News and Perspectives

Yesterday I red an interesting article on the paradox CIOs find the most challenging. One item that comes systematically back in their minds is the lack of time for taking care about IT strategy. Taking some seconds to think about it, I believe the paradox is the same for many CMOs. I remember a dinner with a group of CMOs some weeks ago in Antwerp where someone said : "We are hired to be strategic, but we are forced to spend most of our time on operational issues". Here are some thoughts that could certainly be applied by all CMOs all over the world to get out of the operational morass. Read the full story on our LinkedIn Discussion Group~- Available to Fellow Members only
>>Read more...

When many companies continue to suffer from an antagonistic divide between their marketing and sales teams, some others demonstrate significant achievements through channel management as the platform for alignment, or by setting up drastic metrics that enable marketing and sales to permanently see how they perform, how the pipeline looks like and where marketing must deliver particular efforts to support sales. What have been the key lessons from the recent think-tank session on that matter ? Read the full story on our LinkedIn Group - Available to Fellow Members only.
>>Read more...

Source: McKinsey Quarterly - Consumers have always valued opinions expressed directly to them. Marketers may spend millions of dollars on elaborately conceived advertising campaigns, yet often what really makes up a consumer’s mind is not only simple but also free: a word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted source. As consumers overwhelmed by product choices tune out the ever-growing barrage of traditional marketing, word of mouth cuts through the noise quickly and effectively.
>>Read more...

Source : McKinsey Quarterly ~ Whether by receiving marketing e-mails, searching for products on the Web, or using mobile devices to find retail coupons, almost everyone now interacts constantly online with brands. This two-way information flow not only empowers consumers but also gives marketers new ways to influence them. Yet at most companies, digital marketing is an uncoordinated mess. To learn how they can achieve revenue increases of 10 to 20 percent by unifying the end-to-end customer experience, read the article from McKinsey Quarterly.
>>Read more...

Text and opinions on this topic are only available to registered fellow members on the marketing Executive Circle's group on LinkedIn.
>>Read more...

Source: McKinsey Quarterly ~ Long before behavioral economics had a name, marketers were using it. Yet despite marketing’s inadvertent leadership in using principles of behavioral economics, few companies use them in a systematic way. This article highlights 4 practical techniques that should be part of every marketer’s tool kit.
>>Read more...

Text and opinions on this topic are only available to registered fellow members on the marketing Executive Circle's group on LinkedIn.
>>Read more...

The CMO Council invites you to join their 5,000 members in providing aggregated input for an in-depth assessment of marketing performance in 2009 and the plans, priorities, and projections for 2010. Your confidential contribution to this survey will enable you to receive a free report with revealing insights into marketing mix allocation, organizational and operational changes, as well as strategic marketing intentions and investments in 2010. Please take 15 minutes to complete the audit online and you will receive our complimentary report.
>>Read more...

Source: McKinsey Quarterly - In previous recessions, many marketers doubled down on large, historically profitable customers, geographies, and market segments—an approach that may now be ineffective because economic woes are affecting consumers and markets in unexpected and very specific ways. Marketers should therefore toss out their historical expectations and look for emerging pockets of profitability.
>>Read more...

Teragram Sentiment Analysis Manager (SAM) is a social media analysis tool that captures relevant product reviews enabling brand managers to analyze the sentiments expressed by their products’ end-users. SAM’s automated processes locate and analyze digital content in real time to determine the writer’s emotional meaning, identify changing trends, while catching singular product defects early.
>>Read more...

Discover the 7 crucial enabling attributes that a successful CMO has to have, and the 7 critical disabling factors that a CMO cannot afford to have.
>>Read more...

Source : McKinsey Quarterly - Senior executives are aware of how serious today’s reputational challenge is, as they confront the perception that some companies have violated their social contract with consumers, shareholders, regulators, and taxpayers. But repairing the damage will require boosting both the sophistication and the internal coordination of reputation efforts.
>>Read more...

Perhaps your organization already outsources some aspect of its marketing operations. Today, more and more companies choose for outsourcing customer communications as an effective way to bring world-class capabilities to their organization that can impact both sides of the profit equation – cost savings and revenue growth.
>>Read more...

Web seminars are becoming increasingly popular to deliver messages towards selected group of customers and create demand generation. While traditional seminars do not attract customers anymore, web seminars are an effective answer to evolving customer requirements in terms of time management and flexibility.
>>Read more...

This paper identifies 4 points in the B2B sales process which can be made more effective and more efficient via smarter email marketing techniques: contact acquisition, contact qualification, contact nurturing and lead generation. A coordinated strategy will make full use of proven email marketing techniques and deliver measurable support for the B2B sales process.
>>Read more...

All marketing departments must produce printed materials for themselves or for their clients. By putting organized printing processes in place, you will reach higher standards of format, appearance and quality while achieving drastic economies of scale.
>>Read more...

More marketing is not absolutely the right decision. And if you can’t make a smart strategic case for how your spending is going to add value to the company, you won’t convince CEOs and CFOs to fund marketing budgets when revenues are down.
>>Read more...

A new and growing marketing channel, webvideo tends to demonstrate unmatched effectiveness for product promotion, customer experience and sales conversion rate. An exclusive interview with Patrick Janssen, CEO of Ebuco.
>>Read more...

A white paper on how to build competitive advantage based on the three I’s of Marketing
>>Read more...

A new generation of customer experience analytics: increasing sales revenue and improving service by gaining actionable multi-channel intelligence
>>Read more...

A white paper on how to differentiate the customer experience through customer insight, customer interaction and continuous improvement in marketing performance.
>>Read more...

Xerox has launched its new project "The One to One Lab" which has been created in collaboration with the Belgian Post. The Lab is a veritable testing ground which demonstrates the power and accessibility of data-driven one to one marketing in order to accelerate its acceptance by the marketing communities.
>>Read more...

The CMO Council has launched a new research initiative, Reinvent Mobile, which engages end-users in co-innovation and feedback on the design of next-generation mobile computers.
>>Read more...

Beyond major investment in marketing or IT technology, can one anticipate with certainty the response of users to the products and services offered online? Elements of responses with Marc Van Rymenant, CEO of Netway, the European leader in behavioural sciences applied to online business.
>>Read more...

The Marketing Executive Circle has signed an exclusive partnership agreement with the CMO Council, the world's most influential network of global senior marketing executives and brand decision makers. The Circle will ensure the voice of the community of Belgian chief marketing officers is heard within the Council's various strategic interest research initiatives.
>>Read more...

The first impression when going on board of the MSC Poesia is an exclusive place in the best all-Italian style tradition. Everything has been done to give a new emotional touch to customer loyalty.
>>Read more...

Deploying huge marketing efforts to run the gamut from very conservative strategies to more aggressive and forward-thinking ones, a growing number of companies are now incorporating real estate into their marketing strategies for delivering messages to specific audiences and support long-term growth and profitability.
>>Read more...

Companies are extremely vigilant about all spending. The budget expenditures for marketing should be subject to the same intense examination by the COO and CFO as any other spending program, but the ROI on marketing must be better projected using modern analytical techniques, fact-based logic and financial data. This white paper argues for the importance of calculating customer lifetime value (CLV) to use in important marketing decisions.
>>Read more...