Q&As

Saffron Road Foods launched one year ago at Whole Foods Market, a good location for a line of halal food products. The brand made its debut in August during the month of Ramadan, the holiest time period for Muslims and in the ensuring year its products proved successful items on store shelves. This month, as Ramandan is again underway Saffron Road is staging its first promotion co-produced at about 90% of Whole Foods markets nationwide.

The ability to ask the right questions is a critical factor for effective analytical work. This is the key point I made in a recent article, “Asking the Right Questions in Data Analysis” https://www.chiefmarketer.com/direct/non-print/data-listtalk-0415bnv9.html. I also noted that asking the right questions typically does not require an advanced degree in statistics.

How can you get IT street cred and build a rapport with the technology professionals who will ultimately help approve and implement your solution? Stephen Bergmann offers some thoughts on how Hoover’s has connected with IT pros to market its Application Programming Interface (API) products.

Marketers who focus their analytics efforts on prospecting are falling into a trap, argues Forrester Research’s Srividya Sridharan. They place too much emphasis on channel-focused metrics, while giving short shrift to retention and long-term value measurements.

Welcome to Broker Roundtable, where each week we ask list brokers to give their opinions on issues that matter to the marketing community. This week’s question: What’s the outlook for B-to-B list prices going forward?

Pitney Bowes is launching a direct mail, radio and online campaign to generate awareness of its expansion into customer communications management.

At the Vermont headquarters of Ben & Jerry’s, we’re always looking for the next fun and funky thing. Whether it’s a flavor with late night’s Jimmy Fallon or a quick turn-around response to a timely opportunity like the legalization of gay marriage. While we hear all the time that “there are no new ideas” and that every marketing effort has been done before—we refuse to believe it. And that is how we came up with a new twist on Twitter to support our commitment to Fair Trade.

A new loyalty program from Aeropostale P.S. was created using two primary sources of input. Yes, the brand’s marketing executives conducted tests and research. But they also asked their mothers.

The program, P.S. Rewards, was launched in mid-July to boost the fortunes of Aeropostale’s youth-focused brand. It was created more for the mothers who buy the line’s offerings than for the kids who wear them.

Marketing departments are hiring, at least as of mid-summer. Most-desired candidates include those who bring analytic skills to a variety of marketing functions, followed by those who understand the integrated nature of marketing.

For retailers, mobile technology is providing new strategic opportunities to overcome problems associated with traditional loyalty programs – but there’s more to mobile loyalty than offering coupons