Marketing

There is a big difference between a forecast and a resolution, and the former is easier to make than the latter. New Year's resolutions require, well, resolve -- the mental toughness to see the matter through while a forecast is merely something made by pundits from Olympian heights. The forecaster ...

The pressure to increase top-line revenue growth is uniting sales and marketing executives to focus resources on aligning their two groups. In October, Aberdeen Group surveyed over 250 companies to identify the strategies, capabilities and enablers that Best in Class companies are using to improve s...

Incentive compensation is often the first place where management makes adjustments in efforts to improve sales productivity. Many organizations have departed from the straight commission model in favor of plans that prompt the sales force to target high-profit deals. However, when a salesperson is p...

Pluris, a provider of multichannel marketing applications, has added a fourth product to its lineup with the release of its Marketing Optimization and Recommendation Engine. MORE packages advanced analytics, a recommendation engine and an optimization engine that allows users to make tailored produc...

One of the most complex areas of online advertising -- what happens when a prospective customer clicks on an ad -- ironically happens almost entirely outside of the customer's awareness. The ubiquitous dancing Santa, robot or alien that we see on so many mortgage refinancing ads actually is only the...

Sales 2.0 is a big deal both because it is causing us all to take a new look at selling -- along with all of the social networking ideas and technology that is changing our work habits -- as well as for what it says about marketing. To be frank, Sales 2.0 is actually more about marketing than sellin...

Trust plays an important role in interpersonal relationships. The same can be said of business relationships. In both cases, trust means a willingness on the part of each partner to assume a certain amount of risk. In an interpersonal relationship, the risk may be that a partner will act unfaithful ...

All company executives believe that having loyal customers is a key to business success. However, what are executives really doing about it? Most will point to their customer care training or CRM system and say, "That's how we take care of loyalty here." Some will also point to their monthly newslet...

With holiday season promotions escalating into top gear, the term "free shipping" is popping up on many e-commerce sites. While the promotions do attract the attention of consumers, the meaning of the term and the impact of such promotions on retailers' sales are decidedly mixed at this stage. Ship...

There is a wealth of options out there for startup online retailers looking to craft and manage all-important marketing campaigns and programs, as Part 1 of this series discusses. While e-tail technology and support continues to get cheaper and become more ubiquitous, the barriers to commercial succ...

Designing effective marketing campaigns and finding the right marketing mix are primary concerns for any online retailer. They are especially important for start-ups and small to medium-sized businesses competing with larger and better established e-tailers, as well as the rapidly growing number of ...

"We need more leads!" cries the sales manager. "What happened to the ones we gave you last month?" replies the marketing manager. "Those leads were lousy" retorts the increasingly frustrated sales manager... and so goes the never-ending lead "quality vs. quantity" debate in many organizations. New r...

Although some people are still trying to enjoy the last of the summer weather, the retail holiday shopping season has begun. With that, inevitably, comes the peak e-mail marketing season. The holiday e-mail season started last year on Sept. 6 with a Christmas reference in a Sam's Club e-mail, accord...

As people head off to enjoy the last holiday weekend of the summer, few are thinking about the next stretch of holidays ahead: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah and New Year's. Rest assured, though -- retailers are giving the matter plenty of consideration. Labor Day weekend signals the start of the ...

When two companies merge, there is a seemingly endless list of factors to consider. However, while companies are committed to dedicating ample time and resources to align the operational combination of the two entities, it's all too easy to become overly engrossed in the nitty-gritty and lose sight ...