Star ratings, consumer reviews, online user forums and upstart bloggers – they all shape the way today’s consumers evaluate products and services online. In fact, all types of online user-generated content have redrawn marketing boundaries and shifted the power into the hands of the consumer. Organisations have an important role to play in this dynamic, and the ones that get it right foster loyal customers. A consumers’ online experience is largely based on trust, since there

Technology and innovation have touched all aspects of business and we are operating in a rapidly changing and complex world; a VUCA environment. The term VUCA, which stands for “volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity”, originated in the US Army War College in the late 1990s, but spread to the business world as there are striking similarities in terms of rapid change and uncertainty. The digital age has helped accelerate the evolution of business and has helped disr

Digital disruption has been happening at a frenetic pace. How do we equip rising talent to cope with uncertainty and change?

Consumers are notoriously fickle and, in today’s world, armed with a mobile phone and more data, they are empowered and emboldened to shop around. Brand and retailer loyalty is at an all time low as online shoppers are trying to get the best deal in terms of price and convenience. So if this is the case, why do retailers keep on trying to push consumers to use the retailer’s exclusive mobile app? This clearly benefits the retailer, but not necessarily the consumer. In a blog

Consumers are notoriously fickle and, in today’s world, armed with a mobile phone and more data, they are empowered and emboldened to make a switch. Brand and retailer loyalty is at an all time low as online shoppers are trying to get the best deal in terms of price and convenience. So if this is the case, why do retailers keep on trying to push consumers to use their mobile app? According to research conduct by commerce platform Mozu, 50.3% of retailers believe that consumer

Today’s social media habits have rewritten the rules of sports marketing and now teams must engage with fans long before the game begins as well as after it ends. In fact, the shape of the fan’s customer journey has changed considerably over the last few years, resulting in a larger window of opportunity for a sports team to stay top of mind. By understanding who their fans are and using their preferred social media channel to regularly communicate with them, a sports team ca

Today’s modern marketer understands the value of business-to-business (B2B) content marketing; it is the backbone of a successful inbound marketing strategy. According to Forrester’s 2016 B2B Marketing Mix Survey, content marketing is the most popular and most effective marketing tactic for businesses. The Forrester report also highlights the fact that modern B2B marketing isn’t successful without solid content and that means creating content that customers really care about.

Lips, ears, snout and all, today’s sausage factory of data is complicated and convoluted. Data is repackaged and re-sold as inventory. It flows through the online advertising ecosystem without clear accountability as to what is being tracked and sold. And what is the quality of data in that sausage? Is it consumable? The sophistication with which digital marketers can accurately target a specific customer segment continues to develop and my recent consumer experience highligh

Digital ads are becoming noticeably more targeted and this is due to the fact that consumer data has become big business. Online consumer data is disassembled, repackaged, sold and then re-sold again as inventory. Online browsing habits are big business and this repackaged data has become the lubricant for the online advertising ecosystem. Online advertising has become extremely sophisticated, particularly within social media. For example, on Mother’s Day I was served two in-

The other day I noticed that my Tesco shopping trolley had a monitoring device on it. On the back of the basket there was a small black box with a sign on it that said, “We’re working to understand how customers shop so we can serve you better.” Yikes, I am being tracked! Digging into it deeper, being physically tracked through a store isn’t that unusual, it’s called “indoor positioning” and sophisticated retailers are using this capability. With the help of the Wi-Fi signal