Angie’s List lures customer referrals with a chocolate-covered incentive

By: Elaine Appleton Grant

It’s a chocoholic’s fantasy workplace.

Angie’s List, a company that reviews local service companies online and in print, is awash in M&Ms. Last year, the Indianapolis-based company mailed out 11,315 pounds of the crunchy treats as thank-you gifts to …

A prepaid cell phone provider offers one of mobile marketing’s most personalized loyalty programs yet

By: Linda Formichelli

The officials at Boost Mobile wanted to know who was on their phone lines.

With more than 4 million customers on the Boost cellular network, company executives knew their mobile phones were in use. …

Once torn between “old” Media and new, Marketers are learning that both work best when working together

By: Samar Farah

At first glance, Papa John’s Pizza would seem to be your traditional brand: a mass-market product with a mass-market audience and a mass-media approach to marketing. But when it comes to …

Magazines turn to online social networking tools to keep readers involved

By: W. Eric Martin

For much of their existence, magazines have communicated with readers in what has amounted to a one-way conversation: Writers distill opinions and observations; readers sit back and absorb. Audience feedback has usually been relegated to …

As Election Season Gears Up, the Candidates Get Personal

By: Christopher Caggiano

During the 2004 election, certain presidential candidates received a lot of press for “grass-roots” efforts to rally supporters and raise campaign funds on the Internet. Although businesses had for years been harnessing the power of the Web, politicos were …

A clothier uses high-end custom publications to help keep in touch with its well-heeled clientele

By: Vicki Powers

First-time customers at luxury clothing retailer Mitchells/Richards/Marshs receive a handwritten thank-you letter in the mail from CEO Jack Mitchell, a personal gesture that marks just the beginning of the retailer’s high-touch relationship with …