Market research news
The blog of the market research agency IntoTheminds lists opinionated articles, examples of alignment with marketing theory, highlights and bad buzz, carefully selected by Pierre-Nicolas Schwab, his team and influential experts.
A PESTLE analysis may have helped the eco-construction sector
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
One of the decisions the Belgian government took to reduce the debt was to cancel the 40% tax deduction on works carried out to reduce energy consumption (isolation, double-glass windows, …). The consequence of this decision will be to change…
How to announce a bad news: the example of ING
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Today’s post is far away from marketing but was triggered by a communication issue, which remains a central topic is modern marketing. ING announced within 30 days that it would reduce interest rates on both its current account and its…
Impediments in business transfers (#rentconference)
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Yvonne Slots and Loek Swelsen presented at the RENT XXV conference in Bodo, Norway, a piece of research on business transfers. Their research was conducted in the region of Parkstad, The Netherlands, at the borders with Germany (Aachen) and Belgium.…
Does Mobistar follow best practices for complaints management?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Successful business practices regarding the management of customers complaints include the diffusion of the information within the organization. After I reported on my fight against Mobistar, I was wondering whether their most exposed (in terms of visibility) customer service would…
Paul bakeries: when service and brand image do not match
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Paul … an oasis of gastronomy in a culinary desert. Everything is made to remind you the long forgone past of tasteful products: sales point are covered with oak-like veneer, decorated with pieces of furniture that could fit in your…
Meet first the legal requirements first, then speak about customer service: the Mobistar case
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
First of all please allow me to mention than by sharing this post on Facebook and twitter you will help other individuals. The purpose of this post is to write about my fight against Mobistar in an attempt to enforce…
Dexia: you’re not alone
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Everyone has heard about Dexia's problems. The French Belgian bank was eventually nationalized last week and it seems that customers had withdrawn an amazing 1b Euros since early September when they starting loosing confidence in the bank. Coincidently the bank…
Is this what marketing in the wine industry looks like?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
A friend just offered me a bottle of wine. It was just wonderful. Thank you. What surprised me was the tag attached to it, which claimed the 94 points obtained from Robert Parker in the Wine Advocate. Well, ok everyone…
Off topic. This is what I call leadership
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
If I had to choose one concrete and tangible example of leadership it would be this one. It so much energizes me. It's Al Pacino in City Hall. Have a look at this extraordinary example of leadership. I just have…
A call for an open-minded attitude in marketing innovation
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Sometimes I really get the impression that I don’t get understood. Not long time ago I had a meeting with the marketing manager of a big and renowned Belgian company. I came there to present an innovative consumer behavior-related idea…
Bankruptcies vs. business creations
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
During my latest weekly session at the Brussels Agency for Enterprises (BEA) I mentioned the record level of bankruptcies in Belgium. Since January 2008 the number of bankruptcies has increased by 35% as readers of this blog may have already…
Extraordinary customer service
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
I have a lot of stories to tell as far as customer service is concerned. I have a lot of bad ones and very few good ones. So when I have receive an exceptionnal customer service I'm eager to tell…
Dandoy, a Belgian “Love Brand”
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Saatchi & Saatchi has a word for brands they want to be turn into successful stories. They call them “love brands”. I have also my love brand, and it’s a Belgian one. Its name is Dandoy. The famous Brussels-based family-owned…
FNAC wants to reinvent the relationship with the customers
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Enriching discussions can also take place online and I was very positively surprised by a discussion I had on Linkedin. If you are familiar with this website you may know that there are groups to which you can get affiliated…
MyStarbucksIdea: a great failure ?
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
« Great » and « failure » may be two words you wouldn’t associate at first. Yet, it’s the impression which I got whe I recently received the Starbucks newsletter proudly announcing that 150 ideas from the MyStarbucksIdea platform had been implemented. 150 ideas…
Relationship marketing again and again
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Being on holiday has also some negative aspects. I'm reading more than usual and the more I read the more I'm getting fed up with relationship marketing. Customers relationships here, customers relationships there; it sounds like if those two words…
Guerlain: customer experience in the historic store on Paris’ Champs Elysées
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Guerlain just opened a pop-up store on the Champs-Elysées avenue (number 68), next to its historic store. I’ll deal with the pop-up store in a separate post but for the time being let’s see what’s up in the “old” store.…
The Belgian Post wants to rejuvenate postcards
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
The Belgian post, who recently was renamed BPost, just launched an original app for smartphone. This app aims at sending a postcard; a real one actually. We’ve been used to virtual postcards for years and with this app BPost offers…
Entrepreneurs and black money
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Since IntoTheMinds has started giving trainings on market research at The Brussels Enterprises Agency, one remark is coming over and over again. We explain to future entrepreneurs that it’s useful to have a look at competitors’ balance sheets and analyze…
An outstanding customer experience in an incredible store in Brussels
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Sometimes it's not necessary to travel thousands of miles to find unique stores and enjoy incredible customer experiences.Although I've been living in Brussels for 10 years, I must admit I seldom go downtown and actually never shopped in the Rue…
The clichés of Lavazza’s advertisement
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Look at this advertisement for Lavazza; it's full of clichés about Italy: the macho man with his tee-short, the dominated woman. What I prefer however are the clothes on the clothes line in the background. It's well worth a coffee,…
How to manage customers’ expectations
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Customer satisfaction depends, in part, on the gap between a customer's expectations and the actual performance. A good tactics, seldom used, to increase satisfaction is to shape customers' expectations. The Belgian Post gives us an easy example. The most annoying…
The example of a well-managed customer experience by Blancpain
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
When Jean-Claude Biver took over Blancpain to revamp it, one of the first things he did was to launch the 6 masterpieces, a range of 6 watches (from the most simple to the most complicated) housed in the same case.…
What is the marketing positionning of Blancpain (Swatch group)
By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab •
Blancpain is a famous watch brand owned by the Swatch group which, in my opinion, deserves attention for several reasons. Blancpain is first of all a brand with history; not only an historical tradition of watchmaking that goes back to…
