Recent Posts by Mike Merna

We checked in with Mike Merna, Senior Director, Brand Strategy, Oracle Data Cloud on what’s top of mind for retail marketers this season. Here are his top 5 challenges for CPG marketers as we head into 2017 planning this summer: Challenge 1: It’s really interesting to note how consumer health requirements have changed in the last 5 years. For example, gluten free, no GMO's, natural & organic, less additives and ingredients – these are top of mind for many consumers now. Because...

This week’s post is contributed by Mike Merna, Senior Director, Brand Strategy, Oracle Data Cloud. Have you noticed the concerning trend of saying something extreme just to get noticed? Whether it’s a book or blog, I frequently find myself confronted with authors who promote one idea or strategy at the expense of all others, with the idea of, “for one thing to be good, all others have to be bad.” Actually, let’s change the word from “bad” to, “the absolute worst.” Ah, if only...

This post was contributed by Mike Merna, Senior Director of Brand Strategy, CPG at Oracle Data Cloud. There’s a saying, “You never really know someone until you talk to them at 4am.” I’ll offer a more suitable and actionable insight for marketers: “You never really know someone until you see how they spend their money.” And, now we can thanks to addressable purchase data. The era of “spray and pray” is gone; purchase-based behavior enables us to be smarter marketers and evolve...