This Facebook spoof encompasses a useful lesson. If you bother truly to visualise your customers' experience and do so in as exaggerated way as you dare, you may get a feel for what you could be doing wrong....
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
If You Don't Care, Why Should They?
My one prediction of 2008 is that Juno will be in your top ten list of best movies, so imagine my exasperation when the first TV spot I saw was in the middle of sports programming. What made someone think that the mindset of the audience for live horse-racing would chime with that for a sharp youth-oriented movie that's garnering awards wherever it goes?I know media buying is replete with deals, but the thinking here can only be that of relatively cheap TV exposure and that is box-ticking of the worst sort. If you can't afford more relevant spots,...
Thursday, December 27, 2007
The Rigidity Of The Geeks.
Over the past few days, the blogosphere has largely reverted to its primordial incarnation as the playground of the geeks. There have been interesting debate and wonderful acts of humanity not to mention all manner of prescriptive projections of future human behaviour (predicated upon technology of course). However, my ultimate take-away has been a reminder of the rigidity of geek thinking. Perhaps it’s down to their technical detail-orientation, but it’s remarkable to see the virulent reaction of a geek to another person’s argument if it doesn’t...
Friday, December 21, 2007
Sprouts As Social Objects.
Ask people to name their most hated vegetable and it's generally agreed that the answer will be sprouts, yet annual sprout sales in the UK are worth £35m. That's allegedly 47,000,000 units of distress purchase and judging by the supermarket tonight, most of them are bought this week. It's not the season of masochism, so why the paradoxical behaviour? Because people have bought a story that convinces them that sprouts say Christmas like no other vegetable....
Thursday, December 20, 2007
The Marketing Operations Function - Can we Maintain the Momentum?
I first studied the rise of the marketing operations (MO) function early in 2005; and MO professionals and teams have made significant progress since then. However, much work still remains; and the momentum of marketing operations leaders' strategic impact is at risk of being lost at many organizations. Here are some key findings/insight from my 3rd annual study of the MO function to help ensure the continued success of this important role in the marketing organization:1. Make the case for an MO function that reports to the CMO if you haven't...
Worldviews.
Where else in the world would an atheist comedian and the head of an international religion overlap in a radio show, chat without interruption from the host and be recorded on webcam? The BBC can still be remarkab...
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Gorilla Update.
Campaign magazine's 2007 round-up awards campaign of the year to the Gorilla and reports 9% year on year increase in weekly sales - (in October I assume) though as I said before the June 2006 weekly sales were down 25% due to the salmonella scare.The same magazine also brings home to me how many smart people I've got to know this year and credits many of them with both great blogs and actual work too. Trebles all rou...
Monday, December 17, 2007
Something From My Comments.
Lazy blogging I know, but I wanted to share comments I contributed to two interesting debates on other blogs recently.Marketing isn't any harder than it used to be - it's just that people forgot that it centres upon product development and meeting customer needs and instead got obsessed with pretty words like branding which is all too often skin-deep rather than a reflection of the DNA of a business. No marketing isn't harder, but getting away with sub-standard behaviour very definitely is. (Collaborate Marketing)It’s a myth that most categories...
Friday, December 14, 2007
Fourth Wall Marketing.
Watching the magnificent Tinariwen the other night, I realised that here were visually spectacular and musically dynamic performers having a real problem in breaking the fourth wall between stage and audience.This was largely because they are a group of Touareg bedouins from Mali who collectively speak very little english. They had a few stock phrases and meant them sincerely but inevitably it wasn't continuous, it wasn't a real connection. The breakthrough...
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Cadbury Gorillas In Our Midst.
Cadbury Schweppes raised forecasts for its confectionery business, saying that revenue at the division would increase more than 6 per cent this year. In some circles this is already being attributed to the gorilla ad. Well let's just think about some other contributory factors.Sales of Wispa have grown from zero to 20 million since October. Trident and Stride gum have gained a 35% US market share. The summer of 2007 was much cooler than 2006. The proof of the ad's effectiveness will lie in the performance of sales of Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate...
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Secondary Segmentation.
In our commodified world there are huge numbers of product categories that the majority of people consume. If you're competing in those markets, it makes little sense to focus on the traditional socio-demographic divisions. That's what everybody does.You have a great number of potential customers out there so why not choose your own demographic within that mass market and speak to them about your product. Focus on what they do beyond being consumers within your product category. For example - most people drink beer, so focus on gardeners who drink....
Monday, December 10, 2007
Swimming Against The Current.
All the people at my local gym would say they go there to improve their health. But they all do so in different ways and the most intriguing group to me is the non-athletic ones who believe they are undertaking an exercise regime. In fact, they stand around in the pool declaring that swimming is the only exercise their doctor will allow them to do, before slouching off to the jacuzzi or sauna. Actual exercise undertaken - minimal. While debating...
Friday, December 7, 2007
Keep It Simple.
Riders for Health is a charity that ensures healthcare workers can reach African villages on a regular basis by supplying them with motorcycles and pick-ups and, crucially, ensuring that they work. According to the article I read, they do this by operating,a system of preventive maintenance that would shame any British rail operator. Spark plugs are changed before they stop sparking. Cylinders are re-bored before they seize up. Money permitting, vehicles are replaced before they break down unexpectedly, and no health worker climbs onto his or her...
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Juno.
Having already told you about the magnificence of Ellen Page, I make no apologies for repeating the message. Last night, I got the chance to see a screening of her latest movie Juno which, I believe, opens tomorrow in NY and LA and around the world early next year. My review is as follows - go see it. The production notes point out that the movie is ultimately about relationships between people who would not normally meet or who indeed might be isolated...
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
London Calling.
Anyone considering visiting London will no doubt be fascinated to know that "45,460 litres of urine is at risk of ending up in the city's streets and alleyways through irresponsible and anti-social behaviour."Their proposed solution? "Sat-Lav" - an SMS service for which you pay a subsidised 25p to receive a text that tells you the nearest location with opening times. Yet another example of the public sector acting without thinking and presuming behaviours...
Monday, December 3, 2007
Can Advertising Save Web 2.0?
The viability of the online advertising model (i.e. non search-based) upon which so many 2.0 companies are relying on has always worried me. But I had no data to back this up. However, Danah Boyd has come to the rescue with this post that highlights this research.It confirms that my habit of never having clicked on an online ad is very much the majority behaviour and Danah makes an interesting moral point about online advertisers potentially being seen as exploitative of the less well-off. I wonder too if this will affect them in the eyes of offline...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
