Issue 18

I’m a Customer That Sucks - But All in the Best Possible Taste!
Excalibur this month focuses on customer-orientation, our behaviour as customers and how the Web has freed customers to look for information beyond what they are told.

Copycat
This month, Andy continues his popular “Copycat” series and covers important issues such as the “power struggle” between the writer and the reader. He also examines one of the most misunderstood areas of letter writing – layout.

The New Marketing? Or Old Lamps For New?
Merlin Stone examines the idea of marketing transformation, and looks at whether ‘new marketing’ can truly drive business changes or whether CRM , multi channel strategies and integrated communications will turn out to be just another marketing fad.

Building and Maintaining a Quality House Email List
Following on from last month’s E-Marketing Insights column where we saw how email can deliver fantastic response rates, this month Dave Chaffey looks at ways to capture email and contact details and assesses different approaches for keeping the data fresh.

Is it Time for Risk Assessed Marketing?
Globalisation, making strategic alliances work, corporate governance imperatives, competitive markets requiring more risk to be taken to win business. Uncertainty and risk are everywhere. Terry Kendrick considers how marketing directors will increasingly be required to show how their activity is risk assessed.

There’s Something about Google
Since its birth in 1998, Google has been a spectacular marketing success. Despite virtually no advertising spend, the Internet search engine was voted brand of the year by Interbrand and now commands the most loyalty of any online brand. Here Dick Stroud takes a look at the lessons Google can teach us.

Collaborative Marketing
In times of economic slowdown, traditionally one of the first departments in any company to feel the cold steel of the financial director’s scalpel is marketing. Charles Boliston looks at how collaborative marketing can help you find new prospects cost-effectively.