The retail, travel, and restaurant industries have been investing in digital technologies for the past decade. The engagement activities timing between a brand and its consumers have never been shorter. Consumers can order apparel, electronics...Read More

Today’s consumers prefer gift cards nearly 2:1 over other marketing incentives, so it’s no surprise that the highest performing gift card programs leverage gift cards to drive sales and influence consumer behavior. Merchants need to...Read More

Knowledge is power — and getting to know your customers will give you just that. It’s the most effective way to learn to communicate effectively with your audience and make them feel appreciated — which in turn is the best way to...Read More

While community bankers continue to debate whether to align with the technophobe or technophile camps, the decision has already been made for them. Adapt or perish. Consumer brands learned this lesson years ago: The democratization of information...Read More

Since the turn of the century, the age of information has seen masses of data dumped into disconnected silos across many retail organizations. Limited access, capability, focus and free time has meant that until very recently we were only able to...Read More

Today’s customers can be your best friend or worst enemy. In an age where one shared bad experience can go viral and bring heaps of negative attention onto a brand, it’s important to understand what’s bringing customers through...Read More

Do your customers have a handle on their credit card rewards? Is it about miles? Points? Cash back? A mixture of all three? Do they know how, exactly, they’re earning the rewards and how to redeem them?  If you think they do, you might...Read More

In the imaginative minds of a 6-year-old, an empty cardboard box is the greatest toy ever invented.   One second, it’s an airplane. Four seconds later, it’s a fort. Then it’s put on top of a wagon and becomes a go-kart...Read More

I have been in the data-driven/relevancy-driven marketing business for 25 years.  I’ve seen the number of marketing channels explode. I’ve seen the marketing cycle time drop from quarterly to real-time.  I’ve seen a...Read More

In part two of this series, I discussed the second stage of powering lifetime connections which is creating a plan for ongoing dialog. More often than not, brands either send one to two communications to welcome customers to their loyalty program,...Read More