Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up |

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Infographic (via PSFK): Why Buy Local & Ten Reasons to Shop Local First

via psfk.com

Neat infographic to illustrate the benfits that buying local affords you. You know you should but sometimes you don’t know why. Now you do…

Via Adverblog: Paper, rock and scissors

via adverblog.com

Old but Gold. Jon Steel from WPP introduces and hosts the ‘Listen’ section

via youtube.com

Love hearing Jon Steel speak… Needed some inspiration to help me keep believing…

stealing genius, (via ) The man continues to create the myth:…

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Resolutions & Predictions

It wouldn’t be the New Year without both predictions and resolutions.

 So, I’ll get the easy one out the way first – Resolutions…

 After failing to keep resolutions every single year of my life – I’m taking a rather more holistic approach. This is partly because 1) I think it is healthier than ‘giving something up and punishing oneself’ and 2) because if I don’t manage it – no-one will be able to tell!

 So, my resolutions are:

1. Think not what others can do for you, but what you can do for others
2. Get better everyday
3. Accept that mistakes happen and put them behind you as soon as they have happened

 Onto predictions, if my resolutions are generic and personal, my predictions are marketing specific. We could be here for a while if every facet of life was examined after all…

 So, in no particular order:

 Light a lot of fires and see what catches on

I’ll be honest. I don’t get brand planning for 2 years in advance. The reason being that it is impossible to tell what the world will look like then and what lifestage the brand and consumers will be at. Social media in particular has meant that ideas spread in different ways than before. The idea of a big brand idea every year is nonsensical in many ways and more effective will be seeding a range of different ideas and investing further into those that take off. We may be easing out of recession but many lessons of frugality appear to be sticking and this approach minimises risk and ensures relevancy

 Reputation Marketing

In 2009, lots of brands got a big thumbs up for positive customer experiences…and lots bombed for providing negative experiences. It doesn’t take much for a brand to show that it cares (before a problem often arises in many instances). This is a year when brands will be looking to actively improve their relationships with consumers by providing positive experiences regardless of whether financial transactions are taking place.

 Experiential Marketing

2009 was all about digital. And everyone became so obsessed that they began to believe that every other element of the marketing mix was irrelevant. You can do all the online marketing in the world, but face-to-face is vitally important and nothing really replaces it. And if the experience is a good one, it will merge into the digital arena as people talk about the event on social networks, tag photos, post reviews etc. 2010 is going to be the year of fantastic events.

 Mobile (and Android in particular)

Mobile has been ‘the next big thing’ for ages. I remember going to seminars preaching the benefits of ‘bluetooth’ push messaging 5 years ago that promised the world but until the iPhone 3G came along this wasn’t a reality. This year, with a tranche of new phone releases, we can expect some amazing applications that make use of portability, touch screens and improving network coverage. And if the iPhone looks unassailable in January – my prediction is that android handsets will be in pole position by December

 Mobile (retail)

The immediate opportunity for retailers is not so much in transactional mobile websites, but in getting exposure on mobile portals such as review and price comparison websites, which shoppers will increasingly turn to before making purchases in store. Never knowingly undersold will become more relevant than ever before.

 The second coming of ‘Green’

‘Green’ issues took a back seat last year. Survival became more important than the greater good. This year, the pressure will grow to show consumers what is being  done to reduce your carbon footprint than ever before. Governments around the world are now actually serious about it. Climate change is real and it is going to be interesting to watch companies of all sizes follow suit.

One sign-in fits all
Facebook Connect, Open ID and even AOL to an extent allow me to log in to different applications without setting up brand new user names specific to small sites that I may just want to leave a comment on. I predict these universal log ins will continue to grow and that we might even get to a stage where we can pay for something using a Facebook login.

Uncertainty

The only thing we can be sure of is uncertainty. New technologies and creative ideas will come to the fore that we didn’t imagine possible. Some will sink as quickly as they arrived and some will sculpt the way we live our lives on a day to day basis. Besides, where is the excitement in knowing everything in advance? That would be really boring…

A day in the life of the internet

Tweet Cloud

 

Concerned that Chelsea are in my tweet cloud… Must be a blip in the software…

via http://tweetcloud.icodeforlove.com/

Tiger v Jay Z

Loving this…

Think Tiger might have more than 1 problem relating to women now if the stories are to be believed…

What we can learn from a wine tasting

Last night, I attended a wine tasting at a wine merchants in Chelsea called ‘Haynes Hanson & Clark’. The tasting was organised by a friend whose father buys wine regularly there. It was an incredibly effective piece of marketing (and a great night) that illustrated how non-traditional marketing techniques that focus on engagement can eclipse the effectiveness of traditional advertising. Here are some of the observations that I made…

Targeting the right people

Enthusiasm is infectious. By targeting the son of someone who regularly buys wine from them – it is likely that the enthusiasm of the father will translate to the son. It also means that the interest will be encouraged and nurtured.

By encouraging the son to invite his friends – you are ensuring that you are opening up the brand to a new but receptive audience. There isn’t any wastage.

Inviting the audience round to yours

Unlike, say sampling at a supermarket or an exhibition centre – you can offer a much more immersive experience by having people come to you. The store was located in a beautiful street in Chelsea and gets you buying into the all round experience.

There is something quite magical about a wine store. Rows of beautiful bottles from different regions, each of which with a story behind them. You see bottles that you don’t know and bottles that you do as well as bottles for hundreds of pounds that you can only dream of.

Knowing your audience:

There were ten people in total. All of us were probably late 20s. We simply aren’t going to be spending big money on wine. The tasting was around the premise of buying clever and buying at the lower end of the wine scale. They won’t make as much money on these bottles – but they are beginning the process of locking us in as wine lovers which can translate into sales further down the line.

Gaining consumer trust

We tried a 2009 Malbec that was available at £5.70 a bottle and perfect for parties.  We also tried a 2008 Chardonnay for £7.30 a bottle. These are the same as, if not cheaper than the late night drunken purchase of Jacob’s Creek from the local off-license. The fact that I could see they were trying to provide value – meant that when we moved on to more expensive wines – I trusted their choices. 

Word of Mouth

I asked how many tastings they performed and it appeared that it depended on demand. Because it is a deep experience with a high level of engagement – I’m more than likely to recommend it to my friends. In fact, with something like wine, everytime I look at a wine list in a restaurant or bar – there is a chance I will talk about the tasting sessions when making a recommendation.

Keep developing the relationship

The fact is I like these wine merchants. I’m going to buy some wine from there. Over time though, I could forget about them. What they are doing though is having regular sessions on different styles of wine every month or so. That keeps them at the front of my mind and increases my propensity to purchase.

Return on Investment.

We tried 7 wines. One sparkling, two white wines and 4 red wines. Based on the cost per bottle – this equated to £71.25 in total. Divide this by ten for each person and this equates to just over £7. Based on a 25% margin (no idea if that is correct for wine), we would individually need to buy just three ‘ten-pound’ bottles of wine for them to recoup their money. If we bought a case each, then you are looking at a 400% ROI. If we told 3 friends who bought a case then the numbers swell. The reality is that we’ll all buy a case or two over the next 12 months and as our knowledge of wine grows and hopefully our earning potential – the ROI looks pretty rosy.

Compare that to taking out a 6-sheet at the nearest tube station – Sloane Square or South Kensington. The numbers just wouldn’t add up. Of course this is a niche store but the likes of Oddbins or Threshers could certainly take tips from this model.

Just in case you are interested, the wines we tasted were as follows:

Sparkling:

1. Cremant de Bourgogne Brut, Cave de Lugny, Non Vintage – £11.90

White:

2. Chardonnay Vieilles Vignes, Luc & Jerome Choblet 2008 – £7.30

3. Reuilly La Raie, Domaine Claude Lafond 2008 – £10.20

Red:

4. Malbec Alto Pampas del Sur, Mendoza 2009 – £5.70

5. Domaine St Andrieu Rouge, Coteaux Varois en Provence 2007 – £8.35

6. Chateau Grand Maison, Cotes de Bourg 2006 – £11.20

7. Chateau de Gironville, Haut Medoc 2008  - £90 per case in bond (shipment in 2011)

Wine Merchants: Haynes Hanson & Clark. 7 Elystan Street, london, SW3 3NT,

020 7584 7927