consumers Archives - Charles Kollo's Marketing Thoughts

The 5 Major Steps in Your Customer Journey

There are 5 major levers in your to use in your customer journey that are essential for the success of your brand. You need to pay attention to all of these levers to grow your business.

The impact of technology mindset on marketing

I have worked with a lot of technical teams, and frequently I hear them say that they are specialized in a specific coding language, whether it is python, or Ruby, Java, or whatever is coming next. Tech teams work on the architecture of platforms that rely on these coding languages. Technology is often turned toward itself, and the goal is to build the best tech resource, be the best developer, and to geek about it.
In marketing, it is a little different and our goal is customer satisfaction. Everything revolves around the customer experience and satisfaction. Sometimes customers need to go through a long journey, and sometimes the experience is short and sweet and the question is simply to figure out the quickest way to buy. Continue reading

5 Digital Projections for June 2026

We are in one of those great historical periods that occur every 200 or 300 years when people don’t understand the world anymore, and the past is not sufficient to explain the future – Peter Drucker

We live in a great time, when business-minded people have abundant opportunities. There are as many opportunities now as there were in June 2010, when Uber was just a crazy idea, and Airbnb was unthinkable. Continue reading “5 Digital Projections for June 2026”

The truth about your company’s digital journey

Companies are wrapping their head around the idea that they might need to adopt new technology solutions to support their growth. To improve the companies’ performance, marketing is the lowest hanging fruit, as they have been considered for a long time as an art and craft department. Jack Ma, Alibaba’s CEO, calls this transformation the “New Retail.” It can be applied to finance, travel, healthcare sectors and even services.

There are three phases that I consider when I analyze companies, and as a stakeholder, there are several opportunities to help them grow. Continue reading “The truth about your company’s digital journey”

How important is your next shiny object?

In the martech’s world, shiny objects appear every day. In B2B, they give the promise of more leads, better leads, shinier leads. In B2C more sales, better buyers, and increase in loyalty.

These new software products are presented behind customer quotes, best practices and other roughly measured benefits, and their value sounds for the most part legit. Unfortunately sometimes, they just offer small differences compared to other alternatives – when they don’t use their competitors as a white brand. For B2B buyers, navigating in this sea of dreams is a challenge, and marketers spend a lot of time trying to make sense of all the noise.

Last week I have received an email from another blogger:

Continue reading “How important is your next shiny object?”

3 Simple Marketing Tips for Amazing And Memorable Small Businesses.

I love small local businesses with a soul and a relatable story. Businesses where you can talk with the owner and hear his/her passion in every sentence. Businesses for which you go to your favorite social network and click “Like”, “Follow”, hoping that it would make a difference. Continue reading

Short Marketing Timeline

Published first on MessageGears’ Blog: Marketing’s Evolution Keeps Making It More Personal.

The evolution of marketing over the past 50 years brought it from being sales led to being tech led today, and technology will continue to drive this science as it catches up with customers’ interests. People are buying differently, they are smarter and more demanding with what they’re looking for.

Continue reading “Short Marketing Timeline”

3 Marketing Questions Every Small Business Owner Needs To Ask Himself

When it comes to running a business, marketing is the the umph that makes your product stand out in a world of commodities.

Understand that your target customer hasn’t been waiting for you to come to market to answer the problem you are hoping to solve. Whether you are selling a book, a service, or a product, you need to go to specific steps to communicate effectively to your target in a language they can understand. Also, let’s cut it to the chase, if you are living anywhere after 2017, there is a good chance that all businesses need a website and other forms of digital marketing. The good thing is that digital marketing is cheaper than brick and mortar, but it shouldn’t be free (unless you don’t believe in yourself).

There are three questions that you absolutely need to ask yourself to measure success as you start your business. Marketing should not be buried under the noise of the daily grind. Continue reading “3 Marketing Questions Every Small Business Owner Needs To Ask Himself”

Consumers: Pay Attention to These 5 Marketing Tricks

This post is probably one that will bother some marketing professionals, but I believe that educated consumers lead companies to challenge themselves and push them to create better products that are more useful and relevant to their lives.

With this past election and Donald Trump’s big win, I have felt the need to go back to where marketing and psychology meet and understand how consumers make decisions. Continue reading “Consumers: Pay Attention to These 5 Marketing Tricks”