Web Wise Women presentation

As promised; here's the presentation which I realise makes little sense without my explanation...

...if you want me to explain, just invite me!

I'm pleased to have been invited to speak at the Web.Wise.Women event at the Kings Place in London. Although it's unclear how I fit the bill since I'm not wise or a woman...
Organised by the Camden Women's Forum the event focuses on social media - essentially where web 2.0 is now - but it will inevitably have to deal with what small enterprises should do in a recession.
That's where I think I come in.
I'll be trying to dispel a few myths about the web and about marketing and trying to show how SMEs can invest in marketing right now - despite the 'crunch'.
No doubt I'll post my presentation up (expect a link to slideshare) and I'll be setting up a PWOTG forum for 'Virtually Free' so that anyone who buys the book can contribute or ask questions.
If you are interested in attending just go to http://webwisewomen.eventbrite.com and register - it's free, of course.

What a night!

The best man won, originally uploaded by robbroccoli.

Good morning from the UK and...phew, thank goodness for that.

For a moment yesterday I wondered if it might all dissolve in the kind of disaster of the last couple of elections.

Now I'm fearful for the next few months, the weight of expectation, the capacity of Americans to do weird things. This may be just British pessimism.

Great speeches from both candidates (far more impressive than you'd get in the UK).

But most of all...wow. An educated, intelligent, globally aware US President. Well done.

You'd never know I studied economics once

Wall_Street crisis, originally uploaded by semarlfb.

Let’s imagine there’s a world with 1 million people (easy numbers for my poor maths).

Each person has £1000 in savings and is paid £100 per annum to work for one of 100 companies. (You could make it more realistic, but the maths, the maths!)

Ten of those companies are banks.

So…

Each company employs 10,000 people (including the bosses) and pays out £1m in wages. So has to make at least £1m a year to keep going.

It makes things that the 1 million people buy…with their £1000 savings and/or their £100 wages.

Ten companies look after all this money. £1000m in savings and £1m in current (checking) accounts. They have to take out of the system £1m to pay their staff, but of course each £100 goes into other companies – like supermarkets, car dealers etc and then ends up back in one of the ten banks.

I don’t speculate on the value of the companies – there is only so much money to go around so it’s irrelevant.

Some companies will be good at bringing in money and others will go short. The former will bank the money (or spend it) and it will still end up in a bank. Where the latter kind of company might ask to borrow it.

If they end up not being able to pay it back, they’ll go bust. But the money will still be in the system.

So, my question is this, how do they screw up?

Explanations for the hard of thinking, welcome. And feel free to elaborate on my model.

Extremely Social Marketing

Just got back from Brighton where the first 'World Social Marketing Conference' was held at the Metropole.
I didn't see much of the sea but the event itself was fascinating for all kinds of reasons.
First of all, I met and spoke with Philip Kotler. I have to get this fact out of the way because my colleagues are all ribbing me about this. Whatever you think of the guy I can assure you he seems nice enough - even when I started telling him about my research. He stayed awake anyway.
There's no doubt that social marketing is a large and growing sector.
It's an area Nick and I are realising (slowly I know) that we are working in more often than not.
To present marketing - in our writing, consultancy or teaching - as just commercial, profit-focused is not only undesirable, it's inaccurate.
In Marketing & PR we made sure we discussed how small businesses and nonprofits could benefit from clear marketing thinking. In the forthcoming Virtually Free we likewise apply sound marketing principles to all kinds of organisations.
In any case, very few business people rush to work simply to make money.
We know that, for many of us, money is a 'hygiene factor' [it's a kind of minimum requirement] but it's not a motivator. Of course as you take hygiene factors away you can start to 'disincentivise' work. As you build up motivators, you get more and more committed and industrious.
The World Social Marketing Conference was packed with highly motivated people, marketers, from agencies, nonprofits, universities and other, hybrid, organisations.
I came away enthused. Eager to do more with the knowledge we have at PWOTG.

--------------------------------------------------------------

PS...I can't see what all the fuss was about when Philip met Philip...

The future is coming...

Just a few weeks ago I was writing about this as the future. Just a little refining and it becomes awesome. Think about shop fittings, newspapers delivered wirelessly, clothing....



Discuss.

Let me tell you about this T-shirt

Since finishing the new book I’ve been thinking about how a smaller organisation can get its act together.

A great marketing strategy isn’t just about getting all the elements of the marketing mix ‘right’. As marketers never tire of telling you – it’s more complicated, deeper than that.

But complication means problems.

For a small organisation, like an SME or a charity, execution of a marketing plan is where it all happens. Because of the limited resources to hand, the basic tasks of a marketing plan can seem overwhelming and, importantly, take valuable people away from running other vital operations.

There is, in fact, a related problem for larger companies. How do they communicate what must be done – internally and to others such as agencies – in order to allocate sufficient resources?

One reason this struck me forcibly as I finished the book, and then discussed this with Nick, was that the ‘new marketing’ demanded by the web and other converging technologies gives us even less room for manoeuvre.

Even more than ever, marketing is something you have to do now and every day. And it all has to work together, day after day.

Great small organisations know and do this. Larger organisations often struggle.

So as I wrote about online promotion and the maintenance of an online brand, I emphasised ‘consistency’ and ‘integration’.

Consistency. When everything you say and do refers to your core values.

Integration. When everything you do links to everything else you do.

Since then, Nick and I have been discussing a marketing strategy ‘mantra’ that could remind us of what the rules are. I’ll go into all this at greater length in the next few posts but for now I’ll just leave you to consider…

Insight, purpose, truth & beauty.

Religion, Lies and Videotape

Thanks to my brother for sending this. Have a look; it's interesting from two perspectives.




One is that the Republicans (and media) are clearly using the same formulae to try and unsettle potential Democrat voters (remember a small proportion of the electorate decide the outcome by shifting from one party to another).
It's also interesting that this video is edited in such a way that it's difficult to note anything other than that fact - the same phrases crop up - sometimes the context is obscure...who is saying what about whom.
One thing is clear, some (ignorant) people see it as their job, or their right, to spread disinformation for their own ends. Take the assertion that 'Hussein' or attending a Muslim school makes Barack Obama a Muslim... that's basically distorting the truth.
Or lying.

Another useful tool

Well, I just thought I'd tryout clipmarks.
It looks like an wasy way of picking up content from anywhere on the web and keeping is. But more importantly you can clip it and immediately post it on a blog. This is great, not just for public blogs like ours, but also for collaborative working using a private blog.
Anyway, I'll see how this turns out - I've just clipped some images and words from the clipmarks website - you should get some links as well...

clipped from clipmarks.com Clipmarks anywhere! You can easily syndicate your clips to FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, and more. You can also read, pop, and comment on clips from your iPhone (m.clipmarks.com), iGoogle, or Netvibes homepage. On Clipmarks.com, you can see clips of text, images or video about all sorts of topics that other people find while surfing the web.

You have received a new message...

...possibly from the Big Guy upstairs

I was due to change my PC yesterday - had it all organised. But then the old one died - it wouldn't boot up and the Windows CD couldn't resolve the problem without a lot of knowledge from me - or from the thousands of pages of online help (via the other, home, computer).

So I played around with my new phone to get emails...it worked up to a point. I could set up some email accounts (I have about six) but not all...because I can't remember all the settings and passwords.

I managed to send the following to this blog, which some of you might have seen...

"Not so amazing, but when the hard drive on your PC goes kaput (the day before you're due to take delivery of a new one) you realise the value of a back-up. Now, when did I last back-up, and where did I put it. By the way I have nearly 100 passwords... what are the chances I'll recover them all?"

...but it came along with several paragraphs of cr*p from Vodafone and my mobile number in big bold letters... not great for a blog entry.

Anyway, the point is. I did have my passwords stored in passwordsafe which is free (and therefore mentioned in the new book!) and I'd backed up the data to a small Newman drive (specifically a NM-0703 20gb drive) along with a copy of dmailer which enabled me to use another PC almost as if it were my own. I carry these around with me pretty much all the time.

Credit where credit's due...I haven't lost everything.

I only mention all this to remind you (and me) to back-up your data every couple of days or so AND to recommend that you have a few other devices to help.

I should get my new PC up and running tomorrow and then I'm probably going to go out and buy a terabyte of disk storage for my home network...

Ethics...while stocks last.

I've long been suspicious of Sales Promotions.
I know that they work and, sometimes, they add real value to a brand - I've even taught students about the power of 'SP'.
However, I've also felt that the rules should be very clear and that companies should be held to account for sales promotions that mislead. There are, indeed, rules.
The problem is that many SPs go unnoticed, except by the targeted consumers, so unless there is something outrageously wrong, they don't get questioned, let alone reported to Trading Standards or to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for a breach of the Code of Advertising Practice (CAP).
So here's a little (true) story about an SP that seems wrong...and IS wrong. And what a big brand did about it. Forgive the long post.

...............................................................................................

With the recent release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Woolworths was promoting all Indiana Jones toys and since it is my 9 year-old's birthday (on Monday, if you want to send a card) we were aiming to buy him the Lego/Indiana Jones PSP game shown here.
Woolworths had an SP - buy any Indiana Jones product for more than £10 and receive a FREE WATCH. So when my wife had paid quite a lot for the PSP game (not actually released, but available in a couple of days) she expected a watch - an additional present for our son.

The watches were out of stock. The manager thought it unlikely that they would get any more in, but nevertheless endorsed the receipt to show that we were entitled to the watch. The posters were still up in the store.

So what's happening? Well, we decided to find out from Woolworth's Customer Relations people. This is what they said...
Thank you for your e-mail.
I was sorry to learn that you were unable to take advantage of the promotion on Indiana Jones/free watch that was recently running in our stores, due to lack of available stock. All our promotions have a beginning and end date so we can monitor their success and all items on offer are subject to availability as stated on the posters and advertisements. I am sorry that on this occasion you missed out of the promotion due to the stocks running out. Please be assured that we would never intentionally mislead our customers.
Having contacted our suppliers, I am sorry we are unable to obtain the watches now.
Thank you for taking the time and trouble to bring this to my attention. I hope that, despite your disappointment on this occasion, you’ll continue shopping with us in the future.
Regards
Jane Hardman
Customer Contact Centre
Mmmm, strange. No offer of an alternative, no desire to satisfy a customer? How much can a child's watch (sourced in China) cost? We suggested that they had an obligation and that they should offer an alternative. Besides, if they had no stock, surely they should stop the promotion? Their reply....
As stated in my last e-mail, as with all promotions and offers, they are subject to availability and while stocks last. This is clearly stated on all advertisements relating to the promotion. For this reason, we are not obliged to offer an alternative to customers.
This may not be the response you were hoping for, and once again I offer my apologies for any disappointment it may cause, however, I’m unable to advise you further on this occasion.

A couple of days had passed. Yet the posters and shelf edges were still there announcing the FREE WATCH offer. I took a photo (on my phone).

Here's what the shelf edges looked like - about 3 to 4 inches high, so I guess that white text down the bottom right is no more than 8-10pt. Can you read it? It says 'Subject to availability'
Is this observing the CAP or the law?



The offer was also still on the website...we emailed again. This time we pointed out the crucial text from the CAP on Sales Promotion

• 30.2 Phrases such as "subject to availability" do not relieve promoters of the obligation to take all reasonable steps to avoid disappointing participants.
  
• 30.4 If promoters are unable to supply demand for a promotional offer because of an unexpectedly high response or some other unanticipated factor outside their control, they should offer refunds or substitute products in accordance with clause 42.5a.

The reply...in its entirety...

Further to all previous correspondence, whilst it is unfortunate that you remain dissatisfied, there is nothing further I can assist you with or advise you in this matter.

Oh. So that's it is it? Not only couldn't Woolworths provide the FREE gift with which it was enticing customers, it couldn't even account for why it was flouting the CAP.

So I decided to have a look at their guiding principles, set out in the section of their website labelled 'Corporate Social Responsibility'

• We will be truthful and fair in all aspects of our business.
  
• We will abide by the law.
  
• We value our good reputation with customers and business partners.
  
• We will favour suppliers who implement ethical trading standards and will provide them with the support to develop these policies further.

So that's clear. Not only don't they stick to the CAP, they don't stick to their own principles.

I'm now thinking of spreading this around the web a little - Facebook and the like - to see what effect the web really has.

One of the principles of my new book is that a small business, online, has to be honest. Does that also apply to big companies?

Comments welcome.

Nearly there....

The book is finished and off to the publisher - well apart from tying up a few loose ends.

It might end up looking a bit like this here.

It's been interesting trawling through the web verifying what I thought I knew...and finding out that I'm wrong.

It led me to discovering quite a lot about optimising your site, SEO and advertising through Google and on Facebook.

I've discovered DIY social networking and sites for Caribbean music, for pets ... and even for marketing communications professionals.

I've also realised that it's phenomenally difficult for the average small or micro business to get to grips with the possibilities of the web.

I'm hoping that some of the text of the book will be available online - or maybe just some of the links since the book is packed with them.

Incidentally I was pleased that there was a pretty evenhanded review of Marketing & PR on the website of REALIR Europe's Investor Relations Magazine

Given recent coverage of 'selective' quotes, I'll quote the following in full...

"Having read quite a few marketing books, this book takes a somewhat simplistic view of the field of marketing. The positives are mainly in the refreshing focus on the small business context, and the humorous and light-minded approach. An example of this style is in a phrase that resonated with me, as an owner of a small business: “you can't shout louder than everyone, but you can whisper in the right ear”. However, keeping to this friendly style of writing while trying to give credible marketing advice is treading on a fine line. In certain sections of the book, you can get lost in the waffle. But, overall this is a deceptively easy book to read; in a friendly tone, with valuable and accessible marketing advice to anyone running a small/medium sized business."

Waffle? Me?!

I feel I must apologise

To all the people in California (who allowed an film star, former Mr Universe) to become Governor.

To all the people in the USA who voted for Al Gore, but got George W.

To all the people in Russia, Zimbabwe and numerous other countries that we (Brits) looked on pityingly as they clearly couldn't run an election or get a sensible candidate to represent their interests.

To all of them; my apologies for poking fun.

It's taken me a while to find a place in my mind where this fact isn't immediately set upon by the mental equivalent of antibodies. Boris Johnson is the elected Mayor of London.

I'm so sorry.

For a more considered, balanced and amusing view see Charlie Brooker's column in the Guardian.

The picture is from the BBC production based on the Richard Doyle book about London flooding. I'm not in anyway suggesting that this will happen. Unless Boris is running a bath one day...

What a find!

Getting found online - via your blog, twitter feed, facebook profile etc is all about being connected.

In the short time I've been blogging I've been looking at others with all kinds of buttons and gizmos allowing readers to bookmark or otherwise promote the post or the whole blog and I've searched and searched for how to do it.

Now, I understand, for some of you this might seem like 'Social Networking 101' but you know, not all of us want to get into the intricacies of the code that lies behind all these useable tools (including Blogger of course).

Some posts and sites I've found give a solution for one particular site - so for example somewhere on Facebook, you'll find a help article that refers only to the Facebook button. Likewise for Digg and so on. Maybe I'm just too inept to extrapolate the instructions to all other social bookmarking/networking sites?

But, I have to say - glory alleluiah!!

Get yourself over to AddThis.com - you can click on their logo here - and within minutes you can have yourself a neat drop down button thingy (you can see it below) that does pretty much everything, tidies up your pages and offers you stats on its usage. What more can you ask?

I'm ridiculously excited and pathetically grateful. I just had to blog it and they're going in the book!

Happy, happy, happy.

But what does it mean?

I had a look at this site from the BBC following up their season of programmes on the 'white working classes'.

As always there's a lot to think about. Looking at the issues is thought provoking, but I can't help thinking that the debate is framed in slightly the wrong way. I don't want to get too deep into this (too much else on my plate at the moment...deadlines looming!) but I wonder how many people really have as part of their identity that they are 'white' or, indeed, working (or any other) class. I think our understanding of community is far richer than that. However, as with all market research, if you ask people if they are 'oppressed' or badly served, they'll construct appropriate answers.

Actually thing that most struck me about the site was the 'spectrum' gizmo you can see here. It's a strange old thing that allows you to explore the responses to some research on attitudes to race and immigration. The physics of the particles moving around is quite nicely done (I also like the brain and visual thesaurus which has a similar fluidity), but...and this is the thing that made me stop and wonder...what does it actually show that couldn't be shown in a less flashy format?

Aesthetically, I was drawn to it, but it just doesn't give me a better understanding of the issues. A pity.

Not a great insight, I'll admit

I just visted the Ideal Home Show. There didn't seem to be many people there.

As I looked around I asked myself the question I always ask myself at exhibitions - why are these people here? I'd really like to know which exhibitors and sponsors actually make money from this, if any. Please let me know. A few people visit with the specific intent of buying a mop, I suppose, but does it make economic or marketing sense? Are these companies acquiring valuable customers?

I bought a shiny little 20GB hard drive to back up some stuff from my laptop. As I made the decision to buy, a man behind indicated a product on the stand and remarked to his wife "Yes...I can get it cheaper online."

Incidentally in Foyle's the same day (the bookshop beneath the Royal Festival Hall, on the South Bank) I also overheard part of another conversation -

First old man "Can we get a cup of coffee upstairs?"

Second old man "Yes, oh no. They ask you all sorts of questions."

My guess is he was worried about having to navigate through the tall, skinny, de-caf, fairtrade minefield.

No conclusions from this, just thoughts...

Great value - Love!

I love the simplicity of the design, the cohesion of the Tesco branding, the company's willingness to break with convention...

...oh, who am I kidding?

In a very simple image/idea the limits to Tesco's ambitions are sharply defined.

Credit to the people at Love whose blog I sumbled upon quite by chance today. Love is a Manchester-based online/creative agency.

It made me laugh. And then think.

Viral defined

I've no doubt that anyone who sees this will click and want to make their own candy hearts.

The picture and the real product comes from a site called Despair.com which is, itself, pretty funny as it consistently parodies all the management/motivation claptrap business people still seem to revere.

Except that they don't, really.

Perhaps it's since The Office (in the UK and US) or maybe that series was, in part, a riposte to the rise of managerialism. But it seems to me that no-one really took the motivational business seriously and in any attempt to inspire a workforce there is always an undercurrent of muffled mickey-taking eminating from towards the back of the room. And there is now, always the possibility of a David Brent/Michael Scott cringeworthy moment.

The postmodern rears its pastiched head.

Despair.com is a business that sells the undermining of the corporate world - including the personalised candy hearts. Clips of The Office I am sure have been used for training purposes.

Meanwhile people in business still aspire to working in an organisation that genuinely cares about what it's doing...

...as someone once said, if you can fake sincerity, you've got it made.

LOL, LOL, LOL :-| :-/ :-) :-D

I defy any parent not to smile at this clip from metacafe...


Laughing Babies -

...sometimes that's all the web is about - sharing a good feeling.
(BTW, I bet the child on the left of frame is going to be the comedian or writer; the others are a great audience but s/he's just watching.)
I've often said that children are 'learning machines' and I think learning to laugh is one of the greatest lessons but not a great as learning to accept being laughed at, occasionally.

Food glorious food...

...hot sausage and custard! [Shurely shome mishtake. Ed.]

I like food. If I was more confident I'd show you a photo to prove it. I haven't got the guts...well, I have actually.

Anyway, Lee Kennedy's latest post reminded me of the issues around food I often discuss with Nick, my co-author. I was telling Nick about Michael Pollan's book In Defence of Food [it's in our book store] which sets out a few simple rules about eating. Rules like; eat only foods your mother would recognise; never eat things if you don't know what the ingredients are; shop mainly from the outside edges of the supermarket floor. They make some intuitive sense.

My point has always been that some of the ingredients in food are there for the benefit of the manufacturers and retailers and not the consumer. Ingredients that make the product last long enough to be transported hundred (thousands) of miles and to sit on a shelf and in a cupboard enable the supply chain to be standardised. It's, perhaps, an example of McDonaldization.

Andrew Wadge from the Food Standards Agency debated the issues from the book with Pollan on Newsnight a few days ago and wrote about it on his blog. His was, I suppose, the voice of moderation. The other discussant was Julian Hunt from the Food and Drink Federation, the manufacturers. I'll be honest, I hate it when marketers say things like "It's about giving the customer a choice". Mmmm; discuss (as indeed some of my students have been over the last few week and months).

I'm not sure Lee would agree with the book in its entirety. The post I just mentioned points out that testing on food additives is pretty rough and ready (the anti-animal testing lobby will be pleased to know, especially as Lee is a food scientist); additives aren't necessarily bad for you.

But two thoughts occurred to me.

One. All foodstuffs are composed of chemicals. As Lee says, just look at what's in coffee. Remember what WC Fields said about fish? I also noted when I visited the Eden Project this summer that coconut shell is used in the manufacture of some pretty weird industrial stuff like brake pads - I think its essentially fireproof.

Two. Food is not just fuel or nutrition. It's more (yes, more) importantly a cultural artefact. Mary Douglas and Claude Levi Strauss both pointed out some time ago that food classification are culturally determined. Foodstuffs aren't simply good to eat, they're good to think.

Whether we call food 'wholefood' or 'additive-free' or 'convenience' says more about our relationship with (and our cultural use of) food than it does about any objective food standards. But I'm sure that a greater understanding of how food is produced and what goes into it would benefit us all. maybe there's something in the government's domestic science for all agenda. As long as it's a genuine understanding of food, not just how to make a shepherd's pie.

Not so much healthy eating as healthy thinking.