It is difficult to pen an article when someone is lying next to you in bed shouting 'nerd alert!' and then rabbits on about what she thinks you are writing. Well she is mostly right and I do bang on about this stuff.......roll over please you are being annoying now........Anyhoo I do moan at the ability that advertisers think they have to 'target' me and to 'reach' me.
Facebook knows a lot about me (Facebook will not be around forever BTW, but that's another nerdy blog I guess), Facebook knows my age and sex and I assume what interests me and things I like because I 'like' some stuff. It might be a case of the more they find out the less they know however. I don't want 'insane muscle growth' and I don't want to meet these over 40 singles(and she's not even reading over my shoulder anymore so I mean it......although some of the pictures are 'reaching' me in some way). I'm also not desperate to buy more insurance now as I am over 40, maybe I should be. I really don't want to buy a second pair of trainers that I have just bought online elsewhere or rent the cottage that I have finished looking at on another website. It is clever that I can be given further opportunities to purchase but I haven't done that yet, maybe I will. Perhaps we need an online button that says "oh no i'm just looking thanks" which might get rid of the over enthusiastic virtual shop assistant following me into every shop.
I'm not really statistically significant on my own but I do know that online advertising does work. I have bought car insurance from an AA banner ad in the past. I'm guessing that their cost of acquisition divided by the cost of an individual banner means that I can ignore a lot of ads but that one purchase makes it worth while for them.
The thing that has really surprised me today and made me bore you with my ramblings is that reading Wired magazine ('Nerd alert!') I am quite surprised at the advertising within and how interested I am in the products offered - Electric cars from BMW and Renault, watches from Victorinox and Omega, a King of Shaves razor and an Epson projector, cuddly toy......not really the cuddly toy but most of the things advertised I am interested in and they are attractive ads.
So the targeting is not done from a multitude of clicks and a profile but from one action, to purchase a specific magazine. From this act they can tell a lot about me it seems. The new model isn't as sophisticated as it might seem, yet.
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half" was apparently stated by John Wanamaker a very long time ago (he died in 1922). I guess with an online campaign you can see a large portion of what was wasted, but only after you have spent it.
Oh and while I am banging on about advertising who at Omega thinks that it is a good idea to put 007 on the face of one of it's watches?! I truly hope that this naff brand derailment hasn't worked for them. So James Bond (even though he is made up) is a man of superior taste and wears an Omega watch (without his number on it) - excellent I would fall for that, buy one, drink Martini and drive an Aston. James is apparently choosing an Omega and he doesn't have to, awesome I want one.......right up until the relationship, while commercially the same, is turned on it's head and Omega is overtly asking/begging James to wear the watch, Omega is defacing the watch with something that James himself couldn't wear......Blofelt would spot him (I suppose James always introduced himself anyway).
I wouldn't buy a watch with 007 on it but maybe someone with insane muscles, considerable insurance and a rude looking 40 something girlfriend would. It takes all sorts. I can't afford an Omega but I used to do my bit to keep the brand aspirational.
Monday, 10 March 2014
Monday, 3 March 2014
What Steve Jobs taught Guy Kawasaki
OK so there is this dude from Silicon Valley called Guy Kawasaki and he worked with Steve Jobs. It's almost an embarrassing business cliche to talk about Apple but I have just spent 40 mins watching this Youtube video so to save you time I will write out the 12 things he learned from his chum and then add my own notes (maybe skip those to save time). Or you could watch him here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR_wX0EwOMM&list=PLSj6wd-HGGyW6uslb4kSzpxQheY22Ee6c
but it is long......so he says;
1. Don't listen to experts!
So the guy...actually he is called Guy, I have been listening to an American accent so I am thinking in American....anyhoo he says in his example that if someone says that they are a social media expert then keep away from them.
When I had my sights on being a dotcom grillionaire I went to Channel 4's start-up fund to ask for money. 4IP was looking at digital start-ups. We went to them with Doosport our social networking site for sport. What pees me off now is that on second...or third meeting....we spent an hour arguing with this digital investment expert, not about Doosport but about social media and about Facebook and whether Facebook made any money or would ever be worth much. I have since called the chap a cnut on his Twitter page. Experts are followers.
2. Customers cannot tell you what they need
Guy talks about phones and operating Systems and mice and all sorts of stuff but this is an old message from Henry Ford - "If I had asked customers what they wanted they would have said faster horses".
I like this one. I'm working as a Business Analyst and people tell me what they think they need all the time. The difficult thing is to actually get them to think of what they are trying to achieve and why, rather than what they are currently doing.........and even then they say something related to their current way of operating......worst of all your department will want to play safe and build what they asked for.
3. Biggest Challenges Beget the Best Work
It certainly hasn't always worked but my best chat up lines were presented to the best looking women. Actually I can't think of anything to back that up.......come back on that one.
4. Design Counts
It really does....I don't know where to begin with this one because it really does count. People don't like working with crap software that looks ugly. Yes it might work but humans need more to engage their motivation and energy. I have seen so much in-house functional software that works but just renders the human operator a functioning cabbage. When you are next at a garage lean over and look at the poor guys computer screen.
5. Use Big graphics and Big Fonts
People feel safer when they deliver a word count but people just don't read long documents. The irony of this statement amongst this wordy drivel is not lost on me.
6. Jump Curves
This was stuff about jumping to another curve rather than moving up it....stuff about ice factories and fridges...........example of Autotrader comes to mind, maybe relevant. I used to work for a TV company and everyone in TV land wanted, and still wants to protect their old business model. Newspapers are similar and they are struggling. The internet looms large. Autotrader was just a publication (every 2 weeks I think), they jumped right into the internet and now just look at how many car ads they have on their website at about 40 quid a throw to the customer.....actually let me see....they have 380,020 cars on there. The internet helps you to jump curves.
7. Something works or it doesn't work
This is so awesomely ignored in the workplace, probably because it is such a fundamental question that your mind moves past it to more trivial considerations! Guy talks about open source or closed, you can believe in anything at the time but if it works that is the important thing. It's worth checking that the stuff you have running works too.
8. Make something 'unique' and 'valuable'
If your offering is not unique then you will at some point have to compete on price, and you don't want that. If your offering is not valuable then....er
9. 'Value' is different from 'Price'
Basic Marketing. Sometimes takes customers a while to get this one too! But they get there.
10. 'B' players hire 'C' players - Avoid the bozo explosion! Hire people better than you
Congratulations to my boss.
11. Real CEO's can demo their product
It's fun to demo your product if you understand it, and if you don't understand it why are you there? Watch Dragons Den and once you get over wanting to Tazer the dragons you will notice that the presentations that are the best are where there is a strong affinity with the person and the idea rather than just a polished performance.
12. Real Entrepreneurs Ship!
Here he is saying get it out there! Your first version will not be the best but get it out there, get it working and learn from it.........there are always people who will give you reasons to delay something.
Thanks for reading!
As my 12 year old son said to me yesterday "you could work anywhere on your salary"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR_wX0EwOMM&list=PLSj6wd-HGGyW6uslb4kSzpxQheY22Ee6c
but it is long......so he says;
1. Don't listen to experts!
So the guy...actually he is called Guy, I have been listening to an American accent so I am thinking in American....anyhoo he says in his example that if someone says that they are a social media expert then keep away from them.
When I had my sights on being a dotcom grillionaire I went to Channel 4's start-up fund to ask for money. 4IP was looking at digital start-ups. We went to them with Doosport our social networking site for sport. What pees me off now is that on second...or third meeting....we spent an hour arguing with this digital investment expert, not about Doosport but about social media and about Facebook and whether Facebook made any money or would ever be worth much. I have since called the chap a cnut on his Twitter page. Experts are followers.
2. Customers cannot tell you what they need
Guy talks about phones and operating Systems and mice and all sorts of stuff but this is an old message from Henry Ford - "If I had asked customers what they wanted they would have said faster horses".
I like this one. I'm working as a Business Analyst and people tell me what they think they need all the time. The difficult thing is to actually get them to think of what they are trying to achieve and why, rather than what they are currently doing.........and even then they say something related to their current way of operating......worst of all your department will want to play safe and build what they asked for.
3. Biggest Challenges Beget the Best Work
It certainly hasn't always worked but my best chat up lines were presented to the best looking women. Actually I can't think of anything to back that up.......come back on that one.
4. Design Counts
It really does....I don't know where to begin with this one because it really does count. People don't like working with crap software that looks ugly. Yes it might work but humans need more to engage their motivation and energy. I have seen so much in-house functional software that works but just renders the human operator a functioning cabbage. When you are next at a garage lean over and look at the poor guys computer screen.
5. Use Big graphics and Big Fonts
People feel safer when they deliver a word count but people just don't read long documents. The irony of this statement amongst this wordy drivel is not lost on me.
6. Jump Curves
This was stuff about jumping to another curve rather than moving up it....stuff about ice factories and fridges...........example of Autotrader comes to mind, maybe relevant. I used to work for a TV company and everyone in TV land wanted, and still wants to protect their old business model. Newspapers are similar and they are struggling. The internet looms large. Autotrader was just a publication (every 2 weeks I think), they jumped right into the internet and now just look at how many car ads they have on their website at about 40 quid a throw to the customer.....actually let me see....they have 380,020 cars on there. The internet helps you to jump curves.
7. Something works or it doesn't work
This is so awesomely ignored in the workplace, probably because it is such a fundamental question that your mind moves past it to more trivial considerations! Guy talks about open source or closed, you can believe in anything at the time but if it works that is the important thing. It's worth checking that the stuff you have running works too.
8. Make something 'unique' and 'valuable'
If your offering is not unique then you will at some point have to compete on price, and you don't want that. If your offering is not valuable then....er
9. 'Value' is different from 'Price'
Basic Marketing. Sometimes takes customers a while to get this one too! But they get there.
10. 'B' players hire 'C' players - Avoid the bozo explosion! Hire people better than you
Congratulations to my boss.
11. Real CEO's can demo their product
It's fun to demo your product if you understand it, and if you don't understand it why are you there? Watch Dragons Den and once you get over wanting to Tazer the dragons you will notice that the presentations that are the best are where there is a strong affinity with the person and the idea rather than just a polished performance.
12. Real Entrepreneurs Ship!
Here he is saying get it out there! Your first version will not be the best but get it out there, get it working and learn from it.........there are always people who will give you reasons to delay something.
Thanks for reading!
As my 12 year old son said to me yesterday "you could work anywhere on your salary"
Saturday, 1 March 2014
Product, Price, Plaice, Promotion
Our fish and chip shop is run by Chinese people, which is confusing but it is very good. It is only a mile away from our house but I still manage to drive past another chippy on the way. Someone recommended the 'Chinese' to us or 'Tres Bon' as it is named (again confusingly). So Word of Mouth got us in there and great Fish & Chips keep us going back. Not cheap, but great value.
These guys don't appear to do any promotion apart from the sign above the shop and a small sign inside for the OAP lunch, which does look tremendous value. So in Marketing terms these guys are in a place close enough to me but not the closest. They offer value but not the lowest price. They do little if any promotion (although the big sign above the shop does say 'Very Good'). They do provide a great product and WOM does the rest for them.
Perhaps some Marketing departments should just be smaller and called 'Promotions'? The other elements of the Marketing mix should of course be understood and worked on by pretty much ever other employee; most of your business activity is in some way Marketing. So take the guy on the gate to the next offsite and give him some cocktails, who knows what you might come up with.
One thing that I have noticed about a lot of Marketing departments is that theory and practice seem to live in parallel without much of a real connection. (I've worked in a few so don't take this personally) When you read about Marketing it all sounds very sensible with everything done for a reason, with a plan, measured activity, performance and a Return On Investment. In reality you hear Marketing types drop 'ROI' into the conversation confidently and often but rarely will you hear an actual number from them. An estimate would be fine, if it is reasonable.....and a number.
Do you need to promote your business? Well yes probably. In my local town there are plenty of pubs and few Market themselves out of the pub apart from Wetherspoons (which is full.....with very low prices). Many pubs are empty and sadly shutting down. Recently one of our pubs has moved temporarily, not the building but the operation. It has moved to an empty pub while the original premises is being refurbished. An unusual situation perhaps but they have moved to a pub that no one has been able to make work. In fact I believe the previous landlord tried to burn it down! These guys have the most expensive lager for miles but in quick time with a little spruce up this pub is proving to be a great success. So much so that when the refurb of the first is finished the business might have 2 pubs. These guys do engage in promotion both in and out of the pub, not much but a bit of social media, website, texts and a lot of friendly banter. They don't compete on price (although there is a happy hour) but they do provide a nice experience to a certain crowd which is a large proportion of this town. So if they can do well in a competitive market with a high price and in any place with some promotion then they must have a great product.
Do you do business with anyone that doesn't provide you with a great product? Actually let me ask that again, do you do repeat business with anyone that doesn't provide you with a great product? You might be locked in a contract perhaps and maybe you will not renew? I have a couple of those.
Anyhoo while we are talking about 'plaice' I went to Padstow or 'Padstein' last weekend. That Rick Stein, while being a superb chef, seems to know a great deal about business. We stayed above his 'cafe'. They promised good food and it was awesome, and not ridiculously priced, it was certainly value. The room was small but marketed as nice but very small. It turned out to be bigger than we expected. They made a promise on their website, they kept that promise and then they over-delivered. Therefore we are going back and I would highly recommend that you go there too. Marketing is easy if you get your product right......and build a reputation like Rick Stein.
My idea is for you to shut your Marketing department down for a month (Might not work for everyone so think about this first! In fact this will only work if you have a premises that your customers physically visit) Shut them down and send them out to work!
I work in a business with premises all around the country and indeed globally. Rather like the chippy we have physical sites with big signs above; they aren't in French but they are similarly to the point. Maybe we don't need a Marketing department? The company I work for is a gym company (alright Marketing it is a Health and Fitness company.........but in truth it is mainly gym right now). If I ran Marketing on day one I would shut them down for a month and send them into the gyms to help with our product. They could clean the place, help members and learn about the business. They are all nice people so in no time they would contribute to improving the experience for members and then WOM and indeed online WOM would do their job for them.
Then I would send them back to a smaller 'Promotions' department, baseline where we are and then run campaigns with predicted and measured Return On Investment.
And at 6 quid for fish & chips I reckon I represent a healthy Customer Lifetime Value so I look forward to receiving the invitation to Mr Wong's golf day in Le Touquet.
These guys don't appear to do any promotion apart from the sign above the shop and a small sign inside for the OAP lunch, which does look tremendous value. So in Marketing terms these guys are in a place close enough to me but not the closest. They offer value but not the lowest price. They do little if any promotion (although the big sign above the shop does say 'Very Good'). They do provide a great product and WOM does the rest for them.
Perhaps some Marketing departments should just be smaller and called 'Promotions'? The other elements of the Marketing mix should of course be understood and worked on by pretty much ever other employee; most of your business activity is in some way Marketing. So take the guy on the gate to the next offsite and give him some cocktails, who knows what you might come up with.
One thing that I have noticed about a lot of Marketing departments is that theory and practice seem to live in parallel without much of a real connection. (I've worked in a few so don't take this personally) When you read about Marketing it all sounds very sensible with everything done for a reason, with a plan, measured activity, performance and a Return On Investment. In reality you hear Marketing types drop 'ROI' into the conversation confidently and often but rarely will you hear an actual number from them. An estimate would be fine, if it is reasonable.....and a number.
Do you need to promote your business? Well yes probably. In my local town there are plenty of pubs and few Market themselves out of the pub apart from Wetherspoons (which is full.....with very low prices). Many pubs are empty and sadly shutting down. Recently one of our pubs has moved temporarily, not the building but the operation. It has moved to an empty pub while the original premises is being refurbished. An unusual situation perhaps but they have moved to a pub that no one has been able to make work. In fact I believe the previous landlord tried to burn it down! These guys have the most expensive lager for miles but in quick time with a little spruce up this pub is proving to be a great success. So much so that when the refurb of the first is finished the business might have 2 pubs. These guys do engage in promotion both in and out of the pub, not much but a bit of social media, website, texts and a lot of friendly banter. They don't compete on price (although there is a happy hour) but they do provide a nice experience to a certain crowd which is a large proportion of this town. So if they can do well in a competitive market with a high price and in any place with some promotion then they must have a great product.
Do you do business with anyone that doesn't provide you with a great product? Actually let me ask that again, do you do repeat business with anyone that doesn't provide you with a great product? You might be locked in a contract perhaps and maybe you will not renew? I have a couple of those.
Anyhoo while we are talking about 'plaice' I went to Padstow or 'Padstein' last weekend. That Rick Stein, while being a superb chef, seems to know a great deal about business. We stayed above his 'cafe'. They promised good food and it was awesome, and not ridiculously priced, it was certainly value. The room was small but marketed as nice but very small. It turned out to be bigger than we expected. They made a promise on their website, they kept that promise and then they over-delivered. Therefore we are going back and I would highly recommend that you go there too. Marketing is easy if you get your product right......and build a reputation like Rick Stein.
My idea is for you to shut your Marketing department down for a month (Might not work for everyone so think about this first! In fact this will only work if you have a premises that your customers physically visit) Shut them down and send them out to work!
I work in a business with premises all around the country and indeed globally. Rather like the chippy we have physical sites with big signs above; they aren't in French but they are similarly to the point. Maybe we don't need a Marketing department? The company I work for is a gym company (alright Marketing it is a Health and Fitness company.........but in truth it is mainly gym right now). If I ran Marketing on day one I would shut them down for a month and send them into the gyms to help with our product. They could clean the place, help members and learn about the business. They are all nice people so in no time they would contribute to improving the experience for members and then WOM and indeed online WOM would do their job for them.
Then I would send them back to a smaller 'Promotions' department, baseline where we are and then run campaigns with predicted and measured Return On Investment.
And at 6 quid for fish & chips I reckon I represent a healthy Customer Lifetime Value so I look forward to receiving the invitation to Mr Wong's golf day in Le Touquet.
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