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How to ruin retail choice – over-regulation
0March 27, 2005 by Colin
It seems the All-Party Small Shops Group, a group of British MPs, suspects that further measures are needed to ensure all Britons have fair and competitive access to supermarket goods across the land.
Nothing like the scrutiny of an ombudsman and an MP’s group to keep the price of peas fair for all.
Says their Chair:
“We need an ombudsman so that people can refer complaints to them but also to take a broader view on supermarkets. The Department of Trade and Industry is adopting a hands-off approach with supermarkets, but we have regulators for all kinds of industries, so why not for this sector?
“While it need not be something heavy handed in the way that it has been with railways, people have got to have someone who can address their complaints if they are suffering as a result of unfair practices.” (Times of London)
Would you like to be the poor customer service rep in that sort of organization? Taking calls about coupon cashing policies, the lack of shopping carts at urban locations, and “why don’t they carry Tilson cheese at that shop on High Street?”
Call me a free market fanatic, but if unbearably small profit margins and growing price pressure from new formats are forcing consolidation in the supermarket industry, I would bet that greater regulation and oversight would not lessen the price of cheese strings or Ryvita crackers.
It would, however, open up another line of business for British communications shops – all those customer feedback forms for supermarkets across the country, inevitable trade show booths offering government customer service training videos, and an inane PSA campaign about the new rating system: “We stack the groceries, so you don’t have to.”
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Giving your event that extra little (all)spice
0March 24, 2005 by Colin
Sometimes, it’s the little touches that make an event magical. Like the 50 lb. three tier pork pie made for a West Yorkshire couple’s wedding.
Of course, the groom is a member of the Greater Ripponden Pork Pie Appreciation Society.
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Blogging as a component of a communications strategy
0March 24, 2005 by Colin
As more and more PR firms develop blogging “practices” and push blogging programs, I have to wonder: when we’re peddling the flavour of the month, are we taking into consideration the other entrees in the meal?
Are we pushing adoption of a tool that, while cool to communicators, does not fit well with our client’s existing communications strategy?
Are we taking the initiative to pitch them on an integrated communications strategy, including blogs, or just the new tool?
Even more importantly, are we pitching blogs as a cure-all, even though the technology may not be an appropriate channel to reach their customers, suppliers or stakeholders?
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Takeaway from the Auletta/Thaler smooch job
0March 23, 2005 by Colin
Ken Auletta has nary a negative word to say about Linda Kaplan Thaler in this week’s New Yorker.
A takeaway paragraph:
“In many ways, the advertising business in the early twenty-first century would be unrecognizable to the generation that once thrived on Madison Avenue. The traditional assumption, as Keith Reinhard says, was that advertisers chose the time and place of a “one-way show-and-tell” ad. The consumer was a captive audience.
Today, advertisers chase consumers with a certain air of desperation. “It’s not just about looking pretty anymore,” Linda Kaplan Thaler says. “There are all these beautiful products out there. You need a lot more personality to get the date.”
Thaler plans to expand her personal brand by hosting “a gentler version of Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice” for Oxygen, called “Making It Big.” Set to air in May, “she said that it would be great publicity for the agency— ‘like doing a new business pitch.’” Oxygen? That’s like playing in the Dominican League – there’s a lot of talent, but not a lot of spectators.
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Mama’s got a Munchbox, she wears on her …
0March 23, 2005 by Colin
I don’t know which excerpt I like better from today’s NYT article on the snack bar in a Flatbush Sears:
“The cuisine, a sort of West-Indian-American fusion, is fresh, delicious and reasonably priced. The staff is friendly, and the décor is best described as Midcentury Employee Break Room.
Or that the place is called the Munchbox.
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Building Buzz with the Oprah Nation
0March 22, 2005 by Colin
Turns out that Oprah can help a marketer move thousands of CPGs off the shelves, but may not be as useful in pushing poorly-regarded lumps of steel.
Her promotion of the Pontiac G6 – including giving away 276 of them to her audience – helped build buzz for the product last September. But sales haven’t followed suit.
Industry analysts, however, lay the blame on the design and capabilities of the car.
“… neither GM’s marketing department nor Winfrey can be blamed for the market performance of the G6.
“It’s one thing to have that kind of a major marketing coup, but you need to back it up,” said [Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research], who said he believes that the vehicle is an underwhelming package in a competitive marketplace.
In fact, Spinella said, GM’s marketing department should be credited with getting the lackluster G6 so much attention.”(Detroit Free Press)
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I’m jonesing for the Factiva RSS feed
0March 21, 2005 by Colin
Finally! The jury-rigging of online media monitoring may be coming to a close! Factiva is beta testing RSS feeds!
Sure – the feeds only provide industry-specific editor’s choices for now. And questions about authentication and redistribution will delay a simpler and more comprehensive version of Factiva RSS. But it’s a start!
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Intro to the British Press
0March 21, 2005 by Colin
As the FCC seizes upon inadvertent swear words and the White House Press Gallery whinges about their lack of access, it’s refreshing to be reminded of the madhouse that can be the British press.
The NYT’s London Bureau chief, Sarah Lyall, contributed an amusing commentary on the state of the British press to Slate last week. A sample:
“”What the fuck are you doing, you devious little turd?” is how [Piers Morgan, the former editor of the Daily Mirror] once opened a telephone conversation with Alastair Campbell, Blair’s chief spokesman and Machiavellian political attack dog.”
Oh – it looks like Campbell’s started a blog. And this is what he thinks of Piers Morgan.
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I’m Billy Bush, and I’m your candidate for POTUS!
0March 18, 2005 by Colin
Presidential cousin Billy Bush, candidate in 2008? It could happen. And Teddy Wayne has written his stump speech. It’s in McSweeney’s.
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Pulling Ads: a defensible public relations strategy?
0March 18, 2005 by Colin
Is there an appropriate time to pull your company’s ads from a publication? How about an entire range of publications? Marks & Sparks has pulled all of its advertising from the UK’s Associated Newspapers stable – a relationship worth Ł2.9m last year – after an apparently inaccurate article in the Mail on Sunday.
While the story is two weeks old (Guardian, r.r.), PR Week UK is reporting on the reaction from the public relations and marketing communities.
Pulling advertising is, as a 1989 article in Communications World noted, incredibly stupid. Rather than winning a (suspect) moral victory, companies often end up distorting, if not sabotaging, their media plan and marketing efforts.
After all, how better to follow up a negative article than by pulling all your brand and product promotion – from the publications you personally identified as essential to your business plan?
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Baseball, steroids and identity
0March 18, 2005 by Colin
You could do worse than watch some of the testimony on baseball and steroids taking place in Washington.
As we PR folks prepare our clients for public speaking opportunities, we often suggest they “just be themselves.” Relax! You’re presenting your point of view! You’re an expert in the field! You’ve got this nailed!
And then we emphasize bridging to key messages. Staying on track. Avoiding the knockdown punch.
Jose Canseco – whether you believe him or not – seems to have moved beyond this artifice. Michael Chabon, writing in an NYT Op/Ed, observed:
I’ve never seen a man who seems more comfortable with who he is than Jose Canseco. Not with who we think he is, like our current president, or with his best idea of himself, like our president’s predecessor, but with himself: charmer and snake, clown and thoroughbred.
That’s because he’s laid his entire identity on the line. And that was something Mark McGwire, lawyered up and seemingly concerned for the future, was not willing to do.
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Goin’ Back to the U.S.S.R – with Mr. X
0March 18, 2005 by Colin
After 101 years, George Kennan has shuffled off this mortal coil. His “Long Telegram” and subsequent “Mr. X” article in Foreign Affairs helped define forty years of East-West relations, and were staples in my international relations courses.
The NYT has a lengthy biography of the man. (r.r.)
And here’s a quote from his Long Telegram to consider (not that it has any relevance today, nudge, nudge):
“[The Communist] Party line only represents thesis which official propaganda machine puts forward with great skill and persistence to a public often remarkably resistant in the stronghold of its innermost thoughts. But party line is binding for outlook and conduct of people who make up apparatus of power — party, secret police and Government — and it is exclusively with these that we have to deal.
A note to my younger readers: sixty years ago, the only way to get a message from Moscow to Washington in anything less than a week was by telegram, and you paid by the word. As a result, definite articles, adverbs and other useless verbiage was excised.
Hey! Imagine if blogs had to operate under the same conditions?
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It must be important, it ends in “-gate”
0March 16, 2005 by Colin
Political leanings aside, this is funny – and well designed. Muzzlegate.ca mocks the Conservative Party for their reluctance to address potentially divisive social issues during their policy convention this week. There’s even a cut-out “Mr. Muzzle.”
It’s the product of the Young Liberals of Canada, of course.
Thanks to David Akin for the pointer.
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Put some lipstick on this RFP and ship it!
0March 16, 2005 by Colin
Some have pined in past months for the former influence and glory of a catalyst publication like Fast Company. Ten years ago, their pimping of ideas like change agents and brand you helped inspire and invigorate a generation of entrepreneurs and professionals.
Today, FC’s ad pages are way, way down. But the ideas and the ethos live on – there’s evidence in our everyday business that we’ve absorbed the “learnings” of the 1990s.
An example: a friend of mine was recently pitching for new business. Not a local pitch. Not a fellow Rotary member. Not even an acquaintaince of an old college friend. A serious municipal RFP with detailed requirements. The sort of thing that can cripple a one-man shop if not handled properly.
Now, Greg’s the kind of guy to have his material backed up on the laptop, spare CD, usb keychain and his Treo. He was prepared for this pitch. He had the marketing material sewn shut, the cover letter ironed, and the proposal polished. But he needed three pretty copies produced and shipped to the officious and demanding registrar by 11 am the next day. Oh – and he was travelling across the country on business.
The deadline was strict (Why 11am? Was there an office lunch buffet at Charlie Chan’s scheduled? Had people made plans to get loaded and copy their fannies on the office Xerox – in duplex?).
The only option in this two-bit town was a local copy shop. The sort of place that prides itself on its “next day service.” With the 1993-era computer that can’t handle “big attachments.”
Ten years ago, he would have hung up the payphone, turned on his heels, dejected, and headed for the closest peeler bar. Instead, he looked for a Kinko’s – the nearest was a mere 100 miles away, in a different state.
And the manager in Exurb, Indiana said he could do it. E-mailed files would become colour documents, copied, cerloxed, and packed for shipping.
A few months ago, I questioned the value of Kinko’s acquisition by FedEx. Less blinkered than me (and just a little motivated), Greg saw an opportunity: he harangued the manager to have an off-duty FedEx driver deliver his package to Ohio for the next morning. He even offered to transfer $200 the easiest way possible – through PayPal – to make sure the job was done.
End of story, right? A wonderfully modern tale of connectivity and hypersensitive customer service, right? Nope. Even better.
When Greg spoke to the manager again later that night, he was offered an even better option: FedEx Custom Critical. Same deadline, same driver, same documents – but twenty bucks cheaper and with an official FedEx delivery receipt.
That’s right. The late night manager at a copy shop a hundred miles away not only arranged production but shipping, and figured out how to save Greg money as well.
And the smalltown guy who didn’t upgrade his system to handle graphics files? Out of luck, but comfortable in his 1993 business model. I wonder how his other business – likely a video store – is holding up.
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Scratch n’Sniff Marketing
0March 14, 2005 by Colin
You should really take a look at Millward Brown’s international research into the sensory impressions imparted by brands. Are you speaking to ALL the senses of your consumer or client? Has your marketing team even considered the sense of smell, sound or touch in its planning process?
Come on – it’s not a joke. This is about more than just the new fresia body wash at Lush, the waterfall scent being peddled by your cleaning supplies wholesaler, or the latest in-store music channel. Are you overlooking an essential component when setting the stage for consumer interaction with your product?
Promotions and Incentives has reviewed this research and highlights some stunning results:
“…a whopping 42 per cent of consumers say McDonaldďż˝s smells like old oil. Even the sound is problematic. A large number of consumers felt the McDonaldďż˝s brand reminded them of screaming kids and, believe it or not, the beep-beep sounds of a truck backing up. These perceptions hardly augur well for the burger chain.”
In some cases, marketers are working to implement similar insights: machines are already being developed to deliver custom smells and sounds to customers in specific situations.
Now, if they could do something about your outside sales guy’s fondness for Drakkar Noir.
Canuckflack
… Colin McKay has some thoughts about design, data, management, government and oddities … written in Canada!
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Blood Stains from the slaine Monks of Lindisfarne in the Viking attack of 793AD. Â Folios 191v and 192r of the Lindisfarne Gospels - written and illuminated by the Anglo-Saxon Bishop Eadfrith in 698AD.
Liber generationis Jesu Christi
“Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made. Behold, the church of St. Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples.”
Alcuin, Letter to Ethelred, King of Northumbria
Images: British Library
I had a Brooks Brothers 15 1/2 - 35 shirt and we used its front pocket to determine when the Pilot design was “pocket sized” - Joel Jewitt, discussing the invention of the Palm Pilot
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130408043926-7298-early-employees-joel-jewitt-palm
Before I discovered the Internet
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