Trends Archives | Page 7 of 8

August 25, 2010

YOU ARE HERE…Whether You Like It Or Not

By Doug Stephens A recent study by Forrester Research concluded that while location-based services (LBS) such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt are intriguing, they are still […]

June 8, 2010

Dollars and Sentiments. The Real R.O.I. on Social Marketing

By Doug Stephens Alice in Wonderland speaking to the Cheshire Cat…. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends […]

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.

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 […]

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 […]

December 16, 2009

How Consumers Killed Customer Service

By Doug Stephens A recent Brandweek article titled “Retail Customer Service Stinks” reported that the service received by shoppers in over 1000 retail interactions in the study rated 48.2 […]

November 18, 2009

Is The Home Depot Selling the Farm… One Parking Lot at a Time?

By Doug Stephens You know business is tough when you have to sell off parts of your parking lot to make your revenue numbers. However, news […]

November 11, 2009

The Future of Retail Is NOW

In 1998 Wired published an article authored by the now famous Nicholas Negroponte, called The Future of Retail. I recently re-read it to determine how many of the prognostications have actually been realized these eleven years later.