Blogs

Using “Big Data” in relevant ways that make the customer experience better has become a common theme recently. At the Emory Marketing Analytics Center’s annual conference, leading brands like Delta, Home Depot and Coca-Cola all shared tactical ways data is used to enrich the customer experience.

Even good marketers have room for improvement. Creating a relevant customer experience across all channels can be complex, but it can start very easily and simply, particularly for data-rich retailers with a wealth of cardholder data like Target.

Conferences always provide fertile ground for new perspectives, new ideas and fresh ways to solve traditional problems. Loyalty Expo was no different, driven as much by our clients and conversations outside the Loyalty Expo sessions as the sessions themselves. We share our highlights from this year's Loyalty Expo here.

Megan DeCosta joins us as a guest blogger for rDialogue with a unique look at Millennials and strategies retailers and financial services providers can use to build relationships with them. As SVP, Loyalty Services at Citi Retail Services, Megan leads Citi’s efforts to build retail and card product loyalty with consumers across a broad spectrum of Fortune 500 companies.

Big Data is the latest buzz word being tossed around. Few would argue the enormous amount of data available for retailers to collect and leverage, but is using data to truly change the customer experience the exception or the norm?

Past and present, clients and partners, former clients and others – we owe you our gratitude. While it’s cliché to call a business such as ours a people business, ours truly is. It’s about relationships, not just about our clients’ relationships with their customers but also about the relationships we have with each other. The past seven years have been the fastest seven years for me – and also some of the best seven years because of those relationships.

Join Phil Rubin, rDialogue CEO, along with Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Citi Retail Services, Office Max, The Home Depot and Macy’s at two sessions featured at this year’s Loyalty Expo, March 20-22, 2013 in Orlando, Florida.

In 2012, rDialogue launched a new section on our web site called Relevant Reads, in reference to the ‘r’ of rDialogue. Relevant Reads was launched as a way to publicly share the many articles that we share with each other and with our clients. To set our sights on 2013 and what we can look forward to, we asked members of our team to look back on Relevant Reads they submitted and pick an article (or two) that will still be relevant in 2013 and beyond.

We discuss some of what we noticed before, after and everything in-between this season's Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Outlets are re-emerging as a prominent retail strategy, with retailers from Nordstrom to Gap investing in and expanding their off-price strategy. Since the “Great Recession,” consumers have turned to outlets to shop the brands they love at prices they could afford, demanding more value. Retailers are responding and recognize that the outlet channel provides an optimal venue to answer the customer’s need for value. However, similar to the early days of e-commerce, retailers are trying to determine the right way to leverage this channel without cannibalizing its broader brand business. Which begs the question: how should loyalty programs fit in this space? Should it be the same value proposition the flagship stores offer?