Posted by:
Drayton Bird
July 6, 2010
Issue #960
Anyone who buys this rubbish (some fools will, believe me) deserves what they get
Dear Business-Builder,
Among my favourite politicians is Lord Salisbury, a Prime Minister under Queen Victoria.
A splendidly conservative chap, when anyone suggested change, he would say "Aren’t things bad enough already?" (They don’t make them like Lord Salisbury any more. He was extremely absent-minded. At a dinner party he turned to the man sitting next to him and asked, "Who is that gentleman sitting down there on the right?" "That is your lordship’s eldest son," was the reply.)
But something else he said has long stuck in my mind, "One thing long experience of life has taught me is that you never should trust experts."
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Posted by:
Drayton Bird
May 11, 2010
Issue #925
No matter how often or how fast marketers invent new jargon and jump on new bandwagons, they forget the basics even faster
Dear Business-Builder,
Marketers just love initials – which is a shame. Take "CRM." What does that mean to you?
Odds are you said "Customer Relationship Management," or something close, like "Customer Relationship Marketing." Or maybe you said "Cause-Related Marketing." Or even "Credit Risk Management" if you work in finance.
Last year a U.K. report revealed that a significant percentage of marketers admit they use jargon they don ‘t understand in meetings. Why? To impress? As their entry ticket to an in-group? To conceal their ignorance? Maybe all three.
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Posted by:
Drayton Bird
March 30, 2010
Issue #895
Dear Business-Builder,
Marketing is one of the first things to feel the axe when times get tough – and no wonder if you have no idea what it’s doing for you.
Do the following figures interest you?
By moving nine words from the bottom to the top of a form, a loan firm increased the number of applications by 240%.
Adding two words in an email subject line doubled the number of enquiries about a telephone service.
Putting someone’s face in a letter about investment increased sales by 20%.
Removing one piece from a direct mail piece for a bank increased return on investment by 92%.
If those figures don’t interest you, stop reading now. If they do, keep going.
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Posted by:
Drayton Bird
January 5, 2010
Issue #835
A one-track approach kills profits.
You’re getting far less value for the money
than if you use media together.
It is exactly 25 years since I was halfway through the nerve-wracking business of selling my direct marketing agency to Ogilvy & Mather.
They were perhaps the first advertising group to realize the importance of our discipline. That is because David Ogilvy had a concept he called “orchestration.”
With his flair for the telling phrase he talked of “many instruments, one big noise.” So they were busy building a complete armory of marketing weapons – PR, advertising, research, direct marketing.
Personally I never was wedded to a particular discipline. Early in my career I had worked in all those areas, plus telephone and face-to-face selling, at both of which I was spectacularly bad.
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Posted by:
Drayton Bird
December 8, 2009
Issue #815
Do you ever wonder if you are doing a “good” job? I mean, besides making a living, are you doing the right thing?
I ask you because a while ago I had to speak to Syracuse University students here in London doing a course called “Ethical Advertising.”
Maybe you and I are usually too busy trying to make a living to worry about that, but I found something rather good from Abraham Lincoln: “My religion is simple. When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad.”
So I was honest. I told the students a bit about what I’ve done. I didn’t feel as good about working for tobacco brands even if it was perfectly legal as I did about working for charities like Save the Children.
Then I told the students a true story – and a very sad one. But this story also has an important business lesson for you … it may even tell you if you are wasting your life, or doing something worthwhile.
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