Awards countdown: Gary Hockey-Morley

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With just eight days to go before the entries deadline for The Marketing Society Awards for Excellence, one of the judges, Gary Hockey-Morley, marketing director at Post Office Limited, offers his thoughts on the ingredients for marketing excellence today.

Great marketing in 2011 isn’t about the skilled flexing of traditional models which too often start with a finished product or a TV script; it’s about a mindset that’s hungry to understand and an ethos that wants to do things collaboratively within an organisation and with customers.

Customer insight

Great marketing today, more than ever, has to be about starting the journey with real customer insight and using that to uncover needs and desires that as customers we may not be able to articulate. We must then use that insight to lead our organisations and align them around the customer. For example, we should help HR understand the skills and values we want to recruit, and shape the employment brand that attracts those candidates.

An integrated story

We must also design the sales and fulfilment experience from the beginning not as an afterthought. That experience must be branded and be inclusive. Quick, reliable, multi-channel self service is not a lifestyle choice; it’s just how we survive in today’s world. So we must design products that fit into this model, not try to crowbar an experience around our finished products. Turning to communication, at the heart of any campaign there must be an idea, a story, a cause or some entertainment that people will want to talk about or share with their friends, families and online communities. Social media isn’t a fad: it should now be at the heart of great communication.

Some good examples of this in 2010 are the launch of Metro Bank, John Lewis and Waitrose, and the relaunch campaign for Ikea.

Find out more about the Marketing Society Awards for Excellence 2011. Closing date for entries: Friday 11 February 2011.

Posted: February 2nd, 2011 | Author: maddie.york | Filed under: Awards, Customer Champions, Digital | Tags: Awards for Excellence, Gary Hockey-Morley, the future of marketing | Leave a Comment »

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