Despite the fact that 77% of CMOs in 2014 «had good understanding of big data,» according to the Forbes Insights study, a new independent research by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business shows that just 29% of all marketing efforts use the results of marketing analytics—at least in the U.S. The school has been conducting the survey sponsored by McKinsey and American Marketing Association twice a year since February 2012, with 288 top marketers from the U.S.

Do consumers prefer a new extension of the brand they know to a totally new brand? Yes, they do, says the latest “Global Survey of New Product Purchase Sentiment” survey conducted by Nielsen. The research, which polled over 29,000 Internet respondents in 58 countries, shows that consumers are more likely to buy new products by familiar brand rather than choosing a new label.

Social networks have become one of the most preferred platforms for launching new campaigns, but marketers do want to know how effective their promotions in such media are. To help brands measure the impact of their promotions  through Twitter Promoted Products, the micro-blogging service has teamed up with Nielsen—together, they have developed a “newest tool for our advertising partners, brand impact measurement for Twitter.”

One of the top-rated UK packaging design consultancies, jkr, published last December its third book about design — an observation on 25 great brands, which give us all a good lesson. This brilliant mix of thoughts, trivia, beautiful images and juicy copy titled ‘Champions of Design’ is being given away in electronic form — you can either read it onscreen or download the PDF to your desktop.