Paul Seabrook (pictured) examines the latest fast.MAP survey results.
Websites – whether independent, comparison or brand-owned – together continue to be people’s main financial service research routes, each used by around three out of ten consumers, according to new research.
Also revealed are people’s main reasons for selecting the financial brands they use – they include the [...]

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This year’s UK Product Of The Year Awards winners have been announced and the votes have revealed that consumers, feeling the financial squeeze, are giving up luxuries such as beauty products and takeaway coffees, in favour of multi-tasking products.
More than 9,000 consumers voted to determine the results of the 2012 Product of the Year survey, [...]

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The UK’s e-retailers are losing millions of pounds in sales by failing to respond to customers’ online requests for product and service information, new research has revealed.
The findings of a survey of 217 companies trading in ten different retail sectors, conducted on behalf of the UK Direct Marketing Association’s Response Management Council, show that one-in-ten [...]

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China’s oldest and third largest brewer, Harbin Beer, has hired a British company to serve and audit its online video advertising in China.
UK-based Telemetry says this is a major achievement as it is the first foreign company to be permitted to serve and audit an online video campaign for a Chinese brand within China.
With one [...]

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New UPU study provides insight into 20 years of e-services development
Seventy per cent of Posts worldwide consider postal e-services strategically important for the future, according to a unique study by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), measuring the development of these services. 
The research also establishes an important industry index against which to monitor e-services’ evolution.
The study [...]

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Business solutions specialist Amadeus Software Limited, has helped UK consumer rights magazine publisher Which? develop an agile, scalable Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, cutting data processing time from days to hours.
The customised SAS solution began delivering a return on investment immediately and will pay for itself within 12 months, the company reports.
Which? used to be a [...]

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David Excell (pictured) discusses what it means to really understand customer buying behaviour
How well do you know your customers?
Not your customer base as a homogenised whole; your individual customers?
With minimal growth forecast throughout most of the industrialised world during 2012, never has it been more important for consumer-facing businesses to initiate direct marketing that delivers [...]

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Five big issues facing global companies
Dominique Turpin (pictured) discusses the business worries which he believes are currently keeping senior global executives awake at night.
Right now, of course, the health of the global economy and unpredictable exchange rates are top of the list of concerns keeping executives from sleeping soundly. But, in my conversations with business [...]

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Even in the digital age, the traditional, physical, tangible mailbox is an effective way to steer the customer journey, says Andy Wood (pictured).
Tales of the death of the mailbox as an effective outlet for reaching consumers have been greatly exaggerated.
Indeed, despite the fact we seem to be well into the age of digital marketing, it [...]

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Mobile-owning consumers in the UK, Germany and France prefer receiving SMS-based promotions as opposed to other mobile channels, new research published by the UK Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has revealed. 
The study, conducted by Toluna QuickSurveys on behalf of the DMA and report sponsor Velti, shows that 38 per cent of UK mobile owners prefer receiving [...]

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