B2C Marketing

My colleague Joe Stanhope and I have previously written about “The Future Of Enterprise Marketing Technology” and how it hinges on marketing alignment with customer experience (CX) strategies. To be successful, marketers must orchestrate personalized experiences that deliver value in their customers’ moments of need. But brands must “Align Strategy And Technology To Deliver Next-Gen […]

Every autumn, Forrester looks ahead to predict the major consumer, business, and technology trends that will shape the marketing landscape for the following year. 2020 has been a year of unprecedented political, social, economic, and healthcare disruption — and 2021 shows no signs of any of these trends slowing down. How, then, should European consumer […]

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that we’ve been measuring precisely how the emotional toll of the COVID-19 pandemic is influencing consumer appetite for commercial exchange. We do this by applying Forrester’s Consumer Energy Index, our data-driven framework that captures how ready and willing consumers are to reach out to brands. After a […]

Ever since the release of the Association of National Advertisers’ K2 Report on media transparency, marketers and firms have looked for better mechanisms to control their media. For ambitious companies, the desire for more impact has led some to in-house media. The prospect of an in-house team of media-savvy professionals maximizing the firm’s buying power […]

The shift toward consumers expecting and rewarding experimentation is motivating companies to focus on product as their engine of growth.

One of the biggest transformations in retail that Forrester highlighted in its recent B2C buying research stream is the growth of brand manufacturers in commerce and the corresponding tension with marketplaces like Alibaba, Amazon, and others around the world. (“Brand manufacturers” are traditionally wholesale companies that distribute through intermediaries. They’re a complex ecosystem, and no […]

The relationship between consumers and businesses is undergoing a multifaceted transformation based on four factors: the economic impact of marketplaces, next generation product experiences, consumers’ perception of brand values, and brands’ adoptions of business models. Any firm that sells to consumers must understand how these factors will influence their customers as well as their own business, and they need to start planning now to harness these trends to maximize the value of customer relationships. 

Many pundits and news outlets have declared the onset of “streaming wars,” as all the major traditional media companies have launched robust streaming products this year. The success of these battles is tracked in subscriber counts, new content launches, and the content brands that each platform boasts. Valid enough. But Forrester believes there is another […]

I’ll admit it: I’m a podcast newb. I just got into them at the end of last year because of Wondery’s Business Wars, which sucked me in on my daily commute. While I’ve been late to the game, my colleague Sarah Dawson — a podcast lover and aficionado — listens regularly and knew much more […]

The pace of consumer behavior change has clicked into another gear this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn how three of these trends will transform buying for the foreseeable future.

CMOs, you won't make it through the harsh economic conditions coming if you can't adjust your planning approach to respond to changing customer needs and operational availability.

Apple’s “Time Flies” keynote will take place tomorrow, September 15, live from Apple Park: https://www.apple.com/apple-events/. I’ve been following Apple keynotes for many years (since at least 2005), and they often generate irrational expectations for disruptive, innovative products. Over the past few years, pundits have regularly questioned Apple’s ability to innovate while continuing to grow the […]

COVID-19 has disrupted school, summer vacations, birthdays, weddings — you name it. It has been equally unforgiving to marketers, whose carefully crafted marketing plans became irrelevant amid store closures, erratic shopping trends, and supply shortages. If there’s one upside to the pandemic, it’s pushing marketers to reevaluate their marketing planning processes. Even the most thorough, […]

With advertising budgets cut, SEO strategy is more important now than ever before. Learn three key takeaways from the new Forrester Wave report on SEO platforms.

The way people buy products and services has been evolving rapidly, and the fast and furious pace is only accelerating — sinking some companies while creating immense opportunity for others, new and old. Discover the four forces that will define the next era of consumer buying.

Learn how new pricing and distribution models are changing consumers’ expectations for B2C brand offerings and why customer retention will become even more critical.

Last week, IFA 2020 took place both in Berlin and virtually. I attended the virtual fair, which was an excellent experience. You could really feel how people were excited to meet both physically and virtually. However, neither the excitement nor the experience could hide the fact that the consumer electronics industry continues to struggle during […]

In the past two months, I’ve received dozens of inquiries about TikTok. While the case is still unsettled, I wanted to summarize some of my comments in this blog post. Is banning TikTok in the US “tit for tat”? Not really. People often compare the US government’s handling of TikTok with the Facebook and Google […]