#marketing2025 My Future Forecast

After attending the launch of #marketing2025 in Cambridge recently with CIM, I ruminated on what the big issues are in marketing for the next 10 years - a suitable topic for a New Year's broadcast! And I found it fairly depressing because I could have said exactly the same thing in 2004.

So my marketing big issue remains the same - that marketing gets to the heart of every boardroom, both small and large. I still have too many of my professional students running departments single-handedly when they should have a team of 4 minimum. I still know marketers battling to persuade their professional services organisations that marketing can play a major role in bringing complex organisational structures together and providing a better experience to their customers. I still can think of a fair few industries where marketing plays very little part in senior management decision-making. And far too many directors who think marketing is just a fluffy press release or maybe a nice little drinks party, or that marketing is just about digital.

So my new year's wish is that marketing gets the recognition it deserves. Let's shout about our Chartered Status from the rooftops. Let's get a comfy chair at every boardroom table. Let's put the customer at the heart of every business. Let's explain what we do to every business and business person.

I hope this year will see #marketing2025 spreading the marketing message far and wide. Do join the debate online.

Happy New Year!

Preventing academic misconduct in Chinese students

As a lecturer for the past 10 years, I always think I've seen it all until assignment hand-in day arrives and another example of cheating, collusion or plagiarism hits the desk. More often than not, international students are the culprits and are surprised that we can spot suspect work from a mile off even before we've checked the score on our plagiarism software. If I see a draft that is suspect, I will remind students of UK policies on these issues to encourage them to mend their ways if they have done something they shouldn't have and it's that approach that has made me realise that in most cases, the students have no idea they are at fault.

It's with this in mind that I turned to a new book published in 2014 by Sage called Study Skills for Chinese Students by Mike Courtney and Xiangping Du. This is aimed at Chinese students studying in the UK and is a multilingual guide to developing independent learning skills and improving their chances of success in UK universities. It talks about how Chinese students often think that using large parts of an author's work without referencing is a compliment to the author, and that it's okay to get help from a friend with writing an assignment - something I see often. This is such a useful book for Chinese students to read to help them understand the cultural differences in the UK, but also for lecturers to understand their perspective and consider how to communicate guidance on cheating, collusion and plagiarism in a more meaningful way. It's definitely one I recommend.

Buy here:

Something for Christmas: WestJet Christmas Miracles Ad

So as it's Christmas, here's my favourite ad of the year - WestJet Airlines' Christmas Miracle. I warn you that it's heavy on sentiment but isn't that what the festive season is all about? It was a close run with John Lewis' ad - everyone loves a penguin love story, a cute kid and a nice tune but this one ticks all the marketing boxes and here's why:

• They actually rebrand Santa in their corporate colours. Yes, Coca-Cola did it originally and now WestJet has turned him blue.
• They've done this before so it's become part of the Christmas tradition with customers and people who like to share cute videos on social media looking out for it.
• Nearly 3 million people have viewed it on Youtube, with over 8,000 likes and only 232 bah humbug dislikes.
• Comments on Youtube are in a whole host of languages showing that this ad has achieved a great global reach.
• Although it cost them to create the ad and supply gifts, they fly to the location anyway and their staff did all the legwork - the amount of amazing PR and impressions they get more than pays for the expenses.
• Corporate storytelling is a powerful medium that builds stimulus for consumers and supports the consumer decision-making process.
• It aligns itself with traditional fairy tales and storytelling with a narrator and a link to a well-known Christmas poem. We know it's going to have a happy ending and it promotes good corporate values.
• It also promotes Christian values, which can be important for Canadian and US firms.
• It's a significant part of their CSR (corporate social responsibility) programme.
• It has changed people's behaviour - comments such as 'this would be my airline of choice if I'm in the region' have been posted.
• They fly to the Dominican Republic so it reinforces our understanding of their service and also encourages us to think about going to a hot country for Christmas.
• It is a universal message so works well as a standardised communication.

Finally, it leaves you with a tear in your eye (even if you try very hard not to succumb) and that's what good Christmas advertising is all about!

Happy Christmas from your No Balls Bloggers!

The Apprentice - did the right business idea win?

Our good intentions to blog about The Apprentice waned pretty quickly this series... far too many candidates and the same tired tasks throwing up the same issues as in previous years: the candidates can't count, can't navigate their way around London and market research is the work of the devil according to Lord Sugar. I found the lack of fundamental business skills frustrating. Surely this is a great way to encourage young entrepreneurs by giving them some entertaining yet educational programming in a primetime slot?

So we were left with two business ideas with big flaws... I shouted at the television a lot when Roisin left... if it was just about the business idea, why didn't they sift through them during auditions? Bianca wanted to do tights in all the sizes, colours and derniers for 20 quid and Mark wanted to create an old skool SEO agency; I never really understood why he was launching the business he worked in 6 years ago! I also didn't quite work out why he was going to be so much better at this than anyone else when as far as I can work out, only Google knows the 200 odd algorithms that determine SEO anyway.

Lord Sugar clearly felt more comfortable with a technology business and Mark's business idea was a better bet for making a quick profit even if it wasn't terribly original. Bianca's idea was interesting but would require far too much start-up cash to generate enough inventory. Stores would only have enough space for a certain number of pantones meaning customers would be faced with the same choice of nude, tan or nearly black anyway, meaning the USP would be lost. It seems the premium price point was a risk Lord Sugar wasn't prepared to take. Out of the two ideas, the best idea won but I was left distinctly underwhelmed. I didn't find it educational and I didn't find it particularly entertaining and yet it's going to return for a new series. The Apprentice: isn't it about time you were fired?

It hasn't gone viral....it has gone awry....

For the past 3 weeks of the Apprentice, I have experienced a wide range of emotions – rage, frustration, resignation (that it’s just entertainment) and having watched episode 4 I now curiously feel pity for them.

This week it was about creating a video for You Tube with the plan to make it enticing enough to go viral.  Things didn’t get off to a great start when shortly after proclaiming it was a “21^st century” task, Lord Sugar was referring to one of the candidates as “the internet man”.  I honestly thought I had travelled back in a time machine to 1986 and doing an online video was some sort of novelty.

Both teams instantly decided on humour as the basis for their videos.  Team Tenacity produced Fat Daddy Fitness Hell, featuring vaguely podgy Felipe intentionally failing to imitate exercise routines. Team Summit’s offering was Dare to Dine, which saw “comedian” James doing such farcical things as creating vampire fangs out of dough and waving rubber chickens around.  It looked like something out of the Muppets.

I feel pity as this wasn’t about 21^st century digital marketing.  Two rooms of 20-somethings trying to figure out what would be funny was about as far away from marketing as was possible to be – digital or otherwise.  There was no direction, no objectives, no strategy and so the tactics were always going to be off beam.  This was perfectly illustrated by Team Summit’s time in front of a potential hosting client.  They’d apparently targeted “18-30” but the client clearly thought they meant months, so a spell on the naughty step was clearly in order.

The only thing that made it 21^st century was the fact that Lord Sugar had to add in some reality TV drama by firing not 1, not 2 but all 3 “dead wood” (his words not mine) Tenacity candidates who were brought back into the boardroom for the final drubbing after they lost the task.  All hope is gone for me now and I fear I will add boredom to the above list if they’re not careful. 

Steven “hissy fits” Ugoalah and Sarah “short skirts” Dales (Apprentice’s authentic panto villain) provided the entertainment.  Ella-Jade Britton was the third casualty last night.  Her business idea for Lord Sugar was TV productions apparently although she blankly stated “I don’t have experience in YouTube,”  Her fate was also sealed when her team had even failed in the most basic of tasks of adding titles and descriptions to the videos so that people can actually find and share them.  She was a worthy casualty for that alone and I would have pressed the delete button too.  

The Apprentice - Episode 3

This episode began with the disturbing image of one of the male candidates blowdrying his armpit, probably to counter Sarah's previous comments about the girls putting on slap and heels to sell; business grooming applies to chaps too, don't you know!

Team Tenacity kept their name this week although it sounds like an incontinence pad to me. But the teams were mixed up with Roisin, the accountant leading Summit and Katie taking on Tenacity. Their mission was to create a home fragrance product and make the most profit so we were repeatedly reminded - it's all about the margins! Having watched previous challenges, I was expecting it to be all about how the apprentices fail to measure ingredients correctly which wasn't far wrong.

Roisin managed the team strongly when it came to product creation and brand design coming up with a credible high quality product called Beach Dreams; it looked worthy of a high price tag. Katie made the first market research blunder of the series by calling one brief chat with one lady in a shop robust research and then proceeding to ignore the findings anyway. British Breeze was therefore created in a fabric conditioner yellow with paraffin wax instead of a no colour, soy wax candle as suggested by the candle shop lady.

When it came to selling, the whole task fell apart for Team Summit. A variable approach to margins meant the average selling price was £9.50 and some market trading offers made it look like it came out of Del Boy's suitcase. James had an interesting approach to misleading sales practice labelling it as previously sold at £45. Although the team managed to sell in volume to business clients, they sold out of reed diffusers at a low price and failed to deliver on a more lucrative order to a high quality hotel. Team Tenacity stuck to their guns and focused on selling at a higher margin. They didn't sell out of candles but still managed to win the task with £1,584 profit to Summit's £1,569 which as Roisin pointed out was the price of one candle...

Roisin's team in the boardroom was quickly depleted as Lindsay fell on her sword and admitted she had done little to help the team and was out of her depth - she was quickly fired and made her way back to her swimming pool, her natural business habitat. Roisin still had to return to the boardroom with two further members of her team and Nurun was the second candidate to go as she lacked experience and failed to add up or sell much at all.

So what did we learn? The apprentices are mostly rubbish at maths and have no idea how to set a pricing strategy and stick to it, or listen to what their team leader tells them to do and their market research is pretty ropey too. Steve is proving to be a liability when it comes to sales negotiations and Sarah, an unpopular member of the team who is playing the blame game and failing to sell at the right price. Sarah and Steve are predicted to be the next candidates to leave the boardroom. At least Lord Sugar's approach to firing in bulk is clearing the decks so we may be done before Christmas!

“Lights, Camera and………Shoulder action”

As if it wasn’t blindingly obvious in episode one, the second instalment of the Apprentice makes it clear this is (as we all know) about entertainment and not boardroom brilliance.  If it was about the country’s elite business people who effortlessly glided through the tasks making thousands then it would be as dull as dishwater and probably not lasted two years, never mind 10.

The entertainment this week was about wearable technology so of course the apprentices came up with “products” that won’t have the directors at Apple worried anytime soon.  Having decided on a marginally better team name than their first which meant “decline”, Team Tenacity’s ladies were determined to go for an all-singing-all-dancing jacket that would do lots of things – light up, warm up (and cool down) courtesy of solar panels in the shoulders and charge up (the mobile in the pocket). 

The latter idea had legs.  The ability to charge up a phone whilst on the move (literally) is a great idea.  Instead of sticking to one new product development idea and do it well they opted for a mishmash of bits of technology which essentially paid homage to Dallas with a dull jacket with a couple of fairy lights in the lapels and the Sue Ellen shoulder pads with a curious nod to Red Dwarf by virtue of some stripy solar panels on the shoulders.    

The New Product Development (NPD) process has a vital stage in it called screening.  There you weed out dodgy product ideas the same way that Lord Sugar weeds candidates.  On the plus side, at least including the heating system did allow Sarah 'get your make-up on, girls' Dales the opportunity to allow two men touch up her stomach during the pitch.

Team Tenacity won the day by a slim margin – about £200 in orders.  It was really only a victory because the Summit team gentleman failed to get any orders at all with their creepy grey jumper with a camera. 

Of course the boys weren’t so dim-witted not to realise there was “summit wrong” and the prototype looked pants but the show must go on and you believe in your product and sell it to your market.  Right?  Wrong!  “I wouldn’t personally go out in it” exclaimed Daniel the dreadful salesman in the pitch.  In fact Daniel agreed with all the criticisms levelled by the clients – so much so, that he would have replied yet again “that’s a very good point” had the client stated “we believe you’ve wasted our time today with such a stupid product”.  Reckons he’s “sales sales sales sales” but I think it’s more like “fails fails fails fails”.

In his pathetic defence of this grey sweatshirt with light-up writing and a pervy camera, Scott, the PM who was fired, said it was not for secretly filming girls in nightclubs but for sports.  The post-mortem show “Apprentice You’re Fired” debated this and sarcastically laughed that lots of sports require the player to wear a big baggy sweater.   Hang on, stop laughing there are two small target niche markets of darts players and fishermen that I can think of.   I am sure a premium pricing strategy would work a treat here as there are countless darts players out there wishing to record every mind-numbingly boring throw. 

The other firing this week happened before the boys even got to the losers’ café for some builders tea.  Robert “high end fashion” Goodwin bottled at being project manager and it cost him dearly.  In response to concerns expressed by John Lewis about the secret filming, he exclaimed “privacy is history” so I am delighted for him that he has left the competition.  If the News of the World was ever re-launched, he would have missed out on the job of a lifetime and having his name up in lights.    

The Apprentice - Episode 1

I’ve tried to resist all day but here it is, The Apprentice blog, episode 1. So it was an immense surprise to all of the candidates when 4 even shinier, strangely job titled business people appeared like apparitions from the other side of the wobbly walled boardroom. Who knew? Clearly the faceless PA on the telephone… surely Amstrad has a live chat thingy on their intranet? And anyone who read the Radio Times last week… but apart from that, huge surprise!

The value in having 20 candidates was so Sir Alan can fire them in multiples which he failed to take advantage of – I had my eye on 6 to take out in one fell swoop saving myself weeks of shouting at the television at their complete ineptitude to undertake any form of practical marketing activity.

But anyway, we soon discovered that their task was to sell random objects from previous tasks and to make some profit. Let’s add value they all shouted while proceeding to spend a lot of money to do it.

Frankly, I'd have found myself a pub in that supremely edgy part of the world they call Clerkenwell, served some hotdog bangers and mashed high quality spuds and chopped up the lemons to make £500 worth of  happy lunchtime gin and tonics. But of course, it’s much more fun to sell bog brushes to penguins and all travel glued to the hip around London in an expensive cab stuck in traffic. But what, we forgot the SEED CAPITAL? Yes, let’s show everyone we're an accountant by using official accountancy terms to describe an envelope of tenners. Did anyone else notice Sir Alan’s eyes and ears only counted sales at the end and didn’t take off what they spent? Or did I miss that? I might have been bashing my head against the wall by then.

I haven't even ranted yet about the blue suited Sarah – former PA and hypnotherapist who thinks as long as you have a pretty frock and some lippy on, you can sell to poor little men like feminism never happened, that’s if you can hobble fast enough across the cobbles in your heels. The only candidates I rate so far are the ladies who raised their eyebrows at her and asked if she was kidding.

The candidate I really hope will stay for ages is Steven who does a lovely line in hissy fits. But at the end of episode one, it was Felipe who always asked 'what Felipe would do' in times of angst, who nearly bit the bullet before Sir Alan swung back and forth and back to Chiles (not Charles or Giles) who wouldn't pick the t-shirts up because quite clearly everyone should all stay in the same cab the whole time and not, dare I say it, split up and get another cab so you can do two things at once?! No, that would be multi-tasking. 

Haven't they heard of couriers? 

Or had they left their cab money aka seed capital in an envelope somewhere in Clerkenwell? 

Argh… I can't watch but I will. 

Most positively, magnificently meaningless marketing mumbo-jumbo

As you know, our blog is about simple, straightforward marketing without buzzwords or waffle.  Today, I am pleased to announce I am adding “without gobbledygook” to that too.

I am doing some research at the moment (I won’t bore you with the specifics) and have found myself looking at marketing agency websites.

What has prompted me to blog today is this particular beauty:-

“Our unique, proven and collaborative approach of combining doctorate level theoretical analytics, strategy and world-class creative execution delivers ground-breaking, game-changing initiatives for ambitious brands.”

Why on earth put something so meaningless on a website?  It has caught my attention but for all the wrong reasons.  For what reasons did an agency try to bamboozle us with fancy, overcomplicated phrases?  Is it marketing?  I find it difficult to understand it’s about marketing.  At the heart of the concept, you put customers at the centre of what you do in order to understand their needs.  Call me old fashioned, but communicating with your customers is key to understanding those needs and you can’t do that effectively if you write in a way that they don’t understand you.  Worse still for an agency as they will be marketing to our customers too!  The mind boggles…..

Perhaps it’s showing their expertise?  Nah, I don’t buy that either unless it’s their expertise at writing daft sentences.  Obviously if my customers want a sentence lifted directly from a thesaurus, I will be in touch.

There are also lots of over-used phrases out there that are put about to “impress us”.  Perhaps some have almost a wallpaper effect that we don’t notice them.  An example is the prolific use of “very unique” to describe a product.  According to the dictionary, “unique” is “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else”.  Why would someone therefore insist there are degrees of uniqueness?  A product may be different, slightly different or very different but, no, it’s very unique……

I would add “optimised”, “game-changing” and “finessed” to the list of words and phrases that really don’t mean anything at all.

Perhaps I am more aware of this issue today following the first airing last night of The Apprentice.  If ever there was a programme to show us the plethora of ridiculous-ness (as I am allowed a silly word too!) then this is it.  “A field of ponies” is coming my way (ref:  Stuart Baggs THE Brand).

What are your favourite gobbledygook phrases that belong in room 101?  Get “blue sky thinking” and let us have your favourites.

Waitrose, don't you know people are laughing at you?

Yet again, Waitrose is the butt of online jokes and viral posts about their extremely middle to upper class take on an 'Essentials' range. And it's hardly surprising when a basketful of Essential range items in this supermarket could include tinned artichoke hearts, bumper packs of avocadoes and rosemary and sea salt focaccia. It's like every night is dinner at Downton Abbey.

It's hardly the first time the joke has been on Waitrose. The Facebook page 'Overheard in Waitrose' posts amusing quotes such as this one heard in the Harborne branch: "this is disgusting, they've run out of fresh lemongrass and dried lemongrass is just the worse." With 342,693 likes (14/10/2014) and press representation, and probably a high level of shares, this is another example of how the word of mouth buzz about Waitrose is that of amusement.

In 2012, Waitrose's twitter campaign, 'Why I shop at Waitrose...' was hijacked by jokers who instead of talking about the quality of the food wrote quips such as "I shop at Waitrose because Clarissa's pony just will not eat ASDA value straw." Waitrose's management did respond to the tweets with:

Waitrose @waitrose: "Thanks for all the genuine and funny waitrosereasons tweets.We always like to hear what you think and enjoyed reading most of them."

They can take a joke (just about) but who wants to be the brand that is always mocked? And why put yourself in the firing lane repeatedly? Brands need to know who their target market is and how they should be positioning themselves, but sister organisation John Lewis manages to promote itself effectively without its campaigns being hijacked or its product ranges ridiculed.

This is not about whispering in the playground. Social media is accessible to read by customers, competitors and brands themselves. There is no excuse not to know what the buzz is about you. Social media monitoring and environmental scanning is time consuming but an essential part of the marketing planning process. Addictomatic is just one free tool that shows you the buzz about any brand online: http://addictomatic.com/topic/waitrose. You can examine instantly what customers think about you or your competitors and if you're not getting it right, you can adjust the tone or approach to your communications or your use of the marketing mix.

Be proud of what your brand values are Waitrose, and laugh at yourself if you wish - it is a British trait after all, but don't be a running joke if you have no control over the punchline.

The Scottish Referendum - Let's deal with that PEST......

Well, today’s the day that everyone is talking about – the Referendum on whether Scotland remains in the UK or goes independent ending a union that is the United Kingdom. 

Everyone is talking about it and, before the ink is dry on the ballot papers, the press is rife with dramatic headlines about what will happen when we all get up tomorrow morning.  If it’s “aye” then we’re all facing change – north and south of the border.  Things we’ve had as part of our lives for generations may change or even be consigned to history.  What will happen to the NHS? Will the Queen still be head of state?  What would happen to the BBC?  What about the Armed Forces?  Would there even be a new border control?

Factors in the external Macro environment, that form the acronym PEST or PESTEL, are usually theoretically explained to marketing students as almost remote to an organisation but they could now be very important particularly if your business involves customer segments and markets in Scotland.  Whilst on this day, the Scottish people have control in their hands with their individual vote, once the deed is done then these factors are uncontrollable but perhaps not as remote to your business as you would like.

Let’s just review some of these in the context of a “yes” vote:

Political / Legal – clearly the most prominent factor here in terms of headlines.  The Scot’s as part of an independent nation would have total control (that’s the point after all) but what about the English parliament?  Lots of implications regarding the Conservatives and the PM himself and even if it’s “nay” then there’s political strife ahead as more powers will be devolved anyway.  Will Scottish MPs have to leave parliament and what affect would that have?

Economic – Would Scotland’s economy fare better inside or outside the UK?  The “yes” camp say it will.  How would the economic turmoil we’ve seen the past few years affect a smaller independent country?   However, doubters question the possible loss from not having direct access to the rest of the UK for its goods.  Some multinationals have said they’ll relocate their headquarters from Scotland to England.  There would be big changes ahead with a new currency and the amount of debt that parliament have said will transfer to Scotland’s hands.  All this change could affect jobs, taxes, disposable income and pensions.  

When a business markets internationally exchange rates are of course important and Scotland as a republic will be errr international as far as a marketer is concerned.

Inevitably, all this uncertainty will have a dampening effect on consumer sentiment, business confidence and investment intentions which could be as gloomy for us all as a wet weekend in the Outer Hebrides.

Sociological – our culture and heritage is what makes us British.  We’re famed for it and a little teased by it at times, let’s face it.  There will be a need for new Union Jack, perhaps new National Anthem (and the Scot’s would have to agree on what theirs would be) and what about the Queen?  The latter question may not have a direct effect on marketing per-se, unless you make mugs and tea-towels with Royal Family branding, but a lot of companies market “Britishness” and an erosion to that, however slight, could cause us to choke on our Earl Grey tea.

Environmental – As I am contemplating whether there are any issues here that we could discuss, my eye glances at a snippet in the Daily Mail about Shetland, that oil-rich island very very far north.  There was some discussion in the media about Scotland being able to capitalise on being oil rich as an independent nation but, before we start contemplating a Scottish Dallas, the Shetland Islanders, in the event of a “yes” vote, may make the decision to break away from Scotland and remain as part of the UK. 

The Scottish government says Scottish renewable energy is the most cost-effective source of low-carbon electricity, and enables the rest of the UK to meet its climate change targets.  In return, financial support for renewable energy schemes and the transmission network would be met by consumers across Britain.

The UK government says any decision to import energy from an independent Scotland would be taken on a "commercial basis" i.e. if the numbers don't stack up it won't happen.  That could leave consumers in Scotland to foot the bill for renewable energy schemes and investment in the transmission network.

Technological – no discussion on external environmental factors would be complete without switching to technology.  Nothing particularly springs up here (and analysis sometimes results in “analysis paralysis” after all, so my students tell me) but if we have border controls resulting in passport checks, it reminds me of the chaos that engulfed the UK passport agency this summer.  Could the Scot’s have a better techy process for issuing their passports in a timely fashion?  Aye, it’s possible and if they do, can they sell it to the English please?

This referendum is unchartered territory and we’ll have to wait and see tomorrow what the future of the UK will be.  One thing’s for certain, marketers everywhere will be affected and will need to adapt and change, just as they should.

Scottish Referendum Opinion Polls - who is really going to win?

Everyone likes a good statistic and an opinion poll can make a fantastic headline, however, there is more to interpreting the results than many journalists care to mention. 

As the Scottish Referendum looms on the 18th September 2014, the result is so close, many commentators and researchers feel it is impossible to know which way the referendum will go: the UK is literally on a knife edge.

From a research perspective, the headline percentages are not the only thing you should be aware of. These don't tell us the true story. We have to consider how close to the true result the survey actually is... there's no point releasing the results of a survey saying 80% will say Yes, if the final result  is 40%. 

So the first thing we have to do is to get a statistical level of confidence in our findings - the normal accepted rate is to be 95% confident in our results. This level helps us to make some calculations on the necessary sample size needed. Most polls take a figure of 1,000 people from the population. 

We then have to consider the margin of error. If we asked everyone eligible to vote in Scotland (approx 4m), rather than 1,000 people, what would the true result be? Our margin of error tells us how many percent either way of our survey percentage that true result could be - and for 1,000 people it is going to be +/- 3%.  

If we take Panelbase's opinion poll from 12th September 2014 that published a vote of 46% for Yes, this went to 1,000 people with a margin of error of 3%, so you can be 95% confident that the true result in the referendum would be between 43% and 49%. Now just to confuse matters, they published 3 statistics: Yes 46%, No 47% and 7% Don't Know, so some journalists may recalculate the results based on those who have decided, and we cannot equate for the number of people who may not vote at all on the day. Previous election turnouts may give you an indication but this is a once in a lifetime referendum so those statistics may not be reliable.

So if we consider the results of a poll by Panelbase published in the Daily Mail on the 15th September 2014, this excluded undecided voters and said No was ahead with 50.6% and Yes was on 49.4%. We can be 95% confident therefore that the true value is No: 47.6% to 53.6% and Yes: 46.4% to 52.4%. We can see from this that it is impossible to call: the published statistic of No: 50.6% could equally be achieved by the Yes campaign. Results in opinion polls that are close to 50% are the hardest to call because if the result was for example 60% Yes - even with a margin of error of 3%, it would make no difference to the final result!

Whatever your view on the future of the UK, it is important to know how to look at the statistics for a full picture. The results in the next few days will be revealing but at the moment, we cannot statistically make a call. If you'd like to follow the results from the various polling companies with a good explanation of their sampling methodologies, please see the BBC's excellent reporting tracker.

When we discovered that Hello Kitty is not a kitty...

My children discovered the joys of dressing cute pliant kittens in dresses during our summer holiday so it was with horror that I returned to discover the shocking news that Hello Kitty, that ubiquitous over-branded merchandising phenomenon that they adore, is not in fact a kitty at all, but a young British girl who lives outside London! It was the biggest branding story of the year! We recently lost the hamster so I was well-prepared for the big talk ahead of me. I sat my daughters down (5 and 7 - old enough to understand but not to reason why) and broke the news to them. "Don't be so silly Mummy, she has whiskers," they both told me. This was taking me towards a discussion that bordered on bodily changes and sex education which I am trying to avoid like the plague so I accepted their proclamation and eye-rolling and made a hasty retreat. Hello Kitty may be a little girl in the eyes of her creators, but it don't mean a thing in our household.

But in fact, there is a good reason for the humanisation of this popular character, I am reliably informed by BBC Newsbeat that Hello Kitty was designed to appeal to Japanese women in the 1970s who were obsessed with Britain and their image of the typical British childhood. The storytelling behind the character enabled the manufacturers to create a strong brand and heritage that appealed to its initial target market and to new markets as they continued with the process of internationalisation, presumably through extensive licensing opportunities. Global markets may be confused about Kitty's biology but her styling is in line with Japanese approaches to art, animation and cartoons.

Giving a back story to a brand by giving it human or animal characteristics can be a successful strategy. The long-running Jack Daniels outdoor ads, often seen on tube platforms, create emotional resonance as you read about his traditional approach to distilling and creating the unique taste of the drink. I have no idea if he was real or not... I don't want to Google it because it would spoil my enjoyment of the ads.

Finding out what animal or human characteristics customers would apply to your brand can also be a revealing approach. In a market research study, we asked customers to think of an animal that would best describe our client... animals like sloth, cheetah or lion quickly tell you all you need to know.

Whether you are personifying or 'animalifying' your brand, fleshing out its bones leads to a better understanding of how to promote it to customers, how to direct sell it to clients or distributors, how to place your advertising, and how to build a strong, sustainable global heritage. Whether your customers accept your version is another story!

Top Tips for Dyslexic Marketing Students

Dyslexic learners, those with a visual learning style and students who struggle to organise or plan their work can benefit enormously from using mind mapping software to create a visual snapshot of a whole module. If you are studying intensively, you will generate a wide range of resources, slide decks, annotated notes, case studies and examples on top of the recommended study and core text. When class tuition ends and it's time to start writing the assignment or revising, it can be hard to know where to start when faced with so much information!

A mind map can capture the key themes, examples and constructs of your module in one neat interactive image which you can add to week by week, colour code, annotate, print off and even stick on your fridge...

The software allows you to create a main heading breaking it down by levels of subheadings to create a hierarchical structure. Like a company organisational chart, you can add boxes that are on the same level (siblings) or as a sublevel (child).

Start with your lesson topics and break them down into sub-topics, then add key models, or use your questions as headings when assignment planning. You can add examples, quotes, show interrelationships, allocate word count and identify gaps in your logic and storytelling in an instant.

Mind maps are particularly effective for dyslexic learners because they help connect the loose ends, showing connections with previously learned theories and helping knowledge move into the long term memory. Some programs are very visual allowing you to use images as well as text. Check the app store on your smartphone or tablet for mind mapping software, or try a free online resource like https://bubbl.us

Top Tips for Passing your CIM DCVIM Exam!

As we 'teach out' the CIM Professional Diploma, passing your Delivering Customer Value in Marketing exam first time is even more crucial. This is a challenging syllabus with a broad range of theory to master, on top of a detailed case study and the need to hone your exam skills. If you still have this module to pass, my top tips to harness the BEAST that is DCVIM may be just what you need:

B is for BASE IT ON THE CASE STUDY

It always surprises me how many mocks I receive that bear no mention to the case study the student has spent hours pouring over! Keep focused... you are giving consultancy style advice to a client and your recommendations must relate to the organisational and brand context.

E is for EXAMPLES FROM WIDER MARKETING READING

Did you just read the slides or skim through a study text? These are great revision tools but demonstrate your wider reading from core and recommended texts. Have you been reading the marketing press? Give some relevant examples of similar organisations experiencing the same sort of problems to back up your recommendations. Have you noticed that The Marketer magazine always covers articles that relate to current assignment topics? Use your travel time and downtime to catch up on your current marketing knowledge.

E is also for EVALUATION

Don't rely on description alone... the CIM Magic Triangle marking scheme tells us that 30% of marks at this level are for evaluation. I always tell my students to say in their heads BECAUSE for every point they write... this is the company's problem, this is the evidence to prove it, and this is what they should do to change that because...

A is for AUDIT ANALYSIS

Again, I often see mocks that have no mention of the audit. Your audit should give you the ammunition to draw on to demonstrate the company's issues and your recommendations for the future. The syllabus is broad but you should have something in the audit to support each element. What have you got that would help you if you were discussing branding, pricing, channel management, competition, environmental influences and so on?

S is for STRUCTURING YOUR ANSWER

Read the question carefully and take note of the command words. Do not think about starting your answer before you've outline planned your response - mind map it, bullet point it, scribble some headings, whatever works for you! Is there a beginning, a discursive section and a conclusion? Have you shown a logical progression of points? Have you used clear headings? Perhaps, the answer would benefit from a framework to shape your response? Think carefully before you commit to paper and your work will be better for it.

T is for THEORY

There's a lot of it in this module - ensure your revision covers the syllabus topics and that you have theory to draw on for each aspect. Write out little cards or use a post-it note style app like Evernote to support your learning. It would be problematic if you went into the exam to find a 25 mark question on channel management and you have nothing to pin your answer to.

T is also for TIMING

It makes me want to cry when a student comes out of the exam and tells me they did okay but ran out of time for the final question and didn't start it. So straight away, their top score is probably capped to 75 and if they average a C for every question, that's 38 marks and a fail... if they'd have got their timing sorted out and given it a shot, they might have ended up with 50 and a pass. If you have 45 minutes for a question, plan your work for 5 minutes, put your watch on the table, write for 35, check it for 5 minutes, move on. Leave a space at the end of each question so if you do have some final thoughts and finish early, you can quickly add them in.

With good revision techniques and lots of practice, this exam can be mastered. Good luck!

Top Tips for Success at CIM's Project Management in Marketing Module

Students studying this module will be aware that we are now 'teaching out' as the new syllabus will start to be examined from September 2014, so there has never been a more critical time to pass on your first attempt!

Here are my top tips for success in this module:

1. There are many components to this module so the first thing you should do is create a skeleton document in Word. Have you included all the compulsory appendices? Have you included all elements of the project plan? Set out your headings, then as you write your project proposal outline, you can start adding in notes of what you want to cover in each section. This approach helps you to create a joined-up piece of work recognising the relationships between each section and it can help you to see what is missing.
2. Don't write it in the order of the tasks. As you can see above, we know how the tasks should be presented but you don't have to write it in that order. The project proposal outline which is an appendix comes first and you should certainly do your research for Task One early on, but after that it would be a good idea to create your risk register which can be referred to from Task Two, Three and Four, and your work breakdown structure and gantt chart for Task Four. Once you have these crucial elements in place, the rest of the assignment can be written much more easily.
3. Keep the context front of mind. In September 2014, the topics are mobile marketing or sponsorship. It's amazing how many assignment drafts I've read in the past where the context cannot be identified! I think this is down to the stress of creating such an enormous and complex report but without this context running throughout, you just won't pass.
4. Make sure the project plan is not generic! Task Four is often where student's energies seem to plummet. By this point, they are exhausted and it shows in very generic and dull project plans. This is supposed to be the most exciting point of a project where you actually get to implement it. Bring your organisational culture to life... do you work in a company where it's impossible to get anything signed off? Are you always slow to market? Is there a lot of conflict or differing cultures? Are you struggling with minimal resources, a virtual team, power struggles, lack of training, issues with communication or company culture? Whatever makes your company great or not so great, will bring colour and interest to your project plan so use it... just don't leave a copy on your printer at work or give away company secrets!
5. Do aim for higher level marks... be critical, identify gaps in your data collection, create an excellent gantt chart / work breakdown structure / network analysis, make sure your whole report creates a holistic account of the proposed project with joined-up ideas, create a good cost benefit analysis with relevant calculations, and of course answer all of the questions!

My final piece of advice is to create a study group so even when you've finished classes, you can meet up and review each other's work (and drink wine!). Peer feedback is a very valuable tool for learning and meeting up will keep you motivated and on track.

Good luck with finishing your CIM Professional Diploma!

To research children, do you need to be a parent?

As school breaks for the summer, my children are experiencing that deep joy that can only come from the lure of six weeks of long summer days, the freedom to fill your day with everything or nothing, and a complete absence of timetables and structure! Thank goodness for self-employment as I can (mostly) enjoy that time with my children. But until I had children at school, I'd forgotten that feeling as I was caught up in the stickiness of summer tube journeys and the relentless plod of the company calendar. Now, when I conduct research with children, or ask parents questions about their children, my research is informed by my understanding of their world, a current working knowledge of Doc McStuffins and the Winx Club, and that awakening of my inner child – remember the first time you took your child to a soft play?! 

So the question I've been asking myself is: do you have to be a parent to be a good children’s researcher?

An Australian journal article (Butterworth & Murfin, 1999) described using children in the research process as a ‘troublesome method of collecting data’. The study described the process of recording ‘naturalistic play patterns’ but an anecdote was given about a child who bent down and said ‘hello’ into the lens and ‘boo’ on her return journey. The researchers reported: “On three separate occasions recording had to be discontinued for a period of one to three minutes because the presence of the video camera was interfering with one or two children's naturalistic play patterns.” My comment on reading this was that this was highly indicative of children’s naturalistic play patterns and inherent curiosity! The researchers didn’t comment whether they were parents or not but they certainly didn't understand children’s behaviour.

Another group of researchers (Harden, Scott, Backett-Milburn, & Jackson, 2000) wrote that two members of their team decided to opt out of interviewing children as they ‘did not have the necessary skills and attributes’ as childless women with no experience of interviewing under 14s. At the end of the study, they reflected on this issue and felt that they should have thought more carefully about their ‘own and wider social assumptions in this context’.

Elton-Chalcraft, 2011, says that she took on the role of ‘traveller’ and the ‘least-adult’ in her research with school children encouraging the children to tell her their stories and engaging them in conversation. Swain, 2005 benefited from his experience as an ex-primary school teacher when he conducted research with boys in a junior school. He felt if he lost their respect, it would have an adverse effect on data quality. “I did not let the children lean back on their chairs or put their feet up on the table, and I would also admonish them if they openly used swear words out of the context of their account.” Although he adopted a least-adult and least-teacher stance, his experience in education helped him to give the children a platform to talk while keeping focused on his areas of questioning.

Academic literature advocates this ‘least-adult’ approach allowing children to be their own person and speak for themselves. To get the best from them, researchers need to understand children, design data collection around their patterns of behaviour, genuinely have a respect for their opinions, and certainly to have had good contact with children whether that’s as a parent, god-parent, relative, friend, teacher or club leader.

Failing that, children’s researchers need to dig deep and rediscover their inner child so roll down a hill, build a sandcastle, make a kite, learn how to make loom band bracelets... The summer holidays are here!

Sugary sweet advertising leaves a bad taste in mum's mouth

We’re all well aware for the need to tackle obesity – the effect of being significantly overweight is being borne out by the massive increase in cases of type 2 diabetes, which has been in the news a lot recently.  Children as well as adults are less active and eat more calorific and sugar-laden snacks than their bodies allow and the damage lasts a lifetime.  The issue is so critical that the government is looking to legislate to force consumers and the industry alike to be more responsible.

Filling time on a wet school strike day last week, I treated my children to a trip to the cinema.  As it was teatime when we went, I took water for them to drink and a few nibbles such as little sandwiches, yogurt and some raisins.  I also had a small chocolate bar each for them as an extra treat. 

On arrival at the cinema, we duly queued up to collect our tickets.  Us Brits are so very good at queuing aren’t we?  We moan and about it and tut a lot but do it diligently.  I have to confess I did a lot of tutting when I realised there is only one type of queue.  Whether you want or need snacks or not, you are forced to queue up with young children next to the aisles with big family-sized packets of sweets and pop corn trays advertised in bright, inviting colours.  So here we go, my 5 year old then questions the idea of having those sweets too albeit less dramatically than I feared fortunately.

The promotion went further when the young man behind the counter enquired if I wanted any popcorn, snacks or drinks.  My 8 year old is now joining in the argument about wanting M&Ms.  I am not against treating my children but I resent having to discuss it with my children when I have already set the boundaries for this cinema trip – besides a family sized bag of chocolates is too large for two small children. 

Advertising and promotion is of course an important tool whether you’re raising awareness, generating interest, creating desire (there was a lot of that happening with my two at the time) and galvanising action (i.e. sales) and removing all such promotion regarding treats would perhaps harm profits but a responsible marketer gives customers a choice and a queue just for ticket collection would have negated any of these problems and ensured my post-purchase customer experience was a positive one.  

My message to cinemas in this case would be to take action before the government does.

Get off the bench

Benchmarking is the process of identifying best practice in relation to both products and the processes by which those products are created and delivered. The search for "best practice" can take place both inside a particular industry, and also in other industries (for example - are there lessons to be learned from other industries?).  Benchmarking is set by your toughest competitors whether you like it or not. 

It’s everywhere you look and is not just confined to the rigors of running a business.  Seemingly every facet of life is compared and contrasted from school league tables to NHS waiting lists to the world’s GDP. 

It is also a factor in sports at the highest level – not least because there’s a league table and world ranking for pretty much every single sport.

This summer of sport has been a good lesson in benchmarking.  We crashed out of the Fifa World Cup early, lost at the cricket, got beaten by the All Blacks in rugby and, Andy Murray, our lone sporting hope at the end of that depressing list, lost dramatically and unexpectedly in the 4^th round at Wimbledon.  British sport is again in that depressing familiar cycle of hope, a few days of fervent belief with a big dose of optimism followed by the come-down of defeat and resignation.   The managers and coaches in each of these examples will doubtless have reasons why they failed, and a strategy and a plan to turn things around and benchmarking will no doubt play a part as they look to emulate those who are consistently at the top of their game.

However, my concern is a general lack of competitiveness at the start of the race - way down to the seemingly unimportant primary school sports day.  I am limbering up for my daughters’ events this week and am hard in training for the parents’ race…..  We’ve been informed that there are no winners – each child has a valuable contribution to make regardless of their ability and awarding winners’ rosettes undermines children’s confidence. Essentially by having no winners, you therefore have no losers.  To get to the top of any sport starts early – the new men’s Wimbledon Champion didn’t start playing when he was doing his A levels.  Sports stars of the future need to learn the mental toughness required for a win (and a loss) early.

My benchmarking mantra is “adopt, adapt, improve” and we’re never going to be at the top of a league table by adding “running away from defeat” to that.

The positive however, looking on the bright side, is no Prayle is a loser at sport this summer.  Game on!

Don't mess with our emotions Facebook!

There are no emoticons to express how I feel about Facebook this week; it certainly isn't happy, maybe a touch of bemusement and a large dash of fury but maybe the best way to describe my feelings is utter bewilderment that a major global corporation can treat its customers' emotions and well-being so carelessly.

So why am I so hot under the collar? Yesterday my business students at Anglia Ruskin University got 'the lecture' and anyone who has studied market research or marketing with me will know the content of this heart-felt declaration. It is my responsibility as a CIM Chartered Marketer and member of the Market Research Society to send my students out into the commercial world with a strong consideration of the ethics involved in researching customer behaviour. We are governed by legislation and should follow the strict principles of research ethics to ensure that no one is ever harmed through research ever again. The principles of the MRS Code of Conduct and all other research codes stem from the 1947 Nuremberg Code and the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki to ensure that participation in research is voluntary, the rights and well-being of participants are protected, no one is harmed or adversely affected and researchers are transparent about the subject and purpose of data collection.

We follow these codes because it matters, because people died and were experimented upon, because we are human, because we know better. So where do Facebook get off thinking this doesn't apply to them?

If you've missed the news (read The Guardian's article here), it has just been revealed via a published research article that Facebook manipulated 700,000 user feeds over one week in 2012 as an experiment to see if hiding emotional words without the user's knowledge would impact upon the status updates and likes that they posted. This is now being investigated by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office. The Guardian reported that Monika Bickert, Head of Policy, claimed these experiments were necessary to enable Facebook to remain innovative and continue to improve their platform. She reportedly said, "It’s concerning when we see legislation that could possibly stifle that sort of creativity and that innovation."

I think it's more concerning that Facebook didn't consider how religiously some users follow status updates and how it can dictate their emotional state. Cyber bullying is rife. Some users may suffer from anxiety, depression or other serious conditions which mean that every emotional word is interpreted to the nth degree. If that emotion was lacking or enhanced through manipulation of the users feed, it could have had a devastating effect.

There are plenty of news articles online to say that Facebook will decline by 2017 and you can understand why they need to constantly develop and innovate. Good on them for thinking that market research plays a part in their new product development process, but doing this via stealth without consideration of the ethical issues and the moral issues is wrong, and the Information Commissioner's Office may feel it's criminal.

Are you a mug or something?

As soon as England were knocked out of the World Cup, somewhat inevitably, supermarkets and other outlets discounted all the England merchandising hoping to recoup some of the now-wasted investment. Prices of mugs, teddies and even the ubiquitous flag all hit rock bottom, just as our national team have done in their dismal qualifying games.

On a visit to a supermarket on Saturday, the merchandising is still there and it seems they can’t give it away. The displays are shunted to a sorry corner but are nonetheless re-marketed as “summer essentials” – a marketer somewhere is hoping that we’ll want a St George’s flag to adorn the BBQ scene so I guess they’re pinning their hopes that we do actually get a BBQ summer then? Or perhaps they’re anticipating future demand that we will stock up for 2018 – after all, Roy said we’d be ready by then so get a bargain now!

As well as lots of merchandising going spare, one souvenir manufacturer even had to contend with a horrific marketing gaffe by mixing up the most powerful man in the world and England’s Chris Smalling. Trying to sell 2,000 mugs emblazoned with the faces of England's World Cup flops would usually be a hard task, but the hilarious mistake has apparently caught the public’s imagination.

It seems the mug with Barack Obama’s face as a defender is proving popular as a novelty item, with the BBC reporting a quarter have been sold to people in the US and that there are "not many left".

Thankfully for the poor newbie who made the mistake, and the naughtier manager who obviously didn’t proof it properly, it seems they have unconsciously tapped into something Americans perhaps love about us – our sense of humour. Marketers have long-since known that those across the Pond love our accents, the royal family and our straight-talking brashness (thanks to Simon Cowell’s brand) and now it seems they love our humour, however unintentional it was on this occasion.

International marketing has many facets – the main one is ensuring you understand and respect cultural differences. If only marketers here had thought a bit harder:-

· Postman Pat had problems in Japan – the cartoon character is drawn with three fingers – a sign he is a member of the Japanese mafia (Jakusa).

· Honda introduced their new car "Fitta" into Nordic countries in 2001. If they had taken the time to undertake some cross cultural marketing research they may have discovered that "fitta" was an old word used in vulgar language to refer to a woman's genitals in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. In the end they renamed it "Honda Jazz".


Our message to the poor soul who made the error – don’t worry. A) it could have been worse – Chris Smalling’s picture could have been put on the USA team’s mugs and B) a certain future on the US comedy circuit awaits you should your apprenticeship not work out for some reason.

I think it's all over... it is now (the time to divest)...

The TV wasn't hogged at 8pm last night so I think it's safe to return to the sofa... yes, we came, we didn't score many goals and the England team shuffled off the plane with only a cleaning lady to wave them home... or something like that. I'm not the world's biggest football fan by any means but I would have put the England flag up if we'd got to the next round!

So hope's over for another 4 years and the England team are off to Ibeefa and other sunny climes - probably via yacht because the average Premier League player's weekly pay packet is evidently £250k (BBC, 2013) although football blogger Sameer Arshad researched national match fees and found they were "not much" according to Rio Ferdinand and often donated to charity. However, if England had won the FIFA World Cup 2014, the players would have pocketed £650,000 each as a bonus.

If we were doing a cost benefit analysis on England winning the World Cup, the return on investment would be huge - financial benefits, sponsorship and merchandising, increased match ticket sales, and lots of lovely positive PR and a jolly good 'corporate' reputation: Rule Britannia. But how can we justify this team performance? Here are some very rudimentary statistics from a non-football expert:

Over 3 England games, the average ball possession rate was 53% vs Costa Rica, 48% vs Italy and 62% vs Uruguay making the England team's overall performance 54% effective.

England played 3 games and scored 2 goals, an average of 0.67 goals per match.

Based on England's FA structure fee formula (2012) as quoted by Sameer Arshad (above), England players would have received £1,000 each for a draw (Costa Rica), and £750 for a defeat (Italy and Uruguay). So each player would have earnt £2,500 for a fortnight's play totalling £57,500 for the team of 23 players. Not to forget their home pay for their club sides of £11.5m (23 players working for a fortnight with an average salary of £250k).

At the 2012 fee structure rate, each goal cost us £28,750 in player wages.

The simplified version of this cost benefit analysis of course misses out many income streams and other associated wages / costs and despite my lack of interest in football, even I can see the importance of having a national side and participating in the biggest tournament in the world - particularly when we do well (the London Olympics is a case in point). But there is a case for putting a marketing spin on our World Cup performance, in portfolio analysis, we examine the success of our products and divest the ones that are not performing or giving us a good return on investment. Some we put out to pasture if they're past their best. If we turn the argument into one about people management, sales people earn a basic rate and receive bonuses for achieving performance goals which motivates them to aspire to greater and continued success. If they stop selling, they stop earning commission.

At the beginning of June, I decided we must blog about the World Cup and now I've reached that goal post, it's all over... I don't get the point of football but its management intrigues me. Is it enough to give your fans the dream that one day you'll win (again) or do you need to provide tangible returns? Was football better when players didn't earn as much and were just hungry for the game? Do we need to get our players to work harder for their money? Or is it just a backdrop for sponsorship, merchandising and getting David Beckham into tight white pants... now there's a thought...

Look into my eyes and trust me

"Look straight ahead into the flashing light. Keep your eye focused straight ahead… not much longer.  Great we’re all done." And so it was that, last week, I got laser eye surgery at London Vision Clinic. In about 20 minutes, my 20 years of glasses and contact lenses were history.

The procedure was quick and painless and so is the recovery and it’s just a pity it took me two years to pluck up the courage to have it done.  The decision making process was long but very straightforward due to the fact I have spent the better part of my marketing career in the healthcare industry and know my way around.  The information search was as routine as the surgery - I knew which clinics had the best reputation and I checked out the top surgeons (some I knew of anyway) and so I was confident in my choice.  What took the time was courage development!

So what about those who don’t have that knowledge?  How do they evaluate the alternatives?  All surgery has risks and for so-called elective procedures these must be more carefully evaluated especially for more radical cosmetic procedures such as liposuction.  Rates of cosmetic surgery in the UK are high – nips and tucks are booming business.  There is a plethora of procedures and a vast range of clinics to choose from.

The advertising is similar, the positive website reviews don’t vary too much, the before and after pictures are mainstream so does it come down to deciding which surgeon is the best?  Well that was what clinched it for me – but apparently a third of those opting for cosmetic surgery are flocking to clinics abroad for cut-price procedures and a suntan too.  That’s a great holiday to have if all goes well, but it often doesn’t and cosmetic tourists return home with poor results as well as jet lag and duty free.

The price dictating the quality of the surgery has got to be a bad idea.  I am all for bargain hunting on the high street but getting smoked salmon from Aldi is hardly what we’re talking about here. 

The post-purchase evaluation for me is overwhelmingly positive and none of the associated risks materialised.  I have paid a bit more than others with the same result but you can’t put a price on peace of mind.

Survival of the Fittest

Two weeks into my "bikini diet" and I've lost 2lbs and the will to munch dry lettuce leaves, however it did get me thinking about diet guru Rosemary Conley who has been in the news discussing her business empire going into administration. After 21 years of successfully championing her wares to the slimmers of the UK, she lost ground due to new competitor diets and digital channels. She admits her mistakes in not considering the impact of apps and fitness gaming but it is too late for the staff who will be losing their jobs and the business creditors.

Rosemary has made a deal with a healthcare products firm to create apps and websites offering fitness and weight loss advice and has secured 100 of her franchisees offering fitness classes. The business may not have collapsed if social trends had been observed and the environment constantly reviewed and scanned for changes. The organisation should have entered the online market sooner, and countered the claims of effectiveness by other diets such as the Atkins, the 5:2, paleo and clean eating. This is an industry where slimmers are constantly chasing quick fixes and methods that really work! Let's face it, dieting is boring and following the same plan over a long period of time can be unmotivating - innovation is key to mix it up, otherwise customers will go elsewhere particularly if they are promised it works like magic! If you look at the core product concept - what is it that this product does for customers - you are selling transformation. And that's a powerful point.

In a competitive marketplace, where running costs need to be lean and organisations need to find faster and more profitable routes to market, running the headquarters of the food and fitness company in a beautiful stately home in Leicestershire was not the best way to gain a financial advantage and this is now set to close.

Obesity and health-related conditions are forecast to continue growing so this market is sustainable. In this case, the business model failed because competitive advantage was lost, costs were not reviewed, and customer needs and changes in their behaviour were not observed or taken seriously. In this business case, it was Rosemary Conley who lost the pounds, not her customers!

Want to know how to be an effective international marketer?

This week, I wanted my class of International Marketing undergrads at #AngliaRuskin to understand the challenges of the global marketplace – what environmental factors could create barriers to entering a new country or region? I realised that the most valuable insights I have about working internationally come from my business meetings in Europe and America and collaborating with colleagues in satellite offices, not from a text book. So the slide deck and reading to one side, we set to pool our own knowledge and experience: what a diverse bunch we proved to be with students from China, India, the Emirates, Italy, Lebanon, Mongolia, The Congo and just myself from the UK!

Political issues were really problematic in some countries where bribery and corruption appear to be the rule – my students from Italy talked about Mafia payments and my Indian students felt that bribery has become normalised in many situations. We talked about cultural norms – how personal presentation is crucial in some countries, respectful dress codes, socialising with prospective business partners to get to know each other before contracts can be discussed, giving appropriate gifts and understanding hierarchies in organisations.

Global marketing is about treating the world as one marketplace and segmentation based on characteristics beyond geography, however working effectively internationally as a professional marketer means understanding the influences from that country or region’s environment, as well as the appropriate way to do business, behave and present yourself.

No Balls Marketing's client @worldworkltd produces training tools to help businesspeople understand how they can work better with international colleagues. Abby Beckley, Client Relationship Manager at WorldWork, says marketers cannot expect their marketing activities to succeed if they head into a foreign market full of assumptions about cultural stereotypes. She says:

"Understanding your own global competencies and getting guidance on the areas where you fall short translates itself into a powerful tool when it comes to negotiating and working successfully on an international scale. With all the various emerging markets on the Asian, South American and African continents - one language or style of marketing no longer suits all. Flexibility is critical as you engage in these different markets."

As we continue to develop professionally as marketers, and our businesses extend across borders, learning about new cultures and environmental differences will help us achieve our objectives successfully. As my students embark on a career in business, I hope their experience of studying in an international business school will ensure they are culturally aware and better able to communicate and negotiate with colleagues and partners abroad – wherever in the world they base themselves!

#workingabroad #intercultural

We can neither confirm nor deny that we are writing about the CIA!

A strange thing happened this morning... I took a screenshot of the CIA's now notorious first (quite amusing) Tweet, saved it onto my computer as CIA.jpg - then I couldn't find it anywhere despite the previous history saying I'd created it! When I resaved it as Cimage.jpg - it was there... Strange huh? Conspiracy? Probably not!

The CIA has embraced the Twittersphere in the spirit of openness and transparency - they tell us that they will share their #unclassified content with us. Fabulous said 615,000+ followers and the estimated 250,000+ according to The Guardian who retweeted the first tweet. However, this fills me with as much disappointment as when I realised that MI5 were publically advertising career opportunities... no more will I wander around Cambridge waiting for that tap on my shoulder to ask if I've ever thought about working for my Country. "Yes, count me in, although I don't like flying, hot countries, spiders, volcanoes or danger." Although we can still merrily engage in conspiracy chatter about the #unclassified content the CIA is not sharing with us, I do feel they've spoilt the mystique!

So should all organisations have a social media presence? Well these days the answer is probably yes, if they can keep it current, relevant, useful, on target with objectives and the mission of the organisation. Even the British Monarchy is following an integrated social media strategy with regular updates of what the royals are up to, photos from events, information on celebrations and so on... They've sent out over 18,000 tweets and have 668,000 followers - probably from a younger generation. When you consider how unpopular the British Royals were after Diana's death, and the current unpopularity of the Spanish Royals, social media is clearly a great channel for them to reach new global fans from this generation of digital natives.

Equally, despite my disappointment in state secrets being slightly less shrouded in mystery, there is a case for security services to be using social media to communicate what they do to protect citizens and to explain their strategic mission - however don't expect the SAS to be posting selfies of themselves "going through the window right now" anytime soon.

Britain's Got Talent & Brand Loyalty - it's a yes from us!

Yet again, the Britain’s Got Talent final is nearly upon us. Now in its eighth series, we're about to feast on all that is talented and British (and Spanish, Canadian and French)! Together with other popular culture shows such as the X-Factor, I'm a Celebrity, The Voice and Big Brother, how does BGT manage to stay around? Viewing figures may ebb and flow and Big Brother even changed channels but we still switch on every Saturday night. You could say there’s nothing else on and nothing better to do but we can stream TV programmes and films to our heart’s content! 

So if it’s not inertia, it must come down to loyalty.

So how do we generate sustainable brand loyalty? Here are our top 5 tips:

1. Tap in! Tap into your target audience’s needs and, crucially, try to “own it”. BGT creates family entertainment that you can watch while eating your Saturday night takeaway. It’s mostly inoffensive, suitable for all ages and has no direct competitors on the other side. Create a unique offering that suits your target market and delight them; they'll come back for more.
2. Keep on innovating, don’t settle: to be successful a brand has to change and adapt but it doesn't have to be top flight all of the time. Any brand, regardless of resources can focus on ensuring design, communications, packaging or customer care are delivered in a way that is superior compared to others. Make sure that you are outperforming on the factors that are most important to your customers.
3. Get engaged with your customers! One thing that often sets top brands apart from the followers is the ability to communicate and engage with their audiences. BGT has a great app that replicates the big red buzzer and can be used during the programme. It doesn't matter how you engage with your customers – whether it’s through apps, social media, or shaking a bucket at the village fete – just make sure it suits your organisation and your objectives.
4. Remember your long-term faithful customers: after 8 series, BGT has to consider its original fans as well as find new ones (some who may have been too young to watch previous programmes). These original fans are the ones who complain about changes in format or the competition's rules - it's not what they signed up for but they may like the spin-off shows which gives them more of the auditions they love! Remember, if you only offer superior deals to new customers, your existing customers will complain with their feet. Generate genuine loyalty by looking after your existing customers and hopefully they'll spread the love to new fans too.
5. Use your personalities! For BGT, it’s a carefully selected team of judges. For other organisations, it could be inspiring or entertaining figureheads, social media with a face (we love First Capital Connect’s customer service Twitter feed) or even a celebrity endorsement in your communications. Nobody loves a faceless grey organisation; show off your individualism and unique selling points!

So if you want your brand to be more than just a one-trick pony, with a sustainable base of fans, use your talents wisely! 

Ann & Cheryl