Marketing Sends Environment Down Toilet

The news that 98% of Americans use toilet paper made from new wood rather than the recycled kind is a perfect example of the power of marketing to cause damage, in this case to the environment.

Again and again we have seen corporations use vast advertising budgets to persuade people to buy products they know or should know are damaging - cigarettes, gas guzzling cars, sugar-rich children’s cereals and so on.

How can one of the toilet paper manufacturers to say consumers have the choice, when they spend huge money on marketing brands of soft multi-ply tissue produced from what are called 'virgin fibers'? Consumers can only really make a choice if they are properly informed. What a difference it could make if U.S. toilet paper manufacturers put equal marketing resources into persuading people to help the environment by using recycled paper.

Like consumers, we marketers have a choice. Whether we run our own company or work in a large corporation, we can use their powers of persuasion responsibly or irresponsibly.

Creating Art Out Of Craft Is A Special Gift

To produce great art, an artist needs to understand thoroughly the medium in which they work in order to be able to use it to communicate. The medium could be words, oil paint or a piano- or the mind in the case of conceptual art. It’s not usually cloth or glass.

Craft works are often not seen as great art because they have a practical purpose; but when you come across someone who is so skilled in their craft that they can use it to create emotional responses, I have no doubt it is Art.
We have works from two such artistic craftspeople on sale in our Winchester shop Your Life Your Style and online at yourlifeyourstyle.co.uk.

Jo Downs works in fused glass. Her supreme craftsmanship results in astonishingly rich colours but beyond that, the artistic use of shapes, textures and colour combinations is emotionally engaging, be it a heart within a heart or an abstract impression of a Cornish beach through various seasons.

Likewise Margo Selby produces colourful geometric abstract designs which are converted to three dimensional fabric. This in turn is spun by English mills to provide the fabric for stunning bags, scarves and cushions. Like all great art, the form and the content are one. The results work on an esoteric level way beyond simply being a beautiful accessory.

Like any work of art, they are a joy to possess or to give to someone you care about. Click on this link to get an idea of what these special gifts are like.

Profit Is A By-Product of Customer Satisfaction

More words of wisdom from Simon Caulkin. His response to the recession is 'Quit thinking about cost - give people what they want.' He points out they aren't interested in your costs. They just want your product or service with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of convenience.
Forget productivity, work on quality.
Economies of flow and effort far outweigh dinosaur-like economies of scale.
Learning and improvementonly happen when people control their working lives and are proud of what they do.
Build co-operation. Internal competition is usually a wrecker.
Read the full article.

The Stock Of The New

We’re all excited by something new. Would the New Testament have caught on if it had been called “The Old Testament Part 2- this time it’s peaceful”?

In our shop, we are constantly looking for new lines and new ranges from existing suppliers to keep our regular customers interested. It's fascinating how even the best sellers start to flag after a while, as the Star becomes the Cash Cow and then declines into Dog status on the classic Boston Matrix marketing tool.

So we'll be off to various trade fairs over the next few months in search the next Stars.

The Curse Of Booking Fees

In times of recession, customers look for value. So I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find people balking at paying a booking or processing fee for something they reasonably expected to be part of the price. (You don't pay Sainsbury's an extra fee for putting your can of cat food through the till.)

Even if we pay the fee, our opinion (and therefore our loyalty) of the company goes down.

I’m aware from my own experience that contracts between theatres and producers are often based on a percentage of box office. Naturally theatres and agencies are reluctant to let promoters have a percentage of the 'fee'. Even so, they must find a way to introduce a clause that allows them to deduct a processing fee from the money owed. Companies like airlines and theme parks who own the entire process have no excuse at all.

Is Newspaper Advertising Worth The Paper It's Printed On?

The question in today’s digital world is, how much do you need print?

Is advertising in newspapers anything more than an expensive habit? With readerships are dropping faster than Russell Brand's trousers, the return on investment is increasingly poor. Concentrate instead on competitions, giveaways and PR, which are low cost and have more impact.

Then there are fliers and season brochures. No doubt some customers pick one up and buy a ticket but many are consigned unread to the recycling bin. The one kind of print worth sticking with is the targeted postal mailing. Research suggests that a brochure or letter in people’s hands at home stimulates both phone and online sales.

Print also means posters. These are another questionable use of a limited budget because only a handful of theatre posters obey the two golden rules for this form of advertising- use emotive visuals accompanied by seven words or less. The exception that proves the rule is the current campaign for David Pugh’s production of Calendar Girls- a row of apparently naked women with their naughty bits covered and the tag line ‘All will be revealed on…’

Marketing In A Recession

How are we going to cope with the economic downturn, apart from shopping at Aldi? Whatever you do, don’t cut your marketing budget. My experience of previous recessions is that people stop buying big ticket items like new cars or foreign holidays but continue to cheer themselves up with small luxuries like entertainment. Reducing your marketing will damage sales.

If your boss or funder says you must cut the budget, then you have no choice. In any case, it’s never a bad idea to review your marketing plan to see which tools are working. (If you’re spending money without measuring the results, you must work for a local council or a bank.)

Are Capitalist Managers Secret Soviets?

I always read Simon Caulkin's management column in The Observer. He has stimulating things to say on, for example, the importance of decentralisation and customer focus.
Yesterday he wrote about the attachment by free market managers to Soviet-style central planning. This means they are unable to learn from the outside world. In the course of the article, he recalled a quote GE's former CEO, Jack Welch, which I ratrher liked: With their faces toward the CEO and their arses towards the customer, what would they learn from?