Chief Marketer Staff

• WPP’s Debt Rating Downgraded

  Fitch Ratings has downgraded WPP Group’s debt rating to BBB from BBB+. The outlook was changed to stable from negative. The downgrade reflects the uncertain

• Agencies

  Building Consumer Trust on Data Privacy

  Harriet P. Pearson thinks a lot about trust so much so that she’s created an acronym addressing customer data use around it. For Pearson, IBM Corp.’s

• Playing Catch Up

  Spending on promotion activity via the Internet showed a healthy increase of 13.1 percent to $1.7 billion in 2002, compared to $1.5 billion in 2001, according

• Picking brains

  It was a bitterly cold January morning outside in midtown Manhattan. But once the conversation started, the room started warming up fast. The first-ever

• Agencies

  SEO Outperforms Overture

  Betty Noble was unhappy with Overture. When Noble, owner of micro-precision machining firm Norman Noble Inc., realized that her Web site resembled an

• Agencies

  $55,000 Mailing Boosts Firm’s ROI

  A $55,000 mailing centering on a red car just went into the black. Reynolds and Reynolds, an information services company serving the automotive market,

• Creeping Confidence

  It’s always heavily qualified by “Depending on the war situation…,” or ”Barring a double-dip recession…,” but a perceptible note of confidence has crept

• Branding Exclusivity

  The stagnant economy didn’t stop corporations from expanding brands into various segments of the licensing industry in 2002. Licensing rights fees rose

• Agencies

  Artexpo’s Mailings Hit Big

  Fine art was a hard sell after the attacks of Sept. 11, and attendance at the 2002 Artexpo showed: The art show drew significantly below the 43,000 combined

• Agencies

  Personal Press

  Direct marketers are using digital and online-based techniques to target their audiences more precisely and affordably than before. But many are opting