Old tech that delivers marketing goals

We live in a digital age and marketers are falling over themselves to chase that cutting edge channel that will deliver them new audiences.
But in the rush, one can forget the simple old tech established channels that deliver results.
A great example of this is local community based magazines. These magazines allow the marketer on a small budget to target very specific geographical and socioeconomic groups with great precision in a flexible and affordable way. Often very well received in a community - certainly by the older generations - these magazines align perfectly with a well thought out segmentation, targeting and positioning plan.
Even better, combine them with new digital channels, using elements such as QR codes on the pages, and the marketer will be providing their customers or prospects with a broad experience that will appeal to a wide audience.
In my locality a site like www.fromthesmallestseed.co.uk, highlights how local community based magazines can be used by marketers targeting local areas in a cost effective and measurable way.

The printed piece that always delivers

As someone with a fair knowledge of the printing sector, I remember being approached at a networking event by an SME business owner who knew my background.

'Look at this' he said, and proudly delivered in front of my eyes his new box of business cards.
'£5 for 100!!' he beamed at me, delighted with the bargain that he had driven.

I looked at the cards and saw his home renovations business advertised prominently in full colour.

'Well' I said. 'If I was a householder who had not met you, and you approached to renovate the most important investment (my house) I have, I would think this guy had his business cards done yesterday at a motorway service station and for all I know could have left the country next week. Am I going to let him near or into my house??'

His smile turned to a frown.

The lesson is:

Your business card does NOT really function as a vehicle for transferring contact details. You can do this with a pen and a sheet of paper or with a phone or a number of other means.

Your business card acts as a first point of engagement to engender interest and reinforce positive perceptions about who and what you are.

Many years ago at University I was told by my Sociology Lecturer that 80% of the impression you gain of another person is attained within the first 5 minutes of meeting - AND that perceptions once formed (whether right or wrong) are almost impossible (and, if possible, expensive in terms of time and money) to change.

Make the right impression first time - don't be embarrassed by your business card. For business success, it could be the best printing investment in time and money you make.

Is print, as a communications channel, on the rise again

I was at a weekend course in digital marketing recently and the group were talking about various digital marketing communication tools.

When the subject of email marketing came up I looked at my course notes and it stated: 'one of the cheapest and easy to measure methods of communication'. However, the feeling in the room amongst marketers was somewhat different. Comments included:

Most young people avoid email and converse via social networks
Spam, spam, spam, spam... (and it even has a major carbon footprint according to MCafee.)
I spend too much of my time going through emails that are not relevant to my job.

The comments got me thinking about statistics I had heard from www.printpoweruk.co.uk (obviously with a point to make) that 83% of 18-24 year old surveyed believed that reading from paper is nicer than reading off a screen.

My mind also went back to a Management Diploma course I did when we reviewed different methods of communication in an office. I heard the horror stories of email rants and reactions that are possible due to the ease of access to email and the dreaded send button (and the remoteness of the recipient).

 So are we experiencing the start of the decline of email as a communication tool for marketing? Possibly.

Its popularity is based on its ease of access and affordability - but its assets are also its greatest weaknesses resulting in many ill-thought out, poorly planned and ineffective communications that cause as much annoyance (and damage) as interest.

Its recent rise in popularity has meant hard times for those involved in traditional publishing and print based industries.

Yet there are interesting things happening in the world of printed communications.

QR codes are very effective at taking offline communications online and now are seen extensively on magazine advert, billboards and the like. The use of PURLs via cross media marketing do a very similar job and enable marketers to message across a number of different channels including print, email and social media. New digital technologies are reducing the cost of printed products and enhancing their effect by utilising improved visual effects, textile appeal and smell!! And the case for print as the environmentally sound messaging medium (www.twosides,.info) is being made after years of being the whipping boy for most environmental groups.

Yet the key answer sought by the modern day marketing communications professional is ROI.The channel choice is insignificant compared to the results that a campaign delivers.And an increasing number of campaigns now use more than one channel. Print has numerous USP's and can deliver these to the communications mix working alongside other traditional and new media.

After a torrid few years it could be that the printed medium may have found its feet.

Pricing in an economic recession

For organisations of all sizes, an economic recession usually results is a call for reduced prices by the customer/consumer. Reduced pricing leads to lower margins , lower profits and less investment. The end of this cycle can be the decline of the organisation and, possibly, its ultimate demise.

But not all organisations seem to suffer the same. Indeed some seem to prosper. Why is this so?

Well, the reasons are many, but maintaining a viable pricing strategy is one key component of successful organisations.

Simply put, you can base pricing on 'cost', 'competitors' or use a 'marketing based pricing' approach.

The former two are self explanatory. But it is the marketing based approach that is most likely to deliver your organisation the margins that will allow you survive and even prosper in tough economic times.

A marketing based pricing strategy can be summarised by this quote from Ries and Trout.

‘All that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the mind of the customer or prospect. The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion.’

Ries and Trout – The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

The two largest expenditures most individuals make in their lives are on houses and on cars. Yet are these rational choices or emotive choices? Watch any of the many relocation programmes on the TV  and you will see it is definitely the latter. Maslow's respected work on the 'Hierarchy of Needs' reinforces this.

Here are four things that any organisation can do to encourage emotive behavior in their customer and use this to maintain commercially viable pricing:

• Understand your customers wants and needs.
• Deliver a positive personal experience with the product/service.
• Communicate recommendations from respected others.
• Instigate and encourage positive press and peer review from independent source.

 No matter what you sell you can employ these simply tools to deliver outstanding results.
 

2011 – Finding those elusive business opportunities in 2011 through Marketing.

2011, according to many financial pundits, still holds a lot of uncertainty for the business and financial world. The UK economy is certainly not out of the woods yet, despite some encouraging recent statistics from www.riskdisk.com about 2010, including:

• CCJs were down 26%;

• Administration orders were down 34%;

• Winding-up petitions were down 21%;

• Liquidations were down 9%;

• Receiverships were down 35%;

• Dissolutions were down 33%.

Most SME’s may feel distinctly uneasy about the poor trading conditions, significant cuts to public sector spending and difficulties in accessing the necessary finance to trade effectively. Many commentators have spoken of the ‘structural’ nature of this recession, compared to previous cyclical recessions. This means that the business environment will be a significantly different place in three to five years.

Yet, where there is significant change, there are always opportunities.

Organisations identifying and capitalising on these opportunities will create wealth and enjoy success.

From a marketing perspective, FIVE FACTORS will strongly influence an organisations future success:

• AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING FUNCTION IS KEY: Marketing can be defined as ‘Identifying and satisfying customer needs profitably’. This has never been so crucial for organisations and businesses as it is today. The companies that have a strong, effective marketing function, in this context, are likely to be the winners coming out of the recession.

• KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING: An organisation requires a clear marketing strategy with ROI measured and achieved. If you don’t know where you are going, it is highly unlikely you will go anywhere.

• MEASURE AND INTERPRET: the latest digital marketing communication tools have the ability to measure response, especially when compared to traditional marketing techniques. However, remember, there are ’lies, damned lies and statistics’. There are significantly more young people going to University and attaining degrees today than there were twenty five years ago. But it does not mean that as a society, we are collectively more intelligent? Getting feedback from campaigns is important. Interpreting this data correctly and responding effectively is critical.

• COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY: Choose your communications tools because of their effectiveness, not necessarily because they are the latest technology. Tried and tested can often prove more useful than ‘new with huge potential’ – especially when budgets are tight.

• ADD VALUE: Learn what your customers value the most and supply it to them. This will differentiate yourself from your competitors, improve margins and provide you with your USP.

'Choice Editing' - the role of the retailer in sustainable development

'Choice editing' is the phrase used by the Sustainable Development Commission (http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/you-are-what-you-sell.html) to describe how retailers restrict choice to consumers by only supplying environmentally sound goods. An example of this is with fridges, since it is argued that it is very difficult to buy a fridge that is not got a very high energy label because retailers won't stock them.

If you are shopping around the high street, or the Internet, you often come across retailers selling goods in a 'green' section of the store. In this sense the retailer is trying to offer attractive goods to those that buy on ethical lines without compromising their other goods they offer. This is an example of a retailer using the the potential of increased sales to label goods rather than taking an ethical or responsible attitude to what they stock and how they trade generally. I would consider them to be implementing a green marketing strategy rather than becoming a green business.

Of course it is not always easy to identify green retailers or green products. There are a large range of labels and standards which imply ethical, environmental or social standards are being met but it can be confusing to the consumer. The Sustainable Development Commission say that consumers should choose products that they think will ease poverty, reduce climate change and promote a one planet economy.

I think there is a stronger argument for not limiting oneself to the product but at looking at the policies of the organisation selling it. Are you convinced that the organisation is committed to sustainable practices? Does the organisation demonstrate knowledge of the issues that it needs to address? Does the organisation communicate to its customers accurately and effectively to help them make choices?

Green labels are fine. However, they can also be a smokescreen to promote a green image without necessarily understanding or acting on key sustainable issues within their business (energy, transport etc). A really green business will use its position in the market to influence suppliers and ensure that suppliers supplying goods of a dubious nature (child labour, climate damage and exploitation) are not traded with. There is a strong business argument for this and examples of successful companies who adopt these practices (Body Shop and animal testing). Organisations have a lot to gain commercially by being seen as sustainable and responsible.

At Greenhouse, we have adopted 'choice editing ' practices to support our 'sustainable printing' goals by ONLY supplying paper which is either recycled or has FSC certification. We also have ONLY used vegetable oil based inks as standard. ALL of our internally printed products are produced using our ecoprint-system4 process (www.ecoprint-system4.co.uk). We do not offer choice in these matters. There is no 'sustainable' option. And consequently we have customers that feel confident in the fact that when they are dealing with us, they will be getting an ethical and sustainable product, whatever they order.

Carbon Offseting - the Marmite of the Green thinking world

Carbon Offsetting - as a environmentally conscious business, you will either love it or hate it. To borrow a question posed in a recent editorial feature in PrintWeek Magazine, is it cheque book environmentalism, or a legitimate means to achieving carbon reduction targets?

To cut to the core of it, Carbon Offsetting won't solve our climate problems.

To do this we need to significantly reduce the amount we consume as a society and to produce what we consume using as few resources as possible produced in as efficient manner as possible. And we need to control our population.

Can a market driven by materialism and money achieve this on its own? I very much doubt it. What is imperative will be strong leadership by our political institutions who see an opportunity for our society to lead the world in green thinking, living and technology. The concept of 'the polluters pays (not profits)' needs to be quickly enshrined in our legal and taxation systems. This is to some extent happening in the motor industry with the active encouragement of electric vehicles. On the contrary, the pathetic support for the solar renewables sector gives us an example of how established economic power bases, such as the motor industry, are still pulling the financial strings and steering the economic ship.

Yet, our society has grown rich on the exploitation of human and physical resources. This is deeply ingrained in our culture. The human race has proven itself to have very limited ability to deal with long term problems - usually we put our head in the sands, point the finger of blame at someone or something else or end up in denial (despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary). We are all guilty of taking actions which deal with our immediate issues rather than putting our actions into a longer term context.

So what does Carbon offsetting bring to the table if not the answer to our problems? Well, it may help bring the message of resource depletion and exploitation to those who would normally only 'poo poo' the concept. And, of course, once you buy into Carbon Offsetting (literally) you are accepting the existence of the problem and the need for something to be done. If it can convert the hardened market driven minds in this way, it may help our society to collectively use our significant powers to make a real difference to the human races most pressing problem.

Carbon Offsetting won't provide us with the answer to our manmade problems, but it does have a role to play in winning the battle of the minds.