Have you ever been stuck in a conversation with someone who blathered on, never asked about your interests or paused at what would be a natural lull in conversation? The vast majority of email marketing is like that. In a face-to-face conversation, we look for conversational cues to gauge the interest of the person we […]
An examination of classic A/B testing, a regular diet for all of us direct marketers, made it to NPR’s Morning Edition last week under the guise of a “real world field experiment” conducted by two economists. I guess direct marketing must then be considered unreal and out in left field? The story explored these economists’ […]
Working with catalogers and marketers of all kinds in all categories all across the country, it’s amazing how much a recurring theme manifests. No matter what they sell or who they sell it to, at some point in our creative collaboration, some version of the following questions arise: “How can we be more like the […]
Do your customers just buy from you? Or do they LOVE you? Do you want a better performing company? Find your purpose. Brands that have a positive impact on humanity outperform the stock market by 120%. Customer behavior is telling us loudly and clearly, “I want to buy from brands that matter. If you want to matter […]
Case Study: Crowd Cow Somewhere in no man’s land, between the entrenched forces of cooking meals at home on one side and ordering food in a restaurant on the other, lives a purchase variable that has been rediscovered in a big way: convenience. Walk into any apartment building, drive down any street, and you’re likely […]
By Chris Hayes, EVP Brand Strategy One trillion dollars. That’s how much marketers will spend to sell their products globally in 2016, this according to a recent article by Jonathan Gordon and Jesko Perrey of McKinsey & Company. How much is $1 trillion? That’s 12 zeros, in case you’re wondering. I did a little number […]
Ancient man relied heavily on others in order to survive. We banded together for protection, to find food, for entertainment. It’s our primal instinct to think, feel and act based on the broader needs and beliefs of an extended community. This same instinct lives in us today. We learn from each other. We rely on […]
Amidst all of the inbox clutter, one thing gets easier every day — swiping to delete email on our mobile devices. Most of us do it daily or even several times a day. We sit poised, device in hand, trigger finger hovering at the ready. We scan, we process, we either tap to open or […]
You’ve all heard the doomsayers. The plaintive wails of prognosticators, tolling the bell for our beloved medium. They shout: The end is nigh! Catalogs are obsolete! Print is dead! Might as well call it a day then. Time to find a new line of work. Pulp all your print catalogs to line your hamster cages. […]
