Is the Customer Still King?

The notions that “the customer is king” and “the customer is always right” have been marketing gospel for generations of business school grads and brand managers. I’d never suggest that a strong customer focus shouldn’t be a key element of any brand’s marketing efforts. But how do marketers keep “King Customer” from becoming a total […]

5 Basic Human Truths

Well, the secret is out. For decades, creative types working at agencies across the country knew instinctively a few secrets they could rely on to create brand stories, campaigns and messaging that would resonate with consumers. The Don Drapers of the world knew these little secrets could help sell more products. We knew if we […]

Catalog Circulation – A New Frontier

Twenty years ago, we discovered the power of transactional data. Lo and behold, it turned out that certain aspects of human behavior were very predictable. Once a consumer’s wallet was opened and purchases were made, certain details of those transactions, known as RFM, turned out to be very trustworthy indicators of future purchases. Fast forward […]

Beyond the Data: New thinking about data’s role in creating marketing success

“Data” has become the darling of the marketing world recently as information technology and database marketing really hit their strides in business (Check out the Target Marketing July 2012 cover story, “Are You Ready for Big Data?” to brush up on your consumer data know-how if this topic hasn’t been on your radar screen). Marketers […]