This week, we’ve been astounded by the figures released from Alibaba’s ‘Global Shopping Festival’, learned how to put behavioural science into practice and considered two sides of the Big Tech regulation debate.
An increasingly digital, fintech-driven industry needs not more marketing, but better marketing, to ensure it’s successfully identifying consumers’ real needs and finding powerful and successful ways to engage with them. Post-GDPR, Lucian Camp points to the current crisis of data privacy concerns and trust issues and says marketers should now learn to manage consumer distrust, rather than to try to tackle the impossible task of restoring it.
If marketers in the US want to continue selling into the world’s largest digital single market, they need to figure out carefully how the new General Data Protection Regulation affects their database . . . or they are in for a nasty GDPR shock, says Ardi Kolah.
Are you analysing where e-commerce transactions are taking place and what devices your customers use most? Patrick O’Doherty has been examining information about conversions and device use and here reveals some trends and takeaways.
The longstanding assumption among retailers has been that women will buy, no matter what the price. But Pini Yakuel, challenging traditional segmentation personas, says latest research delving into demographic data proves that it’s actually the girls who win the best deals, the optimal value for money. However, he says far more attention is required to ensure that savvy shopper remains loyal to a brand. So indeed, no matter what the price, it’s all about the crucial customer experience.
From Prezzo to Jamie’s Italian – recently, many casual dining chains have fallen victim to tough trading conditions. These challenging times are also seeing the rise of open banking, which is good news for consumers who are now able to view their spending habits more easily and thus monitor their financial situation more carefully, cutting back on non-essentials – such as casual dining. This will have a knock-on affect on brands. Jamie Matthews brings a head-up for marketers on this issue, saying the open banking impact is impossible to ignore and may become far-reaching for brands. But here’s how they can react with positivity.
For long-term business profitability, e-retailers aim to encourage repeat custom by providing visitors to their websites with a simple and efficient user experience (UX). But not all online strategies are completely ethical, says Hilary Stephenson – some deploy psychological persuasion techniques, such as scarcity ‘offers’ or unclear signposting. She cites e-commerce research that reveals some larger organisations – such as fashion brands – have used ‘dark UX’ website design patterns to prompt ‘fear of missing out’ impulse buys. It’s not a good look for the e-retailer, she says, and explains why.
Wonderfully convenient or a bit too close for comfort: when does personalisation and detailed data usage become just a bit too personal? And how on earth can marketers tell when their carefully crafted messages are actually creeping their targets out? It was the subject that was under discussion at a masterclass in London recently. Here’s what the experts had to say about walking the tightrope between too much and too little:
Testimonials, opinions, social proof – call them what you will, but consumer reviews are on the up when it comes to what influences a business’s potential customers. Whether fake or fair, people are reading and acting on these online reviews. Here’s a careful look at the latest trends and how consumer trust is measuring up:
Ten years on from the first airing of the hit TV series Mad Men, about a ‘golden age’ of advertising – a world of sexism, racism, hard drinking and even harder smoking – Dale Lovell looks at how the ad world changed after Mad Men and why the modern era of technology, appropriate data targeting and creative must coexist in order to maximise today’s advertising campaigns.