RECENT INSIGHTS
Sorry to say it, but it’s the little things Remember Westin’s Heavenly Bed program? It produced heavenly sales, both for Westin and Simmons. It led to the Heavenly Bath, and Delta’s Heavenly inflight bedding. The basis of its success was the realization that a consumer’s hotel experience comes down to a handful of small but […]
Online education has suffered from an image problem (for more than a decade) that is only now slowly being corrected. Enrollment is up. Favorable employer perceptions are slowly shifting. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are now charging fees – and getting them. To understand online students attitudes better, we performed a research study of 3 […]
Your students are your most powerful spokespersons For all the money and time spent on vanilla view books, tortured mission statements, and team logos, independent schools’ students remain their most meaningful ambassadors and opinion-shapers. They carry the message. They bear the standards. They are the brand. And when they graduate, they continue to represent you […]
Consider this finding from a recent study: Only 14% of rate payers view their utility as a “trusted energy adviser.” It seems that despite decades of deregulation in markets across the country, consumers aren’t ready to sing kumbaya with their power company. All those statement stuffers encouraging people to get to know their utility apparently […]
Be careful when serving up sustainability as marketing content Millennials like causes and communities. They’re environmentally sensitive. And they value meaningful experiences over material possessions. All of which indicates that destination brands seeking to grow a base of millennial consumers should position environmental values front and center, right? Not so fast. First, millennials are savvy […]
Ethical healthcare marketing has to answer tough questions When does targeting become an invasion of privacy? When does doctor advertising become doctor advocacy? When does information sharing become marketing? As consumerism presses deeper into healthcare, competition is increasing – and marketers will naturally want to create content that’s more aggressive. Here are a few reminders […]
Ski Resorts’ Key To Millennials: Micromarketing Micromarketing used to mean tightly defined geographic targeting at the zip-code level. But we’re changing that definition as of this blog. Micromarketing in our view is also small-batch marketing, qualitative in focus, still tightly targeted but focused on small experiences – and it’s a great way for ski resorts […]
Understanding online degree-seekers We recently conducted a research study of student personas for a leading, nonprofit, online college headquartered in the northeast (formerly part of the SUNY system). The results reveal 8 distinct types of online students (which scale up to larger groups of potential students), each with differentiating life challenges and personal characteristics. While […]
Think small picture: The migration to mobile Even though desktop and laptop sessions still account for the majority of actual travel bookings, mobile bookings are constantly on the rise. So yes, of course, mobile access to brand content should still be front and center in any destination marketing brand discussion of next year’s budget. Here […]
The rise of healthcare ratings and rankings US News & World Report was losing money. In 2006, 07, and 08, the center-right Washington-based magazine saw dwindling circulation (less than half of what it had been 10 years earlier) and ad sales (also down 50%) across all its media. And what saved the publication and the […]