If attentive customer service is the hottest new marketing strategy, then a company’s employees are the key to brand building, Pete Blackshaw, Nielsen Online Executive Vice President, argues in his latest Ad Age column. 
Blackshaw cites the example of online shoe retailer Zappos.com, which makes customer service a priority.  The company is betting its customer-friendly ways will attract and retain loyal shoppers.
The benefits of that approach are evident, Blackshaw notes — though he warns that overhauling customer service strategies is no easy task.
“Getting this right is easier said than done. You …

British women are the target of a new marketing push that aims to prop up flagging beer sales in the UK, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Beermakers like Coors and Diageo, which owns Guinness, are hoping women, a largely untapped group of potential beer customers, will be drawn to sweeter, lighter new beers they’ve introduced. 
But that strategy alone may not be enough to boost beer sales, Graham Page of Nielsen told the Journal. 
“[Women] don’t consume the volume [of beer] — and that is crucial — that men do,” Page noted.

With online consumer forums and personal blogs in ascendence, communications strategies are being redefined — and PR firms, for one, have to adapt. 
That’s the message Pete Blackshaw emphasized in a recent discussion with the editors of The Council of Public Relations Firms’ The Firm Voice. 
Blackshaw, Nielsen Online’s EVP of Digital Strategic Services, is the author of a new book, “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000” (Doubleday), which examines marketing in the era of empowered consumers. 
“I think PR firms are going to have to get much smarter and savvier about …

The new book from Pete Blackshaw, Nielsen Online’s EVP of Digital Strategic Services, is continuing to garner critical praise. 
On Monday, Adweek and the Miami Herald published reviews of “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000” (Doubleday).  The Herald referred to Blackshaw as a “guru on customer interaction,” while Adweek’s review featured a video interview with the author (full disclosure: Adweek is owned by Nielsen) . 
“Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000” has also received rave reviews from CNBC’s Gloria McDonough-Taub and TIME’s Andrea Sachs.

The Nielsen Company announced Tuesday it has extended its agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) to provide U.S. consumer marketing information and insights.  Nielsen currently provides marketing information services to P&G in more than 65 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa.
Under the multi-year agreement, Nielsen will provide P&G with retail tracking, insights on consumer purchase behavior, marketing analytics, and Nielsen Answers™, Nielsen’s technology-based business intelligence solution. 
“P&G chose Nielsen for our technology capabilities, our deep, rich content, our strong focus on process improvement and productivity and …

In separate reviews published Thursday, CNBC’s Gloria McDonough-Taub and TIME’s Andrea Sachs praised “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000” (Doubleday), the new book from Nielsen Online’s Executive Vice President of Digital Strategic Services, Pete Blackshaw.   
Sachs concluded that the book, which offers guidance for marketing to Web-empowered consumers, “deserves a spot on the desk of every executive who worries about his company’s reputational risk.”
In her “Bullish on Books” blog, McDonough-Taub echoed that advice: ”‘Satisfied Customers’ is a great guide for business leaders and marketing officers who want to build …

In the next in a regular series of Ad Age columns, Nielsen Online Executive Vice President Pete Blackshaw examines how Canadian fast-food chain Tim Horton’s benefits from the unusually intense loyalty of its customers.
While Starbucks has struggled with store closings and customer-service failings, this coffee competitor from the North has quietly expanded, banking on its mission, its people, and its community ethos.
“Even though it’s a chain, the brand…comes across as uniquely authentic,” Blackshaw writes.  “There’s an important story behind this Tim Hortons brand. Great food, good value, strong community support …

On Monday, The Nielsen Company announced the release of “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000” (Doubleday), by Pete Blackshaw, Executive Vice President of Digital Strategic Services, Nielsen Online.  The book, which arrives in bookstores July 8, provides guidance for marketing in the era of Consumer Generated Media (i.e. empowered consumers).
Nielsen will host a webinar preview of the book on July 9.  To register for that event, visit: http://www.netratings.com/resources.jsp?section=event&nav=2.
For more details on the book, visit www.tell3000.com, or read a synopsis of the book in USA Today.

Is attentive customer service the hottest new marketing strategy? 
In the first of a regular series of Ad Age columns, Nielsen Online Executive Vice President Pete Blackshaw examines how Apple uses in-store “concierges” to both greet and direct shoppers—thus blurring the line between marketing and service. 
“Whether explicitly acknowledged or not, there’s an unmistakable ‘service is marketing’ mantra pervading every aspect of the Apple Store,” Blackshaw writes.  “That’s something every brand, even those not as shiny as Apple’s, can learn from. The opportunity to solve problems, find solutions and even address ‘the …