tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54634801157057843362024-02-19T06:28:21.508-08:00News from JWAAn insight into the workings of a PR agency and doing business in the Czech Republic when you are a foreign woman.. and a few other things along the way.Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-34602203555803710622015-10-31T09:04:00.001-07:002015-10-31T09:07:13.872-07:00MUSING WHILST FLYING – PART TWO. THE RICH, FAMOUS AND SUCCESSFUL<div class="MsoNormal">
Last week I was sitting in the lounge at Prague Airport
listening to a very loud American guy dictating to his much younger assistant,
who was rattling away on his laptop, looking completely terrified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was so irritating that in the end I moved
and then got lost in my book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I got
to the plane and went to my seat (it was one of the business class flights mentioned
in my last musing!) I was surprised to see the American sitting by the window
and the young guy in my aisle seat still being dictated to and still rattling
away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He immediately leapt to his feet
and apologized, saying that he was just sitting there until I arrived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then he got up and moved to economy,
telling the boss he will see him the other side. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I pondered all of this whilst we made our short flight to
Zurich (and was also pleased that the American didn’t look at me, a mere woman,
and ask me to take some dictation along the way too… he looked the type).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, how odd it was to see someone
dictating nowadays, rather than simply typing for himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second how strange to see someone who was
obviously successful (and rich?) drinking three double vodkas on a relatively
early and short flight (another story), and third, whether, should I ever need
to have an assistant travel with me, I would book myself into business but
expect them to sit up the back – and I would like to think that I would not!!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sitting on a plane, though, is a good place to watch human
behavior (even one’s own!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few years
ago we were swept into an entourage leaving Malaga business club lounge to go
to the plane, and when we suddenly got surrounded by a load of cameras, realized
that they weren’t for us, but that we had somehow got included in a group that
included Julio Iglesias!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that was
pretty exciting!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And how charming and
easy going he was to everyone; we sat behind him on the plane and he couldn’t
have been more normal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A few weeks later, again from Malaga to Paris, we watched a
famous opera singer sit herself down in the first row, with her assistant
sitting immediately behind her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No
sooner had the plane started taxiing than the singer required her assistant to
get up and find her scarf as she was cold (the stewardess allowed her to do
that in sympathy, I think), and so it continued throughout the whole
flight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On reflection, perhaps that
particular assistant would have liked to have sat up the back away from her
prima donna boss. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Over the years, especially since I started doing a bit of
‘talent management’, I have thought a lot about the effect that becoming rich
and famous/successful has on people; some of my sports people are or have been very
famous, and in the course of our PR business we have worked with many
celebrities/politicians/well known business people, and how they deal with
their fame/success seems to vary from person to person – but pretty much
without fail, it always has a weird effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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One of my sports people complains about being hassled
wherever we go, but insists on always meeting in one of the most popular
‘places to be seen’ in the city, and sitting bang in the middle of the
room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another, who we worked with a lot
before he became famous, was determined that he would ‘make it one day’ and
behaved ‘famous’ from day one – whenever he visited, he would arrive in our
office dressed in an ankle-length white fur coat and dark glasses, even though
no-one had a clue who he was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do
now!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And of course he doesn’t like it
anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Funny thing fame.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What is even stranger, is that some of the most ‘famous
people’ in the world are sports people that, really, haven’t done an awful lot
(sorry… I am, of course, sports mad and love loads of them, but it is true!)…
in the scheme of things, whacking a ball, saving a puck, skiing very fast or
whatever over what is a relatively short time span really isn’t that earth
shattering. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think a lot of them would
prefer that this wasn’t the case (apart from the money that comes with
it!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My very famous ice hockey friend
laments the fact that he finds it difficult to have a meaningful relationship
as he is never sure if the ladies are interested only in him/his body/his money
(surely not?!) or whether they actually like him as a person. I have told him
to move to the UK where no-one will know him, and then he will find out!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Which leads me, I think, to our dinner with the completely
wonderful Sir Bob Geldof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To us Brits
of a certain age, the person that most deserves to be famous, rich, adored. And
yet when I went into my office the morning after our dinner (yes, sorry, got to
mention that again) and told my Czech team, they all said ‘yer, who is he?’…<o:p></o:p></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-49443480642110005062015-10-16T07:44:00.000-07:002015-10-16T07:46:34.982-07:00HOLIDAY LETTINGS<div class="MsoNormal">
Having worked in the service business for the last 25 years
I thought I had become immune to the demands of clients (who are always right);
it no longer surprises me when someone needs something done urgently for Monday
morning and tells us on Friday evening – and then on Monday complains that what
was requested to be black on Friday should now be white… but then it changes
back to black again on Tuesday morning (and the deadline is miraculously
extended). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It also became clear to me a long time ago that in my
business the amount that we charge has very little relationship to the number
of hours expected – basically, if a client is paying us, we are expected to do
whatever he or she requires, irrespective of any hourly limitation (although,
to be fair, it is usually those that pay the least that are the most
unreasonable on this point!). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I thought I knew all about the stresses that were involved
in providing a service and the often unreasonableness of customers, but then I
entered the world of ‘holiday lettings’!
First of all, I should have read the warning signs when I asked a
‘friend’ who we had allowed to borrow our lovely house in Spain for his
holidays for three years running (for free!), to write us a reference on our
new website to get the ball rolling.
Asked to mark the house between 1 and 5 he gave it a 4. A 4???
When I asked him why not a 5, he said that it was because (a) the white
sheets hadn’t matched the cream coloured pillowcases during his last stay, and
(b) the beach towels that he had bought the year before had become a bit
tatty. Stunning. Sadly he hadn’t noticed the newly installed
satellite dish and microwave, or the fantastic new dishwasher… just the things
that he didn’t like.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However hard we try to make the house ‘perfect’ it can only
ever be perfect in the eyes of the beholder – something that is nearly always
the case with marketing – I have had many young employees over the years who,
when chased to get a move on with something, have responded ‘ah, but I am a
perfectionist’ – to which I always respond that it is not going to be perfect
if the PR goes out too late, or the brochure doesn’t get to print on time –
what, exactly, does ‘perfect’ mean?<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When it comes to holiday lettings, what is clear is that the
price that is being paid is completely unrelated to the offer – the
holidaymakers have paid their fees, and they want what is, to them,
perfection. My friend in Prague who
got me involved in this in the first place (yes, you know who you are!!), told
me that we would have people that marked our house down because the walls in
the sitting room were red and they preferred white – she was right. We once had an American couple that
complained that we didn’t have an ‘egg lifter’ in the kitchen and marked us
down for the kitchen being badly stocked… anyone know what an egg lifter is?!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What we have realized is that people that go on these
holiday rental websites are obviously in cahoots – it seems that they all have
discussed the process of making complaints on arrival in order to prepare their
case later in the day for a refund or discount; we recently had a couple
staying that, upon arrival, complained that the key safe didn’t work (even
though a blind monkey can use it) that the keys then didn’t fit the locks (and
then they did?!) that the place wasn’t clean, even though a team of very good
cleaners had been in all day beforehand, that I had said it was a couple of
minutes’ walk to the beach when in fact it had taken them five and so on and so
on. We placed bets on how long it would
be before they asked for a discount, and how nasty they would turn when we said
no. I won (I said ‘very’). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another good example is a group of five girls that morphed
into nine on arrival (I had thought that five was pushing it, but they were Ok
with sharing…). God knows how they
managed with nine. But one thing that
didn’t manage was the boiler that was expected to pump water in the bathroom
all day long and soon gave up the ghost.
They asked for a discount as we had assured them that we had good
central heating and air-conditioning – but conveniently forgot that we also
limited the number of people that could stay to five. And a group of boys that the neighbours
complained about for making too much noise every night, who burned cigarette
holes in our duvets and sofa and left the biggest mess you have ever seen – but
still chased us as to when we would return their deposit. This holiday rentals business is not for the
faint hearted!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is strangest of all as far as I am concerned, is that these
people are fussy about every little detail when they are preparing to depart
and upon arrival, but then leave horrible messes when they, themselves, leave
the house. Today I corresponded with a
couple that left yesterday and said that they had had a fantastic time, that
the house was great, blah, blah, blah.. but there were a couple of dirty plates
in the cupboard on arrival. I have just
arrived myself and found that they have broken the handle on the cloakroom
door, stained the brand new pillowcases and pretty much destroyed the
dishwasher. Incredible. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Along the way, though, we have had a few good renters; and
those that are nice and appreciate of the fact that we are letting them stay in
our home will find that next time they want to stay they <i>will </i>get a discount and all the other things that the ‘bad ones’
expect. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The morale of the story – there are a few. First, if you want to find fault in
something you can always find something.
But if you are looking for faults in order to get a bargain or a
discount, then you are probably the last one that will get it. At least in my world. And finally… if you want to rent your house
or flat out for money. Don’t do it!</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
And don’t even get me started on some of these holiday
rental websites; if you want to make a fortune without lifting a finger, set up
one of these – the nearest thing to a license to print money!</div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-52580729786244520752015-09-11T04:00:00.000-07:002015-09-11T04:06:14.596-07:00MUSING WHILST FLYING - PART 1<div class="MsoNormal">
When I first arrived in Prague in 1990, the soon to be great
Czech Airlines had trouble persuading the many foreigners that were piling into
the country to fly with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Brits,
in particular, really only trusted British Airways and the idea of flying on
what they then regarded as a ‘third world airline’ was beyond imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the slightly wild bunch of expats
like myself, who could barely afford to fly at all, didn’t care who we flew on
as long as the ticket was cheap, and every Friday evening what we called the
‘travelling pub’ took off for London with a group of us sitting in the back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With the curtains drawn (yes, curtains), most of us smoking
as we rattled down the runway and then drinking everything in sight until we
landed in the UK, no-one gave a thought to safety and security, and, actually,
we didn’t need to, as the Czech pilots were former military, who, one felt,
would think nothing of throwing in a couple of loop-the-loops along the way to
make the flight more interesting.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Czech Airlines at that time, though, had some very good
people working for them (those were the days!) and they soon realized that to
start competing with the western airlines, they needed to get marketing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to buying a fleet of new Boeings
(some of which I had the huge pleasure of organizing their first landing for),
they also brought in a loyalty programme that was second to none.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Air miles for every trip, irrespective of the
cost, different levels of frequent flying cards that were very easy to gain and
offered all sorts of benefits, and nearly guaranteed upgrades to business class
if one had a gold card (and, sometimes, silver too if you knew the right people
– which we did then).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My partner, a handsome chap, was even offered
free upgrades every time he flew by one of the ground staff if he would take
her out occasionally (not sure that ‘taking her out’ was quite what was on
offer, but you can guess what I mean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And no, he didn’t take her up on it!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two years on from the flying pub days, the same group of
degenerates could soon be found sitting up in business class on the way to
London, Paris, New York, wherever, and that is where most of us built up our
contact base; we even used to discuss the idea of flying in and out of the UK
some days, purely to hand out business cards!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such was our loyalty to Czech Airlines at that time, that wherever
we were travelling we would go out of our way to fly with them, even if it
wasn’t the easiest or cheapest way to go (for example, we often flew to Malaga
in Spain via Madrid, in order to go on CSA , rather than taking a direct, low
cost flight!).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just a few years ago and several changes of personnel later
(and the economic crisis to boot), Czech Airlines sadly announced that they
were stopping all flights to New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And then to Paris.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then to
London, stating that these were not popular enough, nor economically
viable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only that, but all air miles
accrued on their frequent flier programmes needed to be exchanged for flights
by a certain date, otherwise they would disappear (flights that we usually
found were impossible to get), and all benefits such as upgrades and so-on were
ceasing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t believe our ears.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We wrote letters to the management, pleaded with them not to
do it, and refused to consider the possibility of flying with anyone else,
until the day came that the last ever Czech Airlines flight landed in
London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that day was, for many of
us, the last day that we ever, ever, ever flew with Czech Airlines – now we go
out of our way to avoid them, even if that now means a more problematic
route!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was also, probably, the day
that Czech Airlines started its gradual sink into bankruptcy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course we realized that the frequent flier card and the
air-mile awards were overly generous, but we loved Czech Airlines then and we
felt let down (not to mention that we really didn’t believe that routes to
London, Paris and New York weren’t popular or profitable enough… clearly
something more sinister was afoot).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what is the morale of the story from a marketing point of
view?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Better not to offer something at
all than to give something great and then take it away. Customers can be very
fickle and once they get used to a certain level of fee, service, product, they
don’t like seeing it change.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Life has now moved on. We are now proud (and vaguely embarrassed)
holders of Easyjet Plus cards, and we still fly up the front and do a bit of
business. But we miss those days enough
to occasionally fork out for business class tickets (on non-Czech Airlines
fights!) and they still prove to be interesting, in a number of different
ways. See Musing on Flying Part 2.</span><!--EndFragment-->
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-62913041559677040692015-08-03T06:28:00.001-07:002015-08-03T06:28:22.017-07:00THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS BAD PUBLICITY<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A few months ago I wrote about the plane crash in the Alps and discussed whether, and for how long, the negative publicity that the airline would receive from such a disaster would affect their business. I said then, and I still believe, that there is no such thing as bad publicity, and even when something as catastrophic as a plane crash happens, handled well the company will eventually recover from it and may even find that, over time, its publicity will increase and improve.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I am pondering the same situation now, as I watch a company that we worked for a year or so ago, handling what, they say, is a major crisis for them. But is it…? This company, whose name I cannot mention, has built its entire brand on PR – it spends (relatively) little on advertising and other activities, but it keeps the PR agencies that work for it worldwide very busy by feeding them with stories that are so powerful that they often hit the headlines in whichever respective country is handling that particular story.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">In the Czech Republic, during our time working for them, we were told to investigate the sponsorship of a major sports club – something that we had been told the company was keen to do somewhere in the world, but had not yet managed. There was a lot of money at stake and the club, of course, opened its arms to us, put on a great show, took photos of everyone together discussing the sponsorship, and generally led us all to believe that this was a deal that was sure to happen. We duly notified the media and rubbed our hands together at the fantastic coverage that the press release received. And then nothing. The sponsorship was never discussed again, the people involved were understandably upset and we were left looking very silly.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">After that, our relationship with the company went downhill, ending up with us having a big fight to get paid and being sworn to secrecy about all of their business antics. However, we have continued to be interested in watching how they manage their activities, and despite the fact that we are still feeling a little bit upset with them, we can’t help but marvel at the stories that they come up with and the subsequent global coverage that they are receiving. From employees suing them, to floating on stock exchanges, to hackers stealing information, whatever happens (or appears to happen) the company continues to grow and the media continue to slap them on the front pages (or in this latest case, peak time TV!) with yet more news that people can’t help but want to read or hear about.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">When I first learned about this latest story, my initial reaction was that it was potentially so damaging that it must have been true. But then I watched the coverage and the stories that were coming out, and it was clear that, whilst some customers might have been nervous when the story first broke, the long-term (well, only one month!) affect is already becoming positive; now the coverage is more about the company and the things that it does than its latest problems… and one can’t help but think that the people in head office are laughing all the way to the bank.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">With many of our clients, their concern about what might come out when they first start to use PR as a marketing tool, often inhibits them from doing or saying too much – the result of which is a very ‘toned down’ story may not get very much coverage. As much as we can, therefore, we try to tell the client to be brave since, generally, the only people that will read the story word for word is them – most others will just remember that they have read something about them in such and such a paper and will be filled with admiration.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Using big stories in your PR activities, such as I have described above, can be hugely effective if the people handling the PR, and, thereby, the people that are being fed the stories, believe that they are rue. If you have a really big story, then get it out there with all the bells ringing – be brave; even if you get some negative coverage, (and there is always a risk) in the long term the increase in the awareness of your brand will far outweigh anything that is less positive. But if the story isn’t true and you convince your PR people to run it by persuading them that it is true, then your biggest worry has to be how you feel about deceiving the people involved rather than how much business you get out of the subsequent PR.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">In the end, as I have said and believe, there really is no such thing as bad publicity. The only way to deal with companies such as the one described, therefore, is for all of us PR agencies to refuse to work for them, and for all those media out there to refuse to write and talk about them! That would probably be the next big headline!</span></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-6042815008003846892015-06-01T04:36:00.000-07:002015-06-03T00:53:58.773-07:00PROMOTIONS ARE ALL WELL AND GOOD… BUT<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have written before about the effectiveness of basic
promotional activities carried out as part of a marketing campaign. Simple
gimmicks such as ‘2 for the price of 1’, ‘quote this code to collect your
prize’, offering people a ‘free trial’ etc, etc, etc can all work really well,
both from a cost-effective point of view and as a way to monitor whether your
marketing is working.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
BUT, they can also backfire horribly! Here are a few recent
examples!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today we visited a very well-known British store where we
often shop for groceries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we went to
check out, my partner noticed a pile of leaflets on the counter by the till which
said, in Czech, that if a customer handed one of these leaflets to the cashier over
the weekend of the 30th, and had spent more than Kc 400, they would receive Kc
100 deduction from their bill. There was nothing in the store to advertise the
leaflets and no mention of them by the cashier when we went to check-out. My
partner (who is Czech, but we were speaking English) picked up one of the
leaflets and said ‘can I give you this and get a discount?’ to which she
shrugged, said OK, rung up the leaflet and duly deducted the Kc 100 (and probably
put it back on the counter in front of her once we left!’). <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcTviXYGHvusHmOVkxlxe2rmQS4IJqJNSiguKBfTjJdcZhAJRHuIkwZQ2LLP3tKeu8_3tIlQhZ2e5qeUO3AxcVZnXyapouBVm5hrFp3MI_bARz7F0H-qWOTjZCNOJ-EQpoy8SEKTWOjMQ/s1600/business-analyst-consulting-strategic-marketing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcTviXYGHvusHmOVkxlxe2rmQS4IJqJNSiguKBfTjJdcZhAJRHuIkwZQ2LLP3tKeu8_3tIlQhZ2e5qeUO3AxcVZnXyapouBVm5hrFp3MI_bARz7F0H-qWOTjZCNOJ-EQpoy8SEKTWOjMQ/s320/business-analyst-consulting-strategic-marketing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We could only assume that (a) the leaflets were supposed to
have been given to shoppers the previous weekend, with a view to encouraging
them to come back again today or tomorrow, (b) someone had forgotten to put
them out the previous weekend and thought that they had better use them quickly
in order to show that they had done their job (since the deduction had to be rung
up) and (c) that no-one would explain the value of the leaflet to anyone that
didn’t speak Czech as, of course, they could probably afford to do without the
Kc 100 off (cynical?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Me?).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Clearly some marketing person at a high level had thought
that these leaflets would be a nice way of driving customers back to the store
and getting them to spend more than they might usually, and had then spent
money themselves designing and printing the leaflets, distributing them to the
stores and then hoping to see an increase in figures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result, though, since clearly the
leaflets were used on the weekend after they were supposed to be, was just a
few shoppers getting a Kc 100 reduction on a bill that they were already
prepared to pay the full amount for and, one would assume, most of the leaflets
being chucked in the bin.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The moral of the story – if you are going to do some sort of
leaflet promotion, then ensure with your own eyes that leaflets are being given
out on the right date and in the right spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You can also help to ensure this by publicizing the fact that the
leaflets exist in advance of people receiving them so that the recipients are
looking out for them and the people giving them know that! By the way, I am
sure I am not the only person that has seen promotional people dumping leaflets
on the floor of buildings, in rubbish bins, etc… if you are going to use such
people, then you need to police what they are doing or you might just as well
chuck your money in the rubbish bin instead.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another recent experience: I was offered a free trial at a
service company that was offering something that I had been considering using
for a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I duly made my appointment
and toddled along to be greeted by one of the rudest receptionists that I have
had the pleasure of meeting. First she told me that I didn’t have an
appointment, and then, when I assured her that I did, she asked me how I
planned to pay for the upcoming experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I said I wasn’t going to be paying as I was here for a free
consultation, which she insisted wasn’t possible, and so it continued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Short of asking her security people to remove
me forcibly from the building, she couldn’t have been ruder. Luckily I am an
old hand here and when I got to see the main person the visit was a
success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But had I not been, the result
of this ‘free trial promotion’ would have been that I would never, ever, have
darkened this company’s doorsteps again (and, as an aside, they would probably
have been one of those companies that sometime in the future would tell me or
someone similar that ‘marketing doesn’t work’!!).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The moral of the story: if you are going to offer a free
consultation or promotion, make sure that every member of your team knows what
is going on!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lastly, my own rather frustrating marketing experience. We
have an apartment in Spain that we have started to advertise on one of the
holiday rental sites. Of course, there are millions of similar apartments on
the site, and in order to get high up the viewing order we are dependent on
good reviews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So every time someone
books and stays through the website, we ask them if they would write a review
for us as we believe that the apartment is fantastic. A recent group – four 80
year-old Americans, paying their first visit to Spain, who emailed me questions
on a daily basis for weeks before their visit - had a bit of a bad time. Not
because of the apartment but because flying all that way, driving in Europe,
etc, etc, etc, all proved a bit too much for them. Believing that our own
service had been really good (we even laid out a bottle of champagne for them
on arrival) I duly asked them for a review.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And what a stinker they wrote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The moral of the story – if you are going to ask for a
review, testimonial or reference that is going to be seen in public, make sure
that you know without any possible doubt that it is going to be good! I
probably should have known better…<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-5070591518346559542015-05-06T03:38:00.000-07:002015-05-06T03:38:00.588-07:00SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO GIVE SOMETHING IN ORDER TO GET SOMETHING BACK…<div class="MsoNormal">
As anyone that reads this knows, I am a big fan of watching
what other companies do in their marketing efforts and if something works, then
I am the first one to copy it (albeit sometimes loosely disguised).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For sure we have all seen one marketing
trick that the very biggest brands use on a regular basis, and that is to give
something away in order to persuade their customers to buy it again, maybe more
than once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For anyone that doesn’t have
a very big marketing budget (if any) this is always a fairly successful and low
cost promotion and I often suggest something like it to our clients.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine how excited I was, therefore, when I
was offered something myself as part of someone else’s marketing strategy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I first arrived in the Czech Republic (then
Czechoslovakia) one of the things that bothered all of us expats the most was
getting sick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How would we find a doctor
(or, even worse, a dentist!) that spoke English and how would we know if they
were any good?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And what if we had to go
into hospital?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I, like many others,
paid a huge amount each month to a private health plan that ensured that if I
even broke a toenail I would be flown straight back to the UK for emergency
treatment as, at least in those days, that was felt to be a much better option
than ‘going local’!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the years, of course, things have changed considerably,
and sadly I have now had enough experience of Czech doctors and hospitals to
allow me to stop the private health care and feel relatively relaxed about the
idea of seeing a Czech doctor – all of my experiences have been pretty good,
and I absolutely love my dentist!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amongst those changes are the various private hospitals and
clinics that have sprung up, and one of those (I think the first) was the
Canadian Medical Centre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a while,
many years ago, I went there to visit my sports doctor, but then he moved and I
followed, and I have since forgotten about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What a lovely surprise, therefore, when out of the blue just a couple of
weeks ago I was offered a free visit to a choice of practitioner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Those on offer were a physio, a dentist or a
nutritionist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having my own regular
physio and the above-mentioned dentist, the nutritionist was always going to be
my choice, and besides which, I have been considering seeing a nutritionist for
a while, so it was a bit of a spooky offer to have one handed to me on a plate,
so to speak.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I duly toddled along last week and pulled up outside the
CMC’s home, which really is a lovely building and which has undergone a lot of
changes since I last visited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You go in
through a very nice entrance, and up the stairs to a really glam reception
where, in case you are wondering (and I remember that I used to!) there were a
number of different nationalities waiting, not just Canadians!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
afraid that the receptionist (which I will gloss over) did not quite meet the
same standard, but once I was ushered in to see the nutritionist (Keely Fraser)
I was ready to overlook the blip earlier on, and got right into the whole
experience.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite being relatively at home with local doctors and so
on, I do have to say that it makes a huge difference to be able to talk to
someone in English – OK, we should all speak great Czech, blah, blah, blah, but
when it comes to health things it really is a lot easier if we don’t have to
think carefully about what we are saying or, even worse, speak through a
translator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, of course, you get a
better sense of whether they really know their stuff or not if you are able to
speak directly and easily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she
clearly did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within a few minutes I was
telling her all sorts of things that I would usually find difficult
(language/translation/shyness) and at the end of the hour she more or less had
to kick me out…. And yes, I said, I would be back!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My next appointment (paid for) will be in two weeks’
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So for a bit of effort by the
marketing team, and one free consultation, they have me hooked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who says giving something away for free doesn’t
work!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In short, whilst I probably wouldn’t go there for every
little thing anymore (but maybe if I had only been here a short while I would)
there is no doubt that if you have a health issue, whatever it might be, being
able to speak in your own language (and yes, there are Czech doctors there
too), being in a very comfortable environment, and knowing that the
doctor/person you are being treated by has met some pretty high standards is
really worth paying for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am a fan.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can find more about the Canadian Medical Centre on:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.cmcpraha.cz/en-US/obor/nutrition-consultancy">http://www.cmcpraha.cz/en-US/obor/nutrition-consultancy</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.cmcpraha.cz/en-US/kontakty">http://www.cmcpraha.cz/en-US/kontakty</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.cmcpraha.cz/en-US">http://www.cmcpraha.cz/en-US</a><o:p></o:p></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-37724432269768387232015-04-28T02:02:00.003-07:002015-04-28T02:09:40.156-07:00PROUD TO BE BRITISH!<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not always proud to be British; certainly there are
times when we are in Spain that I speak more Czech than I ever do here in the
CR, for fear of being thought to be from the same place as some of the boys and
girls that make their way down to the sun each summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But after a weekend in front of the TV
watching two of my favourite sports, I have the same proud feelings as I had
during the London Olympics – the Brits are really good at these huge occasions!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Saturday saw the retirement of the greatest jockey of all
time, A.P. McCoy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that not
everyone is as horse-racing mad as I am so they may not have taken much notice
of this, and certainly outside of the UK it probably didn’t make many of the
newspapers, but had AP (as he is known) been involved in one of the more
popular sports (football, tennis, golf) news of his retirement would have made
it to the front page of newspapers all over the world, since he is truly a
legend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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In the UK, where he is as famous as Roger, Tiger or Lionel, AP’s
final day before hanging up his boots was marked with a festival of racing,
with many of the best horses in the country taking part (not that they would
have known the relevance) and all the biggest names in the sport turning out to
say goodbye, alongside nearly 20,000 spectators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And not a dry eye in the house (at the
racecourse or ours!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since most
jockeys have retirement forced on them – injuries, loss of nerve, inability to
starve themselves any more – I do wonder, though, whether AP, who is still
fighting fit, will find retirement a bit too dull and we will suddenly hear
about him coming out to ride in one or other big race next year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We shall see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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Having only just recovered from the emotion of all that, we
were back in front of the TV on Sunday morning to watch the London
Marathon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having run in eight half marathons myself,
and been the Prague International Marathon’s PR agency for four years until
2012 (and with a partner that runs the marathon every year), watching marathons
on television is probably a bit more interesting to us than it is to most
people – let’s face it, watching a group of people running along a road for 2
hours and more is not so exciting – but the London Marathon is something
else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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the city in all of its splendor, but it also saw another great British sports
person hanging up their shoes – this time Paula Radcliffe, the marathon world
record holder, who, whilst no longer running professionally, decided to have
her last run in London in amongst the other 30,000 plus runners (but still
finishing in a near to professional time)! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, most of the hundreds of thousands of
spectators were cheering her on, and again most of the people involved were in
floods of tears at the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
What does all of this have to do with marketing and
management?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, not so much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what these wonderful events prove is that
it is not enough just to put on a show – you need the people and the emotion to
make them into something really special.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Which, in our world, is probably the case with most of what we do.<o:p></o:p></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-2477940033125090382015-03-27T10:18:00.000-07:002015-03-27T10:18:00.806-07:00CRISIS MANAGEMENT – HOW FAR DOES IT GO?<div class="MsoNormal">
Setting off from Spain on Wednesday, 25<sup>th</sup> March,
the morning after news broke of the GERMANWINGS aircraft going down over the
French Alps, was a very strange experience; we were at the airport at exactly
the same time as the plane had taken off the previous day and it was eerily
quiet, and then on the flight to Paris no-one was really speaking or doing much
at all... just waiting to get it over with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For the first time that I have seen on a scheduled flight, everyone
clapped and cheered when we landed – which was really quite emotional.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As someone that flies quite a lot, however, I spent a lot of
the flight looking at ways to take my mind off the fact that I was actually
quite nervous, and one of the things I pondered was how I would manage the
situation if I was appointed by GERMANWINGS to handle the crisis management –
just going off slightly, I wrote about crisis management once before and a few
people said to me that they were unaware that PR agencies (or anyone else for
that matter) actually handle this kind of thing… but yes, we do, and we,
ourselves, have done a huge amount over the past 20 or so years, including for
another airline that had a crash… <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My first thought when watching the early interviews with the
CEO of the company on Tuesday evening was that he was too ‘trained’ – someone
like me had taught him how to speak to the camera and he was very polished,
even smiling a bit – not very good in the circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then (and I guess that was because of
someone like me too!) he was replaced by a very good VP who spoke well whilst
being obviously choked up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First amendment to my usual ‘crisis management
process’ is to note that, whilst being professional and calm in a ‘normal’
crisis is good, when it is of a monumental scale… maybe showing a bit of
emotion is no bad thing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Reading some of the reports, especially in the ‘tabloid
press’ on Wednesday morning, it sounded as if this particular plane had had a
few problems in the past, but they had been kept quiet – I have always been of
the view that if you are a high profile company and you have a problem, it is
best to be honest about it, as sooner or later it will come out, and the
fallout then might be a lot worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
course the risk to a company’s business when reporting every little issue can
be huge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if something has been kept
quiet and then it comes out in a situation such as this one, the risk to the
business can be catastrophic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second
point to note; covering up problems can sometimes come back to bite you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What was also clear during Wednesday was that the media had
been digging about a lot during Tuesday night and a lot of what was being
printed was speculation – and in our experience, speculation usually starts at
home (it seems that it was actually an ‘anonymous person’ that first leaked the
news that the pilot was to blame).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
made me wonder just how much information was being passed to staff and
stakeholders during the course of Tuesday and Wednesday, and whether, in fact, everyone’s
focus was on the management of the information that was going out to the media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something that we have often talked about
in crisis management is the need to make sure that staff and stakeholders have
ALL the necessary information before anyone else, and that they are all fully aware
of the need to keep everything confidential, since it is often ‘rumours’ from
insiders that get printed over and above the official line.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am writing this two days after the crash, whilst watching
the ongoing news about the pilot, and wondering what the effect of all of this
will be on the various companies involved – for sure it will be difficult to
rebuild the GERMANWINGS brand (although not as difficult as it would have been
if the cause had been that the airplane was too old, or they had known it had
been faulty – as had been mentioned previously).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Andy
maybe we will notice when we next get onto an A320 plane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in a few weeks’ time, a lot of people
will have forgotten which airline or airplane was involved, and life will go
back to normal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The thing is, even the worst type of publicity can sometimes
be overcome and in years to come the only thing that people will say about
GERMANWINGS is ‘oh yes, I have heard of them’…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And the purpose of this blog?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There probably isn’t one… just my own usual
need to write something down in order to somehow feel better about it.<o:p></o:p></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-335555599693936692015-01-29T03:03:00.002-08:002015-01-29T03:03:56.605-08:00SUSTAINABILITY<div class="MsoNormal">
Watching the Australian Open whilst writing this (and not
enjoying it as much as usual with the early demise of Roger Federer) I pondered
one of the tennis commentators’ most regular questions; who is the greatest
player of all time? My vote, of course,
would go to Roger, but not just because of his wonderful tennis, but more his
incredible fitness (only recently has he been known to have been injured) and,
even more importantly, his ability to stay driven and to work so hard day after
day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We discussed something similar over Christmas when one of my
family, a soon to be retired opera singer, explained her early giving up as being
due to her not wanting to keep travelling, keep practicing, be away from home
so regularly and battle to stay healthy – of course, she still loves to sing. Whilst everyone else expressed their
sympathy, I said that I thought that her world was not so different to mine –
which generated quite a lot of debate, not least because in a family of
academics, performers and doctors, I am probably the only one that knows what
it feels like to run their own business..! And as I am often saying, no-one can imagine what it is like to sit in
my chair, unless they have sat in a similar one!<o:p></o:p></div>
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A while ago I attended a conference on ‘leadership’, where
one of the things we discussed was the stress involved in running a business,
and how, then, to manage it. At one
point, the lecturer asked us what we thought the average age of the top 50 most
successful companies in the world was, to which we mostly answered between 50
and 100 years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact the answer
was 15, which was, initially, a surprise.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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However, having discussed this in some detail, it made
sense; even the most successful companies were started by someone, and what was
proven in our discussions was that very few people can continue building and
running a company for any significant length of time before the stress starts
to take its toll and they start looking at ways out – merging, selling, closing
down, changing course or handing over the reins to someone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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My own company will be 25 years old this year, and whilst,
of course, it is nothing like the sort of companies that we discussed at the
conference, it still manages to cause enough sleepless nights for me to go
through phases of wanting to get out in some way; and over the years I, too,
have found it difficult to stay driven, to keep travelling, ‘practicing’,
battling to stay healthy and so on, but it is no easier to give up on business
than it is to give up on sport or music; we just have to find ways to manage
what we are doing so that we don’t burn out.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I have tried a few methods over the years – not all of them
good!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But generally I find that whacking
a tennis ball gets rid of quite a lot of stress, and there is nothing like
running as a way to see a new place (or, in my case, to pick up marketing
ideas... seeing what other companies do to promote themselves is an endless
source of inspiration!).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let’s hope that we are all able to sustain our enthusiasm as
we go into 2015.<o:p></o:p></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-77058569703822261272014-10-09T02:31:00.001-07:002014-10-09T02:31:32.694-07:00DIFFERENT MESSAGES, DIFFERENT POSITIONING, DIFFERENT MEDIAI attended a really great marketing seminar yesterday held by the International Business Forum here in Prague, which was focused on the differences between starting a company and building its brand 20 or so years ago compared to doing the same thing today. Having started JWA 24 years ago now (so I can no longer get away with trying to pretend that I am still in my thirties…!), many of the things that the first speaker (who started his business at a similar time) had to say rang very true to me; here are a few of them:<br />
<br />
(a) When we both started our companies our clients were nearly always international companies entering what was, then, a very difficult ‘East European’ market, and what we both were selling was our international know-how. We had no real competition and even if the local business community treated us with some suspicion there were so many foreign investors that we almost had to beat them from our door.<br />
<br />
When I was trying to come up for a name for my company I asked my good advertising friend for some suggestions, and he asked what I felt I was selling. I went off about x, y and z and he answered ‘ah yes, but why would people come to you rather than another agency that appears to sell the same x, y and z?’ The answer, of course, being because of me! And as it was me that made the company different, the name needed to demonstrate that rather than what we were actually selling. Since I planned to employ a few people, however, I couldn’t imagine having everyone picking up the phone (yes, we used phones in those days!) and saying ‘Jo Weaver, good morning’ or words to that effect, so we ended up with JWA (i.e. Jo Weaver and Associates, even though I had no associates) with Prague added on for good measure.<br />
<br />
The point: when you are thinking about the messages that you want to get over in your marketing, remember that it is important to keep in mind the reason WHY people want to use your services or buy your products above anyone else’s in order for your marketing to be effective, and that means keeping your ‘key selling points’ at the forefront.<br />
<br />
(b) Having said that, however, what was also discussed was the need to remember that our key selling points (and, therefore, messages) might change over time – certainly in my case, the fact that I am English (which was enough many cases years ago!) is no longer such a draw, since most of my competitors speak English fluently now. But the fact that the agency has a proven track record with a lot of different industries IS something that can be pushed as a ksp now, and for that reason our own marketing has a different emphasis to the earlier days.<br />
<br />
(c) I know I am always banging on about knowing who your target audience is when you are planning your marketing activities, but, again, that is something that can change. And if your target audience changes, your own marketing strategy needs to change too; in the case of yesterday’s speaker, his target audience changed to such a degree that he ended up opening several other offices across Europe; ours was not so radical! We did realise quite early on, however, that whilst in our earlier years we could depend, on the whole, on word of mouth amongst the foreign community, occasional advertising in English language magazines/newspapers and some PR, that is no longer the case. And our own activities have therefore changed accordingly.<br />
<br />
(d) Everyone at the conference agreed that the tools that are available and useful to all of us now are completely different to 24 years ago. I recently spoke to a group of marketing students about our activities when we started out compared to today and one of them, who was in her early 20s I guess, looked at me aghast when I said that we didn’t have computers, internet or mobile phones, let alone social media, and said ‘but what did you DO?’. Well, we did quite a lot!! And I still think that we disregard some of those old traditional marketing tools at our peril. There is no doubt, however, that social media and on-line marketing is become ever-more important, and any good marketing campaign needs to incorporate at least some of these new activities.<br />
<br />
I am off to buy a few Google ad words now…<br />
<br />
Jo
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-83554178719410546752014-05-30T05:35:00.000-07:002014-05-30T05:35:28.988-07:00SEX SELLS<div class="MsoNormal">
A little while ago I was speaking to a group of marketing
students about ‘life in a PR agency’ and one of their Professors asked whether
I would take on any company as a client, irrespective of whether it was doing
something immoral or illegal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
answered that I wouldn’t work for a company that was doing something illegal,
but immoral… well, first, how do you define immoral – what is immoral to one
person is not to another – and second, I am in business and the need to pay the
salaries can sometimes outweigh the wish to only work for the ‘perfect’
company, and whilst I might turn down a client that is doing something that I
think would be difficult to promote, or that I just don’t like, I wasn’t sure
about the ‘morality issue’.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The reason that I am writing about this topic now, is that
there has just been a big to do in the Czech media about the advertising of a
pill that is similar to Viagra at the recent ice hockey world championships –
apparently Czech TV has received numerous complaints about the organisers and
the broadcasters allowing such advertising as children would be watching, and
now there is a lot of discussion about the rights and wrongs of this type of
advertisement and where and how it should be allowed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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I have to say that I, personally, am astonished at the
furor, since here in the Czech Republic it is generally difficult to go very
far down any street without coming across an ‘Erotic City’ sex shop or worse,
and where, over the years, there have been many advertising campaigns that
would never be allowed in the UK or US – for example, a billboard campaign with
a very well-endowed young lady with a near to non-existent top holding a glass
of beer, and wording along the lines of “wouldn’t you like a nice jug?” (or
similar)…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The thing is, sex sells, and in the case of the ice hockey
advertising and this particular brand, I would have had absolutely no qualms
about working for the company myself, and would, in fact, be completely in
agreement that it made obvious sense – the ideal target audience for what is
being promoted, huge exposure that would, one would expect, generate
significant sales against a reasonable expenditure, and lots of room for PR –
actually, had I been working for them I would be rubbing my hands together at
all the additional exposure that the complaining millions have brought about in
the media??!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Taking the whole situation a bit further, one has to wonder
whether there is something else going on here – maybe it is OK to promote women
as sex objects or women for sale, but not to advertise the fact that not all
men are as virile as we are led to believe..?!!!<o:p></o:p></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-41410404579814664292014-03-10T03:01:00.001-07:002014-03-10T03:01:43.098-07:00THE TOLL OF TECHNOLOGY<div class="MsoNormal">
I recently had a number of problems with my hand and wrist
which I thought were probably caused by a combination of playing tennis for a
hundred years and sitting all day at a computer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My doctor kind of agreed but also said that
the biggest culprit was the Blackberry (that I had at that time) and that he is
seeing a whole lot of weird and wonderful health problems, particularly in
children, caused by new technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
result of which, he said, was that soon children would have thumbs the same
size as their fingers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After my diagnosis I started physio on my hand and was given
a lot of exercises to do, particularly when sitting at the computer, to ensure
that I didn’t round my shoulders and arch my wrists – according to the
physiotherapist, more and more people are getting early curvature of the spine
due to the modern work environment…. One could almost say that it is only a
matter of time before we will be walking on all fours, using our hands with
their very long thumbs as our front paws (or whatever gorillas have at the end
of their arms….!).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the other hand, I heard last week that it is now possible
not only to buy desks that have adjustable work surfaces so that you can sit or
stand whilst working, but also that some of these desks are built around a
treadmill… so one can sit/stand/run at one’s desk all day long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I kind of like that idea (saves on gym fees)
but I can’t help conjuring up a picture of a hamster on a wheel…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I dine out on stories of the early days in Czechoslovakia
when some of us crazier expats first turned up, and when we had to run our
offices with telephones that rarely worked (if they existed at all), smuggled-
in fax machines and manual typewriters; emails, internet and social media
weren’t even twinkles in their creators eyes.
Sometimes we felt as if we were working in the wild west… But we
managed. With everything that is going
on now, I can’t help feeling that they were better days, when communicating
meant speaking to each other, building a social network meant working on our
relationships, and getting in touch was done by telephone or, God forbid,
writing a letter!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back to the treadmill…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When I was growing up, we had it drummed
into us that we must always stand up and take responsibility for something we
had done wrong; I can even remember times when my older brother would take the
blame for something that I had done in order to make my life easier!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think this was fairly normal in the UK at
that time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When I first arrived in the then
Czechoslovakia (but read this whilst bearing in mind that this was a country
that had just escaped from the clutches of communism and everything that that
stood for), I remember that one of the things that drove us early expats to
near madness was the rather standard way that the Czechs would immediately
blame someone else for something that had gone wrong – or even start accusing
someone else for something before it had even happened….. a conversation that
started ‘it’s not my fault’ was pretty standard (along with ‘ah, that might
work in the UK/US/Germany, but it wont work here….’… but that’s another story).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Watching the news in the UK now, where the unbelievable
floods are having such a devastating effect, I find myself wondering what has
happened to the good old English way of ‘taking it on the chin’ and finding a
solution rather than looking for someone to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>blame – for the past few weeks it seems that just about everyone
involved (apart from those that have lost absolutely everything, who seem to be
the most phlegmatic) are looking for someone to blame – from the politicians
that are blaming each other, to the regular public who hold the weather
forecasters responsible, to the local authorities who blame the politicians..
meantime half of the UK is disappearing under water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(A quick aside.. just seen a Sky news
journalist asking a Ghurka who has recently arrived from Afghanistan whether he
minds all the water and working in the dark… !!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course he must prefer being at risk of
being blown up every day… What is the matter with these people??!!).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">One has to wonder how this new ‘blame
society’ can manage in business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely
anyone that has held a managerial role in a company would concur with me that
we would all prefer to deal with someone that is able to put up his or her hands
and say ‘sorry, my fault, here is a solution’ rather than ‘ah, it was his fault
that this happened, don’t look at me’?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If all we ever do is pass the buck, then we are all going to run out of bucks
even faster than we have in the past few years….<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-58170239433641552222013-12-20T06:15:00.003-08:002013-12-20T06:30:29.960-08:00NEW YEAR'S WISHES<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">If you had three business wishes to send to
Father Christmas for the New Year, then what would they be?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I expect that one of them would be to have
more business in 2014, and another might be to earn more money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, then the third, if you are running a
business, should be to have a good marketing plan in place, otherwise the first
two might be difficult to achieve!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is, of course, easier said than done, as I have mentioned on several other
occasions, but with the business environment starting to bubble a little bit
now, we all want to try and get a piece of that bigger business cake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you want to ensure that you are the
company that a potential customer comes to rather than one of your competitors,
then they need to know about you!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">From our own PR agency perspective, if we
had three Christmas wishes, they would be:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span lang="EN-US">To have
clients that empower us to do a good job – there is nothing that an agency
likes less than a client that wants to micro-manage every little detail
and force us to do things ‘their way’, with the end result that we simply
carry out an administration – and take the blame if the exercise doesn’t
work!</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span lang="EN-US">To never,
ever, be asked again if we have good contacts in the media….. come <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">on</i> everyone!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s like asking a law firm if they
know about the legislation or a construction company if they know any
architects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But just because we
have contacts, it doesn’t mean that we will get you on the front page of
Hospodarkse noviny every day!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
still need you to provide us with the content, which means something that
is really newsy and relevant that we can present in a skilful and suitable
format…. (so don’t write it for us…!!).<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span lang="EN-US">To
communicate with US!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No PR or
marketing agency can achieve results for you (or in-house person for that
matter) if you don’t give them any information to work with, don’t respond
to queries from journalists on time and/or forget to inform us about what
you are up to!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The more you give
your PR and marketing people to work with, the more they can do for you.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And, just to cheat a bit, a fourth one –
love your PR and marketing agencies or people!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The more we are stroked, the more we will do for you… marketing people
don’t tend to work by the hour (even if we are supposed to!), and the more appreciated
we are, the more the creativity will flow!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Wishing anyone that is reading this a great
Christmas and a successful New Year! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Jo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-65110317217857783912013-10-17T06:15:00.001-07:002013-10-17T06:15:12.202-07:00YOU GOTTA SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Yesterday I was speaking to a client that
had just returned from a long business trip where, he said, he had spent a
small fortune on entertaining clients, amongst other things, and the end result
was one very nice new piece of business and a handful of potential projects. The
total cost, he said, was far out-weighed by the value of the one confirmed
piece of business, and if some of the other projects came off then the whole
trip could be regarded as a huge success. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Ah ha,” I said, “that is exactly what I keep
banging on about – if you get back more than you spend on any marketing
activity, then where is the downside?!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As an agency, we have had numerous
discussions with clients over the past few years who want to cut back or stop
any form of marketing – even the biggest companies in the world have reduced
their advertising and PR budgets significantly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But every time we have this discussion (and trust me, I know how
difficult it is to spend money when you don’t really have any…!), I ask them
how they plan to build their businesses back to where they were before the
economic crisis if they don’t do any form of marketing activity – which they
are not usually able to answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">At this point, I should mention a quote
that I saw one time by the CEO of one of the big FMCG goods companies a few
years ago, who said “I love a recession – I can guarantee that all of our
competitors will stop their marketing, whilst we will be increasing ours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the result of that will be that we will
not only maintain the business that we already have, but take over a lot of
theirs as well”…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or words to that
effect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Of course it is easy to say that when you
are running a huge empire with a large amount of money in the bank!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if you are trying to keep costs as low
as possible, and you have no real budget available, it is very difficult to
take a risk and spend what you don’t have on something that is not guaranteed
to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then… if you don’t do
anything, and your competitors start to increase their own marketing activity,
you might end up with no business at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So what to do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I have talked before about the various marketing
activities that you can do without spending very much – and maybe some of you
have tried a few of these ideas and have seen a bit of improvement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, generally, to get really significant
results, you have to spend more than just a few crowns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">What we are seeing now is that there are
companies that are prepared to invest into marketing, so now we are busy persuading
those companies that they should not give this budget to their tea lady or
junior assistant to use – if that is where you are now, please treat this
budget as you would your accounting, legal affairs, building work or any other
professional service, and use someone that is trained and has experience in
marketing. Otherwise you, too, will join the ranks of those that think that
marketing doesn’t work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Finding that person is not always that
easy, so in the next blog I will discuss the differences between in-house and
external marketing people, and what you can expect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">More then!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-66137148043991867802013-09-13T03:42:00.000-07:002013-09-13T03:42:02.138-07:00BUILDING A BRAND<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In the very early 90s, when I was first in
Prague, the few expatriates working here were a very close knit community and
as we all spent so much time together outside of work, we felt that we knew
each other very well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine our surprise,
therefore, when one of our group suddenly disappeared and nothing more was
heard from him until I received a letter from him from one of Her Majesty’s
Prisons in the UK, and it transpired that he was someone else completely and
had been on the run for several years….!! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In those days, we used to say that anyone
could come to this part of the world and completely reinvent themselves, as it
was a bit of a lawless society at that time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If asked today, though, I would have said that things were very different
then and now it is much more like a normal western world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Except that in the past year or so, I have
heard about two more people that, to all intents and purposes, are clearly not
who they say they are!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Now I would have thought that if someone
wanted to reinvent themselves, they would do it pretty discreetly – the world
being a pretty small place - but neither of these two people have done that; in
fact both of them have gone out of their way to become ‘out there’ figures
amongst the business community (completely independent of each other... I am
not sure if they know each other, but they have followed a similar route).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, in a funny sort of way, I quite admire
the way that they have fooled everyone, as of course, it has all been done by
very clever marketing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">First of all, they have taken a name and
decided what that name stands for, who they want to sell it to and how.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then they have single-mindedly built
their brand by following a set course – meeting with the right people, being
seen in the right places, doing their own advertising and publicity and so on -
to the point where they probably believe what they are saying themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And to be a successful salesman, which they
clearly are, you really have to believe in what you are selling, as then it is
much easier to persuade someone else to buy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The moral of this story is (well, maybe
moral is not the right word…!) – that with any marketing campaign, whatever the
product or service, you need to really know what your product/service stands
for, work out who you want to sell it to, believe in it yourself, and go about
your promotion in a well-executed and single-minded manner, and you wont go far
wrong… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Just remember, though, shoddy
products/services/people get found out sooner or later… and to build a good
brand on a long-term basis, it needs to really stand the test of time.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US">Jo</span></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-61853971119783732912013-07-25T06:35:00.002-07:002013-07-25T06:35:14.264-07:00KEEPING IT SIMPLE<div style="border: none; color: #353535; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
One of the reasons why working in an agency can be so interesting is that we get the chance to meet and work with people from all sorts of different industries; my day today, for example, includes meetings with a law firm, a construction company, an ice hockey player and a charity, and so it will continue through the week. </div>
<div style="border: none; color: #353535; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
This job is not for everyone, however, as many people find the need to flip from one thing to another at speed, and, of course, the ability to learn a lot about a company in a very short amount of time, very stressful. Not least because so many of the company representatives that we meet find it very hard to express in simple terms, exactly what it is that they do and, therefore, what they are actually trying to market!</div>
<div style="border: none; color: #353535; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
I have worked for companies where I have had to attend whole day ‘induction courses’ in order, they feel, for me to understand enough about the company to be able to work with them, but despite their best intentions, I have often come away from one of these courses with very little that is useful in regard to the company’s marketing and/or PR. And this then leads me to the crunch; if senior marketing people in the company, who live and breathe it all day long, cannot tell me what exactly they sell and why someone should buy from them, then however do they manage to sell anything at all!</div>
<div style="border: none; color: #353535; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
The thing is, when you work inside a company, especially in a senior position, you and the people working with you know so much about it, that you sometimes forget what the key things are that the outside world should know. I have talked (a lot!) in the past about the need to know who you are targeting with your marketing, but you must also know why someone might buy your products or services – i.e. what makes you/your product so much more suitable for a particular customer than someone/something else. </div>
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Usually, when we first meet a potential client, we will go through various standard questions about their business, and these include, of course, ‘why you’. And we really don’t want to hear ‘because we are the best’ (let’s face it, you are unlikely to say you are rubbish). What we hope to hear is something akin to an ‘elevator pitch’ – i.e. imagine you have got into a lift on the ground floor and in steps the person that you have identified as the perfect customer for your company – so you have just a few seconds to sell to him/her, before you reach the right floor and he/she steps out, what you do and why he should buy from you – if you have a good and appropriate elevator pitch, you are most of the way towards saying ‘why you’. </div>
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Then, If you know exactly the market you are targeting, and you know exactly why you have a product/service that your potential target really ought to buy, then preparing your marketing to attract such a customer is really not that difficult. Or is it….?<br /><br />Jo</div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-78955662231904918482013-05-07T07:14:00.000-07:002013-05-07T07:14:01.191-07:00WHERE DOES SPONSORSHIP FIT IN WITH YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGN?
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Partly due to our having been involved in a lot of large
scale events over the years, and partly as one of our main specialties is sport
communications and marketing, we have often been involved in sponsorship; sometimes
working on the side of the sponsor, and sometimes the sponsored party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently, too, we are meeting with a lot of companies
that have plans to organize events or other activities and need a sponsor in
order to get going…..<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t matter
where we are involved, however, there is no doubt that there is an awful lot of
confusion out there regarding ‘sponsorship’ and what it all means.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">First of all, if you are a company/individual, that has been
asked to sponsor an event or similar, there are a few things to think about - although,
if you want to do it because you like the event/project and/or your friend is organizing
it, then go right ahead!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if you are
thinking that such a sponsorship would add to your marketing effort, then you
really need to approach it in the same way as you approach everything else relating
to marketing; first of all, by asking yourself who is the target audience and
does it match with my target customer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For example, years ago I was very involved in the sponsorship
of one of the beer companies here of ice hockey: who was the beer company’s
main target audience?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men between the
ages of 18 and 45 (give or take a few years!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And what do Czech men of this age like to do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Watch ice hockey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go figure, as my American colleague would
say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So think about your own
sponsorship in the same way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Assuming that the target audience of the event/project IS
your target group, then you need to ask what you are going to get in return for
the sponsorship (and, if you are on the other side and are looking for
sponsors, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you </i>need to think about
this too!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it enough to just have
your logo on the materials (I was told by the sponsorship boss of a large
company recently that everyone in the country knows them anyway, so what
possible value is there for them in having their logo on a few billboards and
so on…)?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Probably not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course you need to be reasonable – if you are only paying
a small amount, you can’t expect too much… but then is it worth it at all?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the likely results of the sponsorship are
better than they would be if you spent the same amount on, say, advertising –
then OK, that probably works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if you
are paying a reasonable amount, then you need to be given more than just a bit
of branding…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will you be mentioned in the PR campaign
(attend the press conference, have your name in the press releases, etc), will
you be able to invite people of your own (free tickets), will the organisers do
anything to assist with getting you in front of their key guests, media, etc? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know this all sounds obvious, but you would
be surprised how often I have been met by blank looks when I have asked companies
that are looking for sponsors what we will get in return… !<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Right now, there are not so many companies willing to
sponsor things – the smaller companies are watching every penny and sponsorship
is a long way from their minds (if they are doing marketing at all) and the
bigger companies are being approached all the time and have very clear
strategies on sponsorship – if their strategy is, for example, to sponsor
football, then they are not going to sponsor tennis - plus some of them can take
so long to agree on doing the sponsorship in the first place that the event/project
is over before they have made a decision!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, if you are thinking to try and get a sponsor for an
event or project, think very carefully – over the last twenty or so years, we
have been involved in the organization of hundreds of events and we have yet to
find the secret to actually making money on them!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you need a sponsor in order to organize something,
I would say, just now, don’t bother!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you don’t, but the sponsor will be the
icing on the cake, then make sure that you offer them as much as you can in
return – sponsors are a very rare breed and need to be nurtured!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-13055149925218196342013-03-18T09:13:00.002-07:002013-03-18T09:13:45.349-07:00EVENT MANAGEMENT – CAN ANYONE REALLY DO IT?!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Up until a few years ago, we considered ‘event management’
to be a key part of our business, something that we regarded as our ‘bread and
butter’. With the onset of the financial
crisis, however, the majority of large scale corporate events became a thing of
the past, and we have only been involved in a handful during the past four
years.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have to say, though, that I am not that disappointed, as
event management is something that very few people value (normally if we
received an instruction to organize something, the opening line was ‘we could,
of course, organize it ourselves, but no-one has time, so we thought we should
ask you…..’), plus event management is one of the most stressful things that we
do.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having been involved in the organization of a very nice
‘gala’ this last week, I have been reminded of some of the issues that we can
run into when we are organizing an event on behalf of a client, so if you are
thinking about doing something yourself, maybe bear in mind the following:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(a)<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Nowadays, musicians, technical equipment,
venues, outside caterers, etc, are relatively easy to find and pretty reliable
(compared to 1991, when we organized our first event and couldn’t find one of
any of these and then, when we did, it was always touch and go whether they
would actually show on the night!). I
usually tell clients that we can organize an all singing, all dancing, event
pretty much tomorrow, but what we <i>can’t</i>
do is get the people there if the invitation is left to the last minute. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(b)<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Getting the word out about the event, therefore,
should be the first priority – no point in spending hours on choosing the
music, or stressing over the presentation, if you then send the invitation just
a few days in advance. While all the
planning is going on, we like to start by sending out a short ‘save the date’
email to the guest list in order to get it into people’s diaries, but it makes
sense to book the venue first as that might have some bearing on the date (the
good venues can get booked up a long time in advance). </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(c)<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Follow the ‘save the date’ up with a proper
invitation – we prefer something that is printed and posted rather than
emailed, but that depends on budget. But
do not spend days debating the design of the invitation – better to get
something simple out a couple of weeks in advance than wait until you have the
‘perfect’ design (there is no such thing) and end up giving everyone just a few
days’ notice.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(d)<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The biggest cost of an evening ‘gala’ type event
is nearly always the food and drink. My
own view is that if you have such a tight budget that you can’t really stretch
to decent wine and/or some reasonable food, then you might be better off doing
a completely different marketing activity.
Most people remember an event for the people they met, and then the food
and/or wine that was served – whether good or bad!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(e)<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The little details can make all the difference –
sometimes we have a bit of an argument with clients regarding decoration
(flowers/lighting/etc) and/or music – they often don’t see the need, but we
usually insist! You may not notice
these things when they are there, but you definitely notice if they are not.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->(f)<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Goody bags – the bane of the organiser’s lives….
Are they worth it? Great if you have
something good to give, but if not, I would say it is better not to bother –
how many events do we go to where we return with bag loads of materials that
simply go into the dustbin. What a
terrible waste.</div>
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<br /></div>
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There is a lot more, but this is just the gist, and I want
to wrap it up now as there are a couple of important details that I want to
mention (and here I go again!): before organizing an event, think about who you
are targeting and what you want to achieve and then plan everything around
that. But make sure that everyone in
your team also knows what you want to get from the event; if you want clients
and staff to have a rave up, then rave.
If you want to get new leads and potential business, then remember - you
and your staff are walking billboards for the company, and you all need to
reflect the same message as you want the company to reflect… </div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Jo</span>Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-55444805919307071242013-02-18T04:22:00.000-08:002013-02-18T04:22:18.561-08:00SOCIAL MEDIA - HOW TO MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU!<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I recently wrote a blog about my lack of enthusiasm for
social media, which prompted quite a few people asking me how I, someone that
works as a communications professional, could possible by against it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My response was that it was exactly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">because</i> I work as a communications
professional that I had my reservations, since, as I have said before, I am
very cautious about the messages that our clients send out to the public and if
there is no control over what is being said, then there is always potential for
trouble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
If you have seen the English news recently, you will have
heard about the damage that has been caused to a company called HMV – a very
big, established UK company that has just gone under, but that is trying to be
rescued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the receivers went in and
made loads of people redundant, what did those people do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Immediately start posting as many horrible
things about HMV that they could come up with on all of their social media
sites (including HMV’s own), with the result that the company may, now,
collapse altogether.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Maybe it is due to HMV, maybe it is just that many of the
bigger companies are starting to get worried anyway, but in the last two weeks
we have had three different requests for proposals to manage clients’ social
media sites, and, in particular, advise on crisis management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So if you are not already thinking about how
to deal with your own sites, here are a few tips on how to make it work for
you, without causing a whole bunch of problems:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Treat
your social media like you treat the rest of your marketing materials; as I
have said before, you wouldn’t let just anyone draft your brochure and then
send it to print without first checking it, so do the same with your Facebook,
Twitter, Linked-in and other sites</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(b)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Make
sure that the messages that are put out on your sites are consistent with the
messages that you are putting out elsewhere; have you followed anyone on
Facebook recently and thought that they appear to be a completely different
person to the one that you know (I know I have and if I had known, I might have
thought twice about being their friend!)… would you want people thinking that
about your service or product? </div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(c)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Be
careful about the way the text is worded on Facebook or Twitter in particular –
we recently reviewed a client’s Facebook site and saw that the social media
manager had been posting a lot of questions – for example, ‘we have just
brought out a new product – once you have tried it let us know what you think
of it’ – now, to my mind that is asking for trouble…..and sure enough, in this
particular case, after a few rave reviews along came one that rubbished
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Better would have been to keep it
simple and leave the invitation out!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(d)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Limit
the number of people that can access your social media sites on your behalf and
make sure that you guard the passwords and so on carefully (at HMV, just about
anyone and everyone was able to get onto the company site and post a lot of
damaging information).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be careful, too,
about who you ‘befriend’.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(e)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Monitor
your sites on a daily (or more) basis, and be sure to have a methodology in
place if something starts to kick off – i.e. a crisis management plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(f)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Consider
adding a clause into your employment contracts that, for example, imposes a
fine on the employee if they post something negative about your company (of
course you can’t control what their friends say about you,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and it might be difficult to enforce, but at
least it puts them on notice…..!).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Need I go on?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social
media is an amazing invention and something that everyone in marketing needs to
know about and understand…. But, as with everything relating to marketing,
treat with a bit of caution, and don’t let just anyone do it!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jo</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<br /></div>
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<br /></span>Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-45154133293562784142013-01-04T10:07:00.000-08:002013-01-04T10:07:02.404-08:00Dear Father Christmas
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am not a huge fan of social media, as everyone that knows
me will tell you, but I do quite like Linked-in, and there are a few blogs that
I follow, my favourite being by one of the UK’s biggest entrepreneurs who,
every month, writes a short business-focused blog that is, to my mind, full of
words of wisdom.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To kick off this year, he has suggested that all of us think
back to when we were kids and pretend that we can now write our own ‘note to
Father Christmas’ – i.e. if we could ask Father Christmas for, say, five
‘presents for our businesses’ what would we ask for?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have already prepared my list, most of
which I wont go into here, but one of them is, I suspect, a present that most
of us would include in our list for this particular year, and that is ‘an
increase in the number of clients/customers that we have’, and/or ‘an increase
in profits’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Having written such a list, the idea is that we then spend
some time considering how we might make that wish list come true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For sure, when I look at my own list, one or
two of my wishes really do need Father Christmas to intervene, although I will
continue to ponder them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the
‘increase in business’ is, to me, an easy one, as I think there is only one
answer; to increase our marketing!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know I keep banging on about this, but when I hear from
clients, or just people that I talk to, that they are cutting back on their marketing
because they don’t have the budget – business being so bad - I wonder how,
exactly, they plan to improve things if they are NOT doing some form of
marketing – and don’t forget, marketing includes attending events, networking,
social media, etc (by the way, if you are reading this and you can suggest some
other ways of making more sales <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">without</i>
marketing, then please let me know!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now is the time to prepare your marketing plan along the
lines discussed previously, and to get started.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you can’t figure out what you are able to
spend, then think about a figure that you wont be completely devastated to lose
if nothing works (and of course it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will</i>
work if you do it properly!!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Split that
figure into months (but please don’t think that you will get fantastic results
in just a few weeks – you need to work at it consistently – the ‘drip, drip,
drip’ effect) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and then start thinking
about what is possible for whatever figure you end up with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You might be surprised at just how much, for
not a lot of money, you can achieve.</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Happy New Year!</span></div>
JoJohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-83829103456920437122012-11-14T09:01:00.000-08:002012-11-14T09:01:44.559-08:00MARKETING FOR FREE
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Over the past few weeks we have had a flurry of requests for
meetings to discuss potential marketing or PR campaigns for a number of
different companies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like to think
that this is a positive sign and that things are starting to improve, although
it is clear from some of our discussions that many of these companies have very
little spare cash to spend on marketing, but they really do need to get out
there and do something – as I am always saying, no-one is going to come and
knock on your door if they don’t actually know that you are there!</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, I am not going to give away all of our trade secrets,
but you really don’t have to spend a lot of money to see some results – after
all, the most expensive marketing tools may not be tools that you, yourself,
would use anyway (for example, even if I had a spare million or two, I would
not be carrying out a TV or outdoor media campaign for JWA as this would not be
the way for my company to target its potential clients!).</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So what can you do that will cost very little, or even
nothing at all?</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">First, look at the customers or clients that you have
already and think whether you can find a way to get a bit more from them; are
you selling them all the products or services that they need?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Getting new business from existing clients is
a lot easier than finding new clients themselves.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Concentrate on the ‘walking billboard’ exercise that I am
always banging on about; everyone in your team will have friends,
husbands/wives, family, contacts, and it may be that they have never thought to
try and sell your products or services to any of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give them some guidance and motivation; but
remember that they can also put people off (!) so get the training in
first!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And never forget that people can
sometimes see you, even if you can’t see them….</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Communicate!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I
the only person in this town that is getting fed up with people not responding
to emails or answering phones??<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have
a rule in our office that every email must be answered that day – even if it is
just to say ‘sorry, busy, get back to you’!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jobs can be lost by not meeting deadlines, not answering emails, not
calling back!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jobs can be won by being
the quickest and most charming person to respond to a request.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Get out there!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give members
of your team a target of attending x events a month and bringing back y number
of business cards that they then follow up the next day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Include ‘networking’ in your marketing plan
and make sure that you stick to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Direct mailing is not as bad as you might think, but my
preference is to prepare a well-written letter/newsletter/postcard/whatever and
then post it, rather than carrying out such a campaign on email.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all get far too many emails and if they are
unsolicited they can get ignored – it is much more difficult to ignore a nice
letter or newsletter, especially if it includes some well designed material,
that arrives on your desk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even if
you don’t need what it is selling now, you might just revert to it at a later
date.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Advertising – don’t fall over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Advertising is not always as expensive as you
might think, and magazines, in particular, are having a difficult time right
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So they will do deals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As will on-line media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And remember the ‘little and often’ that I
have mentioned before – a few banners on an on-line media outlet can be very
effective and fairly low cost – much MORE effective than one big advert that
runs for just one week.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">PR – ah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>PR.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many times do I hear that a company
‘wants to do some PR because it doesn’t cost anything’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hmm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is for next time.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jo</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-18180184306961711112012-10-24T09:42:00.001-07:002012-10-24T09:42:15.568-07:00CUSTOMER SERVICE IS KEY
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When times are hard, it is not always easy to be involved in
the marketing of a company, whether in-house or as an outsourced agency;
marketing costs are the first to be slashed when companies are looking to save
money, and marketing people are the first to be blamed when the sales
slow-down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is not a lot that I can
say about slashing costs – generally, when someone tells me that this is their
strategy, I try to tell them that this is a dangerous course as marketing is
probably the only thing that will bring them the sales that they need - but I
also know that if it was my money, and it was running out, I would probably be
slashing the costs too!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I do, however, object when I hear that the reason why a
company is not making its sales targets is down to its marketing strategy or marketing
people – of course in some cases this is true, but in some that I have seen
first-hand, it is a little bit different; in no small part because the
marketing will only get people to the door and it is what happens when the
potential client gets <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">through </i>that
door that decides on whether the sale is going to be made; sometimes the
pricing doesn’t work, and sometimes (quite often) it is down to the client’s customer
service.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have been involved in so many projects where the client is
ready to spend quite a lot of money on its marketing, but is unaware of, or
does not want to face up to, what sort of customer service potential clients
are receiving when they contact the company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have had stand up fights with
shop owners in shopping malls that we have worked on who insist that we should
be doing more marketing, but do not realize that when their backs are turned
the shop assistants are closing the shops and going for an all day coffee break!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have argued until I am blue in the face
with clients whose products or services are priced way out of the market and,
consequently, whilst potential customers like what they are seeing, they are
not ready to buy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have even run a
promotional campaign where the client’s email address to which a potential
customer had to respond was never answered, and another where the telephone and
emails were mostly ignored and the welcoming committee in the client’s offices
was just the rudest that I had ever met. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know it all sounds very obvious, but before embarking on
any sort of marketing or PR campaign, you really need to think about what a
potential customer is going to find when they contact you; is your website up
to date (OK, I know that most of us don’t much like our websites, but at least
make sure it is reasonably OK) have you briefed your staff so that they know
what you are promoting and will say the right things if they are asked?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does your office, your people, and your
general customer service approach meet with a potential client’s
expectations?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I dare to say that it
might not……</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As my old boss used to say, ‘it is very difficult to win a
client and very easy to lose one’ – so don’t spend all your spare cash on
marketing only to let someone in your team lose a potential client because they
haven’t been trained to close the sale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Jo<br />
Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-68810698147729356182012-06-25T09:57:00.001-07:002012-06-25T09:57:59.622-07:00GETTING STARTED<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Before you embark on a marketing/PR campaign, you need to
have a plan; I am a planning freak as I really believe that for something
(anything) to be successful, there has to be a plan of attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Our standard marketing/PR plan layout for all SME clients
(the bigger companies have their own!) is a simple spreadsheet that lists all
the possible activities down the side, and the days/weeks/months along the top
(depending on how much activity you are planning – weekly is the most usual).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We usually have the activities listed in
sections, so for a marketing client we would break it down under headings such
as advertising, public relations, direct marketing, etc – even social
activities can be included as this helps to act as a reminder that you need to
get out there!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To fill in the plan, you need to have an idea of budget –
and this can be anything you feel comfortable with; you don’t have to spend a
fortune, and let’s face it, you are probably not going to go for some of the
more costly items, such as TV or outdoor advertising (and if you are, then I
would hope that you know how to plan for this already, otherwise you stand to
lose a lot of money!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then you start to fill the plan in, taking
into account the quieter times (July/August), peak times for your particular
business – for example, if you are bringing out a new product or service you
need to intensify what happens in the marketing build up around that time –
Christmas, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">You also need to think about one of my other pet topics;
little and often – you don’t want to spend most of your money on one big event
as that will only have a short-term effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So ensure that you spread the spend evenly through the year and across
the activities, so that you get the ‘drip, drip, drip’ effect that I have
mentioned previously.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then there is another very important consideration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>KNOW WHO YOU ARE TARGETING!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I put this in capital letters as I have had
so many conversations in recent weeks – and can I just say that these have
included with some senior marketing people in big firms – where it is quite
clear that the marketing is being planned around who the company WANTS its
customers to be, rather than who they actually are!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s say you have a
very expensive product that is beyond the reach of most, especially the
locals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can you possibly expect your
marketing to succeed if your advertising, PR, direct mailing and so on is
targeted only at local, average wage earners.. do you see my point?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you know who you are targeting and if you plan your
marketing with the overall aim of achieving the ‘drip, drip, drip effect’, then
marketing really does work. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Or does it?</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">More follows soon.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jo</span></div>Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5463480115705784336.post-74446200653161745972012-05-24T03:44:00.003-07:002012-05-24T03:44:23.093-07:00MARKETING – DOES IT REALLY WORK?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have lost track of the number of companies that we have
met over the years that tell us that “they have tried marketing but it doesn’t
work for their type of business”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
answer is always that marketing works for everyone, irrespective of what the
company does, and if they have tried it and it hasn’t worked, then that is
because they are doing something wrong!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I discussed this a bit with a client today – a fairly
typical SME client, where the person that we deal with is the boss and, in this
case, the owner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His view is that the
majority of smaller companies have existed for however long with the owner/boss
building the business from scratch, and until the financial crisis struck, that
was pretty easy to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nowadays,
however, the market is much more competitive, and in order to remain
successful, those same owners/bosses are having to do more than rely on word of
mouth in order to keep going; the problem is that having built the business in
the first place, they do not believe that they will need any help with ‘proper’
marketing, and try to do it themselves… with the end result that the whole
thing fails.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think that that is a fairly accurate assessment, but would
add<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a few other thoughts; one is that everyone
thinks that they can do it, irrespective of their own training, secondly that
there are no real ‘rules ‘ – well there are, but you don’t go to prison or get
a fine if you break them – and third that, sometimes, marketing activities can
seem like quite a lot of fun compared to a company’s regular day to day activities,
and everyone wants to get involved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Plus, of course, you have to spend money!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you are going to spend money, and it
is your company, then you want to be involved in how it is being spent!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So if you are planning to embark on a marketing campaign,
and want to do it yourself, let me give you a few pointers as a starter:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Little and often is much more effective than one
big bang!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prepare a plan that ensures that you have some
activity on a regular basis – even if it is just attending a networking event,
or organizing a business lunch – depending on time and budget, you want to be
aiming for something to happen as often as possible – rather than everything to
happen once!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Know who you are targeting with your marketing –
don’t advertise in a magazine/online portal because they are offering you a
fantastic deal or it belongs to your best friend – advertise in a
magazine/online portal because it is read by all of your target clients!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Know what you want to achieve from your
marketing – as I said in the article about PR, if the reason for promoting
yourself is something other than sales, then make sure that what you are
planning meets with that end result</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Remember that marketing will only get people to
your door; what happens when they go through the door is down to you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the marketing in the world will fail if
your telephone is answered rudely, emails are never answered, staff are late to
meet with the client, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, of
course, if your pricing is wrong, you will never sell.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Networking – ah, now, that is an article in its
own right.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There
is a lot more to say, but hopefully this is enough as a start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More will follow!</span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jo</span></div>Johttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04617095523155546138noreply@blogger.com0