Going the last mile (km) for customers
By Cami Zimmer According to a 2018 Retail TouchPoints study, last-mile (or kilometre) services have risen by 50% in the last 18 months, with most of the increased demand coming from the business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce segment1. This has numerous implications for both customers and brands and is changing the way …
Managing the brand in disasters: Marc Gordon Interview
By Brendan Read When companies are faced with disasters the question becomes how best to respond in order to ensure a customer-accepting customer experience (CX), customer retention, loyalty and brand reputation. This perennial issue came recently, dramatically and tragically back into spotlight with the fatal crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX …
Preventing Data Breaches
By Karl Swannie As a marketing professional, are you fully prepared for a data security breach? When it is determined that confidential customer data has been stolen, and there will likely be a hefty price tag attempting to fix what went wrong, will you know how to react? Finally, when …
The big small business market
By Miki Velemirovich In Canada, small business is huge, accounting for 97.9% of all businesses across the country. Out of an estimated 1.18 million enterprises, 1.15 million are those with fewer than 100 employees1. A community this size deserves attention. But in order to reach it effectively, marketers need to …
The Key to Fulfillment
By Greg Brown E-commerce continues to transform global retailing, and in Canada it is picking up steam. Online retail sales grew 30.6% (C$15.65 billion) in 2017: twice that of U.S. merchants1. International sales are likely an important key to this momentum. Canada’s geography also makes e-commerce a natural as much …
The relatable brand comes of age
By Stephen Shaw The rapid growth of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands may seem like a replay of the dot-com bubble in the Web 1.0 era. But what makes this new generation of DTC brands different is a genuine love for their customers. They have infiltrated just about every consumer category—clothing and …
Trust that makes the difference
By Saul Klein Traditionally, focusing on an organization’s higher purpose has been the purview of social enterprises and not-for-profit organizations, or seen as an element of corporate social responsibility with limited impact on business practices. More recently, however, we have seen a paradigm shift in the way customers and employees …
Gaining Visitor insights a Boon for Tourist Bureau
By Larry Filler For years Tourism New Brunswick sought to answer two seemingly simple questions: who visits the province and how do they spend their time during their trip? The answers to these questions would have direct implications on the government-run organization’s marketing strategy. These insights would help it determine …
Why Christmas Prep in August
By Seth Patin For companies that rely on the holidays the clock is ticking to Black Friday and the holiday season. One thing is very clear: consumer expectations of excellent e-commerce fulfillment are on the rise. Distribution and fulfillment is the critical last step of the perfectly executed holiday push …
Why community connections matter
By Aleena Mazhar Raptors fever took over Canada in late May and early June of this year. It broke when the Toronto, Ont. team won, for the first time, the National Basketball Association finals on June 13. We knew we had something special as soon as the playoffs started, but …