thinking marketing

Who thought the eurozone would work?

2011-12-09T14:02:00.002Z

One currency, 27 agendas. 27 different sets of economic problems to solve. Interest and exchange rates were the ultimate get out of jail free card for policy decision makers. So now what do you do when your country becomes uncompetitive and you run out of money. There are no macro economic fine tuning tools available to you. It's just like you and me with no job and your house dropping in value. So the answer is you borrow more, get state support or default.

The euro zone has benefitted the stronger economies, and probably no coincidence the ones with better transportation systems sitting centrally in Europe. They have more more accessible markets.

No prizes for being right. What do we do now? Break it up or devalue the euro and everyone will lose money. Ouch. Luckily I work in an industry that is essential to the economy. Marketing and advertising ... May be not then.

Integration is not the answer or even the question

2011-12-07T15:00:00.001Z

I have always thought an obsession with integration from a brand owner is a good indicator that their brand lacks salience and personality.

The word integration encourages us to think in terms of events and campaigns. When mathematicians talk integration, it is often in relation to time. And that is the main point. The best integration is something you do over time. It is a brand rather than a campaign thing.

We tend to integrate campaigns for all the wrong reasons – safety rather than the conviction that dovetailing messages or replication of a message in different media somehow communicates better. A fear of failing rather than a desire to just do it better. Everyone understands and learns better if they are exposed to different stimuli, whether it is learning to ski or speak Spanish. Too often we forget, conveniently, the basic virtues of different media – TV (one message to the masses), Direct Mail (tells a longer story to people we think are more interested), Poster (presence and stature), Digital (depth of engagement).

The most powerful communications display brand connectivity. The tone, style and flavour of the brand are consistent and shine through. It is a brand conversation. It is how you do it. Not what you do or say that’s important; More brand essence than brand values. I still think the best example is Honda. The integrational device is the brand. In every communication they demonstrate the ‘maverick obsession’ that lies at the heart of the brand. They have been consistent over several years now.

So perhaps we should stop fussing about integration and talk about brand consistency. This allows you to ignore a medium if it is not working/required for a particular campaign. You’ll talk again, there is always next time. The brand becomes more important than the proposition. We should carry on using integrational devices, but call them integrational devices not integration. They are tools rather than philosophies.

So when clients create cross discipline briefs the two most important elements are – the brand what it looks like, what it feels like, what it sounds like, how it does things and the integrational devices. So in the case of Coco Pops - and i am paraphrasing someone else here - its chocolatey breakfast fun for kids ... and don't forget the chimp.

What do Honda, Yeo Valley and Toilet Duck have in common?

2011-09-18T17:22:00.009+01:00

Differentiate yourself, be distinctive, identify points of difference. Marketers treat the expressions as synonyms. This is the first mistake.

Here is what happens.

A point of difference is identified. It could be an extra 50 minutes on a mobile tariff, a longer warranty, alternative skins for your laptop, uk call centres. All of them are positive attributes, all of them are researched and when pushed respondents state a preference for them but do they make a difference. Probably not, yet we hang most of our marketing on them. Of course if you are first to offer something like 36m warranties when everyone else offers 12m or all the laptops are silver black and grey and you offer a host of coloured skins then brilliant go for it but otherwise tread carefully.

Focussing on points of difference can give you a nice warm feeling, your job is done. All you need to do is to tell everyone; responses and customers will surely come. But then you find testing the approach in the real world reveals that people are not that interested in what you perceive to be the important part.

When markets are commoditised or several competitors are offering similar services - white goods, communications, energy even automotive you need to stand out, be distinctive. This doesn’t have to be rational and probably can’t be unless you transform how you support or deliver your product. You need to zig when others zag. Context is important, the mundane looks good when everyone else offers risky or quirky. Bond markets look pretty sexy for most investors these days although Greece and Italy are doing their best to de-sex them. Being distinctive could be your brand, your values, your service commitment, your web design, the in store experience. It is important and increasingly so.

An example.

Honda are great engineers, so are the germans. In fact most cars are well made according to JD Power. But Honda grew market share by being different, almost maverick to the disciplined German approach. They had different interpretations of engineering obsession, the considered test and learn Germanic approach, the clunk of the door, versus the creative and total commitment approach of the Japanese. This was reflected in their cars and styling. The points of difference like Honda’s v-tech engines were terrific but sensibly they recognised it was not enough to excite consumers, it could have done the opposite. Reinforced the good but boring Honda tag.

Another example.

European flights. Easyjet. They are orange, they are cheap. Should they talk about speedy boarding, the range of services in flight, number of destinations or UK airports they fly from? No. Shouting price in an orange style seems to work.

Marketing courses talked about the importance of differentiation, economics courses told us it was best to be second into markets. Learn from mistakes, minimise risk and steal best practice with pride. If you can do this but do it in a distinctive way then perhaps you have cracked it. And maybe this explains the successes that are Toilet Duck, Go Compare, Shake n' Vac, Yeo Valley, Lynx.

MC Hammer on social media and marketing

2011-09-09T17:29:00.008+01:00

This is really fun and strangely impressive. MC Hammer speaking at Stanford. The best ever time to be an entreprenooooor, a downmarket.

http://youtu.be/OfKCGRnjkTw

Brittany Economics

2011-06-06T15:49:00.001+01:00

This may be a little naive but my hunch is the Bretons have got it more right than wrong.

France operates an ultra progressive tax regime. It is possible to earn more gross and yet your net income goes down. This 'threshold' is around Euro80k. So there is a disincentive to work - too hard. Naturally round here some restaurants only open 2 months a year to avoid the wealth trap; Shops charge premium prices because they are happy to work on low volumes, high margins. Lower sales (but with higher margins) also set lower expectations for the taxman. Easier to avoid Inc tax.

Then try to find non French products in the supermarkets, very tricky. It is an unofficial (cultural) trade barrier. Harder to police and more efficient. And of course those not working their socks off the two main summer months have the whole of august off any case.

Wonder where they are on the IMF happiness index, probably not very high. Pissed off they haven't won world cup for a while and they don't get July off as well.

Corporate humanisation

2011-04-15T17:15:00.007+01:00

I wonder if the real benefit of social media to the marketer will be the humanisation of companies. Of course businesses have looked to control the brand and the marketing experience but we all know that is getting harder and harder, closer to impossible. Trying to monetise social media in social selling works, dell do it great, so do eurotunnel, there are lots of others. But it may be coming a zero sum game of sorts. Brand a steal from brand b, brand a also canibalises its other channels and manages to give additional margin away to customers who display considerable loyalty already.

Heard it argued that technology is killing the need for intelligence and the real skill shortage will be social skills. that is not happening yet but certainly intelligence is being replaced. Normally when you say that there is a bit of an outcry but no one thought a computer would beat Gary Kasparov. Apparently that is a trivial task according to IT experts, sounds bloody tricky to me (that's the level up from downright impossible). They say quizzes are harder for computers. To be honest i would rather think that a computer is managing air traffic control than a pro plus popping physics grad so I am all for computers taking over (judgement day scenarios aside)

So back to the humanisation of companies. everyone has a facebook page, a twitter account maybe customer service staff start using it more haphazardly. Retail business like Best Buy in the US are doing this. Could service staff become almost heroic, cooler than the creative technologist, with a bigger following than the CEO. The only problem comes when they want to leave who owns the following and the fans if the they were acquired on company time, sounding corporate again.

Conspicuous marketing plans

2011-03-01T18:31:00.004Z

I can't remember the last time I saw a marketing plan, not a spread sheet, but a proper one with objectives, strategy, goals. I don't think the need to be agile is a good reason not to do one. I have even offered to write one for clients and they seem reticent.

Anyone, any theories?

What is (digital) planning?

2011-01-07T17:58:00.007Z

Old fashioned communications planning was all about messaging.

Customers dont do A because they think B. So if we want customers to do A we have to tell them C. The assumption was attitude preceeded behavioural change.

On other the hand if someone wants to describe digital planning they use keywords rather than what they are trying to achieve for their clients (which is odd in itself) ... information architecture ... engagement ... SEO ... content management ... social media ... HTML.

Strikes me that planning used to be about asking the question what do we say? Nowadays good planners, digital or not, ask the question what can we offer - information, added value, experience? Before they ask what can we say.

(Yes, we should all have working knowledges of HTML, social media ...)

Want to start your digital business in 2011?

2011-01-04T15:12:00.003Z

You may not be able to start that company up on the back of this but a nice summary of some new models of business. Neat slideshare presentation spotted, thanks Peter.

http://tinyurl.com/378xvak

Art of evaluation

2010-11-29T23:15:00.002Z

Seemed to have confused a couple of people with the previous post. So to explain. Too often in the communications industry we worry about intellectualising the approach rather than concentrate on the end-goal, creativity. So we often end up with intellectually consistent advertising - which doesn't work.

The analogy would be using a 10 point check list to evaluate the great works of art. You just can't imagine kids playing Top Trumps - French Renaissance 14c edition.

How to over think your advertising

2010-11-28T19:28:00.005Z

It is said that advertising is the greatest waste of human intellect, second only to chess.

Which brings neatly on to messaging architectures. What on earth are they? The output is invariably a powerpoint slide with all the messages a brand wants it customers to understand about itself or its products. The polite expression is assumptive.

It assumes consumers are interested. It sometimes assumes that consumers are so fascinated by a brand that they are happy to consume and process the messages in the order a brand wants them to do. They are like all a lot of plans, extremely seductive on paper but invariably useless when you get to implement anything. Their main purpose is to show everyone else we have thought of everything unfortunately they have a major negative effect. They encourage you to focus on the Ts & Cs, the additional points not necessarily the interesting bit.

A wise person said the job of marketing and advertising is to find something interesting about your product and then say it in an interesting way. When you invite someone round to a party. You say it is going to be brilliant we will get obscenely drunk/play whist - depending on your age. You don't send out an agenda with details of what to do with your coats and drinks when you arrive. Maybe you do. Sorry.

Lost: translation machine

2010-11-08T19:59:00.002Z

I need a new client-agency translation machine, my one is broken. I keep saying earned media to a client but all they hear is free media. Sure it malfunctions the other way as well.

Content is king for b2b marketers

2010-10-18T21:32:00.001+01:00

http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3910/content-marketing-vital-to-b2b-marketers

Good article on b2b marketing. b2b marketers are recognising the need to be interesting if they want to engage specialist audiences.

What's in a name?

2010-09-22T11:45:00.004+01:00

Next time you launch a loyalty card call it a 'don't miss out card', you might get a lot more people playing more frequently.

Last impressions count

2010-09-20T10:04:00.004+01:00

Retailers focus on the store, the layout, display but sometimes other things define the visit more. Contrast what happens in Sainsbury's (can i pack your bags) and IKEA (your boot being too small) and M&S (5p a bag).

Most of us can afford 5p a bag but the problem is your start thinking in terms of bags. Do i need another plastic bag to perhaps i don't need that extra bag of Bruschetta. The notion of constraint is embedded in our heads by the shopping process, all because of 5p. M&S don't capture customer data at at an individual level so they probably don't understand how this impacts on purchase behaviour. Anyone know?

Other supermarkets suffer similarly. They offer a discount for buying 6 bottles of wine. Excellent. But they always run out of boxes, and carrying 6 bottles in plastic bags is not ideal, especially the Rioja covered in wire. So what do you do? Buy two bottles not six.

Animal loyalty

2010-08-25T16:35:00.004+01:00

Loyalty by pictures; you are more likely to remember it. The goldfish really is the ultimate 'loyal because I don't have a choice' example. This could win a prize for best use of animals in marketing presentation. Boston Matrix only uses a cow, dog, wildcat so one up already.

Wonder if it transaltes internationally?

Three reasons why companies fail/succeed with social media

2010-08-22T13:58:00.007+01:00

Big companies don't tend to get it because ...

it does not deliver sales tomorrow so they cant prove the business case
they don't have the resource or specialist skills, they are geared up to campaigning and that's they way it will continue until ...
agencies don't know how to charge them and make money out of it

Small companies tend to get it because ...

it does deliver sales. http://www.bakertweet.com/
they don't need specialist skills
they could never afford agencies anyway.

Lesson in here somewhere. Think like a small company if nothing else.

Got a problem you cant fix - invent a program

2010-07-30T06:01:00.005+01:00

Spent two days in a workshop on loyalty for a client, there was lots of clever thinking, but one conclusion was there is no such thing as loyalty marketing. You either have a specific loyalty program or you just do your job properly - which means getting brand .... service ... in store experience ... smart cross selling ... CRM processes right. And in many cases if you desperately need a loyalty program it probably means you have got something wrong somewhere in your core offering. Another case of marketing covering up organisational dis-function. Remarkably common.

My other conclusion is there is an obsession with measurement and data to the point that businesses wont implement an initiative if they cant measure impact - even if they think it is right thing to do. It was an example someone cited from IKEA that got us thinking. One store manager decided not to keep a list of FAQs from customers for review. They just act immediately. So if a customer asks whether a table comes in oak as well pine, they immediately change the labelling to indicate the information. A culture of immediate response, it just isn't automated, and impossible to measure impact.

Loyalty businesses not loyalty programs

2010-07-03T08:35:00.006+01:00

About a year ago on the blog I suggested that loyalty would be doing a big come back, and in the last year there have been numerous loyalty and CRM briefs and pitches flying around. We have been fortunate enough to get a few and win some businesses. So it looks like I was proved right. That's all I wanted to say ...

But then you start to think a bit deeper. Increasingly if a business wants a loyalty program that probably means something is broke and they are looking for a mechanic to fix loyalty. For a few businesses loyalty programs (transactional based ones) are difficult to implement. Little control over the retail environment ... very infrequent purchase behaviour in the category ... big ticket, low margin. White goods would be an example.

We should look at loyalty differently, examine businesses in sectors with relatively high levels of loyalty and work out what they do well. My 'guess' is that they have good products, strong brands, good customer service processes and policies, customer focused culture. The trouble is it is easier to create a loyalty program than fix a business. Short-termism creeps in. But perhaps we should think about creating loyalty businesses not loyalty programs.

If Easyjet thought of themselves as a loyalty business that happened to sell flights how would they behave differently ?

Its quite a good question to pose to businesses.

I am off to look at our research now, there is 1000 page doc on my desk at work, to see what businesses with great bonding and loyalty scores do so well. But if anyone has a nice neat answer that will save me a lot of reading please let us know.

How to get site experience wrong

2010-06-29T14:12:00.004+01:00

I have just discovered how easy it is to get a site experience, technically right, but from a consumer perspective horribly wrong. So wrong that consumers are aching to give their business to someone else even in a market where you are relatively dominant.

1. Agree your business model and purchase journey.
2. Put it on line.
3. Direct consumers through it.
4. Upsell, upgrade, ignore consumer interactions eg closing windows.
5. Continue to offer helpful reminders just in case consumers missed offer the third time.

Of course the business may argue the process works and is a source of value. They are confused, it is nothing to do with marketing or customer service more the fact they operate in a duopoly/cartel/monopolisitic competition environment and consumers have little choice.

For more detail on actual journey please go to http://www.easyjet.com/

Getting the budget numbers wrong

2010-05-29T06:59:00.004+01:00

Marketing textbooks suggest lots of different ways to allocate media budget. Unfortunately people get in the way. Here is what normally happens. Budget gets assigned as a % of expected revenues. So if you are marketing lots of products and services you have assumed they all have the same scale of issues and challenges. Invariably your core product may require either less spend because it is truly established or it is so important that you have to chuck everything behind it but you cant because of how budgets are handed out. Then what else happens is parts of your product portfolio get enough money to be dangerous but not enough to sensibly achieve anything.

Here is an alternative, work out what is really important to the business like say the website or customer experience (or ideally which customers), invest in the resource to optimise the hell out of all the customer initiated touch-points. Organic search, call centre, collateral, CRM, loyalty then think how you can waste the rest of your budget. Interestingly b2b organisations tend to get this more right than consumer facing brands. Main reason is they have less money, so they don't have the get out of jail free big budget card. But also they don't have as hungry a call centre to feed.

PS don't forget to measure it.

8 principles of b2b marketing

2010-05-19T12:54:00.003+01:00

8 principles of b2b marketing

View more presentations from james myers.

#1 Clearly communicate why you are here, what you do and how you add value. Cisco's POV is a good example. World would be a better place if we learnt to collaborate. A very good organising principle.

#2 To cut through the search mentality you have to be interesting, whether it be content or free stuff or sponsorship. Like Sage's sponsorship of Krypton factor. There is also a big point here about listening and relevance.

#3 Obvious. And a lot more than just social media by the way.

#4 If customers bother to contact you (and you sell expensive stuff) roll out the carpet.

#5 They expect free stuff. do it. Tools, articles, assessments. Try not to make it too thinly veiled a selling process.

#6 CRM. yes. and don't leave it to sales.

#7 Advocacy, customer forums, co-creation. Dell, BMW telematics design, Amex Open.

#8 The bit everyone struggles with. Involves everything from collateral to managing intermediary relationships.

I am composing a list of case studies if anyone has some suggestions love to hear them.

Rational ignorance

2010-04-30T13:36:00.003+01:00

More on the economics bit - traditional not behavioural this time . When i was taught economics they defined it as the science of resource allocation. Now all the layman literature talks about incentives and how incentives drive every decision from where to live to marriage and divorce. Interestingly they say the world is a whole lot more rational than the behavioral economists would have you think.

Anyway came across this expression. Rational ignorance. I wish i had known about it before. It explains a lot of consumer purchase decisions.

At some point the cost of acquiring more information or evaluating a potential purchase, lets say a washing machine, really outweighs the incremental benefit. It is rational to live with a little ignorance beause after a certain point how wrong can you be?

Rational ignorance also explains why we like brands, they are information shortcuts, they signify quality (amongst a host of other stuff). They save us the information costs. It explains why we dont have an unerring temptation to subscribe to Which every time we want to spend more than £10.

7 B2B Social Media Tools You Haven't heard of

2010-04-09T10:10:00.004+01:00

With the vast array of social media tools out there, it’s easy for some useful ones to get lost in the mix. Here’s a few that might be flying below the radar, but can be valuable tools for B2B marketers

Read more: http://socialmediab2b.com/2010/04/b2b-social-media-tools-3/#ixzz0vFpKKelt

7 B2B Social Media Tools You Haven’t Heard Of

Posted using ShareThis

Trends 2008

2010-04-01T17:28:00.001+01:00

Trends 2008

OK so it is from 2008, but some still make sense (not been proved wrong yet) others dont (have been). There is some personal originality in here.

Behavioural Marketing

2010-03-20T07:18:00.009Z

Customer centric marketing is just too difficult, luckily I think we can give up on it and move on to something a bit easier, behavioural marketing.

We still talk a lot about segmentation and understanding customers needs. The argument is we can group customers into like minded groups and infer likely behaviour from their profiles. Why bother? It is a lot easier to observe what they do, and offer them something on a 'people like you' basis.

What do Amazon know about us? Nothing much about us as people, why should they care. But they do know what we buy and what we have told them is in our wish list. They don't care if two book buyers have different profiles, what does interest them is that they buy the same books. Admittedly they could get a bit smarter merging profiles and behavioural data but it sounds like a lot of work for very little return. Predicting book reading interests from personal data is just too much like guess work, you will get many more misses than hits.

Behavioural marketing is easier to apply in e-commerce environments, retail and service, the likes of Amazon, BA Frequent Flyer clubs but the behavioural approach is applicable across the board. What it means is that the role of the marketer is to do stuff, give stuff away, offer help, offer services, content, whatever allows the customer to do something, interact. The marketer is searching for Behavioural clues. Consequently our job is to do something interesting to the customer rather than something that looks to sell with indecent haste. In high end business technology the things that work best are the offers of free IT reviews, on and off line. The information you get is all you need to know about a customers requirements and willingness to purchase.

The problem with the behavioural marketing approach is that as marketers we have to think about the quality of prospects and customers rather than the numbers we reach. For some this is a major cultural shift, for others it is an easier transition. Behavioural marketing is more than behavioural targeting it is effectively the fusion of digital and direct marketing. It is giving us 121 marketing but without the complexity of profiling and inferring behaviour from attitude, profile, demographics, firmographics or whatever. So what will make it really interesting is when (complimentary) businesses sharing their behavioural data becomes common place.

One day soon, what do my customers look like, may become an irrelevant question. We just won't care.

A Marketing DO list - distributed content

2010-03-01T21:56:00.001Z

One thing that has changed over the last few years in marketing is an increasing need to go and do things rather than just talk about it. Unfortunately whilst small operations get this, the bigger corporations, clients and agencies alike, have not quite grasped this for a number of pretty understandable reasons. Firstly, there are internal pressures to get the strategy perfect. Secondly, how do agencies charge for earned media, which cannibalise their traditional revenues. As no one has quite mastered payment on performance, agencies will naturally do the work that feeds the children (we are getting older) and leave the other stuff to later. Thirdly, traditional media is more visible (success and failure) to the organisation so as a marketing director you focus on this stuff first. I would.

Distributed content is a classic example. We all know it is a great idea but we can spend too much time in circular strategising.

"How and where are we going to distribute content?"
"Depends on what you are saying?"
"What do we talk about it, the stuff we are marketing or something else?"
"Surely we can re-use our content?"

So here are some DO-ing guidelines.

1. Distributed content is a longer term strategy so focus on your brand, your attitude and what makes you different. Sacrifice strategy to be interesting. In other words don't bother distributing boring marketing stuff or thinly veiled advertising unless you are Apple.

2. Dedicate time and resource (that means people) to creating interesting stuff. You cant just wave goodbye to your content as it leaves the door and hope it brings the goodies back. Hire a journalist, a copy writer. Create videos. How to's. How not to's. Top 10s. My mistakes. It is entertainment.

3. Social media. Get your videos on YouTube, Blinx and other video sharing sites. Get pictures on google images and other photo sharing sites. Wikipedia, How to sites. Link it. Tag it. Start now.

4. Use links and buttons in your email to entice visitors to other destinations. You don't want to be too in the face. Be brave, link away from your site. Host third party content tools in your site if you want to be really clever and transparent.

5. Having already established links with friendly bloggers keep them informed, they are linked with each other so this can snowball really quickly.

6. Plan news releases for next 12 months. Manage your media relations. They love content if it is good. Foster relations, don't harass them ask them what they want. Try using a phone as well as email.

And if you get this half right it should improve relevance scores and traffic through organic search and .

Rewiring business brains

2010-02-17T22:02:00.006Z

Where do i save a presentation to a client on social media and CRM? Do i save it under the client name or under a discipline? Or both?

When the 4 and 5 year olds of today grow up they won't know what filing is. They may not even understand the concept of folders. That is because everything will be tagged, they will think in terms of search even now i have given up saving files in neat folders on the computer. Save it anywhere and find it again with google desktop. They will also think video. A Forrester type organisation estimate that 91% of new content in 2014 will be video. YouTube is already the world's no 2 search engine.

Increasingly we will struggle to think in linear terms, we will think more by concept association. Even now generation x, or y or is it z, reared on digital struggle to tell structured stories but what they are very good at is managing lots of different thoughts and not worrying about how everything connects. They use their right brain to make sure it feels alright rather than worrying whether something is watertight. Mr Logic has been allowed to put his feet up.

So going back to presentations and presenting information i suspect the new way to illustrate complex ideas will be increasingly be via images, video and pictures; documents will not be structured in a a linear order but the different sections will be hyperlinked. Clients may ask for a 3 minute video pitch rather than charts.

I am sure this 'rewiring' has big social and educational implications but for the moment the thought of less powerpoint is a pretty good one.

The future of CRM

2010-01-26T13:47:00.003Z

Understandably businesses are increasingly obsessed with customer loyalty - both emotional and financial. Customers are harder to win over, as the mantra goes - they are in control.

So how long will it be before businesses offer customers stock to stay loyal. It is the perfect arrangement. If you like us you can be part of us, every time you buy something you get a little bit of us in return. And of course customers will be less tempted to go somewhere else because they will feel the company is 'theirs' - even if they only own 10 shares. It does not have to be tricky. Take Tesco, they could buy back stock and hand it over to customers for club card points at the year end. 'I go there so often i should have shares in the place' will be a reality.

The means of production will fall into the hands of the workers to paraphrase the German bloke - it would just be ironic that shares the symbol of capitalism will be the mechanic that makes it real.

Suicide and customer satisfaction

2010-01-15T08:16:00.007Z

Sweden is the 7th happiest country in the world based on a Leicester University study, Denmark just a few miles away is no 1. But they both rank extremely highly in the international suicide rate table. For that matter where do you think Switzerland -not unassociated with suicide ranks? ... that's it, 2nd in happiness.

This research is based on a questionnaire along the lines of how happy are you (there are other more sophisticated ways of measuring happiness). But it illustrates a really important statistical point.

If you take all the unhappy people out of your happy survey or they exclude themselves by virtue of suicide then your national happiness score will increase. So any happiness survey needs to find a way of accounting for this, perhaps including their responses until they would have reach the average life expectancy, but that doesn't sound right either. Exactly the same logic illustrates why the FTSE 100 does not reflect the fortunes of the economy, it is because the companies that perform worse fall out of the index. It is called survivor bias, which takes on a whole new meaning when you relate it to happiness and suicide.

And the point. By the same logic we should not exclude customers who have moved to a competitor from our customer satisfaction scores; if we want to use customer satisfaction as an indicator of how we well we are servicing customers. The smarter way to measure this is to use a composite score underpinned by churn, customer sat, net promoter scores. Otherwise it is conceivable you would see customer sat increase side by side with customer churn.

I now have to explain to the family why i have bookmarked a couple of pages on suicide statistics.

When choice drives women crazy - Times Online

2010-01-06T10:42:00.000Z

When choice drives women crazy - Times Online

Another article highlighting the confusion created by too much consumer of choice - in this instance in technology, if you get a chance do read the 'paradox of choice'. Still think it is the best, most rigorous book on the subject.

And whilst i am on there was a feature in the daily's ridiculing labours 'minister of spin'. apparently he had circulated emails discussing 'behavioural economics', 'loss aversion' and other madcap ideas to MPs.

Not sure what to make of this. Is the take out that MPs are too thick to understand it or that that the ideas are too way out there. I suspect the problem is that it is difficult to always express new ideas on one page in 5 sentences with double spacing.

Reinvigorating brand Santa (reprise)

2009-12-11T18:00:00.002Z

The present situation

Santa has won the hearts and minds of his customers. But growth is fuelled by population expansion, retention rates are average at best. The customer relationship starts round age three and fades ages 7 to year 9. Santa is privately owned so there is no financial reporting requirement. The business model is hazy; it is not clear how Santa makes its money. To grow the business you require cashflow or substantial capital. Property lease back is a non starter; they only seem to have seasonal concessions within a variety of retail outlets. Lapland HQ is not practical for other businesses of this scale, so you wont be able to find alternative tenants. Opportunity cost of these assets would seem to be close to zero.

The solution to turning Santa around must lie on the revenue side of the equation.

Our recommendations.

1. Brand identity. Santa, St Nicholas, Father Christmas, Papai Noel, Babbo Natale – the different names dilute the brand. Choose one name and stick to it. It worked for Snickers. Whilst a name that resonates with the Chinese market is tempting we feel an English name provides the greatest global reach. SantaServices gives you brand stretch.

2. Create added value services e.g. charge for different delivery options, delivering on Christmas Day should be the premium not the standard service.

Why not charge for returns or provide warranties? It estimated that 15% of presents are damaged on Christmas Day. This must be a significant revenue opportunity.

3. Merchandise yourself how about replica kits for children; think laterally! What would be the equivalent of the soccer away strip? What about a light suit for hotter climates. Don’t be a slave to red.

4. Investigate sponsorship opportunities. Formula 1 would offer the best benchmark. Look for brand synergies, but obviously avoid competitors like DHL, red letters days unless there is a clear income opportunity.

5. Share of hearts. Make sure Santaservices.com is on all packaging and clothing. “This present was bought you to by Santaservices.com” reinforces the brand.

6. Embrace digital. Letters posted up chimneys is a nice touch but difficult to believe it is practical. And this hardly good for the environment. Email has to be the way forward. Make the website work harder, a personalised web experience is essential. And of course this year we are expecting mobile technologies to take off so integrating SMS is a must.

7. Brand experience days help your best customers embrace the brand. It is probably Pizza Express No.1 marketing activity. Children come along make Pizzas in the morning and pester their parents in the afternoon to return in the evening - and they pay for it.

8. Business continuity. Business is over-reliant on one man; no one is going to invest in a business without a clear succession plan. Consider an X-Santa type show.

Give Mrs Santa more of a role cf Cameron and Brown. Older men into children can be perceived as unusual e.g. Michael Jackson.

9. Go beyond the seasonal demand. One day a year! Enormous opportunity even if we don’t go 24x7x365. Of course it is possible more frequent Christmases may be difficult to market but the core competence is distribution and logistics. Look to provide corporate outsourcing solutions.

10. Develop a retention program for teenage into adult years, you know all about random acts of kindness. Make sure the C in CRM stands for Christmas.

11. PR. Appearance is everything. Looking that comfortable in the present climate does not seem appropriate. Even Puff daddy is forgoing bling in concession to the crunch. Obesity and children is a hot topic. We really do live in an age of style over content so think about going on TV with Gok or Gillian Mckeith.

12. Crisis management. Don’t get pissed in public even seemingly indestructible can be destroyed with 1 or 8 moments of madness. (Tiger Woods)

B2B Marketing: Lessons learned in 2009

2009-12-10T13:45:00.001Z

Nice to see what we have been saying echoed. Have not heard of the companies in UK but not the point.

B2B Marketing: Lessons learned in 2009

View more presentations from The Bridge Group, Inc..

Seductive sponsorships

2009-11-22T14:34:00.009Z

My indisputable hypothesis is that the bigger a sponsorship opportunity is, the harder it is to control it for the benefit of your brand. So i wonder why more brands don't sponsor lots of smaller events or the less well known sports. Understandably you are unlikely to hear 'lets own fell running, curling and netball' from a board table thumping CEO but there again smaller events tend to be more grateful and consequently do more to make sure the sponsorship works, they package it and activate if for you. Of course you don't get the reach but you do find consumers keener to repay the commitment. Estate agents and solicitors often find sponsorship of the local sports club pays back in revenues, social bonds being more powerful than financial ones. (see Predictably Irrational, Nursery school experience)

So when i am head of marketing for Bernard Matthews, Krispy Kreme or ACME I'll try to remember.

1) When i am offered a big sponsorship opportunity, look for a series of smaller simpler events that could potentially achieve the same results.
2) Look for opportunities before i am asked
3) Make sure it fits the business (before someone says anything obvious)
4) Think of sponsorship as earned rather than paid media i..e the cheque is only the beginning of a great relationship

Unless of course my new boss likes football and wants tickets to the world cup final. In which case i will pretend my 6 year old wrote this.

Second order decision making

2009-11-18T18:12:00.005Z

Second order decisions are the rules we make up in our lives either to avoid making complex trade offs or remove the need to continuously reassess everyday choices.

So for example ...

* Sticking to one commute route regardless of traffic and weather conditions
* Putting your credit card in the freezer to avoid over usage.
* Deciding to buy - before entering the shop - what ever shower gel is on offer.
* Selecting an IFA you like rather than researching the product itself.
* Repeating your grocery order on line.

Identifying which decisions (and when) are second order and which are primary is a really good way to think about both categories and consumer decision making. If your market displays a high degree of second order decision making then the chances are the persuasion model of marketing may be less effective, your job is to break the habit get consumers to do something different.

The future of creative thinking

2009-10-26T18:34:00.008Z

Sharing a summary of implications of behavioural economics for marketing and us agencies. Most of the specific examples are borrowed from the books listed at end of doc. The rest i hope is orginal. And thanks to Rory and the IPA for encouraging me to to dust off the old economic text books and take a second look at them.

Behavioural Economics

- A marketing perspective -

What is it?

Traditional economic models and assumptions don’t explain why people or consumers do what they do. Behavioural Economics has evolved to help us better understand how economic and consumer decisions are made. And increasingly behavioural economics is being used to explain anything and everything from why people don’t put enough money into their pensions to why it is difficult to get taxis on rainy days (and it is not because they are busy!)*

Behavioural economics is the study of why consumers and economic agents do what they do, especially when what they do is seemingly less than rational.

What is wrong with traditional economic thinking?

Traditional economics is normative in approach. It is rational and deductive, in other words you have to be very good at higher level maths, and a PHD helps.

It utilises two key assumptions.

- Perfect information or knowledge. All possible outcomes and corresponding rewards of an action are known in advance

- Every agent looks to maximise their ‘utility’ or profits at all times over the long term time horizon. I.e. they are rational.

If you adopt these assumptions then it follows, for one, that all stock markets would be efficient, they would assimilate information immediately and there would be no bubbles or ‘sentiment’. [this is a vast over-simplification but don’t worry about it]

Behavioural economics is different to traditional economics, it is built on observation. And observation shows we behave very irrationally. We display brand preference and establish purchasing habits. We spend today and save tomorrow. We smoke. And buying a Porsche is hardly a rational decision.

Why all the excitement now?

We have seen a vast increase in the availability of information, near perfect. Technology has provided us with tools to make more rational choices and as marketers we can increasingly measure what we do and observe behavioural clues (increasingly on line) – but still consumers behave in what we could refer to as irrational ways.

* See last page

Behavioural economics is intuitive

No one believes for a second that we make purely rational choices all the time or reappraise our purchase, health and educational choices on a regular basis ‘in order to maximise our utility’, but the assumption has always been that everything would even itself out over time across the population.

But we see people buying the same detergent their mother always bought. We do follow other people across the road without looking. We do consistently refuse to put enough into our pension. We have unsafe sex, none of this is rational but it makes sense. We do things with our right side of the brain. So clearly we can be rational, habitual as well as intuitive.

What makes behavioural economics doubley fascinating for us is that it is interested in how we can change this behaviour with what Thaler and Sunsten call ‘Nudges’.

Here are a couple of examples (from controlled experiments, not real life). They are taken from Nudge and Predictably Irrational.

Rome or Paris

Say a travel agent offers a weekend break to Paris or Rome; the Rome trip comes with breakfast inclusive. A certain proportion will select Rome, the rest Paris. However if you offer Paris, Rome without breakfast and Rome with breakfast no one selects Rome without breakfast, no surprises there; but there is a significant increase in those who now opt for the Rome with breakfast option over Paris. The Rome with breakfast option has become more interesting by virtue of the existence of a choice no one chooses, namely Rome without breakfast. Everything as they say is relative.

Population of Burundi

If you ask an (uninformed) group how many people live in Burundi they will come up with a figure. The average guess may or may not be close to the actual number. However if you ask them to estimate the population to the nearest Million and tell them that another group estimated 3 Million you will get a very different response. Try it.

And a real example:

Teenage pregnancies

Teenage mothers were given a $1 for every day they did not become pregnant with a second child. The birth rate dropped significantly even though the state benefits would outweigh the relatively insignificant $1 per day contribution. This is what they call a nudge, think of it as an incidental stimulus that modifies behaviour.

The language of behavioural economics

Behavioural economics has its own terminology. Here are the more commonly used.

Choice architecture: The way we present options determines your choice. Kids sweets at the check out or make up at the front of the store are examples.

Loss aversion: this reflects our tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Experiments have revealed we are infinitely more annoyed about losing £10 as we are gaining £10. This has implications for how we present price rises, direct debit charges and incentives.

Status Quo bias: people will only change a habit or established behaviour if the incentive is significant.

Gambler’s fallacy: the balls have no memory! In other words just because it has not come up red for the last three spins it does not mean the next spin of the wheel is any more or less likely to come up red.

Self serving bias: Simply put I deserved my promotion, he was lucky. We look through the world through our very own goggles.

Money illusion: Economists refer to sticky downward pricing. People won’t sell their house at a nominal loss even if every other house is going down in value; we prefer to wait for our house to go up in nominal terms even if inflation has reduced the real value of the house.

Anchoring: The Burundi example is a classic illustration of this. Our responses often over rely on one piece of information.

Inequity aversion: Cut off his nose to spite his face if he thinks you are getting more than your fair share!

Herd behaviour: Individuals act in a group without thinking, believing that not everyone can be that wrong.

Calender effect: The classic one being the New Year resolution. Days and events in the calendar change our behaviour. Are you nicer at Christmas?

Hyperbolic discounting: Within reason – people state a preference for money now over a little bit more in a month’s time. However if they are given the same offer but it is delayed for 12 months they are happy to wait the extra month for the extra amount. So why the change in preference? This explains our attitudes to pensions.

Paradox of choice: Give me a choice of two or three things and I can hopefully decide what I want. Give me 27 (insurance services) and I am lost. This partly explains the existence of middle men and aggregators.

The good news

Most of us are regularly doing or have ‘done’ some behavioural economics within our roles as marketers. In many ways it is what we have done intuitively, behavioural economics is applied marketing.

Prize draws and incentives. Don’t miss out (rather than make sure you get).

Holiday companies. Book early to avoid disappointment. .

Application forms. Just tick this box and we will do the rest.

Loyalty programs utilising inertia.

Amazon. People like you also purchased.

RRP.

Leisure brands. You deserve it.

Bigger red buttons.

Pill packets with dates

Telecoms. Different calls packages with various free minute options to reframe the choice around incremental value.

Insurance brands. Automated renewal

Savings (or credit cards). “With just a £1 a day ...”.

Smoking cessation products.

And you could probably add semiotics and any re-positioning projects. Even our very own moments of truth are examples of utilising behavioural economics. Essentially behavioural economics explains what we, as marketers, have been doing for a while but importantly it gives us a framework and a language to do more of it, more often as part of ‘what we do’.

The big implications of behavioural economics

1. Perhaps more than we thought people are doing things without rationalising the decision. This challenges the traditional communications model of change attitude, then change behaviour. We know that if we make products and services more available or simpler to use they will be adopted. Perhaps communications should increasingly be used to reinforce the purchase and encourage inertia rather than change behaviour. Inertia, availability, group behaviour, options, comparisons are much more important marketing tools than we realised.

In other words getting them to do (respond, buy) first; worry about attitude later. Direct marketers take note.

2. The consumer may be making an active decision when and when not to be rational. For example, habit is fine when you are doing the weekly shopping. But if you love running you are going to take a bit longer choosing a pair of trainers and maybe the same applies when you buy a car.

Time is precious and sometimes we can’t be bothered to look around. So intuition and inertia are rational choices if the cost of error i.e. choosing the wrong product is deemed to be insignificant or the cost of acquiring the necessary knowledge to make the ‘correct’ purchase is perceived to be high. So if the consumer is less involved in the category, the chances are there is a greater opportunity to use the tools of the behavioural economist. This would apply to utilities and commoditised markets.

3. Agencies need to encourage their clients to let them focus on the problem, not the medium. How we solve it should not really matter. How we get paid for it will though.

Some final thoughts

- If we can influence choice literally by how we present the options what happens if the choice architect is unethical. (and is not paternalistically libertarian)

- Marketing and communication agencies are probably in the best place to utilise this thinking, how do they charge their clients way of thinking – about them?

- How do we structure our behavioural economics story or even our approach? When do we engage our client?

Want to know more? Then read

Nudge

Undercover economist

The economic naturalist

Predictably irrational

Freakonomics

Black Swan

*The taxi example: Taxi drivers make more money in wet weather faster. So once they have reached their target, it is off to the golf course. Makes sense when you think about it.

The new marketing funnel(s)

2009-10-20T12:02:00.000+01:00

Thought i would share a couple of versions of the new marketing funnel, not exactly original but i really like the idea of ... long listing ... the notion that customers decide their initial selection maybe wrong after doing their research ... the acknowledgment that (digital allows) the added value relationship to start before the purchase ... brand 'exchangement' (whatever i mean by that, i have not fully thought that through but i wanted to make it more tangible than engagement) ... and that everything can change at the POS.

I also wanted to make it business friendly, something clients could put metrics against rather than just being told it's complex, and the customer is in control (even more so than last time we presented). Any thoughts appreciated or perhaps you have used something similar successfully.

See the other version below, it has a bit more detail and is a wee bit different.

The neo-classical funnel

2009-10-20T11:49:00.004+01:00

Sorry about the title but is sort of says what i want to communicate. Comments appreciated. Posting an alternative version above.

Brilliant and fun - watch it.

2009-10-10T10:21:00.002+01:00

Ad for French TV channel -promoting the art of storytelling.

Great storytelling

Customer centric vending

2009-10-08T20:57:00.009+01:00

.... don't worry i can get some ... give me two minutes. Headache, what now? Don't go anywhere. I'll be back.

Its Anadin, what do you think it is.

That was a one off, but just in case i got something small, hard, shiny and comes in a canister.

... not a lot of garlic, why?

3 or will 2 be enough ... any brand preference?

The vending machines in the mens (mid market hotel) sell condoms, condoms - coloured, condoms - with Ferraris (why speed?) on the pack, something for erectile disfunction (whatever that is), headache tablets and, of course, mints

Great thinking. Good marketers solve a customer problem, they sell the solution - not the product. I get the nagging feeling they are missing a trick but cant think what that would be or whether it would fit in a vending machine?

The social media conundrum

2009-10-04T12:06:00.003+01:00

Most businesses understandably see social media as an attractive opportunity.

200m blogs on blogger
100m Youtube videos watched every day
5,000m facebook minutes daily
38% of all on line media is on social media platforms
2/3 of the global internet population visit social networks and they are the 4th most popular on line activity
20% of twitter conversations mention brands

Every marketing director is drooling by this stage, because in their heads they have added word of mouth and FREE-ish into this heady mix. Lots of customers for next to nothing brilliant. A facebook page, a bit of twitter, followed by world domination and entering newly developed south American markets, all before tea time. Just in time for early orders at Corney and Barrow or Yates Wine Lodge, depending on how business is doing.

Now to bring everyone back down to earth (because that is what i have to do as a job more often than not) we could make a rational argument pointing out the resource, content, relevance demands and complexities. It would be dull and you won't remember it anyway. Lets try another way.

WH Smiths have just launched their facebook page and you can twitter with them when ever you want. How does that make you feel? Excited? Thought not. But point made, that is how customers may see your brand's social media activity. By the way WH Smiths haven't or i hope they haven't.

Everyday millions of people commute into London by train, they sit there for two to three hours a day. A captive audience, waiting to be marketed to. That is why i am launching my commuter marketing agency tomorrow. I suspect your first reaction is, he is an idiot. Second reaction is why not just put an ad in the newspaper at least they will have something useful (content) to read. Third reaction is, if you are still being polite, 'we will include transport in the media schedule if it fits with the strategy, thanks for your contribution'.

So just because the customers are there does not mean there is the opportunity to market to them. Social media is a really confusing term. Most of them are social networking sites not marketing tools waiting to be utilised.

By all means use social media to listen, or resolve, engage and participate if you can add value but don't think of it as a marketing panacea. And of course first work out what your customers want and if you can credibly provide a solution. Many brands have used social media well (Dell, Mini, Amex, BT) but they have invested considerable time and resource, they also know what they wanted to get out of it.

The social media strategy is easy, do things that customers want or find useful. It's the execution which is the tricky time consuming bit.

Light at the end of the tunnel

2009-09-21T15:12:00.005+01:00

I have not written anything in the last month because in the words of a colleague - I have even got bored with myself. Don't be silly, that is not possible! But i know what they meant. I don't know whether this is a common affliction in marketing, I suspect it is.

The problem is similar to the one in the 90s when we all talked about the wonderful world of what CRM technologies would deliver. We could all talk an infinitely better game than any clients internal system would let us deliver. And even today when businesses undergo a CRM audit or CRM capability analysis, the good ones score 40% or even lower. That wouldn't even get you an A* in media studies.

The same is happening with digital. We can can create a wonderful vision of tags, cookies, virtual databases, personalised web environments and collaborative filtering (what amazon do) but delivering is a bit tricky. The frustration is the deliverable gets diluted and can be miles away from what we can do or are allowed to - unless of course you are a pure play e-commerce or your business is doing badly enough to force you to re-engineer yourself.

That i am afraid is the silver lining upbeat swing at the end of the downbeat article, some organisations have no choice but to do things differently. Lack of budget focuses the mind. However i am an optimist - eventually.

And no I am not thinking about my clients.

Only positive cheery comments please.

Tech marketing = drug dealing

2009-08-07T06:47:00.000+01:00

Just get it in the hands of your customers and they wont be able to give up the habit suppose that's why all the games retailers have the demo consoles in store.

But here is a great digital example. A chumby is a wi-fi device on which you can run apps, facebook, ebay, radio, transport information, news feeds, webcams. Keep it in the kitchen. They cost about £100.

But the really neat thing is that you can run a virtual chumby on your pc before you buy. Technology isn't real until you experience it.

This illustrates another point about digital making relationship marketing before the sale simpler and more cost effective.

Thanks to Rory Sutherland for showing me his virtual Chumby. If you want to set yours up go to www.chumby.com .

It's not how much but how much more

2009-08-05T06:31:00.003+01:00

Fascinating example of relative pricing.

Do we sell a mobile phone tariff for £10 pcm with 50 free minutes or 150 free minutes? They both undercut the competition but clearly the 150 minute free minutes tariff creates less margin but will be more attractive to consumers. So what do we do?

The answer. Do both. And put the price up.

So you have two potential communications

A) £10 pcm with 150 minutes

B) Choose between £10pcm and 50 minutes or £12pcm and 150 minutes.

Which sells more?

It's B) and they buy the more expensive option. This is counter intuitive but the consumer rationale is 100 free minutes extra for £2. No brainer.

It's all relative!

Tariffs and offer changed to protect any potential client confidentiality.

Top tips on how to get the worst out of your agency

2009-06-19T08:57:00.003+01:00

Don't brief them just ask them to do an ad or a letter or something.
Never write anything down for them.
Definitely don't give feedback, why should they have any clues.
Make sure they understand that anyone who has money is in the target market.
Under no circumstances provide information that suggests your product or service is different in any way shape or form.
If they question this remind your agency of the power of your brand.
BUT Provide attachments, as many as you can find. Too much knowledge can't be a bad thing.
Talk about samples of one and your neighbours experience as much as you can.
Never tell them the results of the campaigns or impact on sales
Only allow a couple of days for them to produce the work, afterall writing can't be that difficult.
Ensure that they work at cost, profits just go on long lunches anyway.
Draw a concept for them in the briefing meeting, and tell them what your boss likes to see.
Ask them to communicate as much as feasibly possible in anything they do.
On no account ever present to them.

Brand = information shortcut

2009-05-30T09:00:00.001+01:00

You have probably seen all those presentations about 'what is a brand?'. They told us that the brand is a set of values over and above the product, that brands live inside the head of customers and so on. In some ways i saw it as an information short cut. I'll explain. If you trusted a brand you could buy it or from it in the safe knowledge that it would be OK, you would not being making [too big] a mistake. Essentially we did not have time as consumers to do all that research to evaluate every product, to work out what is best. So the brand communicated something about the product qualities.

But the weird thing is it is still an information short cut. Because there is too much information out there, we cant be bothered to do all that research so we opt for a brand we trust.

30 years ago we couldn't possibly do all the research we should to be 'rational' consumers
Now we have the information available and we cant always be bothered. We haven't got time.

Of course if you are spending lots of money or buying your favourite toy we will research it, but brands still matter. They still communicate but just in different ways.

The end of awareness

2009-05-24T18:23:00.005+01:00

Why do we still measure awareness? I suppose it allows us to justify the media schedule but some brands still treat it as the key measure. We have measured it historically because it was the easiest thing to measure and the measure most likely to shift. So that gave us a warm feeling.

However we should be more focused on things like ... Do you find this brand interesting, or different or appealing. Do you prefer it? Nothing else really matters - apart from whether they buy it or not.

I recognise this means it is even harder to separate the impact of the advertising and communications from the product or brand experience but unfortunately that is tough. It definitely doesn't work that way any more, assuming it ever did. I can think a brand is the coolest thing in the thing in the world but if 16 out of 37 reviews say it is crap i am not going to buy it.

Re-connecting the marketing funnel

2009-05-18T13:28:00.004+01:00

It's B2B again.

What exactly is a quality lead, our clients always talk about them but rarely does it get defined. The sales perspective is something like a prospect who invites them to tender. But this is not perfect, the likes of IBM, HP, Vauxhall will more often than not be on the shortlist as part of a benchmarking exercise. Marketing would probably define a lead as anyone who has engaged with the organisation, either via an event or on line.

Clearly there is a disconnect and explains why sales often complain about marketing, sales understandably want easy sales.

We could 'settle' the argument is by linking the marketing database to the website to ad serving data and other on line marketing activity. Easier said than done. But in the meantime if anyone has a better definition or two of leads (that marketing and sales agree on) i would love to hear about it.

B2B - it is a very small market

2009-05-08T13:39:00.006+01:00

Just read a report by BERR (Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) on SMEs (small medium enterprises) in the UK.

Here are some headline stats

1. 99.9% of businesses are SMEs (under 250 employees)

2. Of 4.68m private sector enterprises in the UK, 3.6m don't have any employees and are probably shells.

3. There are less than 27,000 companies with more than 50 employees.

4. 50% of SMEs with 50 to 250 employees are family owned

You cant help but think there is a lot of sophisticated marketing chasing very few prospects of either value or readiness to buy, especially in terms of IT. So if someone like Avaya or HP know which sectors they are after they should go the extra inch and get on first name terms with their best prospects or perhaps invite them round for dinner. Big campaigns are just for the benefit of sales teams, providing a bit of momentum.

Marketing rule 1a

2009-05-02T14:16:00.004+01:00

Two posts ago (10th April) i wrote that you only need one marketing rule, be interesting. Well it is two weeks on and i want to add another one. I am trying to stretch it so it is part of rule, rule 1a?

Rule 1a is 'Be where they are'.

You have probably used this in every pitch involving digital so it is not original but it highlights the importance of media context as well as the opportunity to exploit search, social media and digital influence. It is pretty difficult to argue with rule 1a when we see how much consumers rely on search and peer opinion when purchasing anything more sophisticated than toilet duck. You regularly see figures like 90% plus using search before making a purchase on or off line. Last week i researched trainers, found out about over and underpronation (exactly), went to the store, happened to remember the brand and product; Brooks, Adrenaline. Then bought them up. Unfortunately for the marketing manager at Brooks they couldn't track this.

So the only marketing rules you need are :-

1. Be interesting
1a. Be where they are

I wont be adding any more rules in the forseeable future.

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No more clicks

2009-04-24T10:52:00.001+01:00

I did something very strange the other day. I clicked on a banner. Now with click through rates hovering around 0.2% on a so so day and the fact that we know there are some habitual clickers (god knows why) and some accidental clickers like my children (god knows where to). I think it is something to be remarked on. I don't click is becoming the modern equivalent of i don't watch ads.

Now I have to fess up. It was on a business site and the banner was taking me to a sister publication so you could argue it was a button or a link dressed up as a banner. So the only time i have clicked on a banner is in a contextual environment. I am not saying network buys don't cost in. Network buys clearly make sense for mass market products and awareness objectives but for specialist categories and b2b you may be better off looking at specialist networks or finding different ways to spend your money, like sponsored email, smarter search, links and buttons. Focussing on those people in the market mood. Never the less it still feels odd that this great thing the internet is premised on its ability to serve up relevant content but we still deliver marketing messages on a semi random basis.

The easy counter argument to this is that brands do invest in network display campaigns because it works; but you would be assuming that they can track activity through to sale. You would be surprised how few brands do this as well as they profess to.

Do you click?

The only marketing rule you will ever need

2009-04-10T12:45:00.002+01:00

I have worked it out, forget your top ten lists. I know we all like lists but there is only one rule you need in the new marketing environment and that is.

Be interesting.

Ok we have known this for a while and you could say it is just another way of saying content, content, content.

But to be interesting you have to all of the following.

(1) segment your market - create personas if we want to get digital about it.
(2) understand your customers requirements
(3) give them the personal treatment
(4) be relevant
(5) get to the point quickly
(6) ignore your (product) agenda until you know what the consumer wants

I quite like the way HSBC give lots of business advice on their business banking pages but there again the choice for them is easy, business banking is inherently dull. I also had a look at Evans's website (the cycle people). They have some interesting areas like 'ride2work', 'news and events' but they should be part of the landing environment not something to do after you have scanned the product pages. And why don't they have lots of pages about great places to cycle or videos. If it is there, it is very well hidden.

Sales people always want the products up front which is ironic given that sales people always say good ones engage the customer before they talk about the product. You know the car salesman who asks you how you are going to use the car, what sort of trips you will make before talking petrol and cars.

Are we all just too good at ignoring our own advice?

Big budgets can lead to lazy marketing

2009-04-05T17:55:00.007+01:00

Some marketers have too much money. If they had limited budget they would :-

(1) Make sure the website was a focal point of the business
(2) Invest time in creating interesting content covering the category, events to video.
(3) Get a few staff to blog their little socks off
(4) Optimise the site for organic search
(5) Share as much as possible with key influencers
(6) Capture customer data, give customers a personal service, do CRM, maximise retention
(7) Give their brand personality
(8) Develop affiliate relationships - old style and new style affiliates
(9) Link, link, link

... and so on and so on

If they have too much money they :-

(a) Do big ads and talk about big ideas, (not lots of great little ideas)
(b) Run regular DM programs, saying the same thing to the same prospects again and again.
(c) Do lots of paid search
(d) Try to sell off the page
(e) Talk about being customer centric
(f) Copy their nearest competitors

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Inactive sponsorship

2009-03-28T09:00:00.001Z

I am sure i am setting myself up for a fall and will be accused of being too left brain about this but I don't really get a sponsorship. What do Samsung get out of sponsoring Chelsea? What return on investment does Vodafone get from England Cricket. I think they call this passive sponsorship.

I definitely understand sponsorship when there is a shared relevance so Flora sponsoring the London Marathon and, is it, Pedigree sponosoring Crufts Dog Show. And it is even better when a sponsorship is active or strategic, where the sponsorship showcases the product or service. So I am thinking IBM and Wimbledon, Ariel and Championship Whites, SAP and HP in F1.

Can anyone explain what they get out of logo sponsorship?

Gordon Brown - not a banker

2009-03-22T19:27:00.006Z

The title is a bit direct, and i have gone a bit off piste but i think i can relate it to the general themes in the blog. Consumer behaviour.

Gordon Brown is concerned about regulation of mortgage providers - good. He has expressed a view that in future they limit borrowers to three times salary - bad. Stupid idea, too late.

Free markets tend to be more efficient, this recession is a painful adjustment. But it is a bit late to interfere. The horse has bolted, gone 300 miles down the road, turned into a soap factory and has gone a bit Shergar.

If you create rules then people readjust their behaviour accordingly (Goodhart the deputy governor of the Bank of England pointed this out in the 1990's). What will householders do if we we limit them to three times salary? Panic or get poorer. Everyone remortgaging will be at the mercy of the lenders, paying higher rates because they cant get a mortgage. More people will try to sell find they can't. Result house prices go down further.

It is a bit late but if the banks had been regulated in the same we restricted householders (don't lend more than 4 times income or assets) much of this would not have happened. We all knew house prices were too high in 2003 and 2004, what we did not know was the banks would lend recklessly.

The threat of thrift

2009-03-15T17:46:00.006Z

We did some market research the other day and observed some new consumer attitudes. Consumers - thats you an me - are cutting back their spending. However a few months ago it would have been something they would have rationalised with 'we didn't need it' or 'the old one is still working fine'. But now they are happy to say 'we haven't got the money', 'we can't afford it'. Expenditure is not just being postponed, it is being cancelled. And being wealthy isn't quite as cool as it was.

Economists call this the paradox of thrift, to get out of a recession you need money to be circulating - in other words we should all spend money - but the rational choice of an individual is not to spend but to save for a rainy day.

What does this mean for producers and marketers? Not sure but ostentatious wealth and consumption is off the agenda and it sounds like the recession could get a whole lot worse.

Next week i am going to look for some sunnier news.

Googleators and market concentration

2009-03-02T21:12:00.007Z

I read earlier today that there are 133 website aggregators. Sorry, I don't know whether that is UK, Worldwide, Western civilisation or one specific category. The article made the point that they are having to spend more and more on marketing to maintain traffic levels. But you can't help but wonder why there isn't just one great big googleator to aggregate the aggregators. It would save them all that marketing spend. Seems pretty obvious logic that a winner (or a very few) could potentially take all. All they are doing is delivering information. The economies of scale or more to the point the dis-economies of scale seem clear. Big is better. Small is nowhere.

Market domination in information services, but why not other markets? The Internet has essentially just giving us access to much much more information so you would expect the 'good products' to float to the top and the bad ones to suffer accordingly. I would be fascinated to know whether we are observing greater market concentration so a fewer number but albeit bigger companies dominating markets. And before you ask, surrounded by lots of smaller organisations focusing on specific segments and niches. Why be medium sized - whatever that is?

The Internet has made it easier for companies to enter markets and also provides them with greater reach quicker. But on the flip side better access to information for consumers may have resulted in any brand with inferior products or services struggling to maintain customers and share.

Sounds like a PHD topic.

Vauxhall's advertising turkey

2009-02-22T14:00:00.006Z

My life was empty, I had no girlfriend and my car was getting a bit long in the tooth. So I popped down the Vauxhall showroom to get my self a babe magnet (subject to finance), you probably know it better as a Corsa. Driving home I spotted a young woman struggling to cycle up the hill. She was probably in her late 20s, sexy but certainly not too much for your gran.

I pulled the car over and out popped the integral cycle rack, it is hidden behind the number plate. By not getting out of the car (to fully show off the cycle rack remote mechanism) I risked her thinking I was incapacitated in some way but the risk proved worth it as she slid in beside me. We went to my appartment overlooking the Med (Medway) and made love all afternoon. Thank you Vauxhall, and thank you integral cycle rack.

P.S. The woman could have been my wife I cant remember.

http://www.visit4info.com/advert/No-Deposit-0-FInance-on-Vauxhall-Corsa-with-Bike-Rack-Vauxhall-Corsa-Range/68816

I know the ad has been around a while but it is bad, in fact so bad i couldn't even find it on youtube. Can you explain why the car is driven by a sock puppet? What is more If the best thing about your car is an integral cycle rack it might be an idea to feature it on your website rather than hide it. I could go on and on and on ...

The Aldi recoil

2009-02-15T22:36:00.007Z

Disasters tend to bring people together, people suddenly help those they wouldn't previously have given the time of day to. So could the recession and depression spark a sense of solidarity, collaboration and even responsibility?

If it does I suspect the marketing industry may not be too far behind and we could see a host of buy British campaigns, of course no one would be as gauche as to say buy British explicitly, that is far too Leyland. But if the likes of the privatised utility companies, Ford (i know they are not), WH Smiths, Tescos, rail companies and any other semi private-public-institution-large UK-ish company start telling us how hard they are trying, we may feel like supporting them to save a few jobs or just to convince ourselves we have done something positive. I expect you would get the government joining in with the noise - now that intervention has been given the green light thanks to a) us destroying the environment and b) bankers.

Sounds silly? You know the chorus well enough by now. If i had said to you last year that some UK coal mines would reopen and be more become profitable than lets say banking ...

Instead of the Aldi or Lidle effect we can call it the Aldi recoil effect.

One good, one bad

2009-02-15T11:37:00.006Z

Having seen several friends lose jobs recently i thought i would promote this article. How to use linked in to find a new job, no rocket science but i do like it when you see social media being used practically rather than just being a time toilet.

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2009/02/10-ways-to-use.html

And dont you just hate presentations that start with a definition. Effectively you are saying if you set me such a stupid task, it is your fault if you get a crap response. You should have checked the dictionary definition you loser.

Don't show them the strategy

2009-02-06T08:58:00.006Z

Yesterday i received a piece of direct mail from Ocado. The first sentence read 'In tough times. So I threw it in the bin. Because my first thought was tough times, Waitrose, deli bar, overpriced, home delivery and food close to sell by date. No thanks. Aldi are only another 15 miles away through snowdrift I'll go there. It felt rather opportunistic and reminded me of all the stuff I am reading everyday in the paper. If it was trying to strike a chord, or create some empathy it failed badly.

All which got me thinking about how easy it is to get carried away and 'advertise' your strategy. So things like Sky addressing mums 'As a busy mum ...' in their direct mail. Then proceeding to make no further reference, promoting the big match and MamaMia with equal weight. If you are going to do it, do it properly and tailor the whole communication. I think direct marketers are more guilty than the rest we like to show off our targetting ideas.

There are must be lots of examples, anyone got any more?

Do NOT integrate your marketing communications

2009-02-01T12:44:00.006Z

Integrating your communications so everything feels it has come from the same brand is probably point 2 in marketing for dummies. There are lots of ways of to do it - matching luggage e.g. banks - integrational devices e.g. direct line's little phone - proposition, headline & pay off e.g. John Lewis, Stella, VW. But no rules about what works best, for what type of brands, when.

I can't help but think we are missing the point.

If a brand has a clear set of brand values or more importantly a bit of soul and personality then everything it does will look like it has come from the same company. So think Honda, Virgin, Tesco, Waitrose. And these organisatons are consistent over time not just within the confines of a campaign. So if we are desperately try to make a campaign feel integrated chances are we have lost sight of the big picture. And ironically those brands who are consistent in their brand values can get away with doing something slightly different now and again because their values are so strong and understood. The real guiding principle should be consistency over time not short term campaign integration.

So next time i am asked about integration i am going to talk about brand values, long term consistency, personality and soul. I don't think i will get away with it.

Pass me the matching luggage

Not paid enough?

2009-01-25T13:47:00.003Z

I have always been confused why marketing is not better rewarded. They grow profits by attracting customers and increasing their long term value. Intuitively it feels good, businesses worship growth.

But there again an accountant can save the company millions by hedging against changes in exchange rate or against oil prices (although i know of one budget airline that forgot to do this) or depreciating capital equipment at a faster rate through some neat sleight of hand. Intellectually it is not very imaginative, a bit black and white. So why the big rewards?

I know some of the arguments.

Share price, short termism of the city, easier to measure the impact of savings, paid on a % of savings etc. And i am pretty sure the guy who came up with every little helps (culture not just an ad line by the way) got a whole lot less than many jobbing in the procurement department.

However given the recent activity it is clear that financial roles are far more valuable than i realised. Businesses that have not managed their cash flow, suppliers and balance sheets are going under. And clearly it must be difficult because so many who get paid so much got it badly wrong, which goes back to my first point.

Knocking the ad industry

2009-01-18T12:56:00.004Z

Looks like we are still an easy target. I didn't get drawn on the 'paid handsomely' and the 'wacky'. Article below, response at the bottom.

Bernard Matthews ad is a right turkey

Richard Fletcher - Telegraph 15 Jan 09

USING your own staff in your adverts is the latest whizz of those clever admen, who are paid so handsomely to come up with "wacky" ideas.

It all started with those (rather annoying) Halifax adverts – starring Howard the cashier.

With his singing and dancing routines Howard quickly gained cult status and others inevitably followed. It has even got to the stage where actors pretend to be real staff.

One of the last to jump on the bandwagon is Bernard Matthews.

As part of its rebranding (following that rather unfortunate bird flu incident) its own staff starred in Bernard Matthews' adverts – holding up handmade signs expressing how proud they were to work for the company.

Let's just hope that none of the "stars" are among the 130 redundancies announced yesterday. Somehow I doubt those clever ad guys factored that possibility in when they pitched the idea.

Read the piece on Bernard Matthews, an interesting perspective. And in the interests of disclosure, I don't work for the ad agency or Bernard Matthews, nor expect to do so in the near future. I am not related to Bernard either.

You would like to think that the possibility of staff redundancy had occurred to team Bernard Matthews. It would certainly have occurred to the admen, there are too many stories about what can go wrong when you turn staff into media stars.

But two points. One. The ad is clearly about product quality not staff commitment, this must have been a blessed relieve given recent history. As you suggest Bird Flu is hardly likely to be a source of competitive advantage.

Two. Clever admen, you are joking. No we are not. All we do is give advice and consultancy on marketing strategy, branding, pricing, service, customer management, marketing optimisation but only get paid for the production of the advertising, then get picked on by journalists. If you do it again i am going to become a banker.

When communications is just not enough

2009-01-12T10:49:00.007Z

Imagine a time when marketing department headcounts are drastically reduced. The head of marketing turns to a consultant who brings in a few experts. They help with a bit of strategy, some research, the brand values, PR, the database and a bit of customer retention. The client loves it because he is in control of costs, limited overheads. He gets the expertise and people who do or will understand his business very well. And importantly their ambitions are aligned to his, no one to say behind his back to what extent he has got it all wrong.

And then when it all picks up, which it will i am just not sure about the timing, this team helps him run pitches for advertising projects, direct mail, web build. The purist communications agencies fighting it out on a project by project basis, best one wins.

Ouch.

But there again it sounds like a really interesting agency model.

Measuring advertising effectiveness

2009-01-08T07:52:00.008Z

It's tricky.

But clients don't (want to) belive you.

Then some consultant comes in with a econometric model built with half a data set, lots of dummy variables or worse than that neural networks completely confusing cause and effect. The outrage.

Anyway nice when someone like Stephen Levitt (Freakonomics) says it is difficult, and it is on film, and it is funny so you can show it to someone without hammering the point home.

http://linkbee.com/3KH

If you don't want to watch it all, watch the 5 minutes 15 minutes in.

Pepperoni power - The best piece of marketing ever

2008-12-28T22:18:00.005Z

I reckon it's Pizza Express.

a) the kids get a crayon set when they go there
b) i think i am getting a bargain with the kids menu so i am happy to spend a bit more on me.
c) at 10am during the week they invite school kids in, 30 of them, to make Pizzas. They (the kids) then tell their parents how to make Pizzas. And now every time we go past the restaurant they point out the 'Pizza Shop'. It's pepperoni power. No advertising required.

Clearly PE know their market, they price it accordingly (very of the moment), get the product and experience right. In marketing terms it sounds very old fashioned, a bit 4Ps.

I'm a fan.

Dusting down our customer retention models?

2008-12-26T13:56:00.003Z

Are we going to see the return of the retention focussed consultancy?

We are already seeing clients with limited resources and a need to show immediate returns on investment so a campaign to retain, win-back and save customers could be an easy sell in, especially if you can utilise email.

Reinvigorating Brand Santa

2008-12-15T22:13:00.004Z

Santa has won the hearts and minds of his customers. But growth is fuelled by population expansion, retention rates are average at best. The customer relationship starts round year three and fades year 7 to year 9.

Santa is privately owned so there is no financial reporting requirement. The business model is hazy; it is not clear how Santa makes its money. To grow the business you require cashflow or substantial capital. Property lease back is a non starter; they only seem to have seasonal concessions within a variety of retail outlets. Lapland HQ is not practical for other businesses of this scale. Opportunity cost of these assets would seem to be close to zero.

The solution to turning Santa around must lie on the revenue side of the equation. Here are our recommendations.

1. Santa, St Nicholas, Father Christmas, Papai Noel, Babbo Natale – the different names dilute the brand. Choose one name and stick to it. It worked for Snickers. Whilst a name that resonates with the Chinese market is tempting we feel an English name provides the greatest global reach. SantaServices gives you brand stretch.

2. Create added value services e.g. charge for different delivery options, delivering on Christmas Day should be the premium not the standard service. Charge for returns? Provide warranties? It estimated that 15% of presents are damaged on Christmas Day.

3. Merchandise yourself e.g. replica kits for children; think laterally! What would be the equivalent of the soccer away strip? What about a light suit for hotter climates. Don’t be a slave to red.

4. Investigate sponsorship opportunities. Formula 1 would offer the best benchmark. Look for brand synergies, but obviously avoid competitors like DHL, red letters days unless there is a clear income opportunity.

5. Branding. Make sure santaservices.com is on all packaging and clothing. “This present was bought you to by Santaservices.com”.

6. Embrace digital. Letters posted up chimneys is a nice touch but difficult to believe it is practical. How do you manage surges in activity? And of course it doesn’t feel very 21cn. Email has to be the way forward. Make the website work harder, a personalised web experience is essential. And of course this year we are expecting mobile technologies to take off so integrating SMS is a must.

7. Brand experience days help your best customers embrace the brand. It is probably Pizza Express No.1 marketing activity.

8. Business is over-reliant on one man; no one is going to invest in a business without a clear accession plan. Consider an X-Santa factor show.

9. Give Mrs Santa more of a role cf Cameron and Brown. Older men into children can be perceived as unusual e.g. Michael Jackson.

10. One day a year! Enormous opportunity even if we don’t go 24x7x365. Of course it is possible more frequent Christmases may be difficult to market but the core competence is distribution and logistics. Look to provide corporate outsourcing solutions.

11. Develop retention program for teenage into adult years, you know all about random acts of kindness. Put the Christmas back into CRM.

12. Appearance is everything. Looking that comfortable in the present climate does not seem appropriate. Even Puff daddy is forgoing bling in concession to the crunch. Obesity and children is a hot topic. Think about going on TV with Gok or Gillian Mckeith.

And finally, don’t get pissed in public and learn to dance Salsa.

Please feel free to add advice, Santa does read every comment. In the next few weeks we will be discussing God, Germany and WH Smiths.

Death of consumerism

2008-12-05T09:00:00.001Z

It is not dead yet but from where i am standing it is looking pretty ill.

This downturn is changing the way people think, and for some time to come. It started off with us subtley changing our purchasing habits; one less coffee from Starbucks (or decent coffee shop), no evening paper at the station, having a simpler meal in the evening. It was all very illicit.

Only a year ago we were saying we needed whatever and putting it on the credit card. Now look at us. People are proudly saying we can't afford it. No longer do we have to justify going out for a cheap Pizza by saying the kids love it. Or explain away the old car on the drive with '... it is so reliable so i can't bring myself to sell it, anyway i hardly use it'.

Now of course I know I like to be different, and I make no effort to keep up with the Jones's. But it is still a bit of a relief not to contemplate it. So if this recession puts a dent in consumerism and makes us a bit happier about what we have, rather than unhappy about we haven't got then that will be a big positive. I just wish there wasn't the economic misery to accompany it.

I suspect there is going to be one big opportunity for honest, transparent retailers. But in the meantime watch out Aldi, Lidl, money saving sites, voucher codes, camping sites, car auction, Pizza Express (occasionally), H&M, ebay, freecycle ... here we come. And happy to admit it.

I suspect it is going to be called something like 'virtous thrift'.

Actually the Chorizo from Lidl is very good, you should try it.

In dark times

2008-11-28T12:31:00.000Z

We know there is a recession on, we 'enjoy' access to news channels 24x7 so why do advertisers think they need to prefix their messages with a reminder of the state of our economy.

"In tough times ..."

Do they think consumers have temporarily forgotten about the recession (yes we are in one) or are they trying to persuade us that we are worth it. Perhaps they are right, there has never been a better time to replace the 32" flat screen TV with the 42" version! Unfortunately it just comes across as jumping on the bandwagon.

Too many organisations don't bother with customer research, probably the first thing to go when budgets are tight. Shame for them really they could have discovered very easily that they are wasting much of their budget.