No matter the size of your company, you need to keep innovating. Take it from McDonald’s, which built a new 15,000-square-foot innovation lab in Chicago and last week opened the first location of its new spinoff establishment, CosMc’s, nearby.

Would-be CosMc’s customers waited in the drive-thru for two hours to get a taste, according to Eater. Some even offered bribes to get to the head of the line, but police intervened. (And we thought In-N-Out Burger fans were obsessed…)

Intended to compete with Starbucks and Dunkin’, CosMc’s focuses on drinks and desserts instead of burgers and fries, although you’ll also find some classics like the Egg McMuffin. We’ve never waited two hours for an Egg McMuffin and a latte ourselves, but so far, people seem to be lovin’ it.

Marketing trends: Tips for your 2024 strategy

Bitty and Beau’s: Coffee shop and “human rights movement”

12 Days of Christmas: How much would all that stuff cost?

(Source:  Shutterstock)

Twitter is dead (even if X is technically alive), young people have abandoned Facebook, and over 40% of internet users install ad-blocking software. In other words, digital marketing tactics of the 2010s are ancient history, and it’s time to adapt to the new landscape. Here are a few places to start.

Senior citizens are the future (really)

Marketers have always tried to appeal to twentysomethings who define what’s cool, but you might not find the most lucrative demo on TikTok.

By the end of the decade, 1 in 6 people will be over the age of 60, according to the World Health Organization — at which point, seniors are projected to spend $15 trillion globally, up from $8.7 trillion in 2020. Couple an aging population with a plummeting birthrate, and you can see why we’re headed for a so-called “silver economy.”

Seniors are the wealthiest age group; over three-quarters own a smartphone (up from only half in 2014), and they shop online frequently. We’re not saying to ignore younger consumers — winning their brand loyalty is important in the long run — but also, follow the money.

Automate your outreach

Marketing automation alleviates repetitive tasks like email campaign blasts, posting across online platforms, A/B testing, lead management, abandoned-cart retargeting, and customer support. Software subscriptions can be surprisingly affordable and scalable, so check out our top picks at business.com.

Use short video clips to support long-form content

You need different strategies for YouTube (where deep-dive videos work best) and the quick hits of TikTok, Instagram Stories, and YouTube Shorts … but those strategies can work together.

We caught up with producer Zach Kornfeld of The Try Guys, a comedy quartet with over 8 million subscribers and 3 billion views on YouTube. While 45-minute episodes are still the group’s top performers, there’s a new pressure to do shorts. “We really think about short form as a funnel back to the main product, which is our episodes,” Kornfeld told b.

That said, your short-form uploads shouldn’t feel like advertisements or clickbait. “It needs to exist in a vacuum — it needs to be a fully satisfying piece of content in and of itself,” Kornfeld added. “No context needed.”

Are you spending your time more as a marketer or are you leading with a consumer-first mindset? Today’s podcast conversation is with Lesley Chou, Research Lead at Google, on the latest consumer shopping research. 

Google and Ipsos partnered together on a 2023 Lead Gen research study, to survey over 4,000 U.S. consumers on their behaviors. Listen to the episode now or watch it on YouTube.

Truly effective workplace inclusion goes beyond diversity training webinars; it’s about integrating new strengths. Take it from Bitty & Beau’s Coffee, which has grown from a single North Carolina location in 2016 to over 19 shops in 11 states, employing over 400 disabled individuals.

That’s an especially significant figure because 80% of Americans with intellectual or developmental disabilities are unemployed. Choosing not to hire them is discriminatory and bad business: Companies that employ people with disabilities have 30% higher profit margins, according to Accenture.

“We’re figuring it out as we go, and we’re happy to be the first movers,” Bitty & Beau’s co-founders Ben and Amy Wright (who named the company after two of their children who were born with Down syndrome) told Harvard Business Review. “But we sincerely hope that others will choose to join us.”

(Source:  Shutterstock)

So you’ve got a true love, and you’d like to spoil them rotten this holiday season. You’re thinking, say, eight maids a-milking, six geese a-laying, five gold rings, and lots more. How much is that going to set you back?

PNC Financial Services crunched the numbers, and your 12-day shopping spree would cost exactly $46,729.86. That’s up 2.7% from last year due to inflation; the two turtle doves are up a whopping 25% because of their increased rarity.

But at a mere $750, the doves aren’t the big-ticket item. That would be the 10 lords a-leaping at $14,539.20. (Services in general increased more than goods.)

Of course, “The Twelve Days Of Christmas” lyrics repeat earlier days as new ones are stacked on top. If you really want your true love to have the full experience, your total would be $201,972.66. Maybe they’d like a comfy sweater instead?

Written by Elizabeth Barton, Dan Ketchum, Jason Roeder, and Ali Saleh.