Semantic technology can help take businesses into a new era of the internet, according to Marta Strickland, at her BMF Sticky Blogspot.

Semantic refers to the meaning behind data. At the moment computers are good at sending data back and forth but not great at discerning the meaning of that data. The semantic web aims to change that.

The semantic web refers to all web data, and the meaning of that data, which could be read by machines. The semantic web has been enjoying a commercial revival thanks to marketing companies like us at Eclipse, and is referred to by the new buzzword “Web 3.0”, as it is the third decade of the web (2010 to 2020).

The Parkinson’s Disease Society (PDS) is reaching out to audiences who are not aware of the plight of people with this terrible disease, with a national “hand-raiser” campaign through direct marketing. The aim of the campaign is to make contact with people who have empathy for the disease.

Press advertisements are running in national newspapers such as, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express, the Sunday Express and the Sunday Telegraph, and in women’s lifestyle magazines, which include Yours, People’s Friend, Woman’s Weekly and My Weekly. The press ads invite readers to contact the charity to request DVDs, booklets and newsletters, which provide information about the disease, as well as research that is funded by PDS. Readers who respond will then form a database of potential clients for future fundraising.

As motorcycle manufacturer Kawasaki Motors UK knows, customer satisfaction is key to business success. Keep your customers happy and they will come back to you and, what’s more, recommend you to others.

But how do you know if they are satisfied with your product and aftersales service? More importantly, how can you identify which parts of the customer experience are working well and which need attention?

Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) surveys are the traditional way of measuring how consumers feel about a brand. To find out what its new customers thought about their sales and after-sales activities, Kawasaki have come up with a new twist on the old CSI approach.

Marketing Week tackles a dilemma facing many brands as the economy continues its downward slide. In the aftermath of ‘Armageddon autumn’ will consumers cut the froth this Christmas and save their pennies, or turn to luxury brands to cheer themselves up?

It’s probably too early to tell which way the pendulum will swing in the long term, but the indications so far incline more towards thrift than extravagance.

Business are warned they can’t afford to stand still in a recession, in a comment piece in Precision Marketing.

“If you don’t do any marketing,” says Tony Spong of agency selection company AAR, “you’re dead.”