Stories by Brad Howarth

The creators of sales and marketing software have a long history of promising to make life easier for users, accompanied by a patchy track record when it comes to delivering on that promise.

Many marketers talk about the experience they provide around their brand’s products and services. But for one emerging telco, the brand, service and experience can’t be separated.

Today seemingly every brand has suddenly discovered its values. Which means for those who always had them, being recognised for them can now be a challenging task.

Amid the recent flurry of brands promoting carbon offsets, recycling programs and other sustainability initiatives, there is another, much more fundamental issue hiding in plain sight. If the purpose of marketing is to influence people to consume a product or service, then isn’t marketing itself one of the key causes of the environmental degradation so many brands are now working against?

Chief of innovation, marketing and technology are common titles to see on an org chart. Less common however is seeing the same person’s name against all three.

With Australia poised to report its biggest online shopping event on record, one ecommerce startup is hoping its recent brand launch will help it snare a significant chunk of that business.

For almost 33 years, Quest Apartment Hotels has forged close relationships with corporate clients, with its serviced apartments becoming a default option for business travel programs. But as employers have become more responsive to the whims of their staff, they have also begun offering more choice as to where they stay.

The history of Australian technology innovation is littered with great research-based tech breakthroughs that fail to grow into sustainable global businesses. For every ResMed and Cochlear there are hundreds of others that almost no one has ever heard of.

For more than 100 years AAT Kings has been taking people to see the best of Australia and New Zealand’s natural wilderness - at least until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic put the brakes on much of this iconic touring company’s activities.

Joanne Smith didn’t intend to join a health-focused company during a global health crisis. But nine days after starting as chief marketing and innovation officer at Blackmores Group in early 2020, that was the scenario she found herself in.

Five years ago, Havaianas Australia general manager, Tom Nolan, would have said maybe one out of 10 of the people calling into his company’s contact centre would have been asking about recycling the company’s iconic rubber footwear.

Digital technologies have delivered a host of ways for observing the behaviours of customers and listening in to their conversations. They have also introduced methods for marketers to engage with customers in their natural environment – if they dare.

Recent years have witnessed a proliferation of points-based loyalty programs and spend-and-save offers as marketers have sought to create more regular engagements with customers. But for Barbeques Galore, where the average purchase cycle for a new barbeque is seven to eight years, establishing more regular engagement with customers has been a challenging proposition.

​In addition to travel bans, the last two years have led to an awakening in people’s desire to engage with organisations that are purpose driven and deliver a net benefit to society and the planet. That’s particularly good news for Melbourne born travel company, Intrepid Travel.

For custom printing company, Vistaprint, success in satisfying small business’ printing needs had overshadowed its investments in other digital design services, including its acquisition of the Australian-born freelance design marketplace, 99designs, in October 2020.