A Room for Improvement

We recently opened our Lytham offices in the iconic Clock Tower at the centre of the town. It was built in 1872 and was the home of the town's "Improvement Commissioners", who met to discuss how Lytham could be developed for the benefit of its citizens, in the late 1800's.

The sense of history as I approach the massive black iron gates each morning is palpable.It has demonstrated to me the value of an office experience of substance and character. It engenders a real sense of pride in what we do and a desire to help the businesses of the town to thrive - a desire the Improvement Commissioners would no doubt relate to.

Credit where credit's due?

Yesterday manufacturing output was up, order book strength saw its biggest increase in 13 years and the pound gained strength against the Euro. The FTSE surged to a 10 month high. House prices rose for the third consecutive month. This recession, once alleged to be the deepest for 60 years will apparently be over, for the UK at least, within three months.

The reason? According to the Wall Street Journal "the prompt fiscal stimulus package and bank recapitalisation scheme in the UK helped the economy speed ahead in the race towards recovery. This swift decision-making and timely action has been lacking in the Eurozone which will lag significantly behind."

Did we just get a really big, global thing right?

Negotiation - nature or nurture?

Yesterday my wife completed a tricky, complex negotiation successfully. As a result my seven year old son found himself eating an additional helping of his "five a day" every day for a week, in return for a limited increase in his PS2 (PlayStation to the uninitiated) time. However he turned the tables shortly afterwards in a gloriously intricate manouevre that secured a trip to the Pier at the weekend AND some goalkeeping gloves. The strategy involved a 24 hour charm offensive and some reverse psychology followed by the ultimate close - flowers (bankrolled by dad in a separate but no less impressive negotiation founded in emotional blackmail)and the unprompted tidying of his room.

I shouldnt be surprised. He spends alot of time with his mother. He's learnt from the master.

The Leaders and the Led

There is often tension betwen marketing and other disciplines as the battle to decided how an organisation should be "led" is played out. Should the organisation be true to itself or simply follow the latest research-led finding on audience attitudes? The truth is the two are not mutually exclusive. A successful organisations believes in itself, its values and finds compellingly different and special ways to articulate them - to find fulfilment both for itself and its audience. Its not led, it leads.

Marketing Myopia

A company I had hoped to work with contacted me last week to say that their biggest client had gone into administration and that it was " all hands to the pump" at the moment. As a result they couldnt undertake the marketing planning exercise we had talked about. Is my world just so marketing-centric I've lost touch with reality, or should they have been saying "can we bring the marketing planning exercise forward as now more than ever we need the right strategy to deal with our difficult challenges"? I dont understand why people dont understand - when your market is contracting you either need to take business from your competitors to survive at their expense,find new products to sell or markets to sell into, or sell more to existing customers. The success of any of these strategies is dependent upon your ability to get your marketing strategy and tactics right. Or is it just me?

New Reality

This is a phrase that's cropping up more and more in media commentary and political speeches. Will it replace "Credit Crunch" - let's hope so! The latter has taken on a depressingly popularist life of its own and makes me cringe everytime it rears its ugly syllables in broadcasting, advertising - everywhere (if another restaurant offers me the opportunity to "crunch through the crunch" I will not be responsible for my actions).
So what is the "New Reality"? It seems to depend, as always, what your agenda is. For me its the realisation that we all need to sharpen up our marketing act to surivive let alone thrive, and that there's no room for complacency any longer. Politicians being politicians it means a view of the world that suits their agenda at any given moment.

What's your New Reality?

The power of focus

I was with a client the other day. We've been working together for a few months now and were reviewing what we'd achieved. The business has gone from basket case to odds-on survivor in the last quarter and its clear why. FOCUS. The first thing we did back in November last year was look at where we could gain the quickest profitable return for our efforts whilst simultaneously opening up more opportunities with a short time-to-market. Analysis showed this clearly wasnt in the client's core market, which was tender-obsessed, cash-strapped and high maintainence for little reward. We spotted one opportunity in a market where the client could complete an existing project easily with the right amount of FOCUS, create instant opportunities to cross-sell, benefit from first mover advantage and replicate development work already completed to roll out on a reasonable scale. He piled all his limited resources in this direction and now has a delighted client-turned advocate lining up new opportunities for him. He's turning down opportunities to tender in his traditional sector.

Isnt it great when a plan comes together?