And what do you do?

Greetings.

Hopefully you have coped well with the lack of musings from Cicero. Now He is back and the waiting for fresh insight and learning is over.

You may have noticed that clearly the Two Caesars, or at least one of them, have been reading our thoughts or conversations. You will recall that for some time now Cicero has been bemoaning the lack of urgency our navvies demonstrate when repairing our roads, well specifically Cicero’s road. Clearly this has struck a chord with our esteemed leaders and therefore while Cicero was away sunning and refreshing Himself, they announce that those digging up our highways and byways will be charged rent for the road. Now why didn’t Cicero think of that! And about time too-for Cicero was aghast to see that on his return from warmer climes, his local via had yet again been dug up and as we speak remains unsutured. This is fast becoming a farce.

Before Cicero left you to fend for yourself intellectually, He was fortunate to attend a dinner with a bunch of Head Honchos and Marketing Grands Fromages. It was mightily interesting with much swapping of business cards and exchanges of promises to get together and to swap business opportunities. Have you ever wondered just how many of these ever come to anything?

But there is one aspect of this ritual that habitually annoys Cicero-the need to have a meaningful and impressive sounding job title before you will be taken seriously.

Now it is Cicero’s custom never to have or use his job title. You will not find it on business cards, e-mail signatures or on letters. No matter the job or the organisation it has long been Cicero’s wont never to have his name associated with a job title unless absolutely necessary.

Indeed Cicero has often said that the only time he uses his job title is when he is writing to or speaking with a customer so that the customer might know that their concern is being taken seriously and is being listened to?

Is Cicero being his usual awkward self just to be contrary (as if!) or is there a point being made here?

Naturally there is a point to be made.

For in Cicero’s world a job title says nothing about you. It is a label that tells people what you are but not who you are and for Cicero the who is always the most important.

For who Cicero is and what he can be, is not defined by some arbitrary corporate job title but is shaped by education, experience and expertise and this is the basis on which Cicero will engage with people.

In many organisations leaders will not deal with people, no matter the potential and ability, simply because they did not have an impressive enough sounding job title. This is wrong with a capital W.

A common complaint from many of the people Cicero has led over the years has been ‘this place is so hierarchical’. No wonder if we judge each other by the label printed on our business cards. Wouldn’t it be better for us all if we learned to judge people by their ability rather than what we called each other?

For many of us, our labels are a status symbol, a badge of honour, which we might be loath to give up. But if we truly want to be seen for who we are rather than what we are; if we are serious about working in a non hierarchical business where the what doesn’t matter; where we don’t obsess and fuss about what we are called, then we need to surrender these baubles.

As someone far brighter than Cicero once said ‘it is your aptitude not your altitude that matters’. Beautifully put. Let us campaign from this point on to put an end to job titles and fancy labels. Do you agree?

Now it might only be me...............but who is my community leader?

You will note that I have refrained from passing any comment whatsoever on the recent outbreaks of madness, looting and violence that have occurred. I thought it wrong to add any more incendiary to an already well inflamed situation. But having held my peace for so long I now want to add my two penny worth.

In much of the reporting reference is frequently made to ‘community leaders’ but who exactly are these people? How do you become a community leader? What experience, skills and qualifications are required to become one of these? How do they get selected? Who pays them? How much do they earn? Any fringe benefits? Do they get a company car? A final salary pension? Health insurance? I think we should know.

Given that these are seen as key people with a considerable amount of influence and great skill whom everyone in any kind of authority wishes to speak with and listen to, I can only surmise that it takes years of education, training and working on the job to become of these privileged members of society.

Now it might only be me but given that I have never met a community leader and as I am not sure even if I have one in my community, I would love to find out more about these shadowy people, especially since the media seem to love them to bits. So if you know any community leaders, and if you know my community leader, we would love to hear from you and to find out a bit more about you, the role and how you got it. Now don’t be shy, you can come out of the closet. And given how important you are to stopping us from imploding, now is the time to stand up and be counted.

We look forward to meeting you.

Have a great week.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.

Dear John

In the words of Neil Diamond, hello again, my friend.

Did you read last week’s comments? If so you will know that we have knowingly converted to our rational point of view our first Apparatchik Guardianista. Welcome to our world, hopefully you will stay a convert. It is never too late to learn and as Professor Brian Cox once said ‘things can only get better’. Bet you never thought that Cicero knew so many contemporary cultural references.

Last week Cicero received a ‘Dear John’ letter.

Now before you all get your hankies out and weep for Cicero at this emotional tragedy, there is something you need to know.

Now contrary to popular belief Cicero is very au fait with the digital world and to ensure his knowledge and understanding is up to date has subscribed to many newsletters and e-mails from companies around the world offering to keep him up to speed with all the latest developments.

Those of you who also follow this practice will be aware that in-boxes rapidly become filled and so last week Cicero took the unprecedented decision to unsubscribe. Shock, horror!

And do you know what this company said in return, and here we are quoting verbatim
‘Remove me! You have now been removed from our database. Good luck’
It felt as if unsubscribers had moved beyond the pale and been surgically taken out. And why was good luck required. Surely it is possible to subsist without the help and influence of this company.

Now this is a big trick that marketers are missing and like all other touch points surely it should be possible for breaking up to be not quite as painful. After all you may well have invested a lot of money and energy getting a subscriber so why just say ‘see you around sometime’ when the divorce happens. Why not make a wee bit more effort to keep the door open?

Many brands are failing to embrace the marketing opportunity created by consumers unsubscribing from their marketing emails. They are dismissing consumers who fall out of love with their emails as lost causes rather than enabling them to enhance their relationship with the brand in a different way.

It would have been nice when waving goodbye if Cicero’s ex dot com buddy had at least said thank you for your custom and for your interest.

Perhaps too it could have asked for feedback. How about giving customers the opportunity to tell you exactly where you went wrong, and to let you know just how much all of your email communication flaws and bad habits deterred them.

Another option might be to offer customer the option of less frequent emails. This is exactly what M&S does. Or even more relevant e-mails.

These are just a few suggestions. There will be many more approaches out there to help ease the pain of digital break ups. And if you have any great examples, please do share.

Get it right and your Dear Johns need not be adieu but merely au revoir and a bientot too.

Is it only me.................but how do you get to see a doctor?

Now fortunately I am blessed with good health apart from of course from failing eyesight as tempus fugit, the odd dodgy knee and a few patches of rough skin. Other than that I am hale and hearty and rarely need to trouble the medical profession. And despite the massive transfer of my wealth into the NHS on a monthly basis I do not begrudge paying it though I do wish that the Apparatchiks who run this esteemed institution did learn to spend my money a wee bit more wisely than hitherto and did spend as if it was their own money and with less profligacy.

However the other week I ailed and required the services of the medical profession and I learnt just how difficult it is to see a doctor, despite you would have thought the quacks considering me essential to treat given that I, and quite a few others like me, are the people who bankroll the NHS.

Now in theory it should be possible to get a same day appointment. The key word here is theory. The phone lines open at 8am and by 8.05 same day appointments had disappeared faster than Take That tickets disappear though it is mystery to me why these would disappear with great alacrity. Still no accounting for taste. Anyway the Moll who runs the reception services could offer me no adequate explanation why appointments should disappear so quickly. It is not like we have a shortage of quacks, we must have at least 10. So I can only surmise that a) there is an epidemic where I lay my hat b) I reside in a particularly ill area c) appointment slots are being bought up by touts and sold on to the highest bidder.

Now the natural thing when you are unable to book for later in the day is to request an appointment for the following day. But no that is not possible. Despite this being the logical and rational approach, well at least to those of us with imagination and common sense, I was informed by the Doctor’s Moll that this was impossible as I would have to ring back the next day.

Next day same result.

Day after same result.

Day after that I was cured.

Now I know this might be a way to save the NHS money but it might only be me but how exactly do you get an appointment these days to see a doctor. Some people manage it and they can’t all be buying appointment slots from the touts. It seems that if you are chronically sick and/or feckless and unemployed you know how the system works, you have been inducted into the mysteries of the appointment booking system and taught the password. But quite frankly these sorts of people are not the ones paying for the service.

On the other hand, the occasionally sick and full time funders of the service are out in the cold, fighting for the appointment booking scraps, never mind whether it fits with a window in their busy Blackberries. May I suggest that this is the wrong way round and the occasional sick should be prioritised and restored to health with great speed to earn the wealth we need to keep the service going for others?

A few years back I suggested an innovation-appointments for commuters. And behold this innovation was taken up though too few to make a difference and to get one of these you have to schedule your sickness a few weeks in advance.

We need more innovation. Any ideas?

Have a great week. And stay healthy.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.

Marketing and the Age of Chivalry

Today I am going to talk models. And before you get too excited let me explain that I do not mean the Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer, Elle MacPherson type of model. I just am not that kind of person and this corner of the blogosphere is not for that kind of talk. No I mean the kind of models so beloved of consultants and experts and gurus and, since I would like to be regarded in that category, I want to introduce you today to my model for communications and to demonstrate quite convincingly I am sure you will agree, that marketing is indeed a chivalrous calling.

Over the past few weeks I have been reviewing the communication activities of businesses and it is becoming clear to me that many businesses, driven by the need to encourage customers and potential customers to buy from them, are bombarding their market with ‘buy me now’ messages without introducing themselves first to their potential customer.

Would you buy from a stranger? Would you hand over money to someone you only had the vaguest inkling of who they were and what they were offering? Would you trust someone if you thought they were not right for you?

And yet this is exactly what many businesses expect their market to do, day in day out. They send out direct mail, e-blasts, e-mails and the like, screaming ‘call me now’, ‘buy me now’, ‘click here’, without first going through the principles of courtship. A customer needs to be wooed, they need to know who you are, what you stand for. They need to learn to trust you, to know that you are right for them before they will get into bed with you, before they will buy from you.

And this is where my model comes in, a model that explains the journey that you need to take the consumer through with your communications. A journey that is going to involve wooing, courtship and seduction but only if we get it right. Who said marketing was not sexy? To me good marketing is about courtship, it’s about preserving the Age of Chivalry.

In recent weeks I have come to know one business very well. It is a great business but it is not stopping to think how it can get more of its target market to think positively of them, to get to be top of mind in their market’s mind, to be first choice. Instead it is single-mindedly intent on selling; on getting customers to buy; on having a one night stand. As a result response rates and the cost effectiveness of its marketing are declining and shrinking dramatically as the pool of interested buyers gets fed up, stagnant and exhausted. It’s time for this business to use my model to increase the pool of buyers aware of its offer, who see its offer as relevant and who then want to buy. And this is where my model, my customer journey, route map comes in.

The act of purchase means that you are being chosen and to get to this point your business has to have been noticed by the customer; they have to like what they see; you have to be relevant to them and their emotional and rational needs; and you have to be top of mind at the time of purchase. These are links in the chain and stage posts on the customer journey, each fashioned by different communications medium over differing periods of time. Not all communications are the same. Each has a different but complimentary role to play. And like everything else you are only as strong as your weakest link.

In the business I described above I am trying to get them to do less product push marketing through direct mail and e-blasts and encouraging them to build awareness, relevance and being top of mind through a sustained PR and events campaign which will show them in a positive and expert light to their target market. If my theory holds true, and I am sure it will, less ‘buy me’
marketing will improve response rates as they broaden the pool of people aware of them, thinking positively of them and wanting to buy. More wooing leads to a more fruitful and longer lasting relationship. If it’s true in life, it’s true in business.

And so as you see effective marketing depends on us marketers preserving the Age of Chivalry.

Is it me?

But has anyone else noticed that, after our recent albeit brief descent into a new Ice Age, the enviro- and eco-mentalists are no longer talking about global warming. They have re-branded. So instead of global warming we now have climate change. Like any lazy marketing director trying to change a dodgy brand proposition, the strategy is to call yourself something different rather than change the proposition and to hope no-one notices. The underlying proposition remains dodgy but there is now new lipstick on the pig. Am I the only one who thinks like this?

Have great week.

Sit felix. Et sit fortanatus.

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.

Wikipedia, LEGO and John Sergeant

Ever wondered what Wikipedia, Lego and John Sergeant have in common? Read on.

Ok, I’m sorry. You must have hoped that that by now you had heard the last of the social and cultural phenomenon that is, or was, John Sergeant. But please bear with me.

And lest you have just returned from a far flung galaxy, and even there you might have heard the news, or been sharing a cave with Mr Bin Laden, here is a short précis. If you have been to neither of these places, you can skip the next paragraph.

Mr Sergeant is a TV political correspondent previously better known for being brutally shoved out of the way by Maggie Thatcher’s press Rottweiler live on TV sometime in the early 1990s. This clearly was not fame enough and so he chased the limelight again on a prime time Saturday evening dance competition cum entertainment show. He can’t dance but every week The Great British Public, believing it to be an entertainment show, which I thought Saturday night TV was for, kept him dancing to the annoyance of the judges, to dance professionals and to the much better amateur dancers TGBP booted off. With me so far. There were Facebook sites, blogs and online campaigns dedicated to keeping him on the show. The world may be going to hell in a handcart, banks going bust and the environment being destroyed but the survival of Mr Sergeant was our main preoccupation. And then thinking it was getting a wee bit OTT, he did the decent thing, fell on his sword and danced his last waltz. The nation was up in arms, it was headline news and I am pretty sure that Gordon Brown, seeing a bandwagon passing by, must have jumped on it and demanded resignations at the BBC. It was a JFK moment, a Thatcher resignation flashback, a Neil Armstrong landing on the moon memory. We will all remember where we were when we heard the news. Me? I was in a queue when it came up on a TV screen and those around me called friends, family and even strangers to spread the news. I kid you not. It was a phenomenon.

Ok we are now all up to speed. Now let’s get serious and consider what is going on here. And I think this has implications for business and how it markets itself in the 21st century.

I believe that the age of businesses talking down to customers or viewers through traditional marketing tools, techniques and communication channels, is over. The You Tube and Facebook mindset is here, and that is not just an age thing as even a digital immigrant like me has been seen on Facebook. This mindset is no longer satisfied with being told what to think, feel and do, or even who they should watch dancing. We want to participate in the process.

Traditional talk down marketing will continue to have a place, albeit on the margins, but the advance of web 2.0 or user generated content capabilities is making it increasingly easy for us as individual consumers to circumvent the wiles of traditional marketing techniques. Today the action is happening on social networking sites such as the sort we are banned from using at work, on notice boards, blog sites and community forums. The challenge for businesses and even TV dance competitions is how to engage through these channels of communication and to reflect and to stay ahead of its views and opinions.

The online communities set up to canvass support for Mr Sergeant’s dance floor stroll to music is a powerful demonstration of this. And conversations and chatter like this are happening online right now about many big name businesses, products and services. Scary and powerful.

The fate of many consumer businesses is no longer in the hands of the big bold brassy TV ad in the break at Coronation St persuading you how to think, feel and act but in our anonymous online digits spreading chatter, thoughts and opinions to places not reached by a Coronation St ad break.

Businesses must now engage in conversation with their customers and with their markets, find ways to build a true and meaningful dialogue instead of the marketing monologue that has been the practice of marketers to date. And that we must find a way to use the technologies that are out there to start these conversations.

And at the same time consumer expectations for choice and control have risen off the scale, and with them demands for greater customisation. The ‘you can have any colour you want so long as its black’ approach to product development has gone. Look at all the options now available to car buyers. For a business which is prepared to take the risk there are dedicated communities of advocates who are willing to contribute ideas and opinions and to co-create the next generation of products and services. Even help co-create dance competitions masquerading as Saturday night light entertainment.

And if you want some other examples of this beyond our combined efforts to use the new technologies and mindsets to wipe the smug smile off the face of Craig Revell-Horwood, think Wikipedia though it does frighten the pants off me that this is now a prime source of reference for today’s younger generation. And LEGO famously invited customers to suggest new models interactively and then reward those people whose ideas were taken up. And does Amazon not allow all of us to become a critic and contribute our thoughts and opinions on a book, a CD or DVD.

So this kind of marketing, which I call 4 C marketing can and does work. Just ask John Sergeant.

And here is this week’s Big Question. The first snow flurries have this week arrived but why do we now close schools at first sign of a fall in temperature? I come from a frozen extremity of the country and from a time before global and warming never appeared in same sentence but I don’t remember ever missing a day of school just because we had to scrape ice from the car, indeed we did not even have a car. It made me the person I am today. Are today’s children frightened to leave their warm centrally heated environment? Or is it down to that scourge of modern society, the most economically damaging three words in history, health and safety? Your thoughts please. All I can say is that we should be grateful our kids don’t live in the Alps or somewhere where it really snows. Sure we would do really well at the winter Olympics but would our children be able to read and write?
Have a great week. Ave atque vale. Et este fortunatus.