Monthly Archives: June 2010

Forecast: all shops will be the same by 2030

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At what point will all retail shops in the UK be the same? Is it inevitable that they will all sell the same product range one day? Think about it:

Tesco sells petrol – BP sells food
WHSmith sells stamps – Post Office sells stationary

Leaving aside the food range how different is Primark from Marks & Spencer?

Perhaps the differentiator becomes who has the best car parking and the best car wash facilities. And it’s interesting to note that even the car wash in the car park is effectively us paying to have security in the area but the car wash facilities are all the same.

Now I know not all shops are the same. And I know that most shops you can tell where you are when you are stood in the middle. I think I am maybe mourning the halcyon days of the independent retailer.

Please cheer me up with your positive stories about UK retailers.

Premium Welsh food

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croque monseur Premium Welsh foodHenry Smithson
C’est tres illogique! ‘Croque Monsieur’ – toasted ham and cheese sandwich = 3.50 Euros. ‘Welsh’ – toasted ham and cheese sandwich, but covered in melted cheese and served in a bowl = 11.50 Euros!!!!!

Kevin Harrington
And they are both overpriced. Mind you, a premium for ‘Welsh’ food is indeed a significant marketing achievement that I may need to blog about! Where was this?

Nigel Tucker
Hey! Welsh food should attract a premium. It’s better than English food, ie chips.

Henry Smithson
This was in France – home of the finest cuisine. In the interests of culinary research Linda ordered the ‘Croque Monsieur’ and I ordered the ‘Welsh’ so we could compare and contrast. Results above.

Facebook banned at a recruitment company

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I’ve yet to get all the details on this but I’ve just been told that employees at a certain recruitment agency are banned from using Facebook. Quite incredible.

We discovered this after we Googled a prospective candidate and found their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles. When discussing our observations the recruitment agency said they didn’t use Facebook to check candidates because they were banned/blocked from using the site.

What does this tell you of the agency? They don’t trust their own staff? They are giving less screening of candidates than most other agencies?

And while I’m at it…

Writing this blog post reminded me of the first email I received this morning. It was a spam email from Timothy James Consulting. How do I know it was spam…it was sent to an email address that hasn’t even been released yet inviting me to recruit someone with a skill set that is irrelevant for my team. I’d already told them to remove this address but it is clearly easier for them to carry on spamming me.

So watch out for emails from [email protected] or anyone else @timothyjamesconsulting.com. I’m not the only person that is not impressed with them, see this blog post.

Incoming search terms:

  • kevin harrington facebook
  • timothyjamesconsulting com spam
  • timothyjamesconsulting spam

Visual display of strategy

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I quite like this video, it is about how BBC Worldwide present their strategy. It is on YouTube to promote the services of Cardiff based visual solutions company See What You Mean.

It is a good reminder that simple visuals, avoiding the PowerPoint template traps, can be really powerful.

Now where are those slides that I’m presenting on Wednesday?

Incoming search terms:

  • bbc worldwide cartoons
  • kevin harrington kpi 5 steps

People can’t read their own data?

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So why is it that people can’t read their own data?

I received a piece of DM from a marketing agency recently. It was creatively good. It inspired me to delay its arrival in the bin. I opened it. So far so good; most DM doesn’t get that far. I even spent a couple of minutes reading it.

The call to action invited me to follow a personalised URL, e.g. agencyname.com/myname. I duly did this and arrived at a website where I answered the questions. The last question said words to the effect of ‘can we talk more about this/can we call you?’ I replied no…for more than one good reason.

Since then I’ve received an email from one person and a phone message from another.

I said NO.

For goodness sake; if businesses are going to use this type of B2B marketing please listen to the answers given!

The reason I’ve not named and shamed the agency concerned is that I actually like the director I’ve met from there. But really, as we already know each other, I do wonder why he is sending me DM rather than something a bit more personal.