Search results for consumer

Small business is becoming big business for credit-card issuers. With the consumer market saturated, card issuers and banks are expanding their credit-card offerings for small businesses in a bid to get in on what they see as an untapped market. Estimates vary, but American Express says only about 14% of the more than $2 trillion small business  More...
Kris Steele used FreeCreditReport.com check on his credit, but a couple of months later, Mr. Steele noticed the site had been charging his credit card. While he believed he had signed up for a free report, he had actually enrolled in a credit-monitoring service that cost $14.95 a month. He says he never expected that it would cost anything. Co  More...
The more thorough (and/or OCD) a consumer is, the more things he or she will want to know about a company. Prices, exchange policies, and friends' experiences may all come into play. And so might Better Business Bureau credentials, which is why business owners should consider becoming members.  More...
Fifty-nine percent of recently surveyed companies executed a major market-segmentation initiative in the previous two years. Yet only 14% derived real value from the exercise. What's wrong with market segmentation?  More...
It's a review of the book "Predictably Irrational", explaining why we as consumers are predictably irrational. And hopefully that explains the failure or success of business marketing.  More...
If someone says B2B sites can’t be compelling and absorbing, show them MillerWelds. It could shame the best consumer site. This site keeps prospects clicking and reading these ways:  More...
We’re in the midst of a boom in devices that show where people are at any point in time. Global positioning systems are among the hottest consumer electronics devices ever and cellphones increasingly come with G.P.S. chips. All of these devices churn out data that says something about how people live. Such data could redefine what we know abou  More...
If a consumer were to scan her inbox of retail, corporate emails right now, each one would have a subject line that is an offer. Everybody wants the consumer's money, but nobody addresses the consumer's relationship to their company, though they can. Long-term, lifecycle emails train a customer into becoming a better one, and they enhance the  More...
The results of a new study, conducted by consumer intelligence firm BIGresearch, into the media and shopping behavior of consumers at work, finds that Americans are spending 60% of their waking hours at work, more than ever before. Marketing chiefs are rethinking their ad budgets and advertisers are preparing to meet a new, highly coveted, yet ent  More...
Ever since that dreadful summer of 2007, things have really been all doom-and-gloom for the American economy. Oil prices have surged, Foreclosures are at an all-time high, employment is starting to drop, and consumer confidence seems to be gliding down as fast as our gas prices are floating upwards. What’s small or mid-sized business owner to do i  More...
Though 46% of US adults say they neither think nor act Green, the 2% who fall into the Green Advocates segment are among the most tech-savvy consumers, according to Mediamark Research & Intelligence’s Survey of the American Consumer. The six consumer segments produced by MRI highlight differing attitudes toward the environment and actions take  More...
Inflation has sunk its teeth into small businesses this year. The number of owners citing inflation as their No. 1 concern on the National Federation of Independent Businesses monthly economic index in April was at its highest level since 1982. One in five owners is raising prices, according to William C. Dunkelberg, the trade group’s chief econom  More...
THE Rooz Cafe, a restaurant and coffee shop in Oakland, Calif., signals its distaste for patrons who post reviews on Yelp.com with a small sign: No Yelpers. Rooz’s owner, Steve Ranjbin, said he put the sticker up as a joke, but added that he had a complaint about Yelp. “Yelp does not respect us as business owners,” Mr. Ranjbin said. “They d  More...
Not just retailers are in trouble in today’s economy. Companies that manufacture consumer goods, building material and the many other industries are also reporting difficulties. Why should the average business owner care? Because another business that sells to one of these troubled companies may also be heading for disaster and that business mi  More...
Today's diverse consumers (Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgendered consumers, and women) are looking for more than just talk. They want companies that are an authentic part of their niche community with long-term commitment. They are savvy and skeptical, and they are tired of spin. That me  More...