Cambridge Marketing review - Issue 6

CAMBRIDGE MARKETING

THIRD SECTOR FEATURES CLIC Sargent: Integrating Social Media into a Charity Arts Marketing: Generating a Buzz in Tough Times Power to the People How Influential is Digital?

Direct Marketing: Age UK

FEATURES

MARKETING THE THIRD SECTOR

Philip and Milton Kotler: The Global Economy of Cities - How cities are the economic powerhouses of countries Permissions Marketing in a Digital Age Hugh Davidson: How marketers can make vision and values work

VIEWS Content Marketing The Emperor’s New Clothes

REVIEWS Books and marketing apps reviewed The Tutors’ View

ISSUE 6 SUMMER 2013

£50,000 worth of Bursarie up for grab!

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The bursaries cover the cost of tuition, books and study materials and are available immediately. Anyone can apply provided you can demonstrate how improving your marketing expertise can benefit your organisation or start-up.

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS 5 EDITORIAL THIRD SECTOR FEATURES

6 Creating a strategic framework to harness staff influence on social media – one charity’s journey Helen Thomas of CLIC Sargent gives top tips on how to strategically integrate social media into a charity.

10 Generating a buzz about arts marketing Taras Young talks about how arts marketers can make a difference during tough times in the cultural sector.

16 Power to the people: Clicktivism or concerned publics Alan Anstead shares an insightful article on how influential digital really is and how making a stand can change the world.

19 Direct marketing: Age UK Laurie Young shares a case study on how Age UK became an expert in direct and digital marketing.

FEATURES

22 The Global Economy of Cities by Philip and Milton Kotler A fascinating piece by the Kotler brothers about the global growth of cities and its impact on the world’s economy.

Taken from their forthcoming book, this is a must-read!

28 Permission Marketing in a Digital Age Our very own marketing executive, Lorna Brocklesby explains why communications requested by the customer has a greater impact than uninvited marketing messages.

33 How Marketers Can Make Vision And Values Work This article sees a reprise of Hugh Davidson’s original speech from 2002, along with an afterthought for marketers, reflecting further learning from the past turbulent decade.

VIEWS

39 How to use inbound marketing techniques to aquire customers and improve ROI Rob Watson’s article outlines new elements of Inbound Marketing. What value does your company offer to stay ahead of the game?

43 Content Marketing: The Core Tool in the Successful Marketer’s Armoury Desislava’s research piece discusses the power of online content.

47 The Emperor’s New Clothes Alistair Pryde explains why marketers shouldn’t be too cautious but instead speak the truth by managing the facts.

49 What’s Next?

Charles Nixon gives us an insightful look into ‘What’s next?’ and what should be on every marketers’ lips.

REVIEWS

53 Marketing in The Netherlands Our Brand Ambassador, Theo Dingemans, gives us a snapshot of marketing in The Netherlands.

54 Book Reviews Our Alumni review some of the latest marketing books and give their opinions.

56 Marketing Apps Reviewed!

Our star intern, Jenna Squire, reviews some of the best marketing apps available.

58 The Tutor’s View Kiran Kapur gives us the low-down on Cambridge Marketing College’s Tutor Blog and picks out some of the best stories.

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Publishing Editor: Emma Garland Chairman: Charles W. Nixon Contributors: Charles Nixon, Philip Kotler, Milton Kotler, Hugh Davidson, Alan Anstead, Laurie Young, Rob Watson, Taras Young, Helen Thomas, Desislava Aleksandrova, Alistair Pryde, Theo Dingemans, Jenna Squire, Kiran Kapur, Don Moyer, Melissa Nixon, Shane Minett and Lorna Brocklesby.

Contact: Cambridge Marketing Press 1 Cygnus Business Park Middle Watch Swavesey Cambridgeshire CB24 4AA Tel: +44(0)1954 234941 Fax: +44(0)1954 234950 Email: emma@marketingcollege.com Issue VI Summer 2013 ISSN 2047-962X

Design and layout by Amanda Barrett Front cover photograph: China’s Shenzen city in the night, ‘Urban Landscape’ iStock photograph Diagrams and illustrations redrawn by Kirsty Jones.

Cambridge Marketing Review is published quarterly by Cambridge Marketing Press Printed by Cambridge Digital Press, Cambridge: www.cambridgedigitalpress.com

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CONVENTIONS: • We are marketers not marketeers; we are not cavaliers.

• We practise marketing not advertising or PR. • When we refer to products, we mean products and services.

Otherwise we refer to offerings.

EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL From Emma Garland, Publishing Editor of Cambridge Marketing College

T EMMA GARLAND

his issue focuses on the popular topic of the third sector, which so many of you have expressed a genuine interest to see covered in the review.

Helen Thomas explains how CLIC Sargent integrated social media into its activities. Did you know that a quarter of all charitable donations come via Facebook? With spending habits changing in the economic downturn, how can we support our arts? Taras Young gives

us insight into the challenges the arts culture faces and how arts marketers can overcome some of these problems. Alan Anstead also shares his thoughts on the powerful influence of digital and how everyone can have a voice and make a difference.

I am also delighted that brothers, Philip and Milton Kotler have written us a special article on the ‘Global Economies of Cities’. This fascinating piece gives an overview of the developing cities that could change our world’s economy, adapted from their forthcoming book ‘Growing Your Company in the Global Urban Economy.’

In addition, Hugh Davidson has reprised his speech about making visions and values work for marketers which is as relevant today as it was in 2002. He has also added an ‘Afterthought for marketers’ which reflects further learning from the past turbulent decade. Another must-read.

I enjoy reading articles by some of the marketing greats in the Cambridge Marketing review, but it is also good to read something from some new, rising stars. We invite all marketers of every calibre to submit their articles and this quarter, I introduce one of our A grade delegates who also happens to be the College’s very own Marketing Executive, Lorna Brocklesby. Lorna’s article on Permission Marketing discusses how mass marketing is no longer pulling in the results it used to.

I must take this opportunity to apologise for the delay in the publication of this issue, as we have been working on a very exciting new venture. Cambridge Marketing Press will be adding further strings to its bow with the publication by Kogan Page of a series of ten Marketing Handbooks. They will be available to purchase worldwide this Autumn. Watch this space.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy this issue and if you would like to subscribe to further issues or write an article for us, please get in touch at: editor@cambridgemarketingpress.com.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Emma Garland Publishing Editor

Emma joined Cambridge Marketing College in August 2012 and quickly made her mark managing some of the College’s on-going publishing projects. She has experience in Corporate Communications, as Account Director, where she has helped hundreds of Listed companies with their IR communications, including presentations, annual reports and IR websites.

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Creating a strategic framework to harness staff influence on social media – one charity’s journey Helen Thomas, Digital Manager at CLIC Sargent shares the details of their strategic framework, which was created to realign its digital identities to become an integrated content distribution channel. This is their journey.

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fter three years of operating social media profiles, CLIC Sargent – the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people – has created a strategic framework to realign its digital identities to become an integrated content distribution channel to make connections with supporters.

HELEN THOMAS

Why create a strategic framework?

According to Social Misfits Media, whilst 70% of small to medium sized charities have digital identities on Facebook and Twitter, the majority of them are using these tools tactically, not strategically.

53% reported that their social media activity was not integrated into their fundraising or communications strategies, with only 8% reporting high levels of integration. For the majority of these organisations, bigger picture questions such as ‘what do we want to achieve?’ and ‘how and where do we want to achieve it?’ hang in the air. In the meantime, the social media march continues.

To use social media strategically, it needs to be integrated into the charity. To do this, CLIC Sargent is building a social media framework to increase knowledge of the benefits of social media and how it can be the driver of future plans.

In the beginning Like many charities, CLIC Sargent launched itself onto social media without fanfare.

It was 2008 and MySpace rocked. Facebook was leaving its college dorm. Not wanting to be left out of the conversation, staff fluent in the technology and keen to give it a go - launched charity identities which listened first and spoke carefully. The channel sat within one team.

Fast forward to 2013 and the social media landscape is very different. Social media is all grown up and spawning mini-me networks at an alarming rate. The UK Facebook audience is now 41 million and Twitter stands at 34 million and rising. LinkedIn is fast approaching 11 million users in the UK (that’s 18% of us) and networks like Pinterest and Instagram are growing fast.

For charities, the networks are income drivers too. According to Jonathan Waddingham, JustGiving’s Product Manager, nearly a

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THIRD SECTOR

quarter of all charity donations on the website come via Facebook, representing £22m in donations and 120% year-on-year growth in 2012. Furthermore, an extra £925,000 was donated over an 18 month period via Facebook through people sharing content. £55,000 of donations came via Twitter and £22,000 through LinkedIn – also through people sharing.

The days of idle chat and exploration are numbered. It is time to Get Serious.

Establishing the bigger picture In 2011 CLIC Sargent reached a tipping point. Anecdotal evidence highlighted the overall value of social media but its structure within the charity made this difficult to prove. Along with the established accounts, several profiles operated independently, resulting in a disjointed presence and sporadic monitoring. The answer was to take stock and create a unified, goal focussed, approach to outline how the organisation could achieve its goals through social media.

“Fast forward to 2013 and social media is all grown up and spawning mini-me networks at an alarming rate.”

The framework is a strategic realignment of the social media presence, to create an integrated content distribution channel which tells the story of CLIC Sargent’s cause and impact. This approach aims to meet the organisational objectives of communicating CLIC Sargent’s cause and need for funds - but without a large marketing budget. To do this requires the creation of strong community advocates sharing and recommending on CLIC Sargent’s behalf.

Building an existing network Rather than employing more social media experts in one team, resource has focussed on facilitating existing staff to use social media more effectively themselves, i.e. establishing a distribution channel based on the professional and personal networks of staff.

These networks have endless potential. Staff can develop them to achieve their business goals, and previously established corporate identities aggregate this content – telling the CLIC Sargent story from every perspective.

This approach allows the talents of CLIC Sargent’s

entrepreneurial fundraisers to be applied online – where new communities of supporters can be built to strengthen their existing networks. As Charity Comms, the professional membership body for charity communicators explains – “social networking sites don’t raise money – people do”, and this framework aims to maximise the fact that people make connections with people.

Running alongside this plan are individual pilots to test the potential of new platforms to understand which platform is right for which individual goal or set of supporters. This activity is led jointly by the communications and fundraising teams.

Integrating social media within the charity Social media requires planning, evaluation and resource. CLIC Sargent has taken the following key steps: 1. Training Staff are encouraged to use social media in their own name to build communities of followers drawn from their own personal and supporter contacts. To enable this, a series of workshops and training sessions were held for communications and fundraising teams. These seminars introduced the mechanics and nature of the platforms and highlighted advantages and pitfalls. They outlined positive content and what to aim for with every post.

Each member of staff has the potential to be an ambassador for the organisation via social media and this process aims to enable staff to bring their unique perspective to the story.

2. Content production Social media needs constant content and interaction in order to make meaningful connections with the audience. Increasing content production and distribution is therefore crucial.

The internet allows for all sorts of content, but this has to be useful to the audience and tailored to create the action desired.

With a ‘like’ being potentially worth £5 to a charity (according to Jonathan Waddingham at JustGiving) it also needs to be built for sharing and reflect the organisation’s values.

Mapping the news or content flow of the organisation helps highlight the sources of content for social media and encourages distribution and cross promotion. The training process can inspire a fresh perspective – creating good content from day-to-day activity.

The strategic framework itself gives staff the confidence to engage without the concern they may be ‘wasting time’. Finally, a set of content principles underline the values of CLIC Sargent, but allow flexibility so that the desired communities can be built.

3. Reputation and crisis management According to Luke Brynley-Jones from agency Our Social Times, reputation is important when you are dealing with people’s generosity and trust. There are some key ways to tackle this. Agreed charity-wide guidelines are essential so staff can utilise social media

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be calculated using Google Analytics, with tracked links showing direct conversions at a campaign level.

Using these metrics enables enough data to be gathered to be useful for future planning and in time, could form the basis of a social ROI.

in a way appropriate to the organisation. They should include rules of engagement and integrate with other policies too, for example IT, HR and Safeguarding.

Free tools such as Google Alerts and Social Mention help to identify positive and negative comments about the organisation enabling better response or management of issues which arise.

CLIC Sargent is developing these guidelines and ways to share best practice amongst staff.

Negative events happen in real time so there must be a process to follow if things go wrong. Not responding to a customer service question can damage trust too, so developing a customer service standard within social media is key.

“Social networking sites don’t raise money – people do.”

4. KPI and monitoring Social media ROI is dependent on individual objectives rather than a standard formula that suits every organisation. Initially, taking steps to measure awareness, engagement, interest and conversions are good places to start.

Metrics covering audience growth and content sharing can indicate increasing awareness. Engagement can be measured through interactions such as comments, mentions or likes. Interest generated can be captured using the amount of traffic referrals from social media sites. Finally the conversion rate of this traffic can

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The results so far In the first four months since initiating this strategic approach, social media referrals to the CLIC Sargent website have increased by 185%. In more detail, a 75% increase in traffic from Facebook, 300% increase from Facebook Mobile and 310% increase from Twitter.

This traffic has been useful. The conversion rate – defined as traffic which donated or registered for a fundraising event is up 123% and social networks acting as the last interaction conversion (defined as where the social media activity was the final activity in the funnel) is up 195%. Facebook and Twitter are also now significant sources for event registrations. Creating an additional dashboard including offline data should, in time, enable us to place a direct value on those registrations.

Other changes are more institutional. Fundraising and communications staff are becoming content creators and using apps such as Vine to communicate with their audiences and supply them with content to share. Newsletter contributors, volunteers and survey participants are all being recruited through social media and aspects of the charity’s work are now visible to all – including staff.

Mini Case Study Virgin London Marathon During the Virgin London Marathon, Twitter was used to promote the support CLIC Sargent offers to those who run for the charity. The CLIC Sargent Twitter profile was used to aggregate content from staff, volunteers and runners.

Storify was then used to archive the activity and act as a permanent call to action. There was no specific budget for the campaign. The campaign generated over 80 tweets and visits to the website increased by 50% during marathon day.

The CLIC Sargent KLOUT score (a social media analytics app) increased by 10% and for the days following the event CLIC Sargent was the highest ranking charity in the organic listings on Google for the keywords Virgin London Marathon.

This was the first time CLIC Sargent could measure how the bigger picture could work on a campaign level for a fundraising event such as the Virgin London Marathon, and the results are promising.

The Story is here: https://storify.com/CLIC_Sargent/

virgin-london-marathon-2013

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“Social media referrals to the CLIC Sargent website have increased by 185%.”

TOP TIPS If your charity wants to build a strategic framework to utilise social media, here are some tips.

Take stock of your digital landscape Social media is very democratic. There is nothing stopping anyone doing anything in the name of your charity. This scattergun approach can seize the day, but it can blur the bigger picture.

Auditing all accounts can give you a great understanding of what to do next. It may prove that some have already worked and could be harnessed to achieve your charity’s objectives.

Create a strategy This case study is not about how to create a strategy, but one is needed. The aim is to achieve your charity’s goals using social media. The bigger picture starts with asking if social media can help achieve your goals, and then ask how, where and when you will achieve this.

Integrate social media into your organisation Social media is not simply a digital presence; it is a potentially limitless content distribution channel and builder of connections and communities.

Clicsargent.org.uk justgiving.com/clicsargent @CLIC_Sargent

facebook.com/clicsargentuk /company/clic-sargent

When planning to implement your strategy, remember to think big and wide. The plan will probably permeate through all elements of the charity and it is better to capture these at the start.

As an organisation you will need to be ‘social media ready’ – with an appropriate level of digital literacy – including a content production process, guidelines, the right skills, a customer service plan and an exit plan. This will help social media to be fully integrated into the organisation.

Evaluate and re-evaluate Measure the effect of your activity often, in particular how the audience is growing and interacting, how much traffic it is generating and what that traffic is doing. Use the goals function in Google Analytics to measure the key behaviours that your organisation requires and tag your links from social media posts to measure individual campaigns.

Your results may mean little at first, but over time will give you a useful understanding of your social media landscape and what steps to take next.

References CharityComms Guide to Social Media for Charities. 2011 http://www.charitycomms.org. uk/articles/charitycomms-guideto-social-media-for-charities Jonathan Waddingham, JustGiving’s Product Manager JustGiving donations through Facebook worth £22m http://www.guardian.co.uk/ voluntary-sector-network/2012/ jul/03/justgiving-donationsfacebook-share, 2012

Luke Brynley-Jones from agency Our Social Times. Charity Buzz Social Experiment, 2010 http://oursocialtimes.com/ charity-buzz-monitoring-a-liveexperiment/

Helen Thomas is the Digital Manager at CLIC Sargent, where she manages the digital team and is responsible for the development of digital communications for the charity. She joined the organisation in 2006, and launched its first enterprise level website that year. Since then she has launched two intranets, numerous social media platforms and established a team of content creators across the charity.

The latest generation of the CLIC Sargent website can be found at: www.clicsargent.org.uk.

Prior to joining CLIC Sargent, Helen spent 13 years working in radio and online production for the BBC in both local and national networks, winning a British Environmental Media Award for Best Environmental Website for a website which tracked Geese via satellite during their migration.

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Generating a buzz about arts marketing Taras Young tells us how arts and cultural marketers are taking on tough times by finding new ways to grow audiences and how sharing those experiences will help the sector build a “collective memory” and move forward as a whole.

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rts marketers have long been in the business of producing exciting, creative campaigns on tight budgets and with limited resources. In recent years, though, marketing teams everywhere have felt the squeeze, and the cultural sector is certainly no exception. So how can arts marketers continue to grow audiences, create innovative campaigns and maintain good practice when faced with tough times?

Taras Young

The climate in the arts sector At a national level, the government is cutting its grant to Arts Council England (ACE) by 29.6% in the period 2012−15. For arts organisations funded by the body, this translates to a 14.9% cut over the same period (ACE, 2012), and 206 organisations saw their funding cut entirely. On top of this, additional cuts handed down by the Government of 1−2% may be passed down to arts organisations.

Meanwhile, the arts in Scotland and Northern Ireland are facing funding cuts of £2.1m and £1.4m respectively, which, while not as damaging as the cuts in England and Wales, still spell tougher times for the cultural sector.

At a local level, arts funding is being cut too and, in some places in its entirety. Notably, Moray Council and Westminster City Council have instituted plans to first reduce, and then cut its funding to arts organisations entirely, while Newcastle City Council reneged on plans to cut funding by 100% after public protest and an intervention by Harriet Harman MP, settling instead on cuts of 50%.

On the other side of the coin, consumers in Britain are feeling the pinch. In real terms, consumer spending on the arts and culture has been in decline since the second quarter of 2011. While funding is important to many organisations, “the greatest contributor to the overall funding of the industry … has been and still is earned income” (CEBR, 2013). More than half of Brits now say they only buy items that are “absolutely needed”, while a whopping 94% say their spending habits have changed as a result of the downturn. On top of this, leisure and entertainment is predicted to be one of the slowest growth areas over the next five years (Mintel, 2013).

For the arts, this means traditional audiences are becoming choosier about what they see, and how often they attend cultural events. The arts sector is not outside the influence of the ‘lipstick effect’, which holds that cash-strapped consumers will break normal

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THIRD SECTOR Northern Ballet: Cleopatra; courtesy of Jason Tozer

patterns of purchasing behaviour and focus their spending on lowend luxuries: pricier products that offer guaranteed results.

In the theatre, for example, this could mean that rather than attending several mid-range productions, they may choose to attend just one pricier show that is a guaranteed winner (Maitland, 2009).

The effect of this type of attendance is a drop in revenue for repertory theatres, whose bread and butter is mid-range shows produced inhouse.

In a climate where funding cuts at all levels are combined with a reduction in earned income, the arts and cultural sector is, in

effect, being squeezed from all sides. Marketing teams within many arts organisations have been faced with losing team members and external help, such as freelance press support – or they have that threat hanging over them. Budgets are being cut, including training budgets, leading to fewer opportunities for professional development.

Yet, while marketers are finding their resources reduced, expectations to attract audiences have never been higher. The pressure is on marketers to not only maintain, but increase attendance. Research done before the decline in consumer spending on culture began (ACE, 2011) showed only 7% of the British population

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attended more than two arts events per year. With consumers more conscious of their spending habits than ever, an increase in attendance seems unlikely without arts marketers taking positive action now.

Innovating to grow audiences So, arts marketers have been forced to become more resourceful and innovative than ever before in order to retain existing audiences and seek out and keep new ones. Following a rebrand and the commissioning of a brand-new ballet, Cleopatra, in 2011, Leedsbased Northern Ballet were keen to do both. The company set themselves the objective of creating a campaign with an emphasis on “new and different activity”. In addition to sales targets, they decided to take a national approach in order to raise the profile of

“How can arts marketers continue to grow audiences, create innovative campaigns and maintain good practice when faced with tough times?” the production and the ballet company itself. Rather than simply attracting an audience to make what, in most cases, would be their one annual visit, they wanted to create a buzz around the show.

Ultimately, they wanted to create relationships with their audiences which would lead to increased use of their new website and greater uptake of their e-newsletter and social media platforms; relationships which could be maintained and built on for years to come.

The campaign would grow audiences through appealing to people’s lifestyles via online work, print, press and outdoor advertising, and PR. It focused on increasing recognition of the brand through three strands: partnerships, online activity and PR. The campaign was built in two phases, focused around two major events: the world premiere of the production in Leeds, and the run of performances at Sadler’s Wells in London.

Segmentation research carried out by Arts Council England (ACE, 2011) has shown that, of the 63% of people who attend

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cultural activities, the majority – 36% of the population – fall into two groups. These are described by the report as ‘Fun, fashion and friends’, and ‘Dinner and a Show’. Northern Ballet made a choice to focus on growing their audiences from these two key segments, and this decision was reflected in their choice of promotional tactics and partnerships.

In its most radical break from traditional arts marketing, the company worked with a celebrity booking agency to invite famous faces to the London press night of Cleopatra. In the event, 19 celebrities turned out, increasing coverage of the event both in the press and on social media. Unusually, the company opted to devote their entire spring/summer season to touring Cleopatra, where normally they would tour two or three different productions. Given the risk-averse nature of austerity audiences, and their predilection for high-quality entertainment, it was an astute choice to emphasise lifestyle and value for money in their marketing campaign, and it made sense for the company to focus on one big production in this way.

The success of this innovative, integrated approach to marketing new ballet was reflected in the outcomes. It became the company’s most successful opening of a new production, and total ticket sales came in at £35,000 over target. The campaign achieved many of its other objectives: website hits doubled, and – more importantly – were maintained at higher levels; the e-newsletter gained more than 5,000 subscribers, and the company’s Twitter account grew by over 1,400 new followers. The Northern Ballet brand reached a diverse, new audience, with coverage in the traditional press, plus magazines such as Vogue and Grazia. As well as the longterm positive effects of increased engagement and heightened brand recognition, press relationships established by the company during the campaign were retained and used to promote their next production, The Great Gatsby.

Raising Pinterest The Europeana Foundation, whose site is an interface to millions of artistic works from partner museums and heritage organisations across the continent, wanted to explore ways of engaging untapped online audiences, using the collections they already had. In particular, the Foundation was interested in seeing how opening up existing data to an online audience could create new social interactions and lead to increased web traffic to its partners’ websites. They decided to look at social image-sharing site Pinterest as a way of connecting with a particular audience: two thirds of Pinterest users are aged 35 and older, and nearly 85% of the site’s activity is carried out by women. Europeana realised that many items in their collections, would appeal to a “predominantly female audience that is mature and visually savvy”. Moreover, Pinterest users are more highly-engaged than their counterparts on Twitter and Facebook.

Using objects from the collections of five partner organisations,

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Audiences and artists interact at an evening performance of The Night Shift by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

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they launched a campaign, posting items such as vintage postcard scenes which were targeted at the older, mainly female demographic on Pinterest. The results were impressive, with a great deal more referrals from Pinterest to the Europeana website than from other social networks. Moreover, Pinterest users were more engaged with the content, and less likely to ‘bounce’ (leave the site without continuing to browse).

The project was a success, with content from collections that would otherwise have remained gathering dust given a new lease of life online – repurposed to encourage a new audience to engage with heritage, and to drive traffic to the websites of Europeana and its partners.

A smaller-scale approach Growing arts audiences through innovative marketing has not been restricted to large organisations. An ensemble that plays classical music on instruments appropriate to the era of the music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) is a self-governing ‘collective’ of musicians which has built a reputation for being quirky and innovative, while maintaining extremely high standards.

They wanted to find a way to attract traditionally hard-to-reach audiences for classical music: particularly students and those aged 18−35 who infrequently or never attended classical performances.

The OAE decided to take classical music out of its normal environment, and present their concerts more informally, bringing the audience and performer closer together, yet without compromising the quality of the performance. They ensured the programming and marketing of the series was closely integrated, allowing it to turn the notion of a classical music concert on its head. By holding its events in an informal setting, and reducing the length of performances, they brought down many of the barriers to attendance and cracked a significant hard-to-reach audience. After considering the reasons young people were not attending, and what the barriers might be, they developed a strand of one hour late-night concerts called The Night Shift. Dispatching with the standard format for classical music entirely, The Night Shift is performed in a bar environment, with a presenter introducing the music, as well as live music before the show and a DJ afterwards.

Having created an innovative, accessible format, the OAE turned their attention to marketing the event. Again, rather than taking the traditional approach to marketing classical music, they approached it in a way that was more likely to appeal to the target demographic. They created print which focused on The Night Shift brand rather than playing on the orchestra’s name. Borrowing from non-classical music promotion, the orchestra distributed their print in leaflet packs and in person at bars and clubs. They supplemented this with social media activity; advertisements on streaming music service Spotify; through a student ambassador programme; emails targeted by MOSAIC classification; plus some traditional advertising and PR.

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“Leisure and entertainment is predicted to be one of the slowest growth areas over the neXt five years.”

By trying a different approach to programming and marketing classical music, the OAE managed to create an audience which has traditionally been extremely difficult to reach. A MOSAIC-based analysis of the performances revealed a very different audience makeup to what they would normally have expected. The orchestra found that 85% of attendees fell into the 18−35 bracket – a third of those students, and a fifth having never experienced classical music before. Not only did the concert series successfully create a new audience for classical music, but every event sold out.

Opening up good practice It is clear, then, that arts marketers are keen to continue to innovate in order to grow audiences. However, the economic climate risks taking a toll on marketers’ ability to devise new ways of bringing people to art. Already small marketing budgets are being reduced further, and organisational loss of marketing skills through high staff turnover, already an issue in the sector, has been intensified by staffing cuts. Meanwhile, smaller companies continue to face the problem of either spending money on bringing a freelance marketer in to promote their work, or attempting to market it themselves with little or no formal training.

Many hundreds of resources that could help alleviate these problems have been created over the years, yet access to them has traditionally been limited or non-existent. Documents such as how-to guides, toolkits, case studies and research have been written on most cultural marketing topics, yet the majority have been inaccessible to those actually tasked with promoting artistic work.

Projects have come and gone, and the resources they generated have often been shelved, or their websites taken offline as funding ran out. Meanwhile, some documents useful to arts marketers are ‘out there’ – somewhere – but have been nearly impossible to find without knowing where to look or who to ask. What has long been missing from the sector has been a central, easily searchable place that offers opportunities for ‘self-service’ professional development, as well as immediate access to relevant materials on marketing culture while maintaining good practice.

The problem of continuing to find, develop and maintain

THIRD SECTOR

audiences for culture led to Arts Council England (ACE) creating a programme called Audience Focus, with the objective of allowing “more people to experience and be inspired by the arts, museums and libraries, and to ensure that organisations funded by the Arts Council have an even stronger focus on attracting audiences”.

As part of the ‘best practice’ strand of this programme, the Arts Marketing Association was funded to create a place which could provide the tools needed by those who market culture and develop audiences. Following extensive planning, consultation with the sector and development, a new online resource was launched: CultureHive, at culturehive.co.uk. The site features a purpose-built search engine based on Google technology which serves as the main entry point to hundreds of arts and cultural marketing resources.

Documents indexed by the site include those sourced from partners across the sector, rescued from ‘disappeared’ projects, and specially commissioned for CultureHive. All these tools have been brought together into one location, where they are centralised, accessible, and free.

As well as being a useful day-to-day resource for arts marketers, CultureHive is an important step towards building a ‘collective memory’ of good practice and innovation in the sector. The site is intended to help develop the sector and allow it to continue to innovate; by having everything in one place, it will allow gaps in knowledge to be spotted and new studies commissioned to fill them. Functionality has been provided to allow new resources to be uploaded directly into the system, allowing those who try things out to share their experiences and resources with their peers across the industry. And CultureHive is no flash-in-the-pan; the site has been built and funded in a way that means it will continue to develop, with additional features planned, such as automatic reading recommendations based on an individual’s training needs. At the time of writing, the site featured more than 600 resources, and this is set to grow by many hundreds more over the coming years. All content on the site has been released under a Creative Commons licence, meaning anyone is free to download, share, and build on the work.

While we go through tough times, the professional development provided by organisations such as the Arts Marketing Association, and the open sharing of good practice on CultureHive, will make arts marketers feel better supported and allow the sector as a whole to continue to innovate and grow.

Why not check out the full case studies discussed in this article on CultureHive at: culturehive.co.uk and let us know what you think.

More information on the Arts Marketing Association is available at: www.a-m-a.co.uk

Bibliography/sources: All websites accessed May 2013 Case studies on CultureHive Northern Ballet: Creating an integrated marketing campaign to boost ticket sales http://culturehive.co.uk/ resources/creating-anintegrated-marketing-campaignto-raise-profile-and-boost-sales Europeana: Pinterest for cultural heritage institutions http://culturehive.co.uk/ resources/europeana-partnerson-pinterest-case-study Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: Breaking down barriers to attract new audiences http://culturehive.co.uk/ resources/breaking-downbarriers-to-attract-newaudiences Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), 2013. The contribution of the arts and culture to the national economy. http://www.artscouncil.org. uk/advice-and-guidance/ browse-advice-and-guidance/ contribution-arts-and-culturenational-economy Mintel Group, 2013. British Lifestyles 2013: Examining the legacy of the economic downturn. http://www.mintel.com/presscentre/press-releases/1108/ mintels-british-lifestyles-reporthighlights-the-legacy-of-theeconomic-downturn-in-britainand-finds-savvy-ways-are-hereto-stay Arts Council England (ACE), 2011.

Arts Audiences: Insight. http://www.artscouncil.org. uk/publication_archive/artsaudiences-insight-2011/

Arts Council England (ACE), 2012.

Investment in arts and culture 2012-15. http://www.artscouncil.org. uk/funding/our-investment/ investment-in-the-arts-2012-15/ Arts Council England (ACE), 2012, Audience focus. http://www.artscouncil.org. uk/funding/our-investment/ funding-programmes/audiencefocus/ Smith, Alistair. Westminster cuts arts funding by 100%. The Stage, 7 March 2013. http://www.thestage.co.uk/ news/2013/03/westminster-cutsarts-funding-by-100/ Youngs, Ian. Newcastle Council’s 50% arts cuts confirmed. BBC News Online, 7 March 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ entertainment-arts-21668498 Briggs, Billy. Moray council approves 100% cut in arts funding.

The Guardian, 13 February 2013. http://www.guardian.co.uk/ culture/2013/feb/13/moraycouncil-cut-arts-funding Rogers, Simon and Free, Charlie.

Arts council cuts mapped. The Guardian, 30 March 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/ news/datablog/interactive/2011/ mar/30/arts-council-cuts-map Maitland, Heather. The lipstick effect. Arts Professional, May 2009. http://www.artsprofessional. co.uk/magazine/article/lipstickeffect

Taras Young is Digital Content Manager at the Arts Marketing Association (AMA), the non-profit professional body for those who market the arts and culture. Since joining the organisation, he has taken a central role in developing CultureHive, a key resource for the cultural sector backed by Arts Council England, as well as developing the AMA’s social media presence, and working on its innovative online learning programme. He joined the AMA last year with a background in digital marketing and public relations in the cultural sector.

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Power to the People Clicktivism or concerned publics?

Alan shares an insightful article on how influential digital has been in giving each and everyone of us a voice, not only to speak our mind but to really take a stand and make a difference in the world. Alan also shares some life-changing examples and shows that once you start, it’s not always that easy to walk away…

Having a voice

I

n October 2010 a relatively unknown group, 38 Degrees, launched a campaign to stop the sale of UK stateowned forests by the Government.

It did this through an online petition, encouraging supporters to share it on Alan Anstead Facebook (over 200,000 did - think of the reach). Over 530,000 people signed the petition and the pressure, together with lobbying by other organisations such as the National Trust and Ramblers, resulted in the government abandoning its consultation on the sale. The ensuing debate in the House of Commons may have been humorous, with opposition MPs shouting “timber!”, but the response from the concerned public was more serious. “Thank you for giving us a voice” one tweeted to 38 Degrees. The organisation has grown to be one of the UK’s biggest campaigning communities, with over 1 million members, many very active on causes they believe in passionately.

It is not just national issues that concerned online publics have taken action on. Nic Hughes died of cancer in October 2012 at the age of 44. The insurance company, Friends Life, refused to pay out his life insurance policy to his family as he had not declared that he suffered from pins and needles. A friend started an online petition against the decision on change.org, which launched in the UK in 2012. Within a few months 63,000 people had signed the petition, many sparked to action by celebrities including Stephen Fry, Russell Brand, Margaret Atwood, Miranda Hart, Ian Botham, Boy George, Alistair Campbell and Kirsty Gallagher tweeting about the case.

Stephen Fry tweeted his 5 million followers “Man dies of cancer, insurance policy won’t pay due to pins and needles. Please ask @ friendslifetalk to do the right thing”. A combination of the public pressure through the petition and media interest, and the Financial Ombudsman’s intervention, caused Friends Life to pay the policy in full to Nic’s widow in April 2013.

I signed both of these online petitions. Perhaps you did too.

So how can something so easy as a 30 second sign up and click be such an influential and powerful people’s tool? The widespread use of computers and smart phones and the growth of social media has enabled campaigns to be started up and gain a wide reach quickly

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THIRD SECTOR

Save Suffolk’s Country Parks, 2011

and to attract interest, often through an emotional appeal. The adoption of digital platforms by the organisations that activists want to influence, makes it so much easier for activists to put across their views. Whereas in the past, the balance of power in public relations was held by those with money (governments and corporations), now the differentiator is the scale of the emotional proposition.

In January 2011 I learned, through a small article in my local newspaper, that Suffolk County Council were about to stop funding 21 of its country parks and walks. As a keen outdoor person, I was concerned. A few enquiries and I discovered this was true, that from three months time there would be no funding and if someone else did not step in and maintain and pay for the parks they would close or be sold off by the council. Quite conveniently Suffolk County Council had just started an online petitioning site on their website. If a petitioner collected 2,700 signatures from people living or working in the county then the council’s constitution triggered a discussion at a full council meeting of the elected members. The ‘Save Suffolk’s Country Parks’ campaign was born.

Like all good campaigns this did not rely on one channel to achieve its objectives. Local media relations was an important tactic to raise awareness and stimulate action. On one key day before a council vote, BBC Suffolk were persuaded to have an item on Saving Suffolk’s Country Parks on every programme. Local newspapers were highly supportive with massive favourability given to the campaign (helped because the Council did not engage on the issue). Facebook and Flickr pages (that still exist) enabled supporters of the campaign to engage. We encouraged (and made it easy by providing contact

“How can something so easy as a 30 second sign up and click be such an influential and powerful people’s tool?” details) for supporters to write to their County Councillor. And my wife and I spent a good few lunch times out in market towns across the county collecting signatures on an old style paper petition (we found that some people were still wary of electronic ones). The petition number was surpassed and a debate was held at Suffolk County Council’s Annual General Meeting.

The outcome: Suffolk County Council backtracked and guaranteed that no park would be sold or mothballed. They agreed that funding would continue until new owners (charities and parish or town councils) could be found. And even then, agreed to provide financial support for the first few years of the transition. Oh, and I am not just an activist. I am now a director in the Community Interest Company that is managing my local park, Melford Country Park, and a railway walk; together with Long Melford Parish Council

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“The balance of power in public relations was held by those with money (governments and corporations), now the differentiator is the scale of the emotional proposition.” and with good support from the County Council. One wonders what might have been the outcome were it not for the campaign.

Impossible to evaluate, so let’s stick to outcomes.

The UK Government also has an online petition site that states that if a petition raises 100,000 signatures it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons. As a snapshot while writing this, I note that ‘Stop the badger cull’ had 214,172 signatures. A petition to ask Iain Duncan Smith, the Department of Works and Pensions Secretary of State, to live on £53 a week social benefits (as he claimed he could do in a media interview) raised 500,000 signatures. The organiser of the petition, Dominic Aversano, said “It has sent a powerful message to this government, showing the level of opposition to their vicious welfare cuts”. So online petitions are a potential public affairs tool.

Online petitions do not change behaviour among the target on their own but, integrated with other public relations tactics in a strategic approach, and the potential is immense. “But petitions are an old fashion approach, just rejuvenated through digital means I hear you say.” The first petition to parliament that my quick research found was in 1783 to campaign for the abolition of slavery. Well yes, this democratic tool has been refreshed. But also consider the external environment. Publics have become more active. People think it their right to speak out against perceived injustices. To take action. And these publics are not just one demographic group: students. People from all walks of life and, looking at a global scale, of all communities have felt empowered by digital campaigning opportunities. Think about the Middle East Spring, the democratic changes in South America. All were aided by digital platforms. The advent of 24/7 news and people generated news content has helped as well.

Should businesses be fearful that someone with ‘an axe to grind’ may seriously damage their reputation? Well that is a possible scenario if the organisation does not engage. But petitions

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and social media are part of a wider, democratic community. The old skills of rhetoric (which is a democratic process of discussion and argumentation in my view, without the negative connotations that modern language usage seems to have given it) have again risen. Public interest has gained a sharper focus. It is much more difficult to cheat or lie. Massive corporations have to explain their actions. Look at the tax evasion claims against Starbucks, Amazon and Google. What social media particularly allows, from the point of view of the organisation under attack, is engagement. To have a conversation with that axe grinder. And therefore the possibility to limit reputation damage. Better to have a public discussion on a social media site than have a media article written that is highly favourable to the activist.

So are we at a new crossroads in activist behaviour? The campaigning organisations think so. Brie Rogers Lowery, UK director of Change.org, recently told a Guardian interviewer that “It enables people to hold politicians and corporations to account for much more.” David Babbs, founder and Chief Executive at 38 degrees said “What we do is give our members a voice on decisions that affect them. It’s people coming together to challenge the powerful. Power is not generally given, it’s taken.”

There are even bigger global campaigning organisations out there. Avaaz – meaning “voice” in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages – launched in 2007 with a simple democratic mission: to organise citizens of all nations to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people want. It now has 21 million members across the world and rising. There is something quite satisfying in signing a petition, seeing your name and country’s flag come up, followed by people from other countries on the ticker who all support the same issue.

Clicktivism or concerned publics? Ignore them at your peril.

Join them for a truly democratic feeling from a desire to shape the world and its issues.

Alan Anstead runs a charity, Equality, that works for and with the Roma ethnic group in the UK. He also campaigns on local issues that concern him and is CMC’s Director of Public Relations Qualifications.

Alan Anstead first studied for the CIM marketing qualifications with CMC nearly 20 years ago. Since then he has had a career in Government and NGO communications. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, CharityComms and the National Social Marketing Centre.

THIRD SECTOR

Direct Marketing: Age UK Laurie Young provides a case study on the popular charity Age UK and discusses how it became an expert in direct and digital marketing.

This is an extract from his book, The Marketer’s Handbook.

A

ge UK is a national British charity.

Its purpose is to campaign, research and provide services to older people while influencing decisions and issues at government policy level. The charity is the largest Age Concern charity in a federation of around three hundred local, independent

By Laurie Young Age Concern charities (the “federation”).

Age Concern Enterprises Limited (“ACEnt”) and Aid-Call Limited (Aid-Call”), whollyowned trading subsidiaries of the charity, were recently merged to form one trading organisation. Their prime purpose is to, cost effectively, raise income for the charity whilst also promoting its aims.

ACEnt’s products and services were: general insurance, funeral plans, energy services, legal services, independent advice and lotteries. (ACEnt was authorised by the British Financial Services Authority to conduct general insurance business.) However, all these products were sold under the Age Concern brand (making it easier to integrate the organisations) and all were designed with the needs of the over 50s in mind. The income raised through selling them flows back into AGE UK and the members of the Trading Alliance, to support their charitable activities. The two organisations employ about two hundred and fifty staff, located in London, Ashburton (Devon) and throughout the UK, in field and home based roles. At the time of writing, there are over a million Age Concern customers who generate upwards of £40 million in commission and gift aid income and in excess of 40,000 Aid call customers.

One of the most exciting opportunities available to the new organisation was the creation of a single, UK-wide database which holds the names of approximately two million people.This, together with the need to keep costs to an absolute minimum in a charity, has prompted the organisation to become expert at direct and digital marketing.

Direct Marketing is run by the charity’s central marketing team and its affinity partners (such as E.ON, Dignity and Fortis). Response is directed to the Age UK website where call centres are run by the ‘product partners’ using ACEnt’s brand. The charity has structured its business model so that: • The products are provided by third party providers (Fortis for insurance, Dignity for funeral plans, E.ON for energy plans) and can be sole or co branded. The charity is seen by these partners as a large affinity group.

• It provides marketing investment and activity, although some of the third party providers conduct marketing activities themselves, with ACEnt’s agreement.

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•

•

•

The main channels to market are through the TAMs (These are face to face channels that look rather like travel agents talking across a desk in locations up and down the high streets of the UK), locally on a face-to-face basis and via direct mail shots, outbound telephone marketing and website promotion.

It provides the TAMs with infrastructure support in the form of marketing, compliance, FSA guidance, market information, risk management and training (particularly sales, marketing, product knowledge and FSA regulatory compliance).

In Scotland, and Northern Ireland, it has joint venture companies with the local AgeUK charities. These are 50/50 joint venture companies that run the sales activities in those nations, with ACEnt providing infrastructure and financial support.

The energy offer “Age Concern Energy Services” was launched in September 1999 with the prime aim of helping older people benefit from the savings that could be achieved by switching their energy supply. To do this, the charity joined forces with E.ON, one of the UK’s leading energy suppliers, to develop a package of competitive energy prices and customer service designed specifically for older people.

The charity had concerns about the way energy contracts were sold, so the product was only offered via TAMs or direct through the call centre where service standards could be monitored. Over the last eight years it has had a positive impact on the way energy is sold and influenced the way E.ON does its business. The product is marketed through direct marketing campaigns with responses directed to direct sales channels and the website.

In recent times, when the industry was affected by rising wholesale costs and had to pass on price increases to customers, Age Concern and E.ON worked together in an effort to mitigate increases for Age Concern customers. On several occasions they were able to achieve a delay in price increases until after the winter months, or a mitigating cash-back for customers. They currently have around 400,000 contracts and the penetration across gas and electricity is two products per customer.

There are three bespoke products which are positioned to give best price either to lower than average or above average (higher) users. The features of the online proposition (which is the same as the offline product) are: • Dedicated customer service line, free to call and not automated, with a facility for the hard of hearing and accessibility of a video phone for the deaf • A guaranteed Cold Weather Payment of £10 for all gas customers (£20 for those aged 80 and over) • Gas customers aged 60 and over may receive an additional payment above this guaranteed amount for each day the temperature drops below zero between December and February each year

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• • • • • • • • •

Free hypothermia thermometer Free carbon monoxide alarm (worth c£20) Choice of additional free and discounted Energy Efficiency measures when customers join the scheme Face-to-face advice and assistance at around 150 Age Concerns across the country Large print bills, bills in Braille, talking bills Free energy efficiency advice Password scheme for meter readings for extra peace of mind Services for customers with priority needs Exclusive discounts from E.ON for Age Concern customers on loft and Cavity Wall installation. These may also be installed free of charge for customers aged 70 and over or on qualifying benefits.

With Powergen and E.ON, the charity has built a customer base of approximately 220,000 over the last decade. They have gained an average of 65,000 new contracts per year over the last three years. Through this they have gained detailed information on their customers use of energy and that has allowed them to cross sale their portfolio of products to energy customers using direct marketing. This customer data is held on their marketing database and is used for direct marketing purposes. They use sales routes to the older market to develop a customer proposition to reduce energy consumption and modify behaviour. The charity has developed a successful energy efficiency scheme selling the benefits of cavity wall and loft top up thermal insulation.

Mike Abrey-Bugg, general manager of Age UK said: “Over the last ten years we have proved that you can satisfy customer and charity requirements whilst satisfying the commercial equation.

We have given people in later life the confidence to switch their energy, safe in the knowledge that we, a charity will ensure that their interests are looked after. And in the process we have secured a revenue stream for a charity to actively campaign for the interest of people in later life a very pleasing result.”

Laurie Young MBA, DipM, FCIM, FIOD, FRSA Laurie Young is a senior executive experienced in all aspects of marketing, with significant expertise in the marketing of services. A proven manager and leader, with strong consultative and communication skills, he has worked internationally with many different organisations and cultures, including PricewaterhouseCoopers; Unisys; and BT. Laurie is currently Chairman of the Board at the Strategic Planning Society (SPS).

Drawing ©Copyright April 2009 Don Moyer.

Used with permission. Originally appeared in Harvard Business Review Panel Discussion column

BY DON MOYER

THIRD SECTOR

BROKEN TRUST

A

s Matthew Bishop says in Essential Economics, trust is “one of the most valuable economic assets, hard to create but easy to destroy…” Certainly, the current economic crisis is evidence of just how fragile trust is. Before the crisis, there was a surplus of people who trusted too easily. Then their investments disappeared, their counselors didn’t know what to do, and their respected advisers turned out to be crooks. The chain of trust broke. Now there is a trust deficit. The whole economy is holding its breath waiting for confidence to return. But doing nothing makes things worse.

David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter, in “Seize Advantage in a Downturn” (HBR February 2009), warn that “inaction is the riskiest response to the uncertainties of an economic crisis.

But rash or scattershot action can be nearly as damaging.” A disorganized response can produce a panic and distract people from finding opportunities hidden in the bad news. Companies must take decisive but measured action in tough times to secure their futures – action that can require, if not a complete renewal of trust, a leap of faith.

Don Moyer has collected his series of cartoons as a book, entitled 64 Drawings. It is available from Blurb at www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/949041

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The Global Economy of Cities Philip Kotler and brother Milton talk us through the global economy of cities in this fascinating feature.

This excerpt is taken from their forthcoming new book: “Growing your company in the Global Urban Economy.”

M

uch of the growth of nations is tied to the growth of their cities.

Cities are the source of a nation’s wealth, not the other way around. It is in its cities that most of the investment, trade and consumption take place.

Yet development economists have Philip Kotler spent most of the last 60 years focusing on nation growth, not city growth. Following WWII, the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, as well as the hegemonic powers of the US and the Soviet Union have pursued policies of building National economies as the route to economic development and growth.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Milton Kotler Western powers have continued this strategy of nation building to this day.

There are strong reasons why businesses and governments must start focusing on cities and megacities as targets for development. First, for the first time in human history, we live in an urban world. More than one-half of the world’s population live in cities and generate 80% percent of the world’s GDP. As of 2007, 380 cities of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) index of 600 top global cities, accounted for 50% of global GDP. By 2025, the 600 largest cities will generate 60% of global GDP. Many major cities in the US and Europe are declining in population. They cannot be relied on by Western global multinationals to provide growth opportunity. Second, the fastest growing cities are in the developing nations, especially in Asia and Latin America. They are experiencing a rapid growth in the middle and affluent classes. This is where money can be made and it is the emerging country multinationals that are in the best position to exploit these opportunities. Western multinationals must wake up and move to these opportunities before it is too late, otherwise they are condemned to low or no growth.

Consider the following. Large and midsize cities in developing countries often have a growth rate far exceeding their host countries.

(Cities refer to standard metropolitan areas of municipalities. City regions extend beyond the SMA. Megacities exceed 10 million in population; large cities range from 5 million to 10 million.)

Furthermore, the sum total of a nation’s cities comprises the greatest part of their GDP. In developed countries, cities provide as much as 80% of national GDP. In the US, cities contribute 79% of national

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FEATURE - KOTLER

GDP. In developing countries, the range is 40 to 60% Chinese cities contribute 60% of national GDP and 85% of its GDP growth.

Beneath the shell of nation building, developing economies have thrived through the rapid growth of cities and their dynamic interplay of demography, education, low labor costs, external and internal investment, transplanted global industries and indigenous industries, government investment and enterprise policies, and indigenous entrepreneurial spirit. Continuing urbanisation drives the GDP growth at a much higher growth rate than it would otherwise achieve.

National institutions play a facilitating role in attracting external investment and trade, but it is the enterprise of developing megacities and large cities that are the engine of national economic growth. In most cases, urban GDP in developing and developed cities exceed the growth rate of their host countries; or decline less than national economic decline. Nations are the beneficiaries of urban wealth, not the progenitors.

According to McKinsey, the top 600 cities in the world include 20% of the world’s population and generate $34 trillion, or roughly half of global GDP. Between 2010 and 2025 the top 600 will double its GDP to $65 trillion and contribute 67% to global GDP (McKinsey, 2011). How can this be? Why is the economic development of Asia and other developing areas eclipsing Western economic dominance?

The answer is really quite simple. Since the rise of nation states in the 18th century, comparative politics and economics have always been based on country data. The same holds more recently for comparative GDP data. Country data does not reflect differences in city GDP or city contribution to country GDP. For example in 2011, the top 15 cities in India contributed 56% of India’s GDP, while only including 7.5% of its population, (Professor Vidur Saghal).Cities are the economic powerhouses of countries.

Further, top city annual economic growth exceeds host country growth.

Source PriceWaterhouseCooper

Country

Brazil

India

China

Growth (pa) 3%

5%

5.5%

City

Growth (pa)

Rio

4.2%

San Paulo

4.3%

Mumbai

6.3%

Delhi

6.4%

Shanghai Beijing Gunagzhou

>20%

“Why is the economic development of Asia and other developing areas eclipsing Western economic dominance?”

City-building, not nation building has been the key to the rise of emerging markets. The megacities and large cities of the world have an 80% higher per capita GDP than their host economies. By 2025, only 12 of the top 25 cities with annual household income above $20,000 in purchasing power parity (PPP) will be in developed regions, namely Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, Rhein-Ruhr, Osaka, Los Angeles, Seoul, Chicago, Milan, Ranstad and Madrid. Thirteen of the top 25 will be in developing regions, namely Shanghai.

Beijing, Moscow, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Cairo, Hong Kong, Taipei, Shenzhen, Istanbul, Delhi and Buenos Aires.

The key to the shift of national wealth from developed to developing countries lies in the rapid urbanisation of vast populations of low-wage workers and educated professionals, and the merging of countryside, towns and cities into large cities and megacities. Jane Jacobs and other urban analysts pointed out the wealth creating effect of cities. While these earlier writers focused on the urbanisation of developed countries, there is today a far larger impact of cities in the developing world. According to McKinsey, “China’s economic transformation resulting from urbanisation is happening at 100 times the scale of the first country in the world to urbanise – the United Kingdom – and at 10 times the speed”.

The 2025 MGI Index constituent players will change. 136 new cities in the developing world (100 in China alone) will enter the 600 city index. One out of every three developed cities in the 2007 600 index will drop.

The key element of new wealth creation will derive from the consumption of 485 million households with an average per capita income $20,000 per annum in 2007, to 735 million households with an average per capita income of $32,000.

Business Strategy in City Economies Jane Jacobs brilliantly dismantled national theories of wealth creation, by demonstrating in utterly realistic terms the fact that cities and their regions are the true generators of national wealth.

She argues that cities grow through different stages: 1) Markets

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for imports; 2) Import replacement; 3) Industrial and commercial transplants; 4) Technology; 5) Capital formation and Investment.

Jacobs demonstrated how great Western city regions joined with other importing and exporting city regions within a nation to actually create the wealth of nations. The city is the core of the city region economy. As the core city flourishes in import replacement, it begins to export its surplus production and innovations.

Imports are continually converted into replacements and exports and the wealth of city regions grow. When the city core declines in energy and inventiveness, the city region degrades.

Jacobs wrote an earlier book in 1961, The Death and Life of American Cities, in which she traces the competitive race between cities and city regions within the US and the various reasons why some cities won and others cities lost. Every city competes for markets, jobs, transplants, technology and capital. Cities may be permanent, but there is no permanence of their wealth and economic power.

Jacobs witnessed the rise of Tokyo and other major Japanese cities and the rising wealth of Japan, though she did not live to see the declining economic growth of Tokyo and other major Japanese cities during decades of stagnation in the 90s nor for that matter the death of Detroit and the economic decline of many prominent American and European cities. However Jacobs has been right all along. The changing economic fortune of city and city regions rests on the shifting sands of markets, jobs, transplants, technology and capital.

Let us look at how her five forces shape today and tomorrow’s global economy.

1. Markets There are more jobs in the top developing cities than in the top developed cities. You can fit the 2025 projected population of the five global top per capita income developed cities (Oslo, Doha, Bergen, Trondheim and San Jose) into one job district of Shanghai.

Most of the top performing per capita cities have small populations, rich natural and human resources and specialiszed markets.

The developing world added 886 million non-farm jobs from the period of 1980 to 2010, or an increase of 61%, versus 164 million new non-farm jobs in the developed world, or an increase of 9%.

In 2008, there were 80 million middle and wealth class households in the developing top 600 world cities; and 172 million such households in the developed world. By 2025, 11 of the top 25 global cities in GDP will be in the developing world; while 14 remain in the developed world (9 in the US).

Turning to the number of households with annual income over $20,000 (middle and wealth classes) in the top 25 hot spots in 2025, 12 will be in the developed world; 13 in the developing world (seven of these in the BRIC countries).

Finally to the fastest rate of city GDP growth in 2025, China

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alone has 15 of the top 25 greatest city GDP growth rates in the world. In a number of households above $20,000 GD/PPP per annum only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago in the US rank in the top 25 cities; matched by Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen in China. More broadly, 12 of the top 25 cities in household income $20,000 GDP/PPP per annum will be in the developing world.

The key to the growing market consumption of top developing cities is the global reach of multinational corporations in manufacture, brand power and retail chains, as well as the rise of indigenous companies and their production power, styling, advertising and distribution though their own retail chains and malls.

2. Import Replacement Most Western multinational B2C and B2B companies initially exported their goods and services to developing cities. In short order, these imports were copied and sold by domestic companies to consumers at a lower price. The multinationals transplanted their production to host developing cities to protect their brands and to take advantage of low cost labor to export to their home countries and globally. They worked out distribution and promotion of their goods to supernumerary local consumers.

Multinational corporation investment added great economic growth to developing cities, while imperiling the productive economy of their home country. Indigenous developing cities also substituted imports and grew their own brands and position in the marketplace.

In addition, because of low labor costs and government policy, the multinationals overproduced for the destination developing market and exported great surpluses all around the world to other developed markets and to other developing markets. Chinese companies did the same, competing with the multinationals in the host market, and eventually exporting as well.

3.Transplants The major source of growth since 1980 has been the transplantation of manufacturing from developed city regions to the city regions of developing cities.

Many factors − low wages, improved education and skill training, infrastructure, logistics, local supply, large metropolitan consumer markets, low interest financing, favorable bilateral and global trade policy, and investment incentives of host countries − have joined forces to move the industrial core of the developed world to the developing world. The epicenter of middle class consumption and per capita wealth is moving in concert with this industrial and commercial investment shift.

Developing cities are marketing their investment advantage, in concert with central and local government policy and monetary, fiscal and trade support. They compete among each other for foreign direct investment (FDI). It is important to note that it is the cities that market transplants, not the central governments. Trade delegations led by Mayors from every large city in China send

FEATURE - KOTLER

FACT: In the US, cities contribute 79% of national GDP. In developing countries, the range is 40 to 60% Chinese cities contribute 60% of national GDP and 85% of its GDP growth.

FACT: In 2011, the top 15 cities in India contributed 56% of India’s GDP, while only including 7.5% of its population. (Professor Vidur Saghal) FACT: “China’s economic transformation resulting from urbanisation is happening at 100 times the scale of the first country in the world to urbanise – the United Kingdom – and at 10 times the speed.” (McKinsey)

“WESTERN MULTINATIONALS MUST WAKE UP AND MOVE TO these opportunities before it is too late, otherwise they are condemned to low or no growth.”

FACT: There are more jobs in the top developing cities than in the top developed cities.

FACT: McDonald’s earns 66% of its revenues overseas.

Apple received 65% of its sales revenue from overseas sales. Even Amazon is getting 45% of its sales overseas.

marketing delegations to US cities to demonstrate their investment opportunities. Note also that these developing city delegations go to cities in the US, not to the Federal Government for investment.

With continuing large scale and rapid import replacement through transplants, FDI, and indigenous production, developing cities will establish and widen their lead over developed cities in decades ahead. The only hope of economic growth for low population developed cities is innovation for export. This brings us to the next element of city economic growth: technology.

4.Technology China and many other developing countries require joint venture structures for foreign investment. This is partly for the purpose of adding capital assets and revenue to State-owned companies, but also for indigenous partners to learn the technology of high value production and copy this knowledge for their own branded products and components. Indigenous joint venture partners are also learning how to efficiently manage large scale business operations and management processes and organisations.

Foreign MNCs accept this condition of joint venture and technology transfer for the short-term benefit of market access and sales revenues to meet their global bottom line. MNCs are constant victims of IP theft whether by a joint partner or third parties. Copying is the core of city economic growth. All cities grow by import replacements, which is a fancy word for copying. No legal system

or procedures can stop the heart of city economies from copying and growing. They must reproduce what they import to grow their economies and then export at a lower price than what they previously imported.

Not only do developing city regions replace imports for their home market, but they export surplus throughout the world, at a price that no Western MNCs can match. In fact, the Western MNCs outsource their production to these companies and become essentially design and marketing companies. Retail chains in the developed world import these foreign goods directly, or as private label brands.

As Chinese companies absorb more Western technology in its manufacturing base, they also invest in new technologies. Huawei invests 10% of its sales revenue in R&D, far higher than any American company. In addition, the Chinese government invests in R&D. Under the 12th five-year plan which runs until 2015, China will increase public R&D expenditure to 2.2%, and to 2.5% by 2020.

What all this means, is that Chinese and other developing city regions will catch up with the West in technology and from there become major exporters of value added goods and services.

5. Capital New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Singapore are still the major global financial centers of capital; but Hong Kong (legally

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part of China), Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai, New Delhi, Sao Paulo and the ME Emirate cities of Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai are not far behind.

The essential matter is that more productive global capital (not safe haven capital) is flowing to the 480 developing cities of the McKinsey 600 than to the 120 developed cities. Thus, just as the West off shores its manufacturing, it is off-shoring its productive capital.

Western MNCs are keeping billons of off-shore profits offshore to invest in developing city regions, instead of bringing these earnings back to their home countries for taxation and limited domestic investment opportunity.

Developing countries now receive over half of global FDI inflows. In the first half of 2012 though, China surpassed the US and became the world’s largest recipient of foreign direct investment.

Business Strategies for Developing City Markets McKinsey reported that in 2012, “Only 19% of surveyed business executives were reporting that their company’s senior executives were making business location decisions at the city, rather than the country level and that they expect that share to remain constant over the next five years.” Further, 36% make strategic business expansion decision based on regional investment, and leave the task of allocating investment to cities to working groups. Astonishingly, 61% of senior executives don’t plan at the city level “because they are perceived as an irrelevant unit of strategic planning.” 52% don’t use city information in their daily work. If these senior executives are looking for customers, they are overlooking the most salient fact of where customers are. They are not in regions or countries, but in the city regions of countries.

When seeking locations for improved access to knowledge and talent, 30% report that these decisions are made at a city level.

This small percentage may be wise for identifying management skill and technical talent for operations and innovation, but it is a poor substitute for finding where entrepreneurs and consumers are. It may locate Silicon Valley or Bangalore, but it fails to locate Tianjin and Wuhan, or Jakarta and Lagos. Indeed it may identify Minneapolis, Chicago, Manchester, Munich, Frankfurt, Lyon, or Stockholm; but none of these cities are among the top 23 city regions of high/middle income households of 2007, nor will they be in 2025.

Corporate Culture Senior executives of Western MNCs have been in management positions for decades. It is tough to unlearn a mindset of thirty to forty years, especially when that mindset has been successful for many years. Most US consumer and service MNCs still do a great part of their business in the US. But this picture is changing very fast.

As of 2011, Wal-Mart still does 76% of its business in the US; Nike does 50% of its business in North America. Marriott is still American

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enough to do 84% of its business in the US; and McKesson, the largest US drug distributor, does 91% of its business in the US. But there is slippage. McDonald’s earns 66% of its revenues overseas. Apple received 65% of its sales revenue from overseas sales. Even Amazon is getting 45% of its sales overseas. Turning to the industrial sector we see Intel with 88% of its revenues overseas; Dow Chemical at 67% overseas; IBM at 67% overseas; GE at 54% overseas; and Ford at 51% overseas.

If we take 50% overseas sales as the tipping point for a truly global US multinational company, it is likely that we will see most of the US Fortune 500 and Fortune 1,000 companies selling over 50% abroad by the end of the decade. With the exception of Intel, Ford and IBM selling a small share of foreign sales directly to governments, most of these sales are to foreign companies. These procuring companies and consumers are in cities. Currently the largest city destination of US foreign sales are Western developed countries in Europe, Japan, Korea and Australia. While we do not have the figures on the percentage of sales to developing cities, it is a fair bet with European and Japanese economic stagnation and rapid developing city growth, that a majority percentage of US multinational foreign sales will have to shift from developed cities to developing cities before 2025.

It is the strategic challenge of every company to figure out the locations and rates of this shift. They have enough research capability to see the city path of their business shift over the coming decade, if they accept the premise of city market economies. They need the competitive intelligence to see where their Western MNC competitors are going and when and how. They have to track the rise and competitive strategies of new developing market MNCs and the global city spaces in which they plan to operate.

They have to change the culture of their headquarters and stakeholders to understand two basic changes. First, don’t put too many resources in developed city markets. They are declining in consumer and business growth; while developing city markets are growing. Second, forget global regions and countries and focus on city markets, both in the developing as well as the developed regions.

Western failure to accomplish this cultural shift will advantage the rise of new MNCs in developing and serving global cities.

Opportunity Analysis Developing cities with high savings cultures are reluctant to spend.

Those with spending cultures are ready to buy. Cities with many institutions of high education and research institutes have a large stock of talent for R&D and innovation. Newer developing cities that have not yet replaced their imports have fewer indigenous competitors than older cities. Cities with agile entrepreneurial political leadership are more inviting to Western MNC entry and growth than bureaucratic cities, which are protectionist toward their own indigenous companies. Some cities have highly suitable and outward looking partners for joint venture and strategic alliances;

FEATURE - KOTLER

others are too restrictive, distrustful and reluctant to deal with Western partners. Every company needs an opportunity road map and criteria for ranking.

Targeting The McKinsey 600 cities index, with its 430 developing cities, is too vast a landscape for strategic investment. Which cities should your business invest in and according to what criteria? What time order and investment scale do you set for your company among these opportunity developing cities?

Below the city level, what demographic segments should you target? What brands are most salient to the changing demographic groups in these fast growing developing city regions?

Channels What mix of distribution channels do you devise? Chinese cities have the highest number of internet users and fast growing eCommerce sales. India’s cities have a slower rate of eCommerce growth. The Emirates cities are high wealth centers for luxury goods and travel.

They want elegant retail channels. African emerging cities need more standard household goods and services and favor big box chains. Chinese cities have millions of luxury and middle class consumers, as well as millions more in countryside towns and rural districts. The channels have to be highly diversified.

Promotion How do you advertise in the developing cities with different cultures?

Cultural variation and taste differ enormously between different cities, even in the same country. The people of the Middle East are highly sensitive and alien to Western outlook. How does a Western product achieve credibility in the massive city region of Cairo?

Pricing How do you price for profit in vast developing cities that have a heritage of flexible pricing and price negotiation? What systems do you need to control price flexibility in the distribution chain, as well as the supply chain? Speaking of distribution, developing cities have far more fragmented intermediaries than in developed cities. The distribution pie has many more slices.

Organisation If we have to move from regional and country company organisation, how do we organise for city regions? If the wealth of companies comes from developing and developed city regions, companies have to have senior executives at the city region level. They cannot succeed with tactical work groups. The most promising approach is to target the fastest growing city region clusters and seat senior management at the city region cluster level.

We are facing a new generation of marketing, different from the past and with a still uncertain future. What we do know for certain,

as born out in the data, is that global city regions in the developing world will dominate market economics and be a fundamental source of company growth and prosperity.

References PriceWaterhouseCoopers, The BRICs and beyond: prospects, challenges and opportunities McKinsey, ibid Developed regions compose the United States and Canada, Western Europe, Australasia, Japan and South Korea Jane Jacobs, Cities and the Wealth of Nations, 1984, Random House McKinsey Global Institute, Urban World: Cities and the rise of the consuming class, June, 2012, p.3

Jane Jacobs, Cities and the Wealth of Nations, ibid Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961, Random House McKinsey Global Institute, ibid.

Foreign Direct Investment, The Economist, October, 2012 Capital Inflows, Globalization 101 MGI, Urban World: Cities and the rise of the consuming , 2012, p. 49

Keep up to date with Philip and Milton via their websites: www.pkotler.org www.kotlermarketing.com (US) www.kotler.com/cn (China) www.kotlerongrowth.com Milton Kotler’s China Blog

Philip Kotler (M.A., University of Chicago, Ph.D., M.I.T.) is the S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He has published Marketing Management, 14th edition, and 50 other books on different phases of marketing and economics. His research covers strategic marketing, innovation, consumer marketing, business marketing, services marketing, e-marketing, and social marketing. He has consulted a number of major companies and is the recipient of 14 honorary degrees from abroad. He was cited in 2011 as the number 1 academic business school professor.

Milton Kotler has over forty years of professional experience in marketing strategy and management. He is Founder and Chairman of Kotler Marketing Group USA (KMG, Inc. – founder in 1984), headquartered in Washington DC, and Chairman of Kotler Marketing China, with offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Milton Kotler is an economic advisor to the Mayors of Xian, Dalian and Harbin and Zhengzhou. He has delivered public seminars in over 100 Chinese cities and is author of A Clear-Sighted View of Chinese Business Strategy, Renmin University Press, Beijing; 2003 and co-author with Philip Kotler of Market Your Way to Growth: 8 Ways to Win, Wiley, 2013

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Permission Marketing in a Digital Age Marketing Executive and A-grade delegate, Lorna Brocklesby explains why communication requested by the customer has a greater impact compared to uninvited marketing messages. Obtaining customer consent is the only way marketing can thrive. An increasingly cluttered environment means that gaining permission from prospects to send them information about your products or services is a must.

Permission Marketing – why it matters ermission Marketing was coined by Seth Godin in 1999. It is the opposite of traditional ‘interruption marketing’ where customers are bombarded by unwelcome communications: TV, email, Lorna Brocklesby online ads (Sutherland & Canwell, 2004).

Compared to traditional advertising Permission Marketing focuses on consent; it allows prospects to volunteer to be marketed to. The idea is that if a prospect has volunteered then they will pay more attention to the marketing message (Godin, 2007).

This seems like common sense, so why is it important, and why am I talking about it now? Seth Godin writes that Permission Marketing is the tool that unlocks the power of the internet. This is because with the internet comes more clutter, more advertising channels, more ways for customers to be flooded with ads and promotions. This makes ‘permission’ even more valuable, arguably the most powerful trend in marketing (Godin, 2007). So how do you obtain permission in the first place? You offer an incentive. This incentive can range from information, to entertainment to prizes.

P

Permission marketing – date your customers Seth Godin compares Permission Marketing to dating, saying that it turns strangers into friends and friends into lifetime customers. Take note, because mass marketing is no longer pulling in the results that it used to.

“Anticipated, Personal and Relevant messages delivered to people who want to get them is the core of marketing for the foreseeable future” Seth Godin 28

Godin’s 5 steps to dating your customers are as follows: 1

Offer the prospect an incentive to volunteer They will then opt in to your communications.

2

Using the attention offered by the prospect, offer a curriculum over time, teaching the customer about your product or service Marketers can now educate their prospects about the benefits of their products.

3

Reinforce the incentive to guarantee that the prospect maintains the permission

4

Offer additional incentives to get even more permission from the customer Gain even more knowledge about your customer.

5

Over time, leverage permission to change consumer behaviour toward profits Now that you know a lot about your customer you can tailor your offering to meet their needs (Godin, 2007)

The more you get to know your prospects (the more you communicate with them through permission), the more you can tailor your products to satisfy them. The prospect will feel privileged to be receiving your product/service based on the dating steps because the messages they have received from you have been relevant and personalised.

In this way, Permission Marketing cuts through the clutter and allows marketers to speak to prospects as friends, not strangers. A personalised and anticipated massage has a lot more impact than a random advert or email.

The Clutter Is it really that bad? Yes, consumers are bombarded with all sorts of adverts on a daily basis. The internet has compounded this issue, from banners to pop-ups − it is impossible to surf the web without being interrupted by adverts. Marketers are constantly fighting for

customers’ attention – and it does not stop there! The increased amount of advertising is not just a problem for consumers; it is a problem for marketers too. Seth Godin paints this very significant picture: •

Consumers have a limited amount of attention. We can’t watch everything or remember everything.

•

Consumers choose to buy the things they notice. If they don’t notice your advertising then the chances of them buying your products or services are slim to none.

•

The more products that are offered, the less money there is to go around. If you buy a Snickers, you’re unlikely to buy a Dairy Milk as well.

•

Interruption marketers have to spend more money to get noticed. Reducing your advertising spend in a cluttered environment will lead to a decrease in sales.

•

Spending more money on advertising leads to more clutter! As the noise increases, the percentage of messages that gets through to the customer decreases

FEATURE - BROCKLESBY

“It’s almost 30 times easier to get into Harvard than it is to get an advert into the Facebook News Feed.”

(Godin, 2007) So marketers are between a rock and a hard place. The more they advertise the more cluttered the world becomes and the less effective it is. The less they advertise the less they are noticed.

Here are some facts about the digital space we live in and how busy it is. Did you know that it is almost 30 times easier to get into Harvard than it is to get an advert into the Facebook News Feed (Rosales, 2013).

•

Every minute of the day, e-mail users send approximately 204,166,677 messages

•

Google receives over 2 million search queries every minute of the day

•

Facebook users share approximately 684,478 pieces of content every minute

•

Twitter users send over 100,000 tweets every minute

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Only 1 out of 500 stories posted on Facebook actually make it to the News Feed

•

Approximately 47,000 apps are downloaded from Apple every minute

•

Every minute of the day, approximately 571 new websites are created

•

WordPress users publish approximately 347 new blog posts every minute (ICAP Center for Social Media, 2013)

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Permission Marketing has become important because of the internet and because mass interruption marketing is no longer as effective as it has been. Permission is only going to increase in value. Marketers are constantly fighting for attention through adverts on Facebook or Twitter, through TV commercials, in magazines, by email – everywhere they can! On top of that there are so many platforms from which marketers can reach consumers. We are living in a very cluttered world (Godin, 2007).

Leveraging content to drive awareness, permission and sale Is there light at the end of the tunnel, for consumers as well as for marketers? Yes because Permission Marketing is about getting something in return; arguably the best incentive is great content.

Information is what drives awareness, permission and sales. Content is the way forward. If brands offer free content of good quality then

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Source: Smartinsights.com http://bit.ly/smartrace Created by: Danyl Bosomworth and Dave Chaffey

“As new forms of media develop and clutter becomes ever more intense, it’s the asset of permission that will generate profits for marketers.”

Seth Godin

prospects will not mind parting with their contact details because it will seem worthwhile; a fair trade.

A study revealed that the main reasons consumers signup for emails are because of an offer or sale (61%) or for discounts (59%) (Moth, 2013). The downside to this is that discounts cannot be sustained; it is not a long term strategy. In addition, price reductions devalue a brand. This is where content comes in to play. Content marketing allows brands to gain permission from prospects to communicate with them without jeopardising their reputation, or the reputation of their products.

So, content marketing ties in with permission marketing and both concepts have been aided by the web.

• If you frequently make updates to your website i.e. if your company blogs and posts new content, it will improve your site listings on Google. You will gain more exposure and more authority.

Reduce Interruption Marketing Interruption will always be needed when starting a dialogue with prospects. This should be the only time interruption marketing (sending random emails) is used. We all hate spam, so don’t do it!

It’s not difficult to see why consumers feel overwhelmed by marketing messages. A recent report found that 16% of businesses send more than 1million emails per month and 19% send between 250,000 and 1 million emails each month. To the consumer this will feel like a lot, especially if they are unanticipated ‘interruption’ emails.

This is why it is important to not put all your content behind subscription barriers.

Think Request Marketing For Permission Marketing to fit in with the culture of the web it must be a customer controlled experience. It should not be about the company trying to gain permission, it should be about the customer requesting information. Dave Chaffey writes that this is a subtle but important difference. This is why it is important to offer great content and not to hide it behind subscription barriers. If customers want your content then they will get it and in the process give you their details, they’ll give you permission. The customer should be in control.

•

•

Take a look at Socialmediatoday’s infographic opposite, the Inbound Marketing Funnel. Customer advocacy stems from relevant content because content marketing earns that all important permission.

E-Permission Marketing It’s been 14 years since Seth Godin published his book and it’s clear that Permission Marketing is still extremely relevant today, if not more so. Dave Chaffey has constructed his own set of principles which details how Permission Marketing can be achieved using web and email.

Dave Chaffey’s E-permission Marketing principles: •

Reduce interruption marketing

•

Select the best mix of communications tools

•

Think Request Marketing

•

Achieve Opt-in

•

Offer selective opt-in to communications

•

Create a common customer profile

•

Use powerful incentives to gain opt-in and offer a range of incentives or engagement devices

•

Maximise learning, minimise attrition

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Enable Opt-out

•

Learn more through time

•

Vary online offers through time

•

Create an outbound contact strategy

FEATURE - BROCKLESBY

Twitter, Facebook and other social networks are a great way to share and spread content. If you post valuable, free content then you will gain more followers and likes and your company will be talked about more. Content is recommended and shared by others.

Gain credibility within your industry. As a marketing College it is important that we share valuable marketing news with our customers. Similarly, if prospects receive useful content from us it will show them that we are a worthwhile organisation.

Great content is a point of competitive advantage.

•

Offer Selective Opt-In to Communications The customer should be able to choose which method of communication they would like to be contacted with. Again this reiterates the point that because of the web the customer has to be in control.

Dave Chaffey writes that there are 4 main options for communications preferences: • Content: Tick boxes for news, products, offers, events • Frequency: Weekly, monthly, quarterly, or alerts • Channel: E-mail or direct mail • Format: Text vs. HTML Maximise Learning, Minimise Attrition It is important to learn as much as we can about our prospects and customers without being annoying. Once prospects respond to our incentive we should send them an online data capture form.

Minimise the attrition of these lists by following Chaffey’s basic steps: • Ask the optimal number of questions.

If the incentive is good enough then respondents will be prepared to take the time to give their interests, particularly if it is explained that this will be used to provide tailored communications.

• Devise powerful incentives, powerful enough for someone to fill in the form accurately.

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“Face it: Your attention – the time you have available to ‘pay attention’ – is an increasingly scarce resource” Seth Godin •

•

Explain how the customer data will be used.

Explain that the data collected will help the information and experience delivered to the customer.

Reassure them about privacy. ‘We will not share your data!’

Create an Outbound Contact Strategy Start by reviewing the email metrics, see what’s been successful, the optimal time to send an email and how frequently.

Think about: frequency; interval; content; links with other messages/communications. There should also be a control strategy, someone monitoring all forms of communication; this will make sure all contact goes to plan.

Permission and the Cookie Law The ‘cookie law’ came into force in May 2011 and stated that storing and accessing information on users’ computers and other devices is only lawful when the user has given consent. The cookie law has been changed because of privacy concerns mostly because of ‘primary cookies’ which are used to create a detailed profile of an individual’s browsing activity.

This means that because consumers now have to opt-in and agree to the use of cookies they should view web display advertising as anticipated, personal and relevant. The fact that opt-ins are now applied to every cookie (unless essential to service) means that web advertising is personal, it’s tailored to our interests and based on what you look at online.

Email however is different. The user has agreed to receive emails and so has already given consent. If the marketer is clear about the kind of data they are collecting and how it will be used then the customer/prospect will expect certain measurement and tracking actions. The key thing here is that the marketer is transparent and tells their prospects/customers about the use of cookies and other technology that stores data.

Just remember…

E-permission marketing today is about acquiring quality opt-ins on web browsers, mobiles, apps and social platforms. The environment

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is much more splintered compared to when Seth Godin first published his Permission Marketing book in 1999. The cluttered web environment makes marketing more complex but it also provides more opportunities.

Dave Chaffey brings Permission Marketing into the digital age by detailing how Godin’s principles can be achieved using web and email. The 2011 cookie law is an important feature of today’s landscape because opt-in is permission. Customers should now take into account new data storing technologies like primary cookies and expect more intrusive but tailored communications. It all comes down to permission, about learning as much about your customer as possible and about delivering personal and anticipated messages.

Permission Marketing takes advantage of new technologies better than other forms of marketing. It will continue to evolve and will remain at the centre of marketing strategy.

Sources & References Godin, S. (2007) Permission Marketing. London, Pocket Books.

Sutherland, J. and Canwell, D. (2004) Key concepts in marketing.

Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan. http://socialmouths.com/ blog/2013/05/08/facebookimage-optimization/ http://www.smartinsights.com/ content-management/contentmarketing-strategy/inboundmarketing-funnel-infographic/ http://econsultancy.com/uk/ blog/11214-marketing-emailsaccount-for-70-of-spamcomplaints http://www.smartinsights.com/ social-media-marketing/socialmedia-strategy/e-permissionmarketing/

ICAP Center for Social Media, (2013) Fun Facts, [online] http:// www.iacpsocialmedia.org/ Resources/FunFacts.aspx (Accessed 12 August 2013) Rosales, F. (2013) Photos Dominate Facebook’s News Feed, Here Is How To Optimize Them, [online] http://socialmouths.com/ blog/2013/05/08/facebookimage-optimization/ (Accessed 12 August 2013) Moth, D, (2013) 10 useful tips and examples to boost your email signups, [online], http:// econsultancy.com/uk/ blog/62294-10-useful-tips-andexamples-to-boost-your-emailsignups (Accessed 12 August 2013)

Lorna Brocklesby, Marketing Executive of Cambridge Marketing College has recently completed the CIM Professional Certificate in Marketing and has a degree in History from the University of Dundee.

FEATURE - DAVIDSON

How marketers can make vision and values work Hugh Davidson’s speech at the Cambridge Marketing College’s Annual Dinner in 2002 does not appear to have dated and is even more relevant today than when it was first delivered. If its theme, that we as marketers, should lead the management of vision and values in organisations, had been more widely acted upon, some of the turmoil of the last decade could have been avoided. Charles Nixon, Founding Director of the College, asked Hugh to reprise the original speech, and add an “Afterthought for Marketers”, reflecting further learning from the past turbulent decade.

In writing his book which underlies this article, Hugh travelled over 55,000 miles and interviewed 125 global organisation leaders in North America and the UK, in order to understand how best to manage Vision, Values, and Branding, and make them work on the front line at all levels. Too often, vision and value statements never travel far beyond the Boardroom and are seen as irrelevant by the key frontline and back office people capable of delivering them.

W

hen I wrote the first edition of Offensive Marketing, many decades ago, I had three hopes for the future of marketing. First, that most major companies would, in time, have a Marketing Director on the main board.

Second, that marketers would play a Hugh Davidson major role in mergers and acquisitions.

And third, that they would lead longterm planning.

Those 40 years have gone, and where are we now? Let’s take the first. According to the Marketing Society and the CIM, only 20% of major companies have a Marketing Director on the main board. 100% have a Finance Director.

I think you know as well as I do where we are on the other ‘hopes’. There’s little involvement by Marketers in mergers and acquisitions. Over 60% of acquisitions still fail to build shareholder value. There is a simple reason – most are activated by investment bankers in search of fees, and financial people. They both focus on the past. The key to successful acquisitions is understanding the future. Who does this better than anybody else? Marketers. That’s a battle I think we may have lost, although I hope not. And we don’t lead long-term planning. That’s something that Finance Directors have taken over.

The Big Future Opportunity When Charles briefed me to give this talk, he said, “Tell them something inspirational, get them really excited and make them happy”. So I think we need a change of pace. Let’s look to the future, because there’s a bigger opportunity on the horizon, much bigger than the ones we’ve missed. And it’s there for the taking by marketers.

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Here it is... Marketers have a major opportunity to lead the management of vision and values in organisations. They’re pretty poorly managed today and you have the competencies to fix them.

I decided to write a book about this a few years ago, and examined all the research on managing vision and values. It’s mainly covered in books on leadership. Most of the written material on vision and values says how important they are, and tells you how to design statements. But there’s hardly anything about how to make them work in practice, every day, everywhere, with receptionists, telesales people, and others in the front line or back office.

To establish best practice I decided to do some research and visited 125 major organisations across the world, mainly in the USA and UK, travelling 55,000 miles in the process. I saw about 70 companies, and they accounted for over 20% of American GNP. This involved interviewing global chairmen/CEOs of companies like DuPont, BP, Estee Lauder, AT&T, FedEx, Nordstrom, Dow Chemical, John Lewis, Tesco, Diageo, Procter & Gamble, Gillette, and so on.

It seemed possible that companies had a lot to learn about vision and values management from non-profit organisations, so I also visited about 65 of these, including the New York Police Department, Scotland Yard, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Save the Children, and five of the top American Hospitals. I talked to heads of universities, including Cambridge, the University of California, Cornell, Oxford, Caltech, Imperial, and many schools as well.

These ranged from private schools like Eton, to the North Campus Continuation School in Oakland, California, which had 110 pupils who were mostly either on probation or triple expellees.

The output of all this research was a book, The Committed Enterprise, and seven best practices for making vision, values and branding work. I’ll come on to those a little later.

One of the big difficulties in talking to people was terminology.

You know about this as marketers, because when you start talking about brands people say, “What’s a brand?”, “What’s brand equity?”, “How does a brand differ from a name?” There is a minefield of terminology because people use different words – mission, purpose, goals, objectives, strategies, visions, principles, ethos – often to describe the same thing. I concluded it didn’t matter which words were used. They all pointed to the fact that there were only three fundamental questions to ask: Purpose, Vision and Value address the three big questions: 1

What are we here for?

2

What is our long-term destination?

3

What beliefs and behaviours will guide us on the journey?

The three big questions of life are critical to any organisation and any individual. So, what are we here for? The word people preferred for this was not ‘mission’ – most business people really

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disliked this and felt it had been abused. They liked purpose, so I’m using this to cover: “What are we here for?” Second: “What is our long-term destination?” ‘Vision’, most people accepted this word.

‘Vision’ doesn’t mean this year, next year. It looks ahead for 5, 10, 20 years. And the third issue is, “What beliefs and behaviours will guide us on the journey?” Nearly everybody accepted that ‘values’ was the key word to use there.

Why practical vision and values matter Here are some examples of what I think are strong visions. It’s pretty hard to find them, because most companies have very bland visions.

They are usually developed by consensus, and neither bold nor ambitious.

EXAMPLES OF STRONG VALUES “A computer on every desk and in every home.”

(Microsoft, original version) “The best care to every patient every day.”

(Mayo Clinic, c.1910) “Making communicating with pictures as easy as using a pencil.”

(George Eastman, Kodak, c1920) Only 34% of companies had what I consider a strong vision. The chart shows the original Microsoft vision. The thing about visions is that you achieve them, and it took Microsoft about 20 years to reach this one.

They’ve now got a new vision built around the internet. The Mayo Clinic was the best of the 125 organisations I visited. An absolutely outstanding place, it is always ranked in the league tables number 1 or 2 out of the 6,200 American hospitals. That vision was developed by the Mayo brothers at the turn of the century and the Mayo still tries to achieve it every day. Thirdly you can see George Eastman’s original vision for Kodak which I think the company at one time achieved. However, this example demonstrates that when visions are met, they need to change. Unlike Microsoft, Kodak got left behind.

Some people say, “What a waste of time all of this stuff is”, and one of the companies really caught me off guard, because I was talking with a senior person whom I’ve known for a long time. He’s a very good executive whom I respect. But the message I got, which he was too considerate to spell out, was, “Hugh, you really are wasting your time with this vision and value stuff. It’s just psychobabble.

What matters is performance. That should be the vision and value: results, targets, new business, making it happen, getting out there with customers.”

I left the interview a little depressed and momentarily thought perhaps I’d got it all wrong. Want to know the name of the company?

Seven best practices (BP) in making vision and values work BP steps

FEATURE - DAVIDSON

The seven best practices (BP)

Best practice definition

1

Building foundations

Needs of key stakeholders understood and linked through vision and values

2

Strong vision

Vision is clear, memorable, motivating, ambitious, customer related, and translated into measurable strategies

3

Strong values

Values support the vision, are based on key factors for success, and turned into measurable practices

4

Communication

Consistent communication by action, signals, words

5

Embedding

Recruitment, training, appraisal, rewards, promotion and succession, all reflect values

6

Branding

Organisation’s branding expresses vision and values

7

Measurement

Rigorous measurement of how effectively vision and values are implemented

The seven best practices (BP)

It was WorldCom, one of the world’s largest Telecom companies, which, in 2002, filed for bankruptcy.

Benefits of strong vision and values 1

Chart long-term direction

2

Build customer focus

3

Motivate employees and partners

4

Provide clarity re principles and behaviour

5

Basis for differentiation in service businesses

So here’s your list of things that make vision and values worthwhile, and I think these will resonate with you as marketers.

First of all, if you are a company with a vision, you will have a longterm direction and that’s good for marketers since the company is more likely to create an environment where you can build customer focus. I analysed all the values in organisations seen, and the average had 5.1 values. About a third of these were ‘marketing driven’ ... about customer first, customer focus, superior quality, innovation.

Another third were about people, and most of the rest were about ethics or operational excellence.

Why CEOs need help from Marketers So clearly strong values motivate employees and partners, because people know how they are expected to behave, what they’re there for, and where they are going in future. In service businesses (and in Europe and the USA over 70% of business is in services), the people who deliver the product give you differentiation, and their values create this edge. They are the brand.

In research in the 1980s, 98% of CEOs said a sense of vision

was the most important trait in a CEO, but most didn’t have the confidence that they possessed it. If you did the research today, you’d get a better number, but the problem of confidence and skills would still be there. Let’s have a look at the kind of competencies needed to deliver vision and values, and think about who in the organisation possesses them.

Some of these may be familiar: analytical ability. I’m sure you’re all good at that, although marketers in general need to improve on this score. Understanding a company’s critical competencies is a core skill for marketers. And customers, markets. Do we understand those? Communication and branding skills, creativity; which group of people?, which function of the organisation has those skills? Is it finance? Finance people know how to cut costs, and how to manipulate numbers, but they’re not very good at driving the top line, because they’re not trained to do so.

Marketers possess all these critical competencies. They are the key people to help the Board and the CEO make vision and values work.

However vision and values are pretty poorly managed, and there’s a good reason for that. They are cross-departmental, but there are no exams in visions and values, and no formal set of competencies or knowledge. So it’s difficult to manage them, and a lot of people dabble who are poorly qualified to operate in this important area. The few studies done indicate about 60% of new vision and values fail to make any impact whatsoever, and very often they’ve disappeared in a couple of years.

What the CEO research revealed During my research, I developed the seven best practices and rated all 125 organisations against them. Excellence is achieving all seven best practices. (See diagram above)

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Best Practice 5: Embedding Systems Vision

Values

Objectives, strategies

Recruiting, training

Appraisal, reward

Practices

Personal objectives

Structure

Succession

Everyday decisions and behaviour Organisation brand Systems for translating vision and values into everyday behaviour are shown inside the box above Best Practice 5: Embedding Systems

Only 6% of those researched, and that included Johnson & Johnson, and the Mayo Clinic, achieved all seven. The average company only got four. As the seven best practices are synergistic and work together, four out of seven is not 55%, it’s about 33% in terms of performance, so there’s a very long way to go.

Here’s the formula I developed for The Committed Enterprise: “Committed customers plus motivated employees equals a satisfied finance provider” That’s a formula for shareholder value which will be familiar to you. The problem with companies like WorldCom, Enron and Andersen, is that, like some other companies (and there are many more to come through I can assure you), they have tried to take the short cut. They have focused on the finance provider, and tried to get quick fix results through manipulation and cost-cutting rather than on improvement in customer franchise or in motivating employees.

So the right way to shareholder value is the marketing way.

Above is the model for making vision and values work. You start at the top with the vision. It has to be strong, and we’ll shortly have a look at the six criteria for a strong vision.

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It’s not enough to just have a vision. That’s merely a set of words. You’ve got to turn it into hard, measurable strategies and objectives. The vision may last 20 years or 30 years, and you’ll change the strategies and objectives supporting it over time, as you eventually achieve the vision.

It’s the same with values. Values are meaningless, just things on plastic cards as we saw in the Enron case. So what you’ve got to do is take those values like innovation or customer focus and provide a clear picture of what they look like in practice, every day. So you have a value word or phrase, backed by a number of bullet points that turn them into measurable practices.

Then you embed all these in your systems through recruitment, appraisal, reward and so on. So when you recruit people you do so on a combination of: “Are they competent, and do they meet the values?” They must meet both criteria because you’ve got to recruit values. The same applies with appraisal and reward.

The result of all this is decisions and behaviour which are valuebased and performance-based, backed by an organisation brand.

So the promises you’re making outside in the market place, with brands like Tesco or IBM or Procter & Gamble, are matched by the substance of the values inside the organisations.

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Building Foundations – You start off by building foundations because you can’t chart the future until you understand the past. You need to know where you’ve come from, where you are now and who you are. Who better than marketers to do that?

Strong Vision – Then you develop strong vision and there are six criteria for strong vision. Only 34% of companies met these, compared with 63% of non-profits. In nonprofits, people work for the vision and values, less for the money. In companies, people work to make a living, and you try to get them to be aligned with values as well. It’s much harder.

Strong Values – The wrong way to develop values is to come up with thoughts like, “Let’s be nice to people”, or “Let’s be honest”, “Let’s be customer focused”. That is exactly the wrong way to develop vision and values.

You’ve got to start off by figuring out what are the key future factors for success in your marketplace or category, and then you build the values around achieving those key factors for success. In that way, if you make your values work, they build competitive advantage. Otherwise they are irrelevant.

Communication – The key type of communication is by action. A lot of you here are senior managers. You say things, you preach things, you behave in certain ways and people know what the rules are. But what they’re doing is watching you closely every day and seeing what you do compared to what you say. So it’s not words, it’s action and signals and behaviour.

Embedding – We saw that in recruitment, training, appraisal, when you appraise somebody you do so on a combination of “Did you get the results?” and “Did you get them the right way?” Anybody can get results in a year, but to make results sustainable you’ve got to get them the right way by using values.

Branding – There must be complete alignment between what you’re promising outside, and the substance you’re delivering within the organisation. If there are any chinks, any misalignment, it will soon be spotted, first by employees, then by consumers.

Measurement – Then you’ve got to measure, measure all the stakeholder delivery; employees, customers, finance providers, partners, and so on. Larger organisations should use both quantitative surveys and anecdotal evidence in measuring their success in managing vision and values.

So,to summarise: Strong vision and values create differentiation. They build motivation, trust, customer focus. Vision and values are not well managed. Marketers are best equipped to help the CEO. This opportunity will build their board influence. They should follow the seven best practices.

FEATURE - DAVIDSON

The Seven Best Practices Here are the seven best practices and we’ve covered some of these already.

AFTERTHOUGHT – July 2013 The decade since I gave this lecture in 2002 has been turbulent.

No one imagined that in 2008 the West would experience a major economic crisis affecting almost every household, and that by 2013 it would be facing a fifth year of nil growth, with more such years forecast to come.

The resulting financial austerity, increased unemployment, and personal hardship has focused unflattering attention on the values and practices of banks in particular; on their imprudent and reckless lending, and unwavering addiction to the short-term bottom line.

In his book The Big Short, Michael Lewis instances a Mexican strawberry picker living in California, who spoke no English, and had an annual income of $14,000. He was lent every penny he needed to buy a house for $724,000.

The Western financial crisis has placed the importance of strong values even more prominently on the public radar screen.

My 2002 lecture concentrated on principles rather than tactics, and so, hopefully, it has not dated. Vision and Values have become more important than ever, but short-term pressures in 2013 are greater than in 2002 – and they are still not well managed or coordinated.

Looking back to the 2002 lecture, I can see that I made some misjudgements about how well certain companies managed Vision and Values, notably Goldman Sachs and BP, both of which had a torrid decade. However, I stand by the essential content of the Lecture, 11 years later, and in particular think the 7 Best Practices remain valid.

Reviewing the 2002 Lecture, with the benefit of a decade’s events, led me to a number of ‘Afterthoughts for Marketers’, as follows: 1. Weak values were a major cause of the 2008 financial crisis The most important value for any company is to focus on the welfare of its customers, striving to continuously improve the benefits delivered. This precept has been ignored by many companies, sometimes resulting in billion dollar fines. In the case of sub-prime lending, banks sliced and diced often toxic loans to low income customers, charged high rates of interest, got them rated AAA by credit agencies, and sold them on to third parties. In the end, no one knew what these neatly ribboned toxic packages contained.

Customers who lost their homes certainly knew the consequences, but they had become invisible to the original lender.

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When the customer becomes invisible to product/service providers, trouble always follows. The 2008 financial crisis represented a disastrous failure in values by banks, and has since blighted the lives of tens of millions of customers.

2. The period 2002-2013 has starkly divided business sectors into ‘Value Adders’ who follow positive values, and ‘Value Extractors’, who pursue predatory practices ‘Value Adders’ are found mainly in highly competitive markets, where customers gain real bargaining power through product knowledge, wide choice, and frequent purchase. They include sectors like FMCG, supermarkets, internet/portal search, express delivery, and much business-to-business.

‘Value Extractors’ are a familiar feature among retail and investment banks, energy companies, travel and City professionals.

Most ‘Value Extractor’ categories are highly regulated to help protect customers, and enforce ethical standards. However, regulators and commentators increasingly recognised that strong regulation alone will not stamp out predatory practices, and that fundamental changes in values and culture have become essential.

3. Some ‘Value Adder’ companies and brands are thinking deeply about “What are we here for?”, and integrating values with purpose Unilever is a good example, with its purpose ‘to make sustainable living commonplace’, echoing the aim of its founder, “To make cleanliness commonplace”. This incorporates a number of existing values. Keith Weed, the global CMO is responsible not only for marketing, but also for Community Social Responsibility (CSR), Sustainability, and the Unilever brand, so integrating all these elements.

4. In the past decade, there has been greater recognition by CEOs of the importance of strong values, and their impact on corporate reputation One symptom of this was the recent insistence by the CEOs of Barclays and UBS, two leading banks hit by billions of dollars of fines, that all employees sign up to a specific statement of ethical practice. This is a small step in the right direction.

However, CEOs do not seem to realise that their often excessive remuneration is viewed by many ordinary people as unfair, and undermines their company’s values. Furthermore, a life spent in first class travel, chauffeur driven vehicles, conferring with senior employees and customers, peer CEOs, City professionals and bankers, is unlikely to enhance their understanding of the front-line market place.

5. The internet is placing relentless pressure on companies to strengthen their values, and ensure they are practised by all Organisations which are not open and honest will eventually be exposed by consumers or whistle-blowing employees. Google, Facebook and Twitter are proving effective mechanisms for revealing hiding places and publicising poor behaviour, but some of their own values and practices have also been questioned.

6. Vision and Values still boil down to two simple propositions They are interlinked. Vision charts an ambitious and inspiring direction. Values steer behaviour on the journey. The propositions are: • Every organisation needs a long-term vision to inspire people to give their best • Values are primarily about how well you treat people – especially employees, customers and partners (including contract workers in Bangladesh). All should be given the opportunity to reach their full potential, and be treated fairly.

There is still a big opportunity for marketers to lead and manage Vision and Values, and it’s growing bigger every day. Don’t lose this one like too many in the past. It’s waiting for you. Just take it.

References Stengal, J (2011) Grow - How ideals power growth and profit at the world’s 50 greatest companies, Crown Business

Davidson, H (2002) The Committed Enterprise – Making Vision, Values and Branding Work, Elsevier

Davidson, H (2012) Only consumers can make Capitalism Work, Market Leader, Quarter 3, June

Lewis, M (2011) The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, W. W Norton & Company

Hugh Davidson M.A, FCIM Hugh graduated in Economics and Law from Cambridge, then qualified as a barrister in the top 1%. He preferred Marketing to the Law, and managed three Top 100 brands – Fairy Liquid, Daz, and McVities – before becoming President of Playtex International in Canada and Europe.

Hugh co-founded Oxford Strategic Marketing in 1988, and, since 2004, spent much of his time as a social entrepreneur, running the H and S Davidson Trust, which he and his wife Sandra founded. This co-funds innovative and higher risk pilot projects, with Oxfam and Save the Children, mainly with very poor girls and women in Eastern India.

Aim is for successes to be scaled up by larger organisations. Most are succeeding. One was awarded a UN Equator Prize (25 awarded globally for poverty reduction, every two years).

Hugh is Fellow and former Chair of the Marketing Society, Fellow of CIM, has written 6 books, including the classic “Offensive Marketing”, and “The Committed Enterprise”, and has worked in 18 countries.

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VIEWS -WATSON

How to use Inbound Marketing techniques to acquire customers and improve ROI It is claimed that Inbound Marketing delivers significantly better ROI than traditional “outbound” techniques, by using compelling content to manage customers through a “sales funnel” process. This article critically evaluates the merits of Inbound Marketing and explains what you need to know and do, in order to implement these techniques.

What is Inbound Marketing? nbound Marketing is a phrase you may be hearing more and more these days.

The term has been with us since about 2006 and is increasingly common. You might also have heard it described as “Content Marketing” – the phrases are RoB WATSON pretty much interchangeable.

So what is Inbound Marketing? Well, the best place to start is to contrast it with more traditional forms of marketing.

Think of a press advert, a telesales campaign or a direct mail campaign. All of these are forms of “outbound marketing” – in other words, the marketer crafts their message, and sends it out to a target market. If all goes well, and their numbers are right, their message will hit enough interested people who are ready to buy, and the campaign will achieve a positive ROI. Inbound Marketing turns the process on its head. Instead of marketing to the masses in the hope of singling out a few, you can now tap in to groups of people who are already looking for, or talking about whatever it is you offer. Or maybe they’re discussing problems that your product or service could help them with. Search Engines and Social Media now make it easy for you to listen to customer dialogues and add something to the conversation.

So let’s assume that by focusing on Search Engines and Social Media you’ve found people who could benefit from your product and brought them to your website. The next step is to get their contact details, and their permission for further marketing contact.

To do that, you have to give them something of value – a piece of valuable content that helps them solve a problem or to achieve something that’s important to them.

You’ve probably seen free guides or White Papers offered in return for an email address on many websites. This is an important part of an Inbound Marketing plan, and more and more companies are realising that it makes more sense to offer valuable content and build trust over a period of time, than to try and push for a sale straight away, from a customer that doesn’t know them yet.

Once you have their details, you can keep in touch and provide further, valued content and even gradually gather more information about them as you build trust. Inbound Marketing helps you maintain that trust until customers are ready to buy.

I

It’s important to remember that your prospect or customer is in

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“IF you push too early or too aggressively for a sale before the customer is ready to buy, you run the risk that they could opt out of further marketing.”

control of the relationship. If you push too early or too aggressively for a sale before the customer is ready to buy, you run the risk that they could opt out of further marketing.

So what is genuinely new about Inbound Marketing?

•

The idea of bringing many disparate internet marketing techniques together in one integrated marketing plan, is new to most companies. Whilst Search Engine Marketing, Social Media and blogging are not new, the reality is that most companies will have focused on them in isolation.

•

The ability to automate and manage all of these marketing activities from one central place has become a real possibility only in the last few years – even for SME businesses – thanks to the emergence of inbound marketing software platforms.

•

The concept of “always-on” marketing, in which prospects consume your information when it suits them is also new. Not long ago, all marketing activity would have been planned as part of a campaign which ran to a particular schedule. Now customers can find you, exchange information and receive content instantly at any time of day or night.

•

Rather than just looking at an individual campaign and seeing how customers reacted to it, Inbound Marketing lets you see how individual people have interacted with all of your marketing – which emails they opened, which links they clicked on, which content they downloaded, and more.

So here’s a summary of the key elements of Inbound Marketing: •

It involves targeted activity to appeal directly to people who have searched for your product or service, or talked about it online.

•

You attract those prospects to your website through providing useful content in return for their contact details.

•

You maintain contact and build trust over a period of time, by providing further relevant content and measuring their interest in it.

•

Once a level of trust has been demonstrated, the sales team will follow up warm opportunities.

•

Ultimately, the automation and ‘pre-qualification’ of prospects must improve the ROI of sales and marketing activities by providing more leads and customers, more cheaply than outbound marketing techniques.

Is this approach really a new one?

By now you might be thinking that Inbound Marketing is nothing new. You’d be right – many of the elements of it, like Social Media, Search Engine Optimisation or blogging have been with us for years.

Even the idea of giving something of value in return for contact details and permission for further marketing is not new. Seth Godin wrote about this as long ago as 1999 (a lifetime ago in Internet terms) in his book “Permission Marketing”.

What’s more, the whole process of finding new prospects and communicating to them until they are ready to buy, is very reminiscent of an even older theory - the Sales Funnel approach.

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In short, Inbound Marketing makes it easy and practical for businesses of any size to carry out very personalised, one-to-one marketing. By building trust and credibility combined with detailed knowledge on each individual prospect, their marketing will be more effective and efficient.

What does Inbound Marketing software allow you to do?

Let’s look in more depth at Inbound Marketing software, which I alluded to above. To implement and manage an Inbound Marketing plan, realistically you will need some form of software platform. Without one, you can’t achieve the right level of automation needed to enable customers to consume your information when it suits them and to collect data on your behalf.

In the last few years, a number of new providers have launched suitable services.

An Inbound Marketing system will allow you to: •

Create lead generation forms and landing pages to collect data

•

Provide ‘gated’, content that can only be seen in return for contact details

•

Track the individual behaviour of prospects and the content they have viewed

•

Run targeted follow-up activities based on previous behaviour, or hand leads over to your sales team

VIEWS - WATSON

Providers include HubSpot, Act-On, Marketo and Optify, to name but a few. All of these are cloud-based services with a monthly subscription. The prices and features vary from one provider to the next. Some can even integrate with your Social Media accounts and allow you to update your social profiles, or help you analyse your Search Engine Optimisation performance.

If you’re considering signing up for Inbound Marketing software, thorough research is essential to find the right combination of price and features. You’ll be encouraged by the fact that all of the Inbound Marketing providers I’ve named here definitely practice what they preach – they all use Inbound techniques themselves to provide you with useful content rather than pressuring you for an immediate sale.

Pricing will usually vary based on the functionality you want and the number of contacts already in your marketing database.

Providers will normally offer a free demonstration, and usually even a short-term free trial account. This will enable you to trial some campaigns and see whether the software will be right for you. When it comes to finding the right system for your business, there is no real substitute for thorough research.

Why is the Inbound Marketing approach needed now?

Internet usage is now so widespread that most individuals have constant access. Regardless of where they are and what they are doing, they are never far from an internet-enabled device, be it a PC, smartphone or tablet. Whether they are looking as a consumer, or looking to buy as part of their job, most customers will start their search for a new product or service online. Inbound Marketing makes it easier for them to find you and to enter a dialogue with you.

The other big advantage of the internet, is the scalability and efficiency it offers. Imagine you are a consultant offering your services to businesses. Before the internet, the obvious way to show your expertise and build trust was to offer a free consultation, but this could be time-consuming whilst earning you nothing and possibly incurring expenses. Now, thanks to the efficiency of the internet, you can package up your expertise in a piece of free content, and providing this content to 100 people involves no more cost and effort than providing it to one.

Convenience is not the only reason people choose to look for new products online. Many potential customers use the internet to research your product in relative anonymity. Your site is like a shop without pushy sales assistants where they can browse in peace. Of course, to get your free content, they will need to give you their email address, thus giving up some of that anonymity, but they can easily unsubscribe giving them control of the relationship.

Nowadays, when many customers are resisting and opting-out of pushy techniques like telemarketing, marketers need to accept that the customer is in control.

The Inbound Marketing approach works for many businesses, because it is more in tune with the way customers like to interact

with you, than traditional marketing techniques are.

Myths and Misunderstandings That explains the basics of the Inbound Marketing approach, but like any new methodology it has its fair share of myths, misunderstandings and hype.

Some of the most fervent advocates claim that inbound marketing techniques have “killed” outbound marketing activities such as telemarketing and personal selling. The reality for most businesses is that concluding any sale will still involve personal one-to-one contact, be it by phone or face-to-face. Daniel Pink recently wrote that the growth of the internet has done nothing to reduce the number of people working in sales, but it has helped to make sales people more effective.

Inbound Marketing won’t kill off telemarketing or personal selling, but will in fact make them more effective and efficient.

Instead of “playing the numbers game” and ringing round every prospect on your database, now you can see which of them have shown the most interest in your content and concentrate your sales efforts on them first.

The ”always-on” nature of Inbound Marketing has also led some to make the claim – somewhat tongue-in-cheek – that marketing campaigns are dead. They claim that because customers want to receive certain content when it suits them, there will no longer be such things as widespread scheduled campaigns. Again, the reality is somewhat different.

Inbound Marketing involves providing useful content to your prospects just when they need it most, so it stands to reason that some of your best content will be very topical. When there are new developments in your market and you have developed content to answer your prospects’ concerns, you are more likely to benefit from a specific campaign to “push” this content to your prospects all at once, rather than simply post it on your website and wait for your prospects to find it. As long as you are offering something of interest and value to your prospects, scheduled marketing campaigns will still be effective.

So, it seems that Inbound Marketing is a subtle but important shift for many businesses, even if it isn’t the seismic shift that some of its proponents are trying to suggest it is.

How to make a success of it If you’ve decided that Inbound Marketing is worth – at the very least – further consideration for your business, what are the cornerstones of a strategy that you need to put in place? Well, I’ve already discussed software platforms and targeting techniques. So, the most important thing left to consider lies right at the heart of Inbound Marketing – the content.

How you develop the content to make Inbound work could almost be another article on its own, but here are 3 quick, simple things to consider when you’re at the planning stage:

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1. Look far and wide within your business for sources of content – many of the best Inbound Marketers spread the content creation process among their key staff, not just the marketing department. They will create and share content from their technical, customer service, product development or even director-level personnel. Of course, marketing should always guide and sense-check the quality of the final content, but they shouldn’t keep an iron grip over the process.

2. Develop customer personas – Inbound marketers also recommend the process of “Persona Development”. This is a process that’s largely been borrowed from the world of Web User Experience (or ‘UX’) where it is commonplace. This simply involves making up several personas that represent typical customers for your organisation, giving them a name and listing their characteristics. For example, if you’re a specialist employment lawyer one of your personas might be John Smith, who’s an in-house HR manager who found you by searching for information on disciplinary procedures, and also needs help with Health & Safety compliance and sickness policies. That’s a really over-simplified example for the purposes of this article, but several detailed, well-researched personas can help you segment and target your audience better.

3. Use a multimedia approach – remember that not all of your prospects and customers like to receive information in the same way. So, if you have information that will be useful to them, don’t just assume that they will all watch your new video for example. When your content really addresses a pain point for your customers, it’s worth taking the extra time to package that content up for different media, such as a video, then a Free Guide or White Paper, then maybe a Slideshare presentation or online webinar. By testing over time, you’ll learn how popular each medium is with your prospects, so give some thought to all of the media you could realistically use as part of your plan, with the budget and resources you have.

First Steps If you’re now giving serious consideration to adopting the Inbound Marketing approach, but aren’t quite sure, you don’t have to dive right in and incur large costs. An approach that’s worked well for me in several businesses is to test Inbound Marketing on a very small scale, with next to no risk.

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All you need to do is: •

Pick a topic or new development in your sector that your customers and prospects might need to know more about.

•

Create a piece of content – as a starting point I’d suggest a short free guide or article.

•

Offer that piece of content on your website for free in return for email addresses. You don’t need Inbound Marketing software for this – it could just be a simple “mailto” link. It should be prominent on your website though – preferably your homepage as a minimum.

•

Measure the response rate over say a month, or a quarter, and follow-up with customers who received your content, to get their feedback on it.

Just by doing the above, you will have a clear idea as to whether or not there is an appetite for content among your customers and prospects. If there is a good level of take-up and positive feedback, Inbound Marketing could help you grow your business very costeffectively and provide word of mouth and recommendations.

Summary So to summarise, Inbound Marketing may not be for every business, but for the right business it can acquire customers more cheaply, driving improvements in the ROI of sales and marketing activity.

Inbound Marketing involves: •

Finding groups of customers online who are discussing, or searching for your product or service, or discussing problems you could help them with.

•

Providing them with valuable content that helps them overcome problems and achieve their goals, in return for their contact details.

•

Nurturing leads by providing further valuable content automatically.

•

Following up sales opportunities, once a level of trust has been built up, which should see a better rate of sales conversion and revenue than without Inbound Marketing.

Rob Watson fell in to a career in insurance underwriting straight from school. Whilst still in insurance, he later came to work with marketing people and discovered the career path he really wanted, and left work to study full-time for a marketing degree. Having completed his degree, he has worked in senior marketing roles since 1999, completing the CIM Postgraduate Diploma along the way.

He has been a Chartered Marketer since 2005, and in the same year began working part-time as a tutor on the CIM Professional Diploma. He is now a freelance Internet Marketing consultant specialising in Inbound Marketing techniques, through his website – clicktosale.co.uk

VIEWS - ALEKSANDROVA

CONTENT MARKETING: THE CORE TOOL IN THE SUCCESSFUL MARKETERS’ ARMOURY Desislava is a Marketing & Communications Manager and wrote this research piece as a College Associate to assist with research for the College. She chose to research Online Content along with the support and guidance of tutor and Course Director, Terry Nicklin.

THE CHANGING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR he Internet and the rapid development of technology have affected the individual’s professional and social life and have irreversibly changed the way people share information, ideas Desislava and experiences with each other. Changes Aleksandrova in social behaviour have created new opportunities for brands to communicate their messages across and reach out to their audience.

Yet it is also due to technology, that organisations today face new type of challenges. Consumers can afford to be more demanding and more selective than ever before thanks to the availability and accessibility of information via the Internet.

Furthermore, the development of mobile devices has enabled them to access information on the go as well as to share this information simultaneously with others. Additionally, consumers are more easily influenced by what others are saying about a brand, than by the statement a company is making about itself. In other words, consumers are more empowered than ever before.

For example, “millennials” – or the generation aged between 18 to 30-year olds – are very different from the generation that came before them. They actively use Facebook or Twitter to broadcast their views, ideas, and creative output globally and share them with millions of other people. According to the FT-Global Millennials Survey of 18 to 30-year olds, 40% feel they could effect change globally and 62% feel they could effect change locally (Murray, 2013). With so many young people considering contribution to change to be the new value, brands are under pressure to rethink their own values in order to keep abreast of this fast-changing world.

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THE POWER OF ONLINE CONTENT More often than not relationships start with a conversation.

Online content can be a powerful tool to start a conversation with your customers as soon as it is not regarded in isolation. Therefore, brands need a content marketing strategy that is based on profound customer knowledge. Content marketing should be driven by the objective of adding value to the customer’s experience, which often means that organisations need to listen to their audience in the first instance. Often, establishing relationship of trust and respect is a natural outcome of an ongoing conversation.

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One of the biggest advantages of online content for brands is that it is less disruptive for the consumers (for example, in comparison with advertising) whilst leading to high engagement from their target audience. It marks a shift from push to pull techniques and often can win a brand more followers and fans than a standalone advertising campaign.

CONTENT MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA With more and more people using smartphones and tablets1 to access digital content, it is not surprising that the methods of creating and distributing content are constantly evolving, driven by the user’s demands.

Existing and emerging social networking websites offer brands the opportunity to shape their content marketing strategy by enabling them to segment and better target their audience based on demographical, geographical and other differentiators (e.g. interest, hobbies etc.).

For example, a report2 by GlobalWebIndex showed that between Q2 2012 and Q1 2013, Twitter’s fastest growing age demographic was 55 to 64 year olds, registering an increase in active users of 79%. Both Facebook’s and Google+’s fastest growing age demographic was 45 to 54 year olds, growing by 46% and 56% respectively. This means that social media is not reserved for the young generation; we observe at least three generations actively participating in social networking, which allows for content to be tailored accordingly.

“Are consumers are more empowered than ever before?”

In terms of the geographical aspect, a forecast by eMarketer. com3 shows that India and Indonesia are expected to see the biggest growth in social media usage in 2014 - 23% and 18% respectively.

Usage in the UK is predicted to rise by 6% and the U.S. by just 4%.

By region, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America will see the largest growth rates.

This forecast means that organisations looking to reach out to emerging markets will be wise to use social media as a tool to engage with customers abroad. However, cultural, political and economical factors may mean that they need to research into those markets and the habits and behaviors of their audience when developing their content marketing strategies.

Finally, there are also emerging platforms for niche content, such as food content sharing (e.g. www.foodspotting.com), cycling (e.g. www.mapmyride.com) and other, which open opportunities for brands to target very niche audiences if they have the right mixture of content and tools.

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“Are brands are under pressure to rethink their own values in order to keep abreast of this fastchanging world?”

CONTENT MARKETING AND MOBILE MEDIA According to the Nielsen’s Social Media Report 2012 mobile engagement with social media networks has increased significantly – 46% of U.S. respondents use smartphones to access social media, with 16% connecting via a tablet. In the Asia-Pacific region, 59% use mobile phones and 28% use a tablet to access social media sites. The Middle East and Africa are leading before Europe with 48% in total using their smartphones and 10% using a tablet. In Europe these figures are 33% and 8% respectively.

Mobile media in combination with location-based services (LBS) is turning into an effective targeting tool. In future, LBS could be responsible for a large amount of website traffic. Inevitably, local relevancy will become essential for customer engagement especially in the B2C sector.

It is important to note that the use of social media on mobile devices has been greatly facilitated by the development of easy to install, navigate and use applications. Brands that want to increase their engagement with consumers and encourage sharing of their content should be either looking to develop a mobile website or launch their own app.

The report also revealed that more people are engaging with social media whilst watching TV – 38% of smartphone owners and 41% of tablet owners use their device daily while in front of the TV screen with social networking being a top activity. People were also looking up relevant program and product information on their mobile devices whilst watching TV. For example, 12% of smartphone users and 24% of tablet users have looked up coupons or deals related to an advertisement they saw on TV. This research is indicative for the different engagement touch points that a customer has with a brand. A successful marketing strategy should take these facts into account in order to deliver tailored customer journeys.

CONTENT MARKETING AND THE CUSTOMER DECISION JOURNEY The role of social media in the customer decision journey is growing. Social media networking has triggered a shift from push marketing strategies to social advocacy. More than ever, consumers are influenced by third party opinion, and are likely to make a

“Organisations looking to reach out to emerging markets will be wise to use social media as a tool to engage with customers abroad.”

It is not surprising that brands have been increasingly relying on content in the past year to raise awareness and engage with their customers.

AN EVOLVING CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY A dynamic content marketing strategy which is supported by the use of modern platforms and emerging technologies, and is focused on the customer, will play an important role for brands in the future. We are likely to observe the following trends: • Interaction of consumers with brands via social media will continue to grow.

Brands should use social media as an extension point of their branded websites with the aim of driving customer engagement and traffic to their website. Integrated content between a company’s website and its social media profiles will be essential.

• Content will continue to play a significant role in the context of ‘dynamic customer journeys’.

Consumers are likely to be influenced by social media in respect of their purchases in the future. Brands will have to ensure that their content is relevant, interesting and of high value; that it is something people want to read, watch and share.

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•

Mobile devices and apps will become the focus for innovation in terms of achieving customer engagement.

Leveraging mobile media and LBS for content marketing will make a difference. Ensuring that content can be accessed on the devices customers use will be essential for creating

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purchasing decision based on their online engagement with the brand or online recommendation.

According to Nielsen’s Social Media Report 20124, social media users participate at least once a month in the following social activities: • 70% hear others’ experiences • 65% learn more about brands/product/services • 53% compliment brands • 50% express concerns/complaints about brands/ services • 47% share money incentives

multiple customer touch points.

More companies will be relying on real-time content marketing.

As customers increasingly use social media channels to get opinion, organisations will rely on real-time content marketing managed by social media teams in order to listen to those conversations and engage with their audience.

Ultimately, whatever content marketing approach an organisation adopts, it needs to add value to the customer’s experience and be in line with his/her preferences. After all, it’s not so much the content, but the response that matters.

FOOTNOTES 1 According to the Financial Times, half of UK consumers own a smartphone, up from 44% in 2012, while a fifth own a tablet computer, up from 7%. www.ft.com/cms/s/0/48e73568c5fb-11e2-99d1-00144feab7de. html 2 Gesenhues, A. (2013). Study: Mobile Users & Older Generations Are Driving Social Media Growth Around The World. [Online]. 1st May 2013. Available from: http://marketingland.com/studysocial-network-growth-acrossthe-globe-driven-by-mobileusers-older-generations-41982 [Accessed May 2013] 3 Is Your Social Media Strategy Global? eMarketer [Online]. 4th

May 2012. Available from: http://www.emarketer.com/ Article/Your-Social-MediaStrategy-Global/1009022 [Accessed may 2013] 4 State of the Media: The social media report 2012. Nielse.

Available from: http://www.slideshare.net/ ShamirRamjan/nielsen-socialmediareport2012-15469366 [Accessed May 2013]

References Murray, S (2013) Transition: Technology puts power in the hands of the many, Financial Times. www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cb619b24c848-11e2-8cb7-00144feab7de. html#axzz2bl3AppKw (Accessed 12 August 2013)

Desislava Aleksandrova is Marketing and Communications Manager at IT Governance, a leading IT security firm. She holds an MA in European Studies and the CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing.

Desislava’s professional interests lie in brand development, content marketing and communication strategies and how these can be aligned with the customer journey using modern marketing tools.

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Scoop.it is a content creation tool that allows you to keep keep up up to to date date on on topics topics of of interest. Cambridge Marketing College is arecurating curating great content emerging great content onon emerging themes and digital marketing.

This will soon be available as a monthly email to those who subscribe.

Emerging Themes in Marketing

Cambridge Marketing review

Digital Marketing & Social Networking

Market Leadership & Planning

Emerging Themes in Marketing Digital Marketing & Social Netw Market Leadership & Planning

by Cambridge Marketing Colleges

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by Neil Wilkins

by Cambridge Marketing Colleges

Alistair explains why marketers shouldn’t be cautious but instead speak the truth, by managing the facts.

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The Emperor’s New Clothes

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ost of us are familiar with the story, usually credited to Hans Christian Andersen, of the vain emperor who was persuaded by an unscrupulous trader to buy a new outfit made of material so sheer it appeared invisible. The crooked tailor convinced the emperor that only Alistair Pryde those too foolish or unfit for their position in his court were unable to see it. Fooled, the emperor bought the story, hook, line and sinker. Fearful of losing their jobs or heads, so did his courtiers. Once the new outfit was completed, the emperor paraded through the streets naked and all the onlookers were too fearful to speak up. Only when the little boy pointed and laughed did everyone realise the truth.

Hans Christian Andersen told this story as a cautionary tale.

Indeed the source of the story can be traced back to Aesop and to others before then. Despite this uncertain provenance, the story still has relevance today and I would argue that it is of particular significance to marketers.

We live in a world where we have long since accepted that tomorrow will bring the next big thing. Indeed, an entire industry has developed simply to satisfy the demand for gossip and news about it. You don’t have to try hard to think about the latest sensation in the music world, or the most recent item of technology that will make you wonder how you ever lived your life before it arrived.

How about the new broom sweeping through a political party, claiming he or she will save the world or perhaps that ‘must have’ item of clothing that you simply cannot be seen without? Whatever the example you have conjured in your mind’s eye, it is certain that you will be able to categorise it as a social, political, environmental, legal or technological issue. Sound familiar?

“We are taught to observe the environment and frequently audit the trends to decide what is meaningful and what is not.”

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You see, as marketers we are taught to observe the environment and frequently audit the trends to decide what is meaningful and what is not. We are taught to analyse these issues and determine whether they are opportunities or threats, and whether they will play to our strengths or weaknesses. In short, we are taught to manage by fact.

So we become cynical and streetwise; we learn to spot trends.

The effective marketer of today is essentially the little boy from this fable who, like him, dares to speak the truth. The parallels do not stop there; there is a hero and a villain in this re-boot of the story. The good news for advocates of good marketing practice, the heroes, is there is plenty of material available with which we can demonstrate our skills. Tools with which we can demonstrate effective ROI and gather data have never been more sophisticated or freely available.

The villains are the rogue traders, the snake-oil salesmen and the rascals who pretend to know better than we, what the next big thing will be. There is seemingly never a shortage of advice available to those with a product or service to promote.

In my own experience, there is an ongoing battle in business between those who manage by fact and those who don’t. In the last twelve months I have worked with clients who could not tell me who their customers were. Incredible as it may seem, it is true...

I also advised a large organisation that believed it had an internal communications problem – it did not, but seemed happy to believe the rumours. Then there was a professional services company whose sales were declining because it had failed to maintain a relationship with the people who referred clients to them. I must not forget my personal favourite, the organisation that maintained an inventory of products that never sold because it thought customers wanted them.

In each of these cases, the client shared something in common with the others; it had forgotten to manage by fact. So the malaise spread, and spread quickly due to an untruth. It was spread by those who were afraid to speak up. This untruth could be quickly spotted by anyone using common sense and daring to point it out. But why is this a problem? Need we really worry about problems that are easy to spot?

Yes. Marketers are paid to offer advice. They are employed by companies who need them to point out the error of their ways. So when this advice seems obvious, is it any wonder that marketing consultants, like me, worry that their advice is obvious and easy to give? Surely, advice this obvious would be obvious to anyone? And if it is obvious to anyone, could anyone offer it? And if anyone could offer it, why pay me? Am I no better than the rascals and charlatans I warned you about earlier?

But then I have always been a worrier.

Certainly if my experience of the last twelve months is any reasonable benchmark (I think it is) then it would seem that this advice, however obvious it seems to a trained marketer is nevertheless valued by the organisation that needs it. Whether or

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“Is it any wonder that marketing consultants, like me, worry that their advice is obvious and easy to give?” not they choose to do anything with the advice… ah, well that is a completely different matter.

So having described the basic plot and the characters of this story, we must turn our attention to the conclusion, the morale.

What is the point?

The point is actually very simple. To every client with a problem, I offered a solution. The solution was based on analysis of the facts using tools that were readily available: For the client who could not tell me who its clients were, I analysed sales figures from the previous 5 years. For the client who believed it had an internal communications problem I used Google Analytics to measure the read rates of the communications it published and observed that staff did not have the time to read them, nor were they encouraged to do so. For the client who was suffering a decline in sales, I encouraged them to manage relationships with their most valuable partners and built a database to help them. For the client who maintained a useless inventory of products, I advised them to stop. In short, I became the little boy who pointed and laughed.

It seems that in this day of rapid technological evolution, the basics can sometimes be forgotten. Robust analysis, the stock in trade of any effective marketer, is and always will be the basis of the value that we offer. The ability to audit and analyse the operating environment, and draw conclusions from the evidence is the reason our advice is valued.

Alistair Pryde is a senior marketing professional with experience in primarily the private sector, but also the charity and public sectors.

Alistair worked in the chemicals, electronics, software and tourism/ leisure industries before starting his own business.

Alistair is now a full time photographer and the director of his own consultancy, APP Dalmeny Ltd, and spends his time with a diverse range of clients across the UK and mainland Europe.

Alistair completed the CIM Postgraduate Diploma in 1995 and also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in business and languages. Since 2003, Alistair has been a principal tutor for Cambridge Marketing College and was elected a Fellow of Cambridge Marketing College in 2012.

Charles Nixon, founder of Cambridge Marketing College and Chairman of CMr’s Editorial Board, provides us with a quarterly update on ‘what’s next?’ in marketing. This quarter, Charles looks at the some of the latest trends that should be high on any marketer’s list.

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What’s next?

INTRODUCTION aving just finished chairing a series of conferences and presentations, it seems like a good time to reflect on the themes that have been coming to the fore. Over the last 18 months, I have chaired several of CHARLES NIXON the UK Marketing Networks series of On The Edge Conferences in London, Bristol and Birmingham, together with the CIM’s Digital Marketing Conference in Cambridge and presentations at the CIM Future of Marketing Meeting in Nottingham and the Cambridge Elite Business Forum.

Having observed many speakers during this time there are several trends, which I believe are of significance for marketers and it is these that I would like to turn to highlight in the first of this regular column.

The term ‘WHAT’S NEXT?’ taken from the famous TV series, The West Wing, is important in that we are now facing considerable change or indeed a potential paradigm shift in the way in which marketing will be construed and practiced as we come out of the recession. While the recession officially ended during the summer, many of the economic and technological impacts of the changes will continue for many years to come and it is likely that there will be significant change in the way in which marketing is implemented and that there will be no return to normality. Instead we will need to adapt to a new normal.

For the politician, there is always a constant series of new ideas and new policies that have to be filtered in order to produce an effective government. For the marketer, the same is true in the fact that there are always new ideas, new technology and new theories that need to be considered and filtered to produce effective strategies.

And it is often one of the major enjoyments but also problems for a marketer to consider which new theories to follow and which new technology to consider. So the aim of this column is to present some of the new themes that seem to be coming into play in the marketing world. This topic of emerging markets is curated on Scoop.it.

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SEO Of the presentations that were made at the various conferences, the one that keeps coming back to the fore is that of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). It is quite remarkable how this topic continues to be repeated and revisited. It seems that many corporations still do not have a full grasp of the importance of SEO. Added to that is the fact that there are constant changes by the search engines themselves as to the way in which they carry out their rankings. The

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iterations of Panda and Penguin via Google have meant a constant need to keep up to date with the processes. What appears to be becoming a major part of the process is now the engagement and interaction of social media with a company’s main website. Further the use of Google authoring, to validate the quality of the content on social media, together with the importance of GooglePlus have now meant that much of the social media that has been created for various engagement purposes is now becoming critical for SEO. The elements that now have to be added to this, of course, are the other social media sections such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and many many others. A constant review by marketers is now required as to whether or not the creation cost of managing these various social media is being returned in terms of visits to websites and eventual sales. Whilst the use of Google analytics is common the use of other tracking software are becoming increasingly important in creating dashboards. A very good review of the tools can be seen at Digital Marketing Depot.

The other aspect that this invokes was the content of many other speeches during the year – guest blogging. Through the issue of Google authorship, the quality of writing on blogs has become something that Google now ranks. So guest authoring and guest blogging has become an important part of the way in which sites move up the rankings and quite naturally the quality of these is being evaluated.

One of the problems of the last few years has been that many social websites and microsites were created by large brands. Many brands think that they must dive into the marketplace with every new platform. However, they have struggled to find a reason to be there. They have, therefore, employed agencies to create, quite frankly, drivel and made up content just to fill the space. Volume of content is no longer the issue, it is the quality and meaningfulness of what you are discussing that is now being taken into account and quite naturally too. This leads Google to now take authorship into account.

SEO is also enhanced by the power of video. Several speakers quoted an unsourced numeric, that says people are 57 times more likely to click on a link with a video attached to it than they are without any picture at all. How this statistic is arrived at was not discussed and it is one of those apocryphal statements that is often repeated, however, there was significant discussion about the fact that video is now an important component of most websites. Having recently also judged the Marketing and Advertising Recruitment Awards, it is also fair to say that much video on websites is of an appalling standard.

Finally in the area, the importance of LinkedIn and GooglePlus needs to be considered. LinkedIn now has a significant number of users and is becoming the B2B social media network. Whilst there are other networks around the world, within the UK, the US and in to degree Western Europe, LinkedIn now dominates. This requires a considerable double-effort by most corporations to build their

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“What appears to be becoming a major part of the process is now the engagement and interaction of social media with a company’s main website.” company profile as well as their personnel profiles. LinkedIn gives significant input capability to build profiles and most corporations are not taking full advantage. GooglePlus has reached over 500 million users and as a result is now a significant social media in its own right. Whilst dismissed by many people in the early stages and still unclear to many others, it is becoming a defacto requirement for anyone operating on the internet because of the importance placed by Google in its searches.

UX Another trend that came out of the conferences was the importance of the experience that users have in their journey with a company.

A presentation was made by Gregory Roekens, who was Chief Technology Officer at Wunderman, and is now Chief Technology Officer at AMV BBDO. Taking the theme of the Pine and Gilmore book, The Experience Economy which was published in the midnineties, Gregory set about discussing the fact that a customer’s experience of the journey in using the product through all the online media that is becoming an important issue for marketers.

As with the concept of integrated marketing communications a few years ago, the need now is for an integrated digital marketing strategy. The idea that the customer may be able to download one of your products through an App; listen, watch or use it via a tablet, interact with your website on a mobile phone and through a computer is becoming an important consideration. For many of us, in the world of B2B, this may not necessarily seem so important, however, there is significant pause for thought when one thinks of the widening diversity of platforms on which people consume a service or product. The mobile phone, the tablet, the laptop, the desktop and an increasing variety of devices within each of these broad categories, requires consideration in the minds of the marketer as to what the service looks like and acts like on each.

There is no such thing now as a standard tablet. There are many tablets, such as the iPad mini, the Kindle Fire and others of the Android variety. There is a full size tablet, as per the original iPad and there are large screen mobile phones such as the new Nokia

and Galaxies. How does your website interact with all of these sizes? The frustration that can ensue from the consumers’ point of view in trying to gain contact or communication with the company can lead to comments on social media which companies then have to respond to. The answer seems to be Responsive Web Design, whereby the website configuration responds to the type of device accessing it. Sizing itself and arranging the navigation according to the screen characteristics of the user.

Population It’s long been understood by most marketers in the UK that the population profile is aging as less people are being born and the older are living longer. The opportunities that this brings and the changes in targeting are fairly well known but what perhaps is more interesting is that now the majority of people who live on the planet and there are now 7 billion (growing at 90,000 per day) now live in cities. At the beginning of this century, that figure was just under the 50% mark and is likely to rise to something like 70% by 2050.

That has a tremendous impact on the way in which we consider our marketing and indeed perhaps to some degree the homogeneity of the marketplace.

Occurring alongside this trend is also the rise of the middle class.

Whilst the statistics are somewhat unclear, the common description of middle class i.e. someone who earns well above the poverty

“While the recession officially ended during the summer, many of the economic and technological impacts of the changes will continue for many years to come and it is likely that there will be significant change in the way in which marketing is implemented and that there will be no return to normality.”

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level, the number will rise to about 50% of the global population by again, 2050. This rapid growth of middle class will manly occur in what used to be called the Third world but has become the emerging Eastern market place together with the South American and indeed some African markets. This now raises a very interesting dilemma for many brands as they try to transition from being markets that were trying to fish at the bottom of the pyramid (taking a C.K. Prahalad approach) to now having to move their brands upmarket as core target audiences become more affluent.

Mobile The impact for mobile devices has been talked about many times, but the true impact on the way in which the world will function has yet to be thought through. Whilst many people now will see statistics saying that the majority of people browse the internet on their mobile phone, even watching advertisements on their mobile phone, the implications for business opportunity are still to be truly investigated. The growth of the App is a truly phenomenal market and does indicate that the mobile device will become the main operating platform for most people in the next 20 years. Whereas most people in the 80s and 90s were introduced to computers by means of a desktop computer, the implication now is that people in the 21st century will be introduced to computing via mobile device. But I think we have to stop thinking of the mobile as being the iPhone handset that everybody has in their mental picture of a mobile device. It is more appropriate to think of the tablet, whether it’s an android, a Kindle, Samsung or iPad as being the more likely device by which fundamental change in market places will take place. Already, office furniture manufacturers are having to accommodate the need for less furniture space as a result of people using iPads.

We now have the phenomena of BYOT (bring your own technology) to work whereby people are now so umbilically attached to their own devices that they want to continue to use those whilst they work. The implication for structure of office and office environments is fundamental. People in a recent BBC programme talked about where they do work as being anywhere from a café, a pub, a park bench, a garden, as well as the office complex. So the ubiquity of the mobile device is beginning to allow not only instant consumption but pure mobility of production. This also links to perhaps the other phenomena being talked about, that of 3D printing or fabricating. Here a lot of speculation is being made about the way in which mobile printing devices will allow us to produce real objects in a small scale that could effectively change the way in which we consume mass produced products. However, the true implication has not yet been worked through.

A post-script One final comment on the internet and social media. There is already discussion as to whether or not the worldwide web is coming to the

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end of its useful life! The comments are not that the worldwide web as the internet, is no longer important, it is that the worldwide web is not the only means of using the internet and that websites which were originally created mainly for E-commerce and the reduction of costs in terms of brochureware are increasingly being replaced by dialogue and communications between people and customers through the generic term ‘social media’. One very successful company now has only a two page website. The remainder of its activity, which is extremely successful, is through its social media presence on most of the main platforms. Given that most of its customers are present on the social media platforms, this is, from their perspective, the ideal strategy. There is no requirement for an

“Is the worldwide web really coming to the end of its useful life?” e-commerce facility on a website because most of it can be carried out on the social media platforms. Most of its discussions with its customers take place in social forums. Most of the development of its new services takes place through crowd-sourcing and most of the reactions and developments to its products and services are happening on the social media platforms. An extreme case? Yes, but one that maybe indicative of the future?

Charles Nixon: founded Cambridge Marketing College with, Ian Brownlee in May 1991. The College has gone from strength to strength to become the leading Professional Marketing College in Europe with 10 centres around the UK and delegates from over 100 countries. First employed as Government Relations Officer for Courtaulds where he liaised with civil servants and politicians on government policy, Charles became Senior Economic Analyst at the International Wool Secretariat before heading to Warwick Business School (WBS) to take one of its first MBAs. Whilst there he helped write the Business Plan for the Warwick Science Park and so confirmed his interest in High Technology. Following WBS he joined Arthur Andersen Management Consultants (now Accenture), before joining Mercury Communications, the then embryonic rival to BT. At Mercury, Charles was Head of Market Research and Market Planning, helping the new company segment its market, plan for distribution, and research customer needs in order to introduce new products. He later joined Extel Financial in time for the Big Bang and the city revolution.

Marketing in The Netherlands Each issue, we’re going to look at marketing from different countries. The College offers most of his courses worldwide now and this quarter, we get an insight of marketing in The Netherlands, courtesy of our Brand Ambassador, Theo Dingemans.

Royal Philips Electronics: one of the largest electronics and home appliances companies in the world.

Royal Dutch Shell: Anglo-Dutch oil company.

Unilever: Anglo-Dutch company owning many of the world’s consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products.

ING Group: the world’s largest banking/financial services and insurance conglomerate in 2012.

ABN AMRO: Dutch bank.

AEGON: insurance company.

Heineken and Amstel: brewing companies Mexx and McGregor: fashion brands.

Vedior and Randstad: human resources and staffing services companies.

Akzo Nobel: healthcare products, coatings and chemicals.

KPN: telecommunications company owning such operators as BASE (Belgium), E-Plus (Germany), Simyo (France and Spain) and iBasis (USA).

Getronics: Information and Communication Technology company.

IKEA: international home products retailer (founded in Sweden but headquartered in Holland).

-2012

Economy Famous Dutch companies include Philips, Akzo Nobel, Royal Dutch Shell (halfBritish), Unilever (half-British), Heineken, IKEA (formerly Swedish) as well as the banks ING and ABN-AMRO. The KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) is the longest running national airline in the world. It was founded in 1919.

The Netherlands has long been one of the richest countries in the world. Its GDP per capita was estimated to be the highest in the world in 1820, and the 2nd highest in Europe in 1900 (after Belgium). Nowadays, it still enjoys the 4th highest nominal GDP per capita (or 3rd at PPP) within the European Union.

The Global Connectedness Index 2012, computed on data from 2005 to 2011, ranked the Netherlands as the world’s most internationally connected country. The ranking is based on economic depth (size of the country’s international flow compared to its domestic economy) and geographic breadth (number of countries it connects with).

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Culture & Sciences The Dutch company ‘Philips’ invented the audio tape (in 1967), the video tape (in 1972), the Compact Disk (in 1982) and the CD-ROM (in 1985).

Tulips were imported from the Ottoman Empire and became very popular in Holland in the early 17th century. Nowadays, the Netherlands is the world’s first producer and exporter of tulips.

Keukenhof Park is the largest flower garden in the world.

TOP 20 BRANDS 2012 Com pany 1 Shell 2 Rabobank 3 ING 4 Philips 5 Randstad 6 Dove 7 Heineken 8 Aegon 9 KPN 10 Lipton 11 Albert He ijn 12 Unilever 13 Rexona 14 Knor r 15 TNT 16 Axe/Lynx 17 Amstel 18 BAM 19 Gall & Ga ll 20 Delta Llo yd

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History Orange-coloured carrots appeared in the Netherlands in the 16th century. Before that carrots were white, yellow, black, purple or red. Orange carrots are said to have been bred in honour of the House of Orange, who led the Dutch Revolt against Spain and later became the Dutch Royal family. Orange is still the official colour of the Netherlands and a sign of patriotism. The Dutch national football team wears a bright orange shirt. And the country’s largest financial institution, the ING Group, makes abundant use of the national colour on its logo and on the decoration of its banks.

Government & Politics The Netherlands has two capitals: Amsterdam (the official capital by constitution since the 19th century) and The Hague (the seat of government and first capital since 1584).

Source: http://br andirec tor y.c

Interesting facts about the Netherlands The Netherlands has the highest population density (493 inhabitants per square km - water excluded) of any European country with over 1 million inhabitants. Worldwide, only Bangladesh and Taiwan, among major countries, have a higher density of population.

Dutch people are the tallest in the world, with an average height of 184 cm for men and 170 cm for women.

Some famous Dutch companies :

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lands Nether of The 92 graphics 16 ,783,0 demo Brief k m² r e 404 p o n: Populati 0.39% : Density : te ra timate 6 billion G row th 2012 es $7 73.11 ominal) (n P D G $46 ,142 Total S$) ) Euro (€ tates dollar (U it a S Per cap d e it Un cy Curren

Main marketing magazines “Tijdschrift voor Marketing”, “Marketing Tribune”, “Emerce” and “Media facts”.

Business journal/newspaper “Financiele Dagblad” and “Cobouw”.

Main marketing journal/info sites http://www.marketingonline.nl Main annual marketing conference or main business conference Marketing conferences are held in The Netherlands but do not have a regular character. But to name one: There will be a second conference on June 7 called: “InnoMarketing” about how to market Innovations.

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Book reviews This Summer, we gave four members of our Alumni books to review.

Here’s what they have to say: The Marketing Manifesto by David James Hood (reviewed

by Larry File) David Hood is a marketing and competitiveness specialist who has worked in the field for over twenty years, observing what is good – and not so good – about the way that we professionals operate in the commercial realities of the 21st century.

He has seen enough and he is speaking out; and he is not in a mood to pull any punches.

The Marketing Manifesto has fifteen clear and concise chapters, each of which is a mini-manifesto in its own right, zeroing in on the key issues facing the industry, highlighting the core conflicts that have arisen, and then putting forward proposed solutions for marketers to pursue. Overall, it is a rallying cry for urgent and radical change (that favourite phrase of politicians, “root and branch reform”, springs to mind...). A quick glance over a few of the chapter headings will give you a flavour of what follows: • What the hell is a marketer?

• Marketing, finance and accountants unite!

• The problem with marketing...is the repugnant word!

• Marketing leadership: it is time to step up to the mark.

As professionals, we are always preaching that our brands need to be periodically relaunched or refreshed, in order to stay relevant for consumers. David Hood applies the same principle to marketing as a function, stating that marketers (of all people) have been slow to grasp some of the seismic changes that have impacted the world of business over the last decade, and are therefore trying to play a completely new game according to outmoded and unhelpful rules.

Naturally, all this makes uncomfortable but hugely stimulating reading. While you probably will not find yourself in agreement with all the tenets of David Hood’s personal manifesto, you will certainly find yourself experiencing frequent shudders of recognition, as he nails issues that we have all experienced at some time: lack of cohesion between marketing and sales; the financial perspective that regards marketing as a cost to be cut in hard times, rather than an investment to secure the future of the company; the often arbitrary way in which marketing budgets are set and allocated; the lack of marketing input into mergers and acquisitions; and many more.

David Hood extends his thinking to what he terms ‘The Modern Marketing Mix’ (replacing the old standard 4Ps with no less than 17Ps), which includes elements such as People, Positioning, and Process. It is this comprehensive and challenging questioning of

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the entire marketing process that makes his book such compelling reading for professionals.

So if you have been wondering what needs to change in order to keep marketing relevant, effective and fully integrated in the modern business process, then David Hood has the answer: everything.

Larry File is a Director of Brand Innovation Limited. www.brandinnovation.co.uk Competitive SME: Building competitive advantage through marketing excellence for small to medium sized enterprises by David Hood (reviewed by Amanda Nunn) “David Hood’s ‘Competitive SME’ does what it says on the tin.”

Aimed at the managers of small to medium-sized enterprises, the book encourages an in-depth understanding of their market and their customers from an outward facing perspective rather than the navel-gazing introspection which SMEs too often seem to adopt.

The book is not targeted at marketing professionals so only gives an outline of basic marketing themes rather than a detailed picture but what it does do, is encourage SMEs to understand that marketing is not “just ‘creative advertising’ with a bit of promotional activity and selling thrown in” but instead that when done well, and included from the outset in a well thought out way, it can increase profitability.

The book is designed to complement the future SME, and the EU initiative which seeks to help businesses grow and sustain business performance; develop capability to adapt to changing business conditions and make the most of opportunities in the marketplace.

(Further details can be found at: www.futuresme.eu.)

With this in mind, the book gives essential advice on how, by implementing a clear and focused strategy and using simple tools, you can survive, thrive, and compete. It outlines a simple yet effective model that will allow you to: create and manage effective marketing and branding processes; better engage with your market creating and projecting real value; increase your worth to the market with corresponding increase in revenue; maximise your resources, however limited; and ensure that your competitive edge and USP are amplified and sustained.

The tone of the book is no-nonsense and jargon free, broken down into easy to digest chapters which could be dipped in and out of as necessary.

REVIEWS - BOOKS

In summary this is a very readable, practical handbook for any owners or managers of SMEs who want to be profitable and successful but readers should bear in mind that they are likely to benefit more from the book if they use it alongside futureSME™.

The Better Mousetrap – Brand Invention in a Media Democracy by Simon Pont (reviewed

by Account Manager, Prabha Patel) “The book had my attention from day one. I do not have one note to share with colleagues – I have got pages of them!”

Anybody who has worked in the advertising industry in the last seven years cannot have failed to notice the changes that have taken place. I work in an agency where advertising and design had, up until recession struck, been the cornerstone of our regular work… cue recession…and suddenly the world has changed. Branding and digital have picked up momentum to the point where probably 8090% of the work that we do today touches on either or both of those elements. So I was intrigued to know what author, Simon Pont, with his background of working for some of the great and the good of the advertising world, would have to say about this fast-changing landscape.

When I first saw the title of this book I was tickled by the mousetrap analogy, but more intrigued by the sub-head ‘Brand Invention in a Media Democracy’. In today’s agency environment, it is not enough to simply understand a bit about ‘branding’ or ‘digital’ so I was on the look-out for something that would bring both worlds together – explain the relationship and the impact felt by these two worlds colliding. When I started reading the book, I hoped there would be a couple of interesting points to note down and maybe share with colleagues. What surprised me most was that the book had my attention from day one. I do not have one note to share with colleagues – I have got pages of them.

The book is structured in such a way that it makes for an easy read. The style of writing is engaging and pacey. Thought-provoking content, complemented by a mixture of great quotes, diagrams and examples – inspires readers to look beyond the everyday norm.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone working in the agency world today. From an agency perspective it is easy to get swept along in the ‘all things digital’ whirlwind, when the reality, which is summed up very neatly in the book is that, primarily the game has stayed the same (encouraging people to love and buy brands)…it is just the field of play that keeps changing.

Pioneers of Digital

by Paul Springer and Mel Carson (reviewed by Sarah Nagra) A Brief History of Digitalsuccess stories from leaders in advertising, marketing, search and social media.

Springer and Carson provide the reader with twenty in-depth interviews with pioneers at the beginning of the big bang of digital, covering multiple platforms, campaigns and industries. There is something to interest everyone, from celebrities, reluctant innovators to opinion leaders. The people behind the technology, who have hidden in the shadows, waiting for a book like this to throw the spotlight on who they are, not just what they did. Denzyl Feigelson, Danny Sullivan, Avinash Kaushik might not be names you know, but these unsung heroes will have influenced your lives; from taking music online to web analytics.

The book allows you to easily dip in and out of the chapters, and skip those pioneers that might not captivate your imagination.

However, there is something that can be taken from unravelling each experience, from their determination, waiting for technology, waiting to catch up with their “big idea” or the chapter-ending sound bytes that can be applied across disciplines.

The majority of this book reflects on the past, rather than looking forward. However, if you are new to the industry read as any many chapters as you can, as it is worth understanding what the industry was like when organisations feared the online world.

Lessons to be learnt There is an intriguing consensus across the pioneers about what has made them, their work or organisation successful. Firstly they are all passionate about what they do, work with a strong group of people and never assume they know what their customers want. If you have assumptions, validate them with rich data and just because it works in one medium does not mean it will work across them all.

Most importantly from Jaron Lanier “don’t get swept away by the wisdom of others”.

It would not be surprising if this is the beginning of a series of books, as the “potential of much digital technology has still be realised” (Malcolm Poynton, Dove Campaign for Real Beauty), and who knows you might be in the next edition.

As Springer and Carson state in the introduction, the “conversation is just beginning” and you can find out more at www. pioneersofdigital.com.

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Marketing Apps Reviewed!

Intern Jenna Squire joined us this Summer to review some of the best marketing apps out there to help you with your day-to-day tasks.

Jenna is currently studying Business Statistics and Marketing at the University of Reading.

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ith over 50 billion downloads, and over 1 million apps developed since Apple launched the first app store in July 2008, we were surprised at the lack of Marketing apps available.

Many apps were well hidden in the Google Play and iTunes stores and most of the ones we found had very few (if any) reviews. We downloaded and tested a few so we could rate them ourselves.

1. Ad-ology Marketing Forecast developed by DoApp, Inc Price: Free With over 10,000 downloads from the Google Play Store and a customer average rating of 4.3, Ad-ology Marketing Forecast has managed to stand out as one of the more recognised information orientated apps, giving a continuous stream of ‘forward-looking’ marketing and consumer insights.

Strengths • The ‘Current Buzz’ feature provides the latest marketing research, economic trends and the trending topics on Google searches.

• The app is easy to navigate with different areas such as Advertising, Consumer, Digital and Social having their own ‘Ad-ology forecasts’ and links to news articles.

Weaknesses • Whilst the Current Buzz feature is constantly streaming news articles, the individual sections aren’t as up to date as they could be.

• The appearance of the app could be improved.

Available from iTunes and Google Play stores.

CMC rating: 1st Class.

2. Competition strategy studio developed by Softnik Technologies Price: £20.99 With this smart app, you can simply type in key words to see the position of your competitor sites in search engines.

Strengths • Enables you to analyse competing websites.

• A key tool for Marketers.

CMC rating: Specialist.

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Weaknesses • Is a very task-focused app, does little else.

Available from the Apple Store.

3. Learn Advertising & Marketing developed by Alex Genadinik Price: Free This app supplies tutorials on Marketing at a basic level guiding you through different sections on your app and links to helpful web pages.

Strengths • Good at a very basic level with tutorials aimed at the inexperienced.

• Easy to navigate.

Weaknesses • Not for those more experienced in the field of Marketing.

• Not a particularly professional looking app.

Available on Google Play CMC rating: 2nd class. Great for marketing beginners

4. Marketing 101: What is Marketing developed by Docstoc Inc Price: £1.23 This app was our favourite. There are videos explaining how to plan the perfect live event and increase your social media presence. With in depth guides to help you increase your online exposure, this app provides a lot of information.

Strengths • Its ‘Resources to look at’ feature provides document templates for making plans.

• The numerous videos with different episodes for each different chapter.

• Really easy navigation through the app.

Weaknesses • Very dependent on bandwidth due to numerous videos. You want to be connected to Wi-Fi! • Somewhat Americanorientated.

The app also links you to other free apps they’ve developed including their Marketing, Branding & PR secrets with the same format and more videos for further ‘chapters’ of study.

Available on iTunes.

CMC rating: 1st class

REVIEWS - MARKETING APPS

5. Marketing 101 developed by WAGmob.

Price: £1.23 This Marketing 101 app is available for the android phone and advertises itself as ‘on the go learning for marketing’. Awarded a customer average rating of 4.5, the app provides flashcards and quizzes for self-assessment.

Strengths • The blog is updated regularly.

• Popular amongst those who use it as it has a 5* customer rating on the iTunes website.

Weaknesses • Quite a basic app with more of a personal view on topics rather than being based on facts and figures.

Available on iTunes, Google Play.

CMC rating: 3rd Class Strengths • Developed by WAGmob who have over 300 apps on the Google Play store.

Weaknesses • There is a lack of interaction.

Available for Google Play.

CMC rating: 2nd class

6. Marketing HealthCheck developed by Malcolm McDonald Price: Free 7 valuable marketing and sales audit exercises with reference material included for assistance.

Once subscribed, you have access to any new exercises and content which is updated regularly. The app also streams newsfeeds from Management Today and Reuters Business News.

Strengths

• Produced by an international expert.

• Good international newsfeeds, up to date.

CMC rating: 2nd class

Weaknesses • Some of the graphs are poor in the iPhone app and blurry in the iPad mode.

• Some of the exercises are hard to complete on the iPhone.

Available on iTunes.

7. Marketing Technology Blog developed by DK New Media (Douglas Karr) Price: Free A blog with over 1,000 downloads from Google Play alone, the app discusses the latest news, best practices, products and services for online marketing, inbound marketing, content marketing, search engine marketing, mobile marketing, social media marketing and more.

8. Quick Win Marketing developed

by Oak Tree Press Price: £3.99 The Quick Win Marketing app is based on the book by Annmarie Hanlon with the aim of helping entrepreneurs and business managers start, grow or revitalise a business or launch new services or products.

Strengths • Easy to navigate through.

Weaknesses • As a simple question and answer app, it lacks in detail.

Available on iTunes

CMC rating: 2nd class

9.The Logo Quiz Game developed

by Atico Mobile S.L Price: Free With 30 million downloads worldwide and an average rating of 4.5, this app is clearly a popular way of testing your brand’s knowledge.

Strengths • Over 500 different brands to guess at.

• You can compete with your friends through Facebook and Twitter.

Weaknesses • There are none!

Available on iTunes but Google Play has also made similar versions available.

CMC rating: 1st class

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The tutors’ view The Cambridge Marketing College Tutor Blog allows our tutors to comment on any marketing subject that catches their attention. The result is an eclectic mix of articles on big data to Barbie, hashtag usage to Pinterest, and organisations from an Arts Cinema to the Japanese electronics industry.

H

ere is a selection of posts from the Blog that have caught my eye.

Give it up for the single ladies Charles Nixon comments on traditions that have shifted as no longer is the typical household made up of a family of four. In fact, a recent article in the FT (Cohen, 2013) discussed the latest (2011) census data which shows there are almost twice as many one-person households, as there are family homes with two parents and children. This 30% of all households (in England and Wales) is also more than any other category. Companies have to adapt their marketing strategies to reflect this trend.

Continuing a theme of singletons, Terry Nicklin mused on the product placement, as well as skantily-clad women, in Skyfall, the latest movie in the James Bond franchise.

The exclamation in the first few minutes of “Follow the black Audi” had me laughing out loud. Several more examples followed, some presented naturally, some seemingly more gratuitous, the latter exemplified by what was virtually a mini-ad for the Walther PPK pistol.

So does it matter? Are consumers being unfairly influenced?

Well if the rumours are true that Heineken paid $45 million for their inclusion, and that the movie is usually just one element of an integrated campaign, then surely it’s just good marcoms if it works....

Daniel Craig has defended the use of such high profile product placement variously, describing it as “unfortunate”, or “a fact of life - I don’t know what all the fuss is about”.

Another fact of life for marketers is that we can get so caught up with deadlines and to do lists that we ignore the bigger picture.

Neil Wilkins offered seven great tips on how to rise above the daily grind and become an innovative marketer: 1. Devote Time: set aside some time every week for being creative away from phones, emails and social networks 2. Explore What’s Gone Before: search out great new innovations from outside your industry to spark new ideas 3. Ask “What If...”: instead of constraining yourself by asking ‘how’, ask yourself ‘what if’ and set your mind free 4. Process into Product: think how you can turn your services and processes into marketable products 5. Collaborate: share thoughts with colleagues and partners because it will throw new light and new angles on ideas 6. Entertain Yourself: don’t be boring and really stretch your thinking by daring to dream 7. Keep Trying: try, try, try because with experimentation you will unveil opportunity

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The most prolific contributor to the blog is the College’s Marketing Executive, Lorna Brocklesby who does a weekly Friday Squeeze slot where she considers 5 Resources You Need to Know. Helping readers pick through the week’s key social media stories, she has enlightened us on KIRAN KAPUR how to use Hootsuite to find customers and what links Sony, H.Samuel, Old Spice and Blackberry? Apparently, they could be damaging their brands through their use of Facebook, mainly by not being innovative in their use of social media: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/63051-four-brands-which-maybe-damaging-their-consumer-image-on-facebook.

Getting preoccupied with the quantity of your organisation’s social media posts rather than the quality seems to be a key trap to avoid.

It was the sheer quantity of the world’s market in garlic that amazed Tony Wilson, following a news report into the illegal importation of garlic into the EU. As he rightly says, some markets are unexpectedly enormous.

If the news article is to be believed, the latest incident involved the alleged illegal importation of £8,000,000-worth of garlic.

Hang on, that sounds like a lot.

Reading further down the same article reveals that the world’s total output of garlic is said to be around 23 million tons, which equates to around 500 billion bulbs (each consisting of 10 or so cloves). That’s more than 1 bulb every week for every person on the planet.

So what, I hear you ask? Well, I don’t spend a lot of time considering agricultural or food markets, and I find this market size quite staggering.

Two things in particular strike me: 1. Some markets are quite unexpectedly enormous. So don’t ignore possible opportunities without first quantifying them.

500 billion units is a lot of anything.

2. With enormous markets, tiny things can be very important: imagine the effect of a 1p price increase in a market of 500 billion units, for example.

If this has whetted your appetite, you can read the Tutor Blog at www.marketingcollege.com/blog

Image supplied courtesy of Diageo

Possibly the most famous British advertising campaign of all time. Guinness’s success can be largely attributed to the humorous posters released between 1929 and 1969.

This ‘Guinness for Strength’ ad first appeared in 1934 and is still one of the nation’s favourites today.

Art Director/artist: John Gilroy, Agency: S.H. Benson.

Cambridge Marketing Press 1 Cygnus Business Park Middle Watch Swavesey Cambridgeshire CB24 4AA www.marketingcollege.com Tel: +44(0) 1954 234944 - Fax: +44(0) 1954 234950