2010

May 11, 2010

Privacy is Dead… and It Could Be Great

Would you trade privacy for consistent relevance and value in the marketing you receive? Would you share personal information about your internet activity if it meant you got more value from the brands you like? Facebook's Open Graph has consumers asking this question and contemplating the end of privacy as we know it.

April 12, 2010

If a Brand Falls in the Forest… the power of social listening

By Doug Stephens There’s been an incredible amount of talk over the last few years about social media. And frankly, most of the talk is about […]

March 11, 2010

Retailing In The Absence of Recovery

By Doug Stephens Recovery is a word we hear a lot these days. It seems that each week experts sift through the tea leaves of economic […]

February 17, 2010

The Customer is Wired…Are You?

By Doug Stephens Last week, Target announced that their customers can now upload gift card balances to their mobile device, which can then be scanned and redeemed in-store. This […]

February 17, 2010

The Future Hates Mediocrity

By Doug Stephens I was reminded recently of a really good book I read several years ago called Going Shopping by Ann Satterthwaite, a city planner […]

January 30, 2010

The World Doesn’t Need What You’re Selling

By Doug Stephens In the end, the world doesn’t need what you’re selling. It doesn’t matter if you sell shoes, cameras, cars, goldfish or even iPads. The world can […]

January 21, 2010

Never Bring a Knife to a Gunfight

It’s been called the first rule of modern warfare – “never bring a knife to a gun fight”. Although I’m not certain who coined the phrase, […]

January 13, 2010

H&M Submits to Twitter Firestorm

One of my favorite quotes about social media is from noted social scientist and technology expert,Clay Shirky. It goes like this: “Tools don’t get socially interesting until they […]

January 8, 2010

6 Big Ideas for a New Decade in Retail

By Doug Stephens I had coffee recently with a friend who works in the mobile technology sector. We were talking about how much progress had taken place […]