#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!

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.

Stop the line and fire the middle managers!

The Japanese have always been ahead of the game when it comes to production. The Toyota Way is a method of lean production that puts quality at the heart of everything and any staff member is allowed to 'stop the line' if they feel quality has been compromised. Another new(ish) concept is agile marketing and management. Agile development has been borrowed from project managers, particularly those involved in IT projects, and adapted for use by businesspeople and marketers. Jim Ewel, a fellow marketing blogger says:

"The goals of Agile Marketing are to improve the speed, predictability, transparency, and adaptability to change of the marketing function."

The key principles of agile marketing are the ability to implement change quickly, trusting staff to have the knowledge and ability to get their tasks done, continuous learning through feedback, and perhaps most interestingly the acknowledgement that you might fail, that's okay, but you shouldn't fail the same way twice. Again, learning and using feedback are ways to avoid this.

These are all business concepts that would work for any marketing orientated organisation and we can learn from them, however, what happens when a different kind of organisation adopts these principles?

Well, it can be an amazing success as I was delighted to read today in the national press!  My local hospital, Hinchingbrooke in Huntingdon, was taken over as a NHS franchise by a private equity health organisation in 2012 after extensive problems had been revealed. It really was a failing hospital - in terms of health care and its appalling finances. Now, it has been named as the top hospital in the country for care and will make a profit of £2 million this year.

Thankfully, none of my family has been treated there so far but we dropped in recently to use their cafe and to pass the time before we picked up our daughter. We were amazed that this was what an NHS hospital could look like. It looks like a cross between IKEA and a Premier Inn. High gloss, calm, clean, comfortable chairs, an environment that makes you feel like a human and not a prisoner unable to escape from the harsh lighting and sterile conditions. We had our frothy coffee in the Costa Coffee that looked identical to a high street branch!

The reason for this transformation has been running the hospital like a John Lewis partnership. Everyone has a say and the ethos of the hospital was based on a group discussion with 1,200 of the 1,700 staff - 500 didn't turn up but were invited. The front line staff who are responsible for delivering care are now empowered to solve problems in their wards immediately and without the need to get approvals from long chains of middle managers like standard NHS hospitals. In fact, the middle managers have been stripped out and the board is made up mostly of clinicians.

Queues in A&E have been reduced as computerised systems flag up patients who have waited too long - similar to systems used in Argos where the CEO used to work. Motivation is now high, staff are happy and patients even happier. The feedback process is constantly monitored and testimonials are pinned to the notice boards.

Quality is at the heart of patient care and the Toyota Way has been implemented too... anyone involved in patient care can say 'stop the line' if they think a mistake has been made which to date has stopped failings such as swabs or instruments being left inside patients after operations - something which happened in the days before the takeover.

The reason this change has been so transformational is that the business experts have concentrated on fixing the finances and delivering systems that can sort out major issues like queues or poor quality. They have given everyone empowerment and the chance to make the changes that are needed to put patients first. And they have sensibly demonstrated that clinical decisions should be taken by clinicians. Is it rocket science? No, not really - just good business practice applied to a different kind of organisation. The big question is why is this not applied to every NHS hospital in the country? The answer to that, dear reader, is politics and that is not a question I feel qualified to answer.

Who's in charge in the kitchen?

My husband and I are avid fans of BBC’s Masterchef each year, and it inspires us to try all things culinary although we are not even vaguely good at it.  After each attempt, the kitchen looks as if we’ve just survived a hurricane and we use every pan in the kitchen to create one titchy soufflé.

However the subject of leadership cropped up during one recent episode which showed Ping Coombes being part of a team of three cooking food for the cast and crew of EastEnders and she was elected to be the team’s captain.

Her team members were Jack and Michael, the former is a 22 year old confident but calm talent with real inventive flair, and the latter is older at 30, is quietly spoken, dependable and sticks to his roots (he basically does our kind of food but it’s more posh). 

From the off, Ping was demonstrating not only the speed and skill needed to produce 60 main courses and desserts but the leadership skills needed to execute the project and motivate her team.  Cooking at this level is an art.  Being able to get someone to do what you want because they want to do it makes leadership an art form too (as Eisenhower famously quoted).

In the main, effective leaders:

Don’t issue instructions.  Instead, where appropriate, they take charge. 

Ping agreed the tasks with Jack and Michael beforehand and then drafted up worksheets to keep everyone on track.  She also took responsibility when things were tricky and put things back on track when they went pear shaped (no pun intended) – all vital things when you have both time and resource pressures. 

Are good motivators, inspiring people to take their lead and getting the most from existing resources and they are passionate and confident.  Leaders also recognise the skills of each team member and how they can be best used.

Jack was on pastry (and he’s ace at it) and Michael indicated was given a less creative job of preparing the fish for the main and he, to our amusement, said “it’s got to be done I am the only who can be trusted with such an expensive, quality ingredient”.  OK, he probably wanted a sexier job at that time, but for the sake of the team he got stuck in.

Have the energy, determination and resilience and bring initiative and competitive drive to the team. 

Ping has this in spades and the personality to go with it.  She appeared to have the trust and respect of her team members.  Both are vital in leadership

This evening hubby was again feeling creative in the kitchen.  Whilst I languished on the sofa with a glass of wine, he produced chicken Ballantine with shiitake mushrooms with a red wine reduction and steamed samphire.  That’s roughly translated into sausages, gravy and veg. 

Whilst I ignored his shouts for sous chef assistance (he wanted me to wash up a pan I think), I am hungry to expand this blog into one about gender and get you cooking up a storm.  Are women better than men at leadership?  Who is better at stepping in and getting their hands dirty?  Who is more likely to be focused on themselves rather than on the team?  Who is more likely to write it down so everyone has a clear plan to follow?

If you watched this Masterchef episode and noticed the other team's performance, you may get a clue as to my answer to those questions........!

I don't care what it's called... just give me the drugs!

Woke up today feeling dire (cough cough) so I instantly reached for the medicine cabinet to find anything resembling Nurofen. In our house, we call anything that fixes headaches, fevers and pains Nurofen but the reality is that it's only my husband who will cough up a few quid for the real deal. I am a bargain shopper and am totally sold on Tesco's copycat ibuprofen tablets for 32p! They do the same, they look the same, they taste the same, but I save about £1.40.

Once a drug patent expires and the pharmaceuticals company has recouped the cost of R&D, other manufacturers have the right to manufacture and market a generic drug like ibuprofen under their own brand name like Anadin Ultra or without a brand name like Tesco's own label version. Sometimes the inactive ingredients may vary making one better or easier to absorb than another but in most cases, there is no difference at all.

So why do customers still pay more for an expensive version of the same drug just to contribute to the manufacturer's marketing and profit margin? It can be down to education - not knowing that the formulations have the same efficacy. It could be because those customers are not price sensitive. It's probably because they believe and trust the advertising claims and that they like the brand, its values and its packaging. And it can also be about heuristics: I always buy this brand and I have confidence in it. You can also think about when that purchase is made... in a relaxed shopping situation where you can browse the list of ingredients and make a price comparison, or running into the chemist to grab a solution to your blinding migraine - in that case, an instant decision may be made on which packet you trust to cure you the quickest. Regardless of the generic competition, Nurofen is still the fastest growing analgesic brand globally and leads the pack in the UK, Australia and New Zealand - the drugs work and so does the branding.

Should I do Pilates or Fitness Pilates?!

I’ve been considering signing up for ‘Fitness Pilates’ which I’m utterly convinced will bring me increased health benefits (without any effort) compared to normal bog standard Pilates, in fact I checked the blurb and it says it produces ‘more effective stretching, strengthening and balancing of the body’ and as a marketer anything that says it’s more effective gets my vote! Clearly, it’s all about the words we use which can help convince a customer of the potential benefits over alternative offerings.

Organisations create their value propositions which are a signal to the customer of what they can expect from purchasing the product or service. Every word counts in a value proposition and companies work hard to subtly describe their offering in a snappy strap line. However, it’s not just about the value proposition, the way we describe our products and services is equally important. A friend who is adding some marketing pizzazz to an upmarket golf club was horrified to see the uninspiring menu in the club house which would have been at home in a high street café doing a full English.
It might just be steak and chips but char grilled farm-reared sirloin steak with hand cut chips, dressed watercress and peppercorn sauce sounds a whole lot more descriptive, appetising and let’s face it…. expensive.
An upmarket members-only golf club needs to project its value and price positioning to its diners off the green as well as at the 18^th hole.

The high street café serving the full English need only explain what items are included for the price – no need for any gastro pub pretensions here but descriptions are a useful tool for marketers to help express the features and benefits, the price and value positioning, and how the product or service matches with what the competition is offering. Refresh your product descriptions today and see if it makes a difference!

You may also like this post on Wilko's value proposition.

Making Brand Decisions: I'm glamping, not camping!

Wherever I pitch my tent, that’s my home and also my office! My Easter break was spent shivering a little in the wilds of Norfolk at West Runton Camping & Caravanning Club Site. As I warmed my hands around the electric heater (no open fires allowed) I started to think about how I choose a campsite these days.

We’re experienced campers but with a touch of the ‘glamp’ about us – our tent has an electric hook up and carpet (don’t get me started on co-author Ann Prayle – she takes a freezer!). But when it comes to choosing a campsite in our holiday area of choice – there are hundreds to choose from that offer similar facilities; so, as we move through the decision-making model from need recognition to information search to hopefully making a purchase, it’s easy to get stuck at a big barrier of indecision where we are faced with too many choices.

Decison-making process for campsites

This is where heuristics come into play. Heuristics are in the words of Jim Blythe, "rules for buying". He describes them as 'if x is the case, then do y'. They can relate to how we search for information, how we judge products / services, or how we evaluate alternatives.

So heuristics or ‘buying decision shortcuts’ make it much easier for me to choose a campsite and cut through pages of listings in my area of choice. If I follow them every time I make a decision, I should end up having a good holiday! Well, that's the theory!

My heuristics for choosing a campsite are:

1. Search rules – always use the camping club listings or my favoured independent website to choose a reputable campsite. 
2. Evaluation rules – always rule out sites with a club house as they tend to be noisier and packed. 
3. Choice rules – when there are choices of campsite, always choose the branded Club Site or the one with the best reviews from Club members.

When it comes to choosing a campsite for your holiday, where there are a multitude of similar offerings of which you may have little knowledge or experience and only a few branded options, heuristics can be very useful in providing a standard set of rules to follow to aid that process. By learning more about customers’ decision-making, even the smallest campsite can use marketing to break down purchasing barriers and get new customers to pitch up.

Click here to buy Jim Blythe's great book discussing consumer decision-making and heuristics!