Interview with Jenni Romaniuk
Jenni Romaniuk is a Research Professor of Marketing and Associate Director (International) at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute - the world’s largest centre for research into marketing.
Hi Jenni, thanks for chatting with us!Firstly, we’d love for you to tell us a little about yourself and what you do?
I am a Research Professor at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, based at the University of South Australia. My primary goal is to discover and share new knowledge in marketing science. I specialise in how the stuff people hold about brands in their memories affects the choices they make, and how marketing activity affects the stuff in people’s heads.
More specifically, my research areas are Mental Availability, Distinctive Assets and Brand Health measurement and metrics. My research hobbies include Word of mouth and Buyer behaviour.
You’ve recently written a book about future-proofing your brand’s identity which will be available at Festival of Marketing. What are some of your top tips for building distinctive brand assets?
Yes, brand identity is an area where I see actions taken with the best of intentions, but unfortunately many mistakes are made due to lack of metrics and long-term strategy. The aim of the book is to bring together, in one place, an understanding of strategy, measurement and tactics to Building Distinctive. The three headline tips I would have are:
Don’t make life hard for yourself through poor asset selection– Use metrics and knowledge to avoid assets that will be more difficult to build. There are no best assets, but there are definitely worse ones.
Think menu rather than meal – Select your set of assets like you would a restaurant menu, so you can choose the best one each time for the branding context. Too often assets are treated in isolation, rather than how the set of assets work together in all branding contexts.
Make ‘no’ your default response to change – If you select smartly, your brand’s Distinctive Assets should outlast you. Too often investments in Distinctive Assets are abandoned for no valid reason. Only change if there is a strategic advantage in doing so.
At the Festival, you’ll be speaking around the science of marketing and whether the same rules of observation and measurement in science should apply to marketing. Could you tell us more about this topic and your thoughts on it?
Marketing is a science, but it is a young one and we (both academia and industry practitioners) are often not very nurturing parents. We try to dress up marketing science with theories ‘borrowed’ from other sciences, rather than construct theories that reflect the actual marketing world. We are often seduced by anecdotes and weak tests. We favour the new over the robust. Until we mature into better parents, marketing science will be stifled and its evolution hamstrung.
What do you think makes an ‘effective marketer’?
We are a young science with a lot of myths still abounding. This means an effective marketer has to be willing to learn and revise thinking as empirical facts emerge. Good marketing is a constant ‘learn – act – learn – act’ cycle. If you think you know all the answers now, you have not been asking very good questions.