Ted Schadler says, “You can’t win, serve, and retain powerful customers without being insights-driven. It’s one of the principles of customer obsession: customer-led, insights-driven, fast, and connected. So what does it mean to be insights-driven? We think we know based on conversations with over 50 companies over three years. We have identified 40 public companies and a horde of venture-backed startups that work in a fundamentally different way: They harness and apply data at every opportunity to differentiate their products and customer experiences. That makes them faster... [...]

Mellisa Parrish says, “Social marketing is at a crossroads. The explosive popularity of social media over the last decade led many B2C marketers to launch social programs, often without any strategy or even an understanding of what they hoped to accomplish. Since then, nearly all marketers have jumped on the social media bandwagon launching Instagram accounts and influencer programs, putting UGC on their websites, buying listening platforms and ads, and, yes, maintaining a Facebook page– but many are struggling to articulate the value of all this “social.” What’s going wrong and... [...]

Ted Schadler says, “You can’t win, serve, and retain powerful customers without being insights-driven. It’s one of the principles of customer obsession: customer-led, insights-driven, fast, and connected. So what does it mean to be insights-driven? We think we know based on conversations with over 50 companies over three years. We have identified 40 public companies and a horde of venture-backed startups that work in a fundamentally different way: They harness and apply data at every opportunity to differentiate their products and customer experiences. That makes them faster... [...]

James McCormick says, “In Forrester’s new report, The Insights-Driven Business, my colleague’s Ted Schadler, Brian Hopkins and I have identified a predator: the insights-driven business. These businesses are vigorously applying insights to decisions and customer engagements at every opportunity. Their leaders really have a fundamental and emotional understanding of the value of insights to driving their business today – and for developing its future. They have corporate strategies and cultures that that mean that leveraging data, analytics and insights is easy and is deeply embedded... [...]

Brian Hopkins says, “Is your business digital? Like Domino’s Pizza, do you realize that you are not a product or service business, rather you are a software and data business that provides products or services? Do you exploit all of your customer’s data to know them inside-out? Are customers flocking to you because you are driving every engagement with insight about them”? If the answer to any of these questions is not a resounding, “Yes!”, then you are losing revenue and shareholder value. In Forrester’s new report, The Insight Driven Business, my colleagues Ted Schadler, James... [...]

Anjali Lai says, “Within 24 hours of its launch, Pokémon Go broke app download records and user numbers began multiplying by the minute. It wasn’t long before mysterious names like “Jigglypuff” and “Squirtle” peppered daily conversation, stampedes of mobile-obsessed gamers became commonplace, and augmented reality approached a tipping point. The future arrives faster than we think. Our latest research has identified five key factors of change that propel customers to embrace new experiences and introduced a segmentation to help measure how consumers evolve. Forrester’s Consumer... [...]

Jennifer Wise says, “Mobile search is essential. In fact, according to Forrester’s Mobile Audience Data, Q4 2015, 87% of US smartphone owners rely on browser-based search on mobile devices. And the data reveals that Google’s search engine is the most common path to a mobile site even for well-known brands such as Amazon, Walmart and Kmart. As a top discovery resource, companies can’t afford to wait any longer to implement a mobile-first search strategies. The biggest seen mistake today? Either lacking a strategy completely, or treating mobile search the same way as desktop search. As... [...]

Allison Snow says, “There are a number of predictive analytics firms dedicated to helping B2B revenue leaders examine their own successes and losses to inform everything from account selection to next-step action analysis and recommendation. Last year, Laura Ramos introduced them to us in her report, New Technologies Emerge To Help Unearth Buyer Insight From Mountains Of B2B Data. Laura concluded this report with a recommendation to prepare to take the predictive analytics plunge. Well, many of you have “taken the plunge,” or are about to. Nearly two thirds of marketing decision... [...]

George Colony says, “If you are the CMO of a large company, you are probably wondering what the hell Pokémon Go means. If you’re not up-to-date, this “played on a smartphone” game has taken the world by storm over the last three weeks. In the game you collect characters (a Pokémon) by physically travelling to where they are geo-located, capturing them, and then using them to battle the teams of other players. Pokémon are located in specific places; there are “Pokéstops” where you can acquire special powers; and there are “Gyms” where you can fight... [...]

Jim Nail says, “When I read the news of Unilever buying Dollar Shave Club I couldn’t help but think of an advisory session I did for a big CPG firm with colleagues Melissa Parrish and Brigitte Majewski a few months ago. One big topic of conversation was how to build a brand today in a media and marketing world that is so fragmented. We had used Dollar Shave Club as an example of how the rules have changed in the post-digital era. And then I came across this post on the Stratechery blog that analyzes DSC and its disruptive strategy extraordinarily well. I can’t help but read from... [...]