Thai and Japanese are just two languages that have countless ways of saying the same thing depending on who you are, who the other person is, their age, provence, job title or social standing. While those two are especially cumbersome, similar systems exist in Vietnamese, Korean, Malay/Indonesian, and to a lesser extent in Chinese. TheseContinue reading “Horrifying honorifics”
Category Archives: business
Why Europe loves China
Liberals, Americans in general, people informed about the dismal human rights situation in China, historians – many groups and thinkers keep being amazed at how generously Europe treats China. Merkel and her ilk are called “lefties”, French politicians accused for selling out to the “fellow communists” in Beijing, and Italian politicians of ruining centuries ofContinue reading “Why Europe loves China”
The Loneliness of the Virus
One of the biggest problems created by the pandemic and lockdowns is hardly ever discussed at this stage. We know about the economic impact: finding a job has become near impossible, going for a job interview even legally prohibited in some countries. The long-term medical effects of the disease are as yet unknown and evenContinue reading “The Loneliness of the Virus”
Silent Earthquakes in Hospitality
This is a guest blog written by Richard Adam, Chief Executive OPTIMIST, NED Board Member, Strategist, Developer, High-End Experience Incubator and Digital Advocate. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here. Since I can remember, there exist these “The future of …..” type of thing conferences, publications and panel discussions. What is the future ofContinue reading “Silent Earthquakes in Hospitality”
How to Design Value Propositions in B2B Marketing
This article has been adapted from a two-part post by @claudiomkd which you can find here: Part1 and here: Part2 Reducing the sales cycle with laser-focused value propositions If one thing I learned about B2B markets during my career is that business-to-business models, although very monetarily rewarding, can pose two huge challenges for sales & marketingContinue reading “How to Design Value Propositions in B2B Marketing”
How to Make Better Marketing Decisions
For many companies, coming up with a marketing plan is mainly about evaluating past results, tweaking them, and perhaps get inspiration from competitors, i.e. doing exactly what others do and thus ending up with mediocre results at best. Likewise, many marketing plans revolve purely around deciding on an agency or ad frequency and then waitContinue reading “How to Make Better Marketing Decisions”
KPIs are for losers. Get rid of them!
One of the most misused corporate management inventions ever, KPIs are hurting businesses in many ways. They paralyze cooperation procedures and plant the seeds of mistrust. They are easy to manipulate and hardly ever represent the real interests of either party in a transaction. More importantly, they are often very arbitrary, hardly ever based onContinue reading “KPIs are for losers. Get rid of them!”
The Appocalyse: No Bright Future for Apps
Remember a few years ago, when every marketer told you that you needed to augment your brand with new touch points and that you couldn’t possibly do without your own app? The vision was that every store, every dentist and delivery service would have its own app. While for some use cases such as publicContinue reading “The Appocalyse: No Bright Future for Apps”
Beating Amazon & Co: Hands-on Marketing Tips for Brands
In the digital age of ubiquitous information, machine learning, and big data dominance, reaching the customer is tough. With online shopping, customers have access to an unlimited number of brands and products, their attention spans are shorter and split between multiple devices, and they are constantly researching, comparing and exploring different options before making theirContinue reading “Beating Amazon & Co: Hands-on Marketing Tips for Brands”
What Chatbots Can Currently Do For Your Business
Chatbots are being hyped as the next big thing in marketing. They should, marketers insist, be an integral part not just of customer service, but of your entire content marketing strategy. In fact, far beyond marketing, they have use cases in every department of your business, every customer touchpoint, and even B2B interfaces of yourContinue reading “What Chatbots Can Currently Do For Your Business”
Can Blockchain Technology Solve the Food Chain Crisis?
At blockchain-themed events around the world, bold promises are being made about the ability of blockchain technology to solve the problem of food traceability and supply chains in general. But how realistic is that prospect? Is blockchain really the right tool for supply chain management and traceability? What will happen if deploy it broadly? IncidentsContinue reading “Can Blockchain Technology Solve the Food Chain Crisis?”
The Right Role for Marketing
Marketers – especially those working in agencies for a variety of clients – tend to have a firm grasp of the terminology of marketing, the lingo, the concepts, and therefore claim to understand what exactly marketing is. But from a corporate perspective, the answer is far from clear. What is marketing? Marketing can be done large-scaleContinue reading “The Right Role for Marketing”
The Importance of Customer Feedback and What to Do With It
Getting feedback is the right thing to do, everybody can agree on that. At every workshop I have ever conducted, 100% of participants agreed that customer feedback is essential. In reality, though, very few companies solicit feedback, and even fewer actually use it. The feedback you don’t listen to isn’t feedback, it’s a wasted opportunity.Continue reading “The Importance of Customer Feedback and What to Do With It”
Why You Should Always Put Your Retail Strategy First
Parts of the world, especially in Asia, are in a startup frenzy. Not a week goes by without a new startup looking for branding and marketing advice. Because this is Asia, which has a long history of making things and the most brilliant engineers in the world, most of these startups make hardware. Established companiesContinue reading “Why You Should Always Put Your Retail Strategy First”
How to Influence the Customer Journey
Branding and marketing experts are increasingly talking about the “customer journey” – a fancy word encompassing everything from product discovery to actual purchase action. But what exactly is this “journey” and how, as product or service providers, can we influence it? Think about it that way: the last time you purchased something other than aContinue reading “How to Influence the Customer Journey”
The New Frontier: Improving Customer Experience through AI
There are actually two frontiers when it comes to improving customer experience in an enterprise, namely the voice of your customer and the voice of your employees. Customer feedback is integral to optimizing service offerings, improving products, and increasing operational efficiency. Yet a lot of feedback is misplaced, irrelevant, or even vicious. Disgruntled customers withContinue reading “The New Frontier: Improving Customer Experience through AI”
Digital Transformation: How to Create an Intelligent Company
Companies are besieged by information and bedazzled by IT solutions. With the rapid advancements in information technology, high-speed Internet, mobile technology and artificial intelligence, we now have access to huge amounts of data about customers, their demographics, and their online behavior across all touch points. The advantage of access to so much information is notContinue reading “Digital Transformation: How to Create an Intelligent Company”
Opportunities Created by AI Outweigh Imminent Threats
Artificial Intelligence is in the headlines. You can’t escape it. Some fear its job-destroying impact, others its threat to human self-worth. The immediate future of AI is a lot more complicated — and promising. People are confused. AI is either considered to be a giant leap towards modernization or a catalyst for massive unemployment. ForContinue reading “Opportunities Created by AI Outweigh Imminent Threats”
Branding is Overrated! Why not all Companies Need to be Brands
This may sound like blasphemy in an age where every organization, person, and product seems to be chasing after the right branding. If you have ever studied for an EMBA anywhere in the world you will be in agony now. What’s more, you may think this is a weird title for a blog on theContinue reading “Branding is Overrated! Why not all Companies Need to be Brands”
