Here is an extract from an article:
Yet we all feel like advertisers are lying to us. The slogans, promises, and taglines of large corporate entities lack any meaning or authenticity whatsoever. We are used to products not working as advertised, or even not looking like what’s on the box.
Iron Mountain and fast food
Is signwriting on vans, or other company vehicles, part of the marketing mix? That’s a silly question really: of course it is. And as with all other areas of marketing there are times it can work against you.
So when you are trotting up the motorway and the van in front lobs all of the remnants of a MacDonald’s breakfast out the window and it hits your car I would suggest that the signwriting is working against the company.
I guess the solution is to make sure that the behaviour of company members is in line with your company values…even on the road.
As a result of this incident on Wednesday 11 February 2009, at 10.55, I probably won’t be doing business with Iron Mountain or the driver of the Mercedes Sprinter PX06 VMV.
And before anyone asks: the photo was taken by my passenger, not me!
Advertising and marketing strap lines continue to provide me amusement. I’ve just driven past a van operated by HS Works. The strap line on the van, and on their website, is “supporting the UK economy”.
Well, I don’t know about you, but they may not be my first port of call at the moment.
HS Works is an established, professional, utilities and civil engineering contracting company.
Through our integrated operations we provide contract management to public and private sector organisations. In everything we do we pride ourselves on the value of personal service and high standards provided to our clients at all times.
Amazing! I’ve just received an email today, 26 January, promoting Guitar Break gift vouchers for the perfect Christmas gift. That’s nearly a full 11 months before next Christmas.
Gift Vouchers
Guitar Break gift vouchers are now available to buy through the website or over the phone. They are perfect for Christmas or Birthdays and are redeemable against any Guitar Break event or related product…
Perhaps it was a couple of months late. Either way, I can’t help thinking this is not the best use of Guitar Break’s marketing effort.
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets have set a fine example to sports clubs with their recent marketing activity. Via local schools they distributed flyers for a home match that gave the pupils free tickets. Accompanying adults got a £1 discount against the full £7 regular tariff.
Basketball is a bit of a minority sport and I expect their budgets are pretty tight. This campaign gave them a free distribution route for their message.
The really clever bit though is this: if there had been the same offer in the local paper it would have been ignored by us. This mechanic delivered pester power, tickets and information in our hand and all delivered by a trusted third party.
Now, as they had empty seats there, all the extra visitors were incremental revenue.
And from a personal point of view the best thing of all was it was really good family fun. Unlike football matches the language was clean throughout. It was fast paced with music and commentary. And Reading Rockets won their 20th consecutive match against Bristol Academy Flyers.
What’s going to happen to sport in 2009? It seems that a lot of businesses will not be renewing their sponsorship of tournaments, teams and individual sports and men and women. I also expect that paying audiences at events will decline in 2009. Therefore there will be major reductions in revenue.
Logic says that the affected sports businesses will have to reduce their costs and/or market their businesses to grow income.
Reducing costs could be painful. Premiership footballers earning less is a possibility; and it has to be said they could probably survive at slightly lower income levels. But many of the infrastructure costs will be difiicult to shave in the short term.
Therefore marketing to gain more income seems an attractive alternative. And I can’t help thinking that this might not be too difficult. I’ve just tried to find the fixture information for a couple of rugby teams and it has been very hard work. So it was a pleasure to discover a gem of a rugby team website, London Wasps, who have done a marvelous job of providing relevant information in an easy way to find.
Perhaps if more sports businesses could follow this example they could see better gates. As a minimum fixture information should be easy to find and tickets easy to buy.
So, Jack Wills use the great marketing strap line of ‘fabulously British’. Well, that is on the collar label of the shirt I bought.
Further down, on the care label, they explain the shirt is made in Turkey. Is that what makes it fabulously British? Or is it the design?
Anyway, and for the record, it is a very good shirt and well done to those Turkish factory workers.
