Stick to the knitting is the old business school adage that you say to a business that’s overstretching: the coffee shop that starts to sell furniture; the hairdressers that goes for a jewellery line.
But the recession isn’t stopping some pushing very tenuous brand extensions. I confess to thinking The Sun had completely gone off the rails earlier this month when they launched their own perfume called Buzz.
Jam, the agency organising the launch said, “The Sun is the newspaper at the heart of the country’s entertainment world and Roja Dove is a world renowned Professeur de Parfums. Together they’ve collaborated to bottle the scent of pure entertainment.” Is that the new definition of overstretching?
I want Audi to build great cars not trainers, pens or microwave ovens. I’m all for a bit of diversification but brands should go deeper into making their best possible products, not go wider at every opportunity.
Aston Martin is doing this brilliantly and has been rewarded by CoolBrands declaring them the world’s coolest brand for the fourth time in five years.
A brand putting its logo on a T-shirt and mug is one thing, creating a perfume of pure entertainment in Harrods is a whole other ball game. Key question here: what business are you in, not, what can you possibly sell?
It’s difficult to describe how most feel about John Lewis. I don’t mean their gorgeous stores or brilliant staff; I’m talking about their very different business model of employee ownership.
Well, with pre-tax profits up 28% to £110m for the six months to July 31 they’re the envy of the high street this autumn. John Lewis online is their single biggest outlet (larger than their flagship store in Oxford St.) and it was up 36%!
Many put this growth down to their price matching policy of never knowingly undersold. Dixons hit them hard on prices last autumn and they struck back with their own marketing campaigns.
The most interesting thing about this policy is that John Lewis have only recently changed tact and taken it online when it only applied in store previously.
A) This really reflects the pricing problems facing retailers today;
B) It shows they are incredibly serious about online growth.
Of course the bigger question is whether these constant price reductions are forcing retailers to a race to the bottom? Are consumers being educated to wait for sales? How do you communicate your added value with branded products at reduced prices?
When the pressure really builds I think of how difficult leadership must be for the Prime Minister. Surely our everyday business ‘issues’ are nothing compared to the table of responsibility inside number 10.
That’s why I’m doubly struck by Tony Blair writing in his autobiography and mentioning in his PR interviews that he changed dramatically as a leader. It’s obvious he grew in confidence and his skin thickened with conviction, but he soon realised that his leadership wasn’t about ideological fixations of left versus right – by his own admission it was more about structural change, project management and delivery.
Next time you’re ruing your team or thinking your day should be more about business and less about people, take solace in the fact our country’s leaders have the same headaches as you.
Not sure if it makes it any easier to bear though.
Should every penny SMEs spend on marketing go on traffic initiatives that directly affect turnover?
I know plenty of small business owners who’d say that branding is just for the big guys. They’re enraged with the anecdote that says, “half of all marketing is junk, and half of it works, but you never know which is which until after you’ve paid the money.”
But is it possible in today’s increasingly cookie-enabled world?
Look at all the new outreach programs you’re employing: Facebook, Twitter, blogging, YouTube, Flikr, Foursquare etc. These all cost you money despite being free to sign up, so unless they help you increase turnover, they are marketing exercises not sales initiatives. Or are they the same thing?
Branding with large budgets over traditional channels might still be the preserve of the Big Boys, but branding for the small firm has never been so applicable and opportunistic as it is right now.
[Side note: I agree with Tom Asacker and believe branding to be a reflection of who you are, your business model and how you make customers feel, but this sees the noun branding in a more off-the-shelf manner.]
Detractors would say it’s childish to email your customers reminding them of such menial tasks as cleaning a vacuum filter, but I really like this email from Dyson. No selling, no offers, no coupons, no upgrades, no end of season bumf… just service.
No, it doesn’t help the till ring today, but it’s a great example of email marketers following my TRaP rule:
Timely – Dyson’s example is just perfect. They knew when I purchased and with typical usage they know when I should clean the filter (for another example, think baby products as your consumer’s child grows).
Relevant – if you’re a sports provider and know I’m a guy interested in rugby, don’t send me content on women’s golf (unless you know of a natural correlation).
Personalised – make it as much about me as possible. Do I think I’m just part of a corporate mailing list or a special and respected customer that you’ve paid attention to?
When I say personalised I also mean with permission. Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing is every bit as relevant today as it was when it first printed a decade ago and is a must read for anyone looking to grow their database asset.
SMEs will always struggle to mine the data needed for TRaP and they’ll argue over text versus imagery, along with style over content and sell over service, but if they want to unlock the potential repeat custom (acquisition, even, in some cases) they need to put their thinking hats on.
By day, Nick Fluck is a director of Tredz, a bicycle retailer with a strong web presence. By night, Nick can be found moonlighting on Digitally Minded, waxing un-lyrically about marketing, business, new media, technology and innovation. This semi-personal, part-professional blog is a collection of Nick’s weekly(ish) ramblings as the wannabe business partner/love child of Seth Godin Want to know more?
Stick to the knitting is the old business school adage that you say to a business that’s overstretching: the coffee shop that starts to sell furniture; the hairdressers that goes for a jewellery line.
