Organisations invest considerable resources in getting customers to acquire their goods and services. They will promote their products in a variety of media, hand out samples or engage a sales team, for instance. In addition, some organisations will map out the steps that their customers go through when using the product. That allows firms to … Continue reading Value at the end of the line

I wrote earlier about the challenges of assessing the quality of online information (by the way, I am still keen on getting your comments about this topic). This post looks at issues of quantity and how we deal with the vast amounts of information available online. The futurologist Alvin Toffler predicted in his book Future … Continue reading Keeping up with information online

In the playground game ‘Chinese Whispers’, one player whispers a message to the next one, who then whispers what s/he has heard to the following player. The game continues until the message reaches the final player who reveals what s/he has heard. The final version of the message usually differs from the original one, a … Continue reading Chinese Whispers Online

I remember that, when I finished my first degree and was looking for a job, every other advert was from an organisation describing itself as ‘the leading player in their market’. However, when you were called for an interview, you would often find an organisation that you would not necessarily label as ‘leader’. Clearly, becoming … Continue reading If Apple made kitchen utensils…

Recently, I participated in a seminar about children’s usage of social media, led by Harry A. Valetk and hosted by the Oxford Internet Institute. The discussion was excellent and included many soul-searching topics such as the end of anonymity in today’s connected society, or the conflict of interests between users of social networks and the … Continue reading On online presence and loyalty cards

When I was invited to talk to a group of executives on the topic of ‘Digital Marketing’, my first question was: ‘What do you mean by “marketing”?’.   Admittedly, this may seem a very weird question, specially coming from someone who teaches marketing for a living. Yet, those that work and teach in the field … Continue reading This thing called marketing

My 9 year old looks at me, excitedly. ‘Mum, guess what happened in school today. Something amazing!’. ‘Er… you were the fastest swimmer’, I venture. She shakes her head. I try again: ‘You did really well in the spelling test’. ‘Mum…’ she interrupts, impatiently. ‘I said “something amazing” ’. I open my arms. ‘Sorry. I … Continue reading David Attenborough Writes a Letter

Skills and technology to succeed in the connected market place The post below was first published as a guest article in the March 2011 issue of Powerchex’s newsletter. A direct link to the original article is available here. Once upon a time, sellers and buyers would meet in marketplaces and have conversations with each other … Continue reading Joining the conversation

Last September, I wrote a post about group buying and how it had been transformed by the web, much like auctions found a new audience with eBay, etc... In that post, available here, I identified five benefits that firms could accrue from joining group buying schemes, namely: 1. Moving old stock 2. Attracting new customers … Continue reading Groupon, Optimism and Procrastination