Marketing’s new middleman
In the 35 years I have been practising marketing, absolutely everything has changed. Well, almost everything. What has not changed are the foundations. The recognition that delivering value to a customer is the "raison d'être" of marketing, and that seeing everything...
Unravelling the mysteries of Social Media
Believe it or not, Social media is a mystery to many, particularly those of us of a "certain age", many of whom are running their own small businesses. They know it is important to their businesses, know that their competitors are probably using it too beat them over...
What really adds the value?
What is the difference between a cookbook of recipes and tips/secrets by a top chef, and the stuff you turn out at home using the book? Usually a fair bit, surprising really when you have all the information necessary to create and present the dish to hand. The...
10 strategies for SME’s to beat the supermarket gorillas at their own game.
Any business that has done business with the supermarkets knows that they are not there to do you any favours. They have shareholders to keep happy, customers to sell to at the lowest prices possible consistent with their margin objectives , competitors to beat, and...
Marketing Plumber
You know the old story, the plumber who goes around fixing other peoples dripping taps, but has a houseful of leakers himself. This site has been my home since march 2009, and it has been full of leaking metaphorical taps. All the things I admonished my clients to do,...
Mapping Social Media
Most Aussies will probably recognise the diagram above, the London Underground. The first time anyone arrives in London, an underground map is a vital piece of paper, even in these days of mobile phone enabled GPS tools. The underground system in London is pretty...
Start with the things you can do.
No business can do everything, so the easy way to start is to do the thing you can do well, as long as it is at least partly the thing that also makes you different. In a suburb not far from me in Sydney, there is a street that over the last 5 years or so has evolved...
Mixed marketing metaphors.
I have a mate who is an academic economist, a really smart guy used to arguing a point of view, and with a box of stats on call to support any contention he makes, alternatively to pull down anything that runs contrary to his argument. He is very convincing. An...
3 points to measure e-marketing productivity.
When looked at from the "helicopter perspective " there seems to be three points of threshold competitive activity that you simply have to get right, or all else is irrelevant. Having a few meaningful measures at those three points is essential to understanding the...
5 practises for successful blogging
Over the weekend, my sister, a writer, called me a "blogging machine", recognising the challenge of producing 3 or 4 worthwhile posts a week. Caught me a bit by surprise, because I just blog, write about what seems important to me, and that I think will be of...