Nilewide Marketing Review articles from January 2003

Nilewide Marketing Review archives from January 2003

Those pesky complex customers.
January 12, 2003... Analysis It is no great insight that the most pressing issue in marketing continues to be the measurement of marketing effectiveness and efficiency. Nowhere is its importance more clearly demonstrated than in the predilections of senior...

The customer comes second.
January 19, 2003... While many customers may not be surprised, some managers are prepared to admit that mission statements that put customers first are often no more than public relations. This is the result of a study of 356 middle and senior managers from a...

Power and vulnerability.
January 19, 2003... In her book, The Silent Takeover, Noreena Hertz argues that governments have ceded power to multinational corporations, however, people are recognising this and are responding by not using their right to vote. Instead they are increasingly...

The corporate conscience.
January 19, 2003... The issue of corporate citizenship or corporate social responsibility (CSR) continues to gain momentum. Even so, there is scant evidence that it has any positive effect on profits. Of course, critics claim that profits should not even be an...

After you've said sorry.
January 19, 2003... If 2002 was the year of making mistakes, it was also the year of saying sorry. Companies such as Tyco, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and McDonald's, all stood up and apologised for various unwise acts. But does saying sorry make a difference?...

Who's responsible?
January 19, 2003... The debate over how far the responsibility of corporations should stretch continues to rage, with people like Naomi Klein on one side, and the right-winged The Economist on the other. With both sides arguing so cogently, it can be difficult to...

Materialism and values conflict.
January 19, 2003... There is a widespread belief that materialism has not had a positive effect on personal wellbeing, even though materialism and consumption are integral to daily life. However, studies have been inconclusive about the link between materialism...

The me generation.
January 19, 2003... Without a historical viewpoint, it can be easy to take for granted that particular ways of thinking have always existed. One is the right to personal wellbeing, and the right to any kind of product, service or therapy that might help to improve...

The demographic divide.
January 19, 2003... All the recent attention to the aging of markets may have given a false impression. Demographic figures show that, while Europe is aging, America is actually getting younger. The upshot of this is that America's population will pass that of...

Permission and preference.
January 19, 2003... Seth Godin introduced the concept of permission marketing, but it was dependent on having certain technologies in place to be truly usable. Now that we have video-on-demand, TiVo, and interactive TV, permission marketing is closer to reality....

They may say it, but.
January 26, 2003... Self-reporting lies at the heart of most market research and any suggestion that self-reporting is often incorrect should alarm researchers and marketers. The problems associated with asking people questions in qualitative research, such as...

No No Logo future?
January 26, 2003... The claimed future of global brands varies from assured, in the eyes of globalisation supporters, through to facing a consumer backlash as proposed by anti-globalisation supporters and Naomi Klein. The truth probably lies in between and depends...

FUD and CBD drive decisions.
January 26, 2003... Brand strategies for industrial or diversified companies are generally believed to be similar to those for consumer products. Yet, while consumers need awareness and recall at the point of purchase, B2B buyers must consider a wide range of...

Configure for CRM success.
January 26, 2003... One of the reasons why CRM has had less than glowing results for many firms is because it means different things to different people. Some firms take a market-oriented approach, some take an internal efficiencies approach, and some use it to...

Marketing a disruptive innovation.
January 26, 2003... It is often claimed that being proactive is the best strategy in a rapidly changing world. This is because reacting to change usually means that someone else has already exploited new opportunities. Yet, companies that are proactive in their...

Weight for sales.
January 26, 2003... Contrary to popular belief, consumers rarely respond to seeing an ad or being told the same thing more often. This is particularly true in mature product categories, such as fmcg. But the question needs to be asked: what type of advertising...

No-one wants to pay to customise.
January 26, 2003... The internet has made it possible for people to customise the products they buy, and for companies, such as Dell, to profit from the opportunity. However, customisation is usually considered from the viewpoint of the manufacturer, who wants to...

Good products or loyalty?
January 26, 2003... While customer loyalty remains the holy grail of many marketers, many people are predicting the demise of loyalty programs, because they are now everywhere, some are failing, and others being withdrawn. This seems to support the view that...

Famous for ads.
January 26, 2003... Advertisers have been using celebrities for decades, in the belief that the charisma of the personality can add to their brand. This concept still seems to hold, even though consumers are more skeptical about product endorsement than they once...

Value before willing to pay.
January 26, 2003... How much a customer is willing to pay is critical in determining pricing, but asking the question on its own is a very poor indicator of the price that will be paid. Part of the problem is that asking about willingness to pay removes the price...