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
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Customer loyalty programs first launched with great marketing hype surrounding their intention to thank and reward the business’ most loyal customers. Truth be told, they were conceived as part of a customer acquisition strategy and designed to be a differentiator that pulled customers away from competitors or to encourage repeat purchases. These programs have expandedRead more
A colleague once quipped, tongue planted firmly in cheek, “76% of a B2B’s customers are people”. Their intention was to highlight how B2B sales & marketing teams rarely focus on the people that buy from them but the businesses they serve. Sure, they take their buyers out for lunch, join them for a round ofRead 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
It was reported today (see here) that McDonald’s Corp voted down a proposal to assess its impact on public health, particularly childhood obesity. The proposal was brought by consumer watchdog group: Corporate Accountability International. The group requested that the McDonald’s board “issue a report within six months of the 2012 annual meeting assessing the company’sRead more
Social Media has emphasised the importance of the customer’s voice to businesses of all sizes. The study of the sales & marketing impact of customer comments and ratings has advanced to a more involved debate concerning the presence of the customer within the business’ entire operation. Much has been written on this topic recently byRead 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
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