Kevin Harrington // marketing // blog

Posts Tagged ‘Reading’

I thought car customers were hard to get hold of these days. You wouldn’t believe it at Motorworld Volvo in Oxford. I asked to talk to someone about leasing a Volvo and I was told to phone some number in Chipping Norton. Now, as I had bothered to walk through the door and there was not another customer in sight it seemed a tad daft for them to lose contact with me.

And lose contact they did. Lancaster Reading, part of the Jardine Motors Group, were enormously hospitable. Dale Radford sorted out info and quotes. They stand a chance of getting the business. Easy really isn’t it?

So my tip #37 for surviving the credit crunch is: talk to your customers if they bother to come and see you …  and don’t send them away to do your work!

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.

Ladies Fashions - off the rails

This is a sign I saw at the Royal Berkshire Hospital: Today, ladies fashions, off the rails.

I bet that gets people queuing up with expectation. How many people want fashion items that are “off the rails”?

And the mixed message of the grumpy looking train that has come off the rails sets it all off wonderfully.

I guess the prospective customers have been warned.

Petrol was down to 99.9p per litre in Reading, Berkshire today. Fabulous. Just two days ago it was 105.9p. It cost me £3 less to fill the tank.

We are all happy enough to moan at the speed prices increase. So I’m giving praise to BP for the rapid deflation.

p.s. the petrol station mentioned is the BP Connect one at the Three Tuns crossroads, Wokingham Road, Reading, Berkshire.

Royal Berkshire Hospital waste

I  think our local hospital, The Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, is excellent. That said, at a time when we are all concerned about bugs being transmitted through wards I think they could manage the message a little better.

This photo shows waste bags piled up in a main thoroughfare. The yellow bags on the floor, and the overflowing yellow bin, are potentially infectious waste.

I have no idea whether this is a safe or good practice. My point is that it makes it look as though the hospital doesn’t care. My experience is they do care. Therefore they damage their image by this practice.

Photo taken 28 February 2008 at 18.56.

Woolworths fascia

Should people play around with corporate logos?

I think Google has added to their brand image by creating seasonal treatments for its logo. St Patrick’s Day and Christmas themes spring to mind. The modifications have given their business more of a sense of personality.

Here, in the photo, is the temporarily tweaked Woolworths fascia board from Broad Street, Reading. I’m in two minds as to whether this approach really works. I may be feeling negative as the snow covered doughnut bits are stuck over the letters in a temporary fashion.

This subject reminds me of the time when an enthusiastic marketing manager for Penguin Books in Australia changed their world famous logo – they put the Penguin on a surfboard and gave him some sunglasses! Normal use of the logo was resumed quite quickly.

What’s your view on this subject?

Word of mouth

Good service leaves a positive and lasting impression. Unfortunately we all too often end up telling friends and colleagues of the poor service we have received.

My shopping experiences this Christmas have been really quite good: service levels have been good; stock availability better than expected; till queues well managed.

My star retail sales person in the last week is Geoff Noronha at Dawsons http://www.dawsons.co.uk/ in Reading. He delivered useful advice and his efficiency and combined good humour made the experience a pleasure.

Great service leaves a more marked impression than advertising, but of course you have to get the customer in the shop first!

Thinking of this reminds of Net Promoter Score http://www.netpromoter.com/ (NPS). It really is a simple but effective business metric:-

Companies obtain their Net Promoter Score by asking customers a single question (usually, “How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?”). Based on their responses, customers can be categorised into one of three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.

In the net promoter framework, Promoters are viewed as valuable assets that drive profitable growth because of their repeat/increased purchases, longevity and referrals, while Detractors are seen as liabilities that destroy profitable growth because of their complaints, reduced purchases/defection and negative word-of-mouth.

Companies calculate their Net Promoter Score by subtracting their % Detractors from their % Promoters.

Proponents of the Net Promoter approach claim the score can be used to motivate an organisation to become more focused on improving products and services for customers. They further claim that a company’s relative Net Promoter Score (its score relative to competitors) correlates with revenue growth relative to competitors.