Blog

Thoughts on everything that matters right now in marketing, communications, and insights.

Author: Simon Dunn

Marketing Automation Posted on April 14, 2015 by Simon Dunn

When you hear the words marketing automation, it’s likely to bring to mind the efficient whirring of marketing cogs and wheels, working in perfect harmony to make your business grow whilst you relax and go for a gin and tonic. At least it does me, but look at it a little deeply and things get more fuzzy and ill-defined. Marketing automation is currently a bit of a buzz word, but descriptions on the internet and by marketing automation software companies

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Rethinking your website? Be authentic. Posted on January 8, 2015 by Simon Dunn

This was originally posted on Quirk's. You can read it here.  As a marketing agency working in a niche business area like marketing research, we make it a point to keep an eye on what is going on in research, the mergers and acquisitions as well as the general buzz of business life with people changing jobs and new announcements. We are also very interested when a company rebrands or builds a new Web site. The conversation either falls into

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Analysis: Next generation technology gets inside the consumer’s mind Posted on October 17, 2014 by Simon Dunn

The latest technologies on the high street give retailers more personal and dynamic knowledge of their customers than ever before. Source: Analysis: Next generation technology gets inside the consumer’s mind

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Five top tips for designing great marketing emails Posted on September 3, 2014 by Simon Dunn

Bang for buck email marketing is one of the most cost efficient methods of attracting attention, but only if your readers receive a professional looking and stylish email.  If you don’t want to end up in the spam folder, you need to understand some important rules. So here are 5 top tips to help the budding email marketer design their emails to be more effective: Never embed a single image of your design into an email. Most readers will just

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How is China Different? Insights for Effective Chinese Packaging Posted on August 13, 2014 by Simon Dunn

China’s economy has grown seven times as fast as America’s over the last ten years, and the urban middle class alone is bigger than the entire US population today. Perception Research Services (PRS) Source: How is China Different? Insights for Effective Chinese Packaging

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New study by Perception Research Services shows why shoppers are choosing own label products Posted on July 3, 2014 by Simon Dunn

Own label is on the rise. Between 2011 and 2013, own label sales have risen 1.32% at a total grocery level in the UK (Kantar), and they show no sign of stopping. With this in mind, Perception Research Services (PRS) carried out a study of 1,000 UK shoppers to gain insight into people’s buying habits, […] Source: New study by Perception Research Services shows why shoppers are choosing own label products

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Quality of own-label brands on a par with branded goods – Research Live Posted on June 24, 2014 by Simon Dunn

Research shows shoppers regard own-label products to be as good as, and sometimes better than, branded equivalents as austerity impacts people’s shopping choices.

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Brands should harness research to fight own label challenge Posted on June 18, 2014 by Simon Dunn

There was more good news for shoppers today. Inflation has fallen to its lowest level in almost five years, with the consumer prices index down to 1.5 per cent in May. The result, which puts inflation at its lowest level since October 2009, was driven by the first annual decline in food and non-alcoholic drinks prices in more than eight years – a consequence of the escalating price war between Britain’s major supermarkets. Source: Brands should harness research to fight

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Retailer brands are holding their own – Marketing Week Posted on by Simon Dunn

Shoppers regard supermarket own-label products as on a par with and sometimes better than branded equivalents – but not in every category, a study finds Source: Retailer brands are holding their own

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Presenting FreshMinds Posted on November 22, 2013 by Simon Dunn

As you may have noticed, FreshMinds adopted a new visual identity designed by The Cabinet as of the 10th of October; to mark the merging of its social business with its research business. Mustard was set the time-limited task of creating a PowerPoint design, using this new branding. The project was challenging; faced only with a few PDF concepts showing how the presentations might look, and the clock ticking, I dived in. I find that the fundamental issue with PowerPoint

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