Data insight the new battleground for credit cards
Russell ParsonsThe credit card market isn’t as clear-cut as most. The basic product function, the cards themselves, are often pretty difficult to distinguish between.
Direct Marketing
RBS’s decision to cut marketing is counter-productive
Russell ParsonsThe mind-boggling amount lost by some of the banking groups post and pre-financial crisis is mirrored by the sheer volume of job losses that have stemmed from it.
Engaging audiences with advertising etiquette
Lucy HandleyPestering consumers with unwanted ads on their smartphones and tablets will alienate, not endear, potential customers.
Renters will eat away at direct mail’s reliability
Michael BarnettAs more people become home renters and hop from flat to flat more frequently, direct mail must become smarter to cut the money wasted on long-departed tenants.
Email marketing success rates could be so much better
Russell ParsonsE-mail as a direct marketing channel is on the up. Companies concerned about their environmental footprint are switching their resources to a mode of communication where existing and prospective customers are increasingly receptive, the inbox.
Direct marketers need to be bold
Russell ParsonsLove her or loathe her, and the balance between the two camps seems to be as pronounced after her death as it was when she was alive, it is impossible to argue that Margaret Thatcher was not a bold politician.
Consumers will shut out brands that aren’t careful with data
Lucy HandleyKeeping people’s information private could be a differentiator for brands. Companies such as Microsoft, BT and Mozilla are all starting to use privacy to appeal to people – Microsoft in the most overt way with its anti-Google ‘Scroogled’ campaign stating ‘Your privacy is our priority’.
Data key to Groupon turnaround
Russell ParsonsFor all the painfully honest deconstruction of his own performance contained in Andrew Mason’s resignation as CEO of Groupon last week, it was his candid admission that his intuition was often sidelined in favour of data that resonated the most.
DM is facing an image problem
Russell ParsonsI am sensing a prevailing wind in marketing that direct marketers need to be wary of – the implicit criticism of direct marketers from those calling for more brand building from companies.
Apocalyptic predictions are not helpful
Russell ParsonsLast month, the Information Commissioner told a gathering of direct marketing professionals that they must stop sniping from the sidelines about what they see as the apocalyptic impact changes to data protection laws will bring, “get real” and except major changes are inevitable because of legitimate consumer concerns over the use of personal data.
Government needs to put creativity and not cost first
Russell ParsonsIn these straitened times, marketers have had to get used to doing more with less. In the public sector, particularly in Whitehall, this is even more acutely the case.
Charities should be allowed to stretch the regulatory boundaries
Russell ParsonsBrands using unaddressed mail as a marketing tool face a huge challenge. How to overcome what is the natural inclination of the majority: to dismiss and dispense in the bin.
ICO: Marketers needs to ‘get real’ on data laws
Russell ParsonsThe marketing industry needs to accept major changes to data protection laws are inevitable because of legitimate consumer concerns over the use of personal data, the Information Commissioner has warned.
BT puts telemarketing one step closer to oblivion
Russell ParsonsBT’s launch of a landline phone that claims to block sales calls is a canny piece of opportunistic marketing that taps into a very real menace for many UK householders. It also, however, puts another nail in the coffin of the telemarketing industry.
Data is not the enemy of creativity
Russell ParsonsA debate has been raging on Marketingweek.co.uk. Stripped to its core, in one corner you have creative types pleading for freedom to develop without being sullied by anything as prosaic as data and in the other those that argue creativity is an unaffordable luxury in these austere times when not backed by data.