From the category archives:

Marketing

Experience is marketing

December 31, 2009

I used to work for someone who claimed proudly that he knew almost nothing about our product and he certainly wouldn’t use our products. He would even speak derogatorily of those who did. With pride he’d say, “I’m a businessman, I don’t need to know about a product to sell it.” Of course there’s quite [...]

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Email PR

December 12, 2009

Yet another naval-gazing award ceremony took place last week where BSkyB were claimed Britain’s Most Admired Company from Management Today. Clearly, MT’s judges didn’t base the trophy on Sky’s email campaigns. If they had, MT wouldn’t discover personal, relevant and timed messages – their emails are more like blanket mini-billboards. Every week or so Sky [...]

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Dixons goes nuclear in ad war

October 7, 2009

Plenty has been said about Dixons’ comparison ads lately. They’re a blatant come-on aimed squarely at John Lewis, Harrods and Selfridges. They invite consumers to research with their competitors and then convert to Dixons for stronger pricing. This is primarily a drive for Dixons’ website, with their retail sites only operating at airports. The strapline [...]

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The holy trinity of business

September 19, 2009

John Battelle recently said, ‘Marketing is now like moving quicksilver. The marketer is the publisher and visa versa; the consumer is now both… that we should rethink, ‘our brand in the market’ as, ‘our conversation with the market.’ I’d like to chirp a complimentary point about synergy with product (otherwise it’s all about the sell [...]

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Audi applies Technik

September 11, 2009

Audi is on the change. Silas Amos over at JKR Design blog praises their logo touch up and I agree. They’ve applied some Photoshop botox to rejuvenate their concentric circles and the font choice has been modernised. Not particularly noticable now but, when viewed on a timeline, the amendments/path of change becomes significant. Check out [...]

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Eat my lunch

August 22, 2009

All businesses want to control their own destiny. Surely, it’s natural. The old-fashioned classic is to cut out the middleman and access the wallet yourself. After all, why go to the trouble of producing a wonderful product, only to pray fickle retailers buy into it and run the gauntlet of the supply chain? It’s sorely [...]

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Tweeting frustration

August 16, 2009

Just read Tom Asacker’s post on frustration and I needed to rebroadcast: Marketers, we need you now, more than ever, to be the voice of value creation for the benefit of your organizations and other brand constituents (customers, suppliers, communities, et al). So please don’t let the frustration, and persistence, of the Social Web ecosystem [...]

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Starbucks aren’t quite themselves

July 25, 2009

When a brand gets too big for its boots it can always change them for loafers. That’s what the Seattle behemoth, Starbucks appears to be doing by going all bohemian. In an apparent throwback to their origins of the 70s, customers can listen to live music and poetry and even buy alcohol. But, more surprisingly, [...]

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Future of online retailing

July 15, 2009

WARNING: this is a lengthy diatribe on ecommerce. If online retailing isn’t your thing then run away now. If it does float your boat then grab a coffee, my friend: Scoble has been posting lately about the future of the Internet, calling it the Web 2010, others are more likely to call it Web 3.0. [...]

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The ascending of Adam & Eve

June 19, 2009

Adam & Eve are on the up. Not only did they win the John Lewis account earlier this year, but the ‘young communications company’ has also secured the enviable task of creatives at Williams F1. What an exciting and innovative client Williams F1 will be. Still, you can’t help but wonder what their view of [...]

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The jingle’s alive and well

June 2, 2009

I’m driving on the weekend with my three-year-old in the back of the car. “Where [are] we going, daddy?” I reply with, “B and Q.” From behind me comes the cutest singing voice, “You can do it when you B and Q it.” I was flabbergasted. The only TV she watches in any quantity is [...]

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Little Chef does less talking

May 27, 2009

I’ve just caught up with my Sky+ recordings of Channel 4’s Big Chef Takes on Little Chef, where Heston Blumenthal worked on a revamp of the Little Chef restaurants (I know it finished weeks ago, but I’ve been busy, OK). The project finished successfully with the flagship Popham restaurant being rolled out nationwide, but the [...]

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Tesco profits can afford them green equity

May 13, 2009

The recent reports of Tesco’s profit show they’ve been outstanding while others have cried ‘recession’. A 53rd week changes the picture somewhat, but lets round off profits at £3 billion. Bravo. They’re launching a banking arm soon and it’s going to shake the big boys out of plenty of high street business, but what’s next? [...]

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Pirate’s ship finds tail wind

April 18, 2009

Ignoring the small matter of legal and moral issues for a moment and putting a marketing hat on, you have to say that The Pirate Bay are riding on the crest of a PR wave. The news yesterday that the owners of this gateway to free content now face jail and bankruptcy has taken their [...]

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Ramsay screams success

February 20, 2009

A business is an organic entity. Most stakeholders would wish their company to ‘grow’ but it can be ‘starved’ of orders, ‘bleed’ cash and ‘haemorrhage’ profits. Yet the biggest indicator of its living matter is the fact that people make a company (well, certainly the vast majority). The attitude of staff is the telling piece [...]

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Here comes Seth

February 15, 2009

Seth Godin is giving his only UK talk on Tuesday. Yep, yours truly has booked a day off and got a ticket to the Big Smoke to see my man Seth. He’s not a ground-breaking intellectual – academia would never cite him like they do Philip Kotler et al (and we wouldn’t read him either). [...]

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Viral marketing double act

February 14, 2009

Viral campaigns are an enigma. Word of mouth is, by definition, viral, but marketers want much more bang for their brand communicating buck. How can you spread your ‘message’ by engaging users (and potential clients) exponentially without devaluing your brand or using slapstick comedy? Few marketers can claim to have pulled this business magic trick [...]

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At Sir Alan’s behest

December 26, 2008

Here’s your Apprentice moment: If you had a fruit stall in a town centre market, and assuming your stock had a one day shelf life, toward the close of business, would you: a) behave exactly as you did at 8am and bin all left over product each day; b) slash prices hours before closing to [...]

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Detroit scores another own goal

November 24, 2008

If you and your peers needed $25 billion from the government because your misguided business is going belly up, how would you travel from Detroit to Washington? By private jet of course. Separately. After all, you’re too powerful to share. One congressman asked if they couldn’t have downgraded to first class? Tom Peters rants about [...]

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Your corporate iPhone

November 19, 2008

Apple’s frustrations have been well documented over the summer: the MobileMe fiasco, the debacle over the iPhone launch/sign up, patches for freezing MacBook Airs and several other dents in the pristine name of all things Jobs. But they really do come up with some gems. Charlie Anzman points us to Apple’s Corporate Gifting and Rewards [...]

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Chartered Marketing’s oxymoron

October 18, 2008

I recently attended the Chartered Institute of Marketing event, ‘Communication for profitable customer relationships.’ I wasn’t going to post about it, but the best speaker of the day (Dr Neil Hair) blogged about it and I wanted to join him. The day’s speakers were good, although Prof. Ballantyne from New Zealand was probably too academic [...]

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Lance Armstrong avoids paying tax

September 29, 2008

“Advertising is a tax for having an unremarkable product” said Robert Stephens, Founder and ‘Chief Inspector’ of the Geek Squad. (Gordon Ramsay said the same in his brilliant and inspirational book, Playing with Fire.) Well, Lance Armstrong could also shout the infamous ‘Advertising is dead, long live PR.’ After much will he, wont he, the [...]

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Microsoft go cool?

September 17, 2008

They’re valued in the ballpark of $233 billion (£117 billion). Annual sales of $60 million have grown around 18% for the last six years. Their operating software runs on 90% of the world’s computers. Internet Explorer (their own browser) is employed by three-quarters of Internet users. There are over 1 billion Windows Live ID authentifications [...]

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August the advertising month

September 2, 2008

Is it me, or did an inordinate amount of the tech news from both sides of the pond seem to be about advertising last month? Not really surprising considering online is about the only area of advertising that’s going to grow this year. Here’s what I think are the more notable ones: – The ever-innovative [...]

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