I belong to a number of reward and loyalty programs. My favorite program? The Capital One Venture Card. Two points for every dollar spent and an additional 40,000 points if you spend $3,000 within the first three months.Once I had my shiny, new...Read More

For any organization striving to significantly improve customer experience, they need a plan to do so.  That’s because the ability to design and deliver great customer experience doesn’t “just happen.” It’s...Read More

For any brand or company, the payment experience must be considered part of the sale. Think about the last time you went to a store and left because the line to pay was too long. Or the last time you went online to pay for something and the...Read More

It is becoming increasingly clear that chatbots and virtual assistants are poised to become major players in the relationships between enterprises and their customers.  A quick walk through the floor of CES earlier this month would...Read More

Big Data is transforming operations across the spectrum of industries and functions, including logistics, manufacturing, accounting, and even legal services.  One key area often identified is marketing, specifically data-driven marketing...Read More

When put to strategic use, gift cards have the power to acquire new customers and increase foot traffic while increasing revenue.When I think of the evolution of the gift card I am reminded of my early days in online marketing and the advent of...Read More

Forget the current, siloed nature of payment processing. Retail payment hubs that manage all payment types from one platform are the future, and they’re coming soon. Best of all, they represent a much brighter future for financial...Read More

I’ve got a thousand sound bites about Super Bowl advertising: It’s basically selfies for brands. It’s the opposite of 1:1 marketing. It’s a cross-category free-for-all, growing in risk rather than opportunity given its...Read More

A new marketing paradigm has hatched, and it’s growing.  Where there was once division between marketing and IT teams now there is unity. Where technology once struggled to meet marketing objectives without clear attribution, now it...Read More

It’s the Age of the Customer, the era of the Internet of Me. Brand names and physical footprints are no longer the decision-drivers they once were. Consumers have turned their trust to whatever they can pull up on their smartphones, from...Read More