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From the January 2011 issue of Reference Point. 1. Marketing can now start demonstrating direct impact on business performance.In 2010, direct and compelling links from the value generated by customers (called "Customer Equity" or "CE") to a firm's overall value were established in a study published by V. Kumar and... read more →

It's been a bad couple of years for many people around the world. For those of us in the US, we've been through our own special pain. As we look forward to a most promising new year and the chance to start afresh--which in so many ways we certainly need... read more →

Celebrated economist and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman despairs (despairs?!) over rapidly growing demand taking place in emerging economies. Huh? The reason? Emerging economies are touching off rapid price rises in commodities such as oil, metals and food . "What the commodity markets are telling us is that we’re living... read more →

Just issued the following press release: Organizers of the 2011 Summit on Customer Engagement announced the World's Best Customer Video Contest, Winners will be announced at the Summit on March 1-2, 2011 in San Mateo, CA. Contest videos must be submitted by January 20, 2011.  "Customer videos are emerging as... read more →

Google's impending offer of an astounding $6 billion for local deals site Groupon is earning some brickbats: A Forrester analyst called the mulit-billion dollar offer "absurd" for a two year old company that has virtually no barriers to entry and that's "younger than my toddler." It's questionable whether Groupon has no... read more →

Following are updates on presenters for the 2011 Summit on Customer Engagement, from Cisco Systems, Hitachi Data Systems, Webroot, Citrix Systems, and the Microsoft MVP influencer program and more. An emerging theme at the Summit: customer advocates are key to the success of social media and community marketing programs. Equally... read more →

Nice article <http://www.psgroup.com/New_B2B_Marketing_in_Practice.aspx> by the Seybold Group about Pam Casale, Director of Marketing, Trusted Cloud Computing Division of CSC. A former teacher, she creates a sort of currriculum for buyers that's designed around the questions they have in their search for solutions to their challenges. And chances are, their questions aren't... read more →

Just had a chat in lovely Palo Alto with one of the leading customer advocacy managers in Silicon Valley, who's cracked the code for creating affordable, good quality customer videos. As we know, buyers value information from their peers--including your existing customers--more highly than other sources. And video content is... read more →

And no, you don't have to be Apple, RIM, Google, AT&T, or Verizon to care. Whatever your business is, your customers may very well be creating "apps." And these can be gold mines for your business. Apps are developed to enhance the value of your product or platform. They can... read more →

How's that for a provocative statement? But stay with me on this. I hear a lot of smart business professionals talk about how they often regard customers as good friends, even close friends--that indeed, they make it a personal goal to build such a relationship with some customers. I say,... read more →