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Thrivent must also ensure its new products fulfill the needs of its new target customers. Read our article 鈥淗ow some financial institutions are standing out to Gen Zers with relevant credit products,鈥� for a refresher on the credit product strategies that financial institutions and fintechs are using to cater to younger customers.

The landscape: The disclosures cap several months of chaos for retailers, who are increasingly finding themselves the target of choice for hackers looking to gain access to customer information. Last week, Victoria鈥檚 Secret was forced to shut down its ecommerce operations and corporate systems for three days following a data breach.

Ahead of his keynote session at this year鈥檚 CommerceNext event on June 11-13, Lockton shared how Tractor Supply leverages its physical and digital channels to connect with the retailer鈥檚 varied audience and how its retail media enables advertisers to target a hard-to-reach rural audience via digital channels.

Brands must ensure they鈥檙e aligned on their target audience and objectives while also using data to support their decisions. In addition, digital dollars can do double duty by amplifying in-store performance.

What鈥檚 more, many of these apps target vulnerable users with little to no savings but don鈥檛 necessarily help them improve their financial standing. The marketing opportunity: Most consumers are comfortable with AI being integrated into their financial lives when they understand it helps them meet their goals.

The news: Apple is appealing the EU鈥檚 Digital Markets Act (DMA) requirements, arguing that the rules could damage innovation, weaken security, and target the company unfairly. The appeal comes as the EU is compelling Apple to open iOS and iPadOS to third-party device interoperability. Apple calls the demands 鈥渄eeply flawed鈥� and says they could degrade user experience, per TechRepublic.

Your target audience has shifted, but your messaging hasn鈥檛: A mismatch between the demographic you鈥檙e targeting and the strategies your agency uses. Your campaigns take months to execute when they should take days: If you鈥檙e losing relevance and missing out on trends due to slow creative turnarounds.

Samsung could invest in Perplexity鈥檚 next funding round as it targets a $14 billion valuation, per Gadgets 360. Disrupting mobile search: Samsung still defaults to Google Search despite a 2023 rumor of a switch to Microsoft鈥檚 Bing, but it might have finally found an ideal search partner in Perplexity鈥攖he startup is aggressively competing with Google Search in web and mobile.

The new strategy should help empower more personalized marketing outreach and messaging that resonates more deeply with target customers.

Consumers are divided on agentic AI鈥檚 role in purchase decisions鈥攏early two-thirds (65%) are interested in AI that can buy an item when it reaches a target price, but only 47% want AI that purchases recommended products on their behalf. However, only 24% of US consumers are comfortable sharing data with an AI shopping tool, according to a December 2024 survey from 蘑菇AV and CivicScience.

Ad accounts, CRM tools, and analytics platforms connected via shared credentials are now soft targets. It鈥檚 a reality that worries 51% of business leaders worldwide who expect business email compromise and phishing attacks in 2025, per LevelBlue. With phishing tactics growing more sophisticated through AI, even brief exposure can cascade into brand impersonation, data loss, and compromised campaigns.

On the backend, creators are offered sponsored links that Linktree has already decided are relevant to them based on a brand鈥檚 target audience. When that creator opts in, the partnership includes the disclaimer 鈥淟inks may earn commission鈥� on their page.

What FIs should do next: If FIs don鈥檛 already have a plan to target customers receiving tax refunds this year, they should make one. It鈥檚 a critical opportunity to strengthen customer satisfaction (which banks have successfully done despite the current economic uncertainty). They can start by promoting high-yield savings accounts, personalized investment advice, or tax-advantaged savings products.

Bank adapted its marketing to target Gen Z on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. It has also seen success with features like immediate rewards redemption via text alerts at the point of sale, driving significant customer engagement and top-of-wallet behavior. Leveraging existing strengths: Traditional FIs are taking advantage of their established presence and resources.

Robinhood and its competitors will need to roll out products that meet the specific needs of their target customers. These could include features like fractional crypto investing, advanced security measures such as biometric login, and educational resources to help new users navigate the complexities of crypto trading.

But JPMorgan鈥檚 plan, which focuses on the importance of building human connections and curated, personalized experiences, may resonate particularly well with these target customers. However, all banks in this space face the added challenge of assuaging affluent customers鈥� economic anxieties.

That means Canadian banks may soon face a fresh wave of competition, requiring them to build even better relationships with customers, maintain and improve their customer experience, and dig into what their target customers want most.

Clarify their niche: FIs that specialize鈥攚hether by target demographic or unique financial offerings鈥攃an better differentiate themselves in a crowded market. Pursue strategic scale: Mergers and partnerships can provide the digital infrastructure needed to meet modern customer demands.

Pinterest鈥檚 influencer push could benefit the platform by giving LTK influencers a chance to boost affiliate sales and reach their target audience, which overlaps with Pinterest. Pinterest maintains wide reach with millennials and Gen Z, the latter of which is a critical market for influencers.

With its recurring revenues doubling, 500 million weekly active users in March, and an ambitious  $125 billion in revenue target by 2029, OpenAI鈥檚 expansion could outgrow current supply. Cloud providers are the big winners of the AI era. AI cloud computing is necessary for training AI models, hosting AI solutions, and running genAI processes.

Consumers expect inflation to ease but not vanish鈥攎edian one-year-ahead expectations dipped to 3.2% in May, still well above the Fed鈥檚 2.0% stability target, per the New York Fed. 25% of consumers who use BNPL are financing groceries, up from 11% last year, suggesting that they鈥檙e feeling strained, per LendingTree. What鈥檚 next: More price pressures are coming.

Target in the hot seat: No retailer understands this dynamic better than Target, whose approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion has earned the ire of both right-wing activists and campaigners on the left. Florida鈥檚 pension board has joined a suit against the retailer over its DEI practices.

This product鈥檚 value proposition: Square Handheld targets small companies that benefit from a portable, streamlined POS that could be brought to customers at restaurant tables or tattoo parlor chairs.

蘑菇AV 75% of Joann shoppers say they鈥檒l now shop at Michaels or Hobby Lobby鈥攆ar ahead of online retailers (44%), mass merchants like Target or Walmart (39%), local craft stores (24%), and discount chains (23%), according to a recent Numerator survey. Our take: Michaels is looking to fill two major voids left by Party City鈥檚 850 stores and Joann鈥檚 700 locations.