Stick a Google-Shaped Fork in Barnes & Noble

Everyone hailed the Nook as smart business. Now, thanks to the very same company that powers the Nook, it’s going the way of disco -- fun while it lasted, but an impractical long term way to groove.

The hype around Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet is mostly surrounding its threat to Amazon, and while there may be merit there, the striking first casualty is Barnes & Noble. With brick and mortar bookstores and physical reading of books declining in favor of e-readers, Barnes & Noble announced plans earlier this year to this one from Peter Svenson of the Huffington Post, I am convinced that the Nexus 7 will provide me a far better experience than my Nook or a continued relationship with Barnes & Noble would. Here are my top 3 reasons as follows:

Over, Under, Missing Completely and “The Simple Truth”

3 Most Common Communication Failures Preventing Loyalty Program Success

You have heard this from your significant other. It’s the different between the playoffs and the title, a good education, and a raise. Yet marketers somehow forget it. I am speaking of course, about proper communications. They are the centerpiece of your personal relationships, and the vortex of any good loyalty program. And no matter how good you think you are at it, there is always room for improvement.

In a recent post,  I delved into gamification of  loyalty and in the midst of illustrating how real-time, location based, rewards platforms are often better suited than traditional loyalty programs,  I only gave proper communications passing reference- even though effective communications is and will always be the driving subtext of any loyalty program.

Mending Gaps in the Dynamic Customer Journey

By Bob Fetter, SVP of Pluris Marketing, a company with expertise in cross-channel offer optimization, loyalty, database marketing and advanced analytics

It’s not easy being a consumer-facing brand these days. After years building a company based on one consumer pathway, the mobile, app, email, social, geo-located, connected TV, real-time bargain hungry consumer is now touching brands in more ways and with more diverse behavior patterns than any company can keep up with. That’s 100 years of organizational design shot to hell.

Sign of Apocalypse: Merchants Pay Good Money to Give Away Their Customer Loyalty

We all know over the last several years, a growing need for cutting corners – and coupons – has paved the way for sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and others to offer attractive discounts to consumers and – as their salespeople pitch it – equally attractive perks to participating businesses. It’s changed consumer behaviors, disrupted business models on the local level and it’s made a few people very wealthy. 

Loyalty is Not a Game, or Is It?

With all the new entrants and a different playing field, loyalty marketers are not ruing as they did in the good old days when they had the consumer gaming dynamic all to themselves. Quite the contrary -- there is palpable excitement surrounding what the growing shift in consumer behavior means for their programs. Armed with a seemingly endless choice of game mechanics, technology platforms and social networks to enable new programs and a new set of consumer experiences, the loyalty sector is now more relevant than ever.

Offer Optimization for Mobile: It’s not JUST about knowing your audience.

I spent most everyday in conversations with CMOs, loyalty program director, CIOs and executives across a variety of industries- and while many are still struggling to catch up with, and better leverage, the new behaviors of social media and the real-time web, almost none have a mobile strategy worth bragging about. Why is this?

Facebook Steals Page from “Old School” Acquisition Strategy

A shiver went down my spine this morning as I read the post “Facebook to Credit Newbies, Buy $1 get $4 free” on AllFacebook.com. Apparently, developers claim that Credits haven’t been reeling in enough paying users, so Facebook has come up with this promotion in an attempt to expand its base.

My thoughts immediately turned to the businesses of cable and wireless.  You know, the model where all the best deals go to NEW customers?  This is due to the massive competition of for lucrative monthly revenue streams of new subscribers.  And what happens when an existing subscriber calls in and asks for the same deal?  You know the answer, not much.  In reality, all that actually occurs is that subscribers are “trained” to follow these deals, and go to a new promotion from a different company when the current one ends.