows and assess AI impact, recognizing that holistic organizational transformation is needed.

The article concludes that these four interdependent pathways merge to create the AI-powered Marketing Engine, amplifying the traditional marketing flywheel.

Analyzing Market Research And Applying Audience Research

CMOs will quickly notice that “The AI-powered Marketing Engine” framework can help to overcome four of the five obstacles that I mentioned above:

• Measurement and insights can help transform their data into a tool for building a lasting business advantage.
• Media and personalization can help to reach customers across search, video, social, and shopping platforms.
• Creativity and content can help unlock exceptional marketing results and increase ROI.
• People and process can help to drive progress in marketing by championing the latest innovations and ideas.

And CMOs will immediately wonder: Why can’t the AI-powered Marketing Engine help our analysts discover consumer insights for effective marketing in a dynamic market?

That’s the right question to ask, and there are two probable answers.

The first was provided by Avinash Kaushik in 2014, when he asked, “Is your company creating reporting squirrels or analysis ninjas?”

In any organization, investments in data generate two distinct types of work: Reporting Squirrel work and Analysis Ninja work. While both are important, only one directly contributes to improving the company’s financial performance.

Reporting Squirrels primarily focus on data production, spending most of their time creating reports for various stakeholders.

Their responsibilities include data extraction, query writing, fulfilling ad-hoc requests, scheduling data outputs, and coordinating with IT teams for data acquisition.

Conversely, Analysis Ninjas dedicate their time to analyzing data and generating actionable insights, which are typically communicated in clear, plain language.

Their work involves tasks such as data retrieval, segmentation, in-depth exploration, modeling, creating unique datasets, answering business questions, and defining data requirements for Reporting Squirrels and IT teams.

It’s important to note that Fortune 500 companies don’t typically hire individuals with the titles “Reporting Squirrel” and “Analysis Ninja.” Instead, they employ analysts or data scientists.

However, CMOs need to ask if these professionals are primarily focused on data output rather than providing actionable recommendations.

The second probable answer was in my recent article, where I mentioned, “GA4 gives us less than a third of the data we need to know about user acquisition: The initial stage of building business awareness and acquiring user interest.”

I added, “Somehow, we’ve missed what GA4 can’t – or doesn’t – tell us about the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT): the moment in the purchase process when the consumer or business buyer researches a product or service prior to visiting your website.”

So, if CMOs realize that they don’t have a clue about where the lion’s share of their customers discovered their brands or products before visiting their website, then what should they do?

They have two options: Get audience research and conduct market research.

Audience research and market research are distinct but complementary approaches to understanding a business environment.

Audience Research

Audience research focuses on the individual, delving into the needs, preferences, behaviors, and language of the target audience.

This micro-level perspective is achieved through direct engagement with the audience via interviews, surveys, focus groups, social media analysis, and by leveraging existing customer data like customer relationship management (CRM) and support logs.

Market Research

In contrast, market research takes a broader, macroeconomic view, examining the overall landscape.

It involves analyzing industry trends, competitor activities, economic data, and trade publications to assess the viability of products or services.

Think of market research as providing the map, indicating where to go, and audience research as the compass, guiding you on the best path to get there. Therefore, both types of research play crucial roles.

AI Won’t Take Your Job. Somebody Using AI Will

CMOs remember what economist Richard Baldwin said at the 2023 World Economic Forum’s Growth Summit: “AI won’t take your job. It’s somebody using AI that will.”

They understand that their Fortune 500 company expects them to successfully navigate the complexities of the AI era and achieve sustainable growth.

To do that, they must embrace AI-powered tools and frameworks while prioritizing a deep understanding of their audience through dedicated research efforts.

By integrating these approaches, CMOs can transform data into actionable insights, optimize marketing strategies, and ultimately, build a lasting competitive advantage in an increasingly dynamic market.

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Featured Image: R.bussarin/Shutterstock