Best Marketing Metaphor ever
This afternoon I saw the best example of marketing I have seen in ages, a metaphor for what it takes to be successful in this crowded, commoditised world. Two youngsters, dressed in jeans and the T-Shirt of the Cancer Council were stopping people in the street and...
iAdults
While writing the future proofing of marketing post recently , it also occurred to me that we have a generation of kids now becoming serious adults who have grown up immersed in the web 2.0. They are a different breed, even different to their almost generational...
Future proofing marketing
Marketing used to be about brands, customers, channels, pricing, advertising and the other stuff we came to terms with up to about 2004. Then it changed, and became really confusing. We progressively discovered digital devices, social media, Apps, an exploding range...
5 rules for FMCG category marketing
I am old enough to remember doing warehouse withdrawals by hand. Heavens. Then we had early data managers automate the process, an evolution that pottered on for 25 years, through to category management based on scan data, some of which can dive remarkably deep....
How do we judge political performance?
This week we have had a budget, arguably the first half realistic assessment of the economy for some time, with some politically unpalatable pills swallowed. Not before time. We have also had the budget reply, which was more an election speech than a roadmap for...
Failure of commission, or omission.
On this Budget "morning after" where public spending is at 33.5% of GDP and rising, all the debate is about the detail, weather or not the "baby bonus" should be retained, the validity of the forward estimates given recent history, and increase in the personal tax...
Engaging sales people.
I found myself in a heated debate last week with a headhunter about the value, and challenges of SME's outsourcing the hiring of employees, particularly salespeople. Her view: SME owners are so time constrained that anything not "core" to success should be outsourced,...
Is content the chicken to SEO’s egg?
Creating content, the stuff that engages people, preferably customers, potential customers, and influencers of these two groups people (otherwise why are you doing it?) is a real challenge, but one that successful use of social media demands is addressed. There are...
R&D portfolio metaphor
Yesterday, watching a bee that had snuck in my office window trying to get out, I was reminded of a simple fact that to my mind is a great metaphor. Put a few bees in a bottle, and point the bottom towards a light source, and the bees will all belt themselves against...
Success is a contingency
Success is the result of hard work, smarts, good teams, focus, with a hit of "right place, right time" thrown in, etc, etc, right? Right. At least that is what I always believed, knocked into me by my Dad who believed, and lived by the credo that "the harder I work,...