Do loyal customers translate into steady sales or profits? Intuitively, the answer should be yes - and indeed, customer loyalty is a significant metric by which companies rate their performance. However, there a few problems with the concept of customer loyalty and a corporate strategy to develop it, according to Esteban Kolsky, practice leader with eVergence. 20 Aug 2008

The Tshwane Street Furniture Consortium, comprising Primedia Outdoor and Street Pole Ads, has inked a R69-million, ten-year contract with the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality to provide new directional street name signs.
19 Aug 2008

I want to expose three lies that email marketers either tell or have told to them by people who should know better. 15 Aug 2008

A new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor reveals the North American market for hosted outbound integrated voice response (IVR) services is set to more than double from an estimated $213 million in 2008 to $524 million by 2013. 14 Aug 2008

What is unified communications (UC) and why do you need it? UC is not unified messaging, and it isn't a unified desktop. But both of these technology solutions help to support a unified communications architecture. In fact, according to Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company, UC is the convergence of such technologies as instant messaging, e-mail, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), presence and e-commerce in or near real-time. 11 Aug 2008

Todwil Retail Solutions, a privately owned Cape-based retail-marketing company recently acquired Cape Tech Plastics, a specialist injection moulding company, for an undisclosed sum. 7 Aug 2008

The notion of sustainability as it relates to CRM is worth some thought. CRM is used to accelerate the closing of a deal. But when you accelerate a close, especially with some sort of incentive like a discount, what you're really doing is stealing from the future, and that's not sustainable. 7 Aug 2008