In a world of “Big Data” it’s surprising that one of the major challenges that we come across every week is a lack of information. It’s not that there is no data; it’s just that many of the marketers we work with perceive that they have little or no useful insight that would help them grow. This is a common problem. The data people have, just isn’t helping them deliver the growth they need! So what data do you need to help make decisions that will deliver significant growth? [Read more…]
Is Shopper Research The Only Option?
Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to marketing teams about how they can use shopper insight. On a number of occasions, I’ve been asked “doesn’t that mean that we’ll have to do loads of shopper research?” The answer to this question lies in the “shopper fitness” of the company. Some companies are like professional athletes when it comes to shopper insight – they have heaps of well-structured data which is used create clear strategies and plans and they work on it daily to hone their skills. Others don’t. We all know that to perform build muscle, you need spend a lot of time in the gym. The same is true with developing shopper marketing muscle – you have to work with and develop broad data sets to become really effective. [Read more…]
China Sets The World Record for the Biggest Sales Online in One Day
This was the doorway of an express company in Guangzhou on November 12th 2012. Its warehouse could not accommodate all the packages received from Taobao on “11.11 Singles’ Day – Online Shopping Festival”. Never heard of it? On that single day, 72 million online-shopping-packages were sent out. This amounted to RMB19.1 billion transactions which is equivalent to about US$3 billion. The Singles’ Day promotion was created by Taoba and targets single men and women of China. It is neither traditional nor official but for this one special day, Taobao’s Tmall offered huge discounts to online shoppers. [Read more…]
If manufacturers aren’t researching then they’re probably guessing
I happened to be shopping this weekend for an accessory for a personal electronic device. Nothing special but it was a little specialist and knowing this I thought the best place to head was Singapore’s Funan IT Mall. Here over several floors you’ll find a range of specialists offering everything from high end audio to hello kitty iPhone covers. [Read more…]