6 essential questions underpinning digital strategy development
I find myself writing a proposal for the development and implementation of a digital marketing strategy for a bunch who know they need it, because I suspect their kids told them, but have no idea what it is. Part of the challenge is to figure out how to balance the...
A bakers dozen routes to small business success.
Small businesses have few resources, so they need to get a lot of mileage out of what they do have. How do they generate successful marketing campaigns that generate revenue and a long term position in a market without breaking the bank?. Following are 13 ways...
4 essential pillars of digital success
It often happens at events at which I speak, big or small, does not seem to matter. Someone afterwards comes up to get some advice on their particular scheme to make a million from an online business. It happened again last week, one very sensible business...
What does the emerging FMCG landscape look like?
Watching the rather sloppy way Grant O'Brien was moved on by Woolworths last week, I got to thinking about all the converging things happening that will impact the FMCG landscape over the next few years. A superficial look would suggest that things are pretty...
The 4 strategies to scale a small business.
Most businesses want to grow, even just a bit, it is not only in the DNA, but some scale makes life in most areas easier. So how do small businesses go about it? 4 basic strategies. 1. Empower the team. Make every front line person as well as the office...
Why do 9/10 new FMCG products fail?
There are lots of reasons, I have heard them all, and even used a couple myself, but blaming the retailers, engineers, competitors, lack of advertising, or the weather misses the essential truth. The process is flawed. We know the constraints of the retailers, they...
Marketing’s great dilemma: Too much choice.
Faced with so much choice of technology and platform options to reach and engage consumers, many marketers are paralysed. On the other hand, many are tempted to be all things to all people, simply because the tools are there to reach them, and they hope that they...
4 steps to a positive cash flow for small business.
Do I have enough cash to...................? This is one the 4 fundamental questions for small business survival, and is the one I hear far too often. It is all to do with how much cash is available at any given time to pay the bills. It is almost...
KPCB Internet trends 2015 report.
For 20 years, Mary Meeker of KPCB has been collating and publishing an annual report on the growth and growth of the net and the services and products it carries. This 20th publication contains information that will be useful to every business. The local lemonade...
10 easily forgotten factors in strategy development.
Writing about strategy, and practicing its development with clients, there are always a number of things that do not fit comfortably into the various academic boxes. That is the nature of the beast, uncertain, instinctual, and driven by insights that usually evolve...