Monthly Archives: November 2008

Tough luck if you’re a marketer with T-Mobile

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g1 ads Tough luck if youre a marketer with T Mobile

G1 underground ads

I like the T-Mobile ad campaign on the London Underground. It extols the virtues of the Google G1 phone. I guess they would like to sell them. Unfortunately their marketing is far from joined up to their sales activity!

My wife has been with T-Mobile for years. She phoned up to enquire about an upgrade to a G1. She struggled getting through and eventually selected the option for “thinking of leaving” to get a human.
The summary of the advice she was given was:
1. If you upgrade now it will cost you £51.
2. I’d leave it until the new year if I were you as you’ve been a good customer and there will loads of good deals then.
3. And I wouldn’t recommend the G1 as it is a bit big and not all that good.
4. Get the LG Viewer instead.
5. No, I don’t work for T-Mobile. We’re outsourced telesales.
Marvellous! I wonder how much effort went into the T-Mobile/G1 deal?

Carrier bag wars

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primark carrier bag Carrier bag wars

Primark carrier bags

Sunday 9 November, from Bond St underground to Marble Arch, Primark won the carrier bag war by a country mile on Oxford Street, London.

The number of people carrying the new, brown paper Primark carrier bags, bulging with shopping was amazing. Based on this highly scientific bit of market research, they will be the high street winners this Christmas.

The bright yellow Selfridges carrier bags were dotted about but few in number.

Strangely I didn’t notice any Marks & Spencer bags. Then I noticed they had changed to a red, seasonal carrier. A bad mistake as the high street impact is lost.

Incoming search terms:

  • picture of a primark bag
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  • primsrk bag

Saab: award winning direct marketing

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saab direct mail Saab: award winning direct marketingSaab UK has just sent me an excellent piece of direct mail. The small lumpy envelope contained an ‘honorary employee’ badge on a lanyard.

The hook to the offer is the opportunity to buy a Saab at Saab employee prices. These presumably wonderful prices aren’t stated. To find out more I need to go to my local dealer, Saab Reading.

A simple, compelling and clear message. Well done to Saab and whoever their agency.

Coca Cola product quality

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Earlier this week someone told me that the biggest issue Coca Cola are dealing with in the UK is parallel/unofficial imports of their products. These apparently are undercutting there own trade prices.

I would beg to differ. I think their biggest issue is an appalling lack of product quality, consistency and delivery. My experiences this week:

1) Sofitel, St James, London. The best glass of Coke I’ve enjoyed for a long time. It may have been £5.06 but it was from a bottle, on lots of ice, with a slice of lemon and served in a perfect glass.

2) Oxford/Welcome Break Services. Luke warm plastic bottles at £1.40. Revolting.

3) The Glebe Hotel, Barford, Warwick. Syrupy, flat post mix. The second glass was better, but I’ve never been a big fan of post mix Coke. Price unknown.

Terminology land grab

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So, can I lay claim to being the creator of the term B2A? I’ve started using this term to describe the marketing of business to (marketing) agencies. There are also the standard extensions to this: B2A2C, B2A2B etc.

Also back in 1998 I retaliated on the financial community by developing ‘marketing for non-marketing managers‘ workshops. These were enormously successful and were a very successful collaboration with my colleague Andy Hedge from the HR team. Was I first to use the term ‘marketing for non-marketing managers’?

Historically finance people have been assisting the rest of their colleagues by running finance for non-financial mangers workshops. The educational value of these sessions often masks how finance set their agenda out to the listening audience.

Isn’t it time that marketing directors in all businesses introduced marketing training for all disciplines across their organisations?

Data Strategy errors

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data strategy Data Strategy errorsI did chuckle…before I unsubscrided to the emails. I would rather have hoped that an email to me asking me to re-start subscriptions to the magazine Data Strategy would have been addressed to me. Wrong, it was addressed to Ms Ramsey.

I didn’t notice that error at first. Actually I was marvelling at the bad email. Not a single mention of any benefit to me if I did subscribe. Here it is for you to enjoy.

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Re-start your free subscription

Dear Ms Ramsey,

Reference Number: 3920515

Over a year ago, you registered for free copies of Data Strategy. At the time, we might not have explained that, to continue receiving complimentary copies of the magazine, you need to re-register every year.

Please follow this link to re-start your free copies >>

If you are NOT the person named above, please use the following link instead:

New reader application >>

Alternatively, you can print out a free application form at:http://applynow.centaur.co.uk/pubpdf/ds/Browse.view Please complete this and fax it back to 020 7970 4099.

I look forward to sending you your copies for another year.

Yours Sincerely,

Ed Tillotson Publisher

P.S. Do you have any colleagues whom you think would benefit from receiving their own complimentary copies? If so, forward them this link: http://www.data-strategy.co.uk/apply

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