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Articles by Eric Epstein
Is Your Marketing Function Capable Of Growth?
I’m a very inexperienced gardener. I’m lucky that the annuals in the yard I inherited from a previous green-thumbed owner are fairly hearty and thrive despite my lackluster efforts. But even I know that if I manage to nurture a seed into a seedling, I wouldn’t then start to measure success by how many bunnies are aware of its presence, by the satisfaction of the bees who frequent it, or by its efficient use of resources.
First they fought it; then they loved it
What comes to mind when you hear the word “Paris”? For most, it’s the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, tree-lined boulevards, sidewalk cafés, and delectable pastries. It’s a beautiful city, and when I visited nearly 30 years ago, I discovered one more distinctly Parisian experience: being charged the “tourist price” for coffee, despite the menu clearly displaying the actual price. Apparently, the snooty waiters weren’t fooled by my high school French. C’est la vie.
Over the past two years, as the First Selectmen of Warren, Washington and Kent in western Connecticut, we have been addressing an avalanche of complaints about “wake surfing” on Lake Waramaug—a beautiful natural glacial lake and one of our local treasures. Now, advocates for wake surfing and the boating industry are trying to take away our right to do our job.
From AI to Tight Ends: Super Bowl LX’s Growth Winners
Another Super Bowl in the books, and we’re left asking ourselves questions like, “Who had a better night – Artificial Intelligence or the Backstreet Boys’ agent?” While the industry makeup of Super Bowl ads shifted, some things never change – like the use of spokes-animals and celebrity-fueled 90’s nostalgia, plus the need for advertisers to yield growth from their spot’s hefty investment. Later in 2026 Forrester will introduce a B2C Marketing Capabilities Assessment.
Architect’s critique of 500 North Main redevelopment in Summerville
For several good reasons, I’ve resisted writing about the ongoing saga at Summerville’s 500 North Main Street – the public-private effort to redevelop the Dorchester County offices into a mixed-use project. Many residents have strong feelings about the scope, program, and design, and many are emotionally invested. Some are vocal, some not.
The myth of “historical colors” in old houses
Thanks to scientific research, human curiosity and intellectual honesty, we now know that many long-held beliefs – once regarded as incontrovertible facts – are completely untrue. The Earth isn’t flat, the sun doesn’t revolve around our planet, Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets and Albert Einstein didn’t fail math; in fact, he had mastered differential and integral calculus by age 15.
What K-pop can teach us about architecture’s golden ratio
One recent weekend, my dear daughter insisted that for our family movie night, we watch “K-Pop Demon Hunters,” which, unbeknownst to me at the time, was a rather popular film this year. So, being the ever-accommodating dad, and in the interest of maintaining domestic tranquility, I withdrew my suggestions for watching James Bond or Mel Brooks movies that evening. I must admit, I enjoyed the film, which is an animated musical about a fictional K-pop girl band that uses singing to ward off demons.
ARCHITECT’S CORNER: What’s the sense in that?
A long time ago, when I was just beginning my career working in a hip New York architecture office, our team designed a new concept wine store. It was going to be a small, boutique chain with top-rated and curated wines, and all of them affordable – no ritzy $300 bottles here. Our client, a gregarious fellow and quite the wine cognoscente, came to our office one day to give a wine tasting class – complete with a wry-witted standup comedy routine.
marketing measurement & optimization Archives
Blog Attention, all B2B leaders! The stage is set, and the spotlight is on you. The B2B Summit APAC Awards are calling for entries — this is your golden opportunity to showcase your extraordinary achievements. Blog While B2C marketers are confident in their ability to measure impact, trends in marketing analytics aren't making it any easier. Find out why in this preview of a new report on the state of B2C marketing measurement.
The problem with architectural design codes
Some years ago, when I taught design studio in architecture school, I would often have students ask me, “Is it acceptable to design my project like this?” My typical response was, “You can design it any way you like, as long as you do it really well.” And that was the key – doing it well, which requires effort, discernment, and creativity.
Setting the 'Wright' priorities for Summerville’s budget
Frank Lloyd Wright, the most renowned American architect of the 20th century, was prolific in his body of work (having designed more than 1,000 projects) and his writings (more than 20 books). It’s no surprise he left us with many memorable quotes.
ARCHITECT’S CORNER: Not just playing around
Ah, to be a kid again. To run around a playground with friends, to defy serious injury while climbing the deadly steel cage of the jungle gym, to ride the seesaw (and strategically jump off, dropping the playground bully to the ground on his bottom) and to approximate drunkenness by trying to walk straight after your friends spin you on the swing until you’re thoroughly dizzy. We all have fond – and not-so-fond – memories of playgrounds.
Balanced Benefits Give Loyalty Programs A Competitive Advantage
Loyalty programs are struggling to deliver an engaging member experience. In Forrester’s Consumer Benchmark Survey, 2024, 34% of US online adults who belong to a customer loyalty program agreed that they frequently forget to use loyalty programs they belong to. To maximize program effectiveness, loyalty programs need a balanced mix of transactional benefits that offer monetary value, and non-transactional benefits that spark more emotional connections.
Unlocking Go-to-Market Momentum Through Strategic Campaign Alignment
To prove the value of marketing, marketers need to deliver growth. Delivering sustainable growth hinges on a transformative go-to-market strategy that prioritizes impact. This demands a fundamental shift: moving beyond a litany of disconnected product messages and reactive, short-term activities — the marketing activity trap — toward a long-term focus on engaging buyers and customers throughout their entire journey. It’s about moving from simply doing marketing to driving business impact.
The Essential Role of Process in Executing Your B2B Strategy
B2B organizations often find themselves at a crossroads between strategy formulation and strategy execution. The harsh reality is that many fail to transform their well-crafted strategies into tangible results, a disconnect stemming from a fundamental oversight: the underestimation of process as a critical lever for execution. Process is not merely a conduit for efficiency; it’s the backbone of converting strategy into results.
Advertisers Look For Super Growth In Super Bowl LIX
Fly, Eagles, Fly! I normally prefer competitive Super Bowl games but this Eagles fan was perfectly happy with a massacre this year. And also – there were ads! Organizations are facing more pressure than ever to deliver profitable growth, and brand budgets are squeezed as marketers are being asked to do more with less and prove the returns of practically every penny spent.
ARCHITECT’S CORNER: I mishear America singing
What do music and architecture have in common? Both art forms affect our mood, require compositional artistry, and demand a great deal of working and reworking to achieve the desired outcome. Artists, including musicians and architects who take their craft seriously, are driven to work on their projects until they have solved everything to their liking. Perfection is the goal; mediocrity is failure. Unsurprisingly, many musicians studied architecture before branching out into music.
ARCHITECT’S CORNER: On compatibility - misunderstood modernism, Part 2
In my last article, “Misunderstood Modernism,” I explained how modern architecture seeks to achieve the same things classical architecture did – designing for beauty, using innovation, connecting buildings to their site, and making them belong to their time. But since construction technology and materials have greatly evolved since the classical antiquity era and because we’re not building in ancient Greece or Rome, today’s architecture is naturally different.
Architects Corner: Misunderstood modernism
Why is it that some people who embrace, love and take pride in having modern things can also seem allergic to modern architecture? They may commission a new school or library, asking for it to be modern and state-of-the-art, but then want it to look like it was built 200 years ago. They may drive a shiny new car, wear the latest fashions, buy sleek stainless appliances and enjoy their home’s modern open floor plan, yet adorn their new house in traditional pediments and Corinthian columns.
The case against restarting Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 [column]
The proposed restart of Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor seems to have been cooked up in the dark. It has been met with unabashed enthusiasm by Gov. Josh Shapiro and many members of the Pennsylvania Legislature. If it were to go through, the proposed restart of Three Mile Island would have only one client: Microsoft. The relationship would be exclusive and mostly benefit Microsoft’s data centers outside Pennsylvania.
ARCHITECT’S CORNER: When everything is special, nothing is special
Too much of anything — even good — can become monotonous and lose value. As Oscar Wilde once said, “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” It would seem many designers of subdivision developments haven’t received the memo. In architecture and planning, the legibility of a place depends on our ability to make a mental map of our surroundings. Having a clear sense of our location within the larger neighborhood, town, or city is vital to our well-being and sense of safety.
ARCHITECT’S CORNER: The misguided and deadly practice of widening roads
Between 2020 and 2023, there were 119 pedestrians and bicyclists seriously injured or killed by cars in Summerville. That’s an accident every 12 days on average. Earlier this year, a 16-year-old boy was struck and killed while walking across Bacons Bridge Road trying to get to his church. This road, and other wide roads like Old Trolley, Berlin Myers Parkway and Midland Parkway, appear routinely in accident records. Why is that? Weren’t these roads recently improved?
ARCHITECT’S CORNER: Investing in joy
Some may remember a television show from a few years ago with Marie Kondo, the Japanese queen of organizing and decluttering, in which she had a unique method of identifying items worth keeping and those better suited for a thrift store donation.
ARCHITECT'S CORNER: Towns are not machines
Many years ago, I worked on a new development that involved creating several city blocks and streets and connecting them to an existing neighborhood. This was in Southern California, a place with a visceral attachment to and dependency on automobiles. To create a walkable project, I located the traffic lights and crosswalks along the central street of this development to be at every intersection, about 250 feet apart.
Unleashing The B2B Revolution: The Bold Power Of E-Commerce
Drawing from my personal experience and passion for e-commerce, I am excited to share research on the compelling reasons and effective strategies for B2B organizations to harness this route to market that will propel their organizational growth. In parallel, this blog marks the commencement of a six-part series, set to be released over the next three months. The series delves into various perspectives and intriguing topics surrounding B2B e-commerce.
CDP In APAC: A Fast-Growing Emerging Market
I’m pleased to announce the publication of The Customer Data Platforms In Asia Pacific Landscape, Q1 2024 report. This comprehensive report features 22 vendors with $5 million or more annual CDP revenue from the APAC market. Most vendors are still in the early stages of developing their business in APAC, indicating that the market is still emerging compared to more established markets like North America.
How To Capitalize On Experience-Led Growth
Despite building yearly growth plans that they believe to be achievable, many B2B organizations fall short. Executives face the frustrating disconnect between ambition and execution, with teams entangled in competing priorities and internal resistance. This “growth gap” often results from: Building on quicksand. Chasing quick wins without understanding the journey to exceptional buyer and customer experiences, organizations stumble, miss goals, and require resources that they didn’t foresee.
If You Want Customer Loyalty, You Need A Value Exchange
I regularly have discussions with clients who want to create a loyalty program. But when we dig deeper into their approach, their answers to critical questions often indicate that the client hasn’t fully considered the implications of a program: Many brands jump into a structured loyalty program (the tactic) before they have defined the strategy or the value exchange. Without these, a program is far less likely to yield positive results.
Who Capitalized on a Super Opportunity to Win More Consumers?
Last summer I introduced a framework for overcoming acquisition blockers – or as I called them, the “dark side” of the growth levers that my colleague Dipanjan and I introduced in our report Unlock Your Growth Potential. The key to sustained brand growth is continuously recruiting new customers, and diagnosing and overcoming any of these acquisition blockers is necessary to step change your customer base.
ARCHITECT’S CORNER - Mixed-use: Out with the new, in with the old
It’s often said that what’s old eventually becomes new again; you just have to wait long enough. This certainly applies to fashion, and I hope it also applies to planning and development. Let’s take the “mixed-use building” concept, meaning combining and integrating multiple uses within a single structure. For many, mixed-use buildings are a novel and rather peculiar idea these days.
Architect's Corner: Downtowns are different by design
Humor is funnier when it holds a kernel of truth. In one memorable scene from Steve Martin’s 1991 comedy film “L.A. Story,” Martin pokes fun at L.A.’s car-oriented culture. Determined to deliver a few choice words to his pesky neighbor, Martin’s character – rather than simply walking over to the house next door – gets into his car, drives 50 feet to his neighbor’s driveway, parks the car and gets out to ring his neighbor’s doorbell.
ARCHITECT’S CORNER: Questions for Summerville candidates
It’s fitting Election Day comes between Halloween and Thanksgiving. The first holiday prepares us for the frightening prospect of choosing between two or more imperfect candidates, and the second reminds us to count our blessings regardless of the outcome. This year, several Summerville Town Council seats and the mayorship will be decided Tuesday, Nov 7. Voters will see candidates participate in two question-and-answer forums – the first took place this past week and the second is Tuesday, Oct. 24.
Architect's corner: Learning from Chicago
The ability to exchange ideas and learn from others is perhaps the more unique and valuable characteristic humans and societies possess. Countries, cities and towns that practice this tend to fair better, thrive economically and improve the quality of life for their residents. In other words, getting out of town occasionally and seeing other places is educational and beneficial.
Who is designing our world?
Would you hire a podiatrist to perform your heart operation? Would you hire an electrician to design your house? I suspect not. Even though each is a specialist in a related field, they wouldn’t have the required expertise for the particular task. Yet, when it comes to the design of towns, developments and homes, this type of mismatch is very commonplace. I think it has something to do with how people don’t quite know what it is that architects do.
US CX Quality Falls For An Unprecedented Second Consecutive Year
US brands struggled to deliver great customer experiences in 2023, leading CX Index scores to drop for an unprecedented second year in a row. While two industries were able to beat the odds and achieve better results, most stumbled on their CX journey. Only 6% of brands saw a significant increase in CX quality, compared to 10% last year. What Caused CX Quality To Drop in 2023? Let’s start by backing up. Great customer experiences hit the mark on three key criteria: ease, effectiveness, and emotion.
AdTech Is Searching For Its Next Oasis
This year, programmatic advertisers face an unusual economic paradox: ad spend continues to go up, but sellers of programmatic advertising and AdTech vendors alike are consolidating and reorganizing in pursuit of efficiency. The stakes (and the same factors that drove RTB adoption in the first place) are high: millions of hours of monetizable consumer attention and $350bn in US advertising budgets.
Always Be Acquiring: Remove Acquisition Blockers For Brand Growth
In my marketing career, I don’t recall a time where my goal was anything other than to drive (or at least meaningfully contribute to) brand and company growth. If a brand was growing – grow more! If declining – turn it around! Despite any macro headwinds or resource constraints, the objective was always to claw for as much revenue as possible. Most marketing leaders find themselves in that situation now, tasked with growth against unfavorable or uncertain market conditions.
Architect's Corner: When imitation Is the sincerest form of fiction
Time is one of those elusive things that affects everyone, yet no one can fully understand or explain it. Dave Barry, the American author and humorist, once wrote, “Aside from Velcro, time is the most mysterious substance in the universe. You can’t see it or touch it, yet a plumber can charge you upwards of $75 per hour for it without necessarily fixing anything.” Barry’s quote should be adjusted for inflation.
Architect's Corner: Where the sidewalks end
Good town design is all about connections. The more connected the various parts of a town, the better the quality of life for its residents. Unfortunately, being able to easily and comfortably get around has been steadily eroding across the country. In their hilarious 1960 comedy routine, “2000 Year Old Man,” Carl Reiner interviews Mel Brooks, a man claiming to be 2,000 years old.
Meta Verified Copies Twitter But Courts Creators
If Meta’s announcement about its pilot subscription service sounds familiar, that’s because it bears a striking resemblance to Twitter Blue. Paying users will get a coveted verification badge and increased prominence. There are other benefits like better customer support and account protections but the question remains: Will Facebook and Instagram users choose to pay a premium? Some Creators Will Pay. Everyone Else Will Punt.
The Rise Of Female Investors In Malaysia
Demand For Investment Services Among Malaysian Females Is Up Female investors in Malaysia are on the rise. According to the nation’s stock exchange, there was a 36% increase in new trading accounts opened by female investors in 2021. They are also becoming more active, judging by the 194% increase in trading volumes between 2018 and 2021.
Meet The New VP, Research Director For The B2B Marketing Executives Service
Why Did You join Forrester Rather Than Take Another CMO role? As a 4-time CMO/SVP Marketing, I’ve run the marketing function for multiple organizations. I’ve defined and redefined brands, established thought leadership in new market categories, accelerated demand generation, driven growth through customer retention and expansion, improved competitive messaging, optimized operational efficiency, and more. I’ve also been a Forrester client as both a tech vendor and a B2B marketer.
CPG Marketers, Take Some Lessons from Super Bowl LVII
Ok, let’s get this out of the way: as a lifelong Eagles fan, I was devastated by the outcome of the Super Bowl and my TV was lucky to survive the last 2 minutes of the game. But as a career marketer, I managed to shake it off and put a professional lens on my other favorite part – the advertising.
Architect's Corner: As Summerville grows up, so must its parks
With Summerville’s population steadily approaching 60,000, demand for quality park space and recreational facilities is increasing.
Architect's Corner: Your Home, Made Almost Perfect
When it comes to fictional television shows and movies, Hollywood loves to feature architects. Actors are usually handed a roll of blueprints to carry around as a prop, as if that’s all architects do. There was “The Brady Bunch,” “The Towering Inferno,” “Death Wish 1, 2, 3, and 4,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Jungle Fever,” and “Mama Mia! The Movie,” to name a few.
Architect's corner
What’s the Big Idea? One difference between literature and journalism is that literature is worth reading more than once. That’s because the former is about communicating ideas, whereas the latter is about conveying information of the day. An architect can learn a lot from a good novelist, like one of my favorites, Dostoevsky. A novel is really an idea wrapped in a story.
Architect's Corner: The forgotten art of placemaking
Winston Churchill once astutely observed, “We shape our buildings, and afterwards they shape us.” This of course, also applies to streets, parks, and entire towns we design for ourselves. It’s therefore vital for a community to engage in a healthy public discourse about its built environment, and that is the purpose of this column — to spark such dialogue.
Opinion: Healthcare venture capital potentially peaked. Now what?
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more than $40 billion has been invested into venture-backed healthcare companies. This 400% increase from pre-pandemic times has generated a “gold rush” into the sector, as investors, institutions and individuals have simultaneously understood the world-changing impact of healthcare and life science innovation on a deeply personal and systemic level.
Tennis versus Pickleball: Not a Zero-Sum Game
Dear Editor, I play tennis and I play pickleball — both are great sports and both are increasingly popular in Summerville. My 12-year-old son and I regularly play tennis at the Laurel Park courts and almost every time we play both courts are full, despite the cracks running through them. We see families, older folks, and lots of children playing tennis there and many of them are from the neighborhood. These are family tennis courts right in the center of our town.
Right Insights, Right Time: What Is DataComs And Why Should You Care? Original
This week, Forrester published Data Communications Will Make Or Break Your Data Literacy Efforts. In this first research report on this topic, clients will discover how closing gaps in communication can ignite insights-driven decision-making. This content will resonate most with people leaders or change agents who are struggling to transport insights-related messages from the top of the leadership chain to the “boots on the ground” employees and vice-versa.
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