B2B 101

Direct Disasters

2009-01-04T12:18:00Z

I have always believed in the direct approach, and that public relations face to face is one of the most powerful tools DM in building a brand. For a football club, desperate to sell merchandise as well as tickets, the chance to meet 120 football mad kids in a secure environment, when it would cost little more than fifteen minutes of anyone's time, ought to be too good to miss.

So my trip to take my son to a Chelsea Elite Training Centre tournament at the Chelsea training ground in Cobham ought to have been a treat and a pleasure. The Chelsea In the Community team are brilliant with the boys. Despite being a passionate Arsenal fan, my son has benefitted from excellent training and treatment from the Chelsea coaches since he was four, and they have played a big part in making him a promising nine year old.

On Friday morning, the tournament happened to coincide with the Chelsea first team training session in preparation for their Saturday clash with the mighty Southend. Precisely 200 yards from the kids tournament. Whilst waiting to begin, we watched all the Bentleys arrive. Then the boys went to warm up, and the parents were given a welcoming speech that amounted to instructions not to look, wave, shout or generally breathe in the vicinity of the first team Gods. Not that we were about to rush over the ten foot fence, dodge the burly security men, and strip the clothes off of Frank Lampard for souvenirs...

Personally, from a marketing point of view, would it have killed a couple of players to walk a few yards just to say hello to the boys? They are all football mad. Half of them actually support Chelsea. My son was thrilled just to be able to see them in the distance, over the top of the fence, doing some light jogging...so a chance to see one up close would have thrilled him. Unfortunately, that did not seem to occur to Chelsea. In awe to the ego's of their young millionaire's, they would rather insult the intelligence and maturity of a few parents.

Obviously, we all had a good laugh about it, but it seemed rather sad. Football clubs, like any business, cannot afford to miss any chance to drum up support and goodwill. That is why the sales force and the call centre of any company are so important - they directly affect the way a customer feels about a brand.

Generally, so many people seem to have forgotten this. I had an amazing run-in with Virgin Media before Christmas, when they had overcharged me and told me it would take weeks to raise a cheque, even though they have my direct debit details and could easily transfer it straight back to me. It made me so angry I nearly switched to Sky on the spot. I am sure everyone reading this could recount a similar tale.

One of the first lessons I learned in business is that it is more expensive to get new customers than it is to keep existing ones. DM plays a huge role in this. Direct communication of any kind influences people. Chelsea struggle to sell out Stamford Bridge. Mr Abramovich is one of the hardest hit by the credit crunch, and he needs his highly paid employee's to help bring in the cash. This attitude that the great unwashed are beneath contempt will see many a football club struggle in the coming months if they don't wise up.

So, the lesson for today is look after your existing customers and take every opportunity to make them feel good about your brand. Because right now, you cannot be sure when a new one is coming along.

Hallelujah You can teach an old dog new tricks

2009-01-02T17:14:00Z

Happy New Year, one and all.

On New Years eve, just before the witching hour, I downloaded my first song. Previous to this momentous moment, I had stuck to the old ways, in other words, buying CD's...although I still call them albums of course. I do not own an iPod. And I was quite happy letting all this stuff pass me buy.

Then, enraged by Simon Cowell's treatment of Leonard Cohen's masterpiece, I had an urge to show my son that there is an alternative to X Factor manufactured pop schmalz, and I downloaded Jeff Buckely's rather excellent version of Hallelujah - the album version, of course, for the princely sum of 79p.

My son still prefers Alexandra, of course. Teaching new dogs commonsense is almost impossible, but it did get me thinking. One thing that recessions always bring is a new broom. So much dead wood is thrown out, that there almost always has to be a new way of doing things. So, for direct marketing, maybe there has to be a different way.

One inevitable consequence of this downturn is that a lot of businesses will disappear. Some consolidation will take place. Then, out of the ashes, new entities will emerge, hopefully learning some lessons from the past. It is essential that the industry focusses on good data, and on protecting and improving that data. If DM is to have a bright future, we have to win back to confidence of the end user, as well as our clients, and let's face it, there is a lot of rubbish out there.

To a great extent we have tolerated it, because it is hard to do anything about it. When clients have demanded cost savings, we have all even indulged ourselves, sometimes, in the old game of selling rubbish straight to the landfill. No more, please. Clients, whose money it is we are spending, should be encouraged to look at the quality of the data they are buying, to make sure it is right for them. We need strong data, that is well maintained, so that we can target effectively, giving us an argument against the accusations of junk mail.

We all need to think about what we are doing. Something went wrong in the last few years. It all got lost in the jargin somewhere. Hopefully, when we put the roof back on, things will be a lot different.

I'm Mandy, Fly Me, Flog Me, Buy Me (or let me loan you bundles of cash on the never-never)

2008-12-18T17:30:00Z

His Lordship, his Mandyness of somewhere near Hull, is a busy little business secretary, isn't he? Not content with telling Gordon which side to put his parting, he is also contemplating bailing out Jaguar and Land Rover (but not Woolies), whilst musing that it would be a fine idea to sell off 49% of Royal Mail.

I expected to read howls of derision from the Brand Republic community but no. Come on team, this is the future of our industry we are talking about here. The ability to reach every house in the land for the same price is crucial to direct marketing. Direct marketing is equally crucial to our postal service. Can you see a private, commercial business trotting up the drive in Truro, or Aberdeen, for the pruice of a first class stamp?

Okay, deep breath, but I actually agree with Tony Wedgewood Benn. This is a public service we are talking about here, not a commercial enterprise. Sure, lots of people would like to run the big metropolitan areas, but no one is going to want all the green bits around them. Obviously it could be run better. For goodness sake, Adam Crozier is in charge. Remember his time at the FA? Unfortunately, he did not do FA. Allegedly he screwed the place up. Now, walking at a steady four miles per hour, he is doing the same thing to the RM. With the help of the unions, of course.

He can't make it pay. OF COURSE HE BLOODY CAN'T. Bits of the business will never make money, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Mandy won't be selling those. He will try to sell off the good bits, for a one-off windfall that we can all say Tata too (Geddit?) when he gives it to some poor, undeserving Indian businesman, or another failing bank.

As a nation, we have to accept a few facts about our post. There is less of it. No one writes letters anymore. Well, obviously some people do, but not as many as they once did, and it is a dying art. The younger generations email, and the older generation who do still put pen to paper are slowly dying out. Businesses still send bills, but this will get less too. More and more correspondence will happen electronically. However, there will always be some mail, and we might have to accept that it won't get there every day.

But so what? Is that such a problem? DM helps to subsidise it, and the government should do so to. Rationalise it, make it as cost efficient as possible, but don't privatise it...if you still want a national service.

Where would I be without surveys?

2008-12-08T17:32:00Z

Just when the muse has left me, and I am wondering where the next blog will come from, another survey hits the streets. This one, from Experian, has some shocking statistics about duplicate mailings. Apparently, some scandalous B2B marketers are still de-duping by hand! Others - now sit down, because this may come as a bit of a shock - don't do it at all.

The big mailers have no excuse for this of course, but we have to realise that the vast majority of B2B mailings are relatively small, and cost is an important factor. In a world where the data is a third of the cost of the stamp, and the list seller tells you that their data is so good even Santa is going to use it, de-duplication is not going to be high on the priority list.

When using their own customer or prospect lists, things nearly always get worse. Let's face it chaps, most people are not very good at dealing with data. Even some data companies I have worked for have had some appalling in-house data.

I know this may come as a shock to my friends at Experian, but no one really cares. Of course, it doesn't do anyone any good to send out duplicate mailings, but quite a few clients would secretly admit that all they care about is hitting desktops. If de-duping is going to cost them, the answer is no thanks.

We should care. Then, naturally, we would all pay £250 per thousand for our data and rightly hold the supplier responsible if it turned out to contain more repeats than BBC1. But, we don't.

The Nature of Business Data

2008-11-21T12:02:00Z

Following several recent conversations, I feel inspired to remind everyone of the facts behind business data. This is not a criticism, but it is a realistic view, because I sometimes think that with all the smoke and mirrors we use, we can forget what we are working with here. Data quality is relative. If you build a shelf with a warped piece of wood it was always be warped, even if the shelf itself does its job perfectly well.

Business data is sourced from two major feeds. Firstly, Companies House data, which comprises all the things limited companies have to register, and secondly, directory data. The major players in the industry match and merge these two sources, for the following major reasons.

1) Neither source is a fully mailable list. CH data has registered office addresses, not trading addresses, for instance, and no usable telephone numbers. Directory data does not have a list of company directors, or any idea of ownership.

2) Not every company is limited, therefore the CH list is by no means complete. Directory data picks up a lot of sole traders, partnerships etc.

3) Not every company registered at CH is trading.

4) Directory data is enhanced by adding some idea of turnover, SIC codes, lists of directors and ownership details.

There is more, but I want to stick to top line stuff here.

Once this match and merge is done, you will have a business universe of about 1.8m. There are more businesses out there, and many suppliers will claim to have them, but there are several problems with them. The data in excess of 1.8m is often on very small businesses, nearly always out of date, and this is the section of the universe with the most churn. I would also argue that it contains the businesses of least interest to DM...very small businesses, one man bands etc.

Having got to this point, industry players start to 'add value'. This can be done in the following ways:

1) Match universes with each other to create a mega-verse. In my experience, this always throws up a few hundred thousand names that are not common between any two datasets...you then have to decide whether these names are valuable or not. Mostly not, I fear, as they represent the old, the gone and the never were.

2) Add other data sets. Such as credit data. This can work well, and add some interesting information.

3) Tele-marketing to enhance data. Good tele-marketing adds names, responsibilities and key bits of information that can be used to predict buying activity, which end up being selections on databases. Expensive to research upwards of 2m, so no one does...unless you know different! In practise, sections of the universe are well researched by some, but watch out for recency. Anything approaching a year can be 40% inaccurate, especially in an economic climate like this one!

4) Modelling and analysis. Modelling involves taking a cross section of businesses and modelling them against certain criteria, then applying the results to the entire universe. Thus it works like an opinion poll. If you believe them, buy on a model. If you don't, don't! Analysis is the appliance of brain power. I know and have worked with some very clever people who can do wonderful things, but I point you back to the shelf example. If you analyse dog poo, it will still stink to high heaven, no matter how hard you think about it.

I am going to stop here for now. I hope this prompts some sort of debate about data quality.

Government backs opt-out, for your organs.

2008-11-14T10:59:00Z

Just a snippet on the Today programme this morning, but it made me sit up and take notice. Apparently old Golden and his crew have suggested that the organs of us all should be available for doner transplants, unless we opt out. Presumably before we die. It had all the interest groups up in arms, and is unlikely to get through, but it is another example of political double standards.

The theory was that it would solve the lack of suitable organs available for life-saving transplants - undoubtedly a laudable objective, but...

The same government would like all marketing to be opt-in, but when it suits them they are happy to impose opt-out.

It must be quite hard trying to face both ways at once!

Data MOT challenge

2008-11-12T18:17:00Z

Now here is a thought. Andy from Infouk replied to my last blog in defence of his new website and data quality. Good for him. Nice to see someone who is prepared to stand up and be counted. So why not challenge everyone to face a data MOT, to drive the systematic failures out of our B2B dataset.

Obviously for some, that would be like turkeys voting for Christmas, but one can dream. Anyhoo, here is a few simple tests we could apply to see that each dataset at least comes up to basic scratch. I'll also add a dodge I know has happened to show you how easy it is.

1) How big is your universe? Most people will claim +2m, but in reality most of the big datasets are really around 1.8m. The rest is old, suspect and unconfirmed for a considerable period of time, and will never appear in counts.

2) How do you verify your database and how often do you reverify? In practise, very little proactive verification goes on. Companies House data is matched against directory data to provide trading addresses, then maybe credit data is added. Sometimes this happens the other way around, starting with credit data. Telephone research is commonly only done on a cross-section of that...and sometimes this research is an internal sales team, with another purpose entirely, using the database and just confirming that contacts and numbers are still alive by default.

3) What do you do with goneaways? Nothing is quite often the answer. One major supplier had, up until the first quarter of 2008, not done a deep cleanse of their universe in FIVE years.

4) When you reverify your date, do you speak to each individual or do you just confirm with the person who answers the phone? The latter is by far the most practical solution, and therefore the most common. Therefore the individual concerned has rarely opted-in to anything at all.

5) How do you confirm job titles and responsibilities on the contacts you have? On small businesses, it is nearly always the same person! Try asking them to de-duplicate their total contacts universe, and watch it shrink before your eyes!

6) How big is your telephone research team? Then do the maths yourself. In my experience, a good researcher, chasing not only company details but multiple contacts as well, will speak to between 6 and 8 people an hour...and they might need to ring back to get the full information, because these calls can drag on. A database of 2m, fully verified, would need 3m+ phone calls a year.

That's enoough to be going on with for now...I wonder who would pass?

By the way, a personal aside. Did you see the future of English footnall last night? Go Gunners, go!

Moreofthesame.com

2008-11-10T21:17:00Z

Infouk.com was not a disappointment...I am sure it works just fine. However, it is more of the same. Golly, an online counting tool...why didn't someone else think of that? Actually they did...they built it, put it out there, and discovered that hardly anyone used it.

Maybe it is intended as a shop window, but if that is all it is, why bother?

Using a search engine of any kind takes some skill. Using a search engine on a fairly limited universe, where it is very easy to be way too specific, usually means that punters end up with a mailing list of three...and two of them will probably be the same business. That is why the likes of marketfile invest in a telephone team to track website users, and call them if they think they need help. Very few people place an order without assistance off line.

Even list brokers, God bless the few of them that are left, need help and advice to get the right data. InfoUK would have been better off investing in some experienced sales people to offer the right advice. I am sure they have them, but they should be up front, not hidden behind the technology.

InfoUK is an interesting exercise, with bad timing. Not a great time to enter the market. Their universe is not complete yet, and as I predicted when they announced their arrival on the scene, there is no differentiation. It is also interesting to read on their website that the DMA somehow back their email lists. That is news to me. And if they really have 1,200,000 email addresses double opted in, from their own sources rather than licensed from someone else...

Somke and mirrors...once again, we cannot see the wood from the tree's.

Hunker down, it's going to be a bumpy ride

2008-11-07T21:53:00Z

By heck, this is bad. I know we don't want to admit it, but for the time being marketing is about as dead as an estate agents inbox. It is one of business life's true truisms, that when recession bites marketers are driven out of the city. If one in ten of people are going to lose their jobs in the next year, as some portions of the media are predicting, then about half of them will be from the sales and marketing departments.

You can tell already. The news bulletins feel a little filled to me. One data supplier taking on six new people having recently got rid of three times that is fairly desperate PR. Lots of clients moving around, slicing a few percentages off the price every time.

No big surprise. It happens every time, but to me, this feels different. A lot of the names being destroyed...and let's face it, they are...are big DM spenders. If consumer spending really does stop...if small businesses do start to fail at record levels...are we really all screwed?

Well, the answer for many of us is yes. Because there are a lot of me too companies out there, and not all of them will survive. In the end...true romantic that I am...I believe that only the strong will survive. Not the good, but the strong. They are two different things. Consolidation will happen, but with little money slopping around it will be painful, unwelcome consolidation.

Big is not always better. No, be honest Hugh, big is hardly ever better. Data driven marketing is about innovation and insight, and that rarely comes from big organisations.

I give it until Christmas. Come January the blood will be all over the walls. Good luck to each and every one of you.

Golden Brown can't promise to keep our data safe

2008-11-03T22:01:00Z

The most amazing throw away line I've heard from a politician since Tony Blair said he wasn't lying in the Ecclestone affair. He can't promise to keep our data safe? Good grief, has anyone really considered what that means? He means he can't stop contractors losing memory sticks in pub car parks, or ministers going to sleep on the train with their laptops on, or civil servants getting off the train and leaving the contents of their briefaces behind with a dog-eared copy of the evening paper - but what he is saying is that it is impossible to keep data safe.

Utter claptrap, to put it politely. Good security procedures, proper encryption, extensive training for all personnel and immediate dismissal without pay offs for the miscreants would go a long way. Why let ANYONE download sensitive data to a memory stick? In this day and age they should be able to log in remotely and do what they need to do, without storing any data locally. I wrote a blog months ago about being able to put the business in your pocket and walk out the door, so people should not be able to leave the building with CD's or memory sticks.

Obviously Golden Brown has some previous here. He hasn't managed to keep our pensions safe, our savings safe or our economy safe. Maybe his mission about data is not so much of a surprise...his record is remarkably consistent. Interestingly enough, the ICO won't fine the government like he would a commercial operation. So they will just sack some poor scapegoat and move on, and we cannot let them.

After all, Gordie and his frighteningly rotten chums intend to hold every scrap of data on everyone. We'll soon be able to find our entire identities by the bin in the pub car park, next to that discarded kebab and an empty packet of Silk Cut.

Here's a suggestion, Mr Borwn. Make the CEO of any organisation personally responsible for data loss, including civil servants and ministers. Then watch how quickly you can come up with some effective safeguards, before you find yourself on the way to the Scrubs.

And there is no Santa Claus...

2008-10-30T21:28:00Z

Two pieces of news hit me when I logged on tonight. One is Richard Thomas saying that boards ought to take more responsibility for data rather than leaving it to the IT boys, and the other was some piece of nonsense about data misuse being on the increase. Good grief, talk about shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Dear Richard, if you had been reading this blog you would have learned that board responsibility was the only way to solve the data security issue months ago. Put the CEO in the clink if there is a serious breach, or threaten too, and data security will improve a thousand fold. Fines won't cut it. Just look at Goldman Sachs planning to pay huge bonuses to partners, even after receiving a bailout from the US government worth billions. Money is tax deductable, six months in the chokey next to someone pining for his loved ones focuses the mind.

And for goodness sake, data has been abused forever, and will be, as long as the DMA and everyone else in any sort of permission of authority turns a blind eye to it. Many DMA members have been caught red-handed, and nothing happens. The club shuts its doors and the carpet is lifted just long enough to hide a little more dust.

Data is hard to 'own' and almost impossible to keep totally safe. Face up to those facts. and build regulations that admit as much and put in place reasonable safeguards. And if you find out someone is abusing data, eject them from the club. It is that simple.

British Gas are a disgrace

2008-10-27T21:30:00Z

Direct marketing has an essential role to play in customer retention, as well as customer acquisition. However, one of our mega brands does not agree. They continually treat their existing customers like dog excrement. Well, this one has had enough.

Today, we at Bessant Towers received a missive from British Gas. Now, to set the scene, I should tell you that I have bought my gas from BG since 1988. I am not an energy switcher...I have a similar record with my electricity supplier, although they have changed their name so often I can't actually remember who it is. Anyhoo, BG sent me a statement stating that we were £267 in credit. Good, I thought, that should see us through the winter.

Then I read on. They informed me about the recent price rises, and said that they wanted to put our direct debit up from £69 to £120. Ignoring, for the moment, the huge amount we are in credit, this would suggest a price rise of some 90%. I got my GCE maths (yes, I am that old) and I could work that out, roughly, in my head.

This rather annoyed me. I had the same argument with them last year, which I won. I was paying some £85 a month then, and had another huge credit position. That was how we ended up at £69 per month. So, I picked up the telephone, and fought my way through umpteen options before waiting 10 minutes to speak to one of the God like customer service representatives. Reasonably calmly, I explained the situation and asked her to restore my direct debit to £69, as the credit and the fact that we were clearly paying too much for the last 12 months would make up for the increases in prices.

The answer was a resounding 'no, we can't do that.' I suggested, rather less calmly, that she should think again, and ended up back on hold for a further 5 minutes. Then she returned to say, 'no, that is what you have to pay because we have calculated your usage.'

I suggested that she was ignoring our huge credit. She said she had no authority to change the dd. I asked to speak to a manager, and she said no one would speak to me. Tomorrow, I am due a call back from a manager, who should expect a rather less than friendly response. I am now determined that if I do not get satisfaction, I will switch my supplier tomorrow.

Big deal, I hear you all cry. But actually, it is a big deal. This is not rocket science. They have my usage records, they know how much they are going to charge, and they have used some sort of algorythym to work out my bill. Then they have ignored the fact that they owe me a pile of dosh, and that their original dd figure was clearly wrong. That is a pile of crap. I have proved unwilling to move, yet they go out of their way to annoy me. That is not direct marketing, that is commercial suicide.

British Gas, and anyone else who behaves like this, do not deserve customers. They spend millions attracting new business, then for the cost of training their front-line staff properly, they seriously irritate existing customers that cost them a lot to acquire.

Direct Marketing, for me, is about direct communication with customers and/or prospects. It requires sensitivity, skill and a clear idea of what the brand stands for.

Well, gee thanks BG, I now know that your brand stands for stealing my money under false pretences and the sort of customer service that Basil Fawlty would be proud of.

You are, I am sorry to say, a complete disgrace...and I think it is risable that you are allowed to have the word British in your name.

Time to use the mega database?

2008-10-23T09:18:00Z

So, the government wants access to all our communications, for security reasons. Well, how about using their powers on Mandy and Georgous George? I bet they both used their mobiles on board the Oligarch's little paddle steamer. Mandy would not have been able to resist gloating if his palm was greased in return for trade reforms, and George would have texted Call Me Dave to say he had just been offered a wheelbarrow full of loot to fund the next election campaign.

Is that how the powers will be used? I do hope so. It would be a delicious irony if those who are screwing up our lives were caught by their own security blanket. In fact, with the governing classes' penchant for losing sensitive information, added to the power of a database recording every click of our lives, the scope for getting caught with your hands in the till must increase?

In truth, security reasons is not enough to justify this breach of our human right to privacy. The security forces can already get the right to tap phones and intercept electronic activity, so why do we need this vast, unmanageable database? It is ludicrous, and even if it is created I doubt it will ever work. Imagine the scale of it.

The mind continues to boggle.

Budget cuts threaten the future more than the present

2008-10-16T11:01:00Z

Big red lines are being written across marketing budgets as we speak. No frills, look after the pennies, batten down the hatches until the storm abates. Of course, that is an understandable reaction, and this is no time for anyone to be wasting money. But to let the accountants get away with the impression that all marketing spend is a luxury is a grave and often-repeated mistake.

In any downturn, reduced resources requires a different approach, but the business strategy should look beyond the economic maelstrom. First of all, the company has to survive, but not at the expense of a brighter future. Get leaner and meaner by all means, but marketing expenditure can and should be directed to bringing the brand through stronger and better positioned in your chosen market.

In any sector there are likely to be closures, mergers and aquisitions. The trick for any board is staying afloat in the short term and steering a steady course to better market share and profits in the future. In doing this, your potential customers still need to know you are there. They need to know what you are doing. Even if they cannot buy at the moment, staying front of mind is essential.

That is why leaping on the marketing budget first is wrong. It shows a lack of understanding of the dark arts. It means a slower start when the economy turns.

Recession Starts to Bite

2008-10-11T20:40:00Z

Prospect Swetenhams are no more. DLG, financed from Iceland, may be as shaky as West Ham United...and who's next?

For those of you who have never worked through a recession, this is what it is like. No one knows what is going to happen next. No one knows when it will end. The only certainty out there is that a lot of people in pin striped suits will be looking at marketing budgets and snatching them back to the bottom linel.

In the relatively calm waters of the last 20 years or so, there have been ups and downs, but relative economic stability. If you are under 35, this is very different. From the consumer to the biggest multi-national, everyone is going to feel the pinch. This will be a time of no frills, no wasted pennies, no lunches at The Ivy. It will be horrible, and for every Landbanki, there will be 50 agencies of one sort or another disappearing.

Having said that, many new ones will rise like a phoenix from the ashes. Now is the time for a steady hand on the tiller. Now is the time for experience (Not you Gordon, you;ve had your chance). From a marketing perspective, those who can really sell added value, on a cost-effective basis, will shine through. Results will matter more than ever before, because the person signing the cheque will be held even more accountable.

If you have never experienced a recession, remember it is not like a temporary downturn. The next two years will be miserable. At least. Fat will be ruthlessly cut away, in the hope that the skeleton will survive.

Good luck...we're all going to need it.