Laudaballs

i2i Guide to Twitter for Business

2010-11-05T19:19:00.000Z

Open publication - Free publishing - More twitter guide

Motivation Management

2010-08-22T22:16:00.003+01:00

Motivation what is it? how does it work? Do we make the most of its power to move us?

Definition - Motivation is the activation or energization of goal-oriented behaviour. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. Ok the science bit may be a bit heavy - all I want us to think about today is this - How motivated are we in the things that we do? Work, Family, Sport, Community? I would say that it's almost impossible to remain "motivated" on a project or goal if we see no personal benefit, even if it's to keep our job.
Yes I know that's what motivation is but Im not sure we give it enough thought.

Going back to basics we have good old Maslow and his hierarchy of needs. He starts his pyramid with a foundation of basic needs to keep us alive, safe and comforted by our social circle the top 2 levels Esteem and Self Actualisation are the ones that mostly kick in for most motivations as we live in a society where fortunately the vast majority of the population have their basic needs met.

By way of a personal example Im taking part in this years Great North Run it will be my 7th. My family and I suspect a number of friends and colleagues think running 13.1 miles is sheer madness but somehow every year almost 50,000 do just that and it's so popular double that number would take part if they could. What motivates so many people to run so far?

They'll be dozens if not hundreds of different motivational drivers to do the GNR.

For me it's quite simple, training helps to keep me fit, running de-stresses and helps you to feel positive. That's a physiological benefit, beyond that I enjoy the sense of achievement in reaching the end. Last but not least is the feeling of altruism gained from taking the pain for a nominated charity and the reward you feel for doing something for others. These are my motivational drivers and they must be fairly strong given the fact it's getting harder and I'm still plodding on.

So what of other "goals" that we may have? Achieve promotion, a pay rise, greater responsibility. Why do we want these things? Are we jealous of siblings who have achieved more, frustrated by driving the same small car for 5 years or living in a house that's not big enough for your growing family? These are negative drivers to want to change circumstances but aren't necessarily enough to see us change things.

Almost every year during the GNR, approximately 8 miles in I start to tire quite badly, it's due to my training being mostly no more than 6 miles and my brain saying "oi stupido, you're still running why haven't you stopped?" at that point I've learnt to switch off the neggy nag in my head and instead visualise myself at the end, having a cool drink, a massage, exchanging running tales with fellow sweaty blobs but overall making myself feel that sense of achievement ahead of time. It's strange but it works. our brains are fantastically powerful tools but most of the time we leave them in autopilot and don't even think to try and manage it's processing power.

Now to other personal goals, can you train the brain to see yourself in a better place? Yes I really believe we can and it's something we should try and work on. For some placing a picture of the car of their dreams on the fridge door or screensaver works, others find time to meditate and project themselves forward to a time when the goal or goals have been achieved. If sceptical of this approach, thinking it's akin to mumbo jumbo or poor mans Derren Brown start with a simple target. For example I recently decided to improve my cookery skills, Ramsay or Oliver I am certainly not but my repertoire of meals needed work. Each night I take a few minutes before falling asleep thinking of recipe ideas and then preparing, cooking and eating that meal with my family and when the opportunity arises I'll try one out. You could just say "buy a cook book" but that wouldn't motivate me to cook. The motivation comes from my desire to be original and delivery in imprinting the experience on my mind. Hopefully my family will survive the experience!

It's not a unique technique nor 100% guaranteed to work but for me it has proven surprisingly effective.

What motivates people really does interest me. Personally I think the more honest we are with ourselves the better the chances of motivating ourselves to achieve the goal. Back to the GNR one benefit of training is that it not only keeps me fit but it prevents my middle from spreading any further and whilst there are health benefits to this my personal motivation is pure vanity. Such motivators are very personal but tend to be the ones that have the strongest impact and drive our actions to achieve the goal.

If you have a motivational story to share I'd love to hear it please drop me a line in confidence to David.laud@i2isolutions.co.uk

World Cup 2010 and The Danger of "Bandwagon Marketing"

2010-06-06T13:08:00.020+01:00

Ok, ok enough already! I love football, like thousands of others I'll be glued to the TV over the next few weeks, experiencing the highs and no doubt lows of watching our national team compete in South Africa. But do we really need to be bombarded with marketing messages riding on the back of the wave of national expectation?

It hasn't even started yet and I'm getting tired of the media hype and hysteria over this event. Mostly, as a marketer, I'm cheesed off with the creativley challenged ad agencies touting product off the back of the World Cup and to make the point I've listed my starting 11 of World Cup 2010 related advertisements. The vast majority I'd wish had developed ligament or metatarsal damage the shining star of this very average team is Nike.

1. Sony Bravia: Former England managers Terry Venables and Graham Taylor team up with Scottish legend Kenny Dalglish in a nursing home setting as they prepare for the tournament. Doesn't really work for me.
2. Nationwide: Little Britain's Matt Lucas and David Walliams (Andy & Lou) meet the England team training. Funny the first time but once you've seen the gag....
3. Pepsi: World class players Lampard, Kaka, Henry, Messi, and Arshavin get to play in an African Safari setting with the locals literally changing the goalposts you end up just hoping Messi, who's lost in the Veldt has a close encounter with that lion.
4. Nike: "Write the Future" Rooney (Hero or Villain), Ribery and Drogba feature with star performance from Ronaldo who gets to meet Homer Simpson - it has everything you want in a World Cup ad it's my personal favourite.
5. Carlsberg: (If Carlsberg gave team talks or more likely if the BNP made TV adverts) Stuart Pearce, Steve Davis, Clive Woodward, Phil Taylor! even explorer Rannulph Fiennes and who spotted cult football figure and Hartlepools number one fan Jeff Stelling. All I can say is I hope he got an awful lot of money for that appearance. The ad has "something of the night about it" not what the agency hoped for. They wanted hairs to be raised on the back of the neck, I just feel uncomfortable watching it, especially the quattro formagio moment of a CGI'd Bobby Moore and in my view misuse of a true gent of the game Sir Bobby Robson.
6. Pringles - Peter Crouch & his infamous robot dance truly, truly awful
7. Kit Kat - Cross your fingers and hope they don't melt, oh and choice of Sol Campbell as main star in TV campaign somewhat backfired.
8. We buy any car - switches tack to female presenter, Norway's Charlotte Lade, showing off ball skills, naff, naff, naff
9. The Sun - With Terry Venables dreaming he's Matt Munro.
10. Mars - With a far from match fit John Barnes resurrection of New Orders "World in Motion" classic but there's nothing classic about this ad! Who thought putting JB in that massive red sweat top would mask the fact he'd had an advance in a few hundred "work rest and play" bars and I'm not talking fun size!
11. Tesco - Well you didn't think the supermarkets were imune! This ad with the regular "soap style" couple decide there's no such thing as a recession and the World Cup is a great excuse to blow loads of money on things they don't really need, but then they do earn clubcard points so it's ok!

And it doesn't stop there I could list a full 23 strong squad of dodgy bandwagon hoppers, here are a couple of beauts..

Ladbrokes - Very nearly made the starting 11, Chris Kamara and Ian Wright camp it up in an "Italian Job" style ad that should have had it's b****y doors blown off.

Visa - Armchair to winning goal losing a few pounds and facial hair in the process, nice idea but not as good as the original running man ad. The guys from Visa also produced an ad full of our previous World Cup exits, hand of God and quite a few missed penalties..thanks!

Godloves Solicitors (yes that's their real firm name) of course what's a perfect link to the World Cup? Making a Will of course, just in case you choke on a Pringle whilst downing your tenth can of Carlsberg watching Upson step up to take a penalty against Brazil in the Semis.

So there are the contenders mostly they should have remained on post it notes stuck to the walls of agency brainstorming rooms but hey, it's the World Cup and they and their clients obviously think naff can sell.

But I don't think it does anymore. My belief is that most consumers are a lot smarter than admen think and whilst we can still enjoy a good joke, clever line or seeing football legends in funny situations our attention and response is not triggered by constant bombardment.

Most of the above ads used a multi media shower to ensure we've all had exposure to the message but has it been money well spent? Time will tell but my money would be on the brave advertisers who see the market opportunity in those not obsessed with everything footie related. 60% of my household is, unlike me, not looking forward to the World Cup and looking for relief from the tsunami of footie related media. Let's just hope England perform better than the advertisers.

I'm keen to hear your thoughts on this and please feel free to add your own list of good, bad and ugly world cup ads.

"Old Reliable" A Lawn Story

2010-04-25T10:07:00.013+01:00

Every year the moment arrives when a glance out at the garden and lack of precipitation brings about the realisation, "time for the first cut of the lawn". This year the severe winter has put that moment off longer than I can remember but it's inevitable, the grass will grow, the son will demand his footie pitch and you just couldn't take the families grief if the dog went missing one day (we do have a particularly small dog).

In the short walk to the shed my thoughts turn to the tool of choice, to be frank neither fill me with optimism. We've an inherited hover that really no longer hovers it just sits growling above the grass and intimidates it to cower under it, hover having moved on the grass whispers "it's all clear" and it miraculously springs back to life. That's one annoying feature, the other is the requirement to have shoulders like a young Schwarzenegger to compensate for the lack of hover.

There is a lot more bovver with this particular hover mower, the only bonus feature is that it does collect the grass.

The second option brings anxiety of its own especially for the first cut of the year. As the grass is particularly lush and long it's really too much for the Hover. My fallback is the petrol engined Briggs & Stratton "old reliable" purchased over 15 years ago.

It started life on a small holding I owned and over the years has performed heroics. There's nothing this little muncher won't scythe down. This scrappy-doo of the mower world has defied the owner manual (wherever that is now!) as I've only ever put oil in it once and year after year I just quench its thirst with unleaded and it duly does its job.

The downside of "old reliable" is that it makes a big noise, well big is an understatement. Try twelve Harley Davidson's racing through a tunnel and you'll be getting close.

Noise polluter it is and technically I'm sure I should wear ear defenders along with goggles and body armour when using it. The rear guard fell off years ago, it doesn't collect the grass it just shreds and mulches it and I'm awaiting the moment of pain when it pings back at me a shard of wood or stone.

So I'm now faced with the cobwebby shed contents two contenders but really only one decision. "Old reliable" gets a slurp of Esso's finest, the rubber button gets three pushes to feed the engine and with a firm grasp of the starter pulley I yank it....cough! Try again cough! Splutter! cough! a third, this time with real meaning and yes...the smoke puffs out of the engine, small backfire pop and it's waking the neighbours (should be up anyway 10.00am on a Sunday!)

So for yet another year "old reliable" saves the day and whilst I'm pacing up and down attempting the variable green stripes of Lords my mind invariably wanders. You can't help attributing human qualities to such a faithful yet occasionally temperamental tool.

How many relationships do we have where we rarely trouble the person until we need them? We know they'll be there, we know they'll not question us they'll just do what's asked of them offer support and a shoulder if required. Note to self, don't take those relationships for granted, who knows they may need help some time and wouldn't it be good to be the "go to person".

Just before I set off for the next edition - Lawn Story 2, "With Briggs & Stratton - no one can hear you scream" just thought I'd enquire....anyone want to buy a hover "muscle" mower? Doesn't cut much but gives you a great upper body workout.

'Tis the Season to be...Scammed

2009-12-11T18:08:00.009Z

Each holiday season brings an increasing number of malicious e-mails that cause unwitting recipients unexpected grief.

Why is it so prevalent at this time of year?

Our guard is down

We're in the Christmas spirit

There is a general increase in "festive and fun" e-mails with attachments

We've ordered something online so expect to get delivery messages

and....the perpetrators have nothing better to do!

So what do you need to look out for this year.....

UPS/FedEx/DHL missed delivery e-mails - don't print the attachment it's a virus

The Koobface virus is out there on facebook for anyone opening an invitation to view a festive video on YouTube - open it and it will render your PC useless

e-cards - generally be wary of any especially attachments, Hallmark has in the past been noted for its famous "hoax virus" but don't be fooled as they can and do carry threats. Coca Cola and McDonald's branded Xmas e-cards can also carry a virus.

These are just a few of the unwanted presents you shouldn't open this Christmas.

Follow this simple but effective rule.

If you receive an unexpected e-mail - regardless of how plausible it looks, Google the subject header or sender details along with the words virus, scam or spam before you take any action.

That will take you 15 seconds and potentially save your PC.

Have a very merry and safe Christmas

David Laud - Chartered Marketer

MS 7 Must have or luxury O$?

2009-10-24T12:15:00.005+01:00

By my own admission I'm not an IT expert but like most of us I know my way around a PC. So when Microsoft announce a new operating system there is an automatic sense that you must "buy in" to the new platform or face falling behind your competitors and customers.

However, increasingly, each new launch brings a debate between those in the know; which makes me anxious as to the merit of being an "early adopter".

These so called experts often disagree about the relative benefits and downsides of installing the new operating system. Forums buzz with banter exchanged between MS exchangers, Apple byters and the conscientious objectors who pick fault with both arguments.

I take the pragmatic approach and although I personally dislike the following phrase it fits neatly on this occasion...."if it ain't broke..."

We're still in recession, many are facing a very tough 2010 and in our ever increasing disposable lifestyles we could perhaps take stock and pause....do we really need the very latest gadget, gizmo, app or operating system?

The pricing of MS 7

upgrade will cost £79.99 until 1 January 2010,

at which point it will go up to £99.99.

The full version costs £149.99.

MS bless them have fed into our primal needs to keep one step ahead and the peer pressure not to be seen to be wearing last years OS. In a Gok Wan anti "fashion catwalk" approach to technology we should perhaps strip away the fancy features and aim to just look good naked! Well figuratively speaking of course.

Ask yourself what your business really needs and not what you fear you should do just to keep up. If your systems are working and healthy could I suggest that you book time out to plan for the next upgrade at a point when it suits the business rather than the MS executives.

As I stated at the outset I'm not an IT expert but I do trust my instincts and so should you. This is one business that's sticking with Vista for now and when the time comes perhaps look at alternatives - I for one am getting rather tired of the frequency of OS changes with little if no significant change to the previous versions.

No doubt those who profess to be experts in this field will disagree but business success is not based upon being a serial early adopter.

Managing the PR Agency Relationship

2009-07-10T15:13:00.003+01:00

Most PR agencies offer core services that include a commitment to raise the businesses profile through well crafted and placed press releases, assistance with events, facilitating meetings with important media contacts and generally providing fresh ideas for your marketing plans.

Delivery, unfortunately, is not always as easy to realise. Although on occasion this may be due to a lack of activity on the part of the agency, more often disappointing results can be sourced back to the clients brief and their own lack of action.

A truly successful working relationship with a PR agency, as in most partnerships, is a sharing of responsibility and commitment borne out of trust that each will deliver their end of the bargain.

Sitting back to watch the PR agency work wonders with your profile will likely result in a very short term affair.
In my experience a project based approach can be a very healthy method of managing expectations on both sides. Setting clear objectives and expected outputs for a specific marketing activity will help focus attention and resources and also highlight areas of potential weakness if results fall short.

Responsibility for making the best of the relationship should sit with the client as they are paying the fee and thereby taking the risk on outsourcing this marketing function.

PR Agency management Do’s and Don’t’s

Do – plan your activity, consider specific projects
Do – invest time in educating the key agency contact on your business and main objectives
Do – have a realistic expectation of the outcomes from any project/ campaign
Do – offer constructive feedback if the copy of a release doesn’t hit the mark
Do – offer encouragement and thanks when you get a successful result
Do – seek feedback from the agency and review progress at regular intervals
Do – brief key company staff on what the agency are doing
Do – encourage staff to contribute ideas for PR opportunities

Don’t - leave the agency to come up with all the ideas
Don’t - delegate responsibility for making the relationship work
Don’t - ignore agency feedback when offered
Don’t - lose control of the relationship through delegation to poorly briefed colleagues or a variety of agency contacts rather than a dedicated professional
Don’t – take a short term view (less than 6 months) most generic profile building PR campaigns take time to build momentum

For more help on pr agency management contact
i2i business solutions – 01642 581731
or e-mail

david.laud@i2isolutions.co.uk .

Thanks to Georgie (my daughter who created this cartoon image of me of few years ago)

Marketing Manager Vacancy

2009-05-24T12:59:00.010+01:00

The current marketing manager at Clive Owen & Co. is moving to New Zealand shortly so this leading regional accountancy practice is looking for a replacement.

Clive Owen & Co. are a regional firm of Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers with offices in Darlington, Durham and York and they require a Marketing Manager to direct the marketing department in new business development including:

Strategic marketing, digital marketing plan
Direct marketing campaign management
Events management and networking activity
PR including internal and external communications
Branding and literature development

Competitive salary packageClosing Date: 03/06/09

To apply please send full CV and covering letter to:

Angus Allan, Clive Owen & Co LLP, 140 Coniscliffe Road, Darlington DL3 7

email carolyn.shelley@cliveowen.com for more details

The T-Bag Game

2009-05-20T21:03:00.004+01:00

As the football season draws to its conclusion we'll soon be looking blankly at the TV trying to find something to fill the void.... look no further, here at Laudaballs we've created the solution.

The T-Bag Game started over ten years ago as a safe, indoor pastime that appealed to the competitive dad in me, well imagine the glory of beating your 3 and 5 year old daughters at a game you invented!! Sad? Yes. Fun? Definitely..but what is it.

As the name suggests all you need is a T-bag per player. Preferred venue, your kitchen. Targets - t-cups or preferably mugs.

The aim. To stand a minimum of four paces from the cup with it placed on a work top face and take turns to throw into a cup.

You take one throw each before you turn the kettle on and one final throw each after the kettle has boiled.

There are two varieties of the game.

Tetley Rules - first one to get a t-bag in a cup wins.

Yorkshire Rules - the winner being the one with the highest number of bags in cups during the kettle boil timescale. In the event of a draw the winner can be determined by the final throw where the one whose bag is nearest to a nominated cup is victorious.

Scoring

1 point per bag in cup

2 points for bag in cup if you are playing with 2 or more cups and nominate in advance each time (before the throw) which cup you are aiming at.

3 points bag in cup reverse, turn back to cup and throw over shoulder without looking.

4 points for a bag in cup reverse in nominated cup.

Throwing

Players must be next to eachother or stand in same spot each time.

Underarm or overarm (dart style) are acceptable.

Bags

Pyramid, square or round work but it's best if they are slightly scrunched reducing wind resistence- Warning! split bags forfeit the game

Tips

Practice, practice, practice

Avoid wet patches as the t-bag will split or if not be harder to direct

Make sure you make the tea afterwards so you can avoid using the one that fell on the floor in your cup!

Kids grow and now I have a 10 year old son who's just too good at this, perhaps time to retire.

Go on give it a go and let me know how you get on.

Laudaballs Sports Editor

Well Tweet my Blog!

2009-05-10T09:53:00.004+01:00

And henceforth the geeks shall inherit the Earth....

and so it would seem.

Twitter, Blogs, YouTube, Linkedin, Facebook, MySpace...the list gets longer each week. Are we over complicating life and communication somewhat? Or are we compelled to "join the gang" afraid that if we don't we will forever live in a world of grumpy old outsiders moaning about the evils of these communities?

I sit somewhere between the two views despite having my own blog and Twitter accounts. My view is that you are unable to truly judge something unless you are prepared to learn about it for yourself?

This is the most important aspect of being a marketer today, not to get carried away with the latest fad but to evaluate it and place it in the context of your business. If you can find a use for it, a real tangible benefit that can be supported by your business then it's worth embracing.

Truly there is a great deal of rubbish published on and about Twitter and Blogs which may put a large number of businesses off the idea of joining in. As I see it there are some pretty simple steps to determining if your buisness should embrace twitter or blogging as a method to communicate with customers, staff or prospects.

Identify who you want to engage with - prospects, customers, staff, investors, new recruits....

Establish which platforms they are "active" in using - a little research can save a lot of time, effort and money wasted

Ask yourself ...does my business/ market, generate a healthy supply of original ideas or information that would be of interest to the target group?

Do we have the resources to mantain a regular feed of information - the people who front a blog on a specific topic need to be the ones who the business are looking to put forward?

Understand the interplay between the methods of communication i.e. Using Twitter to post a brief intro and link to your latest blog.

Crucially, measure the impact of your activity and set realistic targets for reaching specific audiences with clear messages.

Get a second opinion before posting. A b2b approach needs to be thought through and checked a little more thoroughly than personal very informal postings. The image and reputation of your organisation can be enhanced or damaged by the content and tone of your postings.

Don't be afraid to test the medium yourself before letting it loose on your company, understand how it works and look at businesses in your market who are embracing blogs and twitter. Is it working for them? If so why? If not what would you do differently?

Finally, don't loose sight of the fact that blogs and twitter are relatively informal methods of communication with the underlying imperative to entertain and inform. You may find your business absolutely fascinating but unless you can make widget related blogs interesting and useful to the reader you won't get a great response.

On balance I think twitter and blogs add a really interesting dimension to net communities and there are already plenty of examples of businesses using them to good effect. Unfortunately there are also a large number of businesses who have jumped onto the bandwagon before they've checked if it's going their way.

New mediums for communication do not necessarily require new rules for marketing. Once you've understood how they work technically, try applying the tried and tested tools of marketing management; fundamentally you still need to manage the process and measure the results to determine its success.

Overall I'd recommend having fun with the process and find through twitter and blogs a way to convey the personality of your business.

If you've got some examples to share please drop me a line.

David Laud - Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Chartered Marketer

e-mail - david.laud@i2isolutions.co.uk

Follow David on Twitter - http://twitter.com/davidlaud

Marketing - It's a team game

2009-04-12T09:50:00.004+01:00

As a marketer with over twenty years experience clients sometimes mistakenly think that I have the answer to most marketing related issues and expect me to pull out of my briefcase a solution to every creative opportunity. That’s flattering but clearly wrong.

The best you can hope for is an application of clear business process harnessed to a good idea; and that marriage bringing home the rewards. Whilst I have no fear in applying the business process and on occasion have originated the odd golden nugget of an idea, I am by no way a fount of perpetual ideas.

In fact, if anyone suggests that they are capable of solving all your marketing/ business problems it could fall into the category of “too good to be true” because no one has all the answers.

If you are in need of inspiration you could do far worse than look closer to home. Over the years my clients have created fantastic strap lines, impactful adverts and wonderfully original logos simply by having someone believe in their own ability to be creative and that others wouldn’t laugh at their efforts. Sure, a little guidance is sometimes required but more often than not a small amount of encouragement and permission to “do it themselves” is all that’s required.

Don’t get me wrong, advertising and design agencies can provide superb input and take a germ of an idea and breathe life into it but equally those within the business are better placed than anyone to understand the real needs and to be able to communicate that to their target audience.

What is absolutely critical is that the finished product fits the bill and doesn’t look “handmade”, “cheesy” or even worse somebody else’s idea in the first place!

No one has exclusive rights to the creative process, we all possess the ability, the trick is to apply the most appropriate methods to find it.

An added benefit is by involving your business in a creative process such as brand naming, copywriting, logos etc. you provide a real opportunity for them to participate in taking the company forward. This can be achieved through a variety of mediums:

Staff newsletters
Competitions
Away day meetings
Department meetings
Intranet
Surveys

Why is this so important?

Ultimately your greatest marketing opportunity lies with your own workforce. Consider how many people each of your staff interact with on a regular basis and how they may all be potential customers.

If you can engender a positive attitude to your company and its activities through your own people others will soon get the message and the business will continue to grow.

Don’t be economic with your future

2009-03-13T09:38:00.001Z

I’m fed up with hearing about house prices, credit crunch, job losses and the economic downturn but the truth is we can’t avoid the reality of the situation.

An uncertain climate can breed its own sense of doom simply because we fill in any gaps with a natural inclination to “fear the worst”.

Without wishing to appear too smiley in the face of adverse trading conditions for many I would advocate a positive outlook in such times.

If your business is basically sound, costs manageable and customers happy, the last thing to do is start cutting back to protect your profit margin. Invariably in times of recession (and yes I’m old enough to remember working through interesting times in the past), the Finance Director sharpens the pencil and looks at what they may consider expendable expenditure. Expendable? What they really mean is areas that they either don’t fully understand or worse believe can be managed by fewer, less experienced individuals.

Classic targets are I.T., Marketing and Sales. In the short term a payroll saving can be seen but in the medium to long term lack of IT investment and strategic input will offer far greater concerns.

The role of the marketer in these times becomes critical rather than optional. Many successful businesses traded out of recession to new heights whilst their competitors rationalise expenditure and keep collective heads down awaiting the “all clear”. When the economy picks up the business that took a bullish approach will be at the front of everyone’s mind whilst others will need to spend considerable sums to re-establish the brand and profile.

Interestingly I facilitated a strategic day for a firm in the north of England recently and part of their SWOT analysis identified “recessionary conditions” as an opportunity. Instead of seeing such businesses as commercial pariahs we should learn that we can all find positives from difficult trading conditions. Simply forcing us to re-engineer our business model is no bad thing and certainly a task where you’ll benefit from an experienced marketers and IT support.

If competitors are drawing in their marketing guns at this time think of how much impact you could make by launching a new product or service and giving the media some much needed positive copy.

Of course in such a brief article it’s easy to offer generalisms such as this however in practice the logic for any ambitious, proactive business is to look outward to identify new ways to generate revenue rather than look inward and ponder who goes first when you wield the hatchet.

Tips for marketing through a recession;

Resist the pull to reduce prices – good customers will remain as long as you continue to provide the right level of service.

Stop marketing spend on unfocussed campaigns and focus on profitable sales.

Target your competitors (customers) as they may be struggling either due to over extension or poor management.

Protect your image and business by looking at the intellectual property that supports the brand(s).

Consider divesting yourself of any brands that may be of more value to a 3rd party.

Continue to seek outstanding candidates who may see the writing on the wall at competitor firms.

Re-evaluate supplier relationships to improve budget efficiency.

And the award goes to....

2009-02-08T20:20:00.000Z

It's gong season, the Globes, BAFTAs and up and coming Oscars. But do we really care? When we're worried about covering the mortgage, keeping or finding a job and dealing with our daily stresses red carpets can be more like red rags..... the glitz the glamour the glory hunters, coiffed, cute and closeted.

But, at times like these we are probably more likely than ever to want to escape to Hollywood and immerse ourselves in a world we'll never really know. The creative industries can deliver much needed solace and escapism and right now that sounds good to me.

So I'll be watching the beautiful people smile graciously as they see rivals gush whilst clasping their shiney trophies. Because like the movies, this is a fantasy that we can all switch on and lose ourselves in. Thanks to mum, dad, my wife and kids, Schnorkle the dog for their support in helping me with this, my very first blog.