Fairmount CA

CHICAGO, IL, Jan 11, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
BigMachines, Inc., the leader in product configuration, pricing and
quoting, proposal generation and B2B ecommerce, today announced the
release of BigMachines 12, the latest version of the company’s
award-winning SaaS selling solution. BigMachines 12 enables sales
teams, channel partners and resellers to easily configure products,
generate quotes, proposals and contracts, manage complex pricing,
route approvals, and manage orders more efficiently and securely.

The new features delivered in BigMachines 12 are driven by customer
input combined with extensive industry research. BigMachines gathers
product feedback by collaborating with customers on the My BigIdea
innovation portal, regional Customer Success Forums and Cloud
conferences in the United States and Europe.

BigMachines customers will benefit from enhancements and new features
in BigMachines 12, including the following:

— The improved Migration Management Center allows customers to easily
transfer changes between their BigMachines test and production sites.
Customers can easily compare changes between two BigMachines
instances, filter results, and select specific components to update.
The new migration management center allows for greater visibility of
changes and speeds up the migration process.

— BigMachines’ new Configuration Layout Editor allows customers to
create complex configuration and search layouts with an easy to use
drag-and-drop editor for pixel perfect control of the page layout. The
results are web pages are easier to design, faster to load, and allow
for richer functionality.

— BigMachines updated Commerce Rules Wizard now provides customers with
a centralized location to create and edit all commerce rules. The new
functionality adds more flexibility in the BigMachines commerce
process and improves the user experience by providing a more scalable,
standardized way to create hiding attributes, constraints and
validations within BigMachines.

In addition to the enhancements above, BigMachines 12 also includes
many other features that improve the user experience and make system
maintenance easier for the administrator.

"BigMachines 12 is the latest release in our long line of
industry-leading SaaS software solutions. Each new BigMachines
product release improves upon the scalability, repeatability and
predictability of the solution for our customers," said John Pulling,
Senior Vice President of Products, BigMachines. "Customer feedback is
crucial to the process and enables us to continue to deliver the
features requested by our customers that will best drive their
business productivity."

Existing BigMachines customers will receive email notification of
their scheduled upgrade date to BigMachines 12.

Additional Resources

www.bigmachines.com -- Existing BigMachines Customers, view BigMachines 12 release notes or
access the My BigIdea innovation portal at support.bigmachines.com

http://blogs.bigmachines.com -- Follow BigMachines on Twitter: @BigMachines

www.facebook.com/BigMachines

About BigMachines
BigMachines is the global leader in enabling B2B
sales, helping companies sell more and sell faster. BigMachines'
award-winning on-demand configurator, pricing and quoting, proposal
generator, and B2B eCommerce software solutions empower sales across
customers' channels by streamlining their sales processes from
opportunity to order. Using BigMachines software, sales teams and
channels can quickly configure products, generate quotes and
proposals, manage complex pricing, generate legal contracts, and
manage orders. BigMachines offers extensive reporting capabilities
and easily integrates to leading CRM and ERP systems, including those
from salesforce.com, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP. BigMachines' rapidly
growing customer base includes global leaders such as Kodak's GCG,
Siemens, Ingersoll Rand, and NTT Communications, as well as
innovative growth companies such as Acme Packet. For more
information, visit
www.bigmachines.com .

Contact:
Emily Trevallion
PAN Communications
bigmachines@pancomm.com
Phone: 617-502-4300

SOURCE: BigMachines

mailto:bigmachines@pancomm.com

Copyright 2012 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

GENERAL SUMMARY
As a member of the European Product Department, the Product Manager is responsible for the research, coordination and ultimate execution of the European product line assigned by the Senior Product Manager. This position requires insight into the needs of the European consumer, retailer and athlete, both from the current market perspective as well as future growth opportunities by researching, identifying and defining current and future market opportunities. The Product Manager will work within the European Product Department and alongside the US Product team to indentify and execute a global product line that hits corporate growth, margin and profit goals from concept to market.

PRIMARY ACCOUNTABILITIES
Research the European market to identify opportunities and to stay on top of competitors, product innovations, emerging trends, materials, features and price points to successfully launch commercial amp; innovative product collections into the market at correct price points. Build collections or products and brief designers on direction, line plan, product features and price positioning working within the product development and sales calendar to meet deadlines to ensure the timely execution of the product line. Initiates and manages product feedback and inputs to the US and EU Sales to ensure TNF Europe has innovative, premium, technical products that drive sales to meet corporate goals.

Manages SKU efficiency to targeted company goals.
Works closely with the Product Development team during internal prototype reviews and vendor visits. Partners with RDamp;D, Forecasting, Sales, Retail and Marketing to effectively manage the design, development, distribution and net margin goals of the European product line from concept to product launch into the market.

Actively participates and presents at the global product design review meetings at the TNF headquarters in the US and present collections to the Sales Teams or accounts during the product development cycle and at Sales meetings.

Assists in merchandising at sales meetings and trade shows and provides additional support to sales teams when needed.
Maintains all product administration files (eg line lists, line segmentation plans, line efficiency reports, SKU lists, discrepancy lists, commodity codes, etc) and ensures prompt and accurate communication of all changes and updates to relevant departments and the sales team. Works with Marketing and E-Commerce on workbooks, hangtags and product information to communicate features, technologies amp; benefits to generate consumer appeal.

QUALIFICATIONS
Education: A degree in Marketing, Economics, Business, Merchandising, Fashion/Clothing Management or related field.
Experience: Minimum two years experience within a similar role or company, preferably within the outdoor industry (preferably Outerwear and Tekwear). Language skills: The ability to communicate in English is essential. Other European languages are a plus.

Analytical/Technical skills: A sound knowledge of Windows software packages including Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
Experience in working with a database tool and CAD/Adobe Illustrator packages would be a benefit.
Others: European amp; International travel will be required occasionally. An interest and active participation in outdoor sports and activities would be a benefit.

Location: Lugano Headquarters

If you wish to apply for this role, please upload your CV in English to our official websites: www.vfc.com -gt; Careers Jobs Europe or www.thenorthface.com -gt; Careers.

We hear repeatedly in surveys that CMOs No. 1 goal is to increase loyalty among existing customers. The most typical strategy is a rewards program offering benefits, points and prizes. But, depending on your type of business, loyalty rewards are not always the best way to grow customer loyalty.

In sectors such as travel or financial services, where increased frequency and value of transactions heighten the rewards, the programs have worked. But in other cases rewards have had the effect of diluting profitability. This is because they are targeted at profitable customers, who are already loyal and less price-sensitive.

Consumers are bombarded with programs, benefits, points and prizes. According to recent surveys, 1.8 billion loyalty-program memberships exist in the United States, with the average household participating in 14.1 programs. Yet more than half of those memberships are inactive, meaning the customer has stopped paying attention to the program and possibly even the brand itself.

Our firms research suggest that CMOs should avoid the race to rewards and think in terms of a wide array of options. A successful loyalty strategy is underpinned by the consumers emotional affinity with the brand, so the goal of should be to create sustained demand. Here are leading factors to consider in determining how best to achieve this:

• Consumers are becoming ever more demanding and more complex, as they depend less on label alone and require clearer value and product superiority. They are trained to hunt for rewards and incentives, and they like a branded experience, especially if its a digital one, that is rich with content, tools and community.

• The consumer definition of value has changed. The consumer sees the reward program as part of an entire package when purchasing a product. This includes not just functional benefits, but also how he or she feels about the company itself. For example, is your company a leader on environmental sustainability both with your products and within your company? If thats the case, sharing that information can improve your value to the customer.
  
• 
  Brand equity-building and preference-building ideas will win against discount- or points-only approaches, and have lasting effect on brand loyalty. Offering customers the opportunity to purchase advance tickets for special events for example, or asking them to participate in a product feedback panel, is valuable in building their loyalty. A points program alone is not a big or unique idea. While it may be a cost of entry, or a tipping point for some segments, there needs to be a wow branded idea that sits on top of it. It also must be something that brand stewards and customer relations-management gurus can agree on.
  
• 
  Understand how to stem brand-franchise defection. The real payback of a loyalty strategy is in managing existing customers, winning back lapsed customers and increasing the value of customers who might switch loyalties between brands on a regular basis. The key is conducting research with each of these groups, getting their input and developing strategies that are highly targeted to their unique position in your customer-relations efforts.
  
• Be sure to understand all available assets inside and outside your company through an audit to unlock your toolkit — free touch points like a monthly bill, or product packaging or a value exchange from vendors with a mutual interest such as direct-mail packages or e-newsletters aimed at millennial moms with toddlers.
  
• Complementary companies with shared audiences will increasingly work together. This consortium approach to loyalty is a trend. Enfamil and Pampers, as well as General Mills and Nestle, are good examples of companies taking this approach. The Jigsaw Consortium, for example, leverages a shared database between several companies to effectively target like minded-brand loyalists and also reduce their individual costs for data analytics.
  
• Brands are profoundly vulnerable to social media. Loyalties can shift fast, as communities rally behind or rail against brands. Brands must be monitoring, influencing and promoting themselves in social forums, including your own companys Twitter or Facebook pages, etc. to ensure that social channels help, and not hurt. For example, if there is a perceived problem with your product that is being inaccurately reported by the media and shared in social media circles, make sure that you find other media outlets or experts that are reporting the full and accurate story, and connect these accounts to your social-media fan base.
  

The winning approach involves a comprehensive and deeper understanding of the way your brand meets the needs of your most important and loyal customers, not just giving them points for being on your side.

Conversocial, a provider of social media tools for brands seeking to improve their customer service on Facebook and Twitter, has released its latest automated prioritization system, the Priority Response Engine (PRE), for use in social customer service.

This new and updated version of the companys software-as-a-service (SaaS) is designed to increase the ability of brands to respond to customer comments in a timely manner and make existing customer service agents and CRM tools more productive by prioritizing tweets, wall posts, and comments.

Priority Response Engine includes the following:

• Customer Service Prioritization: Textual and social interaction analytics to automatically flag comments and tweets requiring immediate attention, enabling social customer service agents to respond to customers faster.
• Tagging: Comments and tweets can be instantly categorized; combined with sentiment tracking this allows deep insight into the type and level of conversations and enables marketing, customer service. and product feedback teams to work effectively together.
• History: All social customer information, conversation history, connected tags, and sentiment can now be viewed in one place by agents before responding, increasing the quality of service provided.
• Facebook in Real-Time: Conversocial integrates with Facebooks new API, which allows the tool to retrieve and filter Facebook comments and posts in real time.

According to Conversocial analysis conducted during the holiday season, of more than 250,000 customer comments via social media, approximately 90 percent of posts on Facebook and Twitter can be processed automatically, while 10 percent are time-sensitive and require an individually tailored response from customer service agents.;

PRE is specifically designed to identify explicit customer service issues frequently hidden in more general comments. Conversocials prioritization software helps ensure that the most appropriate and immediate action is then taken and can also designate those items that require a lower priority.

PRE is the latest tool that allows us to stay one step ahead of customer demands on Facebook and Twitter, said Jardel Appelt, head of social media at BrandsClub, the largest e-commerce fashion company in Brazil. We can now identify important issues quickly and deliver fast responses to our customers queries. Without Conversocial, it would be much harder for us to stay on top of customer service in social media so efficiently, and many issues would likely be lost amongst general conversation.

In preparation for this product launch, Conversocial conducted a review of comments received by the worlds largest retailer, Walmart. In the run up to Christmas, Walmart published a question on its Facebook page asking its 11 million fans what they wanted from Santa Claus. That post generated more than 5,500 comments in under 24 hours, ranging from requests for new houses and cars to peace on earth and cures for various ailments. Among these comments were many genuine customer service questions and complaints Walmart failed to flag and respond to.

Research commissioned by Conversocial and unveiled last month indicated that 88 percent of consumers are less likely to buy from companies who leave complaints on social media unanswered. The survey also indicated that 78 percent of consumers are likely to use social media for customer service issues.

Contribution to Environmental Improvement – Recycling sponsored by Kuehne + Nagel

Three entries were shortlisted for the “Recycling” Award and all demonstrated merit. The entry from Argos in partnership with Norbert Dentressangle demonstrated what could be achieved by a dedicated operational team. The staff at the company’s Mossend RDC showed great team spirit in hitting targets and transforming every worker’s attitude to making a positive impact on the environment.

The Royal Mint’s entry was focused on a £26 million investment into plating and effluent treatment equipment at its facilities in Llantrisant, Wales. The new process is totally contained and controlled within The Royal Mint and uses a completely different chemistry to that used on the decommissioned plant – resulting in a significant reduction in the amount of mains water used. The quantity of effluent discharged has been reduced by 50 per cent and the filter cake produced by the new process is expected to be a revenue generator by being sold on to the paint and cement industries. This project demonstrated some excellent benefits to the environment.

However, the one that impressed the judges the most was the entry from Spirit Pub Company. The company has introduced a system for collection of waste from its 802 pubs – but what makes this different is its focus on food waste and used cooking oil. It worked closely with its 3PL on newly designed lorries to carry food waste in separate areas under the vehicles, requiring investment and close collaboration. Food waste now goes for bio-digestion and cooking oil goes for conversion into bio-fuel – making huge savings in material going to landfill. In addition, there were obstacles to overcome in terms of attitudes of pub staff and the drivers collecting the waste. In particular, the judges liked the impact this initiative had on marketing and product. Feedback on the waste being generated is impacting on the products offered in pubs – re-evaluating food items which were unnecessary or unwanted. For the judges, Spirit Pub Company was the winner.

Shortlisted

» Argos in partnership with Norbert Dentressangle

» Spirit Pub Company

» The Royal Mint

Supply Chain Standard, December 2011

Swann Communications, Seagate Technology, Whalen and Panasonic Corporation of North America honored.

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) January 13, 2012

ShowUhow, Inc., developer and provider of the industry leading 360-degree product experience and usability solution, announced this years winners of the ShowUhow Most Satisfying Out of Box Experience Awards at a reception last night at the Venetian Hotel during the Consumer Electronics Show. Four leading manufacturers were recognized for their outstanding uses of technology to provide a positive customer experience throughout the buying cycle.

The Most Satisfying Out of Box Experience Award was designed to acknowledge manufacturers who have applied the latest in technology – not only to their products, but to the entire customer experience, said Kim Folsom, ShowUhows founder and CEO. Every winner this year has taken the buying and ownership cycle to a new level through our technology – from video product guides to metrics gathering– to provide the most positive experience through the purchase and ownership cycle.

The ShowUhow 2012 Most Satisfying Out of Box Experience winners are:

Swann Communications – For innovative approach to product development, marketing, and support. Capitalizing on the indisputable trend toward consumer Smart Phone adoption, Swann Communications allowed their consumers to gain anytime, anywhere product support using their smart phones and tablet devices. Swann customers now enjoy step-by-step, video product guide instruction in tasks as simple as searching for specific clips of surveillance footage to performing advanced networking set-ups.

Seagate Technology – For continued commitment to delivering a unique, innovative experience for their new game changing storage products. Seagate embedded ShowUhow Video product guides directly into their products. Doing so, they are able to educate consumers worldwide about individual features through a unique hands-on product experience.

Whalen – For leveraging the 360 degree capabilities of adding ShowUhow products into every aspect of their product – in both pre and post sales. Whalen utilizes their product video guides on big box retailer websites to educate and set proper expectations about the product experience and also leverages their investment in their video products post sales to provide 7 by 24 self-service and step-by-step support. Most important, Whalen leverages the ShowUhow platform to gather insight, feedback and analytics from consumers to gauge overall satisfaction and identify product improvements.

Panasonic Corporation of North America – For innovative and continued commitment to a superlative consumer product experience. In 2011, Panasonic leveraged their ShowUhow produced product videos by embedding them into the product support portal of their new Viera Support Center. The goal was to go the extra step toward helping their consumers gain fast, simple setup of their network connected HDTVs. This effort currently has resulted in a more than 80 percent customer satisfaction rating among Panasonics HDTV line customers.

About ShowUhow, Inc.

ShowUhow, Inc. provides innovative, relevant 360? product experience and usability solution that enables manufacturers and retailers to improve product profitability and gather real time product usability analytics though the delivery of a series of on-demand, video-based product uides. These video-based product guides are distributed via smartphones, web, and social media for every stage of the customer purchase life cycle: pre-sale education, installation, and feedback resulting in repeat business through brand loyalty. By adding ShowUhows web and mobile platform and real-time analytic capabilities to the pre-sale and installation stages, manufacturers and retailers have consistently seen faster installs, reductions in costly support calls, increased product satisfaction, and improved intelligence of product usability. The Company is headquartered in San Diego, CA and names manufacturers Panasonic, Olympus and Seagate as well as major retailers Costco, Bestbuy, and RadioShack as clients.

The ShowUhow Solution has proven to hold a customers attention-garnering an 8x greater average time on site than the average retail web site-offering opportunities for timely product feedback and long-term brand loyalty development. The ShowUhow service is so effective that the company guarantees a twenty five percent reduction in product returns within the first six months on any product offering the ShowUhow 360-Degree Product Experience Solution. For more information, please go to www.showuhow.com __Most Satisfying Out of Box Experience__ or call 858-492-1222.

###

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/1/prweb9104507.htm

VANCOUVER, Jan 10, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
lululemon athletica inc. [NASDAQ: LULU; TSX: LLL] today announced that
the Company is raising its guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal
2011 ending January 29, 2012.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, the Company now expects diluted
earnings per share to be in the range of $0.47 to $0.49 as compared to
its previous guidance range for diluted earnings per share of $0.40 to
$0.42. The Company’s improved guidance reflects stronger than
anticipated net revenue for the quarter.

The Company now expects net revenue to be in the range of $358 million
to $363 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011. This compares to
the Company’s previous guidance of net revenue in the range of
$327 million to $332 million for the quarter, and compares to net
revenue of $245 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010.
Comparable-store sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 are
expected to reflect a low-to-mid twenties percentage increase on a
constant-dollar basis. This compares to the Company’s previous guidance
of low to mid-teens comparable-store sales for the fourth quarter of
fiscal 2011.

Christine Day, lululemon’s CEO stated: “Our work throughout the year
building our inventory position is driving our success in the fourth
quarter. Guests have responded exceptionally well to the robust
assortment and bright color palette for holiday, and momentum continues
with the new spring product offerings.”

Management will be presenting at the ICR XChange Conference on
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 in Miami, Florida. See separate release for
webcast information.

About lululemon athletica inc.

lululemon athletica

/quotes/zigman/39660/quotes/nls/lulu LULU
0.00%

/quotes/zigman/39677 CA:LLL
-0.25%

is a yoga-inspired athletic
apparel company that creates components for people to live a long,
healthy and fun life. By producing products that help keep people active
and stress free, lululemon believes that the world will be a better
place. Setting the bar in technical fabrics and functional designs,
lululemon works with yogis and athletes in local communities for
continuous research and product feedback. For more information, visit
www.lululemon.com .

Non-GAAP Financial Measure

Constant-dollar net revenue changes, which exclude the impact of changes
in foreign exchange rates, is not a United States Generally Accepted
Accounting Principle (“GAAP”) performance measure. We provide
constant-dollar net revenue changes because we use the measure to
understand the underlying growth rate of revenue excluding the impact on
a quarter-by-quarter basis of changes in foreign exchange rates, which
are not under management’s direct control. We believe that disclosing
net revenue changes on a constant-dollar basis is useful to investors
because it enables them to better understand the level of growth of our
business.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that involve risks, uncertainties
and assumptions, such as statements regarding our future financial
condition or results of operations, our prospects and strategies for
future growth, the development and introduction of new products, and the
implementation of our marketing and branding strategies. In many cases,
you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,”
“will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “outlook,”
“believes,” “intends,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or the
negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These
forward-looking statements are based on management’s current
expectations but they involve a number of risks and uncertainties.
Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from
those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of risks
and uncertainties, which include, without limitation: an economic
downturn or economic uncertainty in our key markets; increasing product
costs and decreasing selling prices; our inability to anticipate
consumer preferences and successfully develop and introduce new,
innovative and updated products; our inability to accurately forecast
customer demand for our products; our inability to manage our growth and
the increased complexity of our business effectively; the fluctuating
costs of raw materials; our reliance on and limited control over
third-party suppliers to provide fabrics for and to produce our
products; our highly competitive market and increasing competition; an
unforeseen disruption of our information systems; our inability to
deliver our products to the market and to meet customer expectations due
to problems with our distribution system; our inability to cancel store
leases if an existing or new store is not profitable; increasing labor
costs and other factors associated with the production of our products
in China; our inability to successfully open new store locations in a
timely manner; our failure to maintain the value and reputation of our
brand; our failure to comply with trade and other regulations; our
competitors manufacturing and selling products based on our fabrics and
manufacturing technology at lower prices than we can; our failure to
protect our intellectual property rights; and other risk factors
detailed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
January 30, 2011 and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for fiscal 2011,
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available at
www.sec.gov .
You are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the
forward-looking statements contained herein and are cautioned not to
place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are
qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The
forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date of this
press release and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly
update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or
circumstances.

SOURCE: lululemon athletica inc.

ICR, Inc.
Investors:
Joseph Teklits or Jean Fontana, 203-682-8200
or
Media:
Alecia Pulman, 203-682-8224

Copyright Business Wire 2012

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Add LULU to portfolio

LULU

lululemon athletica inc.

$
63.13

0.00
0.00%

Volume: 1.32M
Jan. 31, 2012 4:00p

/quotes/zigman/39677

Add LLL to portfolio

CA:LLL

lululemon athletica inc.

$
63.14

-0.16
-0.25%

Volume: 119,089
Jan. 31, 2012 3:46p

London and New York City (PRWEB) January 26, 2012

Conversocial, a provider of social media tools for brands seeking to improve their customer service on Facebook and Twitter, announced today the launch of the latest automated prioritization system, the Priority Response Engine (TM) (PRE), for use in social customer service. This new and updated version of the company’s already award winning software-as-a-service (SaaS) is designed to increase the ability of brands to respond to customer comments in a timely manner and make existing customer service agents and CRM tools more productive by prioritizing tweets, wall posts, and comments.

According to Conversocial analysis conducted over the recently completed holiday season, of over 250,000 customer comments via social media, approximately 90% of posts on Facebook and Twitter can be processed automatically, while 10% are time sensitive and require an individually tailored response from a retailer’s customer service agent.

In today’s business environment, a post from a company – especially to drive marketing — can receive thousands of comments from customers – often within minutes. PRE is specifically designed to identify explicit customer service issues frequently hidden in more general comments. Conversocial’s prioritization software helps ensure that the most appropriate and immediate action is then taken and can also designate those items that require a lower priority.

As opposed to the traditional model for customer service software –where vendors raise a “ticket” for every comment or tweet posted–whether or not a response is required –Conversocial’s PRE system prioritizes all comments based on necessity of response. Raising a ticket for every comment is not efficient for those companies with high volume social media activity, as not every message requires a response. Without a solution like PRE, agents are apt to waste valuable time working through thousands of tickets.

“PRE is the latest tool that allows us to stay one step ahead of customer demands on Facebook and Twitter,” according to Jardel Appelt, Head of Social Media at Brandsclub, one of the largest e-commerce fashion company in Brazil. “We can now identify important issues quickly and deliver fast responses to our customers’ queries. Without Conversocial, it would be much harder for us to stay on top of customer service in social media so efficiently, and many issues would likely be lost amongst general conversation.”

In preparation for today’s announcement, Conversocial conducted a review of comments received by the world’s largest retailer, Walmart. In the run up to Christmas, Walmart published a question on their Facebook page asking their 11 million fans what they wanted from Santa Claus. That post generated over 5,500 comments in under 24 hours ranging from requests for new houses and cars to peace on earth and cures for various ailments. Amongst these comments were many genuine customer service questions and complaints Walmart failed to flag and respond. (See our blog post, that details the issue of marketing activities degrading customer service, entitled, “Needles in Haystacks: Trying to Identify Social Customer Issues Without the Right Tools”)

There’s a social media paradox that on one hand companies are driving huge awareness to their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts through marketing campaigns, but on the other hand, customers use these same campaigns as direct customer service channels – whether the company intended it or not said Joshua March, CEO of Conversocial. “Without a solution that enables customer service agents to identify real issues in social media and respond directly to customers quickly, its not only companies’ reputations and competitiveness that will suffer, but customer frustration in the public domain snowballs and results in loss of sales and revenue.”

Research commissioned by Conversocial and unveiled last month indicated that 88% of consumers are less likely to buy from companies who leave complaints on social media unanswered. The survey also indicated that 78% of consumers are likely to use social media for customer service issues.

In response to both research and experience gained from processing over 50 million customer interactions to date, Conversocial has launched its Priority Response Engine, which includes:

• Customer Service Prioritization: Textual and social interaction analytics to automatically flag comments and tweets requiring immediate attention enabling social customer service agents to respond to customers faster.
• Tagging: Comments and tweets can be instantly categorized; combined with sentiment tracking this allows deep insight into the type and level of conversations and enables marketing, customer service and product feedback teams to work effectively together.
• Customer History: All social customer information, conversation history, connected tags and sentiment can now be viewed in one place by agents before responding, increasing the quality of service provided.
• Facebook in Real-Time: Conversocial is the first social media management platform to integrate with Facebook’s new API, which allows the tool to retrieve and filter Facebook comments and posts in real-time -allowing unprecedented customer service response time and brand protection.

Conversocial provides a completely free starter edition, designed for a single user to take immediate control of company Facebook pages and Twitter streams. Team and Enterprise editions are available to provide scalable, auditable, and secure processes across multiple agents and departments.

Headquartered in London, Conversocial is expanding into the American market and recently announced they have processed more than 50 million customer service interactions on social media, growing at a clip of 10 million per month. Companies and organizations such as Groupon, ITV, Ogilvy, Tupperware, and The University of Phoenix are using Conversocial and their Software-as-a-Service to manage the flow of customer service inquiries and discussions on Facebook and Twitter.

###

ADVISORY, Jan 4, 2012 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) –
What:

lululemon athletica inc. (LULU), a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company that creates components for people to live a long, healthy and fun life, will visit the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York City’s Times Square in celebration of NASDAQ “Fit Week,” a week of bell ceremonies featuring NASDAQ-listed companies which help America lead healthier lifestyles.

In honor of the occasion, CEO Christine Day will officially ring The NASDAQ Stock Market Closing Bell.

Where:

NASDAQ MarketSite — 4 Times Square — 43rd & Broadway — Broadcast Studio

When:

Thursday, January 5th, 2012 — 3:45 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET

Contact:

Alecia Pulman
apulman@icrinc.com

NASDAQ MarketSite:

Jen Knapp
(212) 401-8916
Jennifer.knapp@nasdaqomx.com

Feed Information:

Fiber Line (Encompass Waterfront): 4463

Gal 3C/06C 95.05 degrees West18 mhz Lower
DL 3811 Vertical
FEC 3/4
SR 13.235
DR 18.295411
MOD 4:2:0
DVBS QPSK

Facebook and Twitter:

For multimedia features such as exclusive content, photo postings, status updates and video of bell ceremonies please visit our Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/nasdaqomx

For news tweets, please visit our Twitter page at:

http://twitter.com/nasdaqomx

Webcast:

A live webcast of the NASDAQ Closing Bell will be available at:

http://www.nasdaq.com/about/marketsitetowervideo.asx or
http://social.nasdaqomx.com .

Photos:

To obtain a hi-resolution photograph of the Market Close, please go to
http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/marketsite_events.stm and click on the market close of your choice.

About lululemon athletica inc. (LULU):

lululemon athletica

/quotes/zigman/39660/quotes/nls/lulu LULU
+1.81%

/quotes/zigman/39677 CA:LLL
+1.70%

is a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company that creates components for people to live long, healthy and fun lives. By producing products that help keep people active and stress free, lululemon believes that the world will be a better place. Setting the bar in technical fabrics and functional designs, lululemon works with yogis and athletes in local communities for continuous research and product feedback. For more information, visit
www.lululemon.com .

About NASDAQ OMX:

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. is the world’s largest exchange company. It delivers trading, exchange technology and public company services across six continents, with more than 3,500 listed companies. NASDAQ OMX offers multiple capital raising solutions to companies around the globe, including its U.S. listings market, NASDAQ OMX Nordic, NASDAQ OMX Baltic, NASDAQ OMX first North, and the U.S. 144A sector. The company offers trading across multiple asset classes including equities, derivatives, debt, commodities, structured products and exchange-traded funds. NASDAQ OMX technology supports the operations of over 70 exchanges, clearing organizations and central securities depositories in more than 50 countries. NASDAQ OMX Nordic and NASDAQ OMX Baltic are not legal entities but describe the common offering from NASDAQ OMX exchanges in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Iceland, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. For more information about NASDAQ OMX, visit
http://www.nasdaqomx.com . *Please follow NASDAQ OMX on Facebook (
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NASDAQ-OMX/108167527653 ) and Twitter (
http://www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx ).

This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire,
www.globenewswire.com

SOURCE: The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

-NDAQA-

(C) Copyright 2010 GlobeNewswire, Inc. All rights reserved.

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LULU

lululemon athletica inc.

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Volume: 1.58M
Jan. 27, 2012 3:59p

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CA:LLL

lululemon athletica inc.

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64.15

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Volume: 162,202
Jan. 27, 2012 5:40p

This is the third in the ongoing series, “Product Innovation” co-authored by Andrew Brown and Simon Brightman.

In the first article of this series on Product Innovation, we identified the three things that businesses need in order to create and sustain innovative products: 1) clarity of purpose  - ie knowing what’s really important for the company to thrive; 2) clarity about the processes used for executing on what’s really important; and 3) clarity about how resources should be deployed for achieving what’s really important.

In this article, we focus on clarity of process   a key element critical to developing innovative products that are well received, timely and profitable. We draw upon the insights from leading product innovators Aeroplan, Starbucks, Microsoft Canada and ING DIRECT, all of which have successfully tackled a challenge that is fundamental to creating innovative products: introducing effective processes for integrating customer input. We also provide a proven framework that is built on the experience of successfully bringing innovative products to market.

Creating new products requires an efficient process for effectively integrating customer input. But companies continue to be frustrated about how to best leverage customer input.  What makes this surprising is that over the last three years, businesses have enthusiastically invested in social media tools. Part of the rationale for that investment has been to have the means to solicit, customers’ thoughts about their products, brands, competitors and purchase intentions.

Barriers to Using Customer Input

According to Jeff Hendler, from the think tank, the Product Accelerators, Barriers that commonly hinder companies from harnessing the power of customer input in developing new products or product enhancements include concerns over the following:

• That customer feedback will distract rather than hone product/service offerings;
• The expense involved in gathering customer data;
• How to deal appropriately with negative feedback;
• The disparate nature of customer feedback;
• Maintaining customer privacy; and
• Disclosing product information that is a competitive advantage

At the core of these issues are three critical questions that all companies need to address:

• When should customer input be collected for developing the best products?
• What customer input should be collected for developing the best products?
• How should customer input be used in developing the best products?

In order to answer these questions, companies need to integrate easy-to-develop processes into their product innovation cycle.

Guidelines for Integrating Customer Input

Those responsible for owning product development can develop processes to address these core issues by: following three key customer-product feedback principles and applying a straight-forward framework for leveraging customer input.

Customer-Product Feedback Principles

Principle #1: Customer feedback is not a one-off initiative. Developing a product that is embraced by customers is on-going and requires continuously revisiting and verifying assumptions about the product and the core need it fills.

Aeroplan’s VP, Marketing David Klein knows the power of gathering and integrating customer input. The loyalty leader recently launched a last minute travel tool that allows members to book flights with as few as 14 days notice. According to Klein, One of the primary reasons that the tool has been so enthusiastically embraced across Canada is because we established mechanisms to truly listen to customers. For a start, that meant reviewing the data which revealed that its members booked almost 25% of their flights within two weeks of travelling. But Aeroplan has gone several steps further. For example, Klein reveals that Aeroplan maintains and nurtures a growing group of committed customers who regularly provide insight into the reasons behind their thinking, feeling and purchase decisions. For Aeroplan, the benefit has been tangible: a 15% increase in purchases attributable to the new customer-focused product following its launch.

Principle #2: Build life-long champions. Collecting customer input into the development of a new product provides every company with a powerful opportunity to build enthusiasts and advocates. At the same time, gathering product-related customer input is not meant to replace market research but rather focuses it on something that is tangible and something that customers can easily relate to.

Few companies are more committed to building long-term customer relationships by leveraging feedback than Starbucks. The Seattle-based coffee chain recently launched its new loyalty program, My Starbucks Rewards. According to Matthew Guiste, Director, Global Brand Loyalty, its roots were largely based in customer input, For over two years, we had been collecting customer data on how and when over one million members make purchase choices through a previously rolled-out loyalty program. The newly launched My Starbucks Rewards program was made possible because we  continuously engage with customers to gather their input. At the same time, Starbucks gathers and evaluates product ideas put forth by enthusiastic fans and shared via the Starbucks site as well as on users’ own blogs and Facebook pages.

Another leader in its approach to integrating customer input is the financial innovator ING DIRECT. With a core mandate of helping Canadians to live their day-to-day lives better, the company has leaped ahead of its competitors by actually making it mandatory for executives to regularly listen to, and converse with, customers. According to CEO Peter Aceto and Head of Digital and Interactive, Mark Nicholson, that means the most senior professionals at ING DIRECT spend time reviewing actual comments taken from the company’s call-centers — and participating in customer support.

Principle #3: Be transparent about your motives. Gathering useful customer input means that you must be authentic to customers/would-be-customers about what information you are collecting and how it will be used.

Few brand names carry the weight worldwide of Microsoft. In bringing to market its new enterprise product Office 365″, the company openly solicited customer input, making it clear that the purpose was to develop something that would be in sync with the latest technology and fulfill key needs of its target market. According to Eric Gales, President of Microsoft Canada, This powerful product was configured by listening carefully to customers’ needs for robust security, every-day reliability and user productivity. In other words, rather than getting swept up in a battle of features in a very competitive market, we took the high-road: focusing on our market and what was important to them. Gales continue, the only way that we could ensure that we had an accurate reading of what customers wanted was to be completely straightforward about why were collecting their input.

These principles, when coupled with the following proven 3 W’s Framework allow all companies to establish processes to help them effectively leverage customer input for developing innovative products that are timely, profitable and valued.

The 3-Ws Framework for Leveraging Customer Input^TM