Tag Archives: strategy

You can’t PR a PR

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I save some interesting looking emails to read later. This always seems like a good idea and I do occasionally get around to reading them. And here is one I thought I would share.

Effective public relations is a little different to making a car, or creating an advertising campaign. PR is day in, day out. It has to operate at the media’s pace (worldwide, 24/7). A particular position or message has to be tweaked to suit the situation, while remaining in line with the longer term strategy. Quite often, it might be better for a different organisation to talk on your behalf. That is why public relations has always been a profession that needs people with a complete skill-set. It is why effective agency-side public relations is about small teams of well-rounded professionals, able to work together fast and effectively to support the client. Think law firm rather than advertising agency.

via You Can’t PR a PR

My PR friends, what do you think?

How brands can cook up mobile purchases

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The proportion of web traffic via mobile will hit 20 per cent this Christmas, according to IBM figures, and brands that fail to implement a mobile marketing strategy are losing out on sales by putting up ‘closed for business’ signs in front of smartphone owners.

But marketers wishing to make the most of the growing m-commerce trend that now includes big-ticket items need to negotiate an ever wider choice of operating systems, apps and advertising options.

via How brands can cook up mobile purchases | Trends | Marketing Week.

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HMV ‘may sell’ the part of it’s strategy that is working

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In 1921, the Gramophone Company opened the first HMV shop in London, England; the composer Sir Edward Elgar participated in the opening ceremonies.

Today we are on possibly seeing the last Christmas for HMV. I hope not, but things are looking dire for them. HMV has said it may sell its live music division to raise funds, as it battles with another drop in sales.

My view on all this is that it’s too little and too late. Back in the late nineties was the time for HMV to broaden their delivery of entertainment across other formats. The recent successful foray into live music is making money but is one of the few assets they can sell to prop up the business.

When the live music business goes, and the retrenching to a CD/games retailer is complete, why should we shop at HMV? Amazon does pretty well for me, as does iTunes and Spotify thank you.

How about flipping the strategy? Keep the profitable live music business and sell off/close the loss making shops. Just a thought.

Five Foursquare tactics to attract customers

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Flash mobs, fun, specials…these are all some of the benefits to be derived from using location based social networking for retail marketing.

I’m often asked how businesses should start turning a rather dull brochureware website into something more dynamic. The truth is it needs more than a Facebook account to make this leap; it needs a strategy, commitment and resources.

Assuming these things are in place Foursquare can play a useful role. This article from the Harvard Business Review suggests some simple and effective ideas.

Foursquare recently passed one billion check-ins. For businesses of any type — but especially for retailers — Foursquare allows brands to attract, reward, and engage customers in ways that were never possible before. Innovative retailers are leveraging the growing popularity of check-ins to create fun, meaningful, interactions that encourage long-term loyalty. Here are five ways to use Foursquare to build loyalty this holiday season and beyond:

via Five Foursquare Tactics to Attract Customers – Carmine Gallo – Harvard Business Review.

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Ashridge on strategy

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Going back to the 1970s, strategic planning was seen as being about linking opportunities to capabilities.  Since then great progress has been made in developing strategy tools to examine both opportunities and capabilities.   But, not much progress has been made on how to develop winning strategies.  Most strategic planning processes are seen as analysis paralysis and lack creativity.

The solution I believe is in the bit of 1970s thinking that has got lost.  Kenneth Andrews talked about “matching” opportunities and capabilities.  While we have done lots of thinking about both opportunities and capabilities, strategists have done little on “matching”.   This is implementation and change management and … the sorts of things that strategists do not get very involved in.

Read the full article at: Ashridge on Strategy.

People that don’t respond to your direct marketing

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Mike Welsh, CEO, Publicis Dialog, has written a nice piece about direct marketing and the importance of brand consistancy, tone and all  those fine people that don’t respond immediately…have a read.

It made me think again about the importance of connecting strategy with tactical execution. There is no point in positioning a brand as ‘premium’ if the DM delivery is transactional and shallow. So when we are carrying out direct marketing/direct mail activity isn’t it important that we include intelligent KPIs beyond simple response rates?

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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?

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