Q&As

Robert Fulghum was right: The essential lessons of life can be gleaned from truths learned in kindergarten. The next few decades of formal education are commentary and algebra.

This was brought home recently when my soon-to-be-former bank (let’s call it “Four Letter Bank”) lost my paycheck, and then proceeded to violate one obvious tenet of customer relationship management after another. I reckon its managers skipped kindergarten — and thus missed the following important lessons.

Disney Parks, which last week said that it was integrating the marketing of its entire portfolio of parks and resorts worldwide under one theme, spent many months conducting the consumer research that lead to the change, one of its largest undertakings ever.

As part of a longstanding partnership, PowerBar is collaborating with championship cyclist Lance Armstrong to launch a sweepstakes and mobile tour to motivate consumers to live healthily while promoting its nutrition bars.

Kraft Foods is reprising its Oreo & Milk Jingle Contest for a second year, but this time, consumers pick the winner.

Yes, traditional mass-marketing tactics are alive and well. At the same time, to help compensate for audience fragmentation and boost their house advantage, smart companies are infusing more customer knowledge into their marketing decisions.

Customer relationship management (CRM) attempts to pull together a sense of reality in brand, relationships, and loyalty. But CRM requires a massive investment and organizational change to adopt more and more robust technology and processes.

Once you’ve decided to collect and use customer data in your marketing efforts, how do you encourage customers to raise their hands and ask to be identified through your program?

InfoUSA

McDonald’s is touting its ongoing sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup with a host of promotions and in-store activations spanning the globe to reach Hispanic consumers and soccer fans, alike.

Coors Brewing Co has unveiled a new campaign showcasing important Hispanic community leaders in its ongoing bid to reach the Latino demographic.