Just over 15 years ago I closed the door for the last time on my first business venture. A massive learning curve, and a massive waste of my time (and money).

In 1990 I managed to find some Angel backing and launched what was arguably the finest showroom in London. We retailed the best hi-fi at any price, and we’re talking about a serious price – our best system (CD player, amplifiers and a pair of speakers) cost £115,000, our best speaker cables cost £10,000 (no, really), we even had a £9,000 pair of headphones. The showroom was kitted-out in the most sumptuous style and was positioned right opposite Harrods. We had the best sounds, the best showroom, and the best location.

So why didn’t it work?

I made an all too common mistake. I confused my opinion with fact. I believed that my viewpoint was the same as everyone else's. I thought, because high quality music reproduction was a passion of mine, it would be a passion of the well-heeled folks who visited our store.

The experience taught me a lot of lessons which still shape my thinking. I engage focus groups, carry out research, and use sampling before I make any decisions for myself or my clients. At all costs I must avoid another similarly spectacular failure!

But looking back on the whole affair, I think that it illustrates some very interesting reasons why so much of today's marketing doesn’t engage with its audience. We need to recognise that our customers are different from us. We need to make sure that we don’t make assumptions about their viewpoint, their knowledge level, and most importantly we mustn’t for a moment think that they care about ANYTHING that we do or say. Because the chances are they probably don’t.

So next time you write a PowerPoint presentation, don't start with the company history and your CV, start with the exciting stuff, what you're going to do for their company, how much you can save them, what your big idea is.

Think about what the audience might want to hear, NOT what you want to say.

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As discussed in previous posts, it is a given that the old models for, well pretty much everything, have been swept away by the online revolution, and Google in particular. The biggest challenge that businesses both large and small have to face is not from their competition, but from this new online order.

It used to be the case that customers were local and what you told them they either believed or didn’t – either way, they would have had a tough job sourcing an alternate supplier or proving you wrong or right. Now, when you offer your services to a prospect they can go online, establish the truth and find 50 suppliers who offer exactly the same service as you in a matter of a few seconds.

If you’re writing a book you can buy the computer from America, get it proofed in England, get it printed in China and get it shipped globally without ever even getting your hands on it…so how exactly can an old established publisher compete in this global market which is only ever a click away?

Like the publisher we could of course pretend that the internet isn’t there, and hope that the problem goes away. Or we can think about how we can use the internet to add value to our offer, how we can exploit what it’s best at – spreading ideas and sharing information.

1 – Is your website really just a brochure online? Before the internet, a brochure was the vehicle used by organisations to talk about themselves. It was an opportunity to explain what they did, and why.

Does this sound like your website? The problem is that nobody wants you to tell them how good you are, to be credible, they want you to show them. So if your website is a collection if pages which simply detail you products and services, your history, and your contact details you’re simply making noise, not adding value. All of your competition is saying the same thing: great service, 10 years experience, unparalleled industry knowledge… there is no point of difference. I’ve never been to an Indian restaurant which doesn’t proclaim “Finest Indian Cuisine” on the menu – and because they all say it, nobody believes any of them.

To be believable you must show people why you’re good – package-up some snippets of your knowledge and give them away to visitors to your site. It will help you win their trust and it will establish you as an expert.

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...there was an advertising man who recognised that the rise of mass media opened-up a whole host of opportunities to sell things to unsuspecting prospects. He was smart enough to see a great opportunity. If he could interrupt these prospects repeatedly in their day-to-day lives when they weren’t expecting it he could influence their behaviour, and make them buy his client’s products – often even if they didn’t really want to, or need them! That man was Leo Burnett, the father of advertising. He built a global empire which was extremely good at influencing mass market behaviours.

After Leo Burnett came a tsunami of great advertisers - David Ogilvy (Ogilvy & Mather), James Walter Thompson (JWT), the Saatchi’s and countless others, each of them bringing their own style & flavour, and each of them building on the ideas of Leo Burnett.

The basis on which each of these organisations operated has been in essence the same since Leo Burnett began this kind of advertising; to produce eye catching ads, which through the platforms created by mass media attract people’s attention, and influence their behaviour (usually to purchase). And, since Leo himself first wrote copy for Cadillac in 1917 the techniques employed by advertisers have worked, and worked well.

These proven techniques have informed other types of marketing and promotion – and they have all been based on the same premise. Talk often enough to a large enough group of people, in ever more creative ways and a proportion of them will listen to what you have to say.

Of course there will be those who argue that this isn’t the case, and the dynamics of direct mail, advertising, evens and direct sales are fundamentally different, but there’s not. They are all based on the assumption that a portion of the people to whom you are trying to talk aren’t listening, or actively don’t want to listen, and that this wastage is inherent in any campaign or marketing strategy, and that this is part of the cost of the campaign itself. And until recently there’s been no believable alternative market model for how to promote products and services.

The problem with this old model is not that it doesn’t work, just that we can no longer make it work because that natural wastage has become so large that campaigns are not financially viable in the way that they used to be.

The reason for this is that the amount of choice available to the audience to just too great. Hundreds of TV channels, thousands of radio stations, millions of websites, billboards, hoardings, door-to-door flyers, direct mail, email, text messaging, mean that there are simply too many avenues. Too many avenues for the audience to bear, too many avenues for us to manage. No longer can an advert in the back of the Sunday paper guarantee to bring anything home. Despite the profiling of the readers/listeners/views/traffic, it doesn’t work, and it doesn’t work for two reasons.

i) the internet has enabled each of us to be individuals rather than one of a crowd. Yes, the global village is a much used term, but the fact remains that if you are passionate about something, no matter how obscure, within the global village there will be plenty of others who are passionate about the same thing. And you only want to know about things that you care about.

ii) the audience has become really good at ignoring our messages. Can you remember your favourite ad on TV at the moment? Probably not. Can you remember all the ads you drove past on your way to work? Probably not. That’s because you tune them out. They’ve simply become wallpaper.

The reason that you choose to tune these ads-out is because you have higher expectations, you want to have ads which are of interest to you, showing products which you do want to buy from brands that you do care about.

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Do you talk to your clients (and staff) in a way which totally fails to engage them? They you have a list of features/benefits/facts which you must mention, no matter what? Do you believe that the person you’re writing to (client or not) cares about your widgets?

Well, they don’t.

The sad fact is that the only person who cares about your business is you and if you come at your communications from a position of knowing that the recipient would most likely rather be doing something else, then there’s a chance that you might be able to hook them.

Don’t list points which you think make you sound important – how long you’ve been trading, how big you are, how much growth you’re experiencing. Think about what their questions might be, and answer those.

These are the rules of engagement for the modern world.

Demonstrate that you have some sensitivity for their issues, and that you know how to solve them. Once you’ve shown them how good you are (rather than told them) there’s a chance that you can win their confidence, then, you’re off and running!

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I really struggle to understand why some organisations can be such luddites! Each year they produce a new brochure/website/direct mail campaign, and each year they hope that it will revolutionise their sales – in exactly the same way it didn’t last year, or the year before, or the year…

Anyway, I wondered why when it comes to design and marketing the client rarely asks what ROI can I expect, or what can this do for me. Instead they ask how much will it cost, and what have you done for others previously!

The irony is that these days, with the paradigm shifts happening on a monthly basis, there really IS NO PREVIOUSLY. The whole market is virgin, and very few businesses or agencies seem to understand that the proven model on which we base our marketing behaviours is irrelevant.

Google is the fastest growing company in history, from 0 – $125bn in just 10 years, and they didn’t do this by copying what others have done, or doing stuff the old way.

Throw away the rule book, throw-out the baby with the bath water, and really look at what’s going-on, then think how your business can capitalise on this world of possibilities.

Good luck, and goodnight!

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If you’ve not yet seen Google Wave, you should have a look.

Email isn’t a good way of communicating really, it’s simply an electronic version of the postal system… 

Imagine recreating written communications using the functionality of the internet as a basis, rather than the functionality of the horse and saddlebag… 

What you have is Google Wave. Currently in Beta testing, this promises to offer email, forums, blogs and wikis all in one. It will probably change how we communicate on line for ever… for the better.

We all remember 15 years ago saying “email… what’s the point?”! Don't make the same mistake with Google Wave.

Well Google Wave, you heard it here first (or perhaps second!)

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The Apple WWDC has finally answered all of the fundamental shortcomings of the iPhone. 300 hrs standby and 10 hours talktime, video recording (and editing), MMS, cut and paste, voice control, and soon turn-by-turn satellite navigation.

I shall look forward to watching Apple’s quest for domination of the entire technology market continue!

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but in these days of recession, where redundancies are commonplace, credit terms are being stretched, and a general feeling of worry seems to pervade every corner of the workplace, why are your “loyal” staff lacking the commitment that they should have? After all, you’ve been good to them for years haven’t you?

Well, you may well have paid them, but in the 21^st century that isn’t enough. People have unlimited choices, and can have their CV distributed to the four corners of the world within minutes if they’re of a mind to.

If you don’t communicate effectively with them; explaining what you’re doing and why, helping them to share your vision and making them feel included, there’s little chance they’ll be there for you – why should they be?

Imagine Company X.

It’s been manufacturing widgets for years, and whilst it is proud of its past, it has been very keen to keep it’s employees happy. Everyone in the company has enjoyed healthy bonuses, and the last two decades has been a boom time in the widget market much like the economy as a whole. This has meant that a relaxed atmosphere, a happy and committed workforce, and a string growth have been hallmarks of the company.

However, the last 18 months has not been quite so easy. Increased competition from China, a slowdown in the global market for widgets, and clients taking longer to pay has meant that Company X has had to make some redundancies.

Because the company hasn’t explained why they’ve made the redundancies, the remaining staff fear that they’re going to be next, they feel in the dark – they didn’t know that the company was in trouble until some of their friends lost their jobs.

There’s now a tangible sense of low morale amongst the workforce, and despite the fact that much of the dead-wood has been removed and savings have been made, there seem to be other problems emerging. Things are going from bad to worse.

After what could have been cleansing for the business, other areas are starting to crack; increased absenteeism, reduced commitment, increased staff churn, even graffiti in the toilets all help to make the company look and feel like it’s the end of the road.

Had the staff been on side, it could have been a very different story. An on-going campaign to engage and excite the staff could have helped them to feel some ownership of the business, and been sympathetic its plight. Hell, they might even have solved the problem for Company X.

Staff who know where they’re going and why are more committed, and work harder than those that are simply remunerated (no matter how you dress it up as a package of employee benefits). Staff want to see how their contribution helps the company achieve its goals, and they want to help shape the future of the business too, they want to have a voice and have it heard.

In a recession, they way to make businesses strong isn’t to cut staffing costs, but to maximise value from those overheads, by getting people to work harder, faster and better. And the easy way to do that is to make them want the company to succeed.

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