Steven Slater is a blogger’s dream. For anyone looking for that quirky story to opine about, Mr. Slater provided a remarkable set of actions that will earn him a bit more than 15 minutes of fame. In fact, I’ll bet the incident that took place this week on Jet Blue flight 1052 from Pittsburgh to [...]

Relationships are challenging. But navigating relationships in the new era of social media brings with it a whole new set of challenges (and now a whole new host of web sites.)
In the past few days, I’ve had two friends change their relationship status on Facebook to announce a new relationship that has been going on [...]

I’m honored to have made strong alliances with respected people in my industry. Though I wouldn’t turn down sensible sponsorship, each of the icons on the right hand panel of the Loyalty Truth are there through mutual agreement, not due to an advertising deal.
Once in a while, one of my strategic partners gives me time [...]

Suppose you’re a local craft brewery, without the marketing resources of a Coors, Miller or Sam Adams. You don’t have money in the budget for national TV commercials—or any TV spots for that matter. So how do you get the word out about your award-winning brews?
If you’re Delaware-based Dogfish Head, you [...]

The Return of the Hoodoo Gurus
I’ve been a fan of the Australian rock band the Hoodoo Gurus since the 1980’s, when they were college radio favorites with hits like Bittersweet, Come Anytime and What’s My Scene. The group’s sound has been described as everything from power pop to garage punk to surf rock, and has [...]

Banks traditionally build brand on the pillars of strength, reliability, security, and service. Few have developed a “personality” brand and I cannot think of one that has created a brand that evokes a passionate response from its fans as do Starbucks, Apple, and Coca-Cola.
Though banks are uncomfortable with the concept, many are essentially in the [...]

These days, it’s just about impossible to find a social media “expert” who doesn’t recommend that your company and/or clients jump on the social media bandwagon. And why not? It really is an amazing new channel that both empowers customers and, as pointed out by Bill Hanifin, is about as close to the holy grail [...]

Don Peppers and Martha Rogers gave birth to the concept of 1 to 1 Marketing over 15 years ago. The brilliant marketing innovation is intended to “illustrate the importance of treating different customers differently. (from their website).
From a practitioners viewpoint, 1 to 1 has also been difficult to execute while attaining measurable ROI.  “Mass customization” [...]

In the past week, business has taken me to Vancouver, BC and San Jose, Costa Rica with a pit stop in South Florida for a day or so at home. None of that was a big deal until my colleague Mike Atkin noted at dinner that we’ve been hitting these spots in conjunction with some [...]

I’ve been in way too many meetings lately where I have been asked the question “Is Social Media just a fad that will soon blow away?”
Fortunately, I’m well schooled in responding to skeptics since, for the past dozen years, I’ve been answering the classic question in my core business, “Does this Loyalty stuff really work?”
I [...]