Sales & Marketing news

• 2 US senators wrote a letter to Jeff Bezos demanding answers about how Amazon recommends products (AMZN)

  12-08-2019 23:04 via feedproxy.google.com
  Two United States senators have written a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos questioning how the online retailer decides which products receive its "Amazon's Choice" recommendation.
  In the letter, senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) express concerns over whether Amazon is promoting inferior products through its use of this "Amazon's Choice" badge. 
  The letter comes as large tech firms like Amazon have come under scrutiny regarding their size and influence and how that
  
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• How can you make your marketing more effective in Africa?

  12-08-2019 19:15 via warc.com
  As Africa becomes an increasingly important geography for global brands, HeyHuman's Neil Davidson explores the misconceptions non-African marketers hold about the vast and diverse continent and what we need to do about them. 
  
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• The potential of blockchain for digital advertising

  12-08-2019 18:08 via warc.com
  The virtues of blockchain technology have the capacity to revolutionise a range of industries, from e-commerce to banking to shipping, explains the7stars' Dom Blacklock, but especially digital advertising. 
  
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• Galaxy aims to futureproof its brand with ‘step change’ in brand positioning

  12-08-2019 17:58
  Galaxy is future proofing its brand with a “fresh, contemporary and modern” repositioning it hopes will appeal to a younger generation.
  The iconic chocolate brand is ramping up innovations and launching a new TV campaign to communicate “a step change” for the brand. Gone are the sultry looks from women eating a square of chocolate; instead the aim is to show a more realistic portrayal of women.
  Sarah Mellor, Galaxy’s brand director, tells Marketing Week: “We
  
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• Nationwide uses comedy to challenge ‘parent-like’ conversation around saving

  12-08-2019 15:15
  Nationwide is launching a humour-driven campaign designed to encourage consumers to start saving, after research revealed 11 million Britons have less than £100 saved.
  The concept of saving can often sound boring and tedious but, according to Nationwide’s senior advertising and social media manager Gemma Pauley, it doesn’t have to be.
  “Saving has been something we’ve been thinking about for a while. We saw some research with updated stats around the lack of people
  
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• Why dating app Hinge wants to be deleted

  12-08-2019 15:00
  Hingie being attacked by pigeons in Hinge’s new campaign.With competition growing in the online dating sector, brands from Bumble and Tinder to Grindr, Match.com and Happn, are fighting to find a positioning that will appeal to singles, cut through the noise and guarantee downloads worldwide.
  Hinge is taking a different approach to its Match Group stablemates with a new campaign focused on the app’s mission – to be deleted. The dating app’s first international campaign, a
  
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• Digital skills, ad blocking, TV viewing: 5 killer stats to start your week

  12-08-2019 14:55
  1. Companies that invest in digital skills outperform rivals
  Top performing businesses are almost twice as likely to be making significant investment in digital skills and education, compared to their competitors.
  Some 45% of top-performing organisations say they invest significantly in digital skills, compared to just 23% of other organisations. Additionally, top performers are 43% more likely to say training is their primary method of adding new skills.
  Just 16% of top-performing business say
  
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• YouTube, McDonald’s, ITV: Everything that matters this morning

  12-08-2019 08:59
  YouTube sued for LGBT discrimination
  YouTube and parent company Google are being sued by a group of US LGBT vloggers for discriminating against LGBT-themed videos and creators.
  YouTube has been accused of removing advertising from videos featuring ‘trigger words’ such as ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’, labelling LGBT-themed videos as ‘sensitive’ or ‘mature’ and restricting them from appearing in search results of recommendations, and not doing eno
  
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• WeWork, Home Office, Facebook: Everything that matters this morning

  12-08-2019 08:59
  WeWork prepares to ramp up marketing spend as IPO looms
  Office space provider WeWork is preparing to ramp up its marketing investment ahead of its impending IPO next month.
  Documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission show that sales and marketing expenses at WeWork’s parent organisation, WeCo, increased from $139.9m (£116m) in the six months to 30 June 2018 to $320m (£265.2m) during the same period this year.
  In the filing, WeCo explains that “maintain
  
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• True customer-centricity requires proper investment

  12-08-2019 08:20
  If I were to rank the statements of intent I hear uttered most often at places marketers gather to discuss industry roadmaps, “We have to be more customer-centric” is up there.
  Always delivered with a confident air that suggests this person has found the key to unlock marketing’s potential to transform businesses, it is invariably received with unequivocal positively.
  I cannot disagree. The customer is king, and marketers are their courtiers. My usual retort is, however, &ldquo
  
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• Missing the point: Why brands are failing to get the most from customer insight

  12-08-2019 08:00
  Gaining a deep understanding of consumers’ beliefs, motivations and behaviours should be at the heart of marketing. But as budgets have got tighter, customer insight is one area that has suffered, with many brands failing to explore new tools and even forgetting the basics.
  Although consumers may not have changed fundamentally over the decades in terms of what they need from brands, their expectations have shifted in line with wider changes in society. As a result, the benchmark people mea
  
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• Tiffany teams up with Reliance for India launch

  12-08-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  Tiffany & Co., the iconic American jeweller, will begin selling its luxury goods in India later this year after forming a joint venture with Reliance Brands, the retail arm of conglomerate Reliance Industries.The two companies
  
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• Media in-housing tips from Bayer

  12-08-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  Bayer, the pharma company, is in the process of in-housing its digital media buying, and thus has useful tips for other marketers that are thinking about pursuing this approach.Josh Palau, VP of digital strategy and platforms at Bayer, discussed...
  
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• Kraft Heinz signals cuts to agency costs

  12-08-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  Kraft Heinz, the consumer goods giant that posted disappointing half-year results last week, must improve the effectiveness of its marketing by spending less on agency fees, research and other costs, according to the company’s new CEO. ...
  
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• Hong Kong shoppers use credit cards online but cash offline

  12-08-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  Frictionless commerce is on the rise but what remains important for retailers is “to look at what triggers the customer to buy, and how they actually buy it”, said Anke Zeller, vice president of group strategy for payment solutions...
  
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• Global mobile payments trends: GWI insights

  12-08-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  More people now have access to mobile devices (96%) than bank accounts (89%), so it is not surprising that established financial institutions are increasingly forming partnerships with mobile payment providers or developing their own services.That...
  
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• Facebook explores news and video-streaming options

  12-08-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  Last week saw two important developments at Facebook – reports that the company is in talks to pay news outlets up to $3m a year to licence content, as well as the news that it will test an ad-free, subscription-based, video-streaming service....
  
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