Jane Fae has been working in and around the arena of customer relationship marketing for the last fifteen years. Before that, she was instrumental in developing - and evangelizing- the newly-founded approach of Database Marketing (that later metamorphosed into crm).
Early in her career, Jane set up and ran one of the UK’s first major agency-based Data Analysis units (for Brann Direct Marketing). Later, as Database Marketing Manager – and then Direct Marketing Manager - for the UK’s largest Insurance provider (then Commercial Union), she was responsible for a range of sales and loyalty programmes designed to maintain customer persistence in an industry that is notorious for churn and commodity pricing.
During that time, Jane wrote “Targeting for Success”, one of the first UK textbooks that focused on how to make use of the new data abundance. In 2002 she co-authored early “State of the Nation” reports, published by crm consultancy, QCi, which focused on how companies create economic value through customer management.
Jane retains her love of data and data analysis, though this is tempered now by her recent return to journalism and writing. She is a regular contributor to the Guardian, as well as a range of other heavyweight magazines, and she also edits the renowned international Journal of Database Marketing on behalf of Macmillan Palgrave. In addition to “straight journalism”, she also offers creative writing, from advertising copy to newsletter development, research and PR consultancy.
Over the last year, Jane has authored a series of authoritative reports for Business Insights, looking at the political, economic and commercial issues surrounding Climate Change and the development of the Smart Grid. In her last report on this subject – “Smart home, smart grid, smart city” – Jane challenged the conventional view that all is rosy in the new energy economy, arguing that current forecasts of growth of the intelligent grid were over-optimistic and failed to take into account both consumer resistance and alternative technological developments.