<p><span class="p-body">Renowned consumer product executive<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/fadikaram/"> Fadi Karam</a> is no stranger to marketing during times of crisis—from wars to collapsing businesses. When he presented to the NYU SPS <a href="https://www.sps.nyu.edu/homepage/academics/divisions-and-departments/division-of-programs-in-business/integrated-marketing.html">Integrated Marketing and Communications</a> community, he shared universal and time-tested truths that can be applied even to today’s rapidly changing world. For Karam, that means returning to the fundamentals of marketing.</span></p> <p><span class="p-body">Currently the CGO for Camco Manufacturing, an RV, camping, and boating manufacturer, Fadi is a consumer product professional specializing in turnarounds and the fast scaling of high-potential startups and organizations. Previously, he held several roles in the consumer goods industry, including overseeing the Nestlé confectionary business across Asia and Africa and leading the KitKat brand globally. He is also a mentor at StartX, Stanford University’s startup accelerator, and an advisory board member at the CMO Council.</span></p> <p> </p>

<p>Karam opened his presentation to students, faculty, and friends by reminding them that the fundamentals of marketing are tied to the fundamentals of decision-making. In essence, Karam contends that with better insights into how we make decisions, we can improve not only how we approach marketing but also how we conduct our everyday decision-making. Given how quickly the world is evolving and how unreliable the traditional models appear, this re-examination of the fundamentals is especially valuable today.</p> <p>Karam shared three fascinating case studies to demonstrate that the role of marketing is much broader than simply getting people to try and buy intrinsically valuable products. Instead, it relies on the ability of branding to shape how a consumer experiences and values the product or services.</p> <p>Unbranded beers in taste tests showed almost no distinction from each other in terms of taste and appeal. However, once a brand was introduced, consumers were drawn to choose their favorite and dramatically raise their estimations of its positive taste relative to other choices.</p> <p>Karam’s conclusion that “the idea that the intrinsic value of products and services leads to their success is simply false” was a key fulcrum of the work he shared with the NYU SPS community. &quot;The more counter-intuitive things are, the less likely people are to apply them, and [when you try] to adopt these learnings, you can have an edge on everyone else.&quot;</p>

<p>With an enlightening delve into consumer psychology, Karam shared some ways marketers leverage behavioral insights, recognizing that many of us are using &quot;judgemental heuristics&quot; to make choices about what we purchase.</p> <p>Branding helps consumers in categorizing what they perceive around them, helping them navigate swiftly to what they need and want among overwhelming choices. While there is clearly a dark side, and marketers must be aware of the ethics behind their actions, ultimately, Karam believes marketers are helping consumers discover the things that make their lives better.</p> <p>While many of these counter-intuitive insights are part of the mainstream understanding among academics, many businesses have been slow to adopt them. Karam believes that marketing is still &quot;stuck between being an art and a science, and companies tend to approach it as an art,&quot; ignoring these well-researched findings.</p> <p>We asked about some of the strong reactions to the pandemic from brands in how they go to market. For example, cutting back spending on marketing or shifts from top-of-the-funnel advertising to performance marketing were signs of fundamental shifts. Karam said “the panic and novelty of any crisis makes it feel much worse [but the fundamental drives remain] … hope, wanting to go on with our lives, wanting to build better businesses, wanting to build our families.”</p> <p>The broad discussion with this insightful and well-informed marketing leader ended on a positive note—a sense that the silver lining in our recent crises has been the witness of individuals helping each other, of a deeper sense of empathy in society. Karam believes that if this is experienced at scale, this sense of empathy will be felt long after the crisis and deeply impact how we frame the meaning and value of business and our lives.</p>