Google – The Next Big Marketing Failure?
Like Hoover, Sellotape and Coca Cola, Google has become part of our daily vernacular. We Google someone or something online and receive a myriad of responses in a fraction of a second. It is a fantastic business success story and its impact on how we market many goods and services is no less an accomplishment. But enough ego-stroking. My point is more to do with the sustainability of the Google marketing model and how the future might shape up. The clambering for space in cyberspace has reached epidemic proportions. We all want a slice of exposure to a global audience in the vain hope that it will boost business profits. And indeed, for many companies it continues to serve them well. As a result, Google’s profits soar into the billions – next stop world domination. Such is the frantic competition for search engine appeal many businesses may never experience the benefits of Google’s optimisation techniques – more likely the cold reality of who pays the Ferryman!
14 comments | Full storySelf Service has gone mad…
The more I talk to partners in the IT and telecommunications industry the more I feel their collective frustration at the vendor community. Vendors in this sector are fairly similar they mostly have a US HQ and they more or less divide into 4 regions which are roughly North America, EMEA, CALA and Asia Pacific. These structure and coverage models looks fine as part of the corporate overview but does it really work at ground level. And do global processes such as Self Service really work for their loyal partners?
1 comment | Full storySummer’s cool at Summer School
Our first Guest Blogger spot goes to Jennifer Morris, graduate from this year’s IDM Summer School, where 20 talented undergraduates, hand-picked from hundreds of applicants, were put through their paces in frankly the best introduction to the business there is. How was it for them? Here’s Jennifer’s diary.
0 comments | Full storyData not creative (use data to drive strategy not creative)
We all have a fascination with pictures. After all, they tell a thousand words or in the Sun’s case maybe a few less. But has our use of imagery overshadowed the real basis of business communication – namely our customer data? Can we get away with just using high impact visuals or are we becoming numb to the brain-draining dearth of images and messages that assault our limited mental storage capacity?
2 comments | Full storyEnough submarine marketing already
I once ran a workshop for an agency and their clients when the agency head came up with a worried expression. “I asked a marketing director recently what their brand positioning was and he told me it was confidential. How would you respond to that?” When I stopped laughing I had to confess I didn’t know how to respond to it either. But on reflection here’s a go. From that story I have coined the phrase Trident marketing – the type of marketer who likes to operate deep below the surface beyond detection then pops up – fires a missile then disappears again.
0 comments | Full storyYou get what you get because you do as you do
Your customers reflect your marketing and your marketing reflects your customers
I’m not generally one for philosophical maxims but this one strikes a chord and I’ve heard this phrase, which was originally written by American novelist, Mark Twain: “if you only do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you always got,” being applied in many ways – but the sentiment is consistent – if you do the same thing in business (or in your personal life come to think of it), the outcome is also likely to be the same.
1 comment | Full storyWhy my love of Ben & Jerry’s isn’t over just yet
Over the past couple of weeks there’s been quite a bit of buzz about Ben & Jerry’s dropping email in favour of social media. It stemmed from an email sent by their UK people to email subscribers, letting them know the monthly moosletter was being canned and asking recipients to fan them on Facebook. It’s not quite switching off email (they’ll use it still for special promotions) but it’s pretty close. According to the quite rightly other-side-of-the-story article, Ben & Jerry’s in Vermont isn’t following this particular herd, and will carry on regardless…
2 comments | Full storyIs Telemarketing still taboo?
In the world of integrated marketing plans and performance driven marketing, is the practice of telemarketing making a comeback? More importantly is it making a greater contribution than eMarketing or direct marketing?
2 comments | Full storyNote to self: I must get out more!
The other week I spent the day at the top of Milbank Tower in London at the 7th Annual IDM B2B Conference; the week before a day at Cranfield University’s annual Business Growth Conference. Both were excellent events.
0 comments | Full storyIs Digital the New Direct?
OK I will admit to being old enough to have been in DM in the 1980s. It was an exciting time. A combination of factors meant that Direct Marketing (a term which was coined around this time to include ‘direct mail marketing’ and ‘direct response advertising’) became ‘respectable’ and was even acknowledged for its creativity. The Royal Mail sponsored awards and there was an annual beano in Montreux to celebrate ‘the best of direct’.
5 comments | Full storyOpportunities & Threats: How Senior Marketers See The Future Of Social Media
What does the future hold for social media? Are marketers embracing it? Or are they still to be convinced? What do they see as the big problems – and the big benefits they hope to gain?
How bad marketing killed a good man
Do you ever wonder if you are doing a “good” job? I mean, besides making a living, are you doing the right thing?
1 comment | Full story










