Marketing Needs the 5th P

Why Payment Now Belongs with Product, Price, Place and Promotion as a Key Decision Lever

By Bob Fetter, SVP of Pluris Marketing

Since the 1960s, - the smartest of marketers have developed an offer taxonomy based on the 4 Ps—product, price, place and promotion. For years these 4 Ps have helped us marketers measure, classify and optimize different offers against one another based largely on these trigger points, allowing for an organized and optimized marketing mix that drives revenue with the most efficiency.  And that taxonomy-- or process of determining how all the offers from brands should be broken down into distinguishable pieces, has held its grip on the marketing industry.

Facebook Digs Deeper into Privacy Concerns

By Bob Fetter, SVP of Pluris Marketing

According to a post in the September 23^rd issue of the Financial Times, Facebook is partnering with a “controversial” data company called Datalogix that can “track whether people who see ads on the social networking site end up buying those products in stores.”  

Of course, this announcement has raised concerns with privacy advocates who have continually been concerned about marrying online profiles and presence with offline data since the purchase of Abacus (a Datalogix competitor) by Doubleclick (an online ad-serving company later bought by Google) in the late 90s.

5 Reactions to Facebook’s “Page Post Targeting Enhanced”

By Bob Fetter, SVP of Pluris Marketing

Facebook creates so much news that it’s easy to miss a new set of features aimed at marketers- even when those very changes can have big implications on how brands speak to you on the social platform.  Last week, nestled between the social buzz of the Olympics and ups and downs of its stock price, the social network rolled out a bevy of new ways for marketers to take advantage of  things such as your age, interests, gender, relationship status and more to inform how they ‘speak’ to you.

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.

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. 

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?

Big Data? Let’s Take A Step Back.

Big data is the rage.  Big data companies are getting funded.  Big data scientists are getting hired.  A slew of blog posts are screaming for marketers to understand and use big data.  So what is Big data?  In a nutshell, it is doing what Google has been doing for over a decade.  Taking in, indexing and categorizing massive amount of data generated from the web.  It involves new hardware and software paradigms and new skill sets to further challenge us. 

A Digital Sign of the Times

The Digital Out of Home (DOOH) Experience is exploding, and most people take it for granted. Why? Because digital signs are essentially familiar, flat panels TVs found in most homes-and signs, digital or not are seemingly everywhere these days. While there has been a push to make signs actionable through QR codes, an increasing amount of companies from retail, entertainment, and hospitality, to cabs and office building are investing in digital signage. Initially, this was because digital signage were simply more compelling visually and its inventory, more flexible.

Personalized Content is Something Consumers Want, but there is a Fine Line…

Mobile Marketer recently covered an interesting GfK MRI panel study-that shows the majority of tablet consumers want personalized ads- and the ability to buy products they are interested directly.

“Seventy percent of tablet magazine readers wish that digital magazines included tailored advertising, showing the need for more personalized experiences, according to research from GfK MRI iPanel.”