The MineThatData Honor Roll: February 16, 2007

Several articles caught my attention during the past week.

DMNews talks about happenings at the eTail conference. Pay attention to the comments from Jodi Watson at Williams Sonoma. Over the next few years, you are going to see a separation between the concepts of "e-commerce" and "website". The website will become the primary marketing tool for a multichannel retailer --- it will be an indispensable tool for marketing retail brands. I really believe a skillset will emerge, people will finally learn how to utilize a website to maximize retail sales, not just e-commerce sales. These are the folks who will drive our multichannel businesses in 2012 and beyond.

This story in CRMBuyer, written by Denis Pombriant, illustrates one of the biggest failures of "CRM" systems, and highlights the future of analytics. Our industry spent so much time collecting purchase information. Denis correctly illustrates the uselessness of the information. In so many ways, the data collection systems we have today represent a 1995-style world, one where the data could be used for old-school targeting programs. Today's data needs are so very different. We don't have a lot of control over marketing anymore. Catalog don't drive sales like they used to. Google controls the customer via search. Mass marketing is largely dead because we don't have a mass to market to. We marketers need to harness customer intentions, and use that information to influence merchandise assortment and in-store/website presentation, which drives sales.

Andy Monfried writes about his efforts at landing a key client. Pay close attention to what he talks about. Technology doesn't play a role in his success. Hard work, perseverance, and an element of humanity result in success.

Finally, on Fallon's Trendpoint Blog, we learn about plucky ad agency Anamoly's acquisition of the Virgin America account. Funny how Anamoly didn't pitch classic advertising techniques ... they offered to help grow sales. After a deluge of Super Bowl ads designed to drive "buzz", we learn about somebody who wants to increase sales.