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The customer belongs to whoever earns the next conversation
Editor’s note: The original article, titled “Direct Marketing Newsletter: Whose Customer Is It Anyway?,” was first published in 2016 and has since been archived.
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Reporting, analysis, and human patterns, ordered by publication date and built to be read beyond the headline.
Psychology
People who seem genuinely comfortable eating alone, travelling alone, or sitting in…
The stakes of this question are higher than they sound.
Psychology
People who stack their dishes before leaving a café aren’t always performing good…
There’s a small moment that happens for me every time I stand up from a café table here in São Paulo.
Digital
Chipotle’s Chiptopia proved that rewarding visits and earning loyalty are two…
Chiptopia, the tiered rewards program Chipotle launched in the summer of 2016, generated plenty of headlines.
Digital
A print catalog so beautiful that Instagram styled itself around it
Across retail marketing, a curious pattern has repeated itself over the past decade.
Culture
Healthcare organizations say they put patients first — their websites tell a completely…
A pattern keeps repeating across healthcare publishing on the web.
Digital
Brands know everything about how you live and still send you a discount on a second…
A connected car can map daily commutes down to the minute.
Digital
Fake reviews now cost less than the products they promote
A kitchen gadget retails for $29.A kitchen gadget retails for $29.99.
Psychology
The child in every family who kept the peace, stayed easy, and never made much trouble…
R had picked her mother up from the airport, cooked every meal of the visit, and dropped her mother back at the airport.
Psychology
People who stop reaching out first aren’t always pulling away — sometimes they’re just…
The exhausted person is usually treated, by the other one, as the one who pulled away.
Digital
SEO predictions age like milk, but ignoring them ages worse
Editor’s note: The original archived version of this article covered the annual State of SEO report.
Digital
Every Google algorithm update is a performance review nobody asked for
Across the SEO industry, a familiar pattern repeats itself several times a year.
Digital
NASA sent a thank-you letter to a hacker, and it says everything about where…
In September 2024, a post on X went quietly viral in cybersecurity circles.
Digital
Brands are optimizing for a search behavior that fewer and fewer people actually have
The gap between where audiences look and where brands optimize has widened steadily.
Digital
Predicting which jersey a fan will buy before they know the team exists
Editor’s note: The original archived version of this 2017 article featured insights from J.T. Compeau of AffinityAnswers.
Digital
The advertising industry knows a fifth of its impressions are fake and keeps buying…
Across the global advertising industry, a peculiar pattern has taken hold.