Great to see you again.
And since the Six Nations, excuse me the RBS Six Nations in association with The Taxpayer, is still occupying my attention, I thought that I would take a risk and stay with the rugby theme this week. If you are English, or even Scottish, you can look away now though I am going to break the habits of a lifetime and desist going for the cheap and obvious gag..
Instead I want to talk about tight rugby shirts and their importance to my and your business and our marketing programmes. As always bear with me. All will become very clear. It is all do with critical non-essentials.
In 2003 England won the Rugby World Cup. I think you may have read or heard about it. It is sometimes mentioned. Anyway they did this because of critical non-essentials. They recognised that on technical skills alone there were four or five teams capable of winning, and I don’t think Scotland was one of them. The team that would win would be the one that identified those little edges, the critical non-essentials that would make the fine difference between defeat and victory. One of these was the introduction of tight rugby shirts, and England were at that time one of the first teams to put squeeze their bodies into these corset like structures, making it more difficult for opponents to grab hold of the jersey and pull the player down. They would also run off the pitch at half time to demonstrate they still had energy in the tank and thereby get the psychological edge over their opponents.
Now you will be grateful to know that I am not advocating that we turn up to work in tight fit clothing. The sight of me wearing a tight fighting shirt is not a pretty sight. Instead I am suggesting that we look to find those critical non-essentials in our business to gain little edges over our competitors. All our businesses are trying to compete in a society where there is a surplus of people exactly like us, sitting in offices like ours, coming up with similar ideas and deals like us. The businesses which will succeed will be those which can identify enough of those little edges to make a difference and get real stand out in the eyes of their customers and potential customers. We all have to be different to get noticed.
It might be what we do as much as how we do it. The way we answer the phone. The way we write our letters. The typefaces we use. Or the willingness of our people to go the extra mile for our customers. It could be anything and everything we do but the business that wins will be just like the England rugby team of 6 years ago, the one that finds enough of these critical non-essentials to make it sound, appear and look different or better from the competition.
In past week I came across a contract cleaning company. Now I thought that contract cleaning companies were all pretty similar and that the only thing that mattered was the quality of cleaning. Well the owner of this company may well have been in the England rugby world cup winning squad as he obviously realised that there was a surplus of contract cleaning companies all capable of cleaning offices to the same standard. And so he came up with his own critical non-essential. Every night his cleaners left a chocolate on every desk in the office. His business was known as the ‘chocolate company’ and when the contract came up for renewal he was told that there would be a staff walk out if the contract was not renewed. Another successful critical non-essential.
So start now and try to identify the tight rugby shirts in your business, the critical non-essentials that will give your business stand out and the edge, the differences that will make you succeed.
Now is it me?
Many businesses these days seem to have adopted a dress down policy, sometimes for only one day. But is it only me that thinks that dress down policies lead to dress down attitudes, loose thinking and a decline in professional standards? I know for a fact that in some areas of Royal Bank of Scotland they allow dress downs on a Friday. And it is surely no coincidence that it was on a Friday that they bought ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, that was the source of their and Fred the Shred’s fall from the grace. So let that be a warning to us all. Dress down codes lead to sloppy thinking and a decline in business performance and the shredding of managerial reputations. QED.
Do you have any other examples where dress down codes have seriously impacted on business performance?
Have great week.
Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
Showing posts with label Six Nations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Six Nations. Show all posts
Monday, 2 March 2009
Monday, 16 February 2009
Doris
With the Six Nations now in full swing, this week I am going to seek inspiration for my wit and wisdom on the rugby field. Now given that my team is not doing very well, as seems to be the norm for us at the moment, (I will give you a clue I am not Welsh and we are even doing worse than England) I know that this is a big risk for me but I want to introduce you to Doris and to talk about how important she is to the world of marketing.
Do you remember Jonny Wilkinson? If you don’t, then a few years back he was every Englishman’s hero and every Englishwoman’s favourite scrummy rugby hunk. And don’t England need a Jonny now. Anyway Doris was Jonny’s friend as important to him when he kicked a ball as she will become to you at the end of this piece of marketing dribble.
If you remember Jonny, you will recall he had a very distinctive kicking style. . He would crouch over the ball, holding his hands as if he praying for the ball to go over, staring fixedly into the far distance with his eyes darting between ball and post before starting his run up and usually slotting the ball over for three more points. Sometimes he looks like he is trying to lay a rugby ball like a hen does an egg. Can you picture the scene?
A few years back I met Jonny and he explained to me that when he is lining up his kick, he picks out his friend Doris sitting in the stand behind the goal and he tries to land the ball in her lap. Doris is an imaginary character but in his mind he can visualise what she is wearing, what she looks like, what book she is reading, even what her hair is doing today and what colour of lipstick she has on. I kid you not.
Now you are probably wondering two things-is Jonny mad? And what does this have to do with marketing. Let me explain.
No Jonny is not mad though they do they say that line between madness and genius is incredibly thin. He is focussed and single minded in what he is trying to do and who his target is.
And surely in our business we must be as single and as clear minded as Jonny. Should we not build a picture of our Doris in our mind? We are all in the marketing and communications business, no matter what job title we have on our business cards and in our job specs. Great communications, great marketing and great branding comes from having a clear idea of who we are trying to reach, who we are trying to talk to, who we want to influence. Only by doing this can we develop strong and effective communications and great marketing. We all need to be able to picture Doris. We all need a Doris working in our business.
And in case you think I have now gone mad. Let me put forward Marks&Spencer in my defence. A few years ago there was a distinct possibility that M&S, a national institution, might go under. Part of the problem stemmed from the fact that in a bid to widen their franchise they tried to appeal to a younger and trendier audience, and they lost sight that their Doris was a middle-aged woman in middle England. Once they re- remembered that they started to turn the corner.
And if you want more proof, let us consider another great British institution that has recently gone under, Woolworths. It most certainly did not have a Doris and without this understanding its demise was as certain as the fact that its Pick ‘n Mix sweeties would not lead to anorexia.
So who is your Doris? What do they look like? How old are they? Are they male or female? Where do they live? What car do they drive? What newspaper do they read? Where do they shop? What do they think? What do they feel? What do they value? And so on and so on. Once you can build up that picture marketing, communicating, selling to them is so much easier.
As Debbie Harry of Blondie once sang ‘Picture This’. It is almost that easy.
Is it just me?
As you will be aware for last week or so global warming has been postponed by the UK as the snow and freezing winds arrived on the Arctic gusts. Amid the transport chaos and the school closures and heroic tales of derring by commuters snow boarding to work, my local army recruitment office was closed by the weather. And the office for the RAF. Indeed only the office for the navy and the marines was open. Now I don’t know about you but I do expect our armed forces to be available 24x7 and not just when the sun is out. Do we now only fight in warm climates where there is no risk of snow and ice or of our brave soldier boys slipping and sliding on the ice. Hats off to the navy and marines though. At least they are prepared to report for duty in all weathers.
Have a great week.
Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.
Do you remember Jonny Wilkinson? If you don’t, then a few years back he was every Englishman’s hero and every Englishwoman’s favourite scrummy rugby hunk. And don’t England need a Jonny now. Anyway Doris was Jonny’s friend as important to him when he kicked a ball as she will become to you at the end of this piece of marketing dribble.
If you remember Jonny, you will recall he had a very distinctive kicking style. . He would crouch over the ball, holding his hands as if he praying for the ball to go over, staring fixedly into the far distance with his eyes darting between ball and post before starting his run up and usually slotting the ball over for three more points. Sometimes he looks like he is trying to lay a rugby ball like a hen does an egg. Can you picture the scene?
A few years back I met Jonny and he explained to me that when he is lining up his kick, he picks out his friend Doris sitting in the stand behind the goal and he tries to land the ball in her lap. Doris is an imaginary character but in his mind he can visualise what she is wearing, what she looks like, what book she is reading, even what her hair is doing today and what colour of lipstick she has on. I kid you not.
Now you are probably wondering two things-is Jonny mad? And what does this have to do with marketing. Let me explain.
No Jonny is not mad though they do they say that line between madness and genius is incredibly thin. He is focussed and single minded in what he is trying to do and who his target is.
And surely in our business we must be as single and as clear minded as Jonny. Should we not build a picture of our Doris in our mind? We are all in the marketing and communications business, no matter what job title we have on our business cards and in our job specs. Great communications, great marketing and great branding comes from having a clear idea of who we are trying to reach, who we are trying to talk to, who we want to influence. Only by doing this can we develop strong and effective communications and great marketing. We all need to be able to picture Doris. We all need a Doris working in our business.
And in case you think I have now gone mad. Let me put forward Marks&Spencer in my defence. A few years ago there was a distinct possibility that M&S, a national institution, might go under. Part of the problem stemmed from the fact that in a bid to widen their franchise they tried to appeal to a younger and trendier audience, and they lost sight that their Doris was a middle-aged woman in middle England. Once they re- remembered that they started to turn the corner.
And if you want more proof, let us consider another great British institution that has recently gone under, Woolworths. It most certainly did not have a Doris and without this understanding its demise was as certain as the fact that its Pick ‘n Mix sweeties would not lead to anorexia.
So who is your Doris? What do they look like? How old are they? Are they male or female? Where do they live? What car do they drive? What newspaper do they read? Where do they shop? What do they think? What do they feel? What do they value? And so on and so on. Once you can build up that picture marketing, communicating, selling to them is so much easier.
As Debbie Harry of Blondie once sang ‘Picture This’. It is almost that easy.
Is it just me?
As you will be aware for last week or so global warming has been postponed by the UK as the snow and freezing winds arrived on the Arctic gusts. Amid the transport chaos and the school closures and heroic tales of derring by commuters snow boarding to work, my local army recruitment office was closed by the weather. And the office for the RAF. Indeed only the office for the navy and the marines was open. Now I don’t know about you but I do expect our armed forces to be available 24x7 and not just when the sun is out. Do we now only fight in warm climates where there is no risk of snow and ice or of our brave soldier boys slipping and sliding on the ice. Hats off to the navy and marines though. At least they are prepared to report for duty in all weathers.
Have a great week.
Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)