Business Strategy

5 Steps to an Online Relationship Marketing Strategy

October 28, 2010

With most products and services competing in largely parity landscapes, the relationship a brand, product or service has with its customers is often its only competitive differentiation. Said another way, businesses with strong customer relationships usually lead their categories. That’s because the economics of relationship marketing are compelling; there are five sources of revenue from [...]

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How Thrifty Missed an Opportunity to Create a Brand

October 19, 2010

While traveling to LA last week, I had an experience with Thrifty Rent a Car that was an opportunity missed, an opportunity for them to demonstrate that customers are important. So what happened? Nothing exceptional, really, just a routine transaction that, if handled differently could have, at no cost to Thrifty, begun the shift from [...]

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It’s the Heavy User, Stupid

July 13, 2010

Heavy users, are market makers. This is a recurring theme here on Hip Shots. Find and connect with the “heavy users” of the category you compete in and and you will find success. From the May 26th edition of AdAge: Demographics have almost no effect on whether TV ads produce sales, and consumers’ purchase history [...]

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