Adversarial relationships make for wonderful stories. Why? Because we can relate to them so well. It’s human nature to clash with rivals - cat fights, turf wars, even sibling rivalries reliably sell magazines and fill cinemas and theaters. But are they good for business? Of course not, especially not if the
We’ve talked in the first two posts about how the digitization of everything is disrupting marketing and changing the face of commerce. Organizations are having to change the way they operate, and that’s causing roles in the C-suite to evolve. The digitization of everything is doing three primary things: Increasing
Sir Terry Leahy speaks with the clarity and purpose of someone used to speaking the language of data. When he was CEO of global retail giant Tesco, he presided over an organization that became the UK’s biggest retailer and enjoyed sustained robust growth - more than 10% annually over 20
My wife often jokes about the early years of our marriage, when her perspective was "what's mine is mine and what's your's is mine." And my retort is usually, "I learned early to understand exactly who's the boss." Fortunately, it wasn't exactly like that, but we both agree we each started out
So many companies today describe themselves as "leading edge," or they strive to achieve excellence or market leadership. And we all have our own ideas of companies that are leading edge, as well as the companies that may once have been market leaders and for any number of reasons have
Being named to the Top 100 of the Fortune Best Places to Work list is a highly coveted honor that SAS has enjoyed for 16 years in a row. In order to be considered for this annual ranking, candidate companies have to answer a comprehensive set of questions that really
The Economist Intelligence Unit recently published a report that highlights some C-suite dynamics that remind me of that childrens' game "monkey in the middle." The report details multiple ways in which surveyed CMOs believe one thing about the role of marketing in the company, and then their other functional peers (CIO,
Businesses can no longer ignore the importance of social networking and social capabilities as part of their enterprise applications. According to a Forrester survey of 200 U.S. companies, social listening and digital engagement can influence customer perception (58%) and building long-term relationships with customers (56%). While social media can amplify
In my last blog post, titled Taking the Best Marketing Action, we focused on making sure our marketing activities were relevant, optimized, and automated. Getting to this place within your marketing organization takes work, but the payoffs from having these processes set are phenomenal in terms of efficiency. SAS Customer
I've had the pleasure to work closely this year with the Association of National Advertisers on a Thought Leadership Sponsorship. One of my favorite outcomes of that effort was an e-Magazine titled, "Measures for Success - How to become a more accountable marketing organization." The title article of that eMagazine
Andy Swenson, VP of Database and Revenue Management at Pinnacle Entertainment outlined their approach to customer loyalty, which included some great takeaways for companies in any industry. The gaming resorts leader partnered with Teradata to provide the database and with SAS to handle the marketing solution that enabled them to differentiate
Scott Hudgins, VP of Customer Managed Relationships at The Walt Disney Company shared details about how Disney has approached CRM and the guiding principles and key learnings that have driven their success. They began their CRM process in 2001 knowing that most of their customers were somewhere in one of their
Jim Bampos presented in a session today at PBLS11 titled, Driving the Total Customer Experience with Data. He described the extraordinary journey he’s led his company on to manage customer experience and how it literally transformed EMC to be centered on the customer. Prior to embarking on that journey, EMC saw itself as a data
It’s no secret that SAS enjoys a high degree of customer loyalty and it’s also well known that part of what drives that loyalty is driven by how much we pay attention to our customers. This devotion to our customers is helping to ensure that we deliver on our promise
More and more, executives have questions about social media, and recently they have turned to me for answers. It’s clear they’re moving along the continuum of interest from ‘I’ll let this fad pass,’ to ‘wow, I best get on board this train before I get left behind.’ Because I grapple
In the past eighteen months as a marketing organization, we have spent a significant amount of time realigning strategy, reallocating resources, and in some cases hiring new marketing employees. So what’s driving this recent hiring and shifting? The dramatic changes and the rate of change that is happening in the
The Social Media phenomenon, coupled with the recent and seismic economic shift, is forcing marketing leaders to rethink their priorities and methods. More and more of us are realizing that yesterday’s results, including the process that delivered those results, are out of alignment with today’s focus. It turns out Twitter,
On a recent trip to SAS, Paul Greenberg shared his thoughts and ideas about marketing and social media. He pointed out that the rise of social media is not simply a change in how we do business; it signals a deeper transformation in how humans communicate online. Paul cited examples,
