Individual Or Mass Marketing? Research by Alterian


A well done research always shows very precise results on the object of research. It improves communication process, helps organizations know what’s going on at this moment and consequently taken measures define potential success.

This time we cover a survey highlighted on SOURCEWIRE.com. It is admitted that almost half of marketing agencies achieve effective communication with individuals as the key issue facing marketers over the next 36 months with 45% viewing it as a must-have for any campaign.

The survey by Alterian included almost 100 senior executives from 45 leading UK marketing agencies.

According to the SOURCEWIRE, David Eldridge, CEO, Alterian commented, “Traditional marketing campaigns took market research or group data and built programmes around many generalised traits and assumptions, but didn’t treat customers as individuals. Companies can spend huge amounts of money driving people to their website through search and Google Ads but, if the website does not then engage those people, the efforts and money spent are wasted. Today’s marketing relies on a two way conversation and our business partners – consisting of the worlds leading providers of services to marketers – are geared up to supporting their clients with engaging data-led campaigns both on and offline.”

The survey’s aimed to discuss the industry’s move towards Customer Engagement. As the results of the survey showed 74% of respondents claimed that their customers were beginning to understand the value of engagement, although opinion was divided as to how this was expected to happen.

“The need to engage better with customers is driving all types of marketing campaigns today” said Iain Lovatt, executive chairman of Blue Sheep and Alterian partner. “In order to do this, marketing campaigns need to be integrated across online and offline channels and must speak to customers as individuals and not demographics. Integrated marketing is clearly going to be a focus for many businesses over the coming 12 months.”

It is fact that social media dominance is high but results places social media as second in the list of key drivers by clients to change their marketing activity. 65% of respondents ranked the increasing use of the web to research, engage and transact with their customers as the most important driver for change.

“Customer engagement is the new marketing. Smart marketing service providers and agencies realize that and are using their close relationship with their client’s data to drive a move towards individualization of communication and through this are much closer to achieving customer engagement.” said David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian.

He continued, “The research amongst our event’s audience backs up this strategy and that of David Frankland at Forrester in his recent report into the MSP market*, underlining the need for technology that can support integrated campaigns and move beyond targeted marketing to addressing and engaging with customers as individuals. It is an exciting time for Alterian as we work with our partners and end user marketers to implement our range of new technology that underpins customer engagement.” (SOURCEWIRE.COM, May, 2009). 

Sources:
http://www.sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=47977
While surfing through the Internet I came across lots of museum types. As different from each other as Art Museums, History Museums, Children's Museums, Botanical Gardens, Historic Houses, Historical Societies, Living History Sites, Military Museums, Science Museums, Natural History Museums, Special Interest Museums, University Museums, and not only.

One of the new types of museums that we have nowadays is the Museum of Computing. According to the museum’s official website, it is committed to the preservation and display of examples of early computers. This is a best way to exhibit past and present of the computers.

The Museum will reopen in July 2009 in Swindon town centre. According to the Museum of Computing, the volunteers are now hard at working transforming what was previously retail units into one of the most exciting and original venues in Swindon.

As the officialsite informs, the museum will be located at 6-7 Theatre Square, an section of the town that has been designated a cultural area in Swindons regeneration plan.

According to the SOURCEWIRE, museum founder Jeremy Holt, who campaigned for thirteen years to get the Museum of Computing off the ground in 2002, mentions that this new location is ideal because ‘Our last venue in the University of Bath was very difficult to get to without a car. The Council’s new offer puts the Museum in the heart of the town in a prominent place near bus routes. It will be good for the town because the collection of 2,500 items demonstrating Britain’s role in the advances of technology has attracted worldwide interest. We attract 2000 visitors a year from over forty different countries. Our new home means we can attract many more local visitors.’ He adds ‘We’re also delighted the three year lease means the Museum can apply for professional accreditation by the Museums and Libraries Association.’

Museum Curator Simon Webb (pictured on left) has a passion for gaming and says ‘Our Gaming exhibitions have been our most popular and we’ll be able to give the public what they want – entertainment and a trip down memory lane! 80% of the collection is in working order and the history of gaming can be traced back thirty years. We’ll be setting up championship league tables and are investigating the possibility of online competitions with other towns which should help put the town on the map’ (SourceWire.com).

Blue Click PR’s (Sponsor of the Museum of Computing) Managing Director, Rhona Jack says ‘When the Museum’s closure was announced last year, the website received over 56,000 hits in 48 hours as well as letters to the Times newspaper, so we know there are many ‘techies’ out there who care about the history they helped create. Many items have featured on BBC’s World Service, CNN, SKY TV, ITV, regional TV and radio stations and national newspaper features list the Museum of Computing in the top 25 places to visit in the country, so its good reputation is building. We were also delighted The Right Honourable, The Mayor of Swindon, Cllr Steve Wakefield handed over the keys to us on his last day of official engagements, as he has much to support the development of Swindon’s cultural heritage in his year in office.’


Sources:
http://www.museum-of-computing.org.uk/
http://www.sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=47892
Photo Source:
The Caucasus Journal of Social Sciences is published by The University of Georgia (Tbilisi). The Journal reports on original research and offers reviews and articles of importance to the peoples of the Caucasus region and to those with an interest in, or who work in, the region.
The CJSS aims to stimulate ideas, communicate research, foster critical thinking, and develop modern trends in social sciences.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS FOR THE CAUCASUS JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
The Caucasus Journal of Social Sciences will consider papers for publication that deal with academic disciplines that study human aspects of the world. These include, among others, anthropology, archaeology, economics, education, geography, history, information science, international relations, law, linguistics, politics, psychology, public health, and sociology. Papers in the humanities and other disciplines will be considered if they are related in some way to one or more of these disciplines.
New submissions must be sent by e-mail to the Editor at cjss_editor@yahoo.com no later than the 1st of July, 2009, for the second issue of the Journal.For the Third issue of The Caucasus Journal of Social Sciences, new submissions must be sent by e-mail to the Editor, at cjss_editor@yahoo.com no later than the 1st of December, 2009.
Authors should follow these instructions:
1. Papers must be in English. They should be written in a concise manner. Papers with poor English will be sent back to the author for correction.

2. Papers must be original work.

3. Authors should submit articles that have not been previously published, except that articles previously published only in Georgian or Russian may be submitted in English.

4. The title page should be a separate file containing the title of the paper and each author’s name, affiliation, address, telephone, fax numbers, and e-mail address.

5. An abstract of 100-150 words is required in two languages: English and Georgian. Abstracts should be specific and provide readers with information about the importance of the findings.

6. Provide a biographical sketch of no more than 1 page for each author in a separate file.7. The main paper should not contain the names of authors.

8. Papers are required to be in APA Style. (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Papers in other styles will not be considered. For assistance, see

10. Figures should be high resolution, each containing descriptive headings. Figures of poor quality will not be published.

11. The print version of the journal will be black and white.

12. The paper will be reviewed by experts.

13. Each author will be informed about the status of submitted article.

14. Please indicate name, surname, and title of the paper in the Subject line of e-mail.

Juliet Andghuladze
Editor of Caucasus Journal of Social Sciences
77 Kostava Street, V BuildingTbilisi 0175, Georgia (Republic)
Mob: 893 622 612
cjss_editor@yahoo.com
julietandguladze@yahoo.com
Thousands of illnesses all over the world cause different problems to the patients and the professionals who try to find out the solution from the obstacles makes lots of researches, experiments, and now it is the turn of those who have some problems with walking. These are millions of people only in the US. So what do they use for walk better, these are canes and walkers that besides helping the patient disappoints at the same time.

According to the MediGait.com a high-tech yet easy-to-use gait-training device is brought to these people for more normal walking—and living.

GaitAid works two ways to achieve often-remarkable results, and these are:

1. GaitAid users commonly find themselves walking normally from their first step. But the immediate results are just the start of GaitAid’s effects.

2. Over time, the device “rewires” the wearer’s brain to follow a healthier walking pattern—an effect that frequently continues even when it isn’t being worn. This process (called neuroplasticity) essentially creates new, healthy nerve circuits that bypass the disease-damaged areas associated with walking.

Who could potentially be helped by the device?

500,000 with Parkinson’s Disease,
Up to 350,000 with Multiple Sclerosis,
An estimated 800,000 with Cerebral Palsy,
6,500,000 Stroke survivors, and
The elderly, of whom 30% fall at least once per year—50% of those over 80.


Source:
http://www.medigait.com/media.html
Photo Source:
MediGiat.com
http://www.medigait.com/cerebralpalsy.html

AIIM that is the international community providing education, research, and best practices to help organisations find, control, and optimise their information found that a 3rd of organisations have no policy to deal with legal discovery and 40% might need to search back-up tapes to find emails that could be relevant to litigation. According to the SOURCEWIRE the AIIM survey, entitled “Email Management, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, found that 84% would have no way to justify why emails of a certain age or type had been deleted.

The survey says that over half of respondents lack confidence that emails documenting commitments and obligations made by staff are recorded, complete and recoverable. 45% of respondents are still filing important emails in personal Outlook folders. 18% print important emails and file them as paper. 19% have the facility to move important emails into a document or records management system, or a dedicated email management system.

As admitted on Sourcewire, Doug Miles, UK Managing Director of AIIM Europe, comments, “This is not just a legal discovery issue. Finding and recovering past emails is cited as the number two problem with email as a business tool - after ‘sheer overload’ at number one. Given that most people spend more than one-and-a-half hours per day processing emails, this is a major efficiency issue. The good news is that a third of organisations plan fresh investment in email management initiatives over the next two years.”

If the interested persond wishes to downloaded “Email Management, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly” it is free at http://www.aiim.org.uk/research.

Sources:
Aiming to provide a fully integrated, email and SMS communication system for engaging both online and offline audiences, Ultralase, the UK’s foremost and longest-established specialist in laser vision correction, chose Communicator Corp. The new solution automates the company’s customer communications, delivering a single customer view of multi-channel communication routes and tracking contact data throughout the customer lifecycle with Ultralase’s existing CRM system. One of the features of the service is that it will also allow for offline customers to be brought online. This will be accomplished through the use of “text2mail”.

According to the SOURCEWIRE, those respondents who seek further information, they enter an automated campaign which reacts to the nature of their enquiry by ensuring that the correct message is sent in reply by the most appropriate channel. The system cantailor and personalise ongoing communication and marketing campaigns according to segmentation, dynamic content, customer service or behavioural targeting criteria.

As noted at the SOURCEWIRE, one of the most important feature is location personalisation where prospects and customers are referred to local clinics and advised of practical information such as weekday or weekend opening hours at their nearest clinic.

Harriet Johnson-Laird, Communications Manager at Ultralase believes that the integrated system will bring significant benefits for both the company and its customers alike, noting, “On one hand managing our multi-channel communication strategy even more effectively will lead to an increase in consultations. However, the real winners here are our customers. With the new system in place we can be more personal, timelier and even more responsive to their individual needs. So it really is a win-win situation.”

James Bunting, Director of Strategy & Research at Communicator Corp echoed Johnson-Laird’s comments adding, “ With a significant investment in above and below the line marketing spend, the pressure is on Ultralase to deliver and maintain the very highest standards of customer care; standards upon which they have built their enviable reputation and branding. Through being able to track the customer lifecycle across multiple channels, with an integrated single-view, their customers will feel even more supported and valued. We are delighted to have helped Ultralase to make such a visionary and market leading investment in customer care.”
BioResolve, Inc. that is a privately owned company operating in Ottawa, Canada, and that aims to help individuals acquire the information they need to make more informed health decisions introduced a DNA testing service. The DNA service reveals an individual's innate resistance or vulnerabilities to infectious diseases, such as swine flu.

According to BioResolve is offering a detailed DNA test report with a free online calculator.

The aim of BioResolve’s initiative is to reduce the spread of an epidemic by identifying the groups at risk so that they can take special precautions. As notes on BioResolve press release the measures can be as follows: staying at home, maintaining perfect hand hygiene, being alert to early symptoms and getting quick medical attention.

As a DNA test may be required since it can accurately pin-point the specific risks factors that an individual may have, individual’s comparative survival ratio can be determined.

So how the ratio is found?

There is a 2 steps process.

The first step involves a questionnaire, freely available online to anyone.

The second step involves a DNA testing service that looks at key DNA site to evaluate an individual's general immune system quality, potential genetic complication determined by DNA, genetic predispositions to aggravating factors, it's innate resistance or vulnerabilities to a wide range of infectious diseases including; influenza, malaria, HIV resistance, susceptibility to SARS, hepatitis, norovirus resistance, etc.

Alexandre Harvey-Tremblay, President of BioResolve said; "One of the best thing that can be done is to identify groups of individuals that may be at an increased risk of developing severe complications from an infectious disease so that they can take better precautions. If someone has a clear understanding of his risks, he may decide to take extra precautions he may not have chosen to do had he not known about them."

SOURCES:
http://www.bioresolve.com/press_BioResolve%20Offers%20DNA%20Testing%20In%20Response%20to%20Swine%20Influenza%20Epidemic.php
http://www.bioresolve.com/report_pandemic.php
Let’s see what tip offers the chairman of Wick Hill Group, IT security specialists, Ian Kilpatrick to keep our businesses going in a pandemic.

According to information spread about a flu epidemic then we really should take some measures and these measures are given in ten key actions companies can take and explains how business can continue if staff are able to work from home.

1. Check your insurance. You're probably not going to be covered for business losses if a pandemic strikes, so you need to plan to minimise the impact.

2. Get the plan in place NOW. And why? If you need to implement any new equipment, you don't want to be doing that during the first or second wave of flu. And staff may not be available at your suppliers or onsite to carry out any installations.

3. Identify key staff. Pinpoint IT, management and administrative staff who will need remote communications access, so they can carry on working from home. The most important that should be determined are what level of access is required, confirm home and mobile phone numbers are current, and confirm home addresses. If you want staff to access the computer network remotely, confirm whether they have home PC access, that the line speeds are OK and that they are running current anti- virus!

4. Confirm by testing that thesestaff are able to access and use the relevant systems remotely. Unless you’re already using IPSec, you will need SSL, a system which allows staff to easily access company networks remotely and securely. If you already have SSL, you should check whether it allows full network access, as some SSL systems don’t do this. And, of course if you haven't got SSL in place, now is the time to install a system. Comparatively low-cost SSL systems are available from companies such as Barracuda Networks, Check Point and WatchGuard.

5. Check whether your phone system is capable of delivering remote switchboard capabilities for calls and conferencing, and test that capability. If it isn’t, there are a range of solutions from companies such as Samsung that can integrate with your existing phone system to quickly and inexpensively upgrade its capability, so that remote users can continue to operate in a work environment.
In addition, there are hosted services that can provide central telephony facilities for remote users. Set-up for this can be rapid, but needs to be implemented before staff become home- based.

6. Ensure that setting up remote access doesn't compromise your business security. Simple password access is insecure and two factor authentication is much, much safer.
This typically involves a PIN number and a changing password generated by a hardware token or from the system onto your mobile phone. Companies such as VASCO and CRYPTOCard have a range of solutions in this area. They also provide hosted authentication solutions, which make administration and deployment even easier.

7. If business critical information is being accessed remotely, ensure that it is adequately protected. Encryption solutions are available that protect data in motion and stop it being downloaded on to USBs, if that is your policy. If downloading to USBs is allowed, make sure the data is encrypted. Solutions such as Check Point End Point Security can easily provide these facilities

8. Ensure that home PCs are secured. Consider an end point package, such as those from Kaspersky Lab, which protect against viruses and spyware on home machines accessing the network

9. Ensure that key suppliers have contingency plans in place, that you are happy with them and
that you have access to key emergency numbers.

10. Ensure that you communicate your plans to all relevant staff well in advance.

That is what Ian Kilpatrick recommended at SOURCEWIRE. The above mentioned measures are really valuable but hope we will not have to apply to these tips and the way out of this problem will be found much earlier. :-)

Source:
http://www.sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=47419
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