 |
|
|
Connecting with a Hispanic Market (BusinessWeek)
|
|
Posted: 06/05/2009
|
|
 |
|
|
The Hispanic population is the fastest growing segment in the United States, meaning some marketers are missing more than 40 million new customers. Savvy companies like Procter and Gamble, Verizon and General Mills are funneling more marketing dollars into the Hispanic market, a segment proven to purchase products and services from brands advertised on TV. "Hispanic consumers appreciate when you speak to them in their own language," says Edward Gold, advertising director at State Farm Insurance. The approach is paying huge dividends for companies like General Mills, which has seen double-digit sales gains. Taking product integration to the next level, Telemundo and Vidal Partnerships (Client include Home Depot, Kraft Foods and Wendy’s) have formed a strategic alliance to promote an online contest in which viewers will choose the ending for one of the networks telenovelas.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America,
South-Central America
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Finding Common Ground: Insights on Engineering and Design (BusinessWeek)
|
|
Posted: 06/05/2009
|
|
|
|
|
Microsoft Research Principal Scientist Bill Buxton is calling for engineers and user-experience designers to find some common ground. Faced with ongoing questions from well-intentioned engineers regarding design, Buxton acknowledges the answers are more complicated than becoming a designer themselves or simply learning to “do” design as many engineers suggest. First, Buxton counsels that professional competence equal to the task must be added to your team. While the UX and engineering tasks certainly go hand-in-hand, expert proficiency is difficult to come by for each discipline, making it often impossible to jump seamlessly between the two. Buxton advises a four-layered approach: Design awareness, Design literacy, Design thinking, and Design practice to achieve results and solutions worthy of your customers.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Microsoft Vine: A New Twist on Social Marketing (CNN Money)
|
|
Posted: 06/05/2009
|
|
|
|
|
In an effort to untangle a new path toward social networking prosperity, Microsoft Vine is branching out into unchartered territory: charging subscription fees. Hailed as the 911 for the 21st Century, the new platform will focus on climbing the social networking ladder into the public safety and emergency information arenas by limiting activity to two actions: alerts and reports. Users can customize profiles and bunch their friends and family into groups, creating a virtual safety net to keep informed about events as major as hurricanes or national crises, or as minor as a snow day. The testing phase offers the opportunity to discover how city emergency management agencies across the country might implement this new communication tool. While the basic service will be free, premium services like smartphone access will come with a price tag.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Online Communities Strengthen Brand Power (Chief Marketer)
|
|
Posted: 05/24/2009
|
|
|
|
|
No matter your product or service, building online brands means building virtual communities that cultivate customer loyalty and provide lasting value. Shaping customer experiences that allows for custom-control, targeted e-mail follow-ups and strategic communications will not only maximize the time your customers spend with your brand, it will also increase your messaging impact and build mindshare, too. It never hurts to make the experience enjoyable, too, through elements like compelling visual design, intuitive navigation and user-generated content. Take for instance, the Pen Collective, by eROI and Wacom. The group now boasts more than 3000 active members, due to the brand’s intuitive mix of tutorials, testimonials, wit and social networking to create an inimitable personal connection to the brand.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Strength in Numbers: Unveiling the Benefits of Eclipse (Forbes)
|
|
Posted: 05/24/2009
|
|
|
|
|
Faced with the increasing squeeze of a down economy, many companies are forgoing the expense of programming their own software without losing their competitive edge. The experimental Eclipse software consortium offers companies within sectors like technology, finance and insurance the opportunity to collaborate, build and share computer code. “People these days are interested in doing more with less,” says Michael Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. With a budget of $5 million this year, the company is seeking to expand its 185 member base even further into the automotive and telecom industries. Nonmembers can take advantage of the foundation's free software library, while companies who pay dues of up to $125,000 a year get to hand-select upcoming programming projects.
|
|
Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
World Wise: Navigating a Global Market with an Eye toward China (BtoB Online)
|
|
Posted: 05/24/2009
|
|
|
|
|
Domestic marketers looking to tap into international markets should set their sights on China. The best place to start? “Leveraging search engines, which drive close to 40% of most suppliers' traffic, is the best way to enter a lot of foreign markets at the moment, and for the best price,” said Marisa Edmund, VP-marketing and communications at Edmund Optics America. China’s gross domestic production (GDP) is projected to grow by 8% this year and new research from Accenture reveals ample opportunity exists for customer-focused U.S. companies. An alarming 55% of companies in China switched vendors last year due to a growing international intolerance for poor customer service.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America,
Asia Pacific
Audience:
Business to Business
|
|
|
|
The Plain Truth: Winning Email Tactics (BtoB Online)
|
|
Posted: 05/24/2009
|
|
|
|
|
It’s no surprise that marketers looking for high-impact email solutions take maximum advantage of Web technology to reach their audiences. Simply put, that means incorporating plain text e-mails into the marketing mix. While flashy HTML e-mails are great attention-grabbers and response-trackers, they aren’t always accessible to every user. The first rule of thumb: key content should be viewable without scrolling. Keeping offers, calls to action, brand identity and deadlines/time markers all at-a-glance is likely to increase your impact. While you can legally send unsolicited emails to anyone in the US without asking permission, it’s vital to keep your communications targeted and provide opt-outs. E-mail offers an easy, effective, affordable way to stay connected and build strong, lasting relationships with your customers.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global,
North America
Audience:
Business to Business
|
|
|
|
Crutchfield Optimizes First Impression (MarketingVOX)
|
|
Posted: 05/13/2009
|
|
|
|
|
This case study explores how online retailers can turn the average welcome email into a powerful conversion driving tool. A Retail Welcome Email Benchmark study estimates that only 76% of the biggest online retailers are even utilizing a welcome email—which is not to assume that the ones being sent are effective. The welcome email can be used to educate the recipient about your brand and what benefits they receive as a subscriber. In the case of Crutchfield, an online electronics retailer, they transformed their welcome email from a text only email to one that highlighted the differentiating factors of their brand. The redesign added images and was more consistent with the look of the newsletters recipients would receive. Crutchfield’s approach represents a changing trend with up to 89% of retailers sending HTML welcome emails, up 11% from 2007.
|
|
Industry:
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Web Analytics Key to Performance (Target Marketing)
|
|
Posted: 05/13/2009
|
|
|
|
|
Carol Ott, director of e-commerce finance and web analytics, of the San Diego based company PETCO gets a fond feeling when she considers how web analytics serve her company. In a discussion with Target Marketing she explains why following the complete picture of customer behavior online can more clearly gauge marketing ROI than first and last click. She emphasizes the importance of continuous assessments and optimization of online programs to stay on top of and adjust to the constant changes in customer behavior. This combined with benchmarks and key performance indicators will help companies evaluate their success.
|
|
Industry:
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Social Networks Growing Popularity (CRM Daily)
|
|
Posted: 04/22/2009
|
|
|
|
|
According to Nielsen, social networks and blogs are quickly becoming the most prevalent uses of the web at three times the rate of search and e-mail. Nielsen also notes that social-computing sites like blogs and social networks are visited by over 67% of the worldwide online population and represent 1 out of every 11 minutes of activity online globally. As the social networks become more varied, they are also growing to be more mobile with 19% of mobile device users in the US state they use their phones for social networking and as many as 3 million mobile users were regularly texting Facebook at the close of 2008. The statistics prove that social networks are now and will continue to be an essential part of the online experience globally.
|
|
Industry:
Retail & Products,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
We cut through the clutter of the web to highlight innovation and forward-thinking. The best stories from leading publications – hand selected and organized to provide you a single point of access.
Newest
|
M3W Favorites
