Can advertising be too effective?

Here is a great marketing case study. Swedish Airport Coaches conducted a study and determined that a bus trip save the equivalent of 50 car trips. They built an outdoor advertising display comprising of a bus built out of 50 disused cars. The advert has been hugely successful. It touches on carbon emissions issue which is topical, but more importantly the display is cleverly put together and became such an entertainment and item of interest, that it resulted in traffic jams! This advert touches at the heart of how to connect with younger generations. Here are some marketing tips for connecting with Gen X and Millennials which this advertising campaign does well:

- entertain them
- create campaigns that make them think
- dont make the message obvious
- use juxtaposition – and make things appear not as they are
- use humour and paradox

You can watch the video here: 50 cars or 1 bus?

PWC “Millennials at work” survey

The “Millennials at Work” research to be published by PricewaterhouseCoopers later this year is based on survey responses from over 4200 graduates in 44 countries (click here to see last year’s survey). The headline results include some interesting insights into how this younger generation thinks about ethics and their company.

Young members of staff especially want ethical employers and training, and will work for less pay if treated well. While 61% of employers worldwide say they have challenges recruiting and keeping young employees, new research shows that the young – far from being the self-centred job-hoppers employers depict them as – are idealists who want ethical employers.

In a key finding, 88% of young staff say they want employers with corporate social responsibility (CSR) values that reflect their own. Additionally, 86% would consider leaving an employer whose CSR values no longer reflected theirs. An employer’s policy on climate change is seen as important or very important by most graduates globally (58%).

Convincing Consumers to Spend Again

I got this excellent article from Booz and Hamilton’s ezine, “Strategy + Business”. It’s worth subscribing to.

To get consumers spending again, you need to get their attention. This means innovative marketing techniques – and everyone has to do this for the next few years. But how do you differentiate yourself from others who are doing the same?

Read the original here, or see an extended extract below.
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10 rules for effective strategic planning PLUS one more

Strategic planning is becoming the corporate buzzword again. Over the past ten years companies have been obssessed with short-termism and strategic planning was largely ignored for tactical activities based around improving sales and cutting costs for the next quarter or year at most. Many critics of strategic planning suggested that the ideas of Michael Porter and other business gurus, who developed theories/models on strategic planning and strategic analysis in the 80’s and 90’s, were now obsolete. Companies dropped strategic planning in favour of short term returns. With the current economic downturn companies are clambering to rethink their 5 and even 10 year plans.

Last year we worked with The Scout Association to develop their ten year strategic plan and assist them in obtaining buy-in. They have a rolling 10 year plan that they revisit every year. We began working with them on their strategy a month before the global financial crash and I recall thinking how amazing it was that the Scouts had a ten year plan taking them to 2018, when most corporates didin’t even know what their plan was 12 months down the line.

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The Budget 09 – what we really want is not what we really need

Alistair Darling will announce the UK budget today. What most people are looking for is stability, discipline, precision and control. Together with reliability and efficiency, these are precisely the traits that Max Weber, the renowned German sociologist, listed as the pinnacle of social organisation and the basis of excellence business structure and strategy.

It might seem strange to be referencing someone who has been dead for nearly a century on the day of arguably one of the most important budget speeches in the last hundred years. But both Weber and Darling illustrate why many companies are battling to deal with the recession and generate appropriate strategies right now.

The approach of most companies is based on a management style that is largely unchanged since “scientific management” was first developed by Frederick Taylor a century ago. At the zenith of the industrial age, the goal of management was to reduce waste, increase efficiency and develop the systems that have seen productivity rise year on year in industrialised economies almost unabated for a hundred years. One can hardly argue with this success. But is this the way forward?
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Are we deluding ourselves? Are we supposed to be happy at work?

I highly recommend Alain De Botton’s thought provoking (and a touch heavy) article in Management Today.

 Many people traipse to work, feeling despondent and wondering how they can feel more fulfilled and happy in their day jobs.  We are constantly being told that work should be meaningful and a form of self-expression and, when our jobs become ho-hum, we feel we are missing something to which we are entitled.

 Are our expectations unrealistic?  Maybe work itself is not causing us problems, maybe it is the attitudes and expectations we have of it that are making us long for something better. De Botton believes that our expectations are often delusional and out of touch with what reality can provide.

But in an economic crisis, the gloves come off and power is more cleanly revealed again. So one of the benefits of the crisis is that it enables us to lower our expectations as to what work can deliver. Some of the greater existential questions disappear. Simply holding down an ordinary job and surviving comes to seem like reward enough. We should perhaps temper our sadness in these troubled times by remembering that work is often more bearable when we don’t expect it always to deliver happiness in addition to money.

 What are your thoughts? 

You can read the article below (I have highlighted the good bits in bold) or follow the link to the article in Management Today

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Learn how to make an impact by writing well

Do you ever write reports, marketing pitches or sales proposals?  Have you ever experienced writer’s block, where you stare at a blank screen and wonder where to start?  I have.

I wish I had read ‘Bird by Bird’ by Anne Lamott earlier in my career.  It would have made writing, especially the dry business kind, so much easier.  ‘Bird by Bird’ is a highly-rated, easy reading book about how to write well.  It focuses on fiction writing but also applies to any type.

Here are 3 useful tips from the book that sound obvious yet, when you are really busy at work, you can lose sight of the basics:

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Susan’s Got Talent – Find your song too

I have watched the Susan Boyle on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ video clip about 10 times today.  It is very inspiring but it also makes me feel a little sad.  She is 47 years old and does not appear to have tapped into her hidden talent until now.  Better late than never, I suppose.

I wonder how many people are sitting on some hidden talent but have just not created the opportunity or been given the chance to express it?  Ability is sometimes nothing without opportunity.

Author Henry Thoreau said that, ‘Most people lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with their song still in them.’

What is your song?

Everybody’s singing this song

Candle – earth hour

Great TV ad for Earth Hour. Gets everything right from a Gen X and Gen Y perspective… connects with their values, entertains and keeps them intrigued…(which is important because as adverts go it is long…a 90 seconds ad!) leaves them hanging on to find out more, very good use of music. Well done leo burnett and WWF… getting fab customer reviews on you tube too

click here to view advert

Reducing carbon by charging companies in the UK

Are you prepared for the Carbon Reduction Commitment? This is the title of an article about Britain’s plan to force companies, organisations, institutions and authorities to reduce their energy usage over the next few years. Many organisations don’t know that they will be required to report to – and pay significant amounts of money to – the CRC fund.

Very simply, if the organisation you are part of – including all subsidiaries, locations and facilities COMBINED – use more than 6,000 MWh per year of electricity (that’s about £ 500,000), then you’re part of the scheme. NOTE that this applies to all parts of your organisation. So, it applies to a local authority, which must total up all buildings, schools, etc. It applies to universities, which must total up all buildings, residences and facilities. It applies to companies that have mutliple branches or multiple locations. This is a crucial aspect of the scheme!

If this is an issue for you, please read the original article here, or below. I consult to a company called SEDS (Sustainable Energy Design Solutions) that can provide more information and assistance on this issue. Contact me if you want more info.

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Talent – Manage it by measuring it

My husband is gets really annoyed that I don’t put clothes back in my cupboard after I have worn them.  I tend to pile them up on the table in our bedroom until I create a high pyramid of creased outfits.  I have struggled to change this habit so, as a last resort, my husband playfully implemented a fining system.  If he sees clothes on the table, he fines me 50p.

I have started changing my behaviour because it is now being measured.  Dumping clothes now has a monetary value and it’s starting to hurt my pocket in a big way.

The moral of the story is this – sometimes the best way to encourage a certain focus or behavior in an organisation, is to measure it and attach a value to it.

Companies want to make money and increase the bottom line.  Organisations are also gradually realising that, in today’s global economy, talented people can give them their competitive edge.  Very few companies have married these two concepts.  How do you use your talent to make more money for your organisation?

One of the effective way to create wealth from people and entrench talent development into the fabric of the organisation is to measure it.  Use metrics that make people accountable for it.  But, how?

Lowell Bryan and Claudia Joyce from McKinsey have an interesting proposition in their book ‘Mobilizing Minds’.  Their idea, which will take time to implement, is the best way to measure return on talent that I have come across so far.

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A billboard made of money – it cost a billion dollars!

Zimbabwe has been so messed up by Bob Mugabe that their currency is worth nothing. Literally. For the last year or more, bank notes have had expiry dates on them. When these expire the money is useless. Actually, because of hyperinflation, the money is mainly useless anyway.

A Zimbabwean newspaper used a billion of these dollars to create this billboard. It’s a great way to make a point. If only the international community would do something about the man who has singlehanded destroyed a nation!

How can this happen in the modern world?

The green industry and the recession

The “green” industry – a catchall phrase that refers to alternative energy creation, environmentally friendly products and low carbon upgrades to infrastructure – is growing. With some setbacks due to a low oil price, the sector nevertheless offers great business opportunities.

The European Commission is to invest €105 billion (£97 billion) in green projects in its latest budget – almost triple the amount earmarked in the last round. This is a massive increase on the 2000-2006 allocation. It will be invested through the EU Cohesion Fund and amounts to almost a third of the regional policy budget for the period 2007-2013.

Part of the reason for the focus on green industries is that this is a growing sector. The low carbon sector is currently worth over £3bn in the UK – the country that has taken a lead in these issues. UK consumers spent £4.3bn on low carbon goods in 2008. Internationally, the sector has grown by 40% in the last year alone, and, even during the recession, growth remains strong. Gordon Brown has expressed hope that this sector will create 400,000 jobs in the next decade.

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Which generation are you?

I was working through old archives, and found this fun test. It is NOT a psychometric test, nor even is it one you should take seriously. It is fairly focused on the US market. But, with all of those caveats, it’s still a bit of fun, and makes a good point about different generations.

Have fun. Which generation are you?

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If you have talent you stand alone – If you have ‘talent plus’ you stand out

I recently read a book titled ‘Talent is Never Enough’, written by John C. Maxwell (buy it online at Kalahari.net or Amazon.co.uk). In this book the author emphasises the truth that talent is often overrated and frequently misunderstood. A common error made by people standing on the sideline, is accrediting an individual’s great accomplishments to talent alone. The book reminds us that this view is, in most cases false and misleading.  After all, if talent alone were enough, why are there so many talented people who are not highly successful?

Business leaders the world over are obsessed with the term talent, many of these leaders think talent is the answer to all of their problems. Author of ‘The Tipping Point’ and ‘Blink’, Malcolm Gladwell, notes that many companies and consultants put finding people with talent ahead of everything else. Gladwell believes this talent mindset is the new orthodoxy of American management. … Continue Reading