The Importance of Being (Not too) Earnest

This may come as a bit of a surprise but I only check my personal emails once a week. 

Yes, in this crazy, joined up, interconnected world we live in, it is actually still possible to resist the urge to ignore incoming communications - for a considerable period of time. I also only open my snail mail post once or twice a week too (although there's much, much less of that). 

This gives me a fairly interesting perspective on the marketing tactics of some companies. In one batch of weekly emails I can have as many as five promotional emails from a some organisations, with varying deals and offers, each one better than the last. I don't open them all. In fact the more there are, the less I open. 

In the snail mail pile, it's the same. One persistent offender is a leading online butcher and it would not be unusual for me to have 2 separate pieces of direct mail plus several emails from this organisation over the course of an average week. 

There's only so many times a girl can buy steak.....

Now I'm the first to appreciate that frequency of contact in marketing is an essential ingredient for success, but there is such a thing a too much frequency. Too much contact. Too much invasion into the "top of my mind". 

In fact it feels as if some of these companies communicate with me more often than my family. That they believe they should be party to my daily life. 

Are they desperate for sales? The quality of their marketing would suggest not. But their communication patterns suggest otherwise. 

So far I've held back from cutting them off completely by justifying to myself the convenience of having yummy steak delivered straight to my door, and the possibility that unsubscribing may send them into an even blinder panic of over-marketing to get me back. Like the gym, who now communicate with me more often now that I am no longer a member, than they did when I was. 

Interestingly we recently took the less is more approach and recommended to one of our clients that they do a little bit less on social, and a little bit less frequent email marketing and, guess what, their online sales have gone up, conversion rates are growing and attrition is falling. Result!

Perhaps we're just too busy to absorb it all. Of course it's great to develop relationships with your customers, but please try to remember they are customers, not your best mate or your spouse. 

There's an importance in not being too earnest....... don't you think?

When a Promise Becomes a Threat

We are now several months into Tesco's latest marketing campaign, The Tesco Price Promise. 

And the anecdotal results I can see on social media are very interesting. 

On the face of it, this should be a successful campaign. What's not to like, at the heart of a recession, about promising your customers that, if you (accidentally) overcharge them, they'll get that overcharge off their very next shop? What's not to enjoy about your loyalty being rewarded and a financial incentive to return?

But there's a downside. If you continually overcharge your customers, and give them a piece of paper to prove that you are doing it. Every week. Then it's only a matter of time before the customer sits up and thinks "Hey, wait a minute here...."

And the flip side? Well, if you are saving money, it's only a matter of time before you get a little peeved that everyone's getting money off vouchers except you.....

This latest price promotion could spell disaster for the market leader. Already CNBC is predicting Tesco's fall from power, and rival supermarket chains are stepping up their marketing messages to compete with the price promise juggernaut head on. Sainsbury's is even challenging Tesco through official channels that their "comparisons" are not even real comparisons, and you have to agree: it's hard to compare the Fair Trade coffee to the ground coffee that was unethically extracted from its suppliers at rock bottom prices....

Social media is further fueling the spread of this disgruntlement, with irritated shoppers posting up pictures of their receipts, demonstrating just how much cheaper it would have been for them to do their grocery shop elsewhere. 

This doesn't really affect our household. We switched our weekly grocery shop to the so called "premium" supermarket Marks & Spencer a few years ago. At an average saving of £40 on the weekly shop, the two grand annual saving is worth the stick we get from our friends for pretending to be posh. Quite frankly, I'd rather be "pretend posh" than poor. 

A few recent trips to Tesco, to just get a few things, have resulted in numerous money off coupons, and our astonishment that just a couple of carrier bags of "bits and bobs" can come to such a high amount. 

I simply pity the poor families who shop there weekly, on limited budgets, and see their hard earned wages going straight to Tesco's bottom line.

So what should Tesco do now? 

Well, the sensible option would be to cut its prices. 

It might eat into some of the £1.4 billion pre-tax profits it has made in the last six months, but it's likely to lose less customers in the long term. 

Since the start of the recession, shopping habits have changed immensely. Discount shopping is no longer stigmatised, coupons are considered valuable commodities but, despite these changes,  long term shopping habits remain a constant. 

And once a customer has shifted their main supermarket, it is doubly difficult to lure them back. 

As a marketer, I can promise them that. 

Who Owns Your Firm’s Social Relationships and Why Should you Care?

We've never had a guest blogger before, but I felt that this content was so pertinent to so many small businesses who use LinkedIn as part of their marketing efforts that it was well worth passing on. So our thanks go to Alan Matthew at Miller Hendry Solicitors who has given us permission to reproduce his original article in full:

When it comes to social networks, there has been a tendency for professionals to dismiss the more personal social platform of Facebook, and dive straight into the more professional platform of LinkedIn.

A recent case, however, that keeping things purely “professional” has inadvertently blurred the lines for businesses when it comes to who owns the relationships and contact data cultivated on the world’s number one social network for business professionals.

LinkedIn may have replaced the old fashioned address book and database for keeping up with business contacts, but while many companies encourage employees to use the online social networking site to keep in touch with customers, few have realised the downside of such relationships when an employee moves on.

Company-held data, such as a customer database, clearly belongs to the company and can be easily protected against misuse, however in the LinkedIn era the boundaries are increasingly unclear, with many employees making personal contacts in the course of conducting their professional business. 

A recent case in the High Court tackled this thorny issue, and employers now have a clear route to tackle any misuse of contacts. “The LinkedIn Injunction”, as it is colloquially being referred to, has made it clear that employers may be able to act to secure contacts cultivated on behalf of the company in circumstances where they can show a legitimate proprietary interest in an employee’s LinkedIn profile. 

In those circumstances the company needs to be able to show that the loss or misuse of an employee’s profile may give rise to “irreparable harm that cannot be compensated” by any financial payment.

In the case of Whitmar Publications Limited v. Gamage and Others, publishing company Whitmar was granted a restraining injunction against three former employees who had set up in competition, alleging they did so whilst still employed.  Whitmar also alleged that contact information had been collected from members of LinkedIn groups that were maintained by Whitmar. 

The Court agreed that the LinkedIn groups involved constituted legitimate company property as one of the employees involved was responsible for maintaining these as part of their employment duties and using Whitmar’s computers, with a clear aim of promoting Whitmar’s business. 

It also accepted that the former employees had used contact information from the LinkedIn groups to send out promotional material about their new company. 

Granting the injunction to restrain the use of Whitmar’s confidential information, the ex-employees were also required to return confidential information and open up their computer systems for forensic inspection. 

So what action do you need to take? Here’s our top five tips in how to ensure your social media policies are kept up to date following this recent judgement: 

1. Assume that any LinkedIn account opened using an agreed company email address may subsequently belong to the company. LinkedIn accounts opened with a personal email will remain personal. Ensure this is clear to all employees.
2. All content on the profile, such as photographs and individual profile descriptions of an employee’s current role, should be cleared by the company prior to publication.
3. All job descriptions should clearly state that cultivating connections via LinkedIn is a part of business development for the company.
4. Employment contracts and social media policies need to specify that any LinkedIn activity by an employee, being conducted using LinkedIn on the employer’s behalf contribute to a database of proprietary trade information.
5. Employers need to be clear that compensation is being given for engaging in these business development activities as they take place during working hours.

And, finally, consider a more holistic approach to your social media activity. In light of this judgement, perhaps Twitter and Facebook have clearer personal and professional boundaries than once thought. 

Tales of the Unexpected

I recently lost my Gran.

After a long illness, at the age of 87 she finally succumbed to a rare brain tumor and passed away on the 1st August.

For two weeks now I have been adjusting to the loss. And to the rather strange feeling that, although we'd been expecting her death, it was still all too sudden. That I really wasn't prepared.

My Mum, however, who had been my Gran's carer for almost five years, had taken a different approach. Super organised, and mega-prepared, she handled everything with ease and grace. She knew it was coming. And in a bid to make the unavoidable easier, she'd prepared lists and taken action in advance. She'd even pre-paid the funeral!

Dealing with the unexpected is part of the day to day for any business owner. Change is the one constant you can expect in business. But even though it's expected, it can still have a catastrophic impact.

The key is to plan for what you know will happen so you can better deal with it when the time comes.

Know you're about to lose a client contract at the end of the year which will impact on cashflow and profitability? Then don't just sit there and wait for it to happen - start planning now: how will you get new customers to replace the lost revenues, speak to your bank and arrange an overdraft facility to smooth any short term cash flow difficulties.

Know that demand for a service or product is declining at a rapid rate? Then plan on how you are going to replace it. What's increasing in demand? Can you enhance the product to slow or reverse the decline?

My Gran was rarely fazed by any challenge. In her latter years she coped with complete loss of her sight without giving up her independence. In fact, just 4 weeks before her death she was toddling about her house, quite the thing. When my Grandfather died suddenly 30 years ago, she took over the running of his business: a butcher's shop.

But first she sat down with accountants and advisors and formed a plan of how it could be done.

She didn't even make her famous pancakes without following the recipe (a recipe which I've now fallen heir to - and the secret ingredient, which is NOT written down!).

The message is clear: want to survive life's ups and downs? Then you need a plan. No matter how small. It'll make all the difference.

This blog post is dedicated to my Gran:
Patricia Gavin Rattray, 1926 - 2013 RIP
PS: Nanny, I've got the message :-)

Change of Plan: Why Social Media Managers Need to be Flexible

For those businesses who are extremely active on social media platforms, pre-programming content is an absolute must, but there continues to be a disconnect between how some organisations treat social media communications, in comparison to other media, and it's a disconnect I will never fully understand. 

Take our local council, for example, who announced (via social media) at 4.30pm on Friday afternoon that an outdoor art event, due to take place on Saturday, had been cancelled. Just 16 hours later, they issued a reminder to the public not to forget about the art event on Saturday. Clearly a pre-programmed communication. 

They met with a barrage of confusion by followers of their facebook page, they then failed to respond to any of them or remove the inaccurate post. It's likely that no-one monitors social media at the weekend or, worse, no-one thinks social media's important enough to manage. 

There are far too numerous examples of this kind of thing happening. Businesses who tweeted promotional content while frantic families took to twitter to communicate with loved ones during the Boston Marathon bombings. Pre-planned tweets that encourage people to take walks in the countryside when storm force gales are circling the area.

How hard is it to know what you have planned? Seriously. 

So here's a few tips for those businesses who are not quite getting it. Pre-programming content is fine as long as you follow these four golden rules:

1. Be Aware. Know what content you have planned. We have records or every single tweet and facebook posts for every single client, we know what's going out and when - just like if we were broadcasting a TV advert..... it's the same difference. Comms professionals wouldn't sign off a TV or press advertising schedule without knowing the content, social media should be treated exactly the same. 
2. Monitor. Keep an eye on your social media - AT ALL TIMES - have more than one administrator on facebook, have mechanisms in place to alert you if (all of a sudden) there's a surge of activity on your account. 
3. Respond. Can't say this firmly enough. It's a two way dialogue on social media. TWO-way. Talk to your followers. It's OK to make a mistake - just apologise quickly, sincerely and move on. 
4. React. If circumstances change, pull the content. Sometimes it's just inappropriate to be going in with the hard sell. We removed all pre-planned content from social media for a client in the wake of the Boston Marathon Bombings out of respect for their community. Our actions may have gone unnoticed, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Dial 1 for the Sales Prevention Team

Apparently Dell have experienced an "unprecedented slump in sales". 

After attempting to purchase from them this week, I'm not terribly surprised. 

One would think that in this digital age, purchasing a PC would be as simple as buying sausages. In fact, you'd think that buying sausages would be the more difficult transaction. But, let me tell you, a recent purchase from Scottish online butcher Donald Russell fared significantly better than my attempts to purchase a computer from Dell. 

This week it took me around 56 hours, one internet transaction, 5 email exchanges and 6 phone calls to buy 2 PCs. It should have taken me about a minute. 

So what went wrong?

Well, with products carefully selected, my online order and payment details were submitted. Within seconds (and, I have to admit, it was so fast it was impressive) I had a call from my bank to verify two (not one) transactions from Dell. One for around £1000, the other for around 60p..... They (quite rightly) thought this was suspicious. 

I verified the transactions which added up to the full amount of the order, but my bank said I would need to contact Dell to request them to process payment. And then the fun began. 

Call 1: Describe situation, reassured that everything was fine, this happens every day (really?) and that payment would be processed within next 24 hours.

Wait........ 24 hours.........

Nothing. 

Call 2: Describe situation. Again. Get cut off. 

Call 3: Call back. Describe situation. Again. Get told that every single person who can help me in this multi-national company that employs tens of thousands of people are out to lunch. Yes, seriously. Could I call back later? It was 1pm. Requested, politely but firmly, that they call me back at 2pm once they'd finished eating. I was, after all, only trying to give them my money. 

Wait ......... No call .........

Call 4: Decided to take a different approach and asked to be put through to sales to purchase a computer. Success! Secured new order, payment put through, original internet order cancelled. All done. 

Or so I thought. 

Call 5: About 1 hour later......Panic call from Dell. I've submitted 2 identical orders!! What should they do?

Call 6: 10 minutes after the first call .....Second panic call from Dell. They are not sure which order to process....could I please call them back. 

Email from Dell: Stick an X in the box to tell us which order to process. 

I could tell you where I was tempted to stick my X, but it would be rude. So I won't. 

A seemingly simple purchase had turned into a saga of incompetency, incredulity (how can the entire multi-national company all be off at lunch at the same time??) and exasperation. 

Donald Russell, the butcher, managed to take my online order seamlessly in under one minute. It was delivered to me within 48 hours. Magic. Simple. 

So ask yourself, are you running a sales prevention business or are you trying to deliver. Because Dell certainly aren't. And that might easily explain their "unprecedented slump in sales". 

Get Out (And Don't Come Back)

City centres are in crisis. They are not what they used to be.

Or, actually, they are what they used to be.

It's those pesky consumers who've changed.

I recently heard news that an out of town retail park (very close to my home) will be getting a new Marks & Spencer Food Hall and Boots, both of which will be open in just a few months time.

As someone who does their weekly shop at M&S I was, naturally, delighted. No need for me to go into town every week now. This will ultimately save me time. And further change my shopping habits. Forever.

Good news is worth spreading, so I've told others. It has been met with delight and, in some cases, ecstatic glee.

"Thank God for that. I won't ever need to go into town!" they've exclaimed.

Surprised by the veracity of their response to this, seemingly everyday, news (I mean, we're being told that retail is dying, it's the end of retail as we know it, and it is, after all, just another shop) I've dug a little deeper.

Turns out there are two factors that feature in their gleeful reasoning of why this "out of town" retail model works best for them:

1. Convenience
2. Parking

How simple. How interesting.

Have our city centres become inconvenient? Yes, I suppose you could say that. It takes ages to get into town and, once you get there, traffic lights, traffic delays, one way systems and pedestrianized areas hamper progress at every stage.

And how's parking? Well, aside from an additional expense, it's not easy. Even more than that, it can be downright stressful. Queues to get into car parks, queues to get out, people nicking spaces right out from under you, paying up front, tickets running out when you're in the middle of having a coffee, having to carry coins to pay (to be fair, not in every city, but in Perth, where I live, you'll find it challenging to park if you don't carry a trusty bundle of 10 pence pieces with you everywhere you go). It all adds up to one big mega hassle.

And who needs hassle, right?

So bin Mary Portas' "save the high street" report, and forget twiddling around the edges, if local councils really want to save the high street, they need to start looking at making it easier to get in and out of the city centre, and where to (conveniently) put all the vehicles when they are there. Heck, now here's a radical thought, they could even make parking free......

Because, you see, the problem is not that consumers aren't spending money (they are), it's just they are spending them in places they can get to easily and get parked for free.

The city centre is not it.

You can get it on the Internet

Save our High Street! High Street in Crisis! Shop Local!

These are all headlines and calls to actions we've seen in recent years.

As the recession has bitten, more and more High Street retailers have gone to the wall. Some quietly shutting their doors, others exits marked by the national media and a mourning customer base, many of whom blame them for hefty prices and failing to innovate. 

So, being the good little consumer I am, I have started to really heed these calls to action. 

I don't want all those fabby little independent shops to disappear. 

I've started to shop locally more often. 

And the results have, I admit, been slightly patchy and, in some cases, downright disappointing. 

Just a couple of weeks ago I ran out of my regular hair styling product for a well known professional brand. You can't buy in Tesco, or Boots, this brand is only stocked in professional salons. But with over 120 hair salons to choose from in Perth, I should be spoilt for choice, right?

Not so. After visiting several, it turns out only one salon stocks this brand. 

After going (out of my way) to go to this salon, their display of 2-3 products in this retail line did not fill me with hope. 

After enquiring, I was (helpfully) told I could "get it on the internet". 

So I did. And it was delivered to me within 48 hours. 

So come on High Street, here's my call to action for you: Get Real and Wise Up. 

Consumers KNOW they can get it on the internet. 

If they walk into your store, it's because they have made the effort to buy local. And please don't think it's not an effort to support you. From the comfort of my armchair I can order my product and, if I like, stay there for the 48 hours until it's delivered. To shop with you I have to get up off my armchair, get into my car, drive into town, park, pay for the parking, walk to your store and, regrettably, cover up my irritation when (having made all that extra effort) your response is that I can get it on the internet. How foolish am I?

But the truth is I will always be able to get the products I want on the internet. But you, on the other hand, will not be able to find your jobs on the internet if you continue to keep up that approach. 

When is a Service not worth £1.80?

£1.80

It's the price of a coffee. A Sunday newspaper. If you're lucky, a cake. 

A lot of value can go into £1.80. A lot of pleasure can be derived from £1.80.

In many respects it's a trivial amount. It's not going to pay your mortgage. It's not going to fuel your car. 

But it might brighten your day, widen your knowledge and understanding of international affairs, or perk you up after work. 

So when would a service not be worth £1.80?

How about when you book tickets to the local cinema online, only to have to queue for 15 minutes to pick them up when you arrive, making you late for the film, disgruntled and frustrated that you planned ahead?

How about when you point out the folly of this, clearly ridiculous, process to the staff and are met with the response that booking online enabled me to get the seats I wanted? 

Yes. I truly love sitting right at the back, where the lights never go out so it spoils the full enjoyment of the film. They were the only two seats left in the luxury section. There were, however, plenty of cheap seats available on the night. So his counter argument about securing a seat was, quite frankly, moot. 

So too was his argument about buying online minimises the queue for the staff. 

Ummmmm. Having just queued for 15 minutes, I beg to differ. 

So the next time you create a service that commands an additional fee, give some thought as to whether you are also adding in additional value. 

Expectations are attached to everything you sell. 

Even if it is just for £1.80. 

Next time, I'll just stand in the queue. I'll be no worse off.