Colin Lewis: China makes customer experience in the West feel outdated
Scale, speed and convenience give Chinese brands a lead over their UK counterparts in customer experience – and they’re starting to leave us behind.
Colin Lewis: It’s tempting to be cynical but ‘agile’ is the real deal
Agile might be a much derided buzzword but when marketers take their cues from software developers and begin to work in an ‘agile’ way it can offer big benefits to ways of working.
Colin Lewis: 5G is about to usher in yet another new marketing era
The move from 4G to 5G has been likened to the shift from typewriter to computer and it will have profound impacts on businesses, consumers and marketing.
Colin Lewis: Just because brands can doesn’t mean they should
Landing customers with unexpected price hikes and made-up fees might increase revenues in the short term but the long-term damage could be devastating.
Colin Lewis: Think Black Friday is big? It’s nothing compared to China’s Singles’ Day
Black Friday may seem like a big event in the UK retail calendar but it cannot compete with the sheer scale of Alibaba’s Singles’ Day, which racked up more than £24bn in sales this year and is rapidly becoming a key strategic plank of brands’ plans.
Colin Lewis: Marketers need strategic knowledge, not just tactical tips
The future of marketing study must still focus on a grounding in strategic principles, while the hands-on teaching of tactical tools must be constantly updated.
Colin Lewis: The secret of direct-to-consumer success is owning the whole experience
Direct-to-consumer brands are shaking up the consumer goods market by owning the whole customer experience, rather than simply the product, and there are aspects of how they operate that all brands could learn from.
Colin Lewis: FMCG has become a breeding ground for underperformance
The big FMCG companies might still get the kudos from marketers, but on results, innovation, insight and diversity they have taken their eyes off the ball and let nimble disruptors in.
Colin Lewis: To identify real trends, imagine looking back on them from the future
It’s often hard to look at trends objectively if you’re living through them, but marketers have got to ask themselves whether what they know today will be proven false tomorrow.
Colin Lewis: Being seen as a top ‘influencer’ doesn’t make you a good marketer
Marketers should be more concerned with doing their day job and making an impact that way than trying to top a list of marketing influencers.
Colin Lewis: One word sums up why now is the best time to be a marketer
The level of opportunity open to marketers today means marketing’s golden age is now. The challenge, however, is working out which opportunity to seize first.
Colin Lewis: How to be a modern day marketing mystic
Marketers no longer need fortune-tellers or clairvoyants to advise them what will happen in the future, a quick look at Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon’s results suggests where the industry is headed.
M&S splits ad business as it puts clothing and home up for review
Marks & Spencer is on the hunt for a new agency for its clothing and home division in the latest sign that the retailer is seeking to differentiate its two business units.
Top ad spenders, in-house talent, retail sales: 5 killer stats to start your week
We arm marketers with all the numbers, statistics and data they need to prepare for the week ahead.
One marketer on how a sabbatical helped her reset mentally and professionally
Mieke Stones took a three-month sabbatical from her role as head of marketing at London Sport to cycle from Holland to Portugal last year, which not only improved her mental health but boosted her confidence as a marketer. As told to Charlotte Rogers.
The Insight Show partners with networking forum AURA
The partnership with AURA, the networking forum for brand-side insight professionals, will see it host its own conference within the Insight Show. Sessions aim to bolster the influence of insight in conversations with senior marketers and to improve communication of and engagement with insight-led projects.
