Wednesday, June 27th, 8:00AM

Today at WOBI...a day to celebrate marketing more than ever! We are coming to you live from the World Marketing Forum in Mexico City. Just an hour until the  most important marketing event of the country begins for it's ninth consecutive year, and we are already seeing hundreds of the expected 850 executives entering the venue, ready to listen to innovative ideas to apply to their next marketing strategy. In the following we give you the latest on what is already happening on the first day of the event.

When it comes to planning our 2013 marketing and communication strategies, we can complain about the harsh business environment that we inherited, or we can take the uncertainties, adapt, and turn them into our strengths. As Kevin Roberts so eloquently put at this year’s World Marketing Forum Mexico (WMFMX), we are living in a VUCA world, and the acronym can be looked at in two ways: with fear of the unknown, as being Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous, or as a time filled with opportunity and hope, and one that is Vibrant, Unreal, Crazy, and Astounding. And the most successful marketing teams are the ones that are taking this second mentality and running with it.

“Even when the entire world is telling you the opposite…forget about social networks,” exclaimed Martin Lindstrom, surprising the entire World Marketing Forum audience. Did we have it all wrong? What we are counting on in order to connect with the consumer and have successful marketing campaigns doesn’t actually happen on social networks? Lindstrom wasn’t trying to refute this point, however what he found in a neuromarketing study showed that the most powerful moment to connect with the brain of consumers and influence whether they but your product or not is actually face to face and by word of mouth. Discover in the following post just how beneficial this sort of contact is, and how to apply it to whatever brand you want.

How can your company collaborate with suppliers, customers, and even local businesses in a way that involves clients as well as improves your product? In this exclusive column written by Martin Lindstrom for WOBI, the top brand consultant gives examples as well as practical advice for how you can start making your customer work for you, and strengthen brand identity and profits as a result!

We all have them: our favourite little spot hidden in the corner of town that’s been our prized jewel since we can remember. The restaurant we went on our first date, the vegetable stand with the freshest, most varied products, the pharmacy where they greet you by name and know exactly which cough drops you go for come Fall. However, these gems are in trouble due to low-priced, monster stores that move into town and take over the market. Thank goodness for our hero of Mom and Pop shops, Martin Lindstrom, expert in marketing by day, saviour of small businesses by night. We invite you to check out his exclusive column for WOBI where he gives examples of how to beat out the big guys.

Don't miss your change to see him live this year at the World Marketing Forum Mexico!

A truly scandalous situation: one of today’s most respected experts in marketing, who has a unique gift to understanding the behavior of consumers, revealing the best-kept secrets of some of the largest marketing and advertising departments.

Martin Lindstrom, who founded his first advertising agency when he was just 12 years old, and has worked for top brands such as Coca-Cola and Disney, has reformed to show us the other side of marketing. How do brands reach our minds and hearts? What strategies do they use to appeal to our senses? Are the tricks they use ethical?

Hot management topic: Neuromarketing

To be able to enter the mind of the consumer would be a dream come true for a marketing team. Imagine if you could discover how clients think, feel, as well as what they desire and do not desire. This is the type of information that businesses all over the world would be willing to pay for…and not just small change. Neuroscientists, marketers, and recent product innovation show the importance of this growing trend.