"Years ago in a TV commercial for Wittnauer fine watches, a young woman approaches a jewelry counter and says, “I want a Wittnauer.” A dimwitted sales rep insists on showing her other items. She continues murmuring, “I want a Wittnauer.” He doesn’t catch on. Finally she shouts her request: “I want a Wittnauer!” Finally it sinks in, and the sales rep gets the sale… despite doing everything possible to undermine the experience by ignoring even the most obvious buying cues.
Are financial institutions listening any better to the voice of the consumer? Not really.
In a BAI webinar, “Trends In Marketing & Customer Acquisition,” serious questions were raised about banking providers’ ability to give consumers what they want, how they want it, when they want it."
Starbucks, a $124.4 billion company, trails only McDonald’s as the largest restaurant chain by market capitalization. In this video, WSJ’s Heather Haddon explains how Starbucks used technology to garner its loyal customer base and why mobile orders are shifting the chain’s business priorities.
The availability of ATMs may have peaked at 470,000 units scattered across the U.S. in 2019, with a fall-off since then to 462,000 in 2020 and an estimated 456,000 last year, a spokesperson for research firm Euromonitor International said in updating its report on financial cards and payments in the U.S.
Kendrick Sands, Euromonitor’s head of Consumer Finance Research, expects that downward trend to continue.
The automated tellers are disappearing in tandem with banks closing local branches. The banking strategy pivot comes as digital banking and payment alternatives become more widespread.
As software and hardware engineers around the world are untangling the
centralization of the internet, a vocal portion within the enclave of
blockchain-based solutions - generally referred to as decentralized
finance - or DeFi for short - has emerged. While blockchains provide the
building blocks for reliable information and - to a lesser
extend value - transport functions - a layer of middleware to the
larger concept of cryptographic primitives mapped by protocols, current
developments are largely focused on digitally native assets, and their
derivatives.
Step inside the Metaverse as the UK's former deputy PM takes on avatar form to talk to the FT's Henry Mance about the future of technology, immersive digital worlds, the challenges of regulation, and his own role within the company.
From behind the wheel of new electric cars from Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan and Nio, FT reporters look at how the established carmakers are trying to take on Tesla.
The market for non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, is soaring, reaching $10.7bn in the third quarter of 2021. For the art world it's a new frontier, where ownership of digital assets is encrypted on the blockchain. The FT talks to artists, auction houses and collectors about how NFTs are bringing in new buyers and setting records for sales of digital works, and we follow a painter making his first NFT.
The world is advancing at unprecedented rates and by 2050, we can expect to see life on earth change drastically. If this is true, then what can we expect from the future? Lets time travel into world in 2050.
Nanotechnology
Scientists have already made great leaps in the world of nanotechnology and they remain unrelenting in making more of such progress. Nanotechnology has the potential to change everything, from the way we behave to how we interact with each other.
Transportation
By 2050, Transportation would have changed immensely. We’re already seeing self-driving cars in their early phases of trial and error, so in three decades, it's safe to say we should have the technology for true self-driving vehicles.
Space Exploration
One promise that many people are still waiting on is one of space-exploration. Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are making strides towards their respective goals of spatial exploration and colonization out of this world.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is already much more advanced than it was ten years ago, and it will only continue to witness rapid and exponential developments. Experts like John Maeda believe that AI will have surpassed the processing power of all living brains on Earth in the near future. To properly function in that kind of society, it will be necessary to work together with these new systems to make sure that the preservation of important human values is carried forward.
Education
Education is another industry that will see a drastic change in the next thirty years. According to experts, at least 90 percent of the student population will be pursuing online degrees by 2050. Unless the world devolves into an apocalypse, education will continue to be more globalized, and more solutions will come that allow more people to receive good education efficiently.
Everyone is blabbing about the metaverse. But what does this future digital world look like? WSJ’s Joanna Stern checked into a hotel and strapped on a virtual-reality headset for the day. She went to work meetings, hung out with new avatar friends and attended virtual shows.
Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, shares the central bank's ambitions to become a global fintech and crypto hub. This year's Singapore FinTech Festival that is taking place this week will focus on "Web 3.0." Mohanty speaks with Haidi Stroud-Watts and Shery Ahn on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia."
A tech industry battle is taking shape over the “metaverse.” WSJ tech reporter Meghan Bobrowsky explains the concept and why tech companies like Facebook, Roblox and Epic Games are investing billions to develop this digital space.
If you ever struggle to make decisions, here's a talk for you. Cognitive
scientist Tom Griffiths shows how we can apply the logic of computers
to untangle tricky human problems, sharing three practical strategies
for making better decisions - on everything from finding a home to
choosing which restaurant to go to tonight.
The upgrade to Tesla's Full Self-Driving, or FSD, software will be released to drivers who pass a safety evaluation
Tesla is expanding access to the company’s city-driving tool to some customers. In this video, WSJ explains what’s in the new software and the controversy surrounding its limited release.
Apple said it would cost $999 to fix a MacBook Pro. An independent repair store did it for $325. WSJ’s Joanna Stern went on a journey to repair two water-damaged laptops and show how new legislation could provide more options for fixing our broken gadgets.
The covid-19 pandemic has reinforced humanity’s dependence on modern tech, but the same tools that enable remote working are also being used to spread disinformation and perpetuate cybercrime. Ambivalence towards technology is nothing new.
Facebook has launched Live Audio Rooms, the social media giant’s
competitor to audio-based Clubhouse. Facebook said, in a press release,
that public figures and select Facebook Groups in the U.S. can start to
use the feature on iOS, Apple’s operating system, while select podcasts
will also be available in the U.S.
In a posting in Finextra, Janne Jutila, Managing Director at Internos Partners writes;
‘The two main drivers of competition in digital money are geopolitical and technological – and they are intertwined. China is fast becoming the largest economy in the world and is already almost cashless as commerce is done on mobile platforms like Alipay and WeChat pay. China aims to further boost economic growth, whilst increasing state control, as it imminently plans to scale the use of digital yuan. As digital yuan transactions can be monitored and controlled by Chinese government, it could well allow more freedom in its use outside the country. How much boost the digital yuan will give remains to be seen but enough to add urgency on ECB and FED to progress on their competing digital currency projects.’
What good is “innovating’ if you don’t out-innovate the innovators? Contrary to popular belief, banks don't have to innovate--they need to monitor, acquire, and deploy the innovators' innovations.
My name is STANLEY EPSTEIN and I am a member of the Citadel Advantage Group. I am a Illumeo Certified Instructor. Check out all my Online Training Courses. Just CLICK on the INSTRUCTOR badge.