As the UK’s mortality rate increases by six per cent, for the first time the brand damage caused by sending direct mail to people who have passed away has been calculated.
Female marketers are the most likely to freelance, start a business, or work in another field during a career break, recruitment specialist Robert Walters has revealed. Thirty per cent of women in marketing who have taken a career break started a business during their time away from the workforce, compared to 21% of women in other professions; 33% worked…
Working alongside the MyWaitrose programme, Ecrebo’s marketing platform will allow Waitrose to send targeted offers and messages to its customers, based on the products they have bought.
The offers will be handed to customers instantly at the till via coupons printed alongside their receipts.
Waitrose said the technology will complement and extend the channels through which it talks to customers, including its loyalty scheme.
As well as providing shoppers with money-off rewards tailored to their shopping habits, Ecrebo’s platform will give consumers offers within new and relevant product categories and provide them with recipe suggestions.
The partnership, which will form part of Waitrose’s CRM programme, follows a successful trial during 2015.
Waitrose customer loyalty manager Sam Winterson said: “Rolling out Ecrebo goes down as one of our smoothest IT implementations to date. We’ve been particularly impressed with the instant flexibility of the software which allows us to deploy or change promotions in a matter of minutes.”
Data hygiene has experienced a significant spike in interest and take-up over the first quarter of 2016 according to sales figures and incoming leads from UK-based data quality and hygiene specialist, W8 Data. The organisation – to mark its tenth anniversary – compiled a quarterly hygiene tracker for the past decade and the last three months…
Almost a half a million female and ethnic minority jobseekers in the finance and IT sectors in the UK will not be considered for roles purely because of the name on their CV, reports headhunting platform Nottx.com The platform – which launched this year in the UK and US – says that even though employment in finance and…
A new spring event is taking place in Amsterdam next month and potential attendees are advised to book now.
Aimed at international B2B marketers, the event on Tuesday April 12 (from 8.30am) is being organised by MINT (Marketing Innovation Networking) Global and focuses on conquering B2B marketing in the digital world we live in – where being customer-centric, data-driven and tech-savvy is all-important and all-consuming.
It’s never too early to think ahead for your marketing strategy, and many CMOs are doing just that. B2B marketers are expecting 2016 to be consumer-centric, with data and technology strengthening efforts to connect those consumers with products and services they want. It is time to rethink how you build out your ca
pabilities to serve customers’ needs and desires – and this event has been designed to help you do just that.
Speakers are some of the greatest B2B marketing practitioners and will challenge you, encourage debate and spark new insights. T-Mobile, LinkedIn, Millward Brown, Arcadis, Acer and Paragon are just a few of the companies sending their top marketers to this great new event.
The conference package also includes a networking party dinner, drinks, a brewery tour and a canal cruise. So don’t miss that boat! Register now, here.
DIARY DATE:
Make a note of Tuesday May 10 – 6-9pm in London when top class speakers will discuss what Virtual Reality really means for digital innovation in 2016, and how to master the platform This is a networking evening with information kudos! Hosted by the MINT Global team, book your place at the event here and watch out for more networking opportunities coming up.
James Brooke explains how simultaneously improving the reach, quality and agility of digital content performance is vital to retail sales performance – something few retailers have got to grips with.
So say the findings of the Small Business Reputation and the Cyber Risk report, just launched by the UK Government’s Cyber Streetwise campaign and KPMG.
Despite the majority (92%) of the creative small businesses surveyed thinking about their company’s reputation frequently or all the time, they aren’t considering how a breach could affect it. In fact, just 26% of those surveyed that haven’t experienced a breach say the potential damage a cyber breach could cause is an important consideration.
However, 83% of consumers surveyed are now concerned about which businesses have access to their data and whether it’s safe, and over half (58%) say that a cyber breach would discourage them from using a business in the future.
This concern is even greater in the supply chain and recently published KPMG Supply Chain research supports this. 86% of procurement departments would consider removing a supplier from their roster due to a breach, highlighting that an attack can have serious short and long term implications. 94% of procurement managers say that cyber security standards are important when awarding a project to an SME supplier, it is essential that every company has at least one expert with Security+ training experience.
This is reflected by the fact that the majority (80%) of small creative businesses surveyed who have experienced a breach felt the cyber attack impacted their reputation in some way, with 28% of those having been breached reporting brand damage, 29% reporting a loss of clients and 24% receiving negative reviews on social media.
And the impact has been long lasting. Almost a quarter (23%) of those surveyed have been unable to grow in line with previous expectations and 23% said it took over six months for the business to get back on track. Quality of service is also at risk; those who experienced a cyber breach found it impacted the business’ ability to operate (87%) and caused customer delays (22%).
The lack of concern around potential reputation damage may be explained by the fact that many small creative businesses don’t realise the value of their data. The majority (92%) hold data in their IT systems, yet up to 27% of those surveyed don’t consider this data to be commercially sensitive. And despite the fact that customer, financial and IP data can be shared with competitors if a company is attacked, just 17% of small creative businesses said they would be immediately concerned about competitors gaining advantage if they were breached.
The report also reveals that more than half of businesses in the sector (59%) don’t think they will be a target for an attack, despite the majority of consumers worrying about the security of their data, especially in the hands of small businesses.
Danny Lawrence (pictured left), National Police Chiefs’ Council PROTECT co-ordinator for Cyber Crime, said: “A cyber attack may prove so serious that it impairs an organisation’s ability to operate and even function longer term. Doing nothing can no longer be an option – SMEs place their reputation and existence on the line if they fail to take action. I would encourage all SMEs to consider their cyber security, seek out support from resources available and consider making this piece of work a critical part of their business strategies in 2016.”
George Quigley (pictured right), a partner in KPMG’s cyber security practice, added: “Small businesses know that their reputation is critical to their success, but it seems that many haven’t considered quite how many factors can affect it. Every piece of data in a business can be of interest to a cyber criminal – even if the business itself may not realise it – and with SMEs a key target for this very reason; it’s vital to take steps to protect your data, and with it the trust of your customers and, ultimately, your reputation.”
Sandra Dexter (left), vice-chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “Small businesses need simple, straightforward cyber security advice like that provided by Cyber Streetwise. All small firms should now be aware of the risks and take steps to protect themselves against the escalating level of cyber crime. Cyber breaches can happen to any business, any size and the repercussions should not be underestimated, leading to damaged reputations, hindered growth and in the worst cases, entrepreneurs being put out of business. Building the resilience of small businesses to cyber crime is important and should be high on all business owners’ list of priorities.”
Cyber Streetwise is encouraging small businesses and consumers across the UK to do three simple things to improve their online security and protect themselves from cyber crime:
The UK Government also offers a free cyber security guide and a free online training course for small businesses. Visit: www.cyberstreetwise.com to learn more about the simple steps to stay cyber secure.
Loyalty cards linked to mobile apps experience rise in activity rates.
The new research, Mobile & Online Coupons: Redemption, Loyalty & Consumer Engagement 2015-2020, found that brands and retailers are increasingly responding to consumer demand for mobile integration, with many now offering customers the opportunity to store their loyalty cards within a dedicated digital wallet.
Crucially, the research argued that the improved targeting and personalisation made possible by digital coupons was leading to greater activity rates, thereby resolving a key failing of traditional schemes where the lack of relevant offers had resulted in a downturn in usage.
However, the new research found wide variations among retailers and other reward card providers with regard to the extent of digital loyalty integration. In the UK, it observed that around 40% of Nectar card holders had acquired the loyalty app by late-2015, but less than 4% of Tesco Clubcard holders. It found a similar disparity between US retailers Walgreens, where 61% of card holders had linked their card to an app, and Target which had only 27% of cardholders linked.
Research author Dr Windsor Holden said: “These disparities are likely to result from a number of factors. While in part they may reflect the level of satisfaction with the app and/or the features it offers, they may also be attributable to a greater degree – or greater success – of retailer marketing of their digital loyalty options.”
The research warned that retailers that did not offer mobile integration were likely to have far lower levels of visibility on consumer activity. As a result, it cautioned that they would be at a disadvantage when seeking to tailor offers and thereby increase the lifetime value of the consumer.
The complimentary whitepaper, ‘Coupons ~ Personalisation Goes Hyper’, is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the full research and the attendant Interactive Forecast Excel (IFxl).
Public perception of direct mail is on the rise. So says a consumer direct mail benchmarking study, which reveals that almost half of consumers (48 per cent) now think direct mail is a good way for a business to connect with them. This has increased by seven per cent since 2014. The UK report carried…