Miss out on the major announcements from this year’s Mobile World Congress in Spain? Don’t worry, our slideshow (which you can find below) covers the big payments-related deals that came out of Barcelona over the past few days. These include announcements from: – MasterCard –...
Intense competition from online and mobile channels, pricing pressures and shrinking margins, high fixed costs, changing customer demographics, and eroding revenue opportunities. Sound familiar? It should. It’s exactly what drove the newspaper industry into a death spiral about 20 years ago, and it’s what’s playing...
Someone once said that even number years are always better than odd number years. If that’s true then 2014 has a lot to live up to! But as we all turn our focus to 2014 after a two week holiday respite, and wave bye-bye to...
Strategic planning season is in full swing in payments! And, the land grab for data and projections on everything from consumer spending to smartphone and tablet sales to POS trends to competitor activities is on! But, unless your one- to three-year window anticipates the macro...
I think I mentioned in an article a while back that I have this odd fascination with old advertising- early turn-of-the-century stuff to about the 1970s. There’s just so much to learn about our culture and consumer behavior and buying triggers by looking at old...
The month of November was ushered in by the Red Sox World Series Parade of Champions in Boston (did I mention that the Red Sox won the World Series this year??!!!), the return of daylight savings time (my favorite day of the year besides Christmas...
Bitcoin isn’t usually something that I write about. And, trust me, after my colleague did a few weeks ago and was all but skewered as a result of his post, I thought long and hard about sounding off about bitcoin. (He’s currently in hiding and...
Everybody knows the ancient story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. “Open Sesame” were the magic words that opened a cave where Ali Baba saw an abundance of gold treasure stolen by 40 thieves stashed inside. Ali Baba, assisted by his very capable female...
I think it’s pretty safe to say that the “traditional” advertising and loyalty ecosystems are dying a slow death and should probably be put out of their respective miseries. Mobile/connected devices powered by apps and enriched by data in real time have engulfed them. The...
