A Letter I Received From The RAC!

On Friday I received a letter from the RAC about a new home insurance product.  But this isn’t strictly true.  I didn’t receive a letter, I opened a letter that was addressed to Mr T Test, and actually there were two letters, another one, exactly the same was addressed to Mr T O’Test.  I’m pretty sure Mr T Test and Mr T O’Test aren’t going to miss this kind of post so I opened the letter!!

At first glance I found these two letters rather amusing, but actually I think it really is rather concerning if you are any kind of stakeholder with the RAC…..

If you’re an employee it isn’t good.  Somebody who works alongside you thinks Mr T Test lived at my address, is relaxed about writing to Mr T Test, and is even relaxed about writing twice to the same address on the same day about exactly the same thing.   It’s bad news if you are a shareholder.  One contributing factor to why your dividend couldn’t be a little higher is that the RAC is investing that money into writing to Mr T Test and Mr T O’test.  It’s bad news is you’re a customer of the RAC too.  A contributing factor to why your own experience isn’t even more amazing is because money has to be set aside for writing to Mr Test rather than allocating that money to you.  Budgets have to be split between keeping customers and getting new ones like Mr Test.

Joking aside, I think this is a classic example of what happens when marketing goes wrong.  What started out as a good idea to promote a new product has in my eyes, made the RAC look rather silly and not very good at direct marketing!  If I had overall responsibility for this kind of activity I would be considering some of the following actions:-

-          I would ask the people with overall responsibility for this kind of marketing how they let this happen.  Round that table would be quite a lot of salary and overhead and some good brain power too, so I would ask why the database wasn’t simply de-duped and why isn’t there some kind of check to filter out obvious errors in the database records.

-          I would try and quantify how many Mr Tests are out there and write letters of apology to the home owners for getting their names wrong.  I would sign these personally rather than using a scanned signature.

-          I would cut all marketing expenditure budgets by 5% and increase customer acquisition targets by 2%.  If a manager told me this was not possible, I would suggest they stop writing to Mr Test as a starter for ten.  Budgets that are too big breed a culture where writing to Mr Test is OK because it doesn’t really matter and nobody will know anyway.

-          I would ask people much closer to the project detail if they really really care about the organisation and about the brand.  Somebody somewhere has let this go in the post. Why? What does this really mean about how people feel towards their employer?  It seems to me that somewhere in the process, the human passion for doing a good job has been lost and replaced with a marketing return on investment metric.  If we send out 1000 letters, x will buy the product.  But that analysis almost certainly hasn’t fully costed the Mr Test factor!

In a small business every customer matters and every penny spent matters.  There is a burning desire amongst everybody to keep the business afloat, to make it a success.  People are proud and passionate about what they do.  People try desperately hard to make everything perfect every time and get frustrated when they fall even a tiny bit short of those exacting standards  The challenge as you get bigger is to keep it that way  and some companies seem better at this than others.

I wish the RAC well with their new product. Mr Test won’t be buying home insurance from them, but hopefully someone else will and they will get a good quality product I’m sure.

Is it ethical to charge for CMS when it is driven by WordPress?

Over the last couple of years I have learnt a lot about building web-sites and seo techniques to raise the profile of a web-site once you have it. One of the most important factors is content and keeping that content fresh. With this in mind I can see why people would want a web-site that has its own content management system so that they can regularly update information, add news, and fresh content as and when they have it. This all seems sensible to me.

I personally love using WordPress. It is very flexible in terms of layout, what you can add, how you can adjust images, the look and feel of posts, and then on the more technical side how you can optimise posts for seo purposes and for easy navigation within your site. It’s also very easy to use and requires no technical knowledge. Another thing that is great about WordPress is that it is FREE, or open source and people call it. You can host a blog on the WordPress web-site in which case the domain name will be yourdomain.wordpress, or you can download the software and install it on your server. Once you have done that you can even receive updates without having to do any technical stuff at all.

The reason why I mention this is that recently I have noticed several software developers offering low cost web-sites which have a full content management system. When I look at these, I realise that actually what they are offering, is a slightly customised front end to WordPress (which is free). Now if a company says “we take free / open source software called WordPress – design a front end for you – and there you have a web-site” and charges a price accordingly I think this is fair and transparent. But what about if a company uses WordPress, changes its name to something different, and then charges you a price, is that fair or transparent?

Open source software is often cutting edge and able to give as good a solution as expensive software. The people who write the software and develop it are not motivated by cash, but by having the credibility of saying “I wrote this, and look how many people are using it”. I do think that the people who have created this kind of software, perhaps without earning a salary for doing so, deserve a fair deal and recognition for their work. So, if your content management system looks like this, then it is almost certainly WordPress.

If everyone knows this, then I think you are probably using a great product, but if you haven’t been told this, perhaps you should ask your web-developer why not? And if you are buying a new web-site, don’t be afraid to ask, what am I paying for, who has done this, where does it come from, and why?

Norwich City Of Culture Bid

What a shame Norwich didn’t win the City of Culture bid. Following the impact in Liverpool, who won the European Capital of Culture in 2008, clearly it would have given the city a great boost at a difficult time. The competition was tough, Birmingham, Sheffield and Londonderry are all great cities. I haven’t been to Londonderry, but I have visited Birmingham and Sheffield many many times and they are terrific places full of culture. That said – so is Norwich. We are smaller, perhaps a little more remote, and at times perhaps a little slow off the mark. On the other hand, we are independently minded, original, entrepreneurial, friendly and welcoming, imaginative, creative, successful, skilled, and knowledgeable. We have a great heritage of buildings, of places, of events and celebrations. We have some great musicians, artists, writers, photographers and actors. We also love coming together and have a history of producing great food and drink in all manner of different ways. Norwich has two amazing Cathedrals, two beautiful rivers, a historic market, a castle, a superb and technically advanced university, and one of the most respected Art Colleges outside of London. We also spent considerably less money on putting our bid together than the other cities did.

Although we didn’t win the honour, I think the process reminded a lot of people just what a special place Norwich is, it got a lot of the arts community in Norwich talking and working together, perhaps marketing Norwich properly for the first time, and it laid the foundations to make Norwich a city of culture not for one year but on an ongoing basis.

Rebrand or Reposition?

Perhaps it is just one of those coincidences, but recently I have heard a lot of people talking about Rebranding. “We’re about to rebrand”, “We’ve just rebranded”, “We’re going through a rebrand” or my favourite “We rebranded a year ago, but it was a disaster so now are going to do it again”!!

I am always very worried when I hear the phrase rebrand because I think it is nearly always misused and should be considered very very seriously before any business undertakes such a thing. To be really clear, I am not even sure that you can rebrand. I think you can redesign the expression of your brand, and I think you can reposition your brand, and you may do either of these things for perfectly valid reasons, but you cannot rebrand. You can throw your existing brand away and start again – but I am not sure the agencies that seem to be recommending a rebrand would recommend that with such enthusiasm and confidence.

So if you are getting feedback that your brand is becoming out of date, or tired, or slow to react, or boring, or out of touch, what should you do? A rebrand? NO! Listen to your customers and consumers, and ask what is wrong. If it is the product, work hard to update it. If it is the tone of voice of your brand, refine it and perhaps modernise it (do this only based on your customers feedback), if it is the look and feel of your packaging, consider updating the design. My point here is do not rebrand – the values of your brand should still hold true, but do consider improvements to the relevant areas of expression of your brand to keep it relevant and engaging to your audience. This is not a rebrand, or even a reposition – it is at best a refresh to the shell!

Alternatively you may be losing sales, your market may be shrinking, and even worse your share of market may be shrinking at the same time. Should we rebrand? NO! It will do absolutely nothing to improve the position you are in. I don’t want to look at all the possible scenarios which could be driving this unfortunate position in this post, but one may well be that your market is reaching the end of its natural life. A rebrand will not change that – a reposition may do though. A reposition is not about throwing your brand away, it is about making it relevant in a different context. Just as you dress differently when you go to work, when you go to see friends, or when you go to a wedding. People are always rebranding, by changing the style of language they use, the way they dress, the things they talk about. My favourite example of a reposition is Lucozade. When my grandparents were in their 70’s Lucozade was a drink for them, it gave them the extra energy they needed as they were getting older. Today I drink Lucozade, it gives me the energy I need when I go running or swimming. Lucozade has always been about giving energy, inspiring people to perform above their expected performance, but when older people realised they got more benefits from retiring early and playing in a park with their grand children than they did from drinking Lucozade, and as younger people appreciated the benefits of exercise and started to buy gym memberships, a reposition was needed – not the dreaded rebrand!

It only takes a micro second to change!

There is much written about change. People who want us to change, things we want to change, and people perhaps we would like to change. Throughout the election campaign we seem to constantly be hearing about the need for change, the opportunity for change, and even when is the right time to change. Businesses are always grappling with change. As markets change businesses have to respond. Even the widest macro economic conditions are always changing, and these affect how markets behave, which in turn affects the way that organisations have to respond. Look at how cigarette companies have had to change their advertising and marketing over the last forty years – changing advertising styles, messages, and even markets. For a more current, more rapid example, look at how banks have had to change their products and branding to reflect both the products that they can actually offer and the reputation of their industry as a whole. Marketing Norwich as a creative centre for the East, as a dynamic business hub just 90 minutes from London, as a city of culture also requires cultural change locally!

There are lots of business books written about change, and often change is described as something that happens over time, which happens gradually. Books often describe how change has to be understood, accepted, the implemented, then reviewed to take a positive outcome from the experience. I have recently been reading a little about the prison service and life in a prison. One of the main objectives of putting someone in prison is to change their behaviour so they don’t re-offend. So does change happen during their sentence, or if successful, does the change occur in that split second that they are released back into community. There has to be specific point in time when they go from being imprisoned to be free. My point here is simply that whilst perhaps it is entirely necessary to have a build up time period to change, and perhaps a reflective period after change, but change itself I don’t think happens gradually, it happens in a moment. Perhaps the trick to successful change is recognising that moment and encouraging it, protecting it, and celebrating it.

Saturday Kitchen – relaunch!!!

It is about 18 months since I first developed my Saturday Kitchen programme. The idea was and still is to offer people an affordable, focused, and individual session to help their business move forward through better marketing and business management. What is better Marketing? Well it is different for every organisation, but in essence, it means a clear sense of strategy led by insight, a clear plan which is affordable to the business, and a clear idea of what returns the marketing activities should bring into the business.

The sessions have proved very popular and there are a number of recommendations on my linked in profile. After speaking with some clients over Christmas I have decided to relaunch the product as a set of business services Norwich based organisations can tap into. I have tried to consider the times when an individual is likely to need help and support and develop specific agendas or themes to help them.
Please take a look at the page about Saturday Kitchen, and do get in touch if you think it could help you or a business you are familiar with. People can also buy these services on-line which is ideal if you want to buy a Saturday Kitchen session as a gift for someone else.

As always, the sessions involve a Saturday morning when clients are away from their business day to day focus, some good food and coffee, and around half a day one to one. At the end clients get a summary of the key outcomes along with any support materials required to help them move things forward.
See you in the Kitchen!!

Education, Education, Education

Why might someone in the private sector, a Norwich marketing consultant for example, want to look at the education sector? Well there are the obvious things about future generations and how they will shape our future, and then there is the link between young people and innovation for two reasons.

By looking at education services in Norwich, I was keen to see what was happening and perhaps just as interested to see what wasn’t happening. During a common purpose event I was able to meet a broad spectrum of young people all in very differing circumstances. Some were already using their talents to develop their own businesses and brands, some were enjoying life, learning, but still waiting to see what they would one day want to do, and others who were struggling, struggling to learn or to fit in or to move at the same pace as those around them. I very quickly realised that whilst at first glace these people could be grouped together into what in marketing language would be called segments . The problem with this approach is that everyone we met is influenced or impacted on by many other people around them in some way, and only some of these influencers can be reached through the education system to form a common goal.
I think sometimes people in marketing seek to over simplify customer groups or segments as a way to help them make sense of complex customer behaviour and the impact it has on their brands and sales. On top of this, marketers tend only to look at the primary drivers of opinion when often people’s thoughts and behaviours are an output of the people they have met and the things they have learnt.

Within the education service there is a jig saw of service providers each offering something different aimed at particular groups of people with their own needs and situations. It is a highly complex jig saw and unfortunately not everyone neatly fits into just one piece. What is interesting to me is that the jig saw has become three dimensional, because for education to work most effectively the service cannot be provided or function in isolation. The people receiving the educational service need support, stimulation, encouragement, and more from other places, other people, and in other situations.

This insight can be considered in the private sector particularly in the context of building strategic partnerships. For example it might appear strange from a paint company, Farrow & Ball for example, to form a partnership with Spec Savers – but if they worked together and developed innovative ways of helping people who are colour blind – and in doing so captured a new market through innovation, would it still appear so strange? In order to fully service a market different organisations directly or indirectly linked to the market may have to come together and collaborate to get the best results.

If everything an organisation or an individual does in some way impacts on others, surely the trick is to fully understand the impact and make it a positive valuable impact for that organisation, individual and market?

Inspired by Norwich Cathedral!

Last week I was looking around the new parts of the Norwich Cathedral Building – The Reflectory!! What a terrific example of modern architecture responding and respecting what has been in place for many hundreds of years. The Cathedral is an iconic building in Norwich. It is a focus point for all kinds of reasons including religion, history, tourism, community, education and sport. With the recent improvements, restorations and new building, the Cathedral has added a local food focus and new ways for the community to use the buildings as place to meet and exchange and share ideas. It struck me that like so many organisations the Cathedral has a clear and obvious primary purpose, but by making the best of its resources (both people and buildings) it has been able to position itself at the very heart of the community it is striving to serve (as well as playing a big part in marketing Norwich which I have written about before). Perhaps there are many organisations that could actually use the Cathedral as a great example of stakeholder engagement!

During the day which was another Common Purpose module, we considered the individual as a leader, their role, and the need for leaders to take that step from owning ideas or visions to making a journey with commitment and tangible steps and actions. In a way I think everyone is a leader of at least one. People may struggle with all kinds of management theory or behaviour techniques in order to try and win the opportunity to lead larger groups of people with more influence or responsibility, but how often do people perhaps in doing that neglect their own personal leadership requirements?

During the day we met a range of inspiring leaders, all of whom had personal experiences that forced them to move from thinking about something into taking action. So what could or sometimes does hold people back from taking this step, is it fear, a lack of knowledge, not knowing how or where to start? Some, all and probably more of the above – it will be a different set of factors for anyone in that position. But perhaps the thing in common is needing to take that first step and recognising you are in that moment. In that moment it is not about leading or inspiring others, it is about deciding to lead yourself, finding the inspiration and confidence to take that first step.

Is Thetford Fighting Fit?

Common Purpose took us over to Thetford last week. So what’s special about Thetford one might ask? Well, as I have driven past it so many times on my work to work or to business meetings I should probably know, but for whatever reason I have never been drawn to Thetford!

Thetford seems to have many different themes and appearances depending on who you talk to. Does it have a large community of foreign workers, is it a historical place, is it a beautiful backdrop to forestry, farming and rivers, is it struggling with low quality public sector services, or is it the home of Dads Army. Is it an opportunity for the region to develop, or is it a monument to previous government intervention failures.

The interesting thing for me, is that whoever you speak to in Thetford seems to have a passionate view and perspective about some of these issues. Yet ask who is to champion positive change, and there is confusion or no answer at all. Thetford perhaps needs some kind of leader to unite people and move things forward, but without authority they will not be credible, and this is recognised by the community. In some circumstances, yes one can lead beyond authority, but in others this may simply be a step too far and an appointment is required.

For Thetford to move forward, it will require all the stake holders to work together for positive change, but it will also require all the people of Thetford to encourage and support it. I wonder if they realise this?

In a recent post I wrote about the challenges involved in marketing Norwich and how a community can come together to promote its benefits. I think Thetford needs to appreciate just what its benefits are and what they could become to realise its true potential.

Developing your web-site!

It’s over a year since I first started to build my web-site and since then I have learnt a lot. – It is a never ending piece of work, always building, trying to do more, adapting to new ideas and new technology. Keep an eye on my site for some new pages coming soon.

The key themes or considerations on first build are always about “key messages” and getting your points across, but then with time you start considering other factors such as usability, search engine effectiveness, and how to use social media . It all takes time, needs patience, and a long term view.

Being a Norwich marketing consultant I am often asked about how new media fits into the marketing mix – I actually think the question should be how does new media fit into your customers media mix and therefore what is the opportunity