It’s a new year – have you set your 2015 resolutions? Forget about losing weight, seeing friends and family more or reading a book a week (okay, keep those resolutions – they’re all good things), what are your marketing resolutions? Here at strategy, we’re hoping folks jump off the gift-vertising train (we counted no less than 12 before the holidays), steer clear of a prank-vertising redux and ditch the dad-is-a-buffoon stereotype once and for all.

But, what are marketers actually hoping to accomplish in 2015? We chatted with Connie Morrison, SVP marketing and innovation at Canada Bread about her ambitions in 2015. Check back tomorrow and Friday to hear marketing resolution from more senior execs at top Canadian brands.

What do you hope to accomplish in 2015?

I hope to accomplish some very basic objectives: Grow our brands by making them easier to buy for more people in more occasions. Really a very simple recipe but incredibly challenging given that consumers have so many other things going on in their lives. It is difficult to get noticed let alone have your brand selected more often. We need to continue to optimize our products, our advertising, our brand strategies, our media strategy and our in-store presence.

We need to expand our view of the market and more broadly define it as baked goods vs. bread. That uncovers many new segments and opportunities that we can explore with both our existing brands like Dempster’s, or consider leveraging other strong brands within the Grupo Bimbo network. I really think the only limiting factor is not setting ambitious enough goals. We need to dream big and then make it happen. We then need to stay the course. With technology changing so quickly, we can easily get distracted with the newest bright shiny object.

What areas of the business are you hoping to grow?

We need to grow our distribution, not just physical distribution but also the quality and breadth of distribution within a store to make it easier for consumers to buy our brands more often for more meal occasions. We will continue to grow our investment in digital media.

We have been measuring a lot of data, but in 2015 we need to be more selective about which metrics matter. Averages and benchmarks can be very deceiving and our ability to measure our consumer communication at a very granular level will be important as we focus on the plans that are delivering the best ROI.

What do you hope to stop doing or start doing more of?

I find it is really easy to get caught up in internal meetings and presentations and spend too much time at my computer looking in the rear view mirror, analyzing and explaining past performance. In 2015, I want to spend more time focused externally by engaging more actively with our consumers, our products, with our sales team and with our agency partners.

Do you have your own marketing resolutions you want to share? Email mhaynes@brunico.com. 

Photo by Jennifer Horn.