Ravello- Tranquil Village or Global Brand?

 
Ravello is a village in the mountains of the Amalfi coast. They don't seem to do a lot to market themselves, even the signage is poor, but Ravello has a clear brand- "a tranquil place for relaxation". It shows that you end up with an image even if you do nothing. And there's no questioning Ravello's popularity, which makes it wise to venture up the steep, winding roads in Spring or Autumn.
It's a wonderful place to chill out, sipping a glass of wine or coffee in the Piazza or strolling round the numerous gardens. Ravello's main cultural activity is provided by the Concert Society who promote twice weekly events in the gorgeous Villa Rufolo. Did a clever marketeer advise them that classical music would be the perfect choice to enhance its brand image? I somehow doubt it.
Best of all on our recent visit was the view from our balcony at the Hotel Parsifal, a lovely family-run establishment with an excellent restaurant. 

Refunds are a Good Customer Service

I also write a blog about the arts. In the unlikely event that you'd like to see my views on Ticket Refunds, Professional Critics and Tom Stoppard's Rock'N'Roll, go to Paul's Arts Blog.

Taste The Weasel

"At Sainsbury's, we only ever use butter in our fresh Taste The Difference pies. We are the only supermarket that can say that." (Advertisement)
Not as impressive as it sounds when you work out that only Sainsbury's make Taste the Difference products! It's a classic example of a 'weasel', so called because weasels suck the inside out of an egg but leave the shell intact. In other words, it looks good but actually it's hollow.

Copywriters shouldn't copy, they should be original

Do you look at advertisements for theatre shows? Here are some questions about the copy.

Is every production really a ‘smash hit’? Perhaps lazy writers could stop reaching for the nearest cliché and actually come up with a description that makes an emotional connection with the reader.

What law says every noun has to be preceded by an adjective? The fact is, if you put a superlative before every noun, the law of diminishing returns kicks in pretty quickly.

And what’s with all those quotes? Your potential audience are not stupid- they know you could have selected the lavish praise out of context- even if you haven’t! In any case, the review was by someone they’ve never heard of in a paper they’ve no respect for, or else they would probably have read it already. Don’t waste the space.

Speaking of which, who cares who designed the lighting, apart from the lighting designer’s mother?

The Big Question: do they actually want you to go see the show?

What will the customer think?

One of our leading regional theatres has just brought out its latest season brochure. The cover makes it look like a flier for its Christmas show with no mention of other attractions in the top half. News flash- not everybody will put your brochure at the front. Anything lower down is liable to be obscured by other print in the display rack. The back cover commits the cardinal sin of not having the venue name at the top. Do they think print never gets displayed back to front?

The brochure’s layout consists of boxes with no fluidity. The print is too wordy and too small for the older reader that comprises a significant proportion of the theatre audience. The ‘hot spot’ of the inside back cover is wasted on customer information rather than selling a show.

I’m not talking about some seventh level of marketing enlightenment here. Everything I’ve highlighted fails at the first step towards good marketing, namely: ‘Look at it from the customer’s point of view’.

One Price Tells All

Saw a Kenwood electric tin opener in John Lewis for £12.99. Saw the same item in a mail order catalogue for £27.99. Result: whole catalogue in the bin. Lesson: in these days of easy price comparison, you can’t afford to let one price be uncompetitive or it destroys customers’ confidence in the rest.

Redundancy Reveals Heart of Business

We all know job security is a thing of the past. When costs need to be cut, getting rid of people is now a relatively easy option, nevertheless how a company handles redundancy, even when it’s unavoidable, goes to the heart of how they conduct their business.

Ex-Daily Telegraph man Kim Fletcher wrote recently about being made redundant, “Having sacked and been sacked, I know it is the sacked who question their competence, lose their self esteem and wonder what they will do when the pay-off runs out.” At the very least, these people deserve to be treated with compassion by their former employers but sadly this isn’t always the case.

Not even the world’s most powerful businesswoman was protected from being unceremoniously discarded earlier this year. Ex-Chief Executive of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina describes how “the board did not have the courage to face me. They did not thank me and they did not say goodbye.”

It’s a very similar experience to that of a Southampton woman I met recently who was the victim of cost-cutting. She was assured she was good at the senior management job she had been trusted to do for over fifteen years but nevertheless, on “legal advice”, her company mobile was seized, she was marched out of the office, offered no expression of sorrow or thanks, and given a neutral reference. Legal no doubt, but civilised? I don’t think so.

Fortunately some companies do manage to operate both legally and with humanity. Early in my working life, my employer had to make cuts because business had slowed down. The manager was in tears. He was reassuring. He wrote a great reference. I was still out of a job but I felt a lot better about it. It’s good business practice because remaining employees are more likely to be loyal to a compassionate company. Lack of respect for people by a company’s management breeds a cynical ethos, a dispirited workforce and ultimately lost customers.

Having talked to a number of people who have been made redundant, I have some advice. Don’t think you are safe because you are a key employee: you can’t get more essential than Carly Fiorina. Don’t regard your colleagues or boss as friends: when the chips are down, they will think of number one. Never keep anything personal at work: you may be rushed out so quickly you will never get access to emails on your PC or numbers on your mobile.

And always remember: if you do find you are treated like a commodity rather than a human being, the shame is on the company, not on you.