“Marketing online takes too much measurement, patience, creativity, technical knowledge, flexibility, speed and authenticity. It requires too much thinking and not enough going out for dinner with clients.” So says Seth Godin ironically in his blog today. Well said.
I do get bored with being told all advertising is a lie. I know there are many unpleasant things done by advertisers, including playing on greed and fear. But if they lie, they are soon found out and they lose their customers. The best advertisers discover a need (sometimes one people didn’t know they had!) and offer their product as the best way of filling that need.
When United Airlines baggage handlers broke professional musician Dave Carroll’s guitar, he tried for nearly a year to get compensation and was passed from pillar to post hoping he would simply give up. Eventually he met with a resounding ‘no’. Dave decided to write a song about it. So far there have been nearly 4 million views of United Breaks Guitars. All it needed was for someone at United to accept responsibility and they could have avoided damage to their reputation that far outweighs the cost of repairing a guitar. I hardly needs say United have now offered compensation.
The Times has a useful guide to theatre etiquette. Among the usual rules such as not talking or eating, I liked the admonition against standing ovations. They are becoming far too common and should be reserved for truly exceptional epxeriences, otherwise they no longer mean anything.
Some people argue that if the audience wants to chat, eat or join in, then theatre should adapt to the cutomer. I think Theatre is an interesting phenomenon where business meets social activity and the customer is not always right.
I’m far from the first to say this but I’ll add my voice to the growing opposition to ‘free’ information sites on the internet.
For a start, none are really free. The internet has reduced the cost of communication but the free information on Google Search is paid for by advertising, the free YouTube service is paid for by Google, the free news is provided by paid for newspapers, the free BBC sites are paid for by licence fees, and so on.
Of course, the best things in life are free. Along with sunsets and making love, I think work done by volunteers is one of those things. It’s wonderful that so many people are happy to give of their time to provide information online to help or inspire others, just as people through the ages have helped others out of sheer altruism.
What is dangerous is the dissemination of material for free that it cost someone else something to produce. If those producers- news organisations, music companies, publishers- are put out of business, then there will nothing left to put online for free.
Seth Godin makes a good point in his blog about the importance of managers keeping in touch with the front line. When I took over responsibility for the operational side of a theatre, I spent time doing or shadowing all the various jobs. It was an eye-opener and the experience helped me be aware how much of a gap there is between management theory and frontline practice where you have real people dealing with each other, who may be tired, confused or lacking information. As the CEO of Sony once said, ‘The company is only as good as its latest recruit.’
Neither can executives rely on middle managers for a true picture of what’s going on. They often don’t want to admit that their staff are in difficulty in case it refelcts on them. I’ve seen the disastrous consquences to staff morale and company results, when senior managers are out of direct touch with their employees.
I like the small businesses I’m involved in now because I’m in constant touch with all colleagues and I experience at first hand what’s going on with customers and suppliers. I find the Your Life Your Style online shop more difficult from this point of view, because while there is endless analysis available of site visitors and customers, I rarely get to actually speak to them. I like these sites where you can click to ’speak’ to a real person.
It’s hard to better the Ambassador Theatre Group as theatre marketers. Even so I tend to think I know everything about theatre marketing so I didn’t expect to learn much from an interview with ATG’s Marketing Director Pat Westwell in this month’s Marketing (the magazine for members of the Chartered Institute Of Marketing).
Most of the tools Ms Westwell uses are in fact fairly predictable, though sadly far too few arts people actually use them. She offers a range of prices and uses dynamic pricing, she’s keen on email campaigns, and uses direct mailing of season brochures to promote their regional venues, all of which I myself have used and recommend.
I was surprised however at the success their regional theatres have had with Field Sales. I tried this years ago and found the results patchy and certainly an inadequate Return On The Investment but she has obviously found the key to making it work. Astonishingly, she says 25% of regional ticket sales are coming from Field Sales. Even allowing for the possibility that there was a misunderstanding and she meant 25% of group sales or new business, it’s still a hugely impressive sales tool.
What they do is recruit six part-time sales people (’ambassadors’) at each theatre, people who are enthusiastic about theatre and have a good network of contacts. They then go off armed with special offers and sell, sell, sell. Well worth a try on her evidence, I’d say.
Seth Godin’s blog is nearly always worth a read. Today he talks about using a book’s cover to attract attention and encourage the customer to pick it up and look at it. He lists a number of ways in which this can be done, all of which could apply to the cover of a brochure, a shop window or a website’s homepage:
Iconic (because iconic items tend to signal ‘important’)
Noticeable across the room (you see that lots of other people own it, thus making it likely that you’ll want to know why)
Sophisticated (because this helps reinforce that the ideas inside are worthy of your time)
Original (why bother reading a book you already know)
Clever
Funny
Generic (reminding you of a genre or another book you liked, not generic as in boring)
That’s what a friend of mine said over dinner the other day. There’s no doubt that’s an image a lot of people have of bosses and it hasn’t been helped by the likes of Sir Fred Goodwin and Bernard Madoff or indeed the participants in The Apprentice. But are these essential qualities of a successful businessperson?
Let’s take ‘ruthless’ first, meaning acting without compassion. It’s often said that there’s no room for sentiment in business and this is true. Business decisions can damage others’ lives but if you have to make employees redundant or axe a supplier rather than go bankrupt, it’s a decision that has to be made. On the other hand, there’s no point in beiong ruthless for the sake of being macho because the loyalty a business shows to its employees and suppliers pays dividends. An acknowledgement that a decision was difficult helps. I remember once when my boss laid me off, he said ‘It’s just business’ and I’ve never forgiven him. Showing some compassion and understanding would have retained my loyalty.
‘Unscrupulous’ means acting without a moral compass. There’s no excuse for this. I’ve seen this many times in my working life albeit usually on a small scale. Looking after number one without regard to what is morally or legally right rarely succeeds longterm. People who gain a reputation for acting without principles have to constantly find new people to do business with, but there are undoubtedly exceptions who manage to gain big bonuses and retire with large pensions.
In fact, I think the love affair of politicians and media with the macho style of business has set a bad example. Business needs trust and a a recognition that we are part of a community, a realisation that all employees, clients and suppliers play their part in our success and that we need to work together to our mutual benefit.
We shouldn’t overreact to the temporary effects of the recession with protectionism. The more we restrict imports, the more other countries will block our exports. As individuals, we would be poorer because Britons save money by buying low price imports and make money by selling high price exports.
Attempts in the 60s and 70s to ‘protect’ jobs weakened British businesses’ competitiveness and ability to respond to change. Compare the British and German car industries. In the last twenty years or so, a free market has enabled us to rebuild our economy into a world leader. This has been achieved by capitalising on the exceptional creativity, knowledge and enterprise of people in Britain, whatever their origin. If you look at the many British products at Your Life Your Style, you’ll find they are beautifully designed and skilfully made, and nearly all from relatively new companies.
Britain can only stay at the top and thereby create jobs if we continue to identify new markets and provide the best products and services in a global market.