Hewson Group - European leaders in CRM information and Analysis

‘Street Survey’ is a Unique Resource in Women's Retail

Since the beginning of June this year, Hewson Group have collected hundreds of handwritten surveys from women aged 18-59 in different parts of the UK. The respondents are approached at random in public situations such as bars, cafes and parks by female researchers and asked to fill in a complex questionnaire by hand and then return it in a sealed envelope. The intention is to gather the views of a cross section of women about the future of erotic retail without the bias caused in most sex surveys by self selection. The handwritten format allows for the expression of ideas and opinions and is probably the most definitive expression of women's views available anywhere. The answers link behaviours and buying intentions in a way that has not been understood before.

Scanned copies of the majority of the surveys will be available on the Hewson Group website from late August to buyers of the report 'Women, Sex and Shopping' and will allow clients to see how individual women consider the subject of erotic goods and the causal - two way - link with behaviours.

Although not yet complete - the survey will eventually extend to over 2000 women in the UK and Europe – the results are highly indicative and confirm earlier Hewson Group research which suggested a UK market worth well over £1billion by 2014 (up from a current £250m) and a global market worth perhaps over $20bn. This makes it a major sector - but one that is little understood.

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CUSTOMER ONBOARDING AND RE-ONBOARDING

The Critical Moment

Given the current world climate that companies now operate within, much greater consideration must be given to the wider aspects of onboarding new customers and re-assessing existing ones. Trust, accessibility and brand execution at the consumer interface will be of higher value as indeed will be the way in which the business world wants to makes judgements of its own on who it deals with and how.

There is a 'magic' period of Propensity in the first 90 Days of a customer relationship. Creating an effective onboarding opportunity at the first point of contact may be far more commercially important than most current operating procedures allow for. Developing more positive onboarding strategies offers the double benefit of enhanced revenue opportunities and a better customer experience.

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THE CREDIT CRUNCH, NON FINANCIAL INDICATORS AND GORDON BROWN

We have been contacted by a number of people recently asking for more information on the work we carried out a few years ago on the role of Non Financial Indicators (NFI) in Company reporting. This caused us to review some of the documents we produced and the correspondence we had with the Accounting Standards Board at that time (about 2001-2003) and to reflect on what happened. As an outcome of the work carried out by a number of bodies on NFI there was proposed legislation that was intended to increase the transparency and overview of the biggest companies in the UK. This was called the Operational and Financial Review (OFR).

The OFR was scrapped by Gordon Brown in January 2006 (after extensive preparation by business to prepare for it) to 'decrease the burden of regulation'. This might be considered a very odd decision in the post Enron era when alarm bells of all kinds should have been going off about visibility into the true performance of organisations. The FT's editorial at the time said the decision to scrap the OFR "..shows a weak grasp of the difference between crucial regulation and unnecessary red tape"

THE HEWSON GROUP

From the inception of Hewson Group in 1989 we have pushed at the boundaries of customer management thinking. The development of today’s marketing systems, the business use of the internet and e-govt all carry a trace of our imprint.

In managing markets and customers there is no static state and often the sands shift treacherously. We look out for the small hidden changes as well as the more radical opportunities and dangers that lie in the path ahead.

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking” - George S. Patton