Xerox Corp.

How will holiday shoppers find the best prices or the most unique gifts? Will they flip through a circular, find it online, through email, or browse store floors? As the holiday shopping season kicks into gear, companies that demonstrate an understanding of customers’ preferences are likely to pique more interest.

With today's consumers deluged with new media and messages — on any given day, the average consumer will be exposed to nearly 3,000 media messages, of which they'll pay attention to 52 and remember four — marketing campaigns need to be as close to one-to-one conversations as possible. At last month's Digital Marketing Days Conference & Expo in New York City, Christa Carone, chief marketing officer for Xerox, provided strategies to help retailers shift their marketing efforts from one-way conversations to true dialogs with consumers.