At Unica’s Marketing Innovation Summit in New Orleans this week, I sat down with CEO Yuchun Lee to chat about the customer-centric shift he sees in marketing. Excited about the new customer paradigms taking shape, he also opened up about emerging trends like mobile and social media, and even commented on his role as one of the MIT students who took Vegas for millions in the 1980s and made famous in the book Bringing Down the House and most recently in the movie 21.

You said yesterday that there’s a paradigm shift where customers are taking control. Are companies in general prepared for that shift?
I think we’re at a stage where they’re aware of the change. Many are aware in an unpleasant way. It’s a mix in terms of the level of preparation and understanding. CEOs are understanding and making changes from the top down and others are clinging to those old models.

For the ones who are clinging, what does that mean for their futures?
It doesn’t mean that their business will go down the tubes; it means they have to be strong with an alternative strategy…. You can still do well, but it requires a different type of strategy. Customer intimacy is the one that it is affecting. There will be a lot that will be hurt by this.

Continue reading "Yuchun Lee on the Future of Traditional Advertising, the New Marketing Paradigm, and the Movie "21"" »

Posted by Mila D'Antonio at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There are no atheists in foxholes, goes the old saying—and, these days, there aren’t too many brand loyalists there either.

This realization was underscored by an article in Sunday’s New York Times, noting that a Lucky Charms-consuming family is now enjoying something called Millville Marshmallows & Stars for breakfast, while another has substituted Briargate steak sauce for A1.

In an era of $4 a gallon milk, in other words, brand loyalty goes out the window.

Continue reading "Brand Loyalty Takes a Hit" »

Posted by Kevin Zimmerman at 8:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been a member of eBay since 1998. This was before PayPal, before Buy It Now, and even before most items had photos. I've been both a buyer and seller, and as the company has grown, it has added new policies and features designed to improve the experience for everyone. But with its recent policy changes, does everyone still benefit?

Continue reading "Is One Customer Group More Important Than Another?" »

Posted by Elizabeth Glagowski at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

The current issue of our email newsletter “Inside 1to1: Privacy” includes a thought-provoking piece on the problems and successes of the United States’ privacy laws, entitled “Open Letter to the World: Don’t Copy Our Security-Breach Notification Model.” Published in conjunction with the International Association of Privacy Professionals, or IAPP, Inside 1to1: Privacy is a free monthly e-mail newsletter that reviews privacy, trust and security topics.

I’m calling everyone’s attention to this current issue because it seems to have generated a great deal of interest. I’ve personally received more emails from readers because of this single article than any other since launching the newsletter. If you don't already subscribe to this newsletter, you may want to at least take a look at this informative and provocative article.

Posted by Don Peppers at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

The best ideas for a company's product innovation aren't always internal ones. In today's Marketing Xfactor, we share insights from this year's World Innovation Forum, where it was clear customer interaction breeds innovation. Do you engage customers and capture their ideas? Has a customer ever suggested something that made you stop and wonder why no one at your company thought of it first?

Posted by Jeremy Nedelka at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.” – Ronald Reagan

I was reminded of this quote yesterday when a colleague relayed an experience she had a few days ago on Priceline.com. In planning her Memorial weekend trip to Puerto Rico, she thoroughly researched the top online travel sites for the best price. She discovered that Priceline.com offered the most competitive rate.

Excited, she started to book her trip through Priceline.com, but every time she neared the end of the multiple steps required to book and was ready to complete her order, the system would pop up a message that read “We cannot confirm your order.” Because the company’s rates change so rapidly, the trip she was trying to book had changed in price while she was going through the process. She tried 20 more times with the exact same results before finally switching to Travelocity where she ended up booking the trip for $150 over the Priceline offer.

Continue reading "Priceline.com Sends Customers to the Competition" »

Posted by Mila D'Antonio at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was recently in London for the Institute for Direct Marketing’s B2B conference. Great comments and discussion about the kinds of things B2B marketers can do to acquire and retain their customers. One of the issues in B2B, of course, is the fact that while a consumer will make purchase decisions on his own, a business customer will not. Businesses make no decisions on their own at all – because companies are just legal entities designed to sanction the actions of their individual officers and employees. It’s the individuals within the business organization that actually do the thinking, discuss the options, and decide whether their company will or will not buy from you.

Continue reading "Why Not Help Those Inside a Customer Organization Who Want to Help You?" »

Posted by Don Peppers at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In 1970, when Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda,” “It was a gamble,” he said “but it worked.”

Today, most everyone from small businesses to large enterprises are shaking things up and are contributing to the greening of America, leading eco-conscious initiatives and marketing them throughout their enterprises.

With the trend being green, why not make Earth Day a nationally observed holiday where companies and schools are closed? Wouldn’t we make more of an impact, if, instead of spending the day at work and school, we were out in our communities planting trees, collecting trash, and participating in environmental marches? Imagine the greater affect on the environment and in business, if companies led their employees on such day-long local green-keeping initiatives?

Until such a bill would ever pass, here are three steps to contribute to Earth Day while at work:

* Encourage carpools

* Reduce and recycle office products

* Apply green principles to your office building

Posted by Mila D'Antonio at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

When the customer-facing staff at a company feels the need to fight publicly with corporate about how they treat customers, it could indicate a major problem. That is what is happening with Verizon's Florida group.

Continue reading "Verizon Faces Customer Service Scrutiny From Its Own Staff" »

Posted by Elizabeth Glagowski at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

A friend of mine on the PR side of the business, Lawren Markle, phones me about a month ago and tells me about a new client he thinks I should talk to. At first I’m thinking, “Digital signage and one-to-one? I don’t know.” But, hey, I try to have an open mind. With all the cool technology these days, you just never know how things might connect. After all, if the Magic Mirror can be a one-to-one marketing and sales tool, perhaps a digital sign can be too.

So yesterday I got on the phone with Omnivex President Jeff Collard to talk about the evolution of digital signage from a digitally delivered “poster” to an interactive, integrated tool that can both serve and collect information. “Done right,” Collard says, “digital signage can help customers make a good purchase decision.” And with a bit of RFID, it can help them find their way, too. But more on that later.

Continue reading "Give Me a Sign" »

Posted by Ginger Conlon at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Every once in a while an Internet sensation captivates Web surfers, leading workers everywhere to email a video or URL to their colleagues, creating fodder for the comedians on VH1’s Best Week Ever and E’s The Soup, and giving rise to a new Wikipedia article, among other things.

This is often called “going viral,” and it seems like every week there’s something new (usually a video) that we can all sit around and talk about. It seems like viral videos come out of nowhere, and are often obscure clips that somehow gain traction. For an example click here (warning: contains sound). For more on why an obscure music video relates to viral marketing, read the history of the Internet phenomenon here. This was just a fluke, but is it possible to create a viral video as part of a marketing campaign? To understand if it’s possible to predict what will or won’t catch on, you have to define what it means to “go viral.”

Continue reading "Catching a Marketing Virus" »

Posted by Jeremy Nedelka at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Nationwide insurance has a lot to live up to with its slogan, "Nationwide is on your side." Business Solutions Services Officer Doug Stafford says that it's a challenge to live that brand promise. Yesterday at the Frost and Sullivan's Customer Contact Executive MindXhchange, Stafford shared how a simple change toward the customer perspective made a huge impact in the customer experience.

Continue reading "Nationwide Improved the Customer Experience Without Money" »

Posted by Elizabeth Glagowski at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Delta and Northwest announced the agreement of its long-awaited merger that when combined, will created the country’s largest airline with a combined value of $17.7 billion.

The new airline, operating under the name “Delta,” will provide customers with greater choice, with service to 390 destinations, as well as competitive fares, but how will the merger affect morale among the employees as the two workforces struggle to integrate processes, strategies, and IT?

With an M&A come complex organizational structures. Companies in the midst of partnering need a commander—a point person—who can centralize departments, processes, functional areas, and offer strategic rationale to ensure that service from employees to customers is not interrupted during the period of upheaval.

Continue reading "The New Delta Needs a CSO" »

Posted by Mila D'Antonio at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Very few people 10 years ago predicted that marketing strategy would be as interactive and consumer-controlled as it is now. Advances in technology and communications have allowed consumers to participate more in how they marketed to, and allowed marketers to get deeper understandings of their customers. So what will the next 10 years bring?

Continue reading "Predicting the Future of Marketing" »

Posted by Elizabeth Glagowski at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

One of our readers, Miro Slodki, posed an interesting question in his current Canadian Marketing Association blog. He asks whether customers are brand monogamists or brand polygamists. My answer: It depends.

Continue reading "Is It Really Loyalty--Or Something Else?" »

Posted by Ginger Conlon at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Think you can’t sell your company’s product online? Maybe it just requires a different way of looking at what you’re selling. Wells Fargo did just that, and is now bringing a new meaning to the term “online banking.”

Continue reading "Under Digital Lock and Key" »

Posted by Jeremy Nedelka at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s Marketing Xfactor story “The Oakland Athletics Score with Mobile Coupons” showed that mobile coupons are an innovative, trackable means of offering promotions. The biggest downside that curbs widespread adoption is a proven method of redemption. The program worked for the A’s because fans could walk up to a ticket window with their phone to prove they received a coupon, but that doesn’t work for every company.

Have you ever received a mobile coupon? If so, how could it be redeemed? Numeric codes, keywords, and scannable bar codes are the more common methods. If a company sends a coupon to your mobile device, are you more likely to use it than one from a newspaper or Web site?

Posted by Jeremy Nedelka at 7:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Blog, wikis, podcasts, YouTube, videocasts, Twitter…
Social media present marketers with a new tough reality—traditional marketing channels are under fire and new channels give consumers more control with shaping the brand.

But these new channels bring with them many challenges. At Forrester’s Marketing Forum, the focus has been marketing’s new imperative—engagement through these new frontiers.

The following are some sound bites overheard yesterday in one-on-one interviews and in speeches that capture the sentiment about marketers’ new reality—engaging customers through the labyrinth of social media.

Continue reading "The New Look of Engagement" »

Posted by Mila D'Antonio at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's been a rough week for British Airways. The opening of its mammoth Terminal 5 operation on March 27 at Heathrow Airport didn't go as smoothly as planned. Due to computer, baggage, and staff issues, the airline has canceled 200 flights and has a backlog of more than 150,000 pieces of luggage. It must be very frustrating for travelers. But British Airways has earned a reputation for top-notch customer care, so I think most of its customers will forgive BA for this and continue to fly with the airline.

Continue reading "Updated: Terminal 5 a Tough Test for British Airways" »

Posted by Elizabeth Glagowski at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, it sounded like a good idea at the time.

Back in February, I wrote about how British soccer team Ebbsfleet United was redefining the term “customer centric,” via its agreement with members of the team’s MyFootballClub.co.uk community fan website that gave supporters the right to vote on all major decisions, including choosing the team's line-up for each game. Some 29,000 people around the globe ponied up the annual £35 ($70) fee, and the world—well, at least the futbol fanatics of the world—watched in breathless anticipation.

Would those 29,000 “owners” fire the manager? Would they demand a line-up change for every half of every game? Would factions arise to debate any and all Ebbsfleet business, resulting in a balkanization of shareholders, ultimately leading to a dizzying blizzard of claimants to club leadership—so many would-be Anastasias to the Ebbsfleet throne?

If you guessed the answer to all of those questions to be “no,” you too may have a future in predictive analytics.

Continue reading "Flat-footed at the Goal Line" »

Posted by Kevin Zimmerman at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Many customer-focused executives face a challenge when trying to get executive buy-in for new customer-based initiatives. Traditionally it has been hard to track revenue and bottom-line impact to specific customer experiences. But new tools and processes now show that improvements in the customer experience actually do tie back to the bottom line.

Continue reading "Monetizing Customer Experience Improvements" »

Posted by Elizabeth Glagowski at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When you think of Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy, you likely think of mass marketing at it “mass-est.” In fact, Coca-Cola often thinks instead in terms of large niche markets driven by lifestyle or life stage, according to Michael La Kier, director of My Coke Rewards for Coca-Cola North America, whom I saw present at IQPC’s Customer Feedback Summit.

The question La Kier posed to attendees was, how do you understand these niches and then connect to consumers? He also noted why attendees would want to make that connection: Companies can spend less when talking to the same consumers again.

La Kier didn’t say how much Coca-Cola North America spends on talking to its My Coke Rewards customers, or whether it’s less than would be spent to connect with less-engaged consumers. But he did give some insight into the tremendous benefits Coke has garnered from the program, and offer eight steps brands and companies can use to successfully connect with customers.

Continue reading "Making Coke Rewarding" »

Posted by Ginger Conlon at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

If you've played the Kevin Bacon game, you know that he's been in far too many movies. More importantly, you know that it's possible to connect him with almost anyone else in Hollywood within "six degrees." Thanks to Microsoft, we know Kevin Bacon isn't the only person with so many connections. Microsoft research tracked all interactions on MSN over a month and analyzed how far an average user was from every other average user in the world. The results? Like Kevin Bacon and Hollywood stars, MSN users are 6.6 "degrees" away from one another. Aside from being interesting (and cool to someone like me who enjoys useless factoids) why does it matter?

Continue reading "Customers Are More Connected Than you Think" »

Posted by Jeremy Nedelka at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ernest Hemingway said, “Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.”

This weekend, my husband and I will open the doors to our wine store business in our town, but the work that went into opening Off the Vine has been anything but civilized.

Fifteen-hour days spent scrubbing, painting, lifting boxes, and stocking shelves has sent me straight to my chiropractor’s office. And while I’ve learned a lot from my sommelier husband about the different wine growing regions, varietals, and the correct way to taste wine, I’ve also come to understand the inspiration and perspiration involved in opening a business.

Continue reading "A Toast to Small Businesses" »

Posted by Mila D'Antonio at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

A recent trip to the Westin St. John Resort & Villas got off to a pretty slow start, with a three-hour wait for extra towels and a consistently rude water-sports staff, yet by the end of my family’s visit we agreed that it had been a memorable vacation, mostly for the right reasons.

This came as welcome news to David Yamada, who’s been the site’s general manager since February and admits that he’s still getting acclimated to the job. “Our goal is to always keep improving,” he told me. “We want to take the Westin’s reputation and continue to elevate it.”

Continue reading "On the Job in St. John (Hey, Somebody's Got to Do It)" »

Posted by Kevin Zimmerman at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)