Stories by Brad Howarth

Just how useful is a traditional marketing background in a non-traditional business? And if the answer is ‘not so much’, then what sort of background would be?

The US$67 billion takeover in 2016 by Austin-based technology maker, Dell, of its Boston-based rival, EMC¸ represented the largest merger in the technology industry. In the months that followed, the two companies worked to bring disparate products and cultures together, relaunching as Dell EMC. Much of that integration work has now been done.

​Give a group of children a pile of plastic bricks and they will instinctively start building. With some experimentation, they might soon produce something recognisable. With so many organisations now striving to build a culture of innovation, could the same process work for a group of adults?

In a world where marketers are striving to learn everything they can about consumer behaviour through their digital signals, it’s no great leap to begin using digital signals to change consumer behaviour. But where is the line drawn between influence and manipulation?

From his studio in Auckland, Pat MacFie leads a team of video professionals that would put some independent production houses to shame. But he's not running an independent video production house. Instead, his group is part of an internal marketing agency producing content to help attract and retain customers for the online business software maker, Xero.

It’s been some years since every brand on earth decided it desperately needed an app to a forge a ‘meaningful’ connection with its loyal consumers. But with many of those apps now neglected or forgotten in the back folders of consumers’ phones, can apps still create a connection between the brand and its consumers?

Sponsoring sporting teams to boost your brand image can seem like a great idea when the team you back is winning. Less so of course when their fortunes turn. But for independent financial services provider, CMC Markets, supporting the NSW Waratahs Super Rugby team has helped align the company with a key customer segment and shared values in the Australian market.

What’s in a name? If you asked employees of the soon-to-be-merged companies, AOL and Yahoo!, apparently there’s quite a lot. Social media has lit up as staff and bystanders have weighed into the parent company’s decision to name the new entity ‘Oath’.

In February 2018, large swathe of organisations will fall under the power of Australia’s new mandatory data breach notification laws.

Knowing your customers is important for any retail business. But knowing what your competitors are up is also critical, especially when it comes to pricing.

There was once a time when a shopping centre operator might have regarded is tenants as its primary customers. But as consumers have come to find new options for where and how they spend their time and money, centre operators have had to better understand consumer needs, and make better decisions about how they meet them.

Delivering great customer experiences onsite is a mandatory requirement for any successful hospitality business. But how do you do you create that connection once the customer has moved on – or before they have even arrived?

Wander through any shopping centre, theme park or restaurant and you’ll see people staring avidly at their mobile devices.But in almost all instances, there’s a good chance that their digital experience has no connection to their immediate surrounds.

The need for change can be difficult to accept for any business, especially for one that has been operating successfully for almost 70 years. But by embracing the need for digital transformation, family-owned equipment hire company, Kennards Hire, has found a new customer segment while improving service to existing ones.

​Marketers spend a lot of their time convincing people to buy their organisation’s products and services. But what if those same products and services were so well designed, they simply sold themselves?