Latest / The Marketing Brief / Dominick and Brian Tackle Authenticity and How Consumers Navigate a Stretched Economy (S1 E19)
Transcript
- Brian Aucoin: to the Marketing Brief podcast. I am your host, Brian Acquan. This is the podcast where we briefly touch on subjects across the marketing landscape. And we are always joined by a marketing expert. And today we are joined by the CEO of RTM Nexus, Dominic Miserandino. Dominic, welcome in. Dominick Miserandino: Thank you, Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Brian Aucoin: It's great to have you. Would you like to introduce yourself to the listeners? Dominick Miserandino: I appreciate that. am a multi-time CEO, I'm on a few boards, I advise a few companies, and I'm right now running RTM Nexus, which is a wonderful ⁓ networking community where various C-suites get together ⁓ share ideas ⁓ ⁓ each other grow. ⁓ that's a short Titan intro for you. ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yes, I like it. Yeah, and I know you could go on because there's a lot of slashes in your LinkedIn bio. And I know you've had a lot of TV appearances. You're called for a lot of things. So thank you for making some time for our listeners. Dominick Miserandino: Thank you for having me, truly thank you, I enjoy this kind of thing, so this is awesome. Brian Aucoin: Awesome. Well, we've been tackling some consumer insights this year, which we're really interested in. And ⁓ I know they kind of cross over with what you've been talking about. So Quant Consulting, ⁓ identified authenticity, community, and value as being three really macro trends for consumers right now. I know authenticity is something that ⁓ cross over on. Is a certain way that you kind of approach authenticity in this economy right now? Dominick Miserandino: I think authenticity is the connecting to the human. And all too often think ⁓ marketing just in terms of pure numbers, terms of ⁓ enough dollars out and you'll solve it. I think though that at times, ⁓ once connect with a person, it converts than no how you throw at them. ⁓ An example would be, know, if you can spend as much money as you want to make the airplane fly minutes faster, but if you give the people free Wi-Fi, they'll choose that airline ⁓ nine times out of ⁓ just want to connect and feel ⁓ with each other. Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Yeah, completely agree. And I mean, that is the goal of marketing. think it's become even more important ⁓ the other kind of subject we've been exploring is how we're leaving this attention economy ⁓ you had to be in front of consumers 24 hours a day. I'm going to shout the loudest. I'm going to get the most engagement. ⁓ thank you. Yeah. ⁓ what we've Dominick Miserandino: great. Brian Aucoin: we've looked at is it's becoming more of a conversation economy, right? It doesn't matter how many times you shout, are you getting feedback from the consumer? Are you engaging in these conversations? It seems like authenticity is the route to actually getting a real conversation going with consumers. Dominick Miserandino: I think authenticity has always been there. There a moment ⁓ of anonymous, that up with the of the internet where everyone was kind of spamming everybody. But we still had it within us. It was a novelty. It was confusing. know, random phone calls, random texts, emails. But the inherent human nature authenticity still ⁓ right through ⁓ anonymous world. ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Yeah. And in a in a I look at it in the space of customer service now that you have with brands. There's a certain expectation that the brand is going to text you back. The brand is going to be in your direct messages willing kind of engage with you. And you know can probably spot if it's an agent ⁓ right versus if it's a person. ⁓ Is a space that you're kind of exploring? Dominick Miserandino: Yeah, it is an interesting challenge because I do think, especially AI and agents, it could be an enhancement, which is wonderful. But also at times, we're getting a little more used to that. So I think we've become a hyper-focused society, if you will, where we're very concerned. We all... Brian Aucoin: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Dominick Miserandino: for authenticity, we really do. And you these tools which allow for mass, but inauthentic AI, ⁓ and that a little bit of an issue, you know? ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yeah. And it also allows authenticity to really stand out more, right? You can spot it. You know when it's real and you want to engage with it. Dominick Miserandino: Absolutely, I think the average person know that but we did have a societal jump towards societal jump towards know ⁓ going online pressing a button it that and then now we went maybe ⁓ too ⁓ you I'm saying ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yeah, automation. Yeah, yeah, the pendulum always swings back. Dominick Miserandino: 100 % it always does. always does. yeah, it's just I think societally thinking of that, you know. Brian Aucoin: Mm Well, it totally lends itself to another macro trend we're identified or we're examining now, which is community. I think in a lot of ways we're still in this post COVID world where people are coming out of their home still, but you're trying to find your groups of people, people that have like minded thoughts that are into the same things as you. When I talk to brands in my consulting role, I talk about the brand can be a platform for people, right? You can create a community in which people can now connect and then the brand is seen as favorable ⁓ that community. Does resonate with you? Dominick Miserandino: Well, yes, that is the nature of online, was to find place the world. You know, that was the nature. We went out there to find one's place, to find that community. I think happened at first also was that it became that mess wall of insanity with ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Dominick Miserandino: And then eventually we got better at finding that someone might be an Instagram this or a Twitter that or a Facebook this and you started getting more and more tight within those requests. And it certainly makes a difference. It certainly does make that difference when people could say, okay. I could breathe, you know, I found my people. That's ultimately, but if you think about it, that was the initial goal of online, still is. want to connect with my people. Whatever ⁓ it be. Do you know what saying? ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. What are some things that you look for in community online? are you trying to find your people in certain subjects? Dominick Miserandino: think looking for authentic, ⁓ is in who is that person. One of the things I try to do when I'm having a networking call is I will say, how I help you? ⁓ And reason I'm doing it is I ⁓ also one needs. create that authentic connection. know, like if it's just another where you're like, all right, what do you need, what do you need, what do you need? But if you can actually say, remember that moment Brian and ⁓ I did ⁓ but I that's also human. You always want say, I remember that time you spit up the coffee and it was very funny. You need to have moments ⁓ to ultimately connect ⁓ dots. ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Those moments usually happen IRL, right? In real life, if you're meeting up with people or you're having a face-to-face confrontation. Yeah. Dominick Miserandino: But I would also argue they could happen online, but you need to really Brian Aucoin: Invest in it. Yeah. Invest in it. Sure. Well, I'd also love to ask you about your view on the economy right now. I know it's something that you get called on a lot when things happen in the economy. People have been calling it the K shaped economy. I've been kind of calling it the do whatever you can ⁓ economy. to home a paycheck. How are you viewing this economy for consumers right now? Dominick Miserandino: work on it. You need to really connect. Absolutely. ⁓ yes. Well, I think it's funny you started with authenticity because I feel like that is what does occur when economy is like this. it's strong economies, the answer is go out ⁓ get me 50 Super Bowl commercials below the budget, I don't care. And ⁓ when comes like this... Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Dominick Miserandino: different story. you know what saying? When it comes like this, it's a different story. When you have an economy that have to watch every time, you wait a minute, wait a minute, let me that up. ⁓ And I that is where it's critical when you have like this in history, you do want authenticity, because every dollar matters. Authenticity is that. ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Mm-hmm. Dominick Miserandino: goal of a negative economy in a way and then we forget that then we get a super strong economy and then you go super wide and then get, you know, the cycles go along with the authenticity at times. ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yeah, I'm totally seeing that too. It's trying to find those qualified leads versus just thousands and thousands of leads. I think when consumers view it now, they view it as what's the value I'm getting back from the dollars I'm spending, right? If gonna pull back on my streaming services, what's the one that I'm getting the most ⁓ out right? Or I'm making decisions based on... Dominick Miserandino: Absolutely. Brian Aucoin: how it's delivering for me, what the experience is against the dollars I have to put into it. Dominick Miserandino: Yep. I think that is absolutely what people are looking for. And I think we are in a very interesting time because also post COVID, there a high degree ⁓ of know, press the button, get the door to ask you a front door. ⁓ These happened, you know, and now it's part of the shift, society speaking. Brian Aucoin: Sure. Yeah. Yeah, and a lot more disposable income with people being inside too. So they were making decisions that, know, what brings joy to me, right? Can I spend $10 and something comes to my door and that brings me joy. And now we're completely flipped on the other side of like, okay, I need the most joy out of the $10 that I spend and where's that gonna be? Dominick Miserandino: Yeah, you did. 100%. And I think that is so relevant where we flip our desires, if that makes any sense. ⁓ You we flip what we want and what we need. ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Yeah, that's the stuff that I love as a marketer is trying to figure out the psychology of where consumers are now and how can I connect to them in an authentic way. Dominick Miserandino: Well, that's ultimately marketing is. In nutshell, it is just that connection. That's all we want. We all want to connect. ⁓ But also, I would even argue, that's business. Just connecting doing something together and ⁓ that's wonderful. That's always in a nutshell. Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Sure. Yeah. And the basis of messaging in general, yes. I always love to ask all of my guests ⁓ if there's something you're looking forward to. It can be in your professional capacity, it can be in your personal life, but ⁓ there something that you're excited about or looking forward to right now? Dominick Miserandino: Absolutely. know, it's funny. I am very pro. I do a lot of these ⁓ with people is fun me sharing ideas Sometimes we go conferences sit with a cup of coffee and just exchange ideas that ⁓ New me and you so that's always fun to me. I have a pretty active calendar. Thank gosh and Feel free to follow me linkedin or and you'll see my active calendar ⁓ Brian Aucoin: Do you have any conferences coming up that you're going to, anything you're recommending? Dominick Miserandino: Recommending? I talk to the conference every two weeks. That one definitely look at my calendar. Let's figure it out, you know. Not one in particular. Every two weeks, somewhere. I think I've not been in New York State where I live greater than 10 days in a row since August. I'm flying somewhere all the time. Brian Aucoin: Okay. All right. We'll have to check your calendar. How do people get in touch with you? Is LinkedIn the best way? Well, it's been great having you as a guest, Dominic. Thank you for coming on the Marketing Brief podcast. Dominick Miserandino: best way by far. Thank you, sir. Brian Aucoin: Thank you. This has been a brief conversation with Miserandino. Thank you for being our guest and everybody else out there. Stay curious. Dominick Miserandino: I love it.