Leave a Comment » | 97 views |
0 Comments » |
John Gilbert, business analyst from JGFR, reviews The London Olympics Barometer winter report which has found that enthusiasm for the Games may be faltering, possibly due to disappointment with the ticket allocation.
For optimists 2012 has many positives going for it. Recently the Chinese have celebrated the start of their New Year – the Year of the Dragon that in Chinese mythology is the king of all animals and a symbol of power, strength and good luck. The stock market is off to a good start and Christmas holiday trading was not as bad as many predicted.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 27th, 2012 | Author: will.armstrong | Filed under: Growth Drivers | Tags: Euro 2012, john gilbert, london 2012 olympics, Olynpics | Leave a Comment »
Leave a Comment » | 234 views |
0 Comments » |
John Gilbert, business analyst from JGFR, reviews the financial year of 2011 and considers the role marketers should play in 2012 to help build consumer confidence.
For the majority of consumers 2011 proved to be a tougher year than expected. A year ago inflation and job expectations were dominating and there was talk of an interest rate rise to help reduce inflation. Headline GfK NOP confidence (CCB) had slipped 2 points during 2010 to -21, a level that pointed to low / no growth.
At the start of the year the rise in VAT to 20% ensured that inflation and weak spending confidence would continue to be on-going issues, resulting in headline confidence slumping 10 points to -31 in the 4 months to April.
In May the Royal Wedding and good weather resulted in a surge in confidence, with the CCB jumping 10 points – its second highest rise on record. Alongside some improvement in the jobs data and strong consumer confidence in key European markets it appeared optimism may be returning.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 5th, 2012 | Author: will.armstrong | Filed under: Growth Drivers | Tags: 2012, CCB, christmas spending, Consumer Confidence, Euro 2012, JGFR, john gilbert, Olympics | Leave a Comment »
Leave a Comment » | 425 views |
0 Comments » |
Our new monthly blogger Phil Rumbol, former marketing director of Cadbury’s and now founding partner of 101 – a free range creative company, discusses whether it’s time to create a `Marketing Coalition’.
“Some people say marketing is a very complicated and mystical thing. Actually it’s not. It’s a very simple thing.” So said, Sir Alan Sugar in last week’s Young Apprentice.
There are many examples of companies built through great marketing. Marketing that works so well that the brand in question is in a category of one. Think Apple, Coca Cola and Nike.
So why don’t more companies take a leaf out of their book?
Why don’t more companies adopt the enlightened approach of these ‘natural born’ marketing companies?
It’s hard to extrapolate the principles that make them successful – and even harder to abide by them. Instead they rely on the collective instinct of their leaders rather than ‘painting by numbers.’
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: December 13th, 2011 | Author: Leah.Latimer | Filed under: Creative Genius, Growth Drivers | Tags: 101, apple, coca-cola, Marketing Blog, Marketing Coalition, nike, Phil Rumbol, Sir Alan Sugar, the marketing society, Young Apprentice | Leave a Comment »
Leave a Comment » | 408 views |
0 Comments » |
Mark Sherrington has been pondering the power of design as a theme for his next post. He know’s what prompted this – the death of Steve Jobs.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: October 13th, 2011 | Author: will.armstrong | Filed under: Creative Genius, Growth Drivers | Tags: apple, design, inverntor, leader, legacy, Mark Sherrington, steve jobs, visionary | Leave a Comment »
Leave a Comment » | 322 views |
0 Comments » |
This month Seth Godin talks about the dangers of always looking at what our competitor’s are doing.
The rear view mirror is one of the most effective motivational tools ever created.
There’s no doubt that many people speed up in the face of competition. We ask, “how’d the rest of the class do?” We listen for someone breathing down our necks. And we discover that competition sometimes brings out our best.
There’s a downside, though. Years ago, during my last long-distance swim (across Long Island Sound… cold water, jellyfish, the whole nine yards), the competitiveness was pretty thick. On the boat to the starting line, there were hundreds of swimmers, stretching, bragging, prancing and working themselves up. By the time we hit the water, everyone was swimming someone else’s race. The start was an explosion of ego and adrenaline. Twenty minutes later, half the field was exhausted, with three hours left to go.
If you’re going to count on the competition to bring out your best work, you’ve surrendered control over your most important asset. Real achievement comes from racing ahead when no one else sees a path–and holding back when the rush isn’t going where you want to go.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 29th, 2011 | Author: will.armstrong | Filed under: Growth Drivers, Makes You Think | Tags: competitors, Makes You Think, Marketing Society blog, seth godin | Leave a Comment »
Leave a Comment » | 399 views |
0 Comments » |
Alan Mitchell reviews the ROI of trust in marketing.Just reading ‘Super Crunchers’ by Ian Ayres. In it, he tells the story of a South African credit card company Credit Indemnity which discovered that putting a picture of a pretty smiling woman on its promotional solicitations had the same effect in terms of response rates of reducing its interest rates by 4.9%.
Stories like this are often used to tout the benefits of evidence-based, data-driven marketing. But is this really ‘evidence’ or is it pseudo-evidence?
I’ve heard this story about Credit Indemnity many times now. What I would like to know is, what happened next? If Credit Indemnity had discovered such an easy way of boosting its profits why didn’t it go on to take over the world?
One reason, perhaps, is that much of ‘evidence’ that’s touted in marketing nowadays consists of an isolated snapshot of just one part of an unfolding process. A few questions:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 28th, 2011 | Author: will.armstrong | Filed under: Growth Drivers | Tags: Alain Mitchell, alan mitchell, Credit Indemnity, Marketing Society blog, ROI | Leave a Comment »
Leave a Comment » | 389 views |
0 Comments » |
Ahead of his appearance at our Birmingham Awards Showcase, Russell Pocock, head of brand marketing at City & Guilds, talks about his journey to winning a 2011 Marketing Society Award for Excellence.
Winning a Marketing Society Award is an amazing experience: the sense of anticipation in the days leading up to the ceremony, the night itself which was full of nerves, euphoria and pride in what the team had achieved, and once the hangovers had died down (and they lingered for a while) and the accolades back at the office had passed, we were left to reflect on our journey and what we learnt along the way.
Our award was for Employee Engagement: how we rebuilt the brand for the business, by the business, from the inside out. Our objective was to create a new brand strategy by August 2010 and lay the foundations of a brand-led business by December 2010. Simple, you say? In some cases, yes; in this case, not quite so. City & Guilds is an organisation that has been product-led for the past 130 years. This was a huge transition for the organisation and the people within it.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 27th, 2011 | Author: elen.lewis | Filed under: Awards for Excellence, Growth Drivers, Uncategorized | Tags: City & Guilds, employee engagement, Marketing Society Award for Excellence, Russell Pocock | Leave a Comment »
Leave a Comment » | 427 views |
0 Comments » |
Giles Robertson, Green Banana Marketing, looks at how ever increasing student debts are beginning to affect the entrepreneurial spirit of our next generation.
Students leaving university with up to £38,000 of debt (tuition fees are set to rise to a maximum of £9,000) will not foster a spirit of entrepreneurialism. It’s a far cry from the £1,000 overdraft I left with in 1991.
The higher fees worry me for two reasons. The higher fees mean only the more affluent will attend Uni and many less well off (but equally capable) students will be deterred by the increase in fees. A great swathe of future Bill Gates will be missed (and he has mentioned the importance of his university education). The genuinely talented may just miss the opportunity to develop their skills. We know two of the highest profile entrepreneurs – Lord Sugar and Sir Richard Branson – made it without a degree (but starting your career by selling car aerials out of a van is not for everyone). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 26th, 2011 | Author: will.armstrong | Filed under: Growth Drivers | Tags: entrepreneurialism, Giles Robertson, Green Banana Marketing, Marketing Society blog, Student debt, tuition fees | Leave a Comment »
Leave a Comment » | 549 views |
0 Comments » |
In the third of a monthly article on decision making, David Wethey, founder, AAI discusses the global obsession with meetings.
“Before we start today, let’s go through the minutes of the last meeting. And can I just make sure that you, David, are happy to do the minutes of today’s session”.
Mr Chairman, I just wish it was minutes. Our global obsession with meetings is not costing us minutes. It’s taking hours out of our day, days out of our week and weeks out of our year.
If we allow for weekends, public holidays, annual leave and days off sick, we probably have an effective working year of 220 days. Let’s suppose that on average we are involved in one meeting lasting an hour, and one lasting an hour and a half every day. That is 330 hours in the year spent in meetings – more than two complete working months! From the department of invented, but plausible, statistics I believe that 50% of all meetings take the participants no closer to a decision, and that more than 60% of the people hours are wasted.
I blame a meeting culture that gives us all the illusion of ‘moving things on’, when so often meetings serve no useful purpose, and absorb billions of people hours that otherwise might have been productive.
For me a meeting is an intrinsically low-tech phenomenon, born out of the gregariousness of home sapiens. I see it as generated by social instincts, not commercial ones. We like getting together to chat!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 22nd, 2011 | Author: will.armstrong | Filed under: Growth Drivers, Uncategorized | Tags: AAI, David Wethey, global obsession, Marketing Society blog, meetings | Leave a Comment »
Leave a Comment » | 1,395 views |
0 Comments » |
A few years back the MoD ordered a new radio system.
The radios would be used by ships, helicopters, planes, tanks and infantry.
So involved in the procurement process were specialists from the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Everyone had their own particular demands.
And each was adamant their concerns were the priority.
There was much wrangling and thumping of desks.
During the procurement process they were told the radios could be fitted with a GPS tracking device.
It would take a bit longer but they’d always be able to locate exactly where each radio was.
All the specialists agreed they didn’t need a GPS tracking device.
And they didn’t have time to wait while a GPS tracking device was fitted.
They must have the new radios now.
So the new state-of-the-art system was produced to their joint specifications and rushed into service.
It’s been in use for a while now, and it’s been quite successful.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: August 2nd, 2011 | Author: stuart.treasure | Filed under: Growth Drivers, Market Leader | Tags: Dave Trott, Growth Drivers, Market Leader, marketing society | Leave a Comment »
