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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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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The latest Bellwether survey, published today by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), reveals that marketing budgets were revised up in Q4 for a second successive quarter, as companies sought to protect market share against competitors.  
With 20 per cent of companies reporting an upward revision compared to 19 per cent that reported a reduction, [...]

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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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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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New figures show that six in ten small firms believe the London 2012 Games will not have a positive impact on their business in the long term, despite UK Prime Minister David Cameron saying today that the UK is ‘on track’ for a lasting legacy, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) claims.   
As the UK [...]

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MEF, the global community for mobile content and commerce, has kicked off the new year by unveiling its predictions for 2012.
In 2011, MEF accurately forecast that the proliferation of smartphones would drive mobile consumer engagement – with a number of other predictions also coming to fruition.
MEF’s success in anticipating and addressing key industry issues, combined [...]

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