Broadband and Me

February 23, 2006

Listen

John Winsor: Learning to Listen Again

I started reading John Winsor a while ago after Johnnie pointed to him. He of course is the driving force behind the Spark book on innovation which is a fantastic read (which I should blog on). I missed this post the first time round but John refers back from a further post on Listening to Key Voices. It characterises why my beliefs have changed towards the idea of brand as passion. This particular point being my highlight (my emphaisis):

Love - While many businesspeople might laugh, this is the start of great listening. Great companies don't just like their customers, they love their customers, and their employees too. Look again at Nike and Apple. Both companies are on crusades with their customers to change the world. And their customers can feel the love. They recognize that these companies really care about them and want to spend time with them. It's all about letting people talk and tell their stories without any screens or interruptions. It's about slowing down enough to have the time to engage people in a passionate dialogue while in the context of their lives.

I have promised myself to practice this in my life, at work and home. Its having an effect already.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 22, 2006

Forrester sees the Wood?

Charlene Li's Blog: Forrester's Social Computing report

Charelen Li blogs on Forrester's Social Computing report and makes some very telling points:

To fully appreciate the value of social computing, companies have to let go of control. That means letting customers control the brand if you're a marketer, and it means enabling new enterprise tools that IT can't easily control to attract and support employees with high social computing needs. In many ways, this is the source of the great distress that I routinely hear from corporate managers.

As James says:

Nicely put - sounds like open source marketing to me.

I have a presentation on Friday when I am going to pitch some of these ideas. I hope they can see the wood for the trees.

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February 20, 2006

Faster Horse anyone?

800-CEO-READ Blog: Focus Groups

Steve Cone the author of Steal these Ideas was hosting 800-CEO-READ blog and slated focus groups (unsurprisingly) with the line

You either know your business or you don't.

I am not sure I agree totally with the thinking although I don't think Focus groups are the right way forward, but talking to customers is IMHO. However I had to laugh at the Henry Ford Quote:

"If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse."

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 19, 2005

Understanding your customer

Understanding your customer and responding to their needs I think is a fundamental part of running a business. Now the customer themselves might not always know their own needs (until you tell them) but generally a dialogue would be in order.

This post is about my local Morrisons (nee Safeways). It has always been a little down market - it tried to be upmarket but it never had the investment or IMHO the management to be truely engaging. I compare it to Tescos where I am always asked if I want help packing, or to Sainsburys where I am shown where something is if I ask, or the very low prices at Asda. But it has always been convenient and the prices have been low and it had the products we wanted to buy. Then Morrisons took it over.

The decor has changed. The product lines have changed. The staff grumble at the changes in pay and conditions or left.

So now its near Christmas and I want mincemeat for Mince pies. I get told its on some aisle over there (we've looked and it isn't) 'Oh, well then we haven't got any.' Are they going to get some in? 'No idea!' This has to be the last straw which started when they re-organised the product lines and decimated the vegetarian section, they have eliminated several other lines. They fail to even stock their own label goods and their staff are even more rude than before. Not to mention that prices have increased.

It is no wonder that the Safeways takeover has hurt Morrisons. They fundamentally change the demographic of their store footprint and fail to respond with anything other than 'Our new pie shop' - in the South East of england in one of the UKs most affluent areas?

Turning into a bit of a rant this but it beggars belief that a business as successful as Morrisons obviously was cannot come to grips with its new marketplace. That it cannot offer a decent level of customer service and that to top it all it cannot compete on price.

I feel I will need to twist my wife's arm and go back to Sainsburys!

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:11 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 27, 2005

What's Digital?

More of the great and the good (????) claiming that other people in marketing and advertising don't get the digital age (whatever that is?):

Sorrell warns ad industry is failing to understand digital age - Media Bulletin - Media news by Email - Brand Republic

Sir Martin Sorrell has warned that the advertising industry is failing to understand the scope and scale of change that is going on in the digital age. Speaking at the IAB Engage 2005 conference in London today, the chairman and CEO of WPP Group warned that there was a tremendous pace of change, which was not being fully grasped. He said it was a "cop out" to talk about children and grandchildren having different media habits. "It's happening now," he told delegates. Sorrell blamed the failure to react on the age of people who run the major media and ad groups, mainly in their 50s and 60s, and a reluctance to change.

He goes on to claim the issue is the need for 'good people'. Really? Personally I think the need is for people who aren't indoctrinated in the existing way of thinking. That is NOT the same thing.

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September 14, 2005

If the only tool...

acleareye.com

Tom Asacker commenting on Al Ries:

...his mind is set in the stone age of mass marketing manipulation.

And quoting Maslow:

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

What worries me slightly is that people begin to do the same with social software and blogs in particular. Yes, they are great tools but they don't solve every problem. I'm not even sure that they will solve the problem of the mass marketing manipulation age - but I suppose you could argue that at best they are a Swiss Army Pen-knife* and not a hammer?

(*The latest ones have USB drives in them too!)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 30, 2005

I know what adverts are for!

My 7 year old has an 'ahh moment' watching a Johnson's baby wipes advert:

I know what these are for! They're to try and make other people buy the things they're selling. But they don't have to show them to us 'cos we buy them already...

Now if only advertisers knew that...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 07, 2005

Lack of Authenticity - Costs dear?

Evelyn Rodriguez posts on a US dot com venture buying bloggers to praise their service. As she notes, a lack of imagination in play all around. At the recent BARC conference a lot was made of authenticity (not surprising given that was the conference theme, and also models for advertising / making money via blogs. One of the key points is that you can attempt to foll people some of the time but in the blogosphere you will get found out, as seems to have happened in this story.

So the opportunity to create a long lasting positive relationship with many people has ended up being a short term boost to sales, followed by negative publicity. In effect an interruption model plus negative PR. Not what blogging is about at all. Sabrina Dent was very frustrated with traitional marketing / promotion being applied to blogging and I can sympathise. I for one right now could really do with a few companies to come dump some money but then I know it would be a waste of time for the firm and wouldn't make me a sustainable income either, in fact for both of us it would leave a nasty taste. Instead it would be much more intersting to approach this from the whole PR perspective as identified in yesterday's post.

Most of all though, authenticity is about bias + transparency = credibility as Adriana so beautifully put it.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 06, 2005

Product Development - Co-creation

More on Open Source marketing (see James' site) that I noticed from the UKTrainSim site. Kuju who produced the original Microsoft Train Sim are about to produce a new game in association with Electronic Arts(EA). It also seems that right from the start they involved members of the rail sim community to better improve their product and ensure (or attempt to ensure) that the product will meet the requirements of the current train sim community.

The interesting thing about the train sim community is that it already develops its own 'versions' of rail routes, engines, carriages and trucks, which creates additional aspect of the product and allows new and diverse scenarios for owners to play about with. One such community is going to be heavily involved with this new sim (together with other sims currently in development). Whilst none of this is cutting edge, new or particularly mainstream, it is another illustration of how brands and communities are working together and, I guess, being at worst influenced, and at best led by communities - communities dominating brands.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 03:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 13, 2005

London Marketing Soiree

gapingvoid: london marketing soiree july 11th

Hadn't realised this was happening but the chance to meet Seth Godin really shouldn't be passed up. Therefore hope to be there on 11th July.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 10, 2005

The Long Tail re-explained?

The Long Tail: What the Long Tail isn't

Mini-rant by Chris Anderson about What the long tail isn't. I feel I need to study this in much more detail as its important - just haven't got time to 'think' and analyse why!

Expect I'll need to talk more about this and the other 20 or so draft posts sat in the blog management screens :)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Marketing outside in

Modern Marketing - Collaborate Marketing Services: IF Modern Marketing...

James has updated his outside in marketing ideas (used in Open Sauce Live) unfortuantely only available for a short time before being a premium service. Nevertheless worth a look

Just commented on James' site...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Customer Driven Innovation

How to Save the World

Dave provides an excellent strategy building model for innovation based on strategy mapping (canvas) and understanding customer segementation. Nothing particularly revolutionary but well presented and useful

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 19, 2005

Is Reality TV dead?

Reality checked? - Media Bulletin - Media news by Email - Brand Republic

An article from Brand Republic critiquing recent reality TV shows includes a rather telling comment from Wayne Garvey, head of entertainment at the BBC:

...reality, in its broadest definition, will survive and prosper. 'Reality TV is relatively low cost, and is a TV event in each season's schedule,' he says. 'It brings in viewers who wouldn't watch regularly, and is crucial to the commercial broadcasters in bringing in advertising.'

I am ambiguous about reality TV. Some of the docusoaps can be quite compelling viewing and I have been watching the 'House of Tiny Tearaways' primarily for my own education in how to look after my children. It should be said though that nothing I watch of this ilk is on commercial or pay tv channels.

This gives more weight to the idea that the continuing segmentation of TV channels and new technology such as PVR (TIVOs) will lead to mass customisation of schedules and a death of advertising as an industry.

What interests me is the way in which advertising industry will respond. Product placement has been suggested as a replacement model but discounted by numerous commentators.

In Communities Dominate Brands - the suggestion is mobile phone / SMS message replaces ads as the paymaster for TV channels and shows. So could that be the answer for Ads? Or does advertising need to change completely?

I'm thinking the latter and soon, particularly as the technolgy increases and its mainstream penetration.

One particular hope is that TV programme makers are actually allowed to produce innovative shows and keep the funding to go on producing them.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 02:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 03, 2005

CIM revision - Destination Branding

Total Destination Management / '7A Destination Branding System'

Note to self - Destination branding - the branding of places or destinations (d'oh) as in Australia. To ensure total all round experience of place not just logos (insert sacastic remark)

Creating successful destination brands is different to branding corporate products and services. One of the reasons for this is the complex and composite nature of destinations i.e. they are usually a compilation of many independent and competing businesses, products, and experiences owned and managed by many different organizations with no single owner, brand custodian or decision-making group.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 05:19 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 27, 2005

Communities Dominate Brands

Communities Dominate Brands

At last my copy of Communities Dominate Brands has arrived, and a crcking read it is shaping up to be. Even the quotes at the chapter beginnings are fresh and new to me (though perhaps not to all). Will post more as I read though the statement:

Community activisim is the biggest change in business in 100 years

- is the boldest statement so far - particulalry in addressing how markets and marketing have changed due to technology being applied by communities.

My mouth is watering just writing about it...:)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 03:39 PM | TrackBack

April 19, 2005

MIT Loves Open Source Marketing

James notes that MIT Loves Open Source Marketing

The whole idea of applying Open source to marketing especially in terms of co-creation seems to be a very infectious meme. Question that interests me most is will it really be a paradigm shift in terms of marketing, product development and advertising that some people (perhaps James included) are predicting?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 04:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 08, 2005

Coke gets it wrong.

A story that caught my interest from the Cool News email from reveries.com (on my treo so limited quotes and links)

A hardware store famous for a hand painted Coke advert sold small shots for 5cents. Coke changes its policy on what to provide to vendors and makes it imposible for store to meet its promise. Of course Pepsi jumps in meets the store's need and manages to secure a cold cabinet for other drinks as well. Worst of all the famous old coke ad now has pepsi right up next to it...

With every purchase counting in the over saturated soft drinks market coke (and Pepsi) needs to realise that it can't throw its weight around in the same way it used to because while this type of thing must happen everyday, now it can be across the world in minutes. One thing missing from the piece was any customer reaction - wonder how they felt?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:14 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 24, 2005

Marketing Explained

Just received this from a female friend (hence the gender) - make your own mind up but I certainly think there is something to comparing marketing to sleeping around - not sure why?

You see a gorgeous guy at a party. You go up to him and say, "I'm fantastic in bed." That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous guy. One
of your friends goes up to him and pointing at you says, "She's fantastic
in bed."
That's Advertising.

You see a gorgeous guy at a party. You go up to him and get his
telephone
number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed."
That's Telemarketing.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous guy. You get up and straighten
your skirt, you walk up to him and pour him a drink. You open the door for
him, pick up his bag after he drops it, offer him a ride, and then say, "By
the way, I'm fantastic in bed."
That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous guy. He walks up to you and says,
I hear you're fantastic in bed."
That's Brand Recognition

What about when people start posting on the web how you could improve? Is that open source marketing?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 20, 2005

Ooh you are Open Sauce, but I like you...

A bit more Sauce

Johnnie and James are developing a workshop to show the world (well London at least) what Open Source is all about and how some of its basic tenets can be applied directly to a marketing campaign, even an ongoing brand approach (see here).

The this area - the examples of Linux and Firefox browser are huge success stories. As one of the articles James links to points out though - this approach requires a release, a paradigm shift, from command and control type structures and methods. Instead a more chaotic approach is adopted which could lead anywhere. Its scary but it can ultimately be far more effective in creating evangelism amongst your customers, and perhaps wider stakeholder groups.

It would certainly be interesting to attend - I wonder if there is any room in the aisles or perhaps they need a gopher? :)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 01:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A Dose of Humility: Adopting a Personal Tone, Being a Conduit in Blogs, Business and Life

A Dose of Humility: Adopting a Personal Tone, Being a Conduit in Blogs, Business and Life

I won't try to comment on Evelyn's post in full - I agree with the sentiments but have never experienced anything like the trauma that the Tsunami must have been for her and of course so many others. I therefore shall stick with the one piece that I could closely identify with rather than merely appauld from the sidelines:

In additional to journalism, any perceptive business person can surmise my point is also that the best marketing, the best products, or the best _____ most often emerges if we drop our agendas for a moment and allow ourselves and our companies to be simply a conduit that welcomes our customers with a space to speak and be listened to.

Speak and be listened to.... think about it! Speak and be listened to...

How many times as a customer have you wanted that to happen. In fact how many times as an employee of an organisation have you wanted that to happen? Is this not the essence of truely connecting with someone? And isn't that what we utlimately desire as human beings: to connect?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 17, 2005

Wider, Flatter and Less predictable?

Seth's Blog: 25,000 copies sold

Seth's Blog: 25,000 copies sold

Seth points to the Yorkshire Post (interesting) and highlights that it takes less sales to reach number one in the UK pop charts and the New York Times Best Seller.

I guess this also links in with my point about UK Politics as well.

One thing that Seth doesn't say but I would suggest is a consequence of this, is that it makes it less easy to predict what will happen, i.e. although products can build quickly they can't build for as long or with as much success or certainty as in the past.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 03:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 16, 2004

Johnnie's Coming Home

Jetlagged in Singapore

Welcome back Johnnie...

Just need to work out how to emigrate now :)

And on an earlier point,

Conversations invite possibilities - rants invite rants

So what do you want from life?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 12:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 16, 2004

Political Machinations

BBC NEWS | Politics | Howard's wizard of Oz

Very good article on the Conservatives (UK political party) acquistion of Australia's successful political strategist Lynton Crosby. The article goes on to compare Crosby with Labour (Uk Political party) Alistair Campbell, which IMHO can only be bad for UK democracy.

On the other hand the man obviously knows what he is doing as this superb quote shows:

The key to winning election campaigns is building a good team, having clear central lines of authority while implementing your campaign in as decentralised away as possible, and having a leader who knows what he's on about.

Surely a dictum for how to run any organisation?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 02:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 11, 2004

Online Shopping Booms!

BBC NEWS | Technology | Consumers flock to online shops

Online buying habits have changed dramatically in the last five years, a survey has found.

Of 2,000 web-using Britons interviewed a whopping 94% had bought something online, the survey found. This compares to just 37% five years ago.

Half of those interviewed believed that 40% or more of their purchases would be done online in five years time.

This is a fundamental figure for me in my current role. I need to persuade customers to use the web and here is a survey saying that people have made that switch albeit over a five year period (I have three). Purchase though is very different from service. Some companies do this well such as Amazon (although not everyone appreciates their online only contact stance) but they have an advantage in that they (as a company) have never existed offline.

ntl has an interesting road ahead to improve its online service (I'm not talking about its products BTW) and change of customer behaviour is one. My aim (fingers crossed) is to improve things for customers but although I have a very detailed map of what I would like to do I think more research is required to pin down what will get used. Commetns as always welcome.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 08, 2004

The customer no longer knows...

From Phil Dourado, the Web Content Director at eCustomerServiceWorld.com as part of the tip of the week within the Start the week newsletter:

“The customer no longer knows what is possible”.

- Sony founder Akio Morita on the limits of researching customer opinion when innovating in a fast-changing, chaotic world. Too many organizations kill an idea too early because customers don’t accept it in test marketing. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith, based on your perception of latent needs and unrealised wants.

SOURCE: Crawford Hollingworth, CEO, Headlight Vision, a company that researches the future

A great line that conflicts in some levels with the oft quoted truism 'the customer is always right' and the constant new era marketing mantra, be customer centric (give them what they want). How many of us knew we wanted an iPod or a Smartphone or Broadband before we saw it, experienced it, loved it and wanted more? I think Tom Peters often hammers on the line of Fail often and fail early or Fire, Fire Fire (replacing ready, aim, fire).

Also talked about some of this at College last night when we focused on Value Based marketing. This is about a complete change in the way a firm is organised to drive marketing to a wholistic company wide approach that adds value for customers and consequently shareholders.

Ideas to get into the head:

Change is a constant; we can not sit still and wait for the market to change to our benefit. We have to change (innovate, be creative) to meet the market and that isn't easy.

Value has to be at the heart of everything we do: operations, products, vision, systems.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 05, 2004

John Kerry, the New Coke

John Kerry, the New Coke
At Church of the Customer they compare Kerry's defeat to the advent of new Coke in the 80s.

The close 2004 presidential election is a superlative parallel to what many organizations face every day: Intense competition with a tough competitor, polarized customer loyalties and winning defined by 1-2 percentage points.

Certainly this election will be discussed and analyzed for years, but I see two clear reasons why George W. Bush beat John Kerry:

1. Bush's campaign consistently preached to the choir.
2. John Kerry was New Coke.

The Bush choir delivered the vote. Kerry's campaign focused on converting people not already in its choir: swing voters.

The Bush campaign consistently "super-charged" its base of true-believer volunteers in the field, whipping them up into a frenzy at every possible opportunity. Kerry's campaign army in key states resembled a professional workforce. In other words, the Republicans were more enthusiastically grassroots-oriented than the Democrats.

The point about new Coke was that it didn't appeal to the existing coke consumers and it wasn't as good at 'being Pepsi' as Pepsi was, and lost sales. Sales returned when the old formula was returned to.

The conclusions for a marketing audience being made are:

• Preach to the choir. For the 2004 election, the base turnout for each candidate may seem virtually identical: Kerry had 89% support among Democrats; Bush had 93% from Republicans. The four percent difference in the base turnout was the key -- by getting the Republican choir stirred up enough, it delivered more choir members and leapfrogged Kerry in Ohio. It saved precious resources by not courting undecideds.
• True-believer volunteers will work several percentage points harder than paid professionals. Howard Dean's true believers of enthusisatic and counter-culture young people were often ridiculed as unrepresentative of mainstream society, but they were mightily effective. The same could be said on both counts of George Bush's base of evangelical Christians. The lesson here: your most enthusiastic believers are usually out there, but they are vastly more effective in winning customers than cash-or-points referral programs or paid spokespeople.
• Your choir will help you succeed, but you must be willing to cede control. Give your true-believer customers clearly identifiable goals to meet and stop worrying about the effect volunteers will have on your "brand."

More and more often I see this particular message (put in different ways) - 'Appeal to the Choir' and yet very few companies seem to get it or indeed apply it. I wonder why?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 25, 2004

Branson: The American Virgin?

Fast Company | The Gonzo Way of Branding

Talking more of branding and perhaps a little of the charge of the light brigade (although perhaps not). An article on Branson's attempt to kick start an internal American airline.

While the UK almost certainly does get Virgin and generally understand the brand (good value, excellent service) from this I am not sure the US does, particularly not the business gugurs quoted in the article. The constant references to Branson getting sued for harrassment also seem somewhat churlish. Still, interesting to see whether this foray into US domestic airlines can succeed or whether the 'Chrge of the Light Brigade' - an heroic failure - is appropriate...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 02:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Is branding dead?

Is branding dead?

Hugh Macleod has been saying that Branding is Dead, and Doc Searls agrees. Robert Scoble disagrees.

Well, it all depends on what you mean by branding, and it means different things to different people. .
.. "brands" are just bits of shorthand we all get to use to describe ideas. Ideas we have about companies, churches, politicians blah blah blah.

A lot of smart-alec advertising and fancy logo designs may have been quite powerful in the past. I think they're becoming less powerful now. When brand experts issue pronouncements like "Kelloggs is synonymous with health and vitality" they may think they're doing some big branding. My hunch is that, lacking credibility, they're not doing as much as they think.

Excellent summary by Johnnie. Branding as idea only goes so far. Take ntl's relatively new mantra - "More Choice. Better Value" - its not the brand but I believe recently I was told it was. How much is the customer going to buy into that? Is it a shorthand for ntl? Well from a product perspective our triple play of TV, Telephony and Broadband might lead you to more choice. But better value? ntl certainly isn't the worse value not by a long shot but 'better'. It also screams out at an integrity to do with support i.e. value to me isn't just the products (or services) but how you support the customer through the whole engagement with the company (or the moments of truth if you will). This to me is where the brand really takes shape. Now I am focusing on a service example here not on the FMCG categories like Kellogs, nevertheless if you cannot offer customers the idea then the shorthand comes to mean something very different from the idea. What is Enron short for these days - corporate idiocy or fraud?

Branding isn't dead by a long shot but consumers are more intelligent, cynical, aware and just sprouting a short snappy mantra doesn't deliver on the promise. You actually need to engage with customers to achieve that (Church of the Customer anyone?)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 10, 2004

Echoing

Seth's Blog: One more thought about the echo chamber

If you're defining yourself and your business in terms of your competition, you're living in the echo chamber. Companies and organizations don't grow fast at the expense of existing competitors. They grow fast for reasons that have nothing whatever to do with whether your service is 5% better or your product is a little more convenient.

You don't beat McKinsey with better consulting advice, you don't raise more money than the United Way by spending it more efficiently, and you don't sell more widgets with a slightly longer guarantee.

Seth putting the case for innovation and (I think) against the pervidious benchmarking. Unfortunately, it seems, that benchmarking or 'defining your business in terms of your competitors' is what a large part of the corporate world seems to do and seems to expect.

" I've just come up with this great innovation" says Em ployee. "Ah.. but what are our competitors doing? Do they have one?", Mr Boss asks. "Well... No, its a brand new idea we've developed.", Em replies. "Then 'no takers' here I'm afraid. Need to benchmark against the competition, let them make the first move..."

Sound familiar?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 13, 2004

CIM Exams again

Last week I took the second two exams in the CIM Advanced Certificate (although I think htey have now changed its name to Professional Diploma). The two courses in Marketing Communications and Marketing Management in Practice did not go as well as in December. I'll now have to keep my fingers crossed for end of August when the results are due.

I also need to consider whther to continue to the Post Graduate Diploma. I think this would be a good idea but its a lot of work, as I found out this year and if I have to do retakes, its a strain. Oh, well lots of thinking and hoping ahead.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 20, 2004

Arrogance, power and apathy

Church of the Customer: One of these things is not like the other

Great post from Church of the Customer, which I just happen to be reading today (the book, 'Creating Customer Evangelists', not just the blog).

The statement by Ron Berger is mad. Human dream chasing = advertising? I think they should take him to the nearest TV set and make him watch it... continuously... for a week. Surely his sanity (or lack of it) couldn't be questioned then?

How can people be so arrogant and so out of touch?

Then again having just started reading Micheal Moore's Stupid White Men, I suppose the answer is very easily, and they will be very rich and powerful too...

As I journeyed home today people were getting extremely worked up about having to wait in to exit a car park. It was close to a fight at one point as one person refused to let another person edge out of a parking space. It made me wonder, 'how is it that people get worked up over the smallest thing, and yet inequality, war and others' arrogance raise little more than a squeak'.

Its a strange world. Until people start to take responsibility for themselves rather than trust other people who have no concern for them, then nothing will change. This applies to any area of life: firms who ignore customers, greedy executives and idiotic politicians.

Take control. Tell others what you want, what you expect and don't let them fob you off with rubbish such as Advertising fulfills your dreams.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 17, 2004

Brand as Performance - where ntl goes wrong?

The Ourhouse Weblog: Brand: Promise or peformance?

I admit to having read this a while ago but its taken this time to filter through. Then, because of work on my CIM course (I passed the first two exams BTW) and conversations the other day at work, it became more clear.

A brand is NOT a promise. It's a performance. So let's stop all of the brand ranting and get down to brass tacks.

I keep hearing that mantra that "a brand is a promise" and it's never really worked for me. I've always been left a bit confused, thinking "is it?". The idea of brand as performance certainly engages me more. And it fits my view that brands are social creations, things that are created between people moment-by-moment.

My additional thought: great performances are not simply delivered by a performer but result from some kind of chemistry with the audience.

Companies I value for their products or service don't just promise, they deliver (or perform) and not just in one area but whenever they engage with the customer. Amazon, for example has always performed for me. That is not to say they always meet the promise (sometimes they don't have that obscure book or I have to wait longer than 48 hours for the book to arrive) but they always perform. Even recently when I had to return a product the service was better than that received in most retail outlets. My assumption that the cause of this isn't just good technology (though it obviously is) but also very well trained and motivate employees who are allowed to actually engage with the customer - funny considering its an online store.

In stark contrast I will now never shop in an MVC store (i'm not even linking to them) because they would not exchange goods and were generally unhelpful. Virgin incidently were just the opposite and despite having a similar clientiele and extremely similar workforce in terms of age, attitude was very different. Back to performance. The brand, the image promises much and marketeers work hard to get it there but if the performance from the product or service is poor, it is that the consumer remembers.

ntl has lots of promise and in lots of areas good performance. My main criticism is that it is not consistent in its ability to provide a good performance all the time. I think things have improved and with recent reorganisations will improve considerably further.

For my part in this brave new world, I'm tatooing this to my brain in luminous pink :0

Posted by Paul Goodison at 08:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 01, 2004

Fairtrade Booms

BBC NEWS | UK | Fairtrade food trade booms in UK

Well done people of Britain, I am impressed. Major corporations should take note. While fair Trade sales still aren't on a par with their cheaper exploitative cousins, a 47% increase is still phenomenal.

I think CEOs should start thinking very seriously about what their brands stand for in today's world and whether they can afford to not consider wider environmental and social issues.Corporate Socila Responsiblity isn't just some pay off to keep the odd person happy, its a real way to make money and dare I say it improve your brand image while doing some real good.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 08:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Getting in the way of talking to customers?

The Ourhouse Weblog: Cheap and simple research

John bravely bites the hand that feeds to criticise the marketing research merry go round. While it certainly seems to me research can offer valuable insights, these seem to be few and far between. people , once generally helpful in giving information are now positively turned off, if not aggressively anti-contribution, and results are ever more at odds with reality.

Add this to John's more central point about it creating a barrier between marketing departments and consumers and you have a real credibility gap.

Get out and talk to customers. Its a good idea trust me. Customers are who you serve, they want your products but only if they satisfy a real need and they don't want to be fobbed off with shabby service with an unreliable product. You don't need an army of researchers to tell you that. Just go look on the web or newsgroups and it will give you some feedback. Go sit on the 'shop floor' and listen to how staff treat customers. Go buy one of you products and use it, talk to some of those customers about your experience - see what happens. Unscientific? Maybe. I'm willing to bet it gives you more insight than £500k worth of marketing research.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 08:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 04, 2003

Not Sunny at all...

The Ourhouse Weblog: Sunny Delusions

Johnny goes after Sunny D and looks at the recent BBC documentary. I think I rate Proctor and Gamble slightly abouve McDonalds but on this evidence it would need a micrometer to seperate them.

Perhaps someone could introduce the marketing team to ethics and Corporate Social responsibilty.

Perhaps Johnny should send them a copy of Beyond Branding? His chapter on Authenticity ought to do the trick.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Exam Blues

Professional Development - Courses and Qualifications - Qualifications

I've finally finished my first set of exams for the CIM Stage 2 Advanced Certificate. They were probably the worst overall experience I have had with exams. I usually like taking the things you see, so it has been something of a shock.

I am known for being slightly arrogant about the whole process as i usually can rely on my excellent memory. There is however a 'but'... I didn't really 'get' the CIM way of approaching things and despite a lot of cramming (revision in a tight space) I don't think I did myself justice.

I now have to wait until end of February to find out, otherwise I have the dubious pleasure of re-taking at the same time as taking my other two courses at this level...

Well, fingers crossed.

Perhaps if I actually had a job in marketing?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 26, 2003

McDonald's Misled consumers...

BBC NEWS | UK | McDonald's fries advert is banned

Burger chain McDonald's has been banned from repeating an advert that "misled" consumers about its fries.
The Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints from members of the public and the Food Commission.

The advert says after selecting certain potatoes "we peel them, slice them, fry them and that's it".

But complainants said parts of the process had been omitted, such as par-frying, freezing and adding salt and a dextrose sugar solution.

I think this sums up my last post. Manipulative and desperate.

Go buy real food!!!!

Posted by Paul Goodison at 07:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 25, 2003

McDonald's try to convince us they're British

BBC NEWS | Magazine | McDonald's ad burgers belief

the BBC News magazine occasional articles on advertising neatly outlines McDonald's (desperate) attempt to appear moe British (English?)

This seems to be an unashamed attempt by one of the most iconic American brands of all, McDonald's, to hitch a ride on British patriotism.

We are not British, McDonald's seems to be saying - but we have given the British people a very special gift - a "British burger". Something the Americans would love to get their paws on.

This is a complete U-turn on previous McDonald's advertising, which has gone out of its way to emphasise how un-American the company is - and how British an activity "going for a McDonald's" has become.

My personal view is that this is advertising at its worst. It fails to engage the audience, its a shameful attempt at manipulation and offers nothing the customer really wants.

I am personally anti-McDonalds. Why? Well firstly, as you may have noticed I don't eat meat. Secondly the reason I gave up meat was primarily the over farming of various places worldwide of Beef cattle (in Amazonia for instance) which has of course at various times (however truthfully) has been linked to said company. And lastly McDonalds are the very antithesis of what I think a brand and a portfolio of products should be about i.e. something that seeks to engage with customers in a true dialogue about their needs or where that is difficult by offer a unique product that is ustainable not only in terms of profit making for the company but more importantly in tune with its stakeholders and the environment as a whole.

People should eat healthily, eat more fresh food, properly prepared and find ways of getting it at reasonalb eprices, rather than putting up with this rubbish.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 08:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 14, 2003

Baby Brands?

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US babies get global brand names

Well, I've often thought that the US was the new Roman Empire (as I believe Eddy Izzard commented) and I think this article proves it. While marketeers try to focus a brand so that it conveys a specific image, generally I think parents probably do this as well, however generally they don't converge on the same image or name. I mean L'Oreal?

I won't admit to being immune to trends (apparently in the UK there is a trend for Celtic names and my children have Celtic names - I didn't know that there was a trend...) however it comes to something when people want to name their children after actual product brands? Then again maybe the fact that people name their children after famous people is just the same?

Does the fact that a culture causes people to aspire to name children after affluent positioned brands mean that it has gone beyond the pale? I've always considered names important. While names are not all that defines a person, to me names are very important, they say who I am, they are who you are, your brand, to paraphrase Tom Peters.

If a culture encourages you to name children after a brand of hair products, what does that say about you and what does that do to your children? Isn't there a fundamental disconnect with their very humanity? Money, the pursuit of affluence is more important than anythng else. Something is very wrong.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 13, 2003

Guinness is Good for You!

BBC NEWS | Health | Guinness good for you - official

I love this! An excuse to drink (in moderation) stout - a dream come true. Mind you aspirin or Guinness - they generally have the same effect on my stomach :( but not my head :)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 08, 2003

CDBaby - having fun with the brand?

Church of the Customer: Be yourself and build the buzz

COTC highlights CDbaby a company that send the most amusing fulfillment emails, certainly it seems in line with the quirkiness of their brand and from the link to the employees, the staff match too.

I have to agree that this type of thing while not appealing to everyone, appeals to me. It sounds like the type of place where people go to have fun while working and they are comitted, even passionate about their roles. Isn't that what a brand should be about? Reflect the personality of the firm and capture the imagination of its publics. Sometimes this type of positioning is obviously false but here (CDBaby) you feel its authemtic and a great place to work...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 01:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 23, 2003

Charles Handy

How to Save the World

Excellent posting and subsequent discussion on the work of Charles Handy by Dave Pollard, as always giving food for thought. I won't do it justice here so go read it yourselves.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 22, 2003

Brand Sustainability

As promised yesterday a short review of Tim Kitchin's chapter in Beyond Branding, which is called, "Brand Sustainability: Its about Life... or Death" (click on the link and you can read a taster).

Tim's essential premise is that brands hold an important role in delivering sustainability, within its broadest sense, to the world. As he points out however they aren't the complete solution:

If achieving humand harmony and common purpose is a precondition for survival, then brands are going to have a very big part to play.

He goes on to note:

Brands frame our understanding of the world. They carry information and context and purpose from one person to the next. Within organisations, as in nations, brand-affinities condition the way humans relate to one another.

So brands are symbols which convey complex meaning within and amongst societies, organisations and people. And an even more important observation or should I say 'paradigm-shift' is:

'Stakeholders manage brands, not companies'

And that any organisation will need to manage multiple relationships in order to ensure that their brand will survive. Tim begins here to draw parallels with a myriad other thinkers by using the analogy of an organism to show how companies can survive and sustain their brand:

Deep sustainability seems to rely upon five core principles: adaptability, sensitivity, fit relevance and systemic collaboration.

It is these principles that form the main thrust of Tim's arguments and really started to get you as the reader fully engaged in the ideas he sets forth (that and the gratuitous Hitch-hikers' Guide to the Galaxy reference).

The remainder of the chapter centres around how these principles and further development into drivers, enablers and protectors, can be utilised by orgnisations to manage their 'intangible assets':

By understanding all stakeholder's perceptions of the attributesin the list... an organisation would achieve a firm understandingof the strategic risks and opportunities it faces in sustaining its brand over time.

Lastly Tim's sparing use of quotes helps put the whole piece into context. My favourite being the last words:

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, things are never going to get better, they're not. (Dr Seuss, The Lorax)

Now the question remains, How do we get people, organisations caring enough to engage their stakeholders and start building sustainability in its truest sense.

Beyond Branding is published by Kogan-Page:

UK readers can order it here from the publisher at the discounted price of £20.

Alternatively you can buy it at Amazon UK or US

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 20, 2003

Humans are herd animals

The Mutual Marketing Weblog: Humans are herd animals

Humans are herd animals
"We have overlooked an important - the most important - part of what it is to be human: we are herd animals ................but we persist in holding on to our individualist-based view of humanity" So concludes Mark Earls in 'Advertising to the herd' which won the Best New Thinking Award at the 2003 Market Research Conference.

Apologies for the incestuous nature of blogging Mutual Marketing (who earlier in the day blogged me - although it was Tim and this is from Jennifer Kirby) however this is a cracking piece of research. No wonder it won an award.

Reading this has made me set myself a challenge. Try and blog only three things a day for the next 4 ish days. 1) My piece on values (see previous post) 2) a piece of broadband technology and 3) Storytelling, community or complexity in business.

Its a challenge - please try and keep me honest. Oh and if you are reading this... you are allowed to comment and it is welcome (so long as you aren't trying to spam me!).

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More Banking Cynicism?

BBC NEWS | Business | Anger as HSBC cuts 4,000 UK jobs

Unions have condemned banking group HSBC over its plans to cut 4,000 customer service jobs in the UK and move them to Asia.
The work will be transferred to China, India and Malaysia by the end of 2005, HSBC has confirmed.

The jobs will be lost from sites in Swansea, Birmingham, Sheffield and Brentwood.

Bank workers' union Unifi accused the bank of putting "profits before people", and said it would consider taking industrial action to fight the plans.

"HSBC's move will be the biggest single export of finance jobs from the UK to Asia," it added.

HSBC value their local knowledge so much that they will transfer it to other countries. Globalisation bites both ways. Rather than blue collar manual work this is solidly white collar work being transferred to Asia. HSBC is obviously from Hong Kong so it obviously makes a lot of sense to them to do this, but while it may save them money, will it cost them customers?

The quote from the Union, 'He promised a campaign with local communities affected by these redundancies, as well as consumer interest groups, and HSBC's customers.' says a lot. Whether they can mobilise such groups will be interesting to see however unions should be a mutual concern, there for communities, consumer groups and to some extent customers. Can firms such as HSBC say that? How far will this damage the brand or the firm's profits remains to be seen.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Made in China

BBC NEWS | Business | Italian style takes root in China

When Luca Ricci sold his first batch of leather sofas in 1998 he told the North American distributor they were made in Italy.

"I was scared because I didn't know if a sofa made in China was saleable," he admits, laughing at the memory.

Three months later, he felt confident enough to own up and told his startled buyer, "It's made in China - I lied."

Great article on the DeCoro firm by Mary Hennock. I thought these first few lines highlighted a number of issues about belief, transparency and trust.

"Retailers all over the world, they advertise the product as an Italian leather sofa, not as a Chinese sofa," says Mr Ricci.

Among consumers, Made-in-China spells tacky not trendy. Its reputation as a producer merely of plastic toys and cheap clothing may be out of date but seems unbudgeable.

If it were not for China's image problem, DeCoro's Chinese credentials would seem to be impeccable.

The 'brand' China does not for one minute communicate the type of message that 'DeCoro' obviously seems to and yet while the founder, Mr Ricci, obviously came to terms with the origin of his products retailers don't want to inflict the truth on its publics.

However, given DeCoro's stance on a number of issues maybe they would be better doing so:

DeCoro says it pays 2,000 yuan ($241; £144) to 2,500 yuan a month, double the average factory hand's wage. Like most factories around here, it provides dormitories and food.

If they are paying double the average it would seem that they are investing in China to mutual benefit. The suggested 40% increase if the furniture was really made in Italy shows sound business sense by investing in China and the statement that when he started his employees had bikes and now they have mobile phones and motorcycles is something not to be taken lightly.

Globalisation is here whether we like it or not and companies and individuals and countries need to accept that. Some will purely turn that to their advantage and others will work to mutal advantage. Those are the firms we should invest our purchasing power in.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 17, 2003

Buyers' remorse

Gizmodo : Buyer's remorse

Another interesting article about gadgets in yesterday's New York Times, this one about people who buy lots of new gadgets and then never end up using them:

People acquire these things -- hand-held personal digital assistants, flatbed scanners, compact disc copiers and a host of other objects -- because they promise to make life more efficient, more fun, or, some confess, simply because they appear to help them keep up with what their "wired" friends and neighbors have. But many such products are simply too complicated for their own good. And all too often, the buyers find that they cannot really change their lives just by acquiring something new and different.

Back to my recent mantra about making technology that benefits the customer - that I think is exactly the point this article is making. New technology - great stuff - we love to play with it. Innovators and early adopters often spend small fortunes on technology that quite frankly looks good, suggests fantastic functionality but doesn't deliver. Why? Because usually its designed by engineers for engineers. You might have noticed that most people aren't that technical.

The effort has to be focused around marketing and design. Products need to be developed for the customer, they have to be simple to understand and most importantly simple to use, and in Europe (although apparently not the US) they need to be aesthetically pleasing (probably should say something about an aspirational tone as well but then its getting into marketing speak).

Get a grip - invest in people who understand people, then talk to the engineers.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 16, 2003

Ethical Marketing

Showed my copy of Beyond Branding to Paul one of the 'lecturers' at FCOT who is currently teaching the CIM Market Research Module. He was impressed and intends to put this on the college's Marketing reading list for ethical marketing.

I've made a sale.

BTW, just in case you haven't yet made a purchase:

UK readers can order Beyond Branding here from the publisher at the discounted price of £20.

Alternatively you can buy it at Amazon UK or US

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Big Banks are Cynical surprise...

BBC NEWS | Business | Big banks accused of 'cynicism'

The UK's High Street banks have been accused of "bare-faced cynicism" by an influential committee of MPs.
In often heated exchanges, members of the Treasury Select Committee challenged the chief executives of Barclays, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB about how they treat credit card customers.

The focus was on the interest rates charged on credit cards.

And one member of the committee described the marketing tactics employed in attracting new card business as "a bait and a trap".

This is both a cycnical and optimist posting. Firstly the Cynical bit:

UK banks since the mid 1980's when the muzzles got taken off have been marketing credit and particularly (the very profitable to them) credit cards. This has become a very competitive market with so many providers out there, and yet the interest rates charged (as the MPs noted) are still extremely high in comparison to the Bank of England base rate. People are baited and trapped to quote the committee.

Financial Services and in particular high street banks need very seriously to consider their position. ethically, morally they appear bankrupt and seem to do little in the way of being a part of or understand their communities despite the brand image of some like HSBC attempting to show us it knows local custom worldwide or Abbey National rebranding to Abbey (and their faintly ridiculous giant lilo) or First Direct having genuine (really?) people say how wonderful their service is or Samuel L Jackson potificating on... actually what is he going on about? Anyway it comes to a parasitic relationship with you (and me) the consumer, where they extract the value and give little back in return.

So who do I bank with? Smile part of the Co-operative Bank. Are they perfect, well no but I do trust them when it comes to their committment in ethical investment and they genuinely do have better rates than the majoirty of competitors but its the 'trust' element and the willingness to engage customers that most attracts me to the brand. However even they could go further and be more open with customers. I know their credit card rate is competitive but whenever interest rates are lowered, the rate never follows.

On the optimistic side this shows a group of MPs, cross party, within a parliamentary context of a Select Committee making some extremely sound points on behalf of their constituents and the consumer as a whole. Some of it no doubt is posturing, as thats what politicans do, but they were also trying to scrutinise and that my friends is their 'real' job which they often forget. I would dearly like to see more of this scrutiny, with constructive criticism and with a bit of luck some real action taken on their findings. Making such reports compulsory to business on the floor of the House (Parliament) or forcing the Government to respond would help.

Professor the Lord Norton of Louth would be proud - some of his lecturing did sink in :)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 14, 2003

More Sustainability

reveries - marketing insights and ideas

Amazonian Dreaming. A Brazillian cosmetics company hopes to succeed where Body Shop and Ben & Jerry's faltered, by marketing products with ingredients harvested by the Amazon's forest dwellers and farmers, reports Tony Smith in The New York Times (10/8/03). The company, called Natura, is paying three local cooperatives to raise a "sweet-scented grass" (no, not that one) called priprioca, which it plans to use to make a new perfume for "environmentally conscious consumers." Natura's management team believes their endeavor "can help preserve the Amazon's rich biodiversity and its intricate ecological balance while still earning a profit for their company."

Beyond Branding has certainly made an impression on me. I keep trying to gather examples of the principles espoused. Here the company 'Naturaekos' are there to satisfy customer need and of course make aprofit BUT they are also seeking to benefit the environment in Amazonia and the people who live there while perhaps benefiting the entire world. It almst sounds too good to be true. I suspect that is becuase it is. Not in the 'they are doing something wrong', rather than it can be that simple if you take that type of view and stance on the way to do business and develop your brand.

Lots of firms should take note.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 13, 2003

Customer Evangelism in Action

Church of the Customer: All in the Email Family

Creating customer evangelists sounds like a cool thing to do, after all it is said personal recommendation (word of mouth) is always ultimately the best marketing one could get. This article about Foster's Seafood restaurant in Phoenix, in the US emails regular customers with exclusive specials which don't appear on the menu, you have to ask. What a great loyalty programme! It gives me a number of ideas for things to try, if I am ever in a position to do that sort of thing...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 09, 2003

Beyond branding - First impressions

In the introduction there is a phrase which I have also seen in the blog by Chris Macrae which articulates, people are costs (to cut) machines are investments.

From the book (Preface page xvii):

...human beings are a primary source of value creaation, yet their impact, potential and resilience is nowhere accounted for on a balance sheet

I can't get away from this point at the moment, especially as we are in the throws of a re-organisation where some of my colleagues' jobs are at risk.

I'd like to write more but think its prudent not to at this time, not until the process is complete.

Enjoying the book though. Have you bought it yet? See if you can beat the authors to it too!

UK readers can order it here from the publisher at the discounted price of £20, which is where I bought it.

Alternatively you can buy it at Amazon UK or US

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yoga and the Advertisers

BBC NEWS | Magazine | The tyranny of yoga

Megan Lane reporting within the BBC News Magazine on the tendancy for advertisers to jump on the 'spirituality' bandwagon.

"Well-being is one of the mega-trends in the High Street now," says Richard Hammond, the managing partner of the advertising agency Spirit.

"Advertisers have latched on to that and well-being is now terribly over-used. The same thing happened with fitness about a decade ago - I remember a Mars bar ad with women leaping about in an aerobics class."

Personal space

As it is easier for women to imagine themselves doing yoga than following Paula Radcliffe's lead, it is regarded as both aspirational and accessible. Research for the advertising agency, St Luke's, describes yoga thus: "It is a reliable medium through which the advertiser can communicate with the Special K demographic."

I particularly liked one of the comments:

One of the philosophies of yoga is to encourage detachment from material things. This flies in the face of using yoga to advertise consumerist goods and services. Maybe there should be a warning on the bottom of every advert, similar to a cigarette packet, reminding people that "material wealth may harm your spiritual wealth".
Robin Bose, UK

It comes back to the points being made by Beyond Branding in terms of Authenticity as a value. Those companies/agencies usng the Yoga image aren't being authentic becuae they are selling something that isn't the truth. Eating a breakfast cereal is not going to make me supple or relaxed. What's more as Robin points out it flies in the face of the eastern culture which looks at the spirit rather than the material.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Beyond Branding

The Beyond Branding book hit my floor this morning (well the postman rang the doorbell and gave it to me!)

I'm very excited at reading this especially considering I'm now studying marketing, and conversations I have had with John Moore via the Beyond Branding blog. Not to mention what I have read on the website. Expect some more posts here as I assimilate the text.

You can buy it at Amazon UK or US

Update

And as John is one of the authors and has asked nicely :)

UK readers can order it here from the publisher at the lower price of £20, which is where I bought it.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 07:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 30, 2003

Howies

Beyond Branding - Human Businesses

John Moore celebrates a 'Human brand' Howies on Beyond Branding:

This is a casual clothing business that oozes human values. It's website is funny, controversial, informative...
and

Howies has serious views about the environment, packaging and the way the world is spinning and it manages to convey these with both passion and wit. Some of their gear carry political messages, some doesn't. There's a lightness of touch to match a seriousness of purpose.

I went and had a look and these guys deserve your business. Of course they do have quite a controversial view, one which I have sympathy with, you may not. The over riding feeling though is that this company is honest about what it does and it tels it like it is. I get the feeling that if you had a problem, they would sort it out today rather than tomorrow and make me feel 'wanted' as a customer.

Only gripe is they don't seem to have my size :( - I think I'll send them a mail and see what happens.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 12:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 29, 2003

London Transport's Smart Card

BBC NEWS | Technology | Smart cards track commuters

Civil rights campaigners have expressed concerns about the new smart travelcards introduced for London commuters.

Under the new system, Transport for London will be able to track a commuter's movements and it plans to retain information on journeys made for "a number of years"

Each card has a unique ID number linked to the registered owner's name, which is recorded together with the location and time of the exchange every time the card is used.

Another interesting use for Smart cards and the worries civil rights campaigners have. While I can quite clearly see their point and have sympathy for the view, it also could have considerable advantages for those organisation running the transport system. This type of information, due to developments in technology, will now become commonplace. The question then becomes not whether the data is held, because it will be like it or not, but whether the organisation that holds it uses the information ethically.

Marketing ethics, often seen as an anathema, reside at the heart of this debate. Can you trust the organisation to make use of the data anonymously? The answer to that of course is up to a point. There have been examples of the Inland revenue (UK tax office) requesting data from supermarkets of people they suspect of having more earnings than they report. This particular card could track your movements around London by rail and in the future maybe the whole of the UK.

Should you be worried? Well the old argument goes that if you are a law abiding citizen you have nothing to hide, so why worry. Alternatively you could argue that what you do in a 'free' society is up to you as long as you don't break any laws, so why should others have access to this information?

Privacy is up to individual's and they will need to work very hard to keep it that way. Loss of privacy could be important in some respects to a wider societal view but we must be ever vigiliant to protect what few rights we still maintain in this area. Even with laws in the UK and Information Commisioners to help us.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 23, 2003

Loyalty cards & Privacy

BBC NEWS | Business | Has Nectar played its cards right?

This is an article looing at Nectar's success at signing up customers. Loyalty cards are very widespread in the UK and Nectar is the biggest of the lot. I think a lot of consumers don't really understand that the companies using these are constantly anaylsing data about you to attempt to profile who you are and your buying behaviour.

While companies don't acknowledge it, this data could be used for just about anything despite data protection, because basically you sign up to allowing your data to be used in that way.

Strangely while I have a natural aversion to invasion of my privacy in this way and do not like the idea of people knowing about what I am up to (naturally paranoid I suppose) I am quite happy to share information with a firm like Amazon, who use such data to provide a recommendation service. Perhaps it is because I explicitly know what the data is being used for (or I have that perception at least) and in giving that data I have a need fulfilled (books I might be interested in promoted to me).

Loyalty cards while giving discounts, do not give me a warm fuzzy feeling because I don't know exactly what they are using the data for and even though I would get the discount, from past experience it just isn't worth it. Perhaps if they told me what they were doing and recommended specific products I might just bite?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 12, 2003

Values - real or imaginary?

The Ourhouse Weblog: Values - ideal or real

John Moore has started his own blog via his consultancy site Ourhouse

I am very much in tune with John's approach, not to mention he keeps bloggin me on the Beyond Branding blog! Anyway:

...We both agreed that the trouble with many statements of values that companies produce is that they are so poorly connected with reality.

If that's true, then making statements of ideals simply undermines credibility and probably reduces an organisation's ability to live up to them.

Absloutely. And I quote from ntl's statement:

"ntl aims to become the UK's leading communications company [define a communications company! Perhaps we should aim to enter the postal market?] earning the loyalty and respect of our customers, associates and all stakeholders throug the way we run our business and the results we achieve"

What does it mean? Has any one tried to define this in realistic terms or even refer to it after its launch? Well you know the answer...

The above is ntl's Vision statement and there is also a Mission and a set of values. To outline John's critique above one of the statements from the Values is: "Speak up when something's not right". Great! I'll do that and of course in the right culture and context I should expect reward. In the wrong culture it looks like either passing the buck, whistle blowing or even worse criticism of the people above you in the hierarchy. It goes back to if a senior team do not live these types of statements to the extreme then how do they expect the rest of the organisation to respond?

of course an organisation doesn't need to be run this way to be successful. Autocracy or dictatorships can work very well up to a point. But if you are going to express a firm's value's in terms of an open hierarchy then this must be the approach, otherwise you are lying to yourself, you staff (associates) and worse your customers.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 05:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A Blogging Marketeer

Communications - A Blogging Marketer!

…The emergence of blogs in providing low-cost, two-way communications with clients and customers will change the nature of online marketing as we know it. There will be less talking "at" and more talking "with"; less "buy my stuff" and more "how can we better serve your needs?" Marketers will have no choice but to drop the spin and communicate honestly with their customers. Customers won't tolerate anything less…'
This is the view of Andy Bourland, one of the most knowledgeable commentators on the Internet Marketing scene. His article appeared in the Technology Marketing Newsletter.

I was amused and pleased to see this article on What's New in marketing (a site partly sponsored by the CIM. It shows a willingness to view the world through different eyes, not just the standard approaches of the past.

What's also of interest is how the author, Dick Stroud, has made use of the medium already.

I should mention that so far I have had no consultancy leads although if anyone wants to offer me an opportunity I am always willing to consider :)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 04:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 08, 2003

Fubini's Law

Column Two: Fubini's Law

From the excellent Column Two:

Fubini's Law, which goes like this:

1. People initially use technology to do what they do now - but faster.

2. Then they gradually begin to use technology to do new things.

3. The new things change life-styles and work-styles.

4. The new life-styles and work-styles change society

... and eventually change technology.

I thought this neatly summed up some of my thinking around design and markleting. The key point being that while you can develop products with certain functions or market segments in mind, people who buy the products may do something very different with them and force you to change your thinking.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 08:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 05, 2003

What Customers' want!

Fast Company | Desire: Connecting With What Customers Want

A fascinating article in Fast Company, focusing on marketing:

Melinda Davis and her Human Desire Project have developed five answers. Marketers with a desire to succeed are paying attention

We are all in overload. To get people's attention you need to differentiate, and do it well. I guess this is the same as Seth Godin's Purple Cow principle?

Where the possibility for real differentiation comes in is not in the product itself but in how you collaborate with the consumer's need to heal.

its all about peace of mind? Is it? Not totally convinced by this although I see where it comes from. I suppose for certain items this makes sense but Video games? DVDs?

As life becomes even more complicated, the consumer will choose a chooser to make choices on her behalf. By choosing a higher helper, you choose your own reality: your news, your information, your means of communication, your shopping choices.

The examples of Amazon, Virgin etc are spot on. Amazon in particular lives this for me and doesn't stop looking for ways to add value to its existing proposition.

I think to a certan extent Supermarket's in the UK like Tesco and Sainsbury's are also folowing this model as they expand from groceries to consumer electronics, Petrol, banking, ISP, insurance, breakdown services etc.

And ntl also fit into this space albeit on a lower level by offering the triple play of Telco, Digital TV and Internet.

Very thought provoking...!

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 04, 2003

Hope for Values being valued in the workplace

The Beyond Branding Blog

we can prove our work in countless cases, we demonstrate for perhaps the first time a coherent set of tools, expertise and thinking that can be used by corporations and individuals alike to truly value the relationships between real people and the system, the business and the planet.

I'm so glad the body language is changing and with our combined support we may make it permanent.

An uplifting positivity affirming post from Beyond Branding. I myself have not seen that change (but then why would I?). I only really see how life is within ntl and a few other suppliers, although that is really only fleeting and not of great depth. Values have been, and still seem to be paid lip servie without actually being taken seriously the point:

They are not smiling quite so patronisingly about values... is not happening here. We have vluaes, and visions, and objectives and someone occasionally insists we should know them and take heed but I have yet to see a leader live them. That's what I want - people to walk the walk. Lead with passion tolerance and understanding. Show people the way don't expect them to follow orders.

And guess what? Look after me and I'll walk bare foot over glass for you. Blame me for things that are ultimately your responsiblity and I'll head for the door.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 01, 2003

UR2004 and Incremental Development

BBC NEWS | Technology | Online sci-fi shooter listens to fans

This article from the Beeb, quoting the unreal 2004 developers, made me think that this is what marketing should be about and exactly how you should enhance a product after its intial development.

What is important is game makers ensure they go through a step by step process to make the game even better, he said.

That means having a good idea of what will be fun, talking about it, brainstorming it and improving on it in "evolutionary steps".

Part of this process has been to post comments on player forums and it is not uncommon to see the developers playing in a match.

"We took everything the community said was good and we made it better and everything they said was bad, we worked to make that better too or eliminated it completely," said the Epic developer.

Even better is this development:

Or you can sit back and watch the game from afar using UT2004's new feature, UnrealTV.

UTV is a software process called a spectator proxy that allows many people to connect to games in play and watch the battles. Thousands can be watching, live, with only a few seconds delay.

It is a classic example of user-generated innovation which came from the developers listening to players. It was originally a mod developed for the Unreal Tournament by two Swedish players.

As broadband gets better there will be more to come, perhaps video screens where you can simultaneously see or map peoples' faces, mused Mr Wilbur.

"Who knows? But the key, world changing innovations are going to come from some place you never expected and are going to be delivered in a manner you'd never consider, from people you thought would probably never have made it."

It also mentions that broadband is clearly a driver in the development of the games and the functionality. Something that I feel ntl should take more heed of and look to develop products specifically for gamers, like the current console service.

If we go out and listen to our customers there may even be a chance of this kind of successful collaboration between developers and players.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 30, 2003

The Real Goal of Marketing

John Porcaro: mktg@msft: The Real Goal of Marketing

John is blogging about what marketing means to him and comments upon an entry by Chris Sells:

Marketing people are customer-focused in the sense of always thinking about why customers aren't buying enough stuff, and how to get them to buy more. You're customer-focused in the sense of caring about what customers need, and helping them accomplish it, even if that doesn't result in selling anything.
"But don't take it so hard. It's not as if I said you were too honest to be a banker, or too smart to be a teacher. (God, what if girls thought you were too handsome to be sexy?)"

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Problem is, lots of folks in the profession agree with the statements above. And many of the folks I work with might even subscribe to the old "broadcast" model of marketing (throw out a message or product to enough people and a lot of it will stick).
But in focusing on understanding and meeting customer needs, marketing becomes a synergistic, simple proposition, a win-win partnership where you're exchanging value for value. A "marketplace" in the purest sense. I've seen far too much success when I was sincerely listening and meeting customer needs to ignore that doing it that way is the easiest way to make money, to sell product, to get visitors to websites, to drive demand.

If marketing is the former, count me out. That definition feels more like an underhand 'door to door' conman than an attitude for the 21st century.

As I blogged on Thursday I've recently signed up for a marketing course. I think it will be a great course and i knbow I will come across some of this thinking. I just hope it doesn't get in the way of the good stuff.

For what its worth, Chris (and John) I'm with you. Talk to the customers. Find out what they want and try and work out a way to give it to them.

Some people get this, some people don't. Unfortunately in my current organisation I would say the latter have the upper hand.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 28, 2003

Let engineer Speak unto marketing

Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations

Establish open communications between engineering and marketing to flow this information into sales literature. This open communications helps you create products that address real solutions customers desire and are willing to purchase.

Only about 10 to 25% of your engineering efforts should focus on improvements outside of specific customer demand. It's find to have R&D focused on the next great achievement, but use improvements in the current product to finance these efforts.

Clearly connect the efforts of engineers to those of sales and marketing. Focus on improvements customers will pay for and that can be produced at a reasonable cost.

Regularly bring in small groups of engineers with marketing, sales, and support people to discuss how each group can support each other. Remember, each are all on the same team. When employees know others in these other functional areas they are more likely to work together for common business objectives.

Communication is a good thing :) Cross pollination of teams is a great idea, to be encouraged. I think I shall suggest it in work and see what happens...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 27, 2003

How to pitch a hit!

Research - Pitching Ideas in Tinsel Town: Stanford GSB

The researchers found that the more passionate the person pitching the idea, the more effective he or she was. And the better the pitcher was at drawing in the person on the other side of the table, the more likely he or she would succeed.

The more you can make the catcher think he came up with or helped improve a good idea — that he, the suit, is creative — the better.

So when pitching an idea or selling, make sure you are passionate about your subject and make sure that the person being sold thinks they are involved.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 26, 2003

Markleting in 6 words

Via Interactive Theories

A Marketing Definition in Six Words

Marketing means solving customers’ problems profitably

Simple. Effective. Inspiring.

Now are there any problems I can solve? (profitably of course ;) )

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 22, 2003

Privacy of Information

Fast Company | There is No Corporate Privacy, and That's a Good Thing.

Seth Godin in Fast Company outlines the 'openness' of infomration that the web gives us,

One fascinating side effect of our networked world is that many things are now transparent. As consumers, competitors, colleagues, and citizens, we can see the inner workings of organizations (it's not that hard to figure out who does what anymore). We can see the traffic patterns in Detroit. We can monitor hidden cameras in London. And most important, we can raise our voices and comment.

He goes on to advocate this openness that business should actively engage in,

You can still keep secrets in a transparent world. The challenge is to enlarge the circles, to bring outsiders in. Let your customers and your competitors have easier access to your people and your data. Let your employees have two-way access to more processes and feedback. Every part of the business works better when the circles are enlarged.

The idea that companies can somehow hide rom the world or keep anything truely secret is gone. I know this to be true. Any project within ntl that effects customers will be within the public domain the minute it goes from a small circle in head office. Often customer services will complan that customers know of an offer, a problem or a change before they do. Is this bad management? Well, yes, but is based on old ways of working which are outdated, outmoded and should be abandoned.

You can try to forestall the inevitable, the way British Airways is doing, or you can embrace it. Go ahead: Post your org chart, your price list, your best-sellers, and your incoming complaints. Make it easy for customers and suppliers to understand who you are and what you do. Then get back to work. People are watching.

I'm with Seth. Let's tell people, share with them get their feedback, be open and push ourselves. After all 'people are watching' and quite rightly they don't care about shareholder value, the cost of a server or disputes with suppliers. They want a decent reliable service/product that does what they want. And they want to tell us about it too.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Online Research

The Latest in Research Tools & Findings

In what I would call a fairly staid article the author seeks to underline the importance of research to inform marketeers of the value of online marketing:

Knowing a site's traffic and the size of its audience both in terms of sheer numbers as well as demographic breakdowns is still important, but it has become secondary to more sophisticated research tools that demonstrate not only "how many" use a site but "who."

Okay sounds fairly common sense to me. Its why I have this site after all to get to talk to people about subjects that interest me :) And whenever I am developing a product its important to know the type of customer (or user) who will be utlising the product.

Very much along the line of getting closer to consumers as 'people' rather than only as 'interviewees,' it seems that there is a growing trend to take the personal status of the individual into account in terms of his/her profile of how innovative they are,” says Laurent Flores, CEO of CRM Metrix, referencing the much-regaled book by Edward Keller and Jonathan Berry. "Indeed, much is currently said on the so-called 'influencers' or 'opinion leaders.'"

Okay, so now we are gettng much deeper. Not just who is it but what kind of person and whether they can be labelled an influencer or opinion leader (does this sound like the Tipping Point definitions too?)

"Reach of the Internet can finally allow marketers to go beyond identifying consumers just in terms of socio-demographic profiles or buying behaviors to now qualifying people in terms of their innovativeness, their opinion leadership or their 'lead usage,'

So Marketeers now can identify a person who they will use to lead others to their product... This is beginning to feel rather manipulative and yet at the same time more effective in developing advertising and products. However what is missing in this whole article is the kind of view something like Cluetrain has where the real target is to have conversations, in a real voice.

The article itself seeks to measure effectiveness and while I believe measures are sometimes important, I never forget the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle that suggests:

"The more precisely the POSITION is determined, the less precisely the MOMENTUM is known"

That for a number of reasons mean to me that human interaction is of far more importance than a set of numbers.

Talk to people, real people get their views, see how they react. I feel that this gives you more insight than a research project that outlines 'Brand exposure duration'.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 18, 2003

Microsoft listens to the Kids

John Porcaro: mktg@msft: Listening to Kids

Listening to Kids
Blake Burris points to a great post in Newsweek called Listening to the Kids.
"ABOUT THREE YEARS ago (Microsoft) began employing anthropologists, as well as teams of young engineers and recent college graduates, to observe teens around the world in their natural habitats, from Seattle shopping malls to London schools to Seoul street corners. The goal: to see how they used technology in their daily lives, and then to turn that information into new products not just for kids but for the rest of us, too. What they found has not only influenced the development of existing products, it has also led to the creation of new software: the forthcoming threedegrees, which facilitates everything from online practical jokes to virtual sales meetings. Kids drive technology today, says Microsoft anthropologist Anne Cohen Kiel. By meeting their needs, we meet everyone's needs.

This article neatly fits into the conversation that was being had around Creativity. Thinking like kids gives you the opportunity to free your thinking and be more creative. It also fits in with the earlier post around field based research. Can anyone feel a theme developing?

Anyone know what threedegrees is? I guess John will - I'll ask him.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 15, 2003

Be Yourself - not a poor imitation of someone else!

Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations

Too many companies are worried about what the competitor are doing instead of being focused on what their customers are demanding. It doesn't matter what someone else is doing when you are doing your best.
What market share do you think you will have if you,
have the best possible solution for a specific niche of customers,
are the best company to work for, and
bring together partners to profitably do the previous two?
Focus on what you do best and if valued by the customers you support. This might mean researching every aspect of your customers desires, or spending more time identifying problems in your industry. You will want to look at competitors here, but don't try to be like them.
Seek to have the best employees, best products, best customers, and best solutions available. Start from where you are now and improve incrementally to the point you want to be. Share this growth with your customers and you will strengthen their loyalty.
Every effort should focus at the core reasons you are in business. Your competitors can never catch up if you concentrate all your efforts on being the premium service provider for a specific group of customers. What are you doing to be everything your customer desires in your market place?

Another great piece from Iunctura. Two questions it throws up for me:

1. How is ntl focusing on efforts to be the premium Broadband provider in the UK?

   By focusing on price, choice and basic service. Coupled with a drive to improve customer service and quality. You can of course disagree but that's my belief.

2. How do I focus on offering what my customers/ family/ employer/ prospective employer want?

   I guess by trying to play to my strengths. Passion, love, a deep desire to understand, a joy for discovery, a determination to do my best and to teach (in its broadest sense of providing knowledge and support to others). And perhaps most importantly stop focusing on my weaknesses becasue there are too many to list :)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 13, 2003

Matt doesn't like Symantec...

Matt.Blogs.It

Can I just say, as a soon to be former customer, to anyone from Symantec who may ever wander past here:
Your company sucks and you deserve to lose all of your customers and go out of business -- the sooner the better.
Thank you. I'm all better now.
(It appears I had a similar experience with them almost exactly a year ago -- I should have listened to myself back then)

See what happens when you take the 'build it and they will come' approach, or maybe that's the 'we are smug and arrogant'?

Listen to your customers! You're never too big to fall...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Amazon - Location or technology?

Up2Speed: Is Technology or Location the Key to Amazon's Success?

Business Week: Jeff Bezos on Amazon's Tech Edge

In this interview, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos states that "technology, technology, technology" is the key to his business, and not "location, location, location," as is said to be the case in retail. But this juxtaposition might be misleading.

Metcalfe's law (The value of a network grows as the square of the number of users) springs immediately to mind as does Linked about networks.

Personal view is that the technology coupled with the content (and I don't mean just the books etc) got them there. The marketing savvy to make use of the web (the network not the technology) keeps them several steps ahead of the rest.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Community of Practice and Trust

John Porcaro: mktg@msft: My Marketing "Community of Practice"

... I read a lot of blogs (and very few email newsletters, by the way), and I'm drawn towards things I care about as a marketer. One of them is research. I'm fascinated by anything that has to do with consumer research, and getting to know consumer behavior better. It's why I read Dina Mehta, Denise Klarquist, Rick Bruner, and some of the Jupiter Research blogs. If you know of others, let me know!

I'm getting to know these guys, and I'm coming to trust them. I was anxious to meet Denise since I was coming to San Francisco. And the more I get to know her, her company, and her work, the more I'm prone to take my business to her. In fact, I hadn't heard of Cheskin two months ago when we were selecting a firm to work with (the research we're doing now is with a competing company), but I would certainly have at least sent an RFP to Cheskin if we were choosing a firm today. (Remember, too, I hadn't heard of a blog five months ago!)

The main reason I blog is to build my own "community of practice" around marketing, management, leadership, and "fast" thinking. Blogs help me do that, and I'll send my business (or Microsoft's business) to people I know and trust (starting with members of my community).

John makes some very good points here about keeping on top of knowledge by making use of a community of practice and because of trust he wants to do the networking thing and put business their way.

Trust is so important in any relationship, and especially given the kind of world we are living in perhaps never more so.

And if no one else says it, I think the same could be said of John - I know I trust him because of what I read and know of him, despite never having met.

I can't offer him any business but I can offer him a cup of tea.

Oh, and I love the new typepad blog - have I said that already?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 12, 2003

AOL wants its name back.

BBC NEWS | Business | AOL pleads for name change

America Online is asking its parent, AOL Time Warner, to ditch the AOL part of its name.
The internet portal and e-mail service claims that the association with its parent firm is creating a negative image amongst its customers.
In a memo to staff, America Online chief executive Jonathan Miller told his staff that AOL had become shorthand for the media giant and that the association had been damaging.

The antics of the parent embaresses the child. Its familiar stuff. Only in this case of course its rather a marriage of unequals.

Its funny that while AOL itself has actually been listening to customers and attempting to deliver on promises and new ideas (witness AOL Journals), Time Wrner is constantly seen as the consumer's nightmare of big business picking on the little guy.

Does this mean a divorce? I doubt it. Like all mergers it semed a good idea at the time but no one really gave thought as to what ths would mean in the future. Until AOL can leverage Time Warner in a positive light, then its a case of parent being allowed to sit and watch, as long as they don't tell anyone they're related.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 08:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 07, 2003

Beating the Brand

Postcards from the Bleeding Edge

Pathologically...

I paste Post-Its over every brand name in sight in MY kitchen - killing off Kenmore, masking Miletta Mill & Grill. I even cover up the clock... I shoved every visible food and supply down into places where I couldn't see them, then sat back in my kitchen chair and relaxed somewhat. I could look around my kitchen, and have a thought-train almost complete - it was... it was... there was still something else wrong - maybe it was the colors, or the clashing styles... the different colored post-its, the shelf made of not quite the right wood...
The phone rings... and rings... and rings. You don't pick it up because the last three times you did, it was somebody trying to sell you a subscription for something.

Mike Taht kindly posted a comment on a earlier article. He pointed me at his 'rant' (?), 'Beating the Brand'.

I feel after reading it I need to post a profound comment; I can feel Mike's pain from the writing, and I guess that is the essence of a good writer.

The story itself does make you question the reality that we live in, with brands plastered everywhere. I remember walking around Cadbury's World in Birmingham, seeing the old packaging that had Chocolate on it (and perhaps somewhere a mention of Cadbury Bros.) I cannot turn anywhere in work without seeing a brand for something and what does it add?

Its not aname or even a logo that I find offensive. Its the arrogance that assumes, if we shout long enough, we've done our job. Wouldn't it be better to give people something useful, listen to their comments and improve?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 12:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 05, 2003

Steal this brand!

Steal This Brand

Remember, a brand is not about messaging. It's about a set of gaps. A belief gap, trust gap, commitment gap. If the renaming or relogo-ing is simply going to increase those gaps, it might be wise to try some 'beyond branding' first - actually listen, actually engage, actually change.

Once your relationship has evolved, you may both both get a sense that the old brand-title doesn't quite fit. Then and only then should you change.

Oh yes! I remember the ebranding exercise undertaken by ntl. Completely pointless, and damn expensive. Our current MD, Ibelieve has more sense and genuinely wants to improve. Tomorrow, I (and a few hundred others) get the pep talk. Watch the space above.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 01:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 28, 2003

Art on Demand

BBC NEWS | England | London | Art on demand at National Gallery

Art on demand at National Gallery

The National Gallery has been storing images of its collection
Copies of more than 900 works of art at the National Gallery are being made available at the flick of a switch as new technology is unveiled.
Masterpieces on display at the gallery have been captured on advanced digital cameras.
The images have stored on computer so that visitors can obtain a copy almost instantly.
Until now visitors were only able to get a small proportion of the gallery's treasures on traditional printed copies.
The gallery said it has taken two years to capture all 2,300 works of art.
The "print on demand" technology will allow visitors to browse through and print in reproduction quality A3, A4 and A5 size prints.

Great idea. I'm not a huge lover of art for the sake of itself, but I do enjoy seeing the mastery of the great artists as exhibited at places like the National Gallery. I think its a shame that one can only get hold of this by visiting.

Obviously a trip to the capital is in order.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Behavioural Economics

Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations

Individual behavior can influence your economy
Dubner, Stephen J. Calculating The Irrational In Economics. (New York Times, Arts & Ideas/Cultural Desk, 28 June 2003)
Behavioral economics -- which blends psychology, economics and, increasingly, neuroscience to argue that emotion plays a huge role in how people make economic decisions. [News in Brain and Behavioural Sciences, Issue 101]
Other resources on this topic include: The Society for the Advancement of Behaviorial Economics (includes a list of relevant journals), Russell Sage Foundation Summer Institute on Behavioral Economics (includes agenda of last program and participant list), and should I miss anything MIT presents a Behavioral Economics Bibliography.
Relationships strengthen emotions and establish expectations for individuals. I've pulled heavily from some of the surface discussions in this community. It is key to remember that people are not cogs in a bigger business machine, they are people and will always be people.
When the individuals working for you, or with you, or even served by your product feel you have grouped, categorized, or labeled them, and they will discount your value to them. While these customer segmentation strategies help you select more profitable customers, they should be conducted in a manner that increases the feeling of individualindividualism.

Behavioral sciences can help you understand people in such a way to help you reach them more effectively. The way they respond to what you have to offer will significantly influence your companies economy (flow of goods and services.) Take emotional states into consideration in your marketing communications, customer interactions, and how you treat your employees-- these strategies powerfully build your bottomline.

Fascinating stuff - need to spend time reading this. Really interesting and very valid point above about treating people as individuals.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 24, 2003

More spending online

BBC NEWS | Business | Net sales gather pace

Net newbies and old hands differ in their attitudes, demographics and product interest," said Ms Jennings.
"To get the attention - and cash - of both groups, online retailers' sites must offer a variety of product routes to the same target, with both simplicity and more sophisticated functionality," she said.

A Forrester report, which suggests more and more people in the UK are buying online. It also goes onto suggest that different techniques ae needed to encourage newer Internet users to participate. The key point for me here (so that it get drummed into my thick skull) is that the newer users (one would assume more mainstream people) have different tastes to online veterans.

Companies need to target this new segment (and I use that term loosely) in a different manner and get rid of any jargon.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 07:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 23, 2003

Moments of Truth and Engendering Trust

Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations

I've edited down this post from Iunctura, which is a delightful piece:

Kristine Kirby Webster's article on the mutual relationship necessary to build trust with your customer base is a great read. Here is the article in abstract with commentary.
Key points to remember:
Trust is a product of a positive association with your company, that not only will your products do what you say they will, but what the customer expects them to do. Inherently customers don't trust companies that sell, the majority of their experiences are negative.
Successful brands engenger strong two-way communications in relationship development. This communications includes information sharing, and listening for customer concerns. I'll add that positive communications contribute more to the relationship than negative ones.

Every buying relationship is a long-term investment.

Relationships are built over time one interaction at a time

ntl so need to understand this stuff it hurts. I remember some considerable time ago producing a dcoument in conjunction with my then boss, called the Moments of Truth. There were so many key points when ntl interatced with the customer and so many possibilities for error, that we spent a considerable period of time streamlining processes. This in itself led him to appoint me to build the intranet interface and content to support customer services. The year in which that launched Cabletel (as ntl then was) won JD Power's award for best Customer Service in the Telcos in the UK. (I won't claim all the credit - I had a good team working for me - but I know it made a considerable difference).

Yesterday I saw a memo praising our work in improving our call centre metrics. This primarily consisted on driving down call waiting times, etc. What I wanted desparately to see was some index, some measurement of customer satisfaction. It was nowhere to be seen. How then, despite a lot of people's hard work do we know we have been successful? Because our MD says so? I have a lot of respect for him but he is a numbers man. I think some of the softer issues get missed.

Somehow I wanted to link this in with ntl being suddenly more risk adverse. Perhaps its something to do with retrenchment that we are still more inwardly looking, when we should be looking outward to solve some problems. After all, that's what I'm trying to do here find answers from elsewhere...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 22, 2003

Micro Content thoughts

Joi Ito's Web: Thoughts on micro-content, metadata and trends

Thought provoking article by Joi which illustrates a lot of key points about the technology trends within the blogging community right now.

Perhaps even more interesting are the comments on this posting from people such as Marc Canter.

Those building blocks imply innovation, but in fact - the marketplace doesn't pay for innovation and those key technologies is a part of a unified, digital lifestyle kind of product - that no one company or product can deliver. Only Apple and Microsoft can fund, develop and deliver products with that scope. And each of the key technologies Joi mentions can't stand alone as viable models

Does it always take the organisation the size of Microsoft to succeed? I don't think it does but then I'm speaking from observation not experience like Marc.

Probably the most important thing about ALL of what Joi says is that digital identity has to have CONTEXT? Who's gonna pay for JUST their Digital Identity?

Indeed. One of the factors I often get accused of (and rightly so) is that just because the technology is cool doesn't mean people are going to want to use it, or that there is a viable way to make money out of it. I am very interested in trying to understand more about this stuff, partly cos that who I am (an identity and a context), partly because of what I do (another identitiy and context) and partly because I think its an opportunity to make an extremely exciting product(s) that can make people (maybe me) money (another context and identity).

The technologies are the building block; who can come up with the product (note not tool or even idea) that will make this a must have in mainstream markets worldwide?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 02:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

GPS and the Web

When Will We See Geeplogs? from "The Merging of GPS and the Web"

Cagle also talks about a new language to be submitted to the W3C, the GPSml markup language, which would be used to describe, routes between two locations. For more information about GPSml, you can visit this Chaeron Corporation webpage.
One means to encode routes is the GPSml markup language, to be submitted as a note to the W3C later this year. In this XML-based system, a GPSml document consists of one or more collections of three principal types: a waypoint, a route (a named collection of waypoints), or a track (which combines locations with a time coordinate).
One component of this waypoint would be an identifier which could be associated with a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).
With such a URI, you could effectively assign to that location an application that will run when the location is referenced in some manner (you get within five feet of that node, for instance). This application could be a Web service, retrieving contextual information about the location.
Of course, this kind of information and services could potentially be used by marketers.
Even without knowing anything about you, a marketer could read the identifier being transmitted to Web services giving GPS information for the device and develop a profile showing [your shopping habits.]
Finally, Cagle thinks that we'll soon see geeplogs (short for GPS-logs) through the use of the RSS specification."

[These geeplogs will contain] public GPS contexts that can be queried about a given area. [They] will be the GPS equivalents to blogs, in which a person could narrate a specific tour with his or her relevant commentary, possibly with photographs or video feeds.

This sounds really cool. Being able to provide information tailored to a location or provide information on a route via mark up language.

From a marketing perspective it gives all sorts of possibilities to offer goods and services relevant to that space and person within that space. If you tie this into other web services perhaps you could suggest nearby stores which sell woolly hats when its snowing?

My personal desire for this idea is to be able to provide more detailled information about a locality especially its history (and to a lesser extent tourist type info). It would make some experiences much richer for me. (Not all - real life doesn't always need augmenting!) It could also provide interesting service when you are travelling too.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 02:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 21, 2003

User Experience

Via Ken Schafer's Blog

Good Experience - Top Sites' User Experience Teams and Their Challenge

Clearly, managing the integrated customer experience isn't something that one user experience practitioner can take on. Customer experience is a strategic issue. Managing it has to be a company-wide effort

Great little article this. While it is about websites, i think it can equally be applied across the gamut of customer experience. CRM is a big industry buzz word that in a technology sense seems to be dying a death because of serious lack of ROI. Why? Good question! I guess, and will no doubt be told by the great and the good that it wasn't evaluated enough, that the change wasn't handled very well, blah, blah blah!

Its a people thing. 'DNA it into the orgnisation' as the article puts it. People are the core of any organisation. Customer expereince begins and ends with them, if they don't belive in helping people to have a good experience of the product or service then forget it.

I've found out that people within the organisation I work in are generally very keen to assist customers despite barriers that get put in their way, like policies that insist on them making their call quota for the day or idiots like me who deliver sub-standard products.

That's what we sometimes forget, even if we are trying to deliver good products its that full lifetime expereince with the company that is the key

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 18, 2003

Purple Polar Bear

Seth's Blog

Seth's Purple Cow book is sitting in my to read pile and by all accounts its worth getting to soon.

However this example of the 'purple' phenomena is wonderful!

N.B. The original picture an story can be found here.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:16 PM | Comments (30) | TrackBack

FOAF

Via Marc's Voice (again today!)

Example FOAF website
It links to the specs, the tools, the foaflog, pulls together articles posted on disparate weblogs all to make one big excellent FOAF resource. The design is slightly too garish and the text line-spacing slightly too tight for me, but I can live with this. A few contributed “beginners” articles and this would be excellent. [geek commodity]

This does look like a good site (FOAF example site). I have to admit to using Marc's examples and links to put up a FOAF file. Although I've yet to add any Friends. (I think I'll add Marc later as he's blogged me blogging him).

With any new technology its important to play around with it at a hard techie level, but even more important to start taking it to the masses and explaining to them how this stuff is going to work - and then commoditising it for them so they don't have to know. Education is perhaps the first step in a good marketing campaign?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 01:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Amazon to offer Payment Service

Up2Speed: Amazon to Start Payment System

Amazon is going to let you use their payment system on your site to handle payment for other goods besides the one they sell. The news had leaked from a recent Amazon conference for developers, but I hadn't seen an official mention in writing yet. In the just-received Amazon Web Services Newsletter #2, one can read:
"We are almost ready to kick off the beta for our payment system. The payment system will allow visitors to your site to use their Amazon account to pay you for any product or service. You can also offer subscriptions and controlled access to content. You will be able to verify the status of any transaction to make sure that the user has not rescinded it. We will provide you with a base-level API and you can construct your business logic on top."
This is going to be in direct competition with Ebay's Paypal Developer Network.

I was going to get an Amazon key to make use of the API (at a very basic level). I don't think I'll have a need for this payment syetem at least in the short term but its a really clever step by Amazon. A good way of tying customers in further, a new revenue stream and a wider collective of Amazon users...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Whaddya Call 14,000 Softees in a SuperDome?

John Porcaro's Weblog (Note the Permalink doesn't seem to work!)

There are days I think we're not moving far enough fast enough. There are times I'm bummed out about reviews, or projects running late, or high expectations, or lack of overwhelming cross-group collaboration.

But there are days like today when I see the impact I have with the job I'm doing, and I see the passion of my leaders, the vision of the part we can play in changing our world, and the camaraderie of 14,000 of my peers (most of whom I'll never meet), all excited about doing the best they can.

And to be very clear, the message was overwhelming. We must hear the voice of the customer. Then innovate with our own responsibilities. Yes, the product guys need to innovate, but innovation in our jobs as marketing or sales is just as important as the job our developers play. And Steve made it very, very, very clear that he wants happy, happy, happy customers and partners.

The tides are changing. Maybe too slowly for some. And maybe too quickly for others. But they're changing. And I'm happy to be playing a role in it all.

Ahh! John's back! And now he's even more motivated. Do you get the feeling he'd sell the products door to door if he could? Now, that's not a bad way of meeting customers, making them happy and getting feedback. (perhaps not too cost effective however :) )

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 16, 2003

Don't give anything away!

Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations

Stop giving away the store, profitable customers need your attention
Venice: A City Of Commerce. In Venice, they don't even give you a free taste of gelato (ice cream). You pay your money and takes your chances. How much free information do you give away? How much time do you spend educating customers who don't buy from you? [SucceedingInBusiness.com]
I used to wrestle with this every day, I sell solutions and my personal expertise. I'm finding there is a balance between what I can give prospective customers, and what they will have to buy. After all, how will new customers learn about my business if I don't share some of what I know.
How has giving free reports, doing special studies, and other freebies helped my business? The answer will surprise you...
Giving away my expertise does very little to build my business. It costs money to make money, and no business can grow by giving away what it sells. I've learned that if I give you something, I'd better make sure you're worth receiving it.
Can you afford to educate your competitors customers? That's exactly what you do when you don't get anything in exchange for pre-sales technical support, free training events, or lengthy technical reports.
Is it profitable to give away resources that could serve the needs of paying customers? Of course not, if someone is willing to pay for what you offer, then giving something away is like burning money you don't have. Who is more important, a customer or someone who hasn't committed to your company.

I guess, yet again, that it depends on the context. In a consumer facing environment you definitely don't want to give something away for free, at least not without getting that return guaranteed. Negotiation skills are about ensuring that you don't give anything away without receiving something in return and so is selling. The difficulty is when you pitch for a sale in a competitive environment where the buyer has more power. How do you not put in a lot of effort in order to win busines?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:31 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Job Descriptions best written by Marketing?

Iunctura Daily -- Center for Strategic Relations

Writing job descriptions is a marketing function
Writing Realistic Job Descriptions. Give people half a chance and they will pre-qualify themselves for a job. No one wants to take the time to send resumes and cover letters and never get a response.

I can see the point here. Make job adverts clear concise and try and elicit the response you want. Not always sure that its a marketing function however it is a marketing skill - understanding the requirement, detailling capabilities, clear communication, sell the company.

[Hiring Technical People]
Use strategies for prequalifying customers to hone in on the most qualified job seekers available. Doing this will reduce the number of poorly matched resumes you recieve, and give prospective employees a better idea of what you desire.
In Strong employee relationships start when they are jobseekers I talked about the importance of following up with every jobseeker to demonstrate your care about their interest in your organization. However, this isn't always possible. Companies are flooded with resumes in todays challenging job market and recent layoffs don't help volume any.
Part of building strong relationships is to design communications systems around interactions that enhance the other individuals experience. If you receive fewer resumes, you have more time to follow up with those most likely to benefit your company. By helping jobseekers rule themselves out, you'll get only the most qualified (or those who think they are the best match.)
This is why writing a job listing and description is a marketing function. Every word of the listing must help the reader know if they are right for the criteria desired for the position.

Do marketeers have a monopoly on good communication skills? Is communication solely a marketing function?

Slightly away from the point but I have to translate my 'marketing' colleagues views into requirements that will deliver a quality product. This is not always easy, as they are not always good at communicating in certain contexts. There are of course exceptions however...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Dell sponsors R&D in Solar cars!

The Register tells about Dell's involvement with a great cause to help develop birght children in the US.

...which focuses on "realizing the potential of bright children who learn differently through individualized learning."

"The Dell-Winston Solar Car Challenge is an example of how companies can do their part to provide students with 21st century skills that are now required in the 21st century workforce," said John Bailey, director of technology, U.S. Department of Education, in a statement.

It then goes onto criticise Dell for its own lack of R&D. While I am not always a great fan of American sentimentality, I also think the cynical English attitude is over done.

Well done to Dell. When I go to upgrade PC, they are top of the list.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 11, 2003

Instructive vs. Natural Frameworks

Diary of a Superfluous Man

As we were analyzing and interpreting the results of these tests I noticed a curious trend. From the Affinity exercise, it became clear that providing the categories offered guidance and context, enabling multiple participants (across different job types) to consistently match the cards to the appropriate categories. As an instructive framework, this model influences the participants’ decision-making process by educating them about where the object-groups might be appropriately sorted. Unfortunately, the resulting organization reflects this influence and might not reveal how the users would actually group items.

When we analyzed the results of the Card Sort an entirely different set of relationships was discovered. In the absence of instructive cues, participants organized information without influence, creating groupings that were more reflective of their own individual mental models rather than accepted domain knowledge. The result can be called a natural organizational model.

Earlier in the week I noticed that this was coming and I am not disappointed. I'm not surprised that context is important however its important to note this observed in the real world. I am certain I behave differently in different contexts, and I'm sure I would categorise in alternate ways too. I will eagerly keep an eye out for the additions to these thoughts and wonder whether this can be extrapolated to other contexts :)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 01:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Online Profitability

A six-point plan for online profitability

An excellent article on how to make money online through content - don't think i will be doing so anytime soon but it is worth thinking about. After all Paidcontent shows it can be done!

1 Understand your audience

2 Develop online content

3 Use free content to attract payment

4 Intelligent advertising

5 Market and develop your brand

6 Make the most of online tools

1 Understand your audience

The internet provides a wealth of tools to help you understand more about your audience - use them. Profiles can be built from registration details and a viewer's online history, and incentives such as prizes or fun questionnaires can encourage readers to submit information.

Organisations like Nielsen/NetRatings provide detailed information on user groups. The average time spent online by 18 to 24 year-olds in the UK, for example, is 39.01 hours for men and 6.15 hours for women. Understanding your readership is key to developing appropriate content - and advertising.

2 Develop online content

But be aware of the economics - do you really need a completely separate online team? If you already have a team working on a print version, utilise their specialist areas to produce online columns, for example.

Both quality - unique, compelling and engaging content - and quantity - a diverse range of material to satisfy as many niche interests as possible - are key to a successful site.

Give your readers a greater role. Salon.com offers readers their own blog, and the BBC invites readers to submit photographs.

3 Use free content to attract payment

"Free content is the river on which paid subscriptions arrive," according to Vin Crosbie, managing partner of Digital Deliverance. Take details of readers when they sign up for free and you will be able to provide a better, tailored service when they begin to pay.

The premium provider - the recognised brand leader - can always charge more for content.

When the subscriptions arrive, use automatic payment renewal systems to cut the drop-out rate.

4 Intelligent advertising

Move adverts around a page so that readers do not get used to seeing them in one place and screen them out. Develop tailored advertising so that the right viewer sees the right advert.

Do not use adverts that automatically pop-up when you load a page; they are intrusive. Instead, try using text-sells on the page that open an advert in a new window - that way you can even use traditional graphic adverts similar to those that appear in your print edition.

5 Market and develop your brand

Think how another publisher might plan a competing site. What are you doing? What are you not doing?

Promote your web site address across different media. Encourage print readers to follow through to your web site by including three web teasers on the front page of the print edition.

Existing brand leaders have been the most successful in charging for content - so aim to be the future brand leader online.

6 Make the most of online tools

Use technology to ease the experience of your readers. Concentrate on navigability, and develop pages in a format to read as well as a format to print.

Take advantage of multimedia reporting and publishing tools: digital cameras, video, SMS, mailing lists, audio and web writing formats such as blogs.

Keep up to date with software and new tools. RSS - or Rich Site Summary - will be the next step in the format of the web and many sites, including the BBC, are already using it.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 01:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 10, 2003

What Customers Want

Iunctura Daily

What Customers Want (Abstract)
Selden, Larry and Geoffrey Colvin. What Customers Want (FORTUNE, 23 June 2003), Ideas + Innovations.

Step 1: Figure out the needs of your most profitable customers

Step 2: Get creative

Step 3: Test and verify your hypotheses

Step 4: Tell customers how great your value propositions are

Step 5: Apply the best value propositions on a large scale

Step 6: Begin anew

... it is more important to have experts who understand and study each market segement.

Segmentation would seem to be a good way of approaching the broadband business. Tiers of service being a key example. However, could we be more effective if we segmented in a different way, re-package products for those segments and then applied targetted advertising / communication?

Or would it be better to approach this like a supermarket and offer a number of different propositions from which all customers could choose?

Guess we would need to conduct in depth analysis of the market and our customers...

(BTW full article is in extended entry)

Step 1: Figure out the needs of your most profitable customers

Look across the demographics of your customer base, Are there any customers who regularly spend more, or cost less to serve. Focus on marketing these customers.
Discover the needs of those more profitable customers. Is there anything in particular that makes their buying experience more enjoyable. Do they have special needs that make them more profitable?

Step 2: Get creative

Develop a few hypotheses to test in your marketing and service methods. Look at how you can make it easier for profitable customers to get what they desire out of your service.
What new products could you create to enhance the value of existing services? How can you test market these items, and what is the desired results? Test each of your hypotheses about profitable customers.

Step 3: Test and verify your hypotheses

Find out what is working and what isn't by executing your tests and comparing the results against baseline measures. Do you actions increase customer profitability? Are customers more satisfied with your company?
When you have specific hypotheses you can more easily test them. Use real numbers and always measure a baseline before any implementation efforts.
Step 4: Tell customers how great your value propositions are

Make sure others who haven't tried your product or service know exactly what you're doing to improve their experience. Get the word out, it's not enough to create the best customers experience if noone is enjoying it.
Show what you are providing is synonymous with your company identity. Train your people how to execute the actions that tested well to improve customer profitability.
Step 5: Apply the best value propositions on a large scale

Make the actions that increase value part of your business process. Create means of segementing customers according to the hypotheses and improvements in that segements experience.
Collect customer data that enhances your ability to create more customers who are profitable from those who haven't yet used your service. Make this part of your business process, make people responsible for real results.
Step 6: Begin anew

Over time your profile of a profitable customers will change, it is important to continually gather data about the needs of your customers so your products can adjust to that change.
Follow the process of gathering data, analyzing it, forming hypotheses, testing them, and scaling the winners. Spend some time taking action, then periodically enhance the knowledge you have about the whole cycle.
The original article mentions "customer-segement chiefs", while the concept makes sense, it is more important to have experts who understand and study each market segement. They don't necessarily have to be the same people in charge of producing results with that segement.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 09, 2003

Context is King

Diary of a Superfluous Man

Thinking Contextually
I've recently returned from a long two-week journey to customer (user) sites across the country to listen and learn. One thing was made very clear to me during my observations and subsequent thinking: context is king.
I have been jotting down my thoughts and creating some diagrams on the infinitely complex hierarchical world of overlapping and interwoven contexts that we all carry with us and how this jumbled mess of personal contexts relates to designing for experiences.
The result of all of this I am hoping will be a larger and better-formulated entry (essay) I hope to have written before the end of the week. Stay tuned...

Interesting. I look forward to reading...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Marketing for Geeks

Okay - I really must stop blogging John so much but his posts generally spark my interest:

Eric.Weblog() - Marketing is not a Post-Processing Step

Excellent article from Eric Sink on positioning a product. It got me thinking, "How do we position our products?", " Do we even have a position?"

In the article Eric's final section is:

Bottom Line

Marketing is not just telling the world about your product. Marketing is also deciding what product to build. You have to design and build your product to fit the market position you want it to have.

We certainly build products (although my manager believes we mostly just enhance these days) but I'm never sure how we position the product or even how we position the company. In the Internet space we are certainly number one in terms of broadband (and midband) access, and we are cheap (though no the cheapest) but we are goegraphically confined. We do offer limited bundles with telco and digital TV but not true bundles. We certainly don't have a brand for quality or innovation (even though we were the first to offer Broadband to consumers in the UK).

I think I should ask my colleagues and report back.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 08, 2003

MS gets incentivised

I'm feeling a theme for today's blogs...

John Porcaro's Weblog

Putting Our Money where the, uh, Money is...

For those of you that think this whole "customer connection" thing is a flash in the pan, check out this quote from today's press release about upcoming executive compensation:

"As part of the changes, the company announced that a significant portion of stock-based compensation for more than 600 of Microsoft's senior leaders will depend on growth in the number and satisfaction of Microsoft customers."

John gets to be incentivised for doing what he wants to do. Bliss.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 10:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Keep it simple stupid!

BBC NEWS | Technology | Hi-tech babble baffles many

"The technology industry must simplify its vocabulary so that consumers around the world can better understand the benefits technology can bring to their lives," said Patrick Moorhead, chairman of AMD's Global Consumer Advisory Board, which commissioned the study.

I'm not sure we needed a survey to tell us this. Consumers generally do not understand Broadband terms like 512k or 1Mb and I have heard that a number go for the former because its bigger number than the latter. We have started getting the correct message across but its not easy given that the numbers are currently the product names.

It showed that many people are delaying buying products such as digital cameras because it is all seen as too complex and difficult to understand.

Instead nearly two-third said they "wish to have things work and not spend time setting up."

Yep, absolutely! Give me something that works straight out of the box. I want an consumer electronics not techie stuff. I guess this is why I think that Sony will win out over Microsoft in the battle for the Home network hub (oops - just used jargon) - understanding the consumer mentality over that of the techie.

However - I am really happy with my digital camera and I managed to install Moveable Type without any assistance maybe I'm half techie? Anyway it brings me back to the heading of the post. We need to keep it simple; explain what it does not how fast it goes. Make it work out of the box not make it ultr-configurable. The mass market doesn't care about Mhz just will it play this year's best selling game.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 07, 2003

Beanz Meanz Changez?

ic Wales - Heinz meanz to can beanz slogan

Now food giant Heinz is planning to can the
slogan after more than 30 years, fearing that it is no longer relevant to the modern British family.
But rather than making the decision behind closed doors and with carefully selected focus groups, the company is running a contest in coming weeks in which people can decide whether they want to
"Save Our Slogan" or "Vote For Change".
The company will be re-running some of its classic beans TV commercials from next week.
Victoria Gregory, senior brand manager at Heinz, said, "There's no doubt Beanz Meanz Heinz is one of the best loved and most widely known advertising slogans of all time.
"But we're looking at creating a new campaign and we have to decide whether to stick with the slogan or come up with something new."

I just watched this on TV. Wow - and I thought the Orange campaign was good. Personally I can't see any reason to change but to give it over to the public is a great way to involve the public and capture their imagination. I wonder how successful it will be?

Posted by Paul Goodison at 08:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Orange Phone Trainers

I am currently loving the Orange Mobile Phone trainer Adverts on TV and Radio. My particular favourite shows the 'presenter' (a 13-15 year old bou in a suit) training the phone trainers in a lecture theatre. He asks a guy down the front and asks him to say what the competition do:

"Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell"
"And what to we do?"
"Train"
"That's right, well done!" (sic)

Brilliant! Orange's strategy to employ staff to 'help' people get more out of their phone is inspired. i wish its something we could do. Broadband like mobiles have a lot of intangible benefits that can only be seen by showing not telling.

Hats off to Orange.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:44 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 04, 2003

Microsoft and Cluetrain collide?

John Porcaro's Weblog

there actually is a lot to know about PR, and to be fair, it is a lot of work, but it's about communication--not simply publishing a press release. It's about knowing customers, creating some buzz, being passionate and playful and open and fun. Inspiring instead of cajoling. Leading instead of demanding. Being part of the conversation instead of broadcasting a one-size-fits-all marketing message.

Couldn't agree more (see previous post / rant).

If it weren't for folks like Frank and James and Diane being at Microsoft, I'd be getting out myself. We're all going to make a difference because we're going to listen more carefully to customer like Paulo. And at the end of it all, we'll actually make products that fulfill our mission of helping folks like Paulo reach his potential. It really is why most of us work at MS

Good luck Jon - make that difference at Microsoft - make us laugh, make us interested, make us reach our potential (if software can ever do that?) and get someone to eat a bit more humble pie. Oh and Happy 4th July... I'm off to drink some tea.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 09:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Public Transport / Home Working?

BBC NEWS | England | North Yorkshire | Rail back in the Dales

Regular train services are returning to Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales for the first time in almost half a century.

I don't normally blog about this type of thing but railways happen to be a passion, as my father worked on them when I was young. He also happens to come from East Yorkshire so that's my excuse :)

I am really pleased for the Wensleydale Railway to get it up and running. The more we can encourage public transport the better. I am a hypocrite because I use my car but at least I admit it. I would love to use railways but it just isn't convenient to do so. If I had a metro style service then I would certainly be more inclined. Ideally, I suppose, I would work at home however I need to see people face to face, and video conferencing (despite it being relatively easy) isn't an option for ntl. Its a shame really.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 11:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 03, 2003

Amazon Blogs

Amazon.com Tech Jobs: Ted's Blog

Cool! Wish I could have the freedom Ted has to blog. Unfortunately I'm not allowed. However I'd like to tell people exactly what we are up to...

Posted by Paul Goodison at 08:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 02, 2003

Let's talk Mr Customer...

John Porcaro's Weblog

Dave, When You're Right, You're Right...

Dave Weinberger says, in an article in the Star Tribune:

"If companies allow their employees to blog, [they] have the opportunity of engaging their customer in the sort of genuine conversations that build real customer loyalty," Weinberger said. "There is a risk that a weblogger will criticize a product, but in the post-marketing world of the Internet, being frank even when negative can build a stronger relationship than when they are mindlessly positive."

It's not why I blog, but it's nice to get to know so many of you (Dina, Ton, Charlie, Paul, Bernie, Denise, Thomas, Rob, and a host of others into marketing). I'm learning so much from you all.

And its nice to get to know you too!

As I commented on Jon's post, there is this difference of belief between the old world and the new. The first is still about control and we the company know what you want and are going to sell it to you and no only PR talk to customers. Against, we need to talk with our customers, create trust (there's that word again) and where possible tell them the truth. Is it better to say, 'we got it wrong, sorry! what can we do to make it better?' than 'due to unforseen circumstances your service is broken. We are fixing it.'?

Two books that get me to this point, the wonderful Cluetrain Manifesto on how to do business and communicate with customers (even if it is a bit of a sermon) and The Web of Life. which outlines in everyday language ideas of complexity. (Also my ex-colleague Stuart Smith who opened my mind to this new science thing and its applications to business).

So as the title says if you want to talk - post a comment, start a discussion. I'm willing to listen.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 02:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

RIP Connie

AOL's Connie given the push

RIP

Posted by Paul Goodison at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 01, 2003

The Spam Summit & Education

iWire: Spam Summit

James Crabtree blogs the Spam summit:

The problem is made worse because those who are most likely to be worried by this (those who don't understand why it happens, and are not technically able) are also the least likely to be able to take practical steps (filtering, spam blockers) to fix it. So, given that self-regulation doesn't work, and that filtering technology fights a cat and mouse game with persistent spammers, the issue of citizen and consumer education seems paramount. But, and this is the problem, i have no idea how one might go about up-skilling the average parent to cope better.

My colleagues and I had some great ideas about how to upskill people in this, varying from detailed information in a welcome pack, to walk thru education sites to face to face training programmes. I don't know if any of these would work or whether a company would be prepared to do the latter as its extremely costly. Unfortunately we were not allowed to proceed to do the work, but its still on my secret squirrel list of things I would like to do.

Like Tony said, "Education, Education, Education" and just like him it didn't go a lot further. (A little bit political there) ;)

Posted by Paul Goodison at 02:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 28, 2003

How to treat your Employees and your customers!

Read this today at John Porcaro's Weblog and it prompted some thinking.

The Secret is You
Diane is a co-worker who joined us several months ago from Nordstrom. She recently gave a speech to one of our OEM partners, giving away the Nordstrom's secret. I spoke with her today about the unbelievable reaction she got from the team she presented to. And after reading the post (June 24 2003), I think I understand why.

"I told them to stop wasting associates' time with talking about how great they as a company are and instead, spend a little bit of time knowing the associate's name and getting excited about how great *they* are. To make the moment about them...not about you. Because in the end, its the associate who is in front of the customer - not a big vendor flag. No one really cares about you - they don't care about Microsoft - and they shouldn't. They should care about why the products work in a person's life and how they work in a customer's life.

Period.

There are other great stories on Diane's blog too!

It made me consider a number of things about my behaviour and about how people behave within ntl.

One region regularly communicates stories like those on Diane's site of Associates going out of their way to own and solve customer problems. When I get chance maybe I will post one. Yet within the mythos of the company are all the bad and down right disgusting behaviours of other associates.

In a similar vein there are a number of managers who understand Diane's point about how to treat associates and realise it should be about them. However until relatively recently they were in the minority. Management was normally about how good the manager was and how lucky you were to work for them.

Things have changed. Things generally feel like they are getting better. BUT there are still examples of plain stupidity (see email stories below as a prime example).

One key area I see as missing is trust. Managers don't trust Associates. Associates don't trust themselves. Associates don't love customers (as per Nordstrom's view) and definitely don't trust them.

On a course last week even the trainer was pointing out the 'Cover your arse' culture. Perhaps this is why we don't get things right as a company? Although individuals do.

Posted by Paul Goodison at 08:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack