Blog

In my last post for Sensei Blogs, I discussed the disruption to customer acquisition strategies that has been driven by SoLoMo or social, location, and mobile technologies. The point was that the merging of these technologies, which has increased real-time user engagement by consumers and customer data collection by businesses, has ushered in a trueRead more

New insights from the Global Consumer Study by the IBM Institute for Business Value confirm what social marketers have been predicting: social technologies have disrupted the manner in which consumers make decisions, possibly foreshadowing the death of many physical retail outlets. Big words maybe but let’s analyze the findings. According to the study, which surveyedRead more

This time last year, marketing strategists and bloggers declared 2013 the “year of real-time marketing.” These marketers felt vindicated when Oreo famously reassured everyone that we could still “dunk in the dark” when the lights when out in the stadium during Super Bowl ’13. The reaction to the real-time social media campaign received an extraordinaryRead more

I’ve often said that social media is essentially a mob-in-waiting, a collection of digital avatars waiting to wage war on behalf of the armchair critics who pull their strings. This self-appointed, crowd-sourced global watch dog works well when championing social causes and shedding light on social or political injustices. However, there’s another side to theRead more

Here on the Sensei blog, we rarely plan or write marketing 101-type instructional content. There is an audience for “How to Tweet,” “What is Pinterest,” and “How to Maximize Google+ for Business” articles, and there are many bloggers and forums for such content. We attempt to look at bigger issues facing our customers, which areRead more

There’s entirely too much focus on social networking and technologies among marketers today and far too little focus on how and why consumers make purchase decisions. In fact, this has been the case since the advent of Web 2.0 technologies and social media networking. That being said, I’m a big proponent of social media andRead more

Starbucks enters same-sex marriage boycott wars.  The mega coffee chain has once again inserted its brand into the social and political arena. This time, its CEO Howard Schultz has taken a public stand on same sex marriage by telling an anti-gay investor (and those like him) that he’s not welcomed. Starbucks, already known for itsRead more

Social media coffee addicts rejoice! You can now really experience coffee through Twitter! Last week, Starbucks announced a new program that allows you and me to give a Starbucks coffee as a gift. Not a big deal you say? Well, consider this: you can do it via a tweet. Yup, Starbuck’s new tweet-a-coffee program letsRead more

Social networking, social media marketing, blogging…if you speak to marketers today, these are the words you’ll hear most often when asking about customer acquisition plans. There’s certainly a growing focus on the importance of social media in customer acquisition, but at what cost? Do you know your customer acquisition costs? You know, the amount of capitalRead more

According to a report by Small Business Trends this week, a group of SEO companies and small businesses in New York State were caught in a sting operation called “Operation Clean Turf.” Spearheaded by Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, the operation uncovered unethical pay-for-review programs. Un der the guise of “reputation management services,” SEO firmsRead more