Boutique Loyalty is a way for community-based stores to outsource a loyalty program that pools resources for cross-marketing and customer retention. Consumers will be able to earn rewards when they search for — and purchase at — participating merchants in their own community and when traveling. Co-founder Andres Mendoza sees Boutique Loyalty as an incentive for shoppers to buy at local boutiques and support their community's infrastructure. Continue reading →

There are a number of product tagging and recognition applications for web text, pictures and video on websites for online commerce. And there are several “universal shopping carts” for making purchases on multiple sites during the course of one spree. Alex Adelman is hoping his Cosmic Cart will differentiate itself from the pack with both its technology and business model. The platform has been designed to address small businesses that need rapid, non-technical implementation and are reluctant to put money up front. Continue reading →

Jackson Hewitt, working with agency 22squared, is coordinating all elements of its tax season campaign — TV, print and multiple social channels — in an attempt to be heard above the roar of the significantly larger media spend of competitor H & R Block. In this conversation, Jackson Hewitt's David Koroghlian and Chris Tuff of 22squared, reveal how they have achieved success that has, according to the companies, exceeds their expectations. Continue reading →

Josh Reed took his idea for a clothing line for Millennials to Curt Cuscino and his team at HypeLife Brands. In addition to creating an identity that resonates, the agency was charged with assisting with product development, distribution and social media presence. In this conversation with Josh and Curt, we explore the process of creating the Everyday Noble Clothing brand and bringing it to market. Continue reading →

Most companies are acutely aware of the need to rapidly address publicly posted complaints on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels. Brandsclub, a Brazilian online retailer of luxury goods, selected tools and developed a workflow that best fits the needs of its customers and internal resources. Continue reading →

Inbound Marketing combines the art of creating valuable content with techniques to maximize the opportunities for prospects to discover and share that content on web and social channels. In this convo, HubSpot's Laura Fitton provides insights on Inbound Marketing concepts and practices, using two brief case studies to illustrate its potential. During our discussion, we contrast Inbound Marketing with its cousins, Outbound Marketing and Content Marketing, and examine where Inbound Marketing is headed. Continue reading →

In this conversation, I speak with Jennifer Jackson Luth, Senior Manager of North American Corporate Affairs at Wrigley, about a Facebook application for Orbit gum that captures and amplifies fan brand engagement. Yes, it’s cool creative. As impressive is how this contest is part of a continuum of cross-platform marketing programs, all revolving around the Orbit brand. Luth offers frank responses to my questions about internal buy-in, success metrics and other issues that haunt many marketers. Continue reading →

Is “engagement” becoming another one of those overused buzz words that’s losing its meaning? Mitch Lieberman, market strategist at Sword Ciboodle, posits that we are likely doing better defining employee engagement — thanks to quantitative, shared objectives — than we are of customer engagement. In this Cinchcast audio conversation, Mitch and I explore how the term “engagement” is applied in the context of social media, as well as whether better employee engagement leads to better customer engagement. We also talk about the recent Zappos security breach, exploring the crisis management action of and reactions to a company acknowledged for its extremely high customer and employee engagement. Continue reading →

This week, ICANN) opened the application window for its new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) program. The potential will exist for companies to set aside the more familiar top-level domain extensions, such as .com and .org, and instead use ".itsbrandname". While ICANN speaks of this expansion of the domain name system (DNS) as changing the Internet forever, the process to obtain a new gTLDs is expensive, risky and puts brands into the domain registry business. Of course, there will be those who will attempt to leverage the process to the detriment of others. Jeffrey Braverman, Chief Nut of Nuts.com took a serious look at the value of gTLD “.nuts”, but decided not to apply. The reasons for its decision can inform other brands of the issues and risks of either applying for a cheap TLD or waiting for the dust to settle and relying on other means to take advantage of DNS expansion. Continue reading →

Dennis Yu of Blitzlocal explores how to assess the effectiveness of social media marketing in the current absence of measurement standards, the often false attribution of purchases to buyers' last measured action and other topics related to the complexity of assigning metrics to word-of-mouth marketing. Continue reading →