Resources/Whitepapers

Brands, Expectations and Experience
A Cycle of Causality

The rapid global evolution of information technology has created a fundamental shift in the relationship between companies and customers, forced new definitions of customer service, employee roles and requirements, and made it possible (and necessary) for companies to understand their customers in completely new ways. This paper looks at the causal relationships between customer's expectations, which are influenced by brands, and their experiences of products and services, which in turn impact brands.

Challenges in Marketing and Student Relationship Management
in Higher Education

Higher education today is undergoing a more radical and fundamental transformation than perhaps any other aspect of our culture. Technological, economic, sociological, and governmental forces are altering education dramatically, impacting its institutions, teachers, students, funding sources, and basic function in society. Educational institutions of all kinds are being forced to adopt operational models and methodologies from the world of commerce, and the effects are not all negative. Above all, institutions need strategies that make them more receptive and responsive to their core constituencies - their students.

This paper describes our view of the current situation in higher education in the U.S. today, lists some of the issues and challenges wešve observed in our work with higher education institutions, and delineates some of the most salient impacts and benefits of well-designed, ongoing research and the strategic planning that it informs.

Conversations with Ma and Pa Public:
Designing research and talking to your customers

Well designed customer research is a crucial tool for business strategy. This report talks about how to design and implement effective customer research. It's based on our experience in talking to hundreds of customers all over the U.S., during in-depth, one-on-one conversations that yield useful data and valuable insights from every customer.

Recession-Adaptive Branding:
Strategy is a "Must Have"

Branding is a strategic process, one of the most important your company can undertake. Why is it then, that in a recession, when the health of many companies is threatened, do most managers react by hunkering down rather than getting serious about strategy? This report examines the reasons behind the behavior and gives a whole new look at how to survive through strategic branding.