The Big Fat Marketing Blog

I bought this t-shirt last night from CafePress. It’s one I designed for the foundation I started to honor my brother, a retired firefighter who died unexpectedly in August at the age of 55. Though I have a free CafePress store for the foundation, I designed this one with the soul purpose of wearing it when I play for our office softball team (which wears green) so I can hopefully spread awareness for the cause.

After I checked out, a window popped up asking me if I’d like to tell all my Facebook friends about my purchase. Earlier in the day, I just happened to stumble upon this press release from ShopSocially, which announced the general availability of its social commerce suite Social Connect for online retailers.

Should social shopping start at the checkout? Let’s look at the pros and cons of social shopping. more

Yes, data is critical to marketing. However, it does impact other areas of our lives. To prove it, here’s a story from MSNBC on a big credit score glitch that occurred with Experian.

It’s a good reminder of how vitally important data is in our work as marketers and our lives as a whole.

Spend time knowing and understanding your data — yes your own personal set and those of your prospects and customers. It’s that important.

I’m sure Jay Weintraub didn’t envision such a turnout when he came up with the idea to host the first-ever tradeshow for flash sale sellers and technology platforms. Heck, he planned for 300 attendees to be at the Daily Deal Summit in New York. Weintraub instead yesterday had a party of about 500.

Daily Deals are kind of a big deal. Social sellers, coupon code aggregaters, deal-providers and local couponers all had a story to tell. To sum everything up, they educated each other on the benefits of new technologies that allow merchants to offer up the most relevant deals at the right time, in the right place and to the right customers.

It’s too bad traditional merchants weren’t there to listen. more

Las Vegas – Near the end of a Wednesday session here at the National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment, Timothy Holody, chief operating office/general manager of Seta Corp. (Palm Beach Jewelry), noticed Ernie Schell, director of the consultancy Marketing Systems Analysis, sitting in the back of the room.

Holody and Schell are veterans of the industry and Holody noted that he and Schell have been at NCOF every year since it began in 1991.

Earlier in the day, I was at a breakfast roundtable discussion that turned to the issue of the future of this conference. A pair of educated estimates placed this year’s conference attendance around 260, a far cry of what NCOF has been in the past. And the conference’s future is very much in doubt. more

Las Vegas – Customer service has failed to make the grade since 1995, according to Rosanne D’Ausilio, president of Human Technologies Global. Why?

Because it’s not about managing numbers anymore, she told attendees at her Tuesday session, “Kick Your Customer Service Up A Notch With the 5 Ws,” at the National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment.

What’s it about? “It’s about creating and managing relationships,” she said. “We’re all in the service industry.”

It’s up to customer service personnel to take customers from a satisfied level to loyal, D’Ausilio said. Who should be trained to deliver expert customer service? Everyone, she said. more

Here, courtesy of The NY Times is a piece on the auditions to replace Aflac’s fired quacker.