Blog: Industry Insights

2019  -  The Year of 'Ad-tribution' The restaurant industry continues to be challenged. Traffic remains weak, quality labor is hard to find (and expensive) and food costs are rising for all brands, from QSRs to fine dining. And based on 2019 projections, it will be a battle for share. The struggle is real and to win the battle, you must ensure your marketing campaigns are strategic, consumer-centric...

So you may be asking yourself, what do this country’s presidents have to do with furniture sales? Well, it’s all in the timing. Retailers know that three-day long weekends are a prime time to get consumers’ attention, especially on larger ticket items. And with the winter weather that this year has hit parts of the country with heavy snow, ice and sub-zero temperatures, many are staying...

Today’s advertising environment has become increasingly complex, with more data available now than ever before. Identifying your ideal consumer requires more than traditional demographic and psychographic data provides. Relying on historical customer purchase data tells you who purchased your product and services in the past; it doesn’t tell you who you need to reach now in order to grow...

Financial institutions, much like other industries, have been impacted by technology and advancements that provide consumers a wide range of services on demand and from the comfort of their homes. With access to in-person, online and mobile app banking options, marketing campaigns centered on what banking customers value is more important than ever. Not unlike retailers and brands looking to attract...

Consumers in deregulated states have a golden opportunity to choose who supplies the energy to their home. However, choosing an energy supplier in today’s marketplace can be confusing because many of the deregulated markets are flooded with multiple suppliers with different offerings. In an effort to help consumers better inform their decisions, online forums provided by each state’s Public...

In a recent Nielsen CMO Report, 76 percent of respondents said customer loyalty campaign objectives were extremely or very important. It’s not unusual to wrestle with marketing budgets and the value of loyalty marketing versus customer acquisition. Your best customers can often drive revenue quicker since they respond to your marketing and offers the fastest, while customer acquisition can be...

Many of us have picked up that screwdriver or wrench with the best of intentions. I’ll admit, I probably inflate my ability to build or fix things.  We all want to be able to say we got it done. But often, the home improvement project or home repair is beyond our own capabilities. Luckily, there are reliable professional contractors to serve this $200-plus billion home remodeling and renovation...

Imagine a world where advertising was your personal concierge. Where your favorite brands would speak to you exclusively based on your interests, previous purchases, likes/dislikes, life stage, shopping habits and preferences. Sounds pretty cool, right? Yet according to some experts, by 2020, this finite level of personalization will be a requirement, not an option. Consumers will expect brands to anticipate...

Travel and entertainment expenditures have returned following the long recession that began in 2008. This is good news for marketers who can now re-engage consumers with money in their pockets ready to spend on trips and fun outings. In fact, the industry has been growing beyond the pre-recession peak for the past five years, so marketers should seize the opportunity armed with a better understanding...

All too often, restaurants, retailers and other businesses hear the siren song of “focusing only on your best customers” to drive growth and sales. While loyalty marketing is certainly an important part of your overall strategy, so is the relentless focus on growing your customer base through a well thought-out customer acquisition strategy. Consider these three steps for your customer acquisition...

As if marketing telecom products have ever been simple, the rollout of fifth generation wireless systems (5G) will bring a whole slew of new marking challenges and complexities. 5G will greatly enhance data speeds, reduce dreaded lag times, provide more reliable mobility connections and overall, improve bandwidth. This will all happen by combining cutting edge network technology that is multitudes faster...

Advertisers continue to struggle with the delicate balance of selecting the right mix of media channels, in an era where consumer advertising avoidance behavior is growing. Additionally, restaurant traffic continues to be one of the many challenges operators are battling in today’s environment. With traffic driving strategies at the forefront of restaurant marketing strategies, it begs the question...

Where did the years go?  It seems like yesterday that, list in hand, my daughter (adorned in pigtails and bows, of course) and I were at Target in the seasonal back-to-school section. That section was abuzz with activity. Young children pouring through lunch box choices, crayons, colored pencils and construction paper. Then, as the kids grew older, we found ourselves at Office Max, deciding on...

Today’s headlines are full of articles blaming millennials for soft restaurant sales. As I read articles and watch videos like “Millennials are Killing Lunch” (Fortune, March 2017) and “Millennials are Killing Chains like Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebee's” (Business Insider, June 2017), I immediately think of the Mike and Mechanics song, “The Living Years”...

New Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) product launches are alive and well, with 4,644 products introduced in 2017.1 This excitement and innovation has been driven, according to IRI’s recently released 2018 New Product Pacesetters Report, by factors such as a strong millennial influence, the importance of personalization and a trend toward blended brands that blur category lines (think cosmetics that...