Strategic Analytics Archive
Two opinions on retail assortment planning
Posted by: David King on Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
Assortment planning is a critical area of retailing, but opinions differ on how to best accomplish it. I take a quick look at two divergent opinions published in the past month.
The Art of Cross-Selling
Posted by: David King on Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
We’ve written a lot about cross-selling over the years — how important it is and how to to succeed at it. Check out some of our latest thinking in today’s article on the 1to1 site.
New Consumer Insights Book from MSI
Posted by: David King on Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, it’s a good time to reflect on how pricing, branding, and other factors influence shopping and buying behavior. Coincidentally, I received an early Christmas present to myself on yesterday’s invented cyber-holiday, one that I can recommend to any marketer looking to make sense of the [...]
Service Contract Risk Management: What you may not know…
Posted by: Paul Swenson on Friday, November 11th, 2011
Over the past 20 years, I've learned a lot about all aspects of the service contract business. One important learning: significant risk management opportunities exist in every program. In this article, I share some case studies, as well as tips on how to improve performance.
The Wisdom of Crowds Redux
Posted by: David King on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
Many of us on the data-driven side of marketing feel that analytics, data, and computing technology trump the fallible decision-making of humans whenever we have lots of data and many variables. But technology is allowing us to harness human computation in new ways that may become as central to marketing models as logistic regression.
Five Keys to Cross-Channel Marketing Excellence
Posted by: David King on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
As many of you know, Fulcrum sponsored a webinar with Chief Marketer on October 25, 2011. The presentations by David King and guest speaker Fatemeh Khatibloo of Forrester Research can be accessed here. You may also replay the presentation with audio by registering at this site: Note that these links will be active only for ninety [...]
Designing Products for the (Long-Term) Customer Lifecycle
Posted by: Nathan Baldwin on Monday, October 24th, 2011
Devices, such as Apple's iPod, now celebrating its 10th anniversary succeeded not only because of great product design, but because they made it convenient for owners to access and buy content that enhanced the customer experience with the product. What other places, could such value-added products and services be incorporated into product designs?
Cross-Channel Cross-Selling
Posted by: David King on Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Cross-selling additional products and services can be highly profitable, but getting customers to buy more can be a challenge, even more so when marketing has to flow across many channels. Gain insights on how to succeed from this recently published article.
Marketing Agility, Part 2: Analytics
Posted by: David King on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
Successful companies rely on analytics to make them more competitive. We discuss our to invest in ways that provide greater agility through analytics.
Finding The True Value of Extended Service Programs, Part 3: Data and Analytics
Posted by: Nathan Baldwin on Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Our experience shows that extended service plans generate a wealth of customer and product data that can be used across the enterprise to improve customer experience, product design, and marketing.
Dynamic Content and Analytics
Posted by: David King on Monday, August 22nd, 2011
Analytics can (and should) be used to match content to customer needs and propensity. This provides a ready mechanism to increase the relevance of marketing and therefore boost response rates and sales.
Finding The Frictionless Sale With QR Codes & PURLs
Posted by: Nathan Baldwin on Monday, August 15th, 2011
Any time we ask a customer to do something to complete a sale introduces friction that slows or stops the conversion process. Combining QR codes with PURLs is an effective way to eliminate some of this friction and boost conversion.
Rethinking Householding
Posted by: David King on Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
Householding consumers has become a staple of database marketing. Yet, fundamental changes in demographics and behavior, coupled with the falling costs of direct marketing, provide reasons to rethinking the practice.
New Study on Consumer Sentiment About Extended Service Plans
Posted by: David King on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
How do consumers perceive the value of extended service plans and how do these plans shape perceptions of product quality. A recent study by Fulcrum sheds light on these and other questions.