Author: anacanhoto

If Darwin were a marketer he wouldn’t publish in a top journal

‘If Darwin were a marketer he wouldn’t publish in a top journal’ – that’s the observation made by a member of the audience at a recent presentation on the criteria for publishing at top marketing publication, Journal of Marketing. In a refreshingly frank and pragmatic session, Professor Gary Frazier, editor of the Journal of Marketing, … Continue reading If Darwin were a marketer he wouldn’t publish in a top journal

You say potato – or the project that nearly wasn’t

I recently presented to colleagues the findings from a study that I have been working on, looking at segmentation and social media. Data collection took place in the summer and autumn of 2011 and we interviewed 28 senior managers. By all accounts, this was a really good number of interviews and the findings were most … Continue reading You say potato – or the project that nearly wasn’t

The state of segmentation and customer engagement research

What does digital mean for the development of target market strategy, segmentation and customer engagement? That’s what several academics discussed today at a workshop combining the interest of two of the Academy of Marketing’s Special Interest Groups (SIGs): the Market Segmentation and Target Market Strategy SIG and the newly formed SIG in Customer Relationship Management … Continue reading The state of segmentation and customer engagement research

Google data centre

We get so accustomed to the technology that we use everyday that we stop questioning how it works. We forget how amazing it is, as I discuss in this post. One of those amazing technical developments are search engines. They revolutionised how we obtain information about people, places, products, organisations, events... So, I thought I … Continue reading Google data centre

Sandy and Social Media

If anyone doubted that Social Media is now a key means of communication, s/he only had to look at the advice by the US's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with regards to Hurricane Sandy. Several hours before the Hurricane was due to arrive on the US's East Coast, FEMA posted the following tweet: #Sandy tip: Phone lines … Continue reading Sandy and Social Media

A sad story of social networking

On 25 March 2010, a 15-year-old schoolboy was murdered in a busy London railway station. It was a brutal attack, played out in public, in broad daylight. Now that the trials have taken place, leading on twenty teenagers being charged with murder, details are starting to emerge about the days and hours leading up to … Continue reading A sad story of social networking

Product testing the Valium way

An opinion piece on the New York Times earlier this month described how marketers helped popularise the use of psychoactive drugs in 1960s’ America. Robin M Henig wrote: "How did Roche convince physicians that it was O.K. to offer their patients a bottled form of serenity? How did the physicians persuade their patients? And how … Continue reading Product testing the Valium way

Book review: Marketing Accountability by McDonald and Mouncey

In my job, I often need to review books. As the focus of this blog is on the practical application of marketing theory, I thought that it would be a useful addition to the blog if I distilled the messages of some of those books here, too. Hence, I am starting a new rubric: short … Continue reading Book review: Marketing Accountability by McDonald and Mouncey

Invitation to participate in MSc research: social engagement and loyalty in fashion retail

Mia Bruce is one of my bright students, soon to graduate from the MSc eMarketing at Oxford Brookes University. She is, now, working on her dissertation, looking at the relationship between social engagement and loyalty in the fashion retail industry. Can you help her?   If you ‘liked’ the Facebook pages for H&M or Zara, … Continue reading Invitation to participate in MSc research: social engagement and loyalty in fashion retail