Doug Zarkin has spent his career helping brands deliver experiences that make them impossible to ignore. His book, Moving Your Brand Out of The Friend Zone, offers a master class on nuanced strategies that elevate the brand beyond surface-level connections to deeper, more engaged customer relationships. He joined host Mike Berberich to discuss how brands can empower frontline customer service employees to make empathetic choices when dealing with unhappy customers, what many brands get wrong in their approach to customer service, and how to communicate the importance of quality customer interactions at every touchpoint to the C-suite.

On “Marketing News You Might Have Missed,” Mike and show producer Ryan Dinger discussed a PQ Media report that suggests media might be facing an extinction level event and hypothesized what brands might do to succeed should traditional and digital media no longer be the boon for marketing that it once was.

Don’t miss your chance to attend marketing’s premier annual event! Check out the agenda and register for the 2025 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference by visiting www.ana.net/masters.

The On Scope team would love to hear from you! If you have a topic or guest idea for the show, you can email us at onscope@ana.net.

USAA has been putting on a clinic when it comes to PR and marketing collaboration. In this episode, USAA CMO Francesco Lagutaine and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Lindsey O’Neill joined the show to give listeners an inside look at what the secret to their success is, especially when so many brands are falling short on getting marketing and PR in sync. Along with host Mike Berberich, the duo discussed the origins of the marketing-PR disconnect, how middle managers and associates can affect upward cultural change, and the brand’s annual Army Navy Game activation, which is a masterclass in communications execution.

On “This Week in ANA Magazine,” IBM’s new large language model tool, dubbed “Brand Brain,” is raising some eyebrows, but it might be a bellwether for some very powerful AI-powered applications that will soon be added to the marketer’s toolbelt.

If you’re an ANA member who wants to learn more about how to get the most out of your membership, you can register for the complimentary “Unlocking the Power of ANA Membership” webinar by visiting www.ana.net/mem-webinar.

The On Scope team would love to hear from you! If you have a topic or guest idea for the show, you can email us at onscope@ana.net.

Anne Bahr Thompson is an accomplished author and a brand purpose pioneer. In her book, Do Good: Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit, she deftly laid out the case for purpose and provided valuable insights for how brands can better execute on it. She joined host Mike Berberich in the ANA Studio to discuss how brands are currently failing to meet the moment on the purpose front. The pair discussed how brands are coming up short, practical advice for marketers to navigate the current social climate, and a few brands Anne believes are excelling with purpose right now.

On “Marketing News You Might Have Missed,” Mike and show producer Ryan Dinger discussed research that shows most consumers will abandon a brand after just two negative experiences.

If you're an ANA Member, you can learn about the cornucopia of "MemBens" (Member Benefits for the uninitiated) at www.ana.net/mem-webinar

The On Scope team would love to hear from you! If you have a topic or guest idea for the show, you can email us at onscope@ana.net.