Some things you just need to get right

Today at 1pm, I went to collect the Euros that I'd ordered using the Post Office's Travel Money service. The online experience had all gone very smoothly, I got a decent enough exchange rate and the service guaranteed to have my money round the corner at my local post office by 1pm the next day.

Yes, you've guessed it, when I got to the post office my Euros hadn't arrived. The guy behind the counter could barely conceal his embarassment when he explained: "Sorry, we've been having a bit of a problem with our guaranteed next day deliveries. They're supposed to be here by 1pm but they haven't been getting here until about half three."

Luckily, I can go back tomorrow. Unfortunately for the Post Office, assuming today's failure is not untypical, everytime they fail to keep their promises, they do massive damage to their brand. I now know that the Travel Money service can't be relied on (and so do you because I just told you) and I now know that the Post Office can't even rely on its own 'guaranteed' next day by 1pm delivery service. Considering that their whole business is about being trusted to deliver items within an agreed timeframe, you'd think they'd make sure that they got this one right.

How things work these days

On Tuesday afternoon I received an email out of the blue from a member of the Brand Republic online community saying that she’d read my blog and thought I would like to read (and possibly review) a book called Soul Traders by Jonathan Gabay. It’s sub-titled ‘How honest people lost out to hard sell’ and my new chum, Fiona, went on to say that “Jonathan’s take is that while history is once again repeating itself, as the book graphically illustrates, corruption and the use of spin to justify erroneous action is nothing new - politicians and marketers will need to radically alter their modus operandi if they want to be trusted by a jaded and increasingly disengaged electorate. Transparency and admitting personal responsibility are only the first steps.”

Nodding in agreement, I emailed back and, within three minutes, Fiona had arranged to send me Jonathan’s new book. It turned up in the post on Wednesday so, naturally, I posted a Tweet to say that I’d received it.

On Thursday evening, the author himself started following me on Twitter and by Friday I’d reciprocated and checked out his website.

Now, in a matter of days, we’re all connected. And when I start telling my friends and ‘followers’ about the book (or anything for that matter) they can be connected too.

For anyone who doesn’t get it yet, the future of marketing is lots of little conversations. Not necessarily 140 characters, but short exchanges all the same. That may not suit everyone (especially those who still prefer to try to shout largely irrelevant messages at lots of people in the hope that someone may actually be listening) but it is, undoubtedly, how things work these days.

Loving new realtime for hating you big time

This week I took my first forays into Twitter’s realtime search function. Just lob in a search term and see what the world (or at least those on Twitter) have to say about the subject. Fascinating. As a marketer, I’m drooling at the prospect of how this could develop in the future – and at the impact it could have on companies and consumers.

Realtime search lets you tap into the collective consciousness and see what is being said about pretty much any subject you choose. Allied to Twitter’s organisational capabilities, this could become a very powerful tool both for marketers and consumers.

This morning, with a bee in my bonnet about Ticketmaster, the online ticketing agency, I released my first tweet of the day – a grumpy complaint about their ludicrous charges. While I would probably have overcome my initial reaction to the £65 a ticket pricing for Steely Dan’s visit to the Edinburgh Playhouse, I’m not giving Ticketmaster £7.50 per ticket as an additional fee. Neither am I willing to pay £3.50 to have my ‘tickets’ emailed to me so that I can print them off myself.

Am I alone in feeling like this? A quick look at what they’re saying in the Twitterverse confirms that I am not. Ticketmaster tweets fall into two categories: the ‘I got my tickets on Ticketmaster’ type and the ‘I hate Ticketmaster’ variety.  And that’s pretty much it. No surprises to discover that Ryanair (where it may soon cost a quid to go to the loo) is pretty much the same.

The thing that unites them both in Twitter’s realtime search engine is genuine customer rage. So much rage, in fact, that people feel the need to tell others. While neither may care at the moment (Ticketmaster has a virtual monopoly and Ryanair seems to have almost institutionalised rudeness) the tools from the emerging social media will increasingly give consumers the ability to organise and channel their annoyance to good effect.

It isn’t just me trying to take on the big company on my own anymore. It’s all of us and we’re coming to get you.
 

Tweet dreams are made of this

Heading out to last night’s Edinburgh Twestival, I asked my wife what she thought the dress code would be. Quick as a flash, she responded: “Anorak!” and, to some extent, she was right. I’ve never been to any gathering where so many people, myself included, could be seen with their mobiles and iPhones poised to send yet another Twitticism flying round the web.

Yet, somehow, it wasn’t really geeky. In Edinburgh the excellent Hawke+Hunter made a great venue for what turned out to be a superb evening of entertainment, networking and good old-fashioned boozing. My kind of Thursday night, really – and it raised a heap of cash for a very worthy charity.

But what was really interesting about the whole thing was the loose thread that bound all the attendees together: Twitter. I was struck by the diversity of the Edinburgh gathering. From silver surfers to a couple of goofy teenagers, clutching their passports to prove they were old enough to drink, the place was jumping and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

And, at last, I started to see what Twitter is for – and, for marketers, what it could become. The idea of Twestivals was only dreamed up in September. It started as a single proposed event and became 175+ all over the world in a matter of weeks. And all of it was organised by volunteers, supported by local sponsors.

Once the idea was unleashed, as Seth might put it, the virus spread fast. Twitter itself is only the medium, a new tool that smart marketers can add to their arsenal. But it’s a powerful tool with complex rules and, unlike old world advertising and marketing, the customers talk back. Whether conventional brands will be able to make Twitter’s curious dynamics work remains to be seen but, in the right hands and with a bit of imagination, the possibilities are exciting.

Everything is marketing

Yesterday, I paid a visit to an organisation that is currently housed in a building owned and directly managed by one of the major banks. We arrived in a snow storm and because my colleagues and I had come from different ends of town, we were in two cars.

Having parked in the car park out front (which was busy but there were a few gaps) we hurried through the snow flurries and presented ourselves at reception. First impressions are important and the reception desk is a window into the company’s soul.

‘Ye cannae park in those spaces,’ was the growled greeting from our host. ‘Ye’ll have tae move.’ I can never understand companies that don’t have a visitors’ car park. That car park should be big enough for the number of visitors expected on the average day (with a sensible contingency plan for exceptional days) and it should be right at the door. Especially when the office building is in the middle of nowhere in a soul-less business park. Although common courtesy should be enough to justify this strategy, it also makes sense. Your visitors are your customers, potential recruits, possible business partners, vital suppliers, people whose support you need – not people that you want to send back into a snowstorm to find a space, maybe out in the street or in a nearby housing scheme.

Little details like this do matter and a grumpy jobsworth at the front door can do untold damage to your brand. Every interaction, no matter how small, is an opportunity to enhance a brand’s reputation and its value. Admittedly, our receptionist’s employer is in the doldrums at the moment but if they have any chance of rebuilding a once proud reputation, they’ll have to start at the front door.

Falling standards

This week, you could be forgiven for thinking that Standard Life had saved up all its bad news in an attempt to get rid of it all in one go. My RSS feeds from Citywire and Money Marketing are so laden with tales of woe from the Edinburgh-based financial giant that it’s hard to take it all in.

From the revaluation of a ‘safe’ (ahem!) ‘sterling’ fund to locking in property fund investors, from falling pension sales to a cut in endowment bonuses there doesn’t seem to be much going right for a business that its chief executive, Sir Sandy Crombie describes as having moved from a “very old style insurance model to a modern style asset managing business”.

As little as a month ago, Crombie was crowing in The Scotsman about how “we have kept a relatively simple business model, with quite controlled risks, and the market has looked at us and said rock solid”.

This week’s wobbles may dent that solidity and, certainly, the company’s public reaction to the Sterling Fund’s revaluation will stretch both the credulity and the patience of its customers. Perhaps a few lessons in customer care would benefit some of its senior personnel. Take Stephen Acheson, quoted in Money Marketing, responding to requests for ‘remediation’ for customers who may be forced to crystallise their losses because they are due to retire soon: “I do not believe [Standard Life will be extending remediation to these people]. Our recommendation is that from an investment return point of view people should stick with the fund. We understand that different people have different plans for the money in there and what their timescales are. I fully understand your point of view but I think we have made our position clear in terms of what is an appropriate way to act. You are free to challenge that through the normal channels.”

And challenge they will – especially over the clarity of the sales support materials that have been produced over the years for the Sterling Fund. Now if you or I had been Stephen Acheson we’d have read every word from the back catalogue of brochures and fact sheets before opening our mouths but that doesn’t appear to be Standard practice. Acheson again: “I do not know all the literature that has been produced on the fund over the years but what I do believe is that the totality of the information was sufficient for people to understand what was happening.”

Somewhere in all of this there are thousands of customers who once again are being let down by one of the UK’s financial institutions. I used to think it was incredible that the financial services industry had to have an initiative called Treating Customers Fairly foisted on it by the FSA. Recent events would suggest that not only is it required, it needs to be a lot tougher. Some day, perhaps even some day soon, the financial sector will learn that the most important people in the financial services industry are not a whiz kids with their wacky derivatives or the be-knighted CEOs, it’s the customers. Without them, you don’t have a business.  

The waiting is the hardest part

As Tom Petty so memorably sang; ‘the waiting is the hardest part’. This week I’m doing a fair bit of waiting and it’s very frustrating. Here’s the thing: over the past few weeks, my colleagues and I have been pitching a business proposition at potential investors. We’re ready to get on with it and the market has never been more ready to receive. We’re itching to get going. But we have to wait while our potential investors work out whether they believe our market analysis, whether they’re comfortable with our strategy and, most importantly, whether or not we fit in with all their other plans.

Like Tom Petty, desperate to get jiggy with his lady, we’re out there with our hearts on our sleeves but can’t really do anything else until at least one of our prospects says ‘yes’.

So we’re waiting. And while we wait, it’s interesting to see how others are coping with the frustrations of the moment. The other day, a friend of mine asked me to comment on some ads created by an Edinburgh agency that is clearly tired of waiting and has taken the initiative in the fight against the economic downturn.

60 Watt, has ‘put its money where its mouth is’ and created a series of press ads that urge potential clients to maintain marketing budgets and (of course) switch their advertising to 60 Watt. Fair enough. They’re lean and keen and the guys there have a decent track record in advertising.

You can see the ads here on their blog. Sure, the ads themselves are thought provoking enough but I’m just not convinced that being good at ads is enough for the 21st Century. Marketing is about so much more than advertising and if agencies are going to have a role in the future, they’re going to have to find a different model.

Having said that, I’ve spent a number of years now trying to develop a model where marketing in its widest sense is right at the centre of the business proposition – not just a function of the business but what the business is all about. I know I’m right, I’ll just have to wait a little longer to prove it.

There’s probably no point in bus ads. Now stop worrying and enjoy the PR.

You have to love the British Humanist Society and Richard Dawkins’ bus advertising stunt that has us all chattering about the existence or otherwise of God. Irritated by pro-Christian advertising the Humanists booked a £140,000 four week run on bus sides in England, Scotland and Wales. While the ads themselves are pretty lame, the debate has been entertaining.

Naturally, all the papers covered it. And the online editions have been inundated with readers’ comments. The TV news picked it up, and the radio. Bloggers have tuned in too, sharing their opinions and adding to the debate. You can even follow the fun on Facebook and Twitter where you can keep up with AtheistBus en route to Edmonton Green.

A second burst of PR coverage came quickly too as the Christian Voice dafties struck back led by the permanently indignant Stephen Green who thinks the ads should be banned on the grounds that they violate ASA codes on ‘substantiation and truthfulness’. Mr Green reckons that while there is no evidence that there isn’t a divine power looking after us all, ‘there is plenty of evidence for God, from people’s personal experience, to the complexity, interdependence, beauty and design of the natural world.’

You couldn’t make it up. So while I’m enormously sceptical about the value of bus advertising this tale proves beyond doubt that a good story in our interconnected world just spreads like wildfire.  

What's in a re-name?

Norwich Union's brand migration to Aviva has drawn me out of a six month slumber and back to the blog. (Can't really explain why I've been away for so long - just been kind of busy!)

The question posed on their outrageously expensive looking ads is 'Would I have been as successful if I'd stuck to my original name?' A simple enough idea but one that doesn't really lend itself to much interrogation - and don't even start me on the poster campaign which seems to have wandered well off course. In the TV ads, Ringo Starr, Bruce Willis, Elle McPherson and Alice Cooper pose the question alongside some fancy digital film wizardry but with the exception of old Alice (who was once Vincent Furnier and clearly needed a girl's name to make himself even vaguely interesting) the idea quickly wears a bit thin. Though the jury's still divided on the simple brilliance (or otherwise) of Ringo's drumming, I reckon his rebranding had little to do with how he fared in his spell behind the drums of the world's most successful pop group, or for that matter in the subsequent career that stint carved out for him. George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney are all pretty average names when you think about it and with the exception of Paul, which is actually McCartney's middle name, they're all the names they were issued at the outset and don't appear to have been any hindrance.

As for Walter Willis - can you imagine Walt instead of Bruce? I can. Eleanor (née Gow) McPherson picked up the McPherson from her stepdad at the age of 14 so other than a bit of fashion-conscious fiddling with her first name, it's hardly a major change and it certainly isn't too hard to imagine that Eleanor Gow complete with that unforgettable body wouldn't have been just as successful.

While a brand is undoubtedly an important communications shorthand for any company or individual, it draws all its power from the talent that backs it up. If Norwich Union sounds a little bit too parochial for a financial services giant with global ambitions then undoubtedly a cutesy pan-European palindrome like Aviva gives it a name that is meaningless enough to take it pretty much anywhere without offending anyone too much. Having said that, Aviva better be bursting with talent and brilliant ideas because they'll have to breathe meaning into the new name long after the ad budget's been blown and the printers have had a field day reprinting all the corporate literature. The name's not the thing it's what's behind it that matters and those ambitious insurance men, having reinvented themselves for the 21st Century are going to have to win over customers old and new with the quality of their products and services. I'm not sure Ringo, Bruce, Elle and Alice will be much help with that.

Business as usual

The image is a smug looking woman in a shiny green jacket and a bowler hat. The line says something about ‘easy money’. The bowler is a reference to ‘Mr Bradford & Mr Bingley’ (presumably, she’s their niece) and the timing is awful.

The last thing that’s easy at B&B at the moment is money and probably the last place that anyone is going to pitch up with their hard earned savings is their local Bradford & Bingley branch. Yet the posters hang apologetically all over town, counting down the days until some other invitation to 'eat food' or 'drink beer' gets slapped up in their place.

A quick look at bradford-bingley.co.uk confirms business as usual. There’s a welcoming invitation to ‘Become one of the UK’s top interest earners. With your eyes closed.’ Which suggests that B&B’s grip on English grammar is as tenuous as its very existence on the High Street of the future and it’s only when you click on an innocuous looking button on the right hand side of the page marked ‘B&B Rights Issue’ that there’s even the faintest sense of the turmoil that currently grips the company.

You can ‘Rest assured when you save with Bradford & Bingley’ it says on their home page but I’m not so sure.

In tough times like these is it our job as marketers to tell the truth or sell the stuff? Is there time to step back and pause for thought or do we just carry on regardless, throw open the doors and declare ‘business as usual’ until the man arrives with the padlock and chain? I guess, as ever, we’ll take what we can get and deal with the consequences at a later date. It’s just business, as usual.

Sign of the Times

About a month or so ago, my wife responded to a direct mail offer from The Times offering us a 12 week subscription at a ridiculously low price. We took them up on the offer. Hell, we even pushed the boat out and got the thing delivered. A few weeks into the trial, I’m overwhelmed with guilt.

Yes, it’s true, I’m guilty. Guilty of ignoring hundreds of thousands (millions, even) of beautifully crafted words. Guilty of turning a blind eye to all those wonderfully shot pictures. There are magazines still languishing in the plastic bag. Crosswords and sudoku puzzles remain unsolved and as for KenKen, well I dinnae even ken what that’s all about. And then there are the ads, hundreds of them at hideous expense that will never get a response from me.

As if this wanton neglect wasn’t enough, I’m worried about the trees. Sure, we can recycle (and we do, sneaking the virgin papers out to the blue box in the front garden under cover of darkness) but that newsprint mountain has to be hurting our precarious environment somewhere.

The truth is we couldn’t even get through the paper if we wanted to because there isn’t enough time in the day and, anyway, our media consumption habits are just so different these days.

We get all the news we need free – which really puts pressure on our half price trial offer. It’s easier, and more convenient to pick news up online in bite size chunks across the working day when more often than not, I’m stuck in front of a screen. I can sift through the RSS feeds. I can pick up snippets on blogs and tweets and follow links on the stuff that interests me. I can scan output from different news sources as well as specialist sites. And that’s before I turn on the myriad of channels available on TV or radio or flick through the Metros that litter my bus. There’s more content out there than I can shake a stick at and, much as I’d love to, I just don’t have the time to wade through a chunky big read like the Times.

The truth is, I like the thought of having my newspaper every day. I like waving cheerily to young Elliot, my local paperboy as I open the curtains on another sunny day but beyond that, I can’t quite seem to fit even a compact, tabloid Times into my life. Good news, perhaps, for the trees but probably not such good news for the quality end of the newspaper industry presuming, as the statistics suggest, that I am not alone.
 

BBbored already?

My kids insisted on watching the first episode of this year's Big Brother last night. Looks like the usual bunch of shallow numpties and vain wannabes. I can hardly wait ...

Too many tweets

Before you all shout, 'Hey Al, you're not blabbing on about Twitter again are you!', let me get in quickly that I'm not becoming obsessed, just mildly fascinated.

As I write, it's just after midnight here in Edinburgh and the truth is, even if I wanted to, I can't give a tweet. Yes, folks, Twitter's in meltdown citing serious over capacity. Sometimes you can get in, sometimes you can't.

Which must mean that tons of people from the saddos like me sitting up late in Edinburgh and those just waking up in Silicon Valley are finding the time in their busy days for a bit of micro-blogging.

Today I'm being followed by Jarret Coon from Missouri, a self-confessed "14 year old technologist and financial guru who is trying to make his way online". I'm number 87,506 on his list. Jarret, mate, try and make your way outside where there are trees to climb, footballs to kick and girls to explore. There's plenty of time to be a financial guru but you don't get away with being a kid for very long.

On the positive side, Vicky_Taylor and goodstuff79 are living, breathing (and occasionally twittering) evidence that nice people out there are reading and taking note.

Join my growing (6) band of followers: http://twitter.com/alanmunro

TWITter

Is it just me or am I daft to think that there's no way that Twitter can be good value at around $80 million?

Encouraged by Brand Republic's beloved leader, I've taken to the occasional Twittering. I have two followers - Gordon, who put me onto it in the first place and some dude in the States who found me by happy accident. 

They get to read my Twittering and I get to read their's. Over time, I may add a follower or two - hey, if you're interested just search for alanmunro in Edinburgh...

But, for the life of me, I can't see how Twitter is going to make any money. 'Show me the revenue model!' I hear my inner capitalist say in sarcastic tones.

If the rumours of third round funding of $15 million are true then someone somewhere is expecting to be able to turn a heap of cash through Twitter at some point. I just can't see how. Mind you, I'm also at a loss to understand how some VC has dived in with this highly risky venture when all the ones I've spoken to about my own grand plan (which goes for a good old fashion cash for services rendered revenue model) seem to hem and haw forever and never quite get round to writing a cheque.

Perhaps I should put out a request for funding on Twitter ...

Apparently, sex still sells

While, clearly, I haven't managed to get myself onto Brand Republic at all in the last few months (due mostly to overwork with just a hint of lack of inspiration) one thing I did manage to get around to was Internet World 08 at Earl's Court just a week or so ago. 

And anyone else who got along to this premier trade event for businesses trading at the cutting edge of internet technology and marketing may have been slightly surprised by the amount of flesh on show. 

Now I'm not prudish, far from it. In fact, I went round time and time again to see the 'nurses' in tight uniforms who had some very loose connection to web hosting and the girls in the grass skirts (something to do with a dating site) stickered me on more than one occasion.

I didn't know where to look with the content management ladies who offered 'the ride of your life' and I was captivated by the scantily clad lovely who wondered if I'd like to 'talk to one of those guys over there about email marketing'.

Hey, I even wandered over to the International Direct Marketing Fair and fairly frequently clocked the hugely exposed knockers on the show dolly who was handing out leaflets for a printing company. "Y'awright?" she would ask - to which the answer was 'um, yes, but why in the 21st Century are you still here?"