But Russia's leaders seem to see Mr Chávez primarily as a useful customer for their arms industry.Mr Chávez offers his allies oil and gas.
Brands can glean an incredible amount of useful customer data through analysis of online habits that can then help inform marketing and sales decisions.
Half of DTN's 17,000 weather subscribers now pay $100 a month, an average 15% jump, for customized, hourly Webcasts based on more-precise computer models–useful to customers like Union Pacific and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Brand appealed for readers to send in suggestions for items that those in communes would find useful ("the customers know best," he said), paid $10 per item used, and printed the most helpful, making up about a quarter of the overall content.
InsureMyTrip.com also displays its phone number more prominently, useful for customers seeking help choosing a policy.
The meeting covers rail fittings – should the clothes be held static (looks neat) or have flex to be rotated on the hanger (useful for customers)?
But during the blackout, the status reports were not useful to customers with limited cellphone service or no electricity for getting online.
Smart brands are looking for ways to be useful to customers; to engage them with brand content they want to share.
This makes them much less risky to regulators since they cannot suffer from bank runs, but less useful to customers who want long-term mortgages as well as instant access to their cash.
