How can you do it to yourself???
I just had another of those really, really annoying phone calls from a call centre, and being a marketer, I cringed with shame and frustration. After I answered, it took probably 5 seconds for the person on the other end to answer me (memo call centre managers:...
7 parameters of a C21 marketing scorecard
Developing metrics to measure the impact and ROI of marketing is becoming a game of choice around competent boardroom tables. Given the level of marketing engagement around many of those tables, it seems sensible for marketers to take the initiative. Following are...
“Design” is a verb
Design is often used as a noun, "I will do a design for you" is common. However, when you think about it, design is not just a thing, an end product, it is a process of moving from an idea, through iterations, to a final form. It is a verb. "To design" should be a...
Design doing
Steve Blank is one of the real thinkers in the innovation space who gets out there into the weeds and gets stuff done. The illustration at the top of this post is one from a recent post on his blog that makes the very real point that everything should start with the...
Flying pigs and the carbon tax.
Last night (July 29) I watched Rod Simms (ACCC chairman) interviewed on the ABC about the price reductions consumers can expect from the removal of the carbon tax. He was assuring us that consumers will receive these benefits because in effect the ACCC had the...
7 essential sales tips for SME’s
Most of us recognise that the best sales lead you have is a satisfied existing customer, so why do SME's so often fail to capitalise on them?. It seems to me that there are a number of reasons, usually they boil down to not allocating the time, not thinking about it,...
6 challenges (and 3 rules) of content creation
The single biggest stumbling block I see to successful digital marketing is not the technology, or the money, desire, or need, it is simply the unwillingness or inability to create relevant, engaging content of value that suits the context in which it is seen. Usually...
Sales funnel revisited as a purchase funnel
The "sales funnel" is a pretty familiar diagram, it has been around for a long time, simply because it makes sense, at least it did to sales people. To their customer prospects, there is a level of antipathy to the notion of being just a part of some "funnel"...
Heston Vs Jamie, a retail bunfight.
It is fascinating to watch the evolution of the marketing of the two retail gorillas, Coles and Woolworths. It is clear what they are doing, setting out to engage consumers with the freshness, range and provenance of their produce, and selling consumers all...
The value curve
As a young marketing graduate in the 70's I was given a scholarship to attend an intensive marketing management program in Boston, run by Harvard professor Jim Hagler. He changed my life. One of the many things he rumbled to me (he spoke, but it came out as a rumble)...