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Picture this: You’re buying a television. How many brand names immediately come to mind? Most people can only mention  the top two or three brands in the television market. It’s the same with soft drinks, cars, chocolates—and even people. This is testimony to the fact that irrespective of market competition—and how many products a customer uses—there’s only space for a few brands in a customer’s mind when it comes to spontaneous brand recall. This idea holds across diverse products and consumer groups. Marketing…

Sales teams have traditionally relied on old school methods like pen and paper and end-of-the-week feedback sessions to document client visits and report important insights to managers. However, the digital era is changing the way people work and what they most value: time. According to a recent report on what millennials in the tech sector want from an employer, over 45% of respondents expect  digitization and connectivity will set the pace with more people opting for flexible working hours and workplace structures. In…

With customer expectations evolving at a rapid rate, customer service strategy/delivery is increasingly being seen as an integral part of any customer-facing business. Furthermore, as technological advances continue to democratize the ability to produce new innovations, all brands are increasingly seeking ways in which to differentiate themselves from their competitors — enter customer service. The Incite Group recently interviewed over 500 executives to understand the transformation trends sweeping across the…

Of the many lessons we learned in 2018, one, in particular, is abundantly clear: we can no longer advertise at people. Consumers are increasingly taking back control. For one, they are becoming less tolerant of annoying ads. 71% of Americans say ads are more interruptive than ever. Cue the rise of everything from ad blockers to paid streaming services. This shift means that brands must rethink their approach to reaching consumers. Eyeballs alone are no longer enough. Research and consumer behavior all point to the fact that…

2018 was a never-ending stream of privacy scandals, data breaches, and tech backlash. If you’re a marketer in tech, privacy is on your mind not only because of your job function but also because you’re human! Like many, you’re probably concerned about your own online privacy and not altogether confident that you’re taking the necessary precautions to protect it. Read More: Risky Business: Navigating Privacy and Compliance in a GDPR World The disconnect between people’s desired privacy and marketers’ assumptions has…

Fake news, digital ad fraud and data privacy are pressing issues threatening the trust and confidence in an ad-supported internet. While advertisers continue to demand transparency of their partners downstream — even going so far as to hold budgets hostage, consumers – who have enjoyed positive, emotional connections with their brands online — are at risk of turning off due to privacy concerns. Stakeholders will expect even greater clarity and accountability in the quality of the online platforms and content that they invest…

 When effective campaigns rely so heavily on the trust of audiences, it is the responsibility of both the influencer and the brands to preserve authenticity  Everyone wants to be popular online. Some even pay for the privilege, using bots to falsely inflate their followings in a bid to gain paid brand partnerships. Those who have, are right to be nervous. Following Keith Weed’s high profile announcement that Unilever would no longer be working with influencers with fake followings, all eyes were on the validity of social…

A lot of great original content never reaches consumers. From budding filmmakers who cannot find a distributor for their documentaries to regional TV series that see huge success in their own country but struggle to gain visibility abroad, international audiences regularly miss out on video they’d value. Some effort has already been made to address this, but often it’s based on bringing premium content that already touches millions to new markets. In 2019, though, it’s time for niche and regional content to experience a…

Content. It’s a blessing and a curse. Content is at the core of marketing technology and so many other areas of business. From product to business intelligence to sales to customer care and support, HR, legal (this list goes on) businesses are tasked with curating, aggregating, creating, publishing and making sense of growing volumes of content. A few years ago, I conducted research on content marketers’ greatest pain points. The clear winner? Creating content. The need for more content, for better content, for enough…

Predictions, by nature, are fickle. You’re expected to be right and if you’re wrong, people will never let you forget it. Fortunately, making predictions in the customer experience space is a bit easier because there is less variance involved.  Reading the tea leaves based on our work with some of the world’s leading and most innovative marketers, brands will increasingly strive to create more and better personalized experiences. The wave of hyper-personalization is still cresting, and predicting its breadth and depth is…

It's no secret that Performance Marketing on Instagram, Snapchat and other social networks is evolving and will deliver high-quality engagement for brands. People are increasingly turning to social media to learn about new products, with 76 percent of shoppers purchasing a product they discovered in a social media post. Brands are partnering with affiliates and influencers to generate leads, acquire new customers and increase ROI. Authenticity is key when it comes to selecting influencers and partners to promote your brand.…

There has been a fundamental shift in the way users consume content today. Mobile users have gradually moved away from using their mobile browsers to focus on a wide range of apps across various verticals. This affinity towards in-app has changed app developers’ perception towards different monetization strategies. App developers who keep up with the evolution of the best practices will definitely tap into a fast-growing revenue stream in the future. We, at Chocolate, recently released our report ‘App Monetization Secrets…

Every time you or I buy so much as a hamburger we probably create data in a computer somewhere that reveals what kind of burger we prefer, if we add pickles and onions, and whether we purchase fries with it. And, from a marketing standpoint, that’s extraordinarily advantageous. Read More: Is Your Data Defined? Now Is the Time to Find Out After all, marketers have always relied on data to help make decisions. But nemarkever in history have they had the kind of data they do today, providing enormous amounts of…

Time flies, technology moves even faster. Scott Brinker’s annual Marketing Technology Landscape super graphic now displays more than 6,800 marketing technology solutions — a 27% jump from 2017’s figure. That’s a lot for marketers to handle. Some simplification is in order. From analytics to Social Media Marketing, here are six digital marketing skills your team needs today: 1. A Focus on Digital Marketing Analytics While “web analytics” focus on website performance, digital marketing analytics reveal the performance and…

“People will sit up and take notice of you if you will sit up and take notice of what makes them sit up and take notice.”  – Harry Selfridge Customer experience (CX) in the finance world is a constant struggle. While digital transformation is generally a marathon and not a sprint, in the case of CX this is not the case. Research shows that banks have not yet got a grip on the emerging Fintech revolution, and only 37 percent of customers believe that banks understand their needs and preferences adequately. According to …

Cyber Weekend has become a huge phenomenon for consumers in the UK over the past four years, with more and more people taking advantage of discounts on the busiest shopping weekend of the year. For marketers worldwide, it now marks one of the busiest times of year and many are developing various strategies in order to fully optimize sales and draw in customers with great offers in the lead up to Christmas. This year was certainly no exception and the weekend marked a period of intense activity among marketers trying to…

Goodbye Multichannel, Hello Omnichannel How can you up your customer engagement game in the new year? Make 2019 the year you focus on omnichannel. Unlike message-based multichannel campaigns, true omnichannel campaigns are customer-centric. Instead of repeating the same message in every marketing channel, tell a multi-faceted story — one that unfolds as customers continue on their journey with your brand at different touchpoints and different stages of discovery. It’s more personal and relevant and will deepen the…

Contact centres are going through their biggest changes in decades. Instead of calling a company for support with every issue, customers can now turn to chatbots, mobile apps, social media, and a variety of other channels. Better connected than ever, delivering the outstanding service these customers expect requires the right mix of tech, talent, and investment. To help you prepare, here are eight predictions based on customer experience (CX) that will be critical to contact centre success in 2019 and beyond. Chatbots Could…

Ever wonder what exactly it is that your kids are so fascinated by when spending hours on YouTube? It’s likely they have spent a big portion of their time watching YouTube influencers either discussing products in “haul” videos or unpacking and trying out products in “unbox” videos. To understand the phenomenon that is YouTube Influencer Marketing, Shorr Packaging Corp. analyzed 3,000 of the most recently uploaded “haul” and “unbox” videos on YouTube, looking specifically at what these types of videos focus on, in terms…

Let’s be honest. There’s already tons of content about content. If you Google “creating killer content” (yes, with quotes), you’ll get almost 30,000 results. Just think about that … 30,000 pages, articles, blogs, etc., use that exact series of three words in that order. That’s crazy. The world definitely does not need another “How to create killer content” article. There are also plenty of articles about content goals, ranging from encouraging people to actually create them through examples by content type. Content…