Following last week’s comments on the snow and wonky weather, aka global warming, it has been pointed out that we should not judge the extent to which the world may or may not be warming up based on the weather outside our own front door. Exactly outside whose front door should such assessments be made? This sounds like typical eco-mentalist obfuscation.
And please note this is the last dose of wit and wisdom and spiritual enlightenment you are going to get this year. But there are plenty of back copies to keep you amused through the Saturnalian revels. And we will back for more fun and frolics in 2011 once the lums start to reek, as the Celtic tribes to the North say-which means when the chimneys start to smoke to everyone else.
You will know that Cicero no longer has responsibility for the protection of your security and the maintenance of your freedom and that for the past few months he has been advising businesses on how to do marketing better.
In recent weeks Cicero has been spending a lot of time trying to develop a set of words to describe various wannabe brands. This is the kind of thing that gives marketers their kicks. It is legal, doesn’t spoil your nose and still gives a great buzz. Sad I know.
No matter the brand, company, category, product, or service, the most common list of attributes everyone wants to be associated with goes something like this: honesty, accessibility, innovation, invention, forward thinking, collaborative, friendly, and easy to work with, trustworthy, leader, fun. Recognise the exercise? Now who wouldn't want to be all those things? Anyone want to be the opposite?
You might now better understand how difficult is the life of a marketing guru when every other brand has the same words on their list. This is not at all helpful when you are trying to make brands distinctive.
And so here is an exercise which is useful to move things forward.
‘Shout out the attributes of Nelson Mandela’ asked your favourite Marketing Guru ‘I’ll write them on the white board.’
"Brave," came the first response. "Courageous!" quickly followed. As did a whole list of attributes like "altruistic, heroic, peaceful, wise, thoughtful, giving, caring, loving, fearless" and so and so on. You will by now have caught the drift.
"What is the problem with this list?"
Deathly silence.
Then your Marketing Guru pointed to a colleague in the room, let's call him Bernard, and mused, "The problem with the list is that it describes Nelson Mandela, and it describes Bernard, a caring, wise, thoughtful, loving, giving and peaceful father and husband. But Bernard is not Nelson Mandela. Sorry, Bernard.
‘So what does Nelson Mandela stand for?’
‘Freedom’ they shouted with one voice.
"That," said Cicero, ‘is not just the difference between Bernard and old Mandiba, that is the difference between a true brand stance and an easy list of attributes.
‘ Understand your stance in the world, understand your true values, what you're actually up to and the why, your reason to get up in the morning — get that right, pursue that mission with full force and fury — and all the attributes you desire will surely follow’
Thirty people created a list of attributes that could describe anyone. But those same people also recognized instantly that Nelson Mandela is not a collection of attributes but a man of purpose, stance, value and pure mission in the world.
And from this we learn that that your brand will never be remembered for attributes but you will be remembered for what you do with them. Nail your market stance and all else will follow. It's not so much what you make and what you sell but why you do that matters and how you do it.
Don’t chase and measure yourself against a long list of attributes, many of which are just the price of entry for all. But instead always work hard to stay on mission and always execute against your stance and not against attributes. Measure the market's understanding of your reason to be — who you are and why you do what you do.
And if you can do all that, my son (and daughter of course), you will have built a great and strong brand. Just like Prisoner 46664. The man we know today as Nelson Mandela.
Is it only me........but what is happening to our sportsmen?
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed but aren’t our footballers getting soft? I might be mistaken, and sometimes when you get old your memory does start to play tricks, but I thought football was a tough, physical, manly sport played by real men. No longer.
Sure the laws have been tightened up so that the kind of guys who revelled in names like ‘Chopper’, ‘Razor’ and ‘Machete’ did not permanently disable you when they tried to get the ball from you, so I guess we must consider that good thing. This not an argument to re-instate football as a blood sport more suited to the Coliseum in Rome than the Emirates.
However I do draw the line at Fancy Dan Footballers with grotesque wages unable to spend a mere 90 minutes in the cold without feeling the need to insulate themselves from a drafty breeze. In my day, and here we are talking long before some Mad Scientist decided that our weather was warming, the only thing that stood between our pale white chafed skin tinged with pinky-blue shading was a thin nylon pair of shorts and top, though we did tend to wear thick socks. We got warm by running around for ninety minutes, a novel thought I know but it did seem to work.
But this does not seem enough for our Fancy Dans.
First they wore under-garments. I could live with that on basis that these help keep your muscles warm which is essential to avoid injury. Little did I know that this was merely the first step to them dressing like wimps. Then they started to wear gloves. And now they are wearing some fashion accessory called a snood, whatever that might be. In my book if it goes around your neck it’s a scarf.
Where will this wimpy behaviour end? It can’t be long before they start to wear trilby hats in the cold weather to go alongside their matching glove and scarf, sorry snood, combo, and overcoats in team colours for when it is especially cold. We might even get to see our Fancy Dan heroes in cashmere pashminas some day soon.
Now it might just be me but could I just point out that the football pitch is exactly that and not a fashion cat walk. It is where you do manly stuff like get stuck into other men who are wearing different colour tops from yours. Got it?
Do you have any views you might wish to share on this matter?
Have a great week and enjoy the Saturnalian revels.
We will see each other after our lums have started to reek.
Felix dies Nativitatis
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Friday, 17 December 2010
Friday, 10 December 2010
Black Magic
Well it seems that last week’s dose of wit and wisdom upset the Guardianistas. It is always pleasing to see them upset.
However as always Cicero will not shy away or censor the critics who exercise their right to disagree and to contend. It is what we are here to do. In the words of Mao ‘let a thousand schools of thought contend....... let a thousand flowers bloom’. Of course this statement did lead to the horrors of the Cultural Revolution so maybe not.
Today we are going to use a card trick to illustrate this week’s key leadership thought. Given that card tricks are highly visual this might be as tricky as ventriloquism on the radio to pull off but if you are prepared to apply your imagination this might just work.
And if it does this will amaze and amuse those relatives, friends and visitors with whom you might be choosing to spend the forthcoming Saturnalian revels.
First of all write down the suit and number of a playing card on a blank sheet of paper, seal it and give it to someone in the room to hold. Tell no one the card you have written down. For the purposes of this exercise you might wish to heighten the drama at the outset by pretending to read minds. Of course you are doing no such thing.
Are you still following this?
Ok to make it easier to follow let us say you wrote the Jack of Diamonds.
Now you need to find a willing volunteer from your audience to be your Debbie McGee. Got one? Now to proceed with a trick which will baffle, astound and confound.
Ask Debbie to name the suits.
‘Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades’.
‘Now pick two of those suits and tell me which two you have selected’, you will ask. And this is where it gets tricky for she could pick any two suits at this point.
‘Hearts and Clubs’.
At this point you now need to start to vary and adapt your answer dependent on the answer Debbie has provided.
‘You have elected to throw away the Diamonds and the Spades. Now I find that very interesting choice and I would like to go a little bit deeper into your choice.’
At this point you as the master magician are waffling madly to ratchet up the tension and suspense and also applying distraction techniques to divert the minds of your rapt audience away from what you are in fact doing.
‘If I asked you to select either Diamonds or Spades to hold onto, which one would it be?'
‘Diamonds’ replies Debbie.
‘Ah Diamonds, a girl’s best friend. A great choice if I may so though it would be interesting if we had the time to discuss what you have against Spades. Ok. In the suit of Diamonds what are the five highest ranking cards?’
‘Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10’.
‘Now pick two of those’
‘Ace and Jack’, replies Debbie.
‘Of the two you have selected, which one do you favour?’
‘Well the Ace is the highest so I guess that is the one I prefer’.
‘So if you give that one to me what is the card that you now hold in your hand?
‘The Jack of Diamonds’
‘Now let’s see what card I wrote down’
Drum roll. Unfold the piece of paper. Study it. Frown. And show your paper to the audience.
‘The Jack of Diamonds’.
Gasps from the audience. Wild spontaneous applause. The room erupts. The card discarded from the pack by Debbie McGee matches the card written down before we even knew that Debbie McGee would be doing the card selection.
And the moral of the tale, and this week’s useful business lesson, if you know where you are trying to go and what you are trying to achieve, you will get there, and take everyone with you, by making sure you ask the right questions along the way.
And if you still don’t get how this ‘trick’ works, re-read the story and try to work out what was happening as we got to the result we were looking for.
It is not black magic. It’s leadership. Or is that just black magic? Discuss.
Is it only me......but this is snow joke.
Apologies for the dreadful pun but we could not let this week go without reference to the snowy weather of the past few days.
And in passing let me say, is it not strange how all those previously making wide eyed wild claims about global warming have gone suddenly quiet? Where are the enviro-mentalists now, we wonder? As we have pointed out countless times before, it is just wonky weather. It happens. Live with it.
But back to my point.
It is annoying in the least when every time we get a few snowflakes in this country, someone, usually dressed in a matching Day Glo high viz vest, the wardrobe of choice for unctuous busy bodies in this country, advises that we should only travel if our journey is ‘absolutely necessary’.
Now when such announcements are made there will no doubt be quite a few shirkers, skivers and slackers (and for the avoidance of doubt I know no one fitting any or all of these descriptions) who will take this as an official recommendation for an extra duvet day. But at what point does a journey stop being absolutely necessary? I think we deserve some guidance on this point.
I think we should consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and while I am prepared to concede that journeys done for my self- fulfilment and other self actualisation needs, of which I do very few, might not be ‘absolutely necessary’ in the eyes of Mr Day Glo, anything to do with my basic biological and physiological needs such as shelter, heating, food and water, and earning the spondooliks to buy the same, must be considered an absolutely necessary trip. Would you not agree?
But what about my esteem and achievement needs? Are these absolutely necessary? My belongingness and love needs? My security and order needs? You see Mr Day Glo and his Health and Safety Gualeiter friends do not think about these kinds of things when they make such wild pronouncements on taking trips in the snow and ice.
Fortunately I do.
Last week we even had a senior policeman stressing that this time he really meant the advice about unnecessary journeys. Which does beg two questions.........did he not really mean it before every time he urged us to take an extra duvet day? And next time he issues said advice will he mean it this time? This is the kind of mess such warnings get us into.
It might only be me but I have a solution to help resolve this dilemma. Perhaps when such warnings are issued going forward the advice should be linked to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and instead of linking the warning to some vague reference to necessity we could get warnings like ‘police today advised drivers only to venture forth if they are seeking to satisfy their needs for belongingness and love’. Or in extreme weather only journeys linked to basic biological needs will be allowed. That way we will all know where we stand.
Do you get my drift on this one? And we are not talking snow drifts here.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
However as always Cicero will not shy away or censor the critics who exercise their right to disagree and to contend. It is what we are here to do. In the words of Mao ‘let a thousand schools of thought contend....... let a thousand flowers bloom’. Of course this statement did lead to the horrors of the Cultural Revolution so maybe not.
Today we are going to use a card trick to illustrate this week’s key leadership thought. Given that card tricks are highly visual this might be as tricky as ventriloquism on the radio to pull off but if you are prepared to apply your imagination this might just work.
And if it does this will amaze and amuse those relatives, friends and visitors with whom you might be choosing to spend the forthcoming Saturnalian revels.
First of all write down the suit and number of a playing card on a blank sheet of paper, seal it and give it to someone in the room to hold. Tell no one the card you have written down. For the purposes of this exercise you might wish to heighten the drama at the outset by pretending to read minds. Of course you are doing no such thing.
Are you still following this?
Ok to make it easier to follow let us say you wrote the Jack of Diamonds.
Now you need to find a willing volunteer from your audience to be your Debbie McGee. Got one? Now to proceed with a trick which will baffle, astound and confound.
Ask Debbie to name the suits.
‘Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades’.
‘Now pick two of those suits and tell me which two you have selected’, you will ask. And this is where it gets tricky for she could pick any two suits at this point.
‘Hearts and Clubs’.
At this point you now need to start to vary and adapt your answer dependent on the answer Debbie has provided.
‘You have elected to throw away the Diamonds and the Spades. Now I find that very interesting choice and I would like to go a little bit deeper into your choice.’
At this point you as the master magician are waffling madly to ratchet up the tension and suspense and also applying distraction techniques to divert the minds of your rapt audience away from what you are in fact doing.
‘If I asked you to select either Diamonds or Spades to hold onto, which one would it be?'
‘Diamonds’ replies Debbie.
‘Ah Diamonds, a girl’s best friend. A great choice if I may so though it would be interesting if we had the time to discuss what you have against Spades. Ok. In the suit of Diamonds what are the five highest ranking cards?’
‘Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10’.
‘Now pick two of those’
‘Ace and Jack’, replies Debbie.
‘Of the two you have selected, which one do you favour?’
‘Well the Ace is the highest so I guess that is the one I prefer’.
‘So if you give that one to me what is the card that you now hold in your hand?
‘The Jack of Diamonds’
‘Now let’s see what card I wrote down’
Drum roll. Unfold the piece of paper. Study it. Frown. And show your paper to the audience.
‘The Jack of Diamonds’.
Gasps from the audience. Wild spontaneous applause. The room erupts. The card discarded from the pack by Debbie McGee matches the card written down before we even knew that Debbie McGee would be doing the card selection.
And the moral of the tale, and this week’s useful business lesson, if you know where you are trying to go and what you are trying to achieve, you will get there, and take everyone with you, by making sure you ask the right questions along the way.
And if you still don’t get how this ‘trick’ works, re-read the story and try to work out what was happening as we got to the result we were looking for.
It is not black magic. It’s leadership. Or is that just black magic? Discuss.
Is it only me......but this is snow joke.
Apologies for the dreadful pun but we could not let this week go without reference to the snowy weather of the past few days.
And in passing let me say, is it not strange how all those previously making wide eyed wild claims about global warming have gone suddenly quiet? Where are the enviro-mentalists now, we wonder? As we have pointed out countless times before, it is just wonky weather. It happens. Live with it.
But back to my point.
It is annoying in the least when every time we get a few snowflakes in this country, someone, usually dressed in a matching Day Glo high viz vest, the wardrobe of choice for unctuous busy bodies in this country, advises that we should only travel if our journey is ‘absolutely necessary’.
Now when such announcements are made there will no doubt be quite a few shirkers, skivers and slackers (and for the avoidance of doubt I know no one fitting any or all of these descriptions) who will take this as an official recommendation for an extra duvet day. But at what point does a journey stop being absolutely necessary? I think we deserve some guidance on this point.
I think we should consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and while I am prepared to concede that journeys done for my self- fulfilment and other self actualisation needs, of which I do very few, might not be ‘absolutely necessary’ in the eyes of Mr Day Glo, anything to do with my basic biological and physiological needs such as shelter, heating, food and water, and earning the spondooliks to buy the same, must be considered an absolutely necessary trip. Would you not agree?
But what about my esteem and achievement needs? Are these absolutely necessary? My belongingness and love needs? My security and order needs? You see Mr Day Glo and his Health and Safety Gualeiter friends do not think about these kinds of things when they make such wild pronouncements on taking trips in the snow and ice.
Fortunately I do.
Last week we even had a senior policeman stressing that this time he really meant the advice about unnecessary journeys. Which does beg two questions.........did he not really mean it before every time he urged us to take an extra duvet day? And next time he issues said advice will he mean it this time? This is the kind of mess such warnings get us into.
It might only be me but I have a solution to help resolve this dilemma. Perhaps when such warnings are issued going forward the advice should be linked to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and instead of linking the warning to some vague reference to necessity we could get warnings like ‘police today advised drivers only to venture forth if they are seeking to satisfy their needs for belongingness and love’. Or in extreme weather only journeys linked to basic biological needs will be allowed. That way we will all know where we stand.
Do you get my drift on this one? And we are not talking snow drifts here.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Friday, 3 December 2010
Like water off a duck's back
It is pleasing to note that there are people out there who don’t just add their opinion to and comment upon Cicero’s opinions, but who also take the time and trouble to help Cicero understand better the vernacular of the modern world. We are all indebted to Anonymous for defining the word ‘mojo’. And if you don’t what we are talking about, please see last week’s dose of wit and wisdom and the comments subsequently appended.
And as you will no doubt agree wholeheartedly, Cicero has lost none of his ‘uncanny personal power or influence’ as projected through these words.
And so to this week’s soupcon of wisdom and enlightenment.
Last week Cicero had to persuade a mightily important Head Honcho heading up a business offering services to other businesses that his newly carefully crafted marketing strategy could be likened to ‘throwing bread on the water for the ducks’.
To say he was puzzled was an understatement but after explanation he soon got and understood the analogy and this analogy will be relevant to many of you also marketing to other businesses.
For what happens when you throw bread on the water in front of ducks? They will take a nibble of some of your crusts. And the more bread you throw, the more likely you are to get the ducks to nibble. Sometimes marketing is just so simple.
For unlike marketing to consumers, it is mightily difficult with B2B services to stimulate demand. Customers are not going to buy more engines, machine tools or even accountancy services just because you have tried to market to them. No matter how good your marketing might be, and we know it will be very good, such decisions are not taken spontaneously or without deep and detailed consideration of all the options, suppliers and costs. We are talking here about major purchase and investment decisions.
In market places like these therefore the role of the marketer is to keep the spotlight on the name and the proposition through as many channels as possible so that when the buy decision gets made, your brand remains top of mind. It is just like feeding ducks.
And to make this happen great marketers will use every means at their disposal to communicate with the market through as many broadcast and narrowcast media as possible-ads of course, but also things like PR releases, surveys, events, thought pieces, seminars, direct marketing, tweets and so on. The list is endless. And the challenge is on to find interesting ways to keep your name in lights and to keep renting space in the mind of your target and potential customers. Even Christmas Cards, ooooops sorry, Season’s Greetings Cards, we must not offend the Politically Correct Brigade, and diaries emblazoned with the brand, get sucked into this battle and at this time of the year get drafted in as bread for ducks. And you thought it was because someone wanted to be nice to you. Foolish and naive child.
Take a look at service firms’ websites. You will see them loaded with blogs, newsletters, press releases, events and sign up opportunities. And every one of these pieces of communication is designed to get their name into the market place and in front of customers and to keep it there. They are always finding reasons to communicate, something to say, opinions to be expressed. In short they are constantly throwing bread on the water. And this is what lies at the heart of a great Quack Quack Marketing Strategy-it is all about finding things to talk about with your market.
And hopefully you get it now........just like Cicero’s Head Honcho.
You may think that the things you read here a wee bit bonkers. This time the idea really is quackers. Quack, quack.
Is it only me........but I’m not so sure that this really is good news.
While reading widely the other day to ensure my knowledge and wisdom were being kept up to date, I came across an announcement from the latest and newest government Quango, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, and was struck dumb.
It seems that this Quango now expects 330,000 public sector Apparatchiks to lose their jobs over the next four years, far fewer than the 490,000 it forecast in its June report. This is no doubt good news to the 160,000 Apparatchiks who will be kept on at taxpayer expense. But what about the rest of us?
The OBR Quangocrats have said it had changed the Apparatchik job forecast because the government of the Two Caesars ‘ had put more emphasis on welfare cuts and less on departmental spending cuts since it made its earlier forecast.’
Now far be it for me, a humble marketing personage to query the role and capability of this economic Quango but I do not greet this announcement with vocal whoops of joy, a lot of high fiving and heaps of knuckle knocking. Is this really good news-fewer Apparatchiks than previously thought to be culled?
But surely the OBR is looking at the issue through the wrong end of the telescope. And given that the key word in the title of the OBR is ‘responsibility, might I respectfully suggest that the Head OBR Quangocrat listen up and pay attention before he, or she, becomes the Head of the Office of Budget Irresponsibility.
The real issue is not that fewer Apparatchiks than previously thought might need to learn to SatNav to their local Job Centre Plus but how many we actually need or how many we, the hard pressed tax payers, are willing to pay for. And this is what I would like the OBR to examine if it wants to retain its moniker.
In short at the end of the day whether it be 330,000 or 490,000 fewer, we are just circumcising gnats. Tough on those involved but no tougher than the circumstances being faced by those in the wealth creating sector for a good while now. And given the size of the Apparatchik sector, this level of circumcision should be accomplished relatively pain free and should be well within natural levels of people turnover.
Hopefully one or even both of the Two Caesars is reading and sharing my thinking. Just trying to be helpful as usual.
What do you think?
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
And as you will no doubt agree wholeheartedly, Cicero has lost none of his ‘uncanny personal power or influence’ as projected through these words.
And so to this week’s soupcon of wisdom and enlightenment.
Last week Cicero had to persuade a mightily important Head Honcho heading up a business offering services to other businesses that his newly carefully crafted marketing strategy could be likened to ‘throwing bread on the water for the ducks’.
To say he was puzzled was an understatement but after explanation he soon got and understood the analogy and this analogy will be relevant to many of you also marketing to other businesses.
For what happens when you throw bread on the water in front of ducks? They will take a nibble of some of your crusts. And the more bread you throw, the more likely you are to get the ducks to nibble. Sometimes marketing is just so simple.
For unlike marketing to consumers, it is mightily difficult with B2B services to stimulate demand. Customers are not going to buy more engines, machine tools or even accountancy services just because you have tried to market to them. No matter how good your marketing might be, and we know it will be very good, such decisions are not taken spontaneously or without deep and detailed consideration of all the options, suppliers and costs. We are talking here about major purchase and investment decisions.
In market places like these therefore the role of the marketer is to keep the spotlight on the name and the proposition through as many channels as possible so that when the buy decision gets made, your brand remains top of mind. It is just like feeding ducks.
And to make this happen great marketers will use every means at their disposal to communicate with the market through as many broadcast and narrowcast media as possible-ads of course, but also things like PR releases, surveys, events, thought pieces, seminars, direct marketing, tweets and so on. The list is endless. And the challenge is on to find interesting ways to keep your name in lights and to keep renting space in the mind of your target and potential customers. Even Christmas Cards, ooooops sorry, Season’s Greetings Cards, we must not offend the Politically Correct Brigade, and diaries emblazoned with the brand, get sucked into this battle and at this time of the year get drafted in as bread for ducks. And you thought it was because someone wanted to be nice to you. Foolish and naive child.
Take a look at service firms’ websites. You will see them loaded with blogs, newsletters, press releases, events and sign up opportunities. And every one of these pieces of communication is designed to get their name into the market place and in front of customers and to keep it there. They are always finding reasons to communicate, something to say, opinions to be expressed. In short they are constantly throwing bread on the water. And this is what lies at the heart of a great Quack Quack Marketing Strategy-it is all about finding things to talk about with your market.
And hopefully you get it now........just like Cicero’s Head Honcho.
You may think that the things you read here a wee bit bonkers. This time the idea really is quackers. Quack, quack.
Is it only me........but I’m not so sure that this really is good news.
While reading widely the other day to ensure my knowledge and wisdom were being kept up to date, I came across an announcement from the latest and newest government Quango, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, and was struck dumb.
It seems that this Quango now expects 330,000 public sector Apparatchiks to lose their jobs over the next four years, far fewer than the 490,000 it forecast in its June report. This is no doubt good news to the 160,000 Apparatchiks who will be kept on at taxpayer expense. But what about the rest of us?
The OBR Quangocrats have said it had changed the Apparatchik job forecast because the government of the Two Caesars ‘ had put more emphasis on welfare cuts and less on departmental spending cuts since it made its earlier forecast.’
Now far be it for me, a humble marketing personage to query the role and capability of this economic Quango but I do not greet this announcement with vocal whoops of joy, a lot of high fiving and heaps of knuckle knocking. Is this really good news-fewer Apparatchiks than previously thought to be culled?
But surely the OBR is looking at the issue through the wrong end of the telescope. And given that the key word in the title of the OBR is ‘responsibility, might I respectfully suggest that the Head OBR Quangocrat listen up and pay attention before he, or she, becomes the Head of the Office of Budget Irresponsibility.
The real issue is not that fewer Apparatchiks than previously thought might need to learn to SatNav to their local Job Centre Plus but how many we actually need or how many we, the hard pressed tax payers, are willing to pay for. And this is what I would like the OBR to examine if it wants to retain its moniker.
In short at the end of the day whether it be 330,000 or 490,000 fewer, we are just circumcising gnats. Tough on those involved but no tougher than the circumstances being faced by those in the wealth creating sector for a good while now. And given the size of the Apparatchik sector, this level of circumcision should be accomplished relatively pain free and should be well within natural levels of people turnover.
Hopefully one or even both of the Two Caesars is reading and sharing my thinking. Just trying to be helpful as usual.
What do you think?
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Monday, 29 November 2010
Protect your assets
Greetings once again. It is great to see you back. And great to be back.
And if you were one of those wondering if Cicero was losing his mojo, last week’s blast of enlightenment and wisdom will have convinced you that no mojo has been lost.
Could someone please enlighten this old man and explain exactly what mojo is. How can you expect Cicero not to lose his mojo when he has no idea what mojo is? This is a bit like Donald Rumsfeld, the former American Secretary for Defence, or Defense as they ignorantly spell it, and his ‘unknown unknowns’ although perhaps for Cicero this is a ‘known unknown’. Whatever.
In past few days those very clever chaps at MORI have published some interesting research findings. Every few days it seems that someone or other has undertaken some research among one group or another with their findings eventually hitting the airwaves and confirming the axiom that there are lies, damned lines and statistics.
And of course we should never forget that 81.3% of statistics are made up on the spot.
But back to MORI, surely they would not put their name against numbers that were made up. Or would they?
Anyway MORI have recently spoken with 187 senior board directors of the UK’s leading companies and found out that “94% agree that the asset which offers the greatest protection during an economic downturn is a strong brand”.
Of course this will not come as great news to you but there are people out there in senior positions who do not act or speak like they agree with this statement, the most notable of whom are the Bean Counters in many of our businesses.
So why is your brand your most important asset in a recession? Three reasons immediately spring to this aged and wise mind.
Firstly there is consumer confidence. Loyal customers retain confidence in a strong brand even when the going gets tough and confident customers are less likely to switch brand. Secondly in tough economic times potential customers, staff and shareholders are more risk averse. A strong brand mitigates this risk in the mind of the stakeholder, providing an anchor of certainty and surety when all about them is turmoil and uncertain. And lastly company value is more likely to remain buoyant in an economic downturn when it is supported by a strong and profitable brand.
And if you want more support for this argument, the Profit Impact of Market Strategy (PIMS for short) database has since the mid 1960s with great rigour and credibility been tracking data to identify the relationship between business action and business outcomes and they too have reached the conclusion that those enlightened and far sighted businesses which stand up to the penny pinching Bean Counters and continue to invest in their brand assets, have in the medium term added greater value than those businesses where parsimony prevails.
But surely this information perfect sense. And surely too it is important that said Head Honchos continue to invest in this asset. After all you would not invest in a spanking new factory and neglect to maintain it, would you?
So don’t be tempted to stop investing in strengthening your brand, even when all around are losing their heads. By neglecting your brand, you risk exposing the business at a time when recovery is much more costly and much less certain of success. Brand profitability is the ultimate goal but it takes investment. Short term budget cuts may lead to immediate relief of pressure, but they will surely lead to long term heartache. Stand up to the Bean Counters. And protect your asset. If you don’t, who else will?
Is it only me.............but I think I have been incredibly stupid.
I have had an epiphany moment of such great impact that I have suddenly realised that I might not be as clever as I thought I was. Wow! No doubt that has left you reeling.
As you will know the 1832 Great Reform Act did away with rotten boroughs, bribery at the polls and all sort of electoral corruption. Now in the spirit of Emil Zola j’accuse governments of all persuasions, and most notably the Last Lot, of acting in breach of the Great Reform Act, the foundation stone of our democratic system.
Stay with me on this one.
If you look at the map showing the distribution of our money masquerading as government largesse, you will be struck, as I was, with the extent to which government generosity is concentrated in pockets dotted around the country. In some towns, cities, regions and nations, the share of GDP you can put down to our money is greater than 50%. And when you get to this level of concentration there is such a hugely critical mass of vested interest that change is impossible. Is this not exactly the same conditions that the 1832 Act was designed to prevent? If it wasn’t, could you please explain the difference to me.
And my solution to this cancer at the heart of our democratic system? Simple. Deny the vote to all those dependent on government largesse and let only those without a vested interest, who are not in receipt of patronage, or who remain un-bribed, have the vote. In this way we can return to the ideals of the Great Reformers and to ensure that all those who died on the massacre fields at Peterloo or who were banished overseas, did not sacrifice themselves in vain.
Of course this would mean that the Apparatchiks would be denied the vote but this makes perfect sense. They work for the government of the day and are supposedly neutral and apolitical. Having a vote clearly makes this a nonsense so it is just that those on the payroll, those with their snouts in the trough so to speak, be removed from the political system. We do not want the politics of the pork barrel over here, methinks.
Anyone else think I have been incredibly thick?
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
And if you were one of those wondering if Cicero was losing his mojo, last week’s blast of enlightenment and wisdom will have convinced you that no mojo has been lost.
Could someone please enlighten this old man and explain exactly what mojo is. How can you expect Cicero not to lose his mojo when he has no idea what mojo is? This is a bit like Donald Rumsfeld, the former American Secretary for Defence, or Defense as they ignorantly spell it, and his ‘unknown unknowns’ although perhaps for Cicero this is a ‘known unknown’. Whatever.
In past few days those very clever chaps at MORI have published some interesting research findings. Every few days it seems that someone or other has undertaken some research among one group or another with their findings eventually hitting the airwaves and confirming the axiom that there are lies, damned lines and statistics.
And of course we should never forget that 81.3% of statistics are made up on the spot.
But back to MORI, surely they would not put their name against numbers that were made up. Or would they?
Anyway MORI have recently spoken with 187 senior board directors of the UK’s leading companies and found out that “94% agree that the asset which offers the greatest protection during an economic downturn is a strong brand”.
Of course this will not come as great news to you but there are people out there in senior positions who do not act or speak like they agree with this statement, the most notable of whom are the Bean Counters in many of our businesses.
So why is your brand your most important asset in a recession? Three reasons immediately spring to this aged and wise mind.
Firstly there is consumer confidence. Loyal customers retain confidence in a strong brand even when the going gets tough and confident customers are less likely to switch brand. Secondly in tough economic times potential customers, staff and shareholders are more risk averse. A strong brand mitigates this risk in the mind of the stakeholder, providing an anchor of certainty and surety when all about them is turmoil and uncertain. And lastly company value is more likely to remain buoyant in an economic downturn when it is supported by a strong and profitable brand.
And if you want more support for this argument, the Profit Impact of Market Strategy (PIMS for short) database has since the mid 1960s with great rigour and credibility been tracking data to identify the relationship between business action and business outcomes and they too have reached the conclusion that those enlightened and far sighted businesses which stand up to the penny pinching Bean Counters and continue to invest in their brand assets, have in the medium term added greater value than those businesses where parsimony prevails.
But surely this information perfect sense. And surely too it is important that said Head Honchos continue to invest in this asset. After all you would not invest in a spanking new factory and neglect to maintain it, would you?
So don’t be tempted to stop investing in strengthening your brand, even when all around are losing their heads. By neglecting your brand, you risk exposing the business at a time when recovery is much more costly and much less certain of success. Brand profitability is the ultimate goal but it takes investment. Short term budget cuts may lead to immediate relief of pressure, but they will surely lead to long term heartache. Stand up to the Bean Counters. And protect your asset. If you don’t, who else will?
Is it only me.............but I think I have been incredibly stupid.
I have had an epiphany moment of such great impact that I have suddenly realised that I might not be as clever as I thought I was. Wow! No doubt that has left you reeling.
As you will know the 1832 Great Reform Act did away with rotten boroughs, bribery at the polls and all sort of electoral corruption. Now in the spirit of Emil Zola j’accuse governments of all persuasions, and most notably the Last Lot, of acting in breach of the Great Reform Act, the foundation stone of our democratic system.
Stay with me on this one.
If you look at the map showing the distribution of our money masquerading as government largesse, you will be struck, as I was, with the extent to which government generosity is concentrated in pockets dotted around the country. In some towns, cities, regions and nations, the share of GDP you can put down to our money is greater than 50%. And when you get to this level of concentration there is such a hugely critical mass of vested interest that change is impossible. Is this not exactly the same conditions that the 1832 Act was designed to prevent? If it wasn’t, could you please explain the difference to me.
And my solution to this cancer at the heart of our democratic system? Simple. Deny the vote to all those dependent on government largesse and let only those without a vested interest, who are not in receipt of patronage, or who remain un-bribed, have the vote. In this way we can return to the ideals of the Great Reformers and to ensure that all those who died on the massacre fields at Peterloo or who were banished overseas, did not sacrifice themselves in vain.
Of course this would mean that the Apparatchiks would be denied the vote but this makes perfect sense. They work for the government of the day and are supposedly neutral and apolitical. Having a vote clearly makes this a nonsense so it is just that those on the payroll, those with their snouts in the trough so to speak, be removed from the political system. We do not want the politics of the pork barrel over here, methinks.
Anyone else think I have been incredibly thick?
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Thursday, 11 November 2010
The marketing triangle
Mea culpa for the absence of last week’s dose of enlightenment, wisdom and entertainment. Some questioned whether the criticism received may have resulted in a loss of mojo, whatever that may mean.
Sadly the fault is far more prosaic in that the enlightenment you crave was not given sufficient priority over other commitments. A state of affairs which must not be allowed to re-occur. And it shall not.
Earlier in the week Cicero was engaged in robust dialogue with a pupil seeking, and paying for, marketing wisdom. You will not be bored with the details of the discussion, no doubt to your delight.
In essence Cicero was being upbraided for initiating work in advance of budget authorisation notwithstanding the strangling tightness of looming deadlines. A fact which was of little interest to Cicero’s interlocutor who was only concerned that due process was not being followed. Even although in Cicero’s extensive experience when the marketing genius does get delivered, it will be the quality of the output and the outcomes delivered against which Cicero and his people will be judged, not whether or not due process was followed.
This is a classic case of the Marketing Triangle, an approach and axiom used by Project Managers which even Cicero is willing to stoop to apply when circumstances dictate.
And what exactly is the Marketing Triangle in this context, you are no doubt asking at this point?
Now think triangles. On each angle of the triangle will be a word-Time, Quality or Cost. In this context do you think it possible to deliver great work very quickly and at low cost? If you say yes then you are a marketing genius. Conventional wisdom dictates that at best you can have two out of three angles but not all three.
Consider the dilemma outlined above. Some ads had to be developed and produced for a fixed price as budgets were very tight, eye wateringly so. Now we don’t do OK work, we aim for great work. But if we had waited for all t’s to be crossed and i’s dotted it would have been impossible to produce great work in time available to us. Or at least not without throwing people at the problem which affects cost. In other words the time available to the Luvvie team to produce the work would have dictated the quality of the output and no doubt the outcome.
And that, mei amici, is the Marketing Triangle.
And if you think you can square the circle and oblong the triangle, please do tell and share. We are all eager to learn.
It might only be me........but I do believe that the world is at last coming round to my way of thinking........or has it?
Did you read a week or so back about the call to relax airport security checks? A position with which Cicero wholeheartedly agrees. It was pleasing to see that a Head Honcho in the airline industry had pointed out that many of the checks forced on innocent travellers, and the key word here is ‘innocent’, by the Airport Goons are totally redundant. Hear,hear.
Cicero has long pointed this out both in word and deed, to the point of imminent arrest, to the Gestapo-like figures who man airport security and whose work you dare not challenge or question. Indeed Cicero has been known to point out that there has not yet been one known case of an Eskimo trying to down an airliner or a 90 year old wheelchair bound woman or even a baby in a pram. And yet all who wish to fly are assumed guilty of being a terrorist until proven otherwise, an axiom which flies in the face of Common Law in this country.
It is also interesting to note that from the official HMG response it would seem that many of the checks put in place for UK citizens are determined by the US. Sorry. This is baffling. Surely we are a sovereign nation. Or have I missed something? At what point did we agree as a nation to become Uncle Sam’s poodle?
At least at this point the Two Caesar’s Airport Man looked like he was going tom relax the rules and look for ways to improve ‘the flying experience’. So far so good.
And then just as it looks like the world is yet again coming around to my way of thinking, and not before time on this one, what happens-someone ‘finds’ a bomb made from a printer carriage on a couple of planes flying out of some Stone Age land. Funny that.
Methinks that this is no coincidence. Methinks there are too many vested interests intent on making life difficult for flyers. Methinks that the enviro-mentalists might even a hand in this.
And so, mei amici, we are foiled yet again from our common sense prevailing. But never mind our time will come. Maybe our sense needs to become a little bit more common.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Sadly the fault is far more prosaic in that the enlightenment you crave was not given sufficient priority over other commitments. A state of affairs which must not be allowed to re-occur. And it shall not.
Earlier in the week Cicero was engaged in robust dialogue with a pupil seeking, and paying for, marketing wisdom. You will not be bored with the details of the discussion, no doubt to your delight.
In essence Cicero was being upbraided for initiating work in advance of budget authorisation notwithstanding the strangling tightness of looming deadlines. A fact which was of little interest to Cicero’s interlocutor who was only concerned that due process was not being followed. Even although in Cicero’s extensive experience when the marketing genius does get delivered, it will be the quality of the output and the outcomes delivered against which Cicero and his people will be judged, not whether or not due process was followed.
This is a classic case of the Marketing Triangle, an approach and axiom used by Project Managers which even Cicero is willing to stoop to apply when circumstances dictate.
And what exactly is the Marketing Triangle in this context, you are no doubt asking at this point?
Now think triangles. On each angle of the triangle will be a word-Time, Quality or Cost. In this context do you think it possible to deliver great work very quickly and at low cost? If you say yes then you are a marketing genius. Conventional wisdom dictates that at best you can have two out of three angles but not all three.
Consider the dilemma outlined above. Some ads had to be developed and produced for a fixed price as budgets were very tight, eye wateringly so. Now we don’t do OK work, we aim for great work. But if we had waited for all t’s to be crossed and i’s dotted it would have been impossible to produce great work in time available to us. Or at least not without throwing people at the problem which affects cost. In other words the time available to the Luvvie team to produce the work would have dictated the quality of the output and no doubt the outcome.
And that, mei amici, is the Marketing Triangle.
And if you think you can square the circle and oblong the triangle, please do tell and share. We are all eager to learn.
It might only be me........but I do believe that the world is at last coming round to my way of thinking........or has it?
Did you read a week or so back about the call to relax airport security checks? A position with which Cicero wholeheartedly agrees. It was pleasing to see that a Head Honcho in the airline industry had pointed out that many of the checks forced on innocent travellers, and the key word here is ‘innocent’, by the Airport Goons are totally redundant. Hear,hear.
Cicero has long pointed this out both in word and deed, to the point of imminent arrest, to the Gestapo-like figures who man airport security and whose work you dare not challenge or question. Indeed Cicero has been known to point out that there has not yet been one known case of an Eskimo trying to down an airliner or a 90 year old wheelchair bound woman or even a baby in a pram. And yet all who wish to fly are assumed guilty of being a terrorist until proven otherwise, an axiom which flies in the face of Common Law in this country.
It is also interesting to note that from the official HMG response it would seem that many of the checks put in place for UK citizens are determined by the US. Sorry. This is baffling. Surely we are a sovereign nation. Or have I missed something? At what point did we agree as a nation to become Uncle Sam’s poodle?
At least at this point the Two Caesar’s Airport Man looked like he was going tom relax the rules and look for ways to improve ‘the flying experience’. So far so good.
And then just as it looks like the world is yet again coming around to my way of thinking, and not before time on this one, what happens-someone ‘finds’ a bomb made from a printer carriage on a couple of planes flying out of some Stone Age land. Funny that.
Methinks that this is no coincidence. Methinks there are too many vested interests intent on making life difficult for flyers. Methinks that the enviro-mentalists might even a hand in this.
And so, mei amici, we are foiled yet again from our common sense prevailing. But never mind our time will come. Maybe our sense needs to become a little bit more common.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Friday, 29 October 2010
Thomas the Tank Engine
Cicero’s comments over the past few weeks have led many of you to wonder and some of you to believe that Cicero is a big fan of the policies of the Two Caesars. A few have even made noises that Cicero might be a big fan of the Blue Caesar in particular.
Let the record be set straight.
Those of you with a classical training will be aware that Cicero is acutely suspicious of factionalism and the dangers inherent in supporting one faction over another. And so Cicero is strictly apolitical neither favouring nor condemning one faction over another.
Cicero does however have thoughts, views and opinions on a range of topics and issues and it is these that he is expressing through these words. Should these views coincide with the thoughts of the Blue or Yellow Caesar or even of the Last Lot, that is purely coincidental and is not meant to imply support for any of these factions.
It could well be of course that someone close to a current or past Caesar has read these words and saw they were good. Did you think of that?
Now last week Cicero spent some time in the company of a wise man and we talked choo choo trains and such was the import of our discussion that it seemed appropriate to share the conversation with you. Hopefully you will be inspired.
In any organisation think of the leader as the train driver up front setting the speed and the direction. And behind him (and not forgetting her) he is pulling three coaches, each one filled with members of the business or business unit.
The first coach is the modernisers coach filled with people who want the train to go faster, who are hungry for change and modernisation and don’t think it’s happening fast enough. This coach will usually contain about 20% of your people.
The next coach, which is crowded with about 70% of your people crammed into it, is filled with those who are happy with the status quo and the speed the business is currently going at. These are not reckless types and they can provide useful stability to those in the moderniser coach and while they will go along with train increasing speed a bit, if you go too fast they will start to feel sick and nauseous. And given they comprise the bulk of your people you can’t afford to have too many of them off sick or getting off at the first available opportunity.
The last coach and bringing up the rear is the remaining 10% of your team who not only want to apply brakes but also to engage reverse. Life was so much better 10 years ago for these people who constantly hark back to a golden age that in truth probably never existed. These must be exited or shaken about so much they fall into the second coach.
In which coach are you? In which coach are the members of your team? And at what speed do you drive the train?
Now while the modernisers want to drive the train at 100mph all the time this is way far too scary for those in the status quo coach who are happy with the business and the train being driven at 50mph. You can forget those in the braking coach for the purposes of this discussion. You need your modernisers for no business should stand still but you also need the status quo brigade.
And so your job when driving the train is to go so fast that you shake off those constantly seeking to apply reverse but neither too fast that you lose those in the second coach or too slow that you lose the modernisers. A neat trick to pull off but can we do it, of course we can.
Speeding up to round about 70mph and slowing down when you come to the bends will give those wanting a gentler pace of life to catch up and stay on board.
It used to be every boy’s dream to be a choo choo train driver. Now it is to appear on ‘X Factor’. But if you are a leader of a team or business, you are now driving the train. Dream fulfilled.
Is it only me......but it’s time for a lot of people to wake up and smell the coffee.
I am fed up and I am going to grumble. I know, I know, it’s so unlike me.
Every morning I wake up to a shrill of moans and groans from lobbyists and single issue whiners and moaners, annoyed about what the government of the day is doing or not doing for their cause and what it should be doing. A good early morning game to play is to count in any given time period how many spending commitments someone wants the government to make. Clearly this whining and moaning and raging has reached a crescendo in recent days and weeks as the Two Caesars and their cohorts decide how to re-prioritise the amount of our money the government spends on us and on our behalf.
And in the event that someone out there thinks of me as an apologist for the Two Caesars, I should point out that the single issue whiners and moaners were whining and moaning about the absence of government action, which is code for not spending enough, when the Last Lot were deciding how to spend our money.
Now I think it’s important that we all realise something and it falls upon yours truly to point this out to said whiners and moaners who need, especially in these straightened times, to wake up and smell the coffee.....we are broke. We are heading fast down Queer St. And we don’t even have a pot in which to pass bodily fluids.
Get it.
And let me point out one more thing, even though I know I am preaching to the converted on this, but everything we do as a country, everything the Two Caesars spends on us and all those services run by the Apparatchiks, comes from the money earned by the businesses in this country.
When a business makes a profit, it pays taxes. A profitable business will pay money away in dividends to its shareholders. And these shareholders will pay tax. A business that is successful will employ staff and take on more staff and their wages and salaries are taxed. And so on and so on.
Now do you get it? If we don’t have successful and profitable businesses in this country we will not have the spondooliks or sesterces to allow us to have the services and benefits provided by the Apparatchiks nor the standard of living we all want nor will we ever have the remotest chance of stop the early morning whining and moaning. It really is that simple.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Let the record be set straight.
Those of you with a classical training will be aware that Cicero is acutely suspicious of factionalism and the dangers inherent in supporting one faction over another. And so Cicero is strictly apolitical neither favouring nor condemning one faction over another.
Cicero does however have thoughts, views and opinions on a range of topics and issues and it is these that he is expressing through these words. Should these views coincide with the thoughts of the Blue or Yellow Caesar or even of the Last Lot, that is purely coincidental and is not meant to imply support for any of these factions.
It could well be of course that someone close to a current or past Caesar has read these words and saw they were good. Did you think of that?
Now last week Cicero spent some time in the company of a wise man and we talked choo choo trains and such was the import of our discussion that it seemed appropriate to share the conversation with you. Hopefully you will be inspired.
In any organisation think of the leader as the train driver up front setting the speed and the direction. And behind him (and not forgetting her) he is pulling three coaches, each one filled with members of the business or business unit.
The first coach is the modernisers coach filled with people who want the train to go faster, who are hungry for change and modernisation and don’t think it’s happening fast enough. This coach will usually contain about 20% of your people.
The next coach, which is crowded with about 70% of your people crammed into it, is filled with those who are happy with the status quo and the speed the business is currently going at. These are not reckless types and they can provide useful stability to those in the moderniser coach and while they will go along with train increasing speed a bit, if you go too fast they will start to feel sick and nauseous. And given they comprise the bulk of your people you can’t afford to have too many of them off sick or getting off at the first available opportunity.
The last coach and bringing up the rear is the remaining 10% of your team who not only want to apply brakes but also to engage reverse. Life was so much better 10 years ago for these people who constantly hark back to a golden age that in truth probably never existed. These must be exited or shaken about so much they fall into the second coach.
In which coach are you? In which coach are the members of your team? And at what speed do you drive the train?
Now while the modernisers want to drive the train at 100mph all the time this is way far too scary for those in the status quo coach who are happy with the business and the train being driven at 50mph. You can forget those in the braking coach for the purposes of this discussion. You need your modernisers for no business should stand still but you also need the status quo brigade.
And so your job when driving the train is to go so fast that you shake off those constantly seeking to apply reverse but neither too fast that you lose those in the second coach or too slow that you lose the modernisers. A neat trick to pull off but can we do it, of course we can.
Speeding up to round about 70mph and slowing down when you come to the bends will give those wanting a gentler pace of life to catch up and stay on board.
It used to be every boy’s dream to be a choo choo train driver. Now it is to appear on ‘X Factor’. But if you are a leader of a team or business, you are now driving the train. Dream fulfilled.
Is it only me......but it’s time for a lot of people to wake up and smell the coffee.
I am fed up and I am going to grumble. I know, I know, it’s so unlike me.
Every morning I wake up to a shrill of moans and groans from lobbyists and single issue whiners and moaners, annoyed about what the government of the day is doing or not doing for their cause and what it should be doing. A good early morning game to play is to count in any given time period how many spending commitments someone wants the government to make. Clearly this whining and moaning and raging has reached a crescendo in recent days and weeks as the Two Caesars and their cohorts decide how to re-prioritise the amount of our money the government spends on us and on our behalf.
And in the event that someone out there thinks of me as an apologist for the Two Caesars, I should point out that the single issue whiners and moaners were whining and moaning about the absence of government action, which is code for not spending enough, when the Last Lot were deciding how to spend our money.
Now I think it’s important that we all realise something and it falls upon yours truly to point this out to said whiners and moaners who need, especially in these straightened times, to wake up and smell the coffee.....we are broke. We are heading fast down Queer St. And we don’t even have a pot in which to pass bodily fluids.
Get it.
And let me point out one more thing, even though I know I am preaching to the converted on this, but everything we do as a country, everything the Two Caesars spends on us and all those services run by the Apparatchiks, comes from the money earned by the businesses in this country.
When a business makes a profit, it pays taxes. A profitable business will pay money away in dividends to its shareholders. And these shareholders will pay tax. A business that is successful will employ staff and take on more staff and their wages and salaries are taxed. And so on and so on.
Now do you get it? If we don’t have successful and profitable businesses in this country we will not have the spondooliks or sesterces to allow us to have the services and benefits provided by the Apparatchiks nor the standard of living we all want nor will we ever have the remotest chance of stop the early morning whining and moaning. It really is that simple.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Friday, 22 October 2010
Pinball Wizard
Greetings and felicitations to one and all.
And as these words flow onto the paper in this corner of this green and pleasant land, winter is on its way, judging from the frost that needs to be scraped from the windscreens of the chariots up and down the via.
Many are now asking what Cicero has been doing since he left the warmth and comfort of the VTSSB, no doubt wondering whether the recent re-balancing of the State’s spending priorities are going to mean an especially bleak winter for Cicero.
Worry not, amici. Cicero is still in gainful employment.
And since he stopped being an Apparatchik, he has become a Marketing Luvvie, working with Creative Types dispensing wisdom and enlightenment and, quite frankly, marketing genius, to anyone willing to pay for said services. It might be said that, after toiling endlessly on your behalf to maintain the security and protection of the fine people of this land, Cicero has become a Marketing Mercenary. Now you know.
Of course you will still benefit from Cicero’s genius for free. And what a bargain you get.
And here is this week’s nugget of marketing genius.
Did you see any adverts on TV last night? And when you saw them, did you immediately jump from your chair and rush down the shops and buy the latest in toilet detergents, eyelash maximiser (whatever that might be) or mobile phone technology that seems to have the ability to make two people fall in love again.
Of course, you didn’t. Advertising doesn’t work like that. Although Cicero was tempted to give his eyelashes a boost. And yet too often Chief Bean Counters expect investment in advertising to behave exactly like that. Get real. And surely you of all people that marketing does not work quite that.
Indeed there may be quite a disconnect between your marketing being consumed and the point at which the consumer decides to get off the pot and buy your brand and in that time he or she, if we are still talking about eyelash maximisers, may well have seen more of your well crafted and well honed marketing communications. But that does not mean any of it is wasted. And beware the tyranny of believing that it was the last piece of marketing that was seen that drove the sale. Again the human brain does not work in such a structured way.
Instead we should come to think, and we should work to persuade our Chief Bean Counters to see, that our marketing activity slowly and imperceptibly nudges the consumer towards buying your brand. And when he, or she, is ready and when they decide it’s time to enter the market, it is the cumulative effect over time of all the nudges through all communication channels that gets your brand top of the mind in the filing cabinet that is the mind of our consumer.
And that, mei amice, is what marketing is all about, no matter what the Bean Counters might think.
And so, just like the Pinball Wizard in that iconic musical ‘Tommy’, use your nudges with care to deliver marketing that is highly effective. Reading these words may not make you a Pinball Wizard but we can help you become a Marketing Wizard.
Is it only me.......but I am not a criminal
It rather annoys me when supporters of the Two Caesars the media and other so called economic and financial commentators, who quite frankly ought to know better, lump tax avoidance and tax evasion together and threaten dire retribution on tax avoiders and tax evaders. It is even said that tax avoiders are as bad as benefit cheats.
For the avoidance of doubt, tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Tax evasion is not and nor is benefit cheating. Therefore anyone who so arranges their finances to minimise the size of their tax bill is only doing the right, sensible and sane thing. Why would anyone in their right mind want to hand over any more of their hard earned sesterces to the tax collector than is strictly necessary, especially when you know that much of what you hand over will be squandered?
Anyone who has an ISA is guilty of tax avoidance. Or has a pension. Or who does a salary sacrifice. So before anyone gets onto their moral high horse on this one and become sclerotic with fiscal policy rage, let he (or she) who is without sin, throw the first stone. Methinks we might be waiting rather a long time for the first stone to be thrown.
Now it might only be me but perhaps we should stop using the term ‘tax avoidance’ with all its pejorative connotations. Maybe the term tax efficiency should be used instead. And Cicero for one will do all in his power, which admittedly is not saying much, to continue to make his tax bill as efficient as possible. Cicero is not a criminal.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
And as these words flow onto the paper in this corner of this green and pleasant land, winter is on its way, judging from the frost that needs to be scraped from the windscreens of the chariots up and down the via.
Many are now asking what Cicero has been doing since he left the warmth and comfort of the VTSSB, no doubt wondering whether the recent re-balancing of the State’s spending priorities are going to mean an especially bleak winter for Cicero.
Worry not, amici. Cicero is still in gainful employment.
And since he stopped being an Apparatchik, he has become a Marketing Luvvie, working with Creative Types dispensing wisdom and enlightenment and, quite frankly, marketing genius, to anyone willing to pay for said services. It might be said that, after toiling endlessly on your behalf to maintain the security and protection of the fine people of this land, Cicero has become a Marketing Mercenary. Now you know.
Of course you will still benefit from Cicero’s genius for free. And what a bargain you get.
And here is this week’s nugget of marketing genius.
Did you see any adverts on TV last night? And when you saw them, did you immediately jump from your chair and rush down the shops and buy the latest in toilet detergents, eyelash maximiser (whatever that might be) or mobile phone technology that seems to have the ability to make two people fall in love again.
Of course, you didn’t. Advertising doesn’t work like that. Although Cicero was tempted to give his eyelashes a boost. And yet too often Chief Bean Counters expect investment in advertising to behave exactly like that. Get real. And surely you of all people that marketing does not work quite that.
Indeed there may be quite a disconnect between your marketing being consumed and the point at which the consumer decides to get off the pot and buy your brand and in that time he or she, if we are still talking about eyelash maximisers, may well have seen more of your well crafted and well honed marketing communications. But that does not mean any of it is wasted. And beware the tyranny of believing that it was the last piece of marketing that was seen that drove the sale. Again the human brain does not work in such a structured way.
Instead we should come to think, and we should work to persuade our Chief Bean Counters to see, that our marketing activity slowly and imperceptibly nudges the consumer towards buying your brand. And when he, or she, is ready and when they decide it’s time to enter the market, it is the cumulative effect over time of all the nudges through all communication channels that gets your brand top of the mind in the filing cabinet that is the mind of our consumer.
And that, mei amice, is what marketing is all about, no matter what the Bean Counters might think.
And so, just like the Pinball Wizard in that iconic musical ‘Tommy’, use your nudges with care to deliver marketing that is highly effective. Reading these words may not make you a Pinball Wizard but we can help you become a Marketing Wizard.
Is it only me.......but I am not a criminal
It rather annoys me when supporters of the Two Caesars the media and other so called economic and financial commentators, who quite frankly ought to know better, lump tax avoidance and tax evasion together and threaten dire retribution on tax avoiders and tax evaders. It is even said that tax avoiders are as bad as benefit cheats.
For the avoidance of doubt, tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Tax evasion is not and nor is benefit cheating. Therefore anyone who so arranges their finances to minimise the size of their tax bill is only doing the right, sensible and sane thing. Why would anyone in their right mind want to hand over any more of their hard earned sesterces to the tax collector than is strictly necessary, especially when you know that much of what you hand over will be squandered?
Anyone who has an ISA is guilty of tax avoidance. Or has a pension. Or who does a salary sacrifice. So before anyone gets onto their moral high horse on this one and become sclerotic with fiscal policy rage, let he (or she) who is without sin, throw the first stone. Methinks we might be waiting rather a long time for the first stone to be thrown.
Now it might only be me but perhaps we should stop using the term ‘tax avoidance’ with all its pejorative connotations. Maybe the term tax efficiency should be used instead. And Cicero for one will do all in his power, which admittedly is not saying much, to continue to make his tax bill as efficient as possible. Cicero is not a criminal.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
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