Kevin Harrington // marketing // blog

Are you focused on flogging stuff or building relationships? The difference is substantial but often misunderstood. 

Doug Levy has written an interesting article titled 5 principles of breakthrough success in the “Relationship Era”. Levy talks about the history and evolution of business through the following phases:

Product Era: The focus is solely on transactions.
Consumer Era: The focus is still on transactions, but the idea of trust enters the dialogue as a way to persuade people to transact more.
Relationship Era: Trust between a brand and consumer is mutual. Trust and transactions are seen as distinct, and both are important. 

I especially like his succinct principles for a relationship: 

Principle 1: Clarify purpose
Principle 2: Commit to sustainable relationships
Principle 3: Connect with authenticity
Principle 4: Treat customers as partners
Principle 5: Engage 

My thanks to Sarah Derry #sarahderry for telling me about this article. Read the complete article.

Driving up Whitehall today I spotted a Manns Travel coach with a sign in the front window, “Girls Grammer”. Do you think the girls get on the coach every day and ignore the spelling mistake? Do you think they know the word grammar is spelt incorrectly?

This led me to wonder if there is any evidence that spelling mistakes had a negative effect on a brand’s image.

There is a lot of anecdotal comments and opinion on the web; Larry Chase says, spelling errors affect response rates. And there are humorous references relating to brands a poor spelling. I particularly like this Maserati advert spelling mistake. But I’ve failed to find any quantifiable research/data on the subject. Are you aware of any?

It’s incredible to think where we’ve come from. Seventy years ago the first voucher appeared on the high street in the form of a book token. Who could have predicted how the voucher and card industry would change and develop, becoming a currency for both everyday and business life, and who amongst us can predict what the future will look like for these ever-changing incentives?

Even in the past couple of years we’ve seen rapid development; the introduction of gift card centres, shops and stores; the beginning of e-vouchers and mobile phone technology, plus we’ve seen non-retailers (restaurants, experience companies) for the first time, emerge strongly into the marketplace alongside the traditional high-street retail vouchers and gift cards. Where to next – will paper totally disappear? Will new technology take over when traditional products have lost their way?

So, where is the market going? And, what will it look like in five or even 10 years time? Unfortunately none of us know all the answers to these questions and we can only begin to speculate. What I do know is that it is essential that the recipients of vouchers, e-vouchers, gift cards etc – whether they be consumers, customers or employees – get a product that they want, a product that excites, motivates and inspires them and one that is easy-to-use and flexible.

As voucher and card suppliers we need to keep this front of mind in everything we do. Ultimately, our aim is to keep the excitement and enjoyment alive and make the voucher and gift card industry buoyant for another 70 years – in whatever format that may be.

To support the opinion that you can get vouchers for anything…it appears you can now get a divorce voucher. Lloyd Platt & Company, a London law firm, are offering gift vouchers so that you can ‘gift divorce’ to a friend.

The firm’s founder, Vanessa Lloyd Platt, said she had been amazed at the response (just over 60 sales so far) to the vouchers. “They seem to appeal to an enormously widespread spectrum of people looking for that ‘must have’ gift for Christmas,” she said.

In essence of course this is little more than a sales promotion. One half hour at £125 will hardly address the needs of most prospective divorcees. A good effort by Lloyd Platt & Company as they do have people talking about them.

Read more about this on MSNBC.msn.com.

Here is a different take on Philip Kotler’s 4 Ps of Marketing:

Product: What do you mean we can’t do that? It’s in the press release!
Price: How much are the others guys charging?
Place: Should we hold the offsite meeting in Hawaii or Aspen?
Promotion: How long does it take to become VP around here anyways?

This is from Valley of the Geeks where ‘Zack Urlocker’ also says:

Once you’ve got a technology company up and running it generally consists of two groups; those who build the product and those who sell the product. So what role does marketing play? They’re the ones who talk about building and selling the product. Marketing provides an update to the old saw: “Those who can do, and those who can’t make Powerpoint slides.”

The rest of this article about marketing spin is worth a look at to remind yourself how some people perceive marketing…sometimes with good cause.

An inter-department football game was held every year between the Marketing team and the IT department of a company.

The day of the game, as hard as the Marketers tried, the IT staff whipped Marketing soundly.

In their best tradition, Marketing decided to find the best “spin” they could on the dismal result. They showed how they earn their keep by posting this memo on the noticeboard after the game:

“The Marketing Department is pleased to announce that for the recently-completed Football Season, we came in 2nd place, having lost but one game all year.

The IT Department, however, had a rather dismal season, as they won only one game all year.”

Someone I know who has tried it themselves: 49,432 95.2%

The word about town: 1,039 2%

Articles written by journalists: 938 1.8%

TV adverts: 331 0.6%

Newspaper adverts: 175 0.3%

Source: buzzador.com 51,917 respondents.