Many a marketing meeting involves (one would hope) discussing the impact of competitor activity on a business' customer base. Will they switch or stay? How do we respond or, better yet, pre-empt? Are there any ‘shocks’ on the horizon?

With this in mind, I’m currently fascinated by the UK banking industry. Recently published research from Ipsos MORI/Vertex showed financial services to be an industry where only central Government and utilities are expected to offer a worse service. Of the 1000+ sample of respondents, only 10% felt their bank provided ‘very good’ service and 14% felt it 'very poor'. [More]

It seemed somehow fitting to author my first blog post on the topic of social media. We’re in the process of launching a year-long study into marketing capability, based on interviews with 26 CEOs and marketing leaders and a benchmarking survey of 130 major, international organisations, and some interesting insights have emerged.

It’s pretty well accepted that the rapid adoption of technology and evolution of digital and social media tools has reached a tipping point – according to Accenture, Facebook grew 200% last year and Twitter 800%. It’s also well accepted that the fundamental change this has brought in customer behaviour and expectations; the shift in power from businesses to customers and consumers; and the power of dialogue and peer referencing, isn’t going to go away. [More]