Category: Marketing in everyday life

What UK customers are complaining about

Complaint handling company, Resolver, has recently published statistics for the Top 20 types of customer complaints that they helped solve, via their free complaints tool. As these statistics refer to the complaints’ handled by Resolver, naturally, we get a very limited view of the problems that customers may be experiencing and complaining about. For instance, … Continue reading What UK customers are complaining about

Using 😄😩 makes you 👀 + 🥰 but – 🎓, 🔬 shows

Emojis and emoticons are well and truly part of the way we communicate, today. They’re on social media postings. They’re on e-mails. They’re even on marketing campaigns. But how do customers feel about company representatives using emojis in customer interactions, for instance, in an e-mail exchange or on Facebook? Will they think that it is … Continue reading Using 😄😩 makes you 👀 + 🥰 but – 🎓, 🔬 shows

Seeing the smart speaker as a servant vs a master vs a partner – Why it matters

I just came across a very interesting study published in the Journal of Marketing Management, which examined how smart speaker users viewed their devices, and how that related to their experiences of using the device. The study was conducted by Fiona Schweitzer, Russell Belk, Werner Jordan and Melanie Ortner, and its title is “Servant, friend or master? … Continue reading Seeing the smart speaker as a servant vs a master vs a partner – Why it matters

The early days of digital marketing #Web30

This month, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web (WWW), an information management system which, essentially, collates and links to all webpages in the world. As the BBC Bitesize website helpfully reminds us, the WWW is different from the Internet, which is the actual physical network of computers. A colleague and I … Continue reading The early days of digital marketing #Web30

Biases in algorithms – the case of Hello Barbie

Sometime ago, I saw a presentation by Val Steeves, Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa (Canada), about her research on smart toys. The talk focused on Hello Barbie, a Barbie-branded doll which is advertised as “the first fashion doll that can have a two-way conversation with girls”, and featuring “speech recognition and progressive … Continue reading Biases in algorithms – the case of Hello Barbie

Impact of negative online reviews on restaurant staff

The ubiquity of internet access and the popularity of online review sites and other forms of social media, have led to an increase in the opportunity for customers to share their consumption experiences with others. For instance, sharing an entry in Trip Advisor, posting an update on Facebook, or even uploading a video to YouTube. … Continue reading Impact of negative online reviews on restaurant staff

Data harvesting on social media as seduction

In an ideal world, customers would flock to our doors, buy our products over and over again, and happily tell others about their experiences with our brands. But, in the real world, that doesn’t usually happen. In the real world, marketers need to use various techniques to convince customers to use their product. For instance, … Continue reading Data harvesting on social media as seduction

Digital 2019 report: nearly four in ten internet users now using voice commands or voice search

DataReportal has released its annual report on the state of everything digital. It is a fantastic resource, with all sorts of statistics about Internet access and use across the world. You can access the data here, and you can read the analysis here.   One aspect of the report that caught my eye was the data … Continue reading Digital 2019 report: nearly four in ten internet users now using voice commands or voice search

The short vs long term effects of a social media crisis

United breaks guitars. Disgusting Domino’s. The exploding Galaxy Note 7. Starbucks’s race row. #DeleteUber. Gillette’s misplaced belief on the best a man can be. These are just a handful of examples of branding crises playing out on social media. It usually starts with a localised problem, or even with good intentions that backfire. At some … Continue reading The short vs long term effects of a social media crisis