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Reed Holden wrote an interesting piece for Harvard Business Review Blogs in which he reports that corporate buyers are playing a “high-stakes poker game” with their suppliers – and are winning. He suggests that corporations are changing their patterns from being “relationship buyers” to “economic buyers”. Relationship Buyers focus on procuring products, services and savvyRead more

Earlier this week I wrote a post claiming that Business-to-Business Marketers’ self-inflicted aversion to people is the reason they’ve been slow to adopt mobile and social technologies; thus, failing to adequately leverage either channel. I argued that their marketing focus is also business-to-business and not people-to-people. Today, I’d like to follow that up with aRead more

Businesses must quickly rethink their concept of mobile. Mobile is not a device. It’s not a new payment gateway. It’s not another marketing channel. Mobile isn’t just a channel and frankly, it’s evolving beyond a strategy. Mobile is the new Web that connects and I’d argue sustains other social and communication channels. Mobile devices haveRead more

One of the benchmarks many businesses set and measure is the quality of their customer service. No doubt, it’s an important metric to a business but do the results (positive or negative) really enable game changing business strategies? In this series, I’ve been challenging business leaders to compete by changing the rules of the gameRead more

In reviewing a client’s internal branding/marketing plan recently I noticed that the Marketing VP called for an increase in broadcast and social media “advertising”. Given that CX or the Customer Experience is a key focus of my firm’s practice, I questioned what the impact on the customer’s experience with the brand would be? How wouldRead more

We’ve often discussed the concept that consumers make decisions based on emotions, which they then justify by logic on this blog. A concept that few dispute yet few seem to put into practice. While businesses may understand how decisions are made, they are not confident enough to shift their culture to cater to the customer’sRead more

Social Momentum is the public perception that a brand is up-and-coming, exciting, and a must-be-followed.  By contrast, a legacy brand is seen as having achieved its full potential; nothing new or exciting is expected from this company. Today’s fickle, over-stimulated consumers are more interested in companies – and their products – that have social momentum.Read more

This week’s #bizforum debate is inspired by fellow Social Media Master Jonathan Copulsky’s presentation Brand Resilience: Managing Risk and Recovery in a High-Speed World.  The topic inspired me to question whether Branding has become a defensive play? According to the Kellogg School of Management, a brand is the “psycho-cultural associations linked to a name, markRead more

*This post is the 2nd in a series that discusses risk mitigation in corporate social media engagement. With more employee-created PR nightmares making the news, C-Suite executives are raising concerns over their social media policies, or lack thereof. This has only fuelled the debate over whether policies that dictate how people communicate should even exist.Read more

Do you ever feel like you’ve been screwed when you order a meal? The menu tantalized you with images and words that described a wonderful, sent-from-heaven meal and then when it arrives, you say “What the hell?!” This is how I have felt numerous times attending conferences, unconferences and events that espouse “advanced theory onRead more