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Experian Decision Analytics helps financial institutions manage and enhance their profitability by integrating sales, portfolio and customer management so they can assess each relationship in their portfolio and create active client-focused strategies.

Over the years, one of the lessons that I’ve learned is, to prepare for the future you must understand the past. The same lesson can and should be applied to the automotive industry. As manufacturers, aftermarket companies and retailers continue to move their businesses into 2014 and beyond, it is always beneficial to take a moment and assess what happened in years past. For example, according to Experian Automotive’s Quarterly Report: A look back at the 2013 automotive market share trends, the overall automotive market decreased slightly, with approximately 900,000 vehicles taken off the road from a year ago. Additionally, there were 98 million vehicles within the aftermarket “sweet spot” (vehicles between model years 2002-2008), which means a good number of opportunities (vehicles out of warranty) are available for aftermarket companies. However, with a shortage of model year 2009 vehicles due to low sales volumes, we can expect this number to decrease next year.

Experian Marketing Services, a global provider of integrated consumer insight and targeting, data quality and cross-channel marketing, today announced the release of The 2014 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report, the marketing industry’s go-to resource, now in its sixth year, for key industry benchmarks, consumer insights and data. In addition to benchmark and trend data, the 2014 edition features the results of a new cross-channel marketing survey conducted by Experian Marketing Services in more than 20 countries throughout Europe, North America and Asia. According to its results, the survey shows that 80 percent of marketers plan to run cross-channel marketing campaigns in 2014 and more than half of marketers plan to integrate their marketing campaigns across four or more different channels.

As a child, one of the things we all learn is cause and effect. If someone is hungry, then they eat food. If someone is tired, then they take a nap. So logically, one can infer that since we are seeing a recovering housing market, more people will want to buy houses, thus creating a need for more homes to be built. But that’s what makes the findings from Experian’s Q4 Metro Business Pulse analysis all the more intriguing. Although the housing market is showing signs of improvement, the construction industry continues to struggle with below-average business credit health, including a lower-than-average risk score, paying their bills more days beyond contracted terms, had higher bankruptcy rates and had a greater percentage of delinquent debt than other industries.

In a world where customized advertising is delivered directly to the right group of people in the most targeted ways, it’s hard to remember that life wasn’t always this convenient. Because marketing information service providers (aka: “data brokers”) play such an important role in our lives and our economy, I thought I’d share five little-known facts about the marketing data industry.

The FTC has advocated for the creation of a central website where marketing information service providers (FTC calls them “data brokers”) would be listed, with links to these companies, their privacy policies and also choice options, giving consumers the capability to review/amend the data that companies maintain. The FTC claims that such a website would bring needed transparency to the practices of companies that are not well-known to consumers. However, the proposal raises many more questions than it answers. The FTC first discussed this proposal in its 2012 report, entitled “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: Recommendations for Businesses and Policymakers,” and FTC Commissioners and staff have repeatedly cited the need for a centralized  website in testimony before Congress and speeches to stakeholder groups. The proposal was also referenced in December 2013 reports issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Senate Commerce Committee.

Every organization that touches consumer data is responsible for creating and maintaining consumer trust writes Rick Erwin, President of Targeting at Experian Marketing Services, in a recent issue of Direct Marketing News. Erwin, a direct marketing industry veteran and DMA board member, challenges the data industry at large to adopt strict guidelines and business principles that further consumer trust and effective data stewardship. Most organizations within the data industry realize the need for greater consumer education around privacy, but how do we address that need and put it into practice? At Experian Marketing Services, for example, we are guided by balance, accuracy, security, integrity and communications, the five tenets of our Global Information Values.

Experian is excited to participate in the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah! We’re lucky to have some great stars stopping by our Experian Coffee Bar to answer some questions about their films. Check out the action on Sundance Channel on the following days and times:

Experian’s State of Credit report recently highlighted the credit savviness of four generational groups, and showed how differently they manage their financial obligations. As you’d expect, there were several intriguing findings, so we extended the research to see how these same generational groups would differ when it comes to buying a vehicle. In a recent analysis of market trends in the automotive industry, Experian Automotive looked at vehicle registrations, and examined the car buying habits of Millennials (up to 32 years old), Generation X (33-48 years old), Baby Boomers (49-67 years old) and the Silent Generation (68-85 years old).