The popular saying “If it can’t be measured it can’t be managed” is a dangerous premise. Seems to me I’ve only ever heard it uttered by invariably smug managers who wanted to reject some piece of qualitative research they didn’t like. Though that may simply illustrate the murky areas I’ve worked in. (In truth, …
Sydney, Australia, 1989. So here I was… making it in the super-competitive business world. I was: heir apparent in a major multi-national ad firm, marketing writer, national new-business director, just voted in the top 10 across the country, blah blah. An ‘80’s Mad Man. And then we had a third child, unexpectedly. I came …
Most companies are living in a fantasy world, thinking that their “loyalty programs” are actually delivering customer loyalty. But these are not actually doing anything of the sort. They’re merely rewarding repetitive purchase behaviour. That’s not loyalty. It’s bribery. And it’s vulnerable to a better reward scheme from a competitor. Genuine loyalty comes from …
Many years ago, a wise friend gave me a crucial piece of wisdom. He said, “Incompletions sap your energy: but completions actually GIVE you energy.” A light bulb went off in my head. Because I’ve been one of those who sits around thinking of all the things I’ve got to – and not doing any. …
Don’t forget to add humanity to your marketing plan. I’ve seen too many marketing strategies which were proudly focused on numbers, trends and financials. They impressively calculated expansion, development, growth trajectories and a whole bunch of other objective and impersonal issues. But this approach lost sight of a critical perspective: Marketing at its core is …
