Feb 04 2015 | Loyalty Today
Few advances in technology have impacted how we do business as broadly and profoundly as mobile. Mobile devices are changing how people behave and what they expect, and as a result it’s changing the way we need to engage with our customers.The way consumers become emotionally attached to...Read More
Jan 28 2015 | Loyalty Today
Healthy skepticism is a part of human nature - it's probably an involuntary defense mechanism that has been refined as we've evolved as social beings. And in today's world of scripted "reality" TV shows, internet hoaxes and celebrity "farewell" tours, healthy skepticism...Read More
Jan 23 2015 | Loyalty Today
Just this week, I had a whirlwind experience with three customer loyalty programs that left me scratching my head
(and not necessarily feeling loyal):Loyalty Experience#1: No valueThe other day, I went out to dinner with a friend of mine. The restaurant we went to is part of a small group of...Read More
Jan 19 2015 | Loyalty Today
When you search “business planning resources US,” Google serves up pages and pages of results without a single bank website. When you search “business planning resources New Zealand,” ANZ BizHub is No. 3 on page 1. Page rank is everything if you want to increase your...Read More
Jan 13 2015 | Loyalty Today
Retailing is fascinating because it’s the very essence of a market – a place that begins and ends with the customer. And the cash register / online shopping cart is where the supply curve and the demand curve meet, generating an endless stream of customer data made very valuable with...Read More
Jan 12 2015 | Loyalty Today
Like many people, I had a bit of a break over the holiday, and like many people, I did a little early Spring-cleaning during my time off. But unfortunately, my house is still messy, because the cleaning I did was electronic: After recently merging my four email accounts into Outlook, I noticed...Read More
Jan 08 2015 | Loyalty Today
Daniel Franklin, Executive Editor of The EconomistKicking off the new year is a great time to assess what's worked and what hasn't, take inventory, check assumptions and do other things to prepare you for a fresh new year. It's also a perfect time to get a broader perspective on ...Read More
Jan 06 2015 | Loyalty Today
Companies like Travelocity, Uber and Yelp have forever changed the way consumers plan their travel and entertainment. Can you remember when you had to book your trips through a travel agency? These innovators have raised the bar for other industries, so can the banking experience be changed...Read More
Jan 05 2015 | Loyalty Today
If you like hunting, fishing, hiking or camping, chances are you not only know Cabela's but you're also a customer. Cabela's is one of the most well-known outdoor recreation brands in the world and was founded as a direct retailer in 1961.Cabela's now engages with customers...Read More
Dec 29 2014 | Loyalty Today
Just imagine the data streaming from each connected car.Decades of Westernized television and cinema have featured fantastic imagined car technologies, including many that now actually exist. Think of the autonomous car from Knight Rider and today’s self-parking capabilities. Or the ongoing...Read More
Dec 26 2014 | Loyalty Today
When we talk about digital customer services, it’s all about creating online self-service capabilities for our customers. This is great for everyone! We’ve made it easy for the customer to get what they need; it’s cheaper and faster for organizations to deliver the service to...Read More
Dec 22 2014 | Loyalty Today
You’re a retailer, it’s the holidays, data is flooding in from all points (if you’re lucky), and the last thing you want to hear from the higher-ups is that you need to “modernize.” And what do they actually mean when they say modernize anyway?Well, modernizing...Read More
Dec 19 2014 | Loyalty Today
There has been a lot of attention given in this blog and elsewhere to this idea of marketing becoming more "scientific." And for good reason - because it's actually happening. It's all about big data, digitization, the importance of search, the empowered (social) consumer, the Internet of...Read More
Dec 18 2014 | Loyalty Today
Few of us can have missed the scenes of frantic shoppers searching for that ultimate bargain on Black Friday. This is something fairly new in the UK, having originated in the United States to refer to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. Legend has it that ‘black’ refers...Read More
Dec 13 2014 | Loyalty Today
In my last post, Where Do You Draw the Line Between Relevancy and Privacy, I talked about some of the plusses and minuses of behavioral online advertising as it pertains to personal (big data) privacy. Finding the balance between honoring people’s privacy while providing them with an...Read More
Dec 10 2014 | Loyalty Today
I recently worked with a company (we’ll call them ABC, Inc.) on a customer segmentation strategy. This particular organization has a predefined set of marketing campaigns that they would send to all of their customers. There was no differentiation in the messaging or channel.We created...Read More
Dec 09 2014 | Loyalty Today
Eighty-four per cent of marketers now regard the rise of the digital native as overwhelmingly the most important (or a very important) factor affecting marketing plans. So while we welcome the digital generation we must also re-tool our mind and skill sets to the new marketing order. This though...Read More
Dec 07 2014 | Loyalty Today
Admit it: If you’re like many marketers, when you read or hear about “big data privacy,” you’re ready to move onto the next topic or swipe to the next screen. Even though you know the discussion is important, you know it’s not fun, it’s sometimes creepy, and it...Read More
Dec 05 2014 | Loyalty Today
We have a love/hate relationship with ads. Whether they’re on television, in our favorite publications, or online, we love them if they’re relevant and interesting, or get annoyed when they get in the way of [insert whatever we’re doing]. I have to admit: I rarely watch a...Read More
Nov 28 2014 | Loyalty Today
Try as we might, we aren’t ubiquitous creatures. When you can’t be everywhere at once, there is usually data somewhere to fall back on. So you review that data, gain insights. If you’re smart, you take notice those insights, evolve and then forecast what’s next. (That...Read More
Nov 24 2014 | Loyalty Today
Sometimes a life lesson smacks you right upside the head—and if you’re anything like me, it may take a day, a month, or even a year or ten before you “get it.” Fortunately, this particular life lesson hit home quickly, and has quietly reminded me of its truth over the...Read More
Nov 19 2014 | Loyalty Today
Back in 2007, the NY Times published an article about “The Google Way.” The premise behind the Google Way is to give engineers 20% of their time to spend on new company related ideas and projects that interest them. For a while this became the management strategy du jour as every...Read More
Nov 18 2014 | Loyalty Today
Marketing attribution has been a hot topic for marketers as long as we’ve had marketing. Everybody talks about it, few really know how to do it, and everyone thinks everyone else is doing it - so everyone claims they’re doing it.This may be different where you are,...Read More
Nov 14 2014 | Loyalty Today
The big data privacy discussion is subtle, complex and complicated – and we each have a role to play. What’s yours going to be?It was 9:53 AM. Sarah was racing against the clock: she wanted to finish a long overdue email to a Canadian colleague before her team’s weekly 10:00 AM...Read More
Nov 13 2014 | Loyalty Today
A Twitter what? Chat? With @SASAnalytics and @IndustryWeek? About World Quality Day?
How do I get in on this? #whatsatwitterchat #whydothisSee how I did that? In 139 characters too. Yep, I thought that would catch your eye. Now that I have your attention, please mark your calendar for our World...Read More
Nov 10 2014 | Loyalty Today
Who would you give your personal information to: your state’s new toll road system, an amusement park, neither, or both?At a Forrester event earlier this year, Melissa Parrish, a Forrester VP and research director, told the story about how her father (we’ll call him Bob), who...Read More
Nov 08 2014 | Loyalty Today
Today, we live in an always-on digital world. We work online. We socialize online. We shop online. We bank online. We support causes online. Not to mention, we drive on toll roads with our EZPasses, go to Disney World with our MagicBands, and check our personal stats with our Fitbits. We are...Read More
Nov 03 2014 | Loyalty Today
You can always tell when a person is enjoying himself – the bright eyes, the smiling face and the hand gestures are unmistakable. Jim Foreman from Staples is an executive that clearly enjoys talking about both marketing and analytics, which makes his presentations both informative and...Read More
Oct 24 2014 | Loyalty Today
What do the following companies have in common: Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Orbitz, Airbnb, Angie’s List, Match.com, OpenTable, and Uber?Here’s what I came up with:Presence. They’re all online; they have no brick-&-mortar presence. If their website or mobile app is...Read More
Oct 23 2014 | Loyalty Today
Theoretically, loyalty programs are supposed to motivate customers to be loyal. But does it always turn out that way? Evidence is mounting that points to the fact that loyalty programs condition customers to expect discounts, and they don’t always cultivate loyalty. And the danger with that...Read More
Oct 19 2014 | Loyalty Today
Dear Facebook,Last week, we reached our 7-year anniversary mark. Have we really been together that long?! Because, honestly, it feels like forever. I’m sorry we didn’t celebrate, but I really didn’t feel like it. Ever since you asked me for my home address a few months ago, my...Read More
Oct 03 2014 | Loyalty Today
“Big Brother?! Ha! I’m not afraid of what the government knows about me. I’m more afraid of the internet and what it will expose about me. Heck, I’m even more afraid of people on the street with their smartphones who can take my picture without my permission and post it...Read More
Sep 26 2014 | Loyalty Today
I don’t know if Edward Snowden – the NSA contractor turned whistleblower currently living in exile - is a hero, traitor or a schmuck. What I do know is that he has brought the data issue much closer to home for me as a consumer and a U.S. citizen. It has left me scratching my head and...Read More
Sep 22 2014 | Loyalty Today
In my role as a customer intelligence advisor, I have the privilege to work with a wide variety of organizations. From retailers to the banking sector, whether ‘B2C’ or ‘B2B’ oriented, one constant is the increasing adoption of data- driven marketing...Read More
Sep 21 2014 | Loyalty Today
Have you heard of About the Data? It’s a website that lets consumers see what personal data’s been collected and is being used to drive the online ads they see and offers they receive. It’s a free service provided by Acxiom, a supplier of marketing data for businesses....Read More
Sep 14 2014 | Loyalty Today
Big data – or whatever you prefer to call it – is a game changer for marketers and throughout the enterprise. And not to mince words: If you’re not using big data to improve your business – e.g., revenues, profits, operational efficiencies, decision making, etc. &ndash...Read More
Sep 05 2014 | Loyalty Today
Déjà vu. For me, this term immediately conjures images of Bill Murray waking up in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on Groundhog Day – repeatedly. In French, déjà vu means “already seen” and while I usually fall solidly into the realm of skeptic in...Read More
Aug 29 2014 | Loyalty Today
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” -Dr. SeussAbout three months ago, I invited marketers to join me on a journey through the Big Data Archipelago, a collection of 10 islands, each focused on a key big data topic (see island names above). A visit to...Read More
Aug 22 2014 | Loyalty Today
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” – Winston ChurchillHurricane Sandy, one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit the eastern United States came ashore in October 2012. Airbnb, an online matchmaker for travel rentals, was one...Read More
Aug 19 2014 | Loyalty Today
Last weekend, I took my nine-year-old son to a batting cage to get ready for his upcoming baseball season. He's a natural athlete, but soccer has been his full-time sport of choice for the last two years, so he needed some reps swinging the bat to switch gears to baseball.As he stepped...Read More
Aug 15 2014 | Loyalty Today
“Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.” –Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide WebLast year, the International Institute for Analytics (IIA) and SAS published the research report, “Big Data in Big Companies,” written by...Read More
Aug 10 2014 | Loyalty Today
“If we have data, let’s look at data.If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.”
– Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEOHave you read Tom Davenport’s “Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century” article in the Harvard Business...Read More
Aug 07 2014 | Loyalty Today
Photo credit: The Digital Future of Retail, Merchandising Matters.The other day I received a letter in the mail. What was in the letter left me feeling depressed. It left me feeling inadequate, unprepared, incapable of mustering the mental and emotional energy to complete it’s request.You...Read More
Aug 02 2014 | Loyalty Today
“Human errors and systems glitches caused nearly two-thirds of data breaches globally in 2012.”
- Ponemon Institute and SymantecNothing has accelerated the proliferation and sharing of personal data more than the internet. Some may disagree, but unless you’re living a technology...Read More
Jul 25 2014 | Loyalty Today
“Data that is loved tends to survive.” – Kurt Bollacker, data scientistAwhile back, I had the pleasure of traveling to five countries in Europe to participate in a 10-day, SAS-sponsored executive roadshow. Jill Dyché, Vice President of SAS Best Practices, kicked off...Read More
Jul 19 2014 | Loyalty Today
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.” – Andrew S. TanenbaumThere’s been a lot of buzz about the Location Isle for several years due to a strong interest in its cloud computing territories – private cloud...Read More
Jul 14 2014 | Loyalty Today
“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” - André GideEver heard of OpenOffice, Hadoop, Android, Firefox or MySQL? If so, can you identify the common denominator between these software tools and applications? If you...Read More
Jul 06 2014 | Loyalty Today
“If you build it, he will come.” – From the movie “Field of Dreams”“Build it and they will come” is a popular quote often attributed to the movie Field of Dreams. But guess what? This quote is not from the movie; it’s actually a misquote. [See the...Read More
Jun 29 2014 | Loyalty Today
“I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and
I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.”
(Editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957)Whereby the Analytics Isle tends to...Read More
Jun 20 2014 | Loyalty Today
“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know.
But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.”
- Donald RumsfeldWelcome to the...Read More
Jun 16 2014 | Loyalty Today
Come along with me on a journey through the Big Data Archipelago. It involves "visiting" a series of islands - an archipelago if you will - that each present a different opportunity to find value in big data.Big data is arguably one of the most overhyped buzzwords in business today...Read More
Jun 12 2014 | Loyalty Today
As the best of the best golfers converge in Pinehurst, NC at the US Open Golf Tournament, it seems only natural to relate golfing to marketing optimization. I assure you this is not a stretch - please read on.You see, everything in life is an optimization problem that must be solved. Time...Read More
May 13 2014 | Loyalty Today
Maybe you’re like me – you work with (or within) a lot of large companies with big marketing departments. Everyone is crazy for “customer intimacy,” but what exactly does that mean? As much as I preach about knowing and understanding your customer – they end up as an...Read More
Apr 11 2014 | Loyalty Today
“We are living in the era of the connected customer -
one in which normal customer behavior is to capture moments and share it in near real-time.”
- from "Customer Love - it's All About the Connection" by John BallaOne message does not fit all anymore...Read More
Mar 14 2014 | Loyalty Today
We’ve talked in the first two posts about how the digitization of everything is disrupting marketing and changing the face of commerce. Organizations are having to change the way they operate, and that’s causing roles in the C-suite to evolve.The digitization of everything is doing...Read More
Mar 13 2014 | Loyalty Today
It’s 10:30 in the morning, and her Jawbone buzzes. Jane is notified that she’s been sitting too long, and her meeting is ending anyway. She rises up from her booth at the coffee shop, bids her associate good bye, and walks through the mall towards the parking lot. Her device reminds...Read More
Mar 11 2014 | Loyalty Today
For nearly a century, the buyer’s journey was relatively linear. Advertising messages distributed across a few mass media outlets were the primary method of spreading awareness. Purchase consideration generally occurred by reading product brochures and conversing with salespeople, friends...Read More
Mar 10 2014 | Loyalty Today
Recently, I attended a symposuim hosted by the Calvin Institute with my wife. Some of the many sessions I attended focused on how to create an awesome worship experince. By hearing many of the different musicians perform live, I noticed how the art and...Read More
Mar 06 2014 | Loyalty Today
Experiencing a major sporting event in person is a hard-to-describe experience for a fan. When your team is winning, a feeling of euphoria rolls through the stadium or arena. I have hugged and high-fived complete strangers when a game-winning shot goes in or someone scores a game-winning...Read More
Feb 26 2014 | Loyalty Today
“Truth be told, I wouldn’t mind seeing our loyalty card program go away, but we’re not there yet.”
- A retail CEOI invite you to put on your consumer cap for a minute and answer these questions:How many loyalty cards do you have and how many of those are you actively using...Read More
Feb 21 2014 | Loyalty Today
A question often asked by marketers about big data is “Where do we start?” For newcomers and seasoned experts alike, there is no shortcut to finding the “signal” in the “noise” of today’s big data. What I recommend is a structured...Read More
Oct 24 2013 | Loyalty Today
We as marketers always try to secure the customer at the center of our universe. We learned this basic truth from early years as marketers but often times we stray from that guiding principal. We get distracted by product development, product innovation, chasing that...Read More
Oct 09 2013 | Loyalty Today
I recently had the pleasure of moderating a panel focusing on the top of Marketing Operations, which included Kim Collins of Gartner, Cedrick Shelly of State Farm Insurance, and Stephan Nobs of SAS.
This panel was extremely timely as we move into the coming year and hear so...Read More
Aug 15 2013 | Loyalty Today
Brands like Comcast, Dell, and Nike have made names for themselves on Twitter as customer service pros. Their responses to customer mentions in the social sphere are known for being useful, timely and fun.At SAS, we were hoping to develop a similar program for monitoring and responding to our...Read More
Aug 06 2013 | Loyalty Today
I don’t want to have a relationship with a marketing department. I don’t want to be your friend. I don’t want to engage in conversation with you. I feel no loyalty towards you. When I say I like you I’m not entirely sincere.And yet I chose to share...Read More
Jul 23 2013 | Loyalty Today
Marketers – like most people – like to see their accomplishments in some sort of visual representation. We are a profession who lives in PowerPoint, prezi or some other sort of tool that makes what you are working on look really, really good – sometimes – better than it...Read More
Jul 22 2013 | Loyalty Today
As a somewhat healthy and active guy, I pay attention to — and sometimes shake my head at — product packaging that boasts “40 percent less fat” or “all natural ingredients.” When you look at the fine print, it tells a more complete story. Yes, there might be a...Read More
Jun 25 2013 | Loyalty Today
Brian Solis of the Altimeter Group has a compelling vision of the future - one which is replete with promise made possible by great technologies. But these great technologies come with a need to keep them in the right perspective (more on that below). In addition to great...Read More
Jun 21 2013 | Loyalty Today
When it comes to online customer data, marketers today have to balance a fine line between consumer privacy and effective marketing. The problem is that it’s quite easy for marketing to be intrusive, annoying and even creepy, so there is a risk that the abusers in our industry may...Read More
Jun 14 2013 | Loyalty Today
Are you invisible or remarkable? That's the question that Seth Godin believes that marketers should ask themselves in the new economy and there are 3 simple reasons why:All media is now optional - no one is going to look at your tweet or open your junk mail unless they want to.The mass market...Read More
Jun 11 2013 | Loyalty Today
Hi everyone! I'm excited to be a new contributer to this blog - I've taken the road less traveled when it comes to marketing. My goal out of college was to see the world which landed me in the travel industry. I later became a Certified Meeting Planner and Events Project...Read More
May 19 2013 | Loyalty Today
Hello! As a new contributor to this blog, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Dwight Mouton and yes that's a French last name. I'm orginally from the heart of Cajun country, Lafayette, Lousiana. I've been in marketing related roles since I earned my...Read More
May 16 2013 | Loyalty Today
We're pleased to have Scott Brinker, a thought leader and entrepreneur at the intersection of marketing and technology, as the newest contributor to our sister blog from our friends Down Under called "Left of the Date Line."In his first post for that blog, he explores the idea...Read More
May 13 2013 | Loyalty Today
Shawn Skillman and Lori Jordan
A little over 2 years ago, I wrote a post about our vision for turning big data into a strategic asset. The outcome of this vision was the development of a Global Marketing System that provides marketers with complete views of customer behavior and...Read More
Apr 30 2013 | Loyalty Today
In the last decade, CMOs have made great strides in elevating their stature. According to the latest SpencerStuart survey, CMO tenure has steadily climbed from 23 months in 2004 to 45 months in 2012. What are the reasons for this improved longevity? Marketers are becoming more strategic-minded...Read More
Apr 26 2013 | Loyalty Today
Springtime...Baseball...Hot Dogs...Peanuts...Coke... I remember growing up on the south side of Chicago watching my beloved Chicago White Sox play at the old Comisky Park. My father would take me to a few games during the summer and I would remember the refreshment vendor walking up...Read More
Apr 25 2013 | Loyalty Today
We have a few hundred bloggers here at SAS, and people are always asking me about how to increase page views to their posts. I'm going to give you my top ten answers to that question below, but first I have to give you "the page view caveat," which goes something like this ...
Page views...Read More
Apr 18 2013 | Loyalty Today
I consider myself lucky to have confirmed first-hand that Nate Silver is a relatively smart guy. Nate Silver was not telling a fish tale here.
He most recently published a book, The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – but Some Don’t, and he is particularly well known...Read More
Apr 18 2013 | Loyalty Today
I was driving back from Washington, DC this weekend after spending a couple of days admiring the cherry blossoms and taking my oldest son sightseeing. Wanting to grab something fast for lunch, we stopped at McDonald's a few miles outside the capital. I ordered Chicken McNuggets for my son...Read More
Apr 15 2013 | Loyalty Today
New research by the CMO Council and SAS, entitled "Big Data's Biggest Role: Aligning the CMO & CIO," shows more overlaps than differences between marketing and IT. Big data is uniting the CMO and CIO in their common quest for a customer-centric organization. 61 percent of...Read More
Apr 08 2013 | Loyalty Today
Online marketers all want the same thing - for our customers to get what they, want when they want it, and with the fewest clicks possible. We already know that satisfied customers usually return, and now they share their experiences so the stakes have never been higher to get it right every...Read More
Apr 01 2013 | Loyalty Today
Ever wonder what is going through your customer’s minds prior to their deciding to purchase your product?
If that is the case, well then you are in luck today! In this post, we will be examining consumer behavior leading up to and including the purchase decision, with an emphasis on how...Read More
Mar 21 2013 | Loyalty Today
The digital world we live in gives marketers the opportunity to capture, record, measure, analyze and report just about anything nowadays - and we do it! Clicks, conversions, likes, attrition, business drivers, value destroyers - you name it and it's all fair game. Therein lies...Read More
Mar 08 2013 | Loyalty Today
In the first post in this series, we discussed how there are a number of terms that describe how organizations manage their customer engagements: customer intelligence, customer analytics, integrated marketing management and marketing analytics. My goal with this series of posts was to clarify...Read More
Mar 07 2013 | Loyalty Today
In two previous posts, we have investigated the terms customer intelligence and customer analytics in more detail. We continue on our journey today by defining our third of four terms – that of integrated marketing management (IMM). Each of these four terms are different and...Read More
Feb 27 2013 | Loyalty Today
Content plays a critical multifaceted role in marketing today - simultaneously beckoning and informing your customers at any given time. Content imparts details, stirs emotions and sways decisions. And when created and promoted correctly, content fuels a sales funnel whose...Read More
Feb 07 2013 | Loyalty Today
On advantage of being a marketer at SAS right now is that we have a roughly 35-year head start on our competitors in terms of helping organizations manage big data. And because much of big data is driven by customer data, marketing is ground zero for big data in most organizations...Read More
Jan 31 2013 | Loyalty Today
This post originally appeared in our SAS Voices blog, published by my colleague and fellow blogger Courtney Peters. It's a great story about how Oberweis Dairy harnessed the power of marketing analytics to cultivate loyalty. That effort has helped them grow from a family-owned...Read More
Jan 28 2013 | Loyalty Today
SAS World Headquarters
The idea of customer centricity in marketing is as "old as dirt" - it's probably been around as long as people have been interested in buying or selling things to each other. So why are we still talking about it, and why is it so seemingly elusive for some...Read More
Jan 21 2013 | Loyalty Today
I have been fortunate enough to work on some of our various marketing analytics’ implementations. One specific solution I have talked about before is Customer Experience Analytics (CXA), a solution that facilitates the integration of online and offline data for better...Read More
Jan 17 2013 | Loyalty Today
The SAS booth at #NRF13 is a popular place.
One of the amazing things I’m finding about the National Retail Federation’s “BIG Show” is the incredible amount of experience and knowledge walking the halls. There are 10-, 20- and 30-year veterans of the retail world...Read More
Jan 17 2013 | Loyalty Today
It's easy to see how a newcomer to "Retail's BIG Show" could be a bit overwhelmed. The booths are big, attendance is booming and there are "hot and new" solutions everywhere you turn. But as I've walked the halls and looked at what's being promoted, I've noticed a few trends...Read More
Jan 14 2013 | Loyalty Today
It's remarkable how the women my life really like shopping at the different Chico's FAS stores. I think a big reason is that somehow they manage to deliver a boutique experience for every customer at all their stores. That's not an easy feat when you run over 1...Read More
Jan 07 2013 | Loyalty Today
The Economist Intelligence Unit recently published a report that highlights some C-suite dynamics that remind me of that childrens' game "monkey in the middle." The report details multiple ways in which surveyed CMOs believe one thing about the role of marketing in the company, and then...Read More
Jan 03 2013 | Loyalty Today
As we turn the calendar to a new year, we tend to take a look at our lives and make some goals for improvement. Maybe it involves fitting in our favorite pair of jeans again or finally starting the next great American novel. Change and improvement are second nature in our personal lives. But...Read More
Jan 01 2013 | Loyalty Today
Marketers all focus on what we think our customers will like. We analyze mountains of data, look at what our competition is doing, ask our staff for ideas, look at past year's marketing campaigns, look at our facilties/products, hire outside consultants...Read More
Dec 31 2012 | Loyalty Today
A colossal man-made storm known as “the fiscal cliff” looms on the horizon of the United States economy. Much attention has been paid to the political wrangling behind this situation in Washington, while Congress seems oblivious to unanimity among economists that large...Read More
Dec 13 2012 | Loyalty Today
In today’s fast paced marketing software industry, sorting through terms and naming conventions can be quite a confusing task. Often times – in an attempt to “differentiate” themselves from other vendors – software companies and solution providers invent new names...Read More
Dec 05 2012 | Loyalty Today
Apparently the “big” in “big data” is only going to get bigger. And it turns out that organizations have not prioritized big data as much as they perhaps should because too many of them aren’t effectively leveraging customer data across channels. Both of those are...Read More
Nov 26 2012 | Loyalty Today
Hello, everyone! I’m excited to be part of this great blog and share a few of my ideas. A little about me – I’m a marketer at heart, passionate about strategy, creativity, branding and analytics. I love discovering marketing lessons by examining things around me. At SAS, I...Read More
Nov 19 2012 | Loyalty Today
The number one rule about product launch blogging is to never blog about your product launch. Take that, Fight Club!
And yet, most marketers are expected to write multiple blog posts in conjunction with a launch. How do the smart marketers do it? They talk about the issues and share their...Read More
Nov 12 2012 | Loyalty Today
Understanding the customer is more and more complex with each passing every day, especially due to the ever-increasing amoung of customer data - generating what is commonly known as "Big Data." Adding to the complexity is all the unstructured data from social media, which happens...Read More
Nov 01 2012 | Loyalty Today
"Awesome" is possibly the most over-used word in the English language, and its over-usage is driven by its versatility. Generally, something awesome is impressive in a way that warrants talking about it - so it's something remarkable. Knowing that, it's easy to understand how ...Read More
Oct 29 2012 | Loyalty Today
Businesses can no longer ignore the importance of social networking and social capabilities as part of their enterprise applications. According to a Forrester survey of 200 U.S. companies, social listening and digital engagement can influence customer perception (58%) and building long-term...Read More
Oct 22 2012 | Loyalty Today
Standing in my own crosshairs as my own target market means that almost all work that I do can be a learning opportunity, and going to DMA2012 was certainly a biggie. What I saw and experienced at the show reaffirmed the idea that it’s never been more exciting to be a marketer, and that...Read More
Oct 17 2012 | Loyalty Today
By and large, marketers are an optimistic lot. We're often big extroverts with big ideas, laying grand plans and generally having a good time along the way. Our view of the future is usually rosy, with all sorts of reasons to hope for the best and reach for the stars. So it came as no...Read More
Oct 12 2012 | Loyalty Today
Over the last decade, five companies have emerged with the potential to aggressively reshape the landscape of multiple industries – and to change life as we know it. They are the "Tech Titans:" Amazon, Apple, eBay , Facebook and Google.
Collectively, these five companies are...Read More
Oct 11 2012 | Loyalty Today
The challenge of "big data" is well recognized as multi-faceted in terms of its Volume, Variety and Velocity, and SAS has had a roughly 35-year head start on the rest of the industry in dealing with it. Our solutions are dyed-in-the-wool to address the "3 V's" of big data, in addition to...Read More
Oct 01 2012 | Loyalty Today
The phrase “Content is King” may not be new, but it certainly has enduring relevance in our digital world where so much of our lives are experienced online and increasingly shared online. In fact, the very essence of social media is found in the ways we create content, share it...Read More
Sep 24 2012 | Loyalty Today
Hi everyone! I am Jim Hiepler-Hartwig, the newest member of the SAS Customer Intelligence marketing team, and I am happy to be a new contributor to this blog. In previous roles, I've held positions in both sales and marketing, and much of my focus in the last few years ...Read More
Sep 18 2012 | Loyalty Today
The ability to manage cross channel customer interactions is no doubt a critical part of business strategies. Business strategies that focus on continually improving customer loyalty, constantly reducing marketing costs, and always communicating consistently and efficiently with customers will...Read More
Sep 17 2012 | Loyalty Today
I recently read an excellent research report by the IAB and Forrester titled Digital Attribution Comes of Age. In the paper, they talked specifically about improved multichannel measurement, data driven decision making and media buying leverage for marketers. Attribution...Read More
Sep 10 2012 | Loyalty Today
We're working on a project with a retail industry thought leadership organization called Retail Systems Research (RSR for short). My colleague, Wilson Raj, is working with RSR Managing Partner Nikki Baird to explore how data-driven customer centricity holds the key to successful...Read More
Aug 29 2012 | Loyalty Today
For Insurers, social media is no longer just for marketing. As Hurricane Isaac threatens in the Gulf of Mexico, many proactive insurance companies are using social media to communicate with customers; offering insight on preparing for the storm, tracking the radar, and offering instructions on...Read More
Aug 27 2012 | Loyalty Today
My colleague Matt Fulk and I work closely together on a number of fronts, and the last time we posted was about Lead Management Automation Using SAS. One initiative that has really been rewarding to work on has been our internal implementation of our Customer Experience Analytics...Read More
Aug 24 2012 | Loyalty Today
Here's what usually happens: You attend a conference and decide to live blog a session or two. You might even pre-draft or pre-research a small portion of the post to include the names of the speakers and some background information about them. Typically, you start the post like this:
I am...Read More
Aug 21 2012 | Loyalty Today
In case you've missed it, our friends from Down Under have written some great posts about customer intelligence on our sister blog, Left of the Date Line. Each one of our colleagues have a few posts, so here is a summary of my favorites, which I encourage you to read:Intelligent...Read More
Aug 17 2012 | Loyalty Today
We have experimented with Twitter chats here at SAS, including a lively #statchat that we hosted two years ago for World Statistics Day. Likewise, our publications team has hosted a few fun Twitter chats with SAS book authors.
Outside of SAS sponsored chats, I've also participated in...Read More
Aug 14 2012 | Loyalty Today
17 days ago, I posted Olympic inspiration for marketers and in it I shared a few good lessons for marketers from the Games. With a long-term focus, discipline, results orientation and teamwork, all sorts of victories are possible - for both athletes and marketers. Those same lessons have...Read More
Aug 13 2012 | Loyalty Today
A weekly ritual at our house is to pore over the local Sunday newspaper print edition and drink big mugs of strong coffee. My wife and I take different sections, we discuss various items that strike us along the way, and we can often have the world's problems solved by noon...Read More
Aug 09 2012 | Loyalty Today
This is the third in a series of four posts that focus on how marketing solutions can help marketing fulfill its role in the organization. In the first post, I outlined the three specific functions for the solutions to fulfill - to drive profitability, to increase productivity, and to be...Read More
Jul 18 2012 | Loyalty Today
Welcome back to the jaw-dropping discussion on what really matters in your social media strategy. Harkening back to Katie Paine’s amazing presentation at the recent SAS Government Executive summit, there are six steps to measuring what really matters in a social media campaign...Read More
Jul 17 2012 | Loyalty Today
Recently, SAS had the pleasure of hosting Katie Paine, social media maven, expert on media measurement, and author of Measure What Matters, at the SAS Government Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. The session was jam-packed with the usual drool-worthy stats and figures covering the...Read More
Jul 13 2012 | Loyalty Today
Certain things are just hard to squeeze into your day. For some of us, it's exercise or doing laundry. For others, it's blogging. You want to do it almost every day, but you can't seem to find the time. If you're one of the bloggers or would-be bloggers trying (and sometimes...Read More
Jul 09 2012 | Loyalty Today
The Centre for Economic and Business Research is a respected economic consultancy. Earlier this year we asked them to look at the value of analytics to the UK today, and forecast the likely growth of analytics over the next five years. Their full findings can be downloaded here...Read More
Jul 05 2012 | Loyalty Today
As you might expect, blogging is a lot like many other skills – you have to work at it over time before you start to see improvements. Blogging does not at all come naturally to me, so it’s a personal goal of mine to keep working at it until I improve. According to WordPress, I...Read More
Jun 26 2012 | Loyalty Today
The Supreme Court of the United States is set to reveal its ruling on the landmark health care legislation known as the Affordable Care Act. Much angst has resulted from this law and many parties that feel obliged to support or criticize the law have prepared statements, and in some cases...Read More
Jun 18 2012 | Loyalty Today
I had a chance to attend a moderated panel discussion at the last SAS Global Forum Executive Conference with executives from Best Buy, Seminole Gaming and Office Depot, and each speaker offered their own unique story about how applied customer analytics makes a difference in...Read More
Jun 07 2012 | Loyalty Today
For the last three years, doing more with less has been a constant rallying call that one could argue has become the new normal within business.
Within the realms of the marketing department, it means generating the same or higher revenues from smaller budgets; fewer staff to execute the same...Read More
Jun 05 2012 | Loyalty Today
We asked David Chong, an SVP of marketing at a leading Malaysian Bank to talk to us about where they are focused today and tomorrow.
There may be lots of data out there, and ever increasing forms of technology to tame and mine that data, but according to David, banks in Asia are focused on the...Read More
Jun 01 2012 | Loyalty Today
According to Warren Murray, Facebook is an opportunity. Warren is the head of business decision support at eBucks, South Africa’s leading multi-partner rewards program.
More people have Twitter and Facebook accounts. More people are following others. Warren sees these channels...Read More
May 30 2012 | Loyalty Today
We just completed our largest annual event for Financial Services, the SAS Financial Services Executive Summit, where the theme was using analytics to drive innovation and create change. Even in the earliest stages of planning, it was clear that the customer would loom large in our content...Read More
May 29 2012 | Loyalty Today
Executives from Bank of America, USAA and the United Nations discuss big data.
Yesterday’s SAS Financial Services Executive Summit included a session titled “Big Data for the Next Big Idea,” which was moderated by SAS CMO and EVP Jim Davis , and included executives...Read More
May 29 2012 | Loyalty Today
Challenging assumptions is a good business practice.
As a marketer, one of the highlights of the SAS Financial Services Executive Summit has been the interactive session titled "Exploring and Exploiting Trends to Really Understand Today's Customer." The session involved all...Read More
May 25 2012 | Loyalty Today
Panel discussion: How well do you know today's customer?
Today's second annual SAS Financial Services Executive Summit included a great panel discussion moderated by Lori Bieda from SAS, and featuring Greg Holzwarth, SVP and Managing Director, Customer Information Management at...Read More
May 24 2012 | Loyalty Today
Conversations are dynamic and free flowing. One idea begets another. As people interact and knowledge is shared, perspectives can change … and with them, expectations.Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group a leading research-based advisory firm with a focus on disruptive...Read More
May 22 2012 | Loyalty Today
We had the good fortune to have Ralph Thomas, Ph.D., VP of Strategic Analytics and Database Marketing from Seminole Gaming, participate in our integrated marketing management panel at the 2012 SAS Global Forum Executive Conference along with his colleagues from Office Depot and Best Buy. Each...Read More
May 21 2012 | Loyalty Today
There are no silver bullets that guarantee success for marketers. Betting on a single channel, technology, process or team is very much like betting everything on “Red” in a casino – there’s no more than a 50% chance of success – for each item. Make bets on...Read More
May 11 2012 | Loyalty Today
I am at the 9th Annual SAS Health Care and Life Sciences Executive Conference, an extraordinary event that draws the best and the brightest leaders as both speakers and attendees from the pharmaceutical, health insurance, health care and related industries. One session featured speakers...Read More
May 11 2012 | Loyalty Today
I had the pleasure to sit in on a panel discussion at the the 9th Annual SAS Health Care and Life Sciences Executive Conference focused on the topic of understanding and managing customer behavior in the changing health care landscape. This panel was moderated by Dipti Patel...Read More
May 03 2012 | Loyalty Today
Alan Adams, Senior Director of Customer Analytics at Office Depot, took part in a great panel discussion on integrated marketing management at the 2012 SAS Global Forum Executive Conference along with his colleagues from Seminole Gaming and Best Buy. The session included a short presentation by...Read More
Apr 25 2012 | Loyalty Today
SAS Executive Lead for Customer Intelligence Lori Bieda moderated this panel and introduced the concept of Marketing Optimization as the "Holy Grail" of marketing for the power it holds to enable marketing to fulfill its mandate as driving profitable growth for organizations. Joining her in...Read More
Apr 25 2012 | Loyalty Today
I had the distinct pleasure today to hear Guy Kawasaki deliver a keynote address at the SAS Global Forum Executive Conference 2012. I thought of his engaging address as a nice guide for personal effectiveness, particularly in a professional realm. And my main takeaway from yesterday...Read More
Apr 02 2012 | Loyalty Today
We recently held a half-day session devoted entirely to search marketing that gave us an opportunity to cast a wide net internally about this very important topic. I learned some new things and also had a few moments where it seemed the obvious was being presented, but sometimes even ...Read More
Feb 24 2012 | Loyalty Today
Wired had an interesting article recently, discussing how “Darpa,” the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) research agency, is requesting proposals for implantable biosensors. Darpa is interested in the application of this technology for “real-time, accurate measurements of...Read More
Feb 09 2012 | Loyalty Today
Greetings! My name is Kelly Miller and I am a marketer at SAS, focused specifically on the health care industry for 8 years now. And what an intriguing industry it is! Technology and market demands have led to dramatic changes, and now that health care...Read More
Feb 07 2012 | Loyalty Today
As a new contributor to SAS’ Customer Analytics blog, let me introduce myself. I’m a SAS field marketer focused on integrated campaigns, digital strategy and the marketing investment for Financial Services in the US. As a marketer, I always take an interest in the Super Bowl...Read More
Feb 06 2012 | Loyalty Today
In my view of things, as a (semi) professional in software product marketing focused on the needs of direct marketers, with the possible exception of “CRM”, there may be no term more abstract, than that of “campaign management”. Seriously. I help market and sell...Read More
Jan 30 2012 | Loyalty Today
Whose mobile communications are hitting the spot? Which broadcast strategy helps banks make an emotional connection with their customers? Who sends out such badly targeted e-mails that customers see them as less personally relevant than a TV advert? The answer to these questions may...Read More
Jan 09 2012 | Loyalty Today
Without fail, at every social media conference I attend, someone will approach the microphone during the Q&A portion of a presentation and ask the speaker or the panelsts, "How are you measuring influence for your blogger outreach programs?" Or, "How can we replicate what you...Read More
Jan 02 2012 | Loyalty Today
Happy New Year!
As we begin 2012, I think we can all agree there is no question that the explosion of digital technology over the past few years has redefined the relationship between vendor and customer. With so much product and vendor information just a click or a tap away, customers are...Read More
Dec 23 2011 | Loyalty Today
According to Wikipedia, marketing with music can roughly be traced back to 1923 with the dawn of commercial radio broadcasting. What we now know as a "jingle" first aired on Christmas Eve in 1926, touting the merits of General Mills' Wheaties...Read More
Dec 16 2011 | Loyalty Today
My friend and colleague, Matt Fulk, has detailed in his posts some of the great ways we've used SAS Customer Intelligence to improve our own marketing. Using SAS fits with our culture of measurement and analysis that keeps us constantly focused on finding better ways to do things, and...Read More
Dec 16 2011 | Loyalty Today
2011 has been a big year for social media at SAS.
Our award-winning blogging program got a major makeover
We relaunched the Knowledge Exchange in WordPress to provide great thought leadership content to our customers
We debuted new corporate social media presences on Facebook and Google+
...Read More
Dec 14 2011 | Loyalty Today
Let's start with a true/false quiz:
True or False: Nobody comments on B2B blog posts.
True or False: Quality blog posts will always generate comments on their own without promotion.
True or False: Using your personal contact list to draw commenters to your blog is cheating...Read More
Dec 06 2011 | Loyalty Today
In my last blog post, titled Taking the Best Marketing Action, we focused on making sure our marketing activities were relevant, optimized, and automated. Getting to this place within your marketing organization takes work, but the payoffs from having these processes set are phenomenal in terms...Read More
Dec 03 2011 | Loyalty Today
One of the best things about having marketers as my target market is that I personally benefit from thought leaders I get to work with to offer my audience valuable content. And this blog is a great way for me to share some of the best of the best. When it comes to social media...Read More
Nov 28 2011 | Loyalty Today
?Healthcare was one of five sectors looked in the Pleased to Meet You research (the other four were Banking, Supermarkets, Soft Drinks, and Mobile). In the UK the majority of healthcare is publicly funded, and so healthcare was chosen to as a representative of the public sector. It allows us to...Read More
Nov 18 2011 | Loyalty Today
Just today we published a new “success story,” our term for customer testimonial, with a great customer of ours, Chubb. As I was reading through the story, I realized what a complex environment insurance marketers find themselves in, especially when independent insurance agents are...Read More
Nov 14 2011 | Loyalty Today
As mentioned in a previous post, We had the pleasure to sponsor the eMetrics Marketing Optimization conference again this year with a marketing lab. Our featured story was an innovative use of customer analytics by Organic, a digital marketing agency and SAS customer. We highlighted...Read More
Nov 01 2011 | Loyalty Today
Most bloggers start thinking about blog editorial calendars from a planning perspective. You want to make sure you have enough content to keep the blog updated somewhat regularly, and you want to make sure you are publishing content that your audience needs, without overlooking any of your...Read More
Oct 26 2011 | Loyalty Today
Andy Swenson, VP of Database and Revenue Management at Pinnacle Entertainment outlined their approach to customer loyalty, which included some great takeaways for companies in any industry.
The gaming resorts leader partnered with Teradata to provide the database and with SAS to handle the...Read More
Oct 26 2011 | Loyalty Today
Scott Hudgins, VP of Customer Managed Relationships at The Walt Disney Company shared details about how Disney has approached CRM and the guiding principles and key learnings that have driven their success.
They began their CRM process in 2001 knowing that most of their customers were...Read More
Oct 26 2011 | Loyalty Today
Jim Bampos presented in a session today at PBLS11 titled, Driving the Total Customer Experience with Data. He described the extraordinary journey he’s led his company on to manage customer experience and how it literally transformed EMC to be centered on the customer...Read More
Oct 25 2011 | Loyalty Today
ANA Masters of Marketing kicked off its general session with blockbuster brands, and equally interesting Marketing executives. I knew I would hear from some executive firepower, but I did not expect to walk away with this level of inspiration.Steven Quinn of Walmart communicated the sobering...Read More
Oct 24 2011 | Loyalty Today
Which new channel is winning with the customer?
Given the current hype about social media as a marketing channel I thought it might be nice to see how our respondents in the Pleased to Meet You survey responded to this channel. In particular we will compare it to the mobile channel which was...Read More
Oct 13 2011 | Loyalty Today
I just returned from a vacation to the Pacific Northwest. What a place! The highlight was a whitewater rafting trip we took on the White Salmon River in Washington. The trip is scenic and chaotic. The track of river we ran delivers a steady barrage of class 3-4 rapids...Read More
Oct 07 2011 | Loyalty Today
In my last post, titled How to find the most profitable growth opportunities, I talked about the first of three main customer challenges that we solve with our Customer Intelligence solutions, finding the best growth opportunities, which involves using information and data management...Read More
Oct 05 2011 | Loyalty Today
Before I can even talk about blog strategy, I have to admit that I am not naturally a strategic thinker. I am rumored to be organized and slightly more analytical than your average writer, but I am first and foremost a creative, right-brained thinker.
This means my immediate reaction when...Read More
Oct 02 2011 | Loyalty Today
As previously mentioned, I am at DMA:2011 in Boston with David Meerman Scott and he was the featured guest at our executive dinner this evening. We invited marketing executives attending this conference to have dinner with the best-selling author, who will also present in the Thought...Read More
Sep 26 2011 | Loyalty Today
For marketers with a lengthy, complex sales cycle, it is still imperative to engage a potential buyer as quickly as possible with relevant information. In an online world, tools like “click to chat” help with those willing to engage with vendors. In handling the...Read More
Sep 21 2011 | Loyalty Today
The instinctive answer to this question is “Yes, obviously they do”. But as a marketer the obvious answer is not enough. Yes they do, but what does that look like in practice, and how does this affect the way I should approach my marketing. This is the question that has occupied my...Read More
Sep 20 2011 | Loyalty Today
SAS will be at the DMA2011 conference in Boston on October 1-6, 2011, sponsoring David Meerman Scott in the Thought Leadership Series. David is a noted marketing strategist and author of seven books on marketing and PR, including The New Rules of Marketing and PR. His session...Read More
Sep 15 2011 | Loyalty Today
At the end of Todd Wheatland's presentation, "Transforming a large organization into a content machine," at Content Marketing World, he offered a top ten list of tips for creating corporate content. I've pulled a few tips from his list and added in others from earlier in his talk that...Read More
Aug 25 2011 | Loyalty Today
I'm pleased to share a new installment of our “Nuts & Bolts of Social Media” video series. In this video, SAS’ Deb Orton talks with Charlotte Sibley, of Sibley Associates, about how engaging in social media can benefit the life science industry with regards to...Read More
Feb 04 2015
Few advances in technology have impacted how we do business as broadly and profoundly as mobile. Mobile devices are changing how people behave and what they expect, and as a result it’s changing the way we need to engage with our customers.The way consumers become emotionally attached to...Read More
Jan 28 2015
Healthy skepticism is a part of human nature - it's probably an involuntary defense mechanism that has been refined as we've evolved as social beings. And in today's world of scripted "reality" TV shows, internet hoaxes and celebrity "farewell" tours, healthy skepticism...Read More
Jan 23 2015
Just this week, I had a whirlwind experience with three customer loyalty programs that left me scratching my head
(and not necessarily feeling loyal):Loyalty Experience#1: No valueThe other day, I went out to dinner with a friend of mine. The restaurant we went to is part of a small group of...Read More
Jan 19 2015
When you search “business planning resources US,” Google serves up pages and pages of results without a single bank website. When you search “business planning resources New Zealand,” ANZ BizHub is No. 3 on page 1. Page rank is everything if you want to increase your...Read More
Jan 13 2015
Retailing is fascinating because it’s the very essence of a market – a place that begins and ends with the customer. And the cash register / online shopping cart is where the supply curve and the demand curve meet, generating an endless stream of customer data made very valuable with...Read More
Jan 12 2015
Like many people, I had a bit of a break over the holiday, and like many people, I did a little early Spring-cleaning during my time off. But unfortunately, my house is still messy, because the cleaning I did was electronic: After recently merging my four email accounts into Outlook, I noticed...Read More
Jan 08 2015
Daniel Franklin, Executive Editor of The EconomistKicking off the new year is a great time to assess what's worked and what hasn't, take inventory, check assumptions and do other things to prepare you for a fresh new year. It's also a perfect time to get a broader perspective on ...Read More
Jan 06 2015
Companies like Travelocity, Uber and Yelp have forever changed the way consumers plan their travel and entertainment. Can you remember when you had to book your trips through a travel agency? These innovators have raised the bar for other industries, so can the banking experience be changed...Read More
Jan 05 2015
If you like hunting, fishing, hiking or camping, chances are you not only know Cabela's but you're also a customer. Cabela's is one of the most well-known outdoor recreation brands in the world and was founded as a direct retailer in 1961.Cabela's now engages with customers...Read More
Dec 29 2014
Just imagine the data streaming from each connected car.Decades of Westernized television and cinema have featured fantastic imagined car technologies, including many that now actually exist. Think of the autonomous car from Knight Rider and today’s self-parking capabilities. Or the ongoing...Read More
Dec 26 2014
When we talk about digital customer services, it’s all about creating online self-service capabilities for our customers. This is great for everyone! We’ve made it easy for the customer to get what they need; it’s cheaper and faster for organizations to deliver the service to...Read More
Dec 22 2014
You’re a retailer, it’s the holidays, data is flooding in from all points (if you’re lucky), and the last thing you want to hear from the higher-ups is that you need to “modernize.” And what do they actually mean when they say modernize anyway?Well, modernizing...Read More
Dec 19 2014
There has been a lot of attention given in this blog and elsewhere to this idea of marketing becoming more "scientific." And for good reason - because it's actually happening. It's all about big data, digitization, the importance of search, the empowered (social) consumer, the Internet of...Read More
Dec 18 2014
Few of us can have missed the scenes of frantic shoppers searching for that ultimate bargain on Black Friday. This is something fairly new in the UK, having originated in the United States to refer to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. Legend has it that ‘black’ refers...Read More
Dec 13 2014
In my last post, Where Do You Draw the Line Between Relevancy and Privacy, I talked about some of the plusses and minuses of behavioral online advertising as it pertains to personal (big data) privacy. Finding the balance between honoring people’s privacy while providing them with an...Read More
Dec 10 2014
I recently worked with a company (we’ll call them ABC, Inc.) on a customer segmentation strategy. This particular organization has a predefined set of marketing campaigns that they would send to all of their customers. There was no differentiation in the messaging or channel.We created...Read More
Dec 09 2014
Eighty-four per cent of marketers now regard the rise of the digital native as overwhelmingly the most important (or a very important) factor affecting marketing plans. So while we welcome the digital generation we must also re-tool our mind and skill sets to the new marketing order. This though...Read More
Dec 07 2014
Admit it: If you’re like many marketers, when you read or hear about “big data privacy,” you’re ready to move onto the next topic or swipe to the next screen. Even though you know the discussion is important, you know it’s not fun, it’s sometimes creepy, and it...Read More
Dec 05 2014
We have a love/hate relationship with ads. Whether they’re on television, in our favorite publications, or online, we love them if they’re relevant and interesting, or get annoyed when they get in the way of [insert whatever we’re doing]. I have to admit: I rarely watch a...Read More
Nov 28 2014
Try as we might, we aren’t ubiquitous creatures. When you can’t be everywhere at once, there is usually data somewhere to fall back on. So you review that data, gain insights. If you’re smart, you take notice those insights, evolve and then forecast what’s next. (That...Read More
Nov 24 2014
Sometimes a life lesson smacks you right upside the head—and if you’re anything like me, it may take a day, a month, or even a year or ten before you “get it.” Fortunately, this particular life lesson hit home quickly, and has quietly reminded me of its truth over the...Read More
Nov 19 2014
Back in 2007, the NY Times published an article about “The Google Way.” The premise behind the Google Way is to give engineers 20% of their time to spend on new company related ideas and projects that interest them. For a while this became the management strategy du jour as every...Read More
Nov 18 2014
Marketing attribution has been a hot topic for marketers as long as we’ve had marketing. Everybody talks about it, few really know how to do it, and everyone thinks everyone else is doing it - so everyone claims they’re doing it.This may be different where you are,...Read More
Nov 14 2014
The big data privacy discussion is subtle, complex and complicated – and we each have a role to play. What’s yours going to be?It was 9:53 AM. Sarah was racing against the clock: she wanted to finish a long overdue email to a Canadian colleague before her team’s weekly 10:00 AM...Read More
Nov 13 2014
A Twitter what? Chat? With @SASAnalytics and @IndustryWeek? About World Quality Day?
How do I get in on this? #whatsatwitterchat #whydothisSee how I did that? In 139 characters too. Yep, I thought that would catch your eye. Now that I have your attention, please mark your calendar for our World...Read More
Nov 10 2014
Who would you give your personal information to: your state’s new toll road system, an amusement park, neither, or both?At a Forrester event earlier this year, Melissa Parrish, a Forrester VP and research director, told the story about how her father (we’ll call him Bob), who...Read More
Nov 08 2014
Today, we live in an always-on digital world. We work online. We socialize online. We shop online. We bank online. We support causes online. Not to mention, we drive on toll roads with our EZPasses, go to Disney World with our MagicBands, and check our personal stats with our Fitbits. We are...Read More
Nov 03 2014
You can always tell when a person is enjoying himself – the bright eyes, the smiling face and the hand gestures are unmistakable. Jim Foreman from Staples is an executive that clearly enjoys talking about both marketing and analytics, which makes his presentations both informative and...Read More
Oct 24 2014
What do the following companies have in common: Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Orbitz, Airbnb, Angie’s List, Match.com, OpenTable, and Uber?Here’s what I came up with:Presence. They’re all online; they have no brick-&-mortar presence. If their website or mobile app is...Read More
Oct 23 2014
Theoretically, loyalty programs are supposed to motivate customers to be loyal. But does it always turn out that way? Evidence is mounting that points to the fact that loyalty programs condition customers to expect discounts, and they don’t always cultivate loyalty. And the danger with that...Read More
Oct 19 2014
Dear Facebook,Last week, we reached our 7-year anniversary mark. Have we really been together that long?! Because, honestly, it feels like forever. I’m sorry we didn’t celebrate, but I really didn’t feel like it. Ever since you asked me for my home address a few months ago, my...Read More
Oct 03 2014
“Big Brother?! Ha! I’m not afraid of what the government knows about me. I’m more afraid of the internet and what it will expose about me. Heck, I’m even more afraid of people on the street with their smartphones who can take my picture without my permission and post it...Read More
Sep 26 2014
I don’t know if Edward Snowden – the NSA contractor turned whistleblower currently living in exile - is a hero, traitor or a schmuck. What I do know is that he has brought the data issue much closer to home for me as a consumer and a U.S. citizen. It has left me scratching my head and...Read More
Sep 22 2014
In my role as a customer intelligence advisor, I have the privilege to work with a wide variety of organizations. From retailers to the banking sector, whether ‘B2C’ or ‘B2B’ oriented, one constant is the increasing adoption of data- driven marketing...Read More
Sep 21 2014
Have you heard of About the Data? It’s a website that lets consumers see what personal data’s been collected and is being used to drive the online ads they see and offers they receive. It’s a free service provided by Acxiom, a supplier of marketing data for businesses....Read More
Sep 14 2014
Big data – or whatever you prefer to call it – is a game changer for marketers and throughout the enterprise. And not to mince words: If you’re not using big data to improve your business – e.g., revenues, profits, operational efficiencies, decision making, etc. &ndash...Read More
Sep 05 2014
Déjà vu. For me, this term immediately conjures images of Bill Murray waking up in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on Groundhog Day – repeatedly. In French, déjà vu means “already seen” and while I usually fall solidly into the realm of skeptic in...Read More
Aug 29 2014
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” -Dr. SeussAbout three months ago, I invited marketers to join me on a journey through the Big Data Archipelago, a collection of 10 islands, each focused on a key big data topic (see island names above). A visit to...Read More
Aug 22 2014
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” – Winston ChurchillHurricane Sandy, one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit the eastern United States came ashore in October 2012. Airbnb, an online matchmaker for travel rentals, was one...Read More
Aug 19 2014
Last weekend, I took my nine-year-old son to a batting cage to get ready for his upcoming baseball season. He's a natural athlete, but soccer has been his full-time sport of choice for the last two years, so he needed some reps swinging the bat to switch gears to baseball.As he stepped...Read More
Aug 15 2014
“Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.” –Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide WebLast year, the International Institute for Analytics (IIA) and SAS published the research report, “Big Data in Big Companies,” written by...Read More
Aug 10 2014
“If we have data, let’s look at data.If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.”
– Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEOHave you read Tom Davenport’s “Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century” article in the Harvard Business...Read More
Aug 07 2014
Photo credit: The Digital Future of Retail, Merchandising Matters.The other day I received a letter in the mail. What was in the letter left me feeling depressed. It left me feeling inadequate, unprepared, incapable of mustering the mental and emotional energy to complete it’s request.You...Read More
Aug 02 2014
“Human errors and systems glitches caused nearly two-thirds of data breaches globally in 2012.”
- Ponemon Institute and SymantecNothing has accelerated the proliferation and sharing of personal data more than the internet. Some may disagree, but unless you’re living a technology...Read More
Jul 25 2014
“Data that is loved tends to survive.” – Kurt Bollacker, data scientistAwhile back, I had the pleasure of traveling to five countries in Europe to participate in a 10-day, SAS-sponsored executive roadshow. Jill Dyché, Vice President of SAS Best Practices, kicked off...Read More
Jul 19 2014
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.” – Andrew S. TanenbaumThere’s been a lot of buzz about the Location Isle for several years due to a strong interest in its cloud computing territories – private cloud...Read More
Jul 14 2014
“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” - André GideEver heard of OpenOffice, Hadoop, Android, Firefox or MySQL? If so, can you identify the common denominator between these software tools and applications? If you...Read More
Jul 06 2014
“If you build it, he will come.” – From the movie “Field of Dreams”“Build it and they will come” is a popular quote often attributed to the movie Field of Dreams. But guess what? This quote is not from the movie; it’s actually a misquote. [See the...Read More
Jun 29 2014
“I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and
I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.”
(Editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957)Whereby the Analytics Isle tends to...Read More
Jun 20 2014
“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know.
But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.”
- Donald RumsfeldWelcome to the...Read More
Jun 16 2014
Come along with me on a journey through the Big Data Archipelago. It involves "visiting" a series of islands - an archipelago if you will - that each present a different opportunity to find value in big data.Big data is arguably one of the most overhyped buzzwords in business today...Read More
Jun 12 2014
As the best of the best golfers converge in Pinehurst, NC at the US Open Golf Tournament, it seems only natural to relate golfing to marketing optimization. I assure you this is not a stretch - please read on.You see, everything in life is an optimization problem that must be solved. Time...Read More
May 13 2014
Maybe you’re like me – you work with (or within) a lot of large companies with big marketing departments. Everyone is crazy for “customer intimacy,” but what exactly does that mean? As much as I preach about knowing and understanding your customer – they end up as an...Read More
Apr 11 2014
“We are living in the era of the connected customer -
one in which normal customer behavior is to capture moments and share it in near real-time.”
- from "Customer Love - it's All About the Connection" by John BallaOne message does not fit all anymore...Read More
Mar 14 2014
We’ve talked in the first two posts about how the digitization of everything is disrupting marketing and changing the face of commerce. Organizations are having to change the way they operate, and that’s causing roles in the C-suite to evolve.The digitization of everything is doing...Read More
Mar 13 2014
It’s 10:30 in the morning, and her Jawbone buzzes. Jane is notified that she’s been sitting too long, and her meeting is ending anyway. She rises up from her booth at the coffee shop, bids her associate good bye, and walks through the mall towards the parking lot. Her device reminds...Read More
Mar 11 2014
For nearly a century, the buyer’s journey was relatively linear. Advertising messages distributed across a few mass media outlets were the primary method of spreading awareness. Purchase consideration generally occurred by reading product brochures and conversing with salespeople, friends...Read More
Mar 10 2014
Recently, I attended a symposuim hosted by the Calvin Institute with my wife. Some of the many sessions I attended focused on how to create an awesome worship experince. By hearing many of the different musicians perform live, I noticed how the art and...Read More
Mar 06 2014
Experiencing a major sporting event in person is a hard-to-describe experience for a fan. When your team is winning, a feeling of euphoria rolls through the stadium or arena. I have hugged and high-fived complete strangers when a game-winning shot goes in or someone scores a game-winning...Read More
Feb 26 2014
“Truth be told, I wouldn’t mind seeing our loyalty card program go away, but we’re not there yet.”
- A retail CEOI invite you to put on your consumer cap for a minute and answer these questions:How many loyalty cards do you have and how many of those are you actively using...Read More
Feb 21 2014
A question often asked by marketers about big data is “Where do we start?” For newcomers and seasoned experts alike, there is no shortcut to finding the “signal” in the “noise” of today’s big data. What I recommend is a structured...Read More
Oct 24 2013
We as marketers always try to secure the customer at the center of our universe. We learned this basic truth from early years as marketers but often times we stray from that guiding principal. We get distracted by product development, product innovation, chasing that...Read More
Oct 09 2013
I recently had the pleasure of moderating a panel focusing on the top of Marketing Operations, which included Kim Collins of Gartner, Cedrick Shelly of State Farm Insurance, and Stephan Nobs of SAS.
This panel was extremely timely as we move into the coming year and hear so...Read More
Aug 15 2013
Brands like Comcast, Dell, and Nike have made names for themselves on Twitter as customer service pros. Their responses to customer mentions in the social sphere are known for being useful, timely and fun.At SAS, we were hoping to develop a similar program for monitoring and responding to our...Read More
Aug 06 2013
I don’t want to have a relationship with a marketing department. I don’t want to be your friend. I don’t want to engage in conversation with you. I feel no loyalty towards you. When I say I like you I’m not entirely sincere.And yet I chose to share...Read More
Jul 23 2013
Marketers – like most people – like to see their accomplishments in some sort of visual representation. We are a profession who lives in PowerPoint, prezi or some other sort of tool that makes what you are working on look really, really good – sometimes – better than it...Read More
Jul 22 2013
As a somewhat healthy and active guy, I pay attention to — and sometimes shake my head at — product packaging that boasts “40 percent less fat” or “all natural ingredients.” When you look at the fine print, it tells a more complete story. Yes, there might be a...Read More
Jun 25 2013
Brian Solis of the Altimeter Group has a compelling vision of the future - one which is replete with promise made possible by great technologies. But these great technologies come with a need to keep them in the right perspective (more on that below). In addition to great...Read More
Jun 21 2013
When it comes to online customer data, marketers today have to balance a fine line between consumer privacy and effective marketing. The problem is that it’s quite easy for marketing to be intrusive, annoying and even creepy, so there is a risk that the abusers in our industry may...Read More
Jun 14 2013
Are you invisible or remarkable? That's the question that Seth Godin believes that marketers should ask themselves in the new economy and there are 3 simple reasons why:All media is now optional - no one is going to look at your tweet or open your junk mail unless they want to.The mass market...Read More
Jun 11 2013
Hi everyone! I'm excited to be a new contributer to this blog - I've taken the road less traveled when it comes to marketing. My goal out of college was to see the world which landed me in the travel industry. I later became a Certified Meeting Planner and Events Project...Read More
May 19 2013
Hello! As a new contributor to this blog, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Dwight Mouton and yes that's a French last name. I'm orginally from the heart of Cajun country, Lafayette, Lousiana. I've been in marketing related roles since I earned my...Read More
May 16 2013
We're pleased to have Scott Brinker, a thought leader and entrepreneur at the intersection of marketing and technology, as the newest contributor to our sister blog from our friends Down Under called "Left of the Date Line."In his first post for that blog, he explores the idea...Read More
May 13 2013
Shawn Skillman and Lori Jordan
A little over 2 years ago, I wrote a post about our vision for turning big data into a strategic asset. The outcome of this vision was the development of a Global Marketing System that provides marketers with complete views of customer behavior and...Read More
Apr 30 2013
In the last decade, CMOs have made great strides in elevating their stature. According to the latest SpencerStuart survey, CMO tenure has steadily climbed from 23 months in 2004 to 45 months in 2012. What are the reasons for this improved longevity? Marketers are becoming more strategic-minded...Read More
Apr 26 2013
Springtime...Baseball...Hot Dogs...Peanuts...Coke... I remember growing up on the south side of Chicago watching my beloved Chicago White Sox play at the old Comisky Park. My father would take me to a few games during the summer and I would remember the refreshment vendor walking up...Read More
Apr 25 2013
We have a few hundred bloggers here at SAS, and people are always asking me about how to increase page views to their posts. I'm going to give you my top ten answers to that question below, but first I have to give you "the page view caveat," which goes something like this ...
Page views...Read More
Apr 18 2013
I consider myself lucky to have confirmed first-hand that Nate Silver is a relatively smart guy. Nate Silver was not telling a fish tale here.
He most recently published a book, The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – but Some Don’t, and he is particularly well known...Read More
Apr 18 2013
I was driving back from Washington, DC this weekend after spending a couple of days admiring the cherry blossoms and taking my oldest son sightseeing. Wanting to grab something fast for lunch, we stopped at McDonald's a few miles outside the capital. I ordered Chicken McNuggets for my son...Read More
Apr 15 2013
New research by the CMO Council and SAS, entitled "Big Data's Biggest Role: Aligning the CMO & CIO," shows more overlaps than differences between marketing and IT. Big data is uniting the CMO and CIO in their common quest for a customer-centric organization. 61 percent of...Read More
Apr 08 2013
Online marketers all want the same thing - for our customers to get what they, want when they want it, and with the fewest clicks possible. We already know that satisfied customers usually return, and now they share their experiences so the stakes have never been higher to get it right every...Read More
Apr 01 2013
Ever wonder what is going through your customer’s minds prior to their deciding to purchase your product?
If that is the case, well then you are in luck today! In this post, we will be examining consumer behavior leading up to and including the purchase decision, with an emphasis on how...Read More
Mar 21 2013
The digital world we live in gives marketers the opportunity to capture, record, measure, analyze and report just about anything nowadays - and we do it! Clicks, conversions, likes, attrition, business drivers, value destroyers - you name it and it's all fair game. Therein lies...Read More
Mar 08 2013
In the first post in this series, we discussed how there are a number of terms that describe how organizations manage their customer engagements: customer intelligence, customer analytics, integrated marketing management and marketing analytics. My goal with this series of posts was to clarify...Read More
Mar 07 2013
In two previous posts, we have investigated the terms customer intelligence and customer analytics in more detail. We continue on our journey today by defining our third of four terms – that of integrated marketing management (IMM). Each of these four terms are different and...Read More
Feb 27 2013
Content plays a critical multifaceted role in marketing today - simultaneously beckoning and informing your customers at any given time. Content imparts details, stirs emotions and sways decisions. And when created and promoted correctly, content fuels a sales funnel whose...Read More
Feb 07 2013
On advantage of being a marketer at SAS right now is that we have a roughly 35-year head start on our competitors in terms of helping organizations manage big data. And because much of big data is driven by customer data, marketing is ground zero for big data in most organizations...Read More
Jan 31 2013
This post originally appeared in our SAS Voices blog, published by my colleague and fellow blogger Courtney Peters. It's a great story about how Oberweis Dairy harnessed the power of marketing analytics to cultivate loyalty. That effort has helped them grow from a family-owned...Read More
Jan 28 2013
SAS World Headquarters
The idea of customer centricity in marketing is as "old as dirt" - it's probably been around as long as people have been interested in buying or selling things to each other. So why are we still talking about it, and why is it so seemingly elusive for some...Read More
Jan 21 2013
I have been fortunate enough to work on some of our various marketing analytics’ implementations. One specific solution I have talked about before is Customer Experience Analytics (CXA), a solution that facilitates the integration of online and offline data for better...Read More
Jan 17 2013
The SAS booth at #NRF13 is a popular place.
One of the amazing things I’m finding about the National Retail Federation’s “BIG Show” is the incredible amount of experience and knowledge walking the halls. There are 10-, 20- and 30-year veterans of the retail world...Read More
Jan 17 2013
It's easy to see how a newcomer to "Retail's BIG Show" could be a bit overwhelmed. The booths are big, attendance is booming and there are "hot and new" solutions everywhere you turn. But as I've walked the halls and looked at what's being promoted, I've noticed a few trends...Read More
Jan 14 2013
It's remarkable how the women my life really like shopping at the different Chico's FAS stores. I think a big reason is that somehow they manage to deliver a boutique experience for every customer at all their stores. That's not an easy feat when you run over 1...Read More
Jan 07 2013
The Economist Intelligence Unit recently published a report that highlights some C-suite dynamics that remind me of that childrens' game "monkey in the middle." The report details multiple ways in which surveyed CMOs believe one thing about the role of marketing in the company, and then...Read More
Jan 03 2013
As we turn the calendar to a new year, we tend to take a look at our lives and make some goals for improvement. Maybe it involves fitting in our favorite pair of jeans again or finally starting the next great American novel. Change and improvement are second nature in our personal lives. But...Read More
Jan 01 2013
Marketers all focus on what we think our customers will like. We analyze mountains of data, look at what our competition is doing, ask our staff for ideas, look at past year's marketing campaigns, look at our facilties/products, hire outside consultants...Read More
Dec 31 2012
A colossal man-made storm known as “the fiscal cliff” looms on the horizon of the United States economy. Much attention has been paid to the political wrangling behind this situation in Washington, while Congress seems oblivious to unanimity among economists that large...Read More
Dec 13 2012
In today’s fast paced marketing software industry, sorting through terms and naming conventions can be quite a confusing task. Often times – in an attempt to “differentiate” themselves from other vendors – software companies and solution providers invent new names...Read More
Dec 05 2012
Apparently the “big” in “big data” is only going to get bigger. And it turns out that organizations have not prioritized big data as much as they perhaps should because too many of them aren’t effectively leveraging customer data across channels. Both of those are...Read More
Nov 26 2012
Hello, everyone! I’m excited to be part of this great blog and share a few of my ideas. A little about me – I’m a marketer at heart, passionate about strategy, creativity, branding and analytics. I love discovering marketing lessons by examining things around me. At SAS, I...Read More
Nov 19 2012
The number one rule about product launch blogging is to never blog about your product launch. Take that, Fight Club!
And yet, most marketers are expected to write multiple blog posts in conjunction with a launch. How do the smart marketers do it? They talk about the issues and share their...Read More
Nov 12 2012
Understanding the customer is more and more complex with each passing every day, especially due to the ever-increasing amoung of customer data - generating what is commonly known as "Big Data." Adding to the complexity is all the unstructured data from social media, which happens...Read More
Nov 01 2012
"Awesome" is possibly the most over-used word in the English language, and its over-usage is driven by its versatility. Generally, something awesome is impressive in a way that warrants talking about it - so it's something remarkable. Knowing that, it's easy to understand how ...Read More
Oct 29 2012
Businesses can no longer ignore the importance of social networking and social capabilities as part of their enterprise applications. According to a Forrester survey of 200 U.S. companies, social listening and digital engagement can influence customer perception (58%) and building long-term...Read More
Oct 22 2012
Standing in my own crosshairs as my own target market means that almost all work that I do can be a learning opportunity, and going to DMA2012 was certainly a biggie. What I saw and experienced at the show reaffirmed the idea that it’s never been more exciting to be a marketer, and that...Read More
Oct 17 2012
By and large, marketers are an optimistic lot. We're often big extroverts with big ideas, laying grand plans and generally having a good time along the way. Our view of the future is usually rosy, with all sorts of reasons to hope for the best and reach for the stars. So it came as no...Read More
Oct 12 2012
Over the last decade, five companies have emerged with the potential to aggressively reshape the landscape of multiple industries – and to change life as we know it. They are the "Tech Titans:" Amazon, Apple, eBay , Facebook and Google.
Collectively, these five companies are...Read More
Oct 11 2012
The challenge of "big data" is well recognized as multi-faceted in terms of its Volume, Variety and Velocity, and SAS has had a roughly 35-year head start on the rest of the industry in dealing with it. Our solutions are dyed-in-the-wool to address the "3 V's" of big data, in addition to...Read More
Oct 01 2012
The phrase “Content is King” may not be new, but it certainly has enduring relevance in our digital world where so much of our lives are experienced online and increasingly shared online. In fact, the very essence of social media is found in the ways we create content, share it...Read More
Sep 24 2012
Hi everyone! I am Jim Hiepler-Hartwig, the newest member of the SAS Customer Intelligence marketing team, and I am happy to be a new contributor to this blog. In previous roles, I've held positions in both sales and marketing, and much of my focus in the last few years ...Read More
Sep 18 2012
The ability to manage cross channel customer interactions is no doubt a critical part of business strategies. Business strategies that focus on continually improving customer loyalty, constantly reducing marketing costs, and always communicating consistently and efficiently with customers will...Read More
Sep 17 2012
I recently read an excellent research report by the IAB and Forrester titled Digital Attribution Comes of Age. In the paper, they talked specifically about improved multichannel measurement, data driven decision making and media buying leverage for marketers. Attribution...Read More
Sep 10 2012
We're working on a project with a retail industry thought leadership organization called Retail Systems Research (RSR for short). My colleague, Wilson Raj, is working with RSR Managing Partner Nikki Baird to explore how data-driven customer centricity holds the key to successful...Read More
Aug 29 2012
For Insurers, social media is no longer just for marketing. As Hurricane Isaac threatens in the Gulf of Mexico, many proactive insurance companies are using social media to communicate with customers; offering insight on preparing for the storm, tracking the radar, and offering instructions on...Read More
Aug 27 2012
My colleague Matt Fulk and I work closely together on a number of fronts, and the last time we posted was about Lead Management Automation Using SAS. One initiative that has really been rewarding to work on has been our internal implementation of our Customer Experience Analytics...Read More
Aug 24 2012
Here's what usually happens: You attend a conference and decide to live blog a session or two. You might even pre-draft or pre-research a small portion of the post to include the names of the speakers and some background information about them. Typically, you start the post like this:
I am...Read More
Aug 21 2012
In case you've missed it, our friends from Down Under have written some great posts about customer intelligence on our sister blog, Left of the Date Line. Each one of our colleagues have a few posts, so here is a summary of my favorites, which I encourage you to read:Intelligent...Read More
Aug 17 2012
We have experimented with Twitter chats here at SAS, including a lively #statchat that we hosted two years ago for World Statistics Day. Likewise, our publications team has hosted a few fun Twitter chats with SAS book authors.
Outside of SAS sponsored chats, I've also participated in...Read More
Aug 14 2012
17 days ago, I posted Olympic inspiration for marketers and in it I shared a few good lessons for marketers from the Games. With a long-term focus, discipline, results orientation and teamwork, all sorts of victories are possible - for both athletes and marketers. Those same lessons have...Read More
Aug 13 2012
A weekly ritual at our house is to pore over the local Sunday newspaper print edition and drink big mugs of strong coffee. My wife and I take different sections, we discuss various items that strike us along the way, and we can often have the world's problems solved by noon...Read More
Aug 09 2012
This is the third in a series of four posts that focus on how marketing solutions can help marketing fulfill its role in the organization. In the first post, I outlined the three specific functions for the solutions to fulfill - to drive profitability, to increase productivity, and to be...Read More
Jul 18 2012
Welcome back to the jaw-dropping discussion on what really matters in your social media strategy. Harkening back to Katie Paine’s amazing presentation at the recent SAS Government Executive summit, there are six steps to measuring what really matters in a social media campaign...Read More
Jul 17 2012
Recently, SAS had the pleasure of hosting Katie Paine, social media maven, expert on media measurement, and author of Measure What Matters, at the SAS Government Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. The session was jam-packed with the usual drool-worthy stats and figures covering the...Read More
Jul 13 2012
Certain things are just hard to squeeze into your day. For some of us, it's exercise or doing laundry. For others, it's blogging. You want to do it almost every day, but you can't seem to find the time. If you're one of the bloggers or would-be bloggers trying (and sometimes...Read More
Jul 09 2012
The Centre for Economic and Business Research is a respected economic consultancy. Earlier this year we asked them to look at the value of analytics to the UK today, and forecast the likely growth of analytics over the next five years. Their full findings can be downloaded here...Read More
Jul 05 2012
As you might expect, blogging is a lot like many other skills – you have to work at it over time before you start to see improvements. Blogging does not at all come naturally to me, so it’s a personal goal of mine to keep working at it until I improve. According to WordPress, I...Read More
Jun 26 2012
The Supreme Court of the United States is set to reveal its ruling on the landmark health care legislation known as the Affordable Care Act. Much angst has resulted from this law and many parties that feel obliged to support or criticize the law have prepared statements, and in some cases...Read More
Jun 18 2012
I had a chance to attend a moderated panel discussion at the last SAS Global Forum Executive Conference with executives from Best Buy, Seminole Gaming and Office Depot, and each speaker offered their own unique story about how applied customer analytics makes a difference in...Read More
Jun 07 2012
For the last three years, doing more with less has been a constant rallying call that one could argue has become the new normal within business.
Within the realms of the marketing department, it means generating the same or higher revenues from smaller budgets; fewer staff to execute the same...Read More
Jun 05 2012
We asked David Chong, an SVP of marketing at a leading Malaysian Bank to talk to us about where they are focused today and tomorrow.
There may be lots of data out there, and ever increasing forms of technology to tame and mine that data, but according to David, banks in Asia are focused on the...Read More
Jun 01 2012
According to Warren Murray, Facebook is an opportunity. Warren is the head of business decision support at eBucks, South Africa’s leading multi-partner rewards program.
More people have Twitter and Facebook accounts. More people are following others. Warren sees these channels...Read More
May 30 2012
We just completed our largest annual event for Financial Services, the SAS Financial Services Executive Summit, where the theme was using analytics to drive innovation and create change. Even in the earliest stages of planning, it was clear that the customer would loom large in our content...Read More
May 29 2012
Executives from Bank of America, USAA and the United Nations discuss big data.
Yesterday’s SAS Financial Services Executive Summit included a session titled “Big Data for the Next Big Idea,” which was moderated by SAS CMO and EVP Jim Davis , and included executives...Read More
May 29 2012
Challenging assumptions is a good business practice.
As a marketer, one of the highlights of the SAS Financial Services Executive Summit has been the interactive session titled "Exploring and Exploiting Trends to Really Understand Today's Customer." The session involved all...Read More
May 25 2012
Panel discussion: How well do you know today's customer?
Today's second annual SAS Financial Services Executive Summit included a great panel discussion moderated by Lori Bieda from SAS, and featuring Greg Holzwarth, SVP and Managing Director, Customer Information Management at...Read More
May 24 2012
Conversations are dynamic and free flowing. One idea begets another. As people interact and knowledge is shared, perspectives can change … and with them, expectations.Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group a leading research-based advisory firm with a focus on disruptive...Read More
May 22 2012
We had the good fortune to have Ralph Thomas, Ph.D., VP of Strategic Analytics and Database Marketing from Seminole Gaming, participate in our integrated marketing management panel at the 2012 SAS Global Forum Executive Conference along with his colleagues from Office Depot and Best Buy. Each...Read More
May 21 2012
There are no silver bullets that guarantee success for marketers. Betting on a single channel, technology, process or team is very much like betting everything on “Red” in a casino – there’s no more than a 50% chance of success – for each item. Make bets on...Read More
May 11 2012
I am at the 9th Annual SAS Health Care and Life Sciences Executive Conference, an extraordinary event that draws the best and the brightest leaders as both speakers and attendees from the pharmaceutical, health insurance, health care and related industries. One session featured speakers...Read More
May 11 2012
I had the pleasure to sit in on a panel discussion at the the 9th Annual SAS Health Care and Life Sciences Executive Conference focused on the topic of understanding and managing customer behavior in the changing health care landscape. This panel was moderated by Dipti Patel...Read More
May 03 2012
Alan Adams, Senior Director of Customer Analytics at Office Depot, took part in a great panel discussion on integrated marketing management at the 2012 SAS Global Forum Executive Conference along with his colleagues from Seminole Gaming and Best Buy. The session included a short presentation by...Read More
Apr 25 2012
SAS Executive Lead for Customer Intelligence Lori Bieda moderated this panel and introduced the concept of Marketing Optimization as the "Holy Grail" of marketing for the power it holds to enable marketing to fulfill its mandate as driving profitable growth for organizations. Joining her in...Read More
Apr 25 2012
I had the distinct pleasure today to hear Guy Kawasaki deliver a keynote address at the SAS Global Forum Executive Conference 2012. I thought of his engaging address as a nice guide for personal effectiveness, particularly in a professional realm. And my main takeaway from yesterday...Read More
Apr 02 2012
We recently held a half-day session devoted entirely to search marketing that gave us an opportunity to cast a wide net internally about this very important topic. I learned some new things and also had a few moments where it seemed the obvious was being presented, but sometimes even ...Read More
Feb 24 2012
Wired had an interesting article recently, discussing how “Darpa,” the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) research agency, is requesting proposals for implantable biosensors. Darpa is interested in the application of this technology for “real-time, accurate measurements of...Read More
Feb 09 2012
Greetings! My name is Kelly Miller and I am a marketer at SAS, focused specifically on the health care industry for 8 years now. And what an intriguing industry it is! Technology and market demands have led to dramatic changes, and now that health care...Read More
Feb 07 2012
As a new contributor to SAS’ Customer Analytics blog, let me introduce myself. I’m a SAS field marketer focused on integrated campaigns, digital strategy and the marketing investment for Financial Services in the US. As a marketer, I always take an interest in the Super Bowl...Read More
Feb 06 2012
In my view of things, as a (semi) professional in software product marketing focused on the needs of direct marketers, with the possible exception of “CRM”, there may be no term more abstract, than that of “campaign management”. Seriously. I help market and sell...Read More
Jan 30 2012
Whose mobile communications are hitting the spot? Which broadcast strategy helps banks make an emotional connection with their customers? Who sends out such badly targeted e-mails that customers see them as less personally relevant than a TV advert? The answer to these questions may...Read More
Jan 09 2012
Without fail, at every social media conference I attend, someone will approach the microphone during the Q&A portion of a presentation and ask the speaker or the panelsts, "How are you measuring influence for your blogger outreach programs?" Or, "How can we replicate what you...Read More
Jan 02 2012
Happy New Year!
As we begin 2012, I think we can all agree there is no question that the explosion of digital technology over the past few years has redefined the relationship between vendor and customer. With so much product and vendor information just a click or a tap away, customers are...Read More
Dec 23 2011
According to Wikipedia, marketing with music can roughly be traced back to 1923 with the dawn of commercial radio broadcasting. What we now know as a "jingle" first aired on Christmas Eve in 1926, touting the merits of General Mills' Wheaties...Read More
Dec 16 2011
My friend and colleague, Matt Fulk, has detailed in his posts some of the great ways we've used SAS Customer Intelligence to improve our own marketing. Using SAS fits with our culture of measurement and analysis that keeps us constantly focused on finding better ways to do things, and...Read More
Dec 16 2011
2011 has been a big year for social media at SAS.
Our award-winning blogging program got a major makeover
We relaunched the Knowledge Exchange in WordPress to provide great thought leadership content to our customers
We debuted new corporate social media presences on Facebook and Google+
...Read More
Dec 14 2011
Let's start with a true/false quiz:
True or False: Nobody comments on B2B blog posts.
True or False: Quality blog posts will always generate comments on their own without promotion.
True or False: Using your personal contact list to draw commenters to your blog is cheating...Read More
Dec 06 2011
In my last blog post, titled Taking the Best Marketing Action, we focused on making sure our marketing activities were relevant, optimized, and automated. Getting to this place within your marketing organization takes work, but the payoffs from having these processes set are phenomenal in terms...Read More
Dec 03 2011
One of the best things about having marketers as my target market is that I personally benefit from thought leaders I get to work with to offer my audience valuable content. And this blog is a great way for me to share some of the best of the best. When it comes to social media...Read More
Nov 28 2011
?Healthcare was one of five sectors looked in the Pleased to Meet You research (the other four were Banking, Supermarkets, Soft Drinks, and Mobile). In the UK the majority of healthcare is publicly funded, and so healthcare was chosen to as a representative of the public sector. It allows us to...Read More
Nov 18 2011
Just today we published a new “success story,” our term for customer testimonial, with a great customer of ours, Chubb. As I was reading through the story, I realized what a complex environment insurance marketers find themselves in, especially when independent insurance agents are...Read More
Nov 14 2011
As mentioned in a previous post, We had the pleasure to sponsor the eMetrics Marketing Optimization conference again this year with a marketing lab. Our featured story was an innovative use of customer analytics by Organic, a digital marketing agency and SAS customer. We highlighted...Read More
Nov 01 2011
Most bloggers start thinking about blog editorial calendars from a planning perspective. You want to make sure you have enough content to keep the blog updated somewhat regularly, and you want to make sure you are publishing content that your audience needs, without overlooking any of your...Read More
Oct 26 2011
Andy Swenson, VP of Database and Revenue Management at Pinnacle Entertainment outlined their approach to customer loyalty, which included some great takeaways for companies in any industry.
The gaming resorts leader partnered with Teradata to provide the database and with SAS to handle the...Read More
Oct 26 2011
Scott Hudgins, VP of Customer Managed Relationships at The Walt Disney Company shared details about how Disney has approached CRM and the guiding principles and key learnings that have driven their success.
They began their CRM process in 2001 knowing that most of their customers were...Read More
Oct 26 2011
Jim Bampos presented in a session today at PBLS11 titled, Driving the Total Customer Experience with Data. He described the extraordinary journey he’s led his company on to manage customer experience and how it literally transformed EMC to be centered on the customer...Read More
Oct 25 2011
ANA Masters of Marketing kicked off its general session with blockbuster brands, and equally interesting Marketing executives. I knew I would hear from some executive firepower, but I did not expect to walk away with this level of inspiration.Steven Quinn of Walmart communicated the sobering...Read More
Oct 24 2011
Which new channel is winning with the customer?
Given the current hype about social media as a marketing channel I thought it might be nice to see how our respondents in the Pleased to Meet You survey responded to this channel. In particular we will compare it to the mobile channel which was...Read More
Oct 13 2011
I just returned from a vacation to the Pacific Northwest. What a place! The highlight was a whitewater rafting trip we took on the White Salmon River in Washington. The trip is scenic and chaotic. The track of river we ran delivers a steady barrage of class 3-4 rapids...Read More
Oct 07 2011
In my last post, titled How to find the most profitable growth opportunities, I talked about the first of three main customer challenges that we solve with our Customer Intelligence solutions, finding the best growth opportunities, which involves using information and data management...Read More
Oct 05 2011
Before I can even talk about blog strategy, I have to admit that I am not naturally a strategic thinker. I am rumored to be organized and slightly more analytical than your average writer, but I am first and foremost a creative, right-brained thinker.
This means my immediate reaction when...Read More
Oct 02 2011
As previously mentioned, I am at DMA:2011 in Boston with David Meerman Scott and he was the featured guest at our executive dinner this evening. We invited marketing executives attending this conference to have dinner with the best-selling author, who will also present in the Thought...Read More
Sep 26 2011
For marketers with a lengthy, complex sales cycle, it is still imperative to engage a potential buyer as quickly as possible with relevant information. In an online world, tools like “click to chat” help with those willing to engage with vendors. In handling the...Read More
Sep 21 2011
The instinctive answer to this question is “Yes, obviously they do”. But as a marketer the obvious answer is not enough. Yes they do, but what does that look like in practice, and how does this affect the way I should approach my marketing. This is the question that has occupied my...Read More
Sep 20 2011
SAS will be at the DMA2011 conference in Boston on October 1-6, 2011, sponsoring David Meerman Scott in the Thought Leadership Series. David is a noted marketing strategist and author of seven books on marketing and PR, including The New Rules of Marketing and PR. His session...Read More
Sep 15 2011
At the end of Todd Wheatland's presentation, "Transforming a large organization into a content machine," at Content Marketing World, he offered a top ten list of tips for creating corporate content. I've pulled a few tips from his list and added in others from earlier in his talk that...Read More
Aug 25 2011
I'm pleased to share a new installment of our “Nuts & Bolts of Social Media” video series. In this video, SAS’ Deb Orton talks with Charlotte Sibley, of Sibley Associates, about how engaging in social media can benefit the life science industry with regards to...Read More