Marketing seminar with René Carayol, John Leech and Russell Ferguson
On Wednesday 22 April 2009 I attended a selling and marketing seminar “Creating buyers in difficult markets’ organised by Scottish Enterprise. The venue was the Norton House Hotel, Edinburgh, UK.
It would be unfair to reveal all the compelling points made in the seminar, so I will highlight a few of key points that resonated the most with me.
After an introduction from Mark Hastings from Scottish Enterprise, 3 guest speakers took to the stage. First up was René Carayol (MBE). René is a broadcaster, columnist, business and leadership speaker. René’s compelling business philosophy is founded on his own board-level experience with brands such as M&S and Pepsi. Watch his show reel below. Read his biog here.
Many of René’s points in the seminar were drawn from his decade at Marks & Spencer (major British retailer). He recalls how staff and management ‘worshipped at the altar of St. Michael’. M&S and its sub-brand St Michael enjoyed huge success for 30 years without much marketing activity as customers were very loyal to the brand. UK citizens will be aware of problems at M&S and how it’s stores have struggled in recent years. M&S boss, Stuart Rose has made dramatic wholesale changes, which have improved performance but M&S has many challenges ahead from the major supermarkets and current economic climate. Utimately, M&S must continue to innovate and introduce new business models in order to survive.
With the current economic downturn, many businesses are in crisis and must re-invent themselves or improve their marketing and service to the customer. Such improvements needn’t cost a fortune. Free advertising and brand awareness can achieved using technology such as YouTube. David Holmes, a member of South West Airline’s cabin crew rapped the safety announcement which was posted on YouTube and watched by half a million viewers.
This flight attendant is definitely a brand ambassador. He would be a brand assassin if he did the announcement in slovenly way with no one really paying attention. By rapping the everyday task of the safety announcement he was able to add value to the flying experience with SWA and generate publicity around the world on YouTube, newspapers and blogs like this one.
Some passengers have said that his rap version made them listen to the safety announcement for the first time.
René asks if you and your staff are brand ambassadors or brand assassins, as having the wrong attitude can have negative impact on the business. As he adds:
“how can you reach altitude with the wrong attitude?”
Overall René is a world class speaker and offers stimulating insights into business and how to be successful. More footage of him can be viewed on YouTube.
The second speaker, John Leech, CEO of Winning Pitch. WP deliver practical high impact solutions that are proven to create sustainable growth in sales and business development performance.
He emphasised the importance of living in your customers world and connecting with them. Selling skills can be improved by practice and a good salesman keeps going when times are tough.
John lamented the lack of good selling courses in the UK. However, Jan Thomson from Carnegie College, Dunfermline pointed out that they offer sales and marketing courses with Professional Institute qualifications. Course one, course two.
He also regretted how ‘selling’ still has a bit of a stigma and is a role not everyone likes to do. He believes that through good training staff can become more confident and generate more sales for their company.
How your business is positioned in the market is also crucial. The re-invention of Lucozade is a favourite case study of marketers, but it’s transformation from a popular drink for hospital patients into leading sports energy drink in the eighties is an re-positioning example UK citizens can easily relate to.
The final speaker, Russell Ferguson, from RFM also offered low budget marketing ideas. Key among them were using PR. He gave an example about how a Scottish manufacturing business got coverage in a Moscow newspaper. The business told it’s customers and suppliers about this unusual piece of PR. News about news is an effective tool for raising a company profile.
On a final note, all 3 speakers agreed that discounting on price was not always an effective way to differentiate in a recession. A business should find other ways to add value and persuade customers to buy from them. For example, M&S and Subway are now available at petrol stations around the the UK.
Overall it was an inspirational seminar that provided plenty of food for thought. It’s up to the members of the audience now to take action.
Barter is smarter in a recession
Bartering (the age old system of exchanging business services without money) has become increasingly popular during the economic downturn. The internet allows companies to exchange globally, generating an estimated $3 billion in the US alone. In Scotland’s Sunday Herald newspaper (29 March 2009) a double page spread was devoted to the subject. You can read the article here.
One of the main Scottish based bartering websites The Business Exchange (TBEx) is a private trading platform with over 200 clients. They include a variety of businesses, the Edinburgh and Aberdeen chambers of commerce, Premier League football clubs and luxury hotels. TBEx, which is based in Aberdeen (Scotland), does business with similar exchanges overseas and sells its technology to clients in North America, Europe and South Africa.
Richard Logie, managing director of TBEx, reports a tenfold increase in inquiries from people seeking advice about setting up bartering exchanges. He says: “The banks have had their day. With the collapse of the banking system, people are going back to basics. There is a need to look at alternative mechanisms of finance.”
Bartering is appealing during a downturn because first, members can find new customers and use excess capacity. Second, a satisfied customer often refers cash-paying customers to the business in question. Third, participants can conserve hard-to-come-by cash. Bartering of goods, however, are treated like a cash sale by the tax man and should go reported to the HMRC in the UK.
Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce in partnership with TBEx, are launching the Edinburgh Chamber Business Exchange (ECBE) – a new exclusive FREE bartering portal service open to all members.
For individuals bartering sites such as U-exchange and Lets are reputable websites for exchanging anything from houses, services and material items. Asda (supermarkets) has started barter boards in a few stores such as Elgin (Scotland) and if successful the store will roll out this service nationwide.
Specialist sites such as What’s Mine is Yours and Read it Swap it allow users to swap clothes, books and CDs.
As the recession deepens, bartering will continue to grow.
Book review: How to get rich by Felix Dennis
'How to get rich' by Felix Dennis
Many business books are written ultimately to earn additional income for the author. Not so Felix Dennis, he one of the richest men in the UK and his motivation for writing this book is simply to help those who wish to undertake the massive task in becoming rich. He is very qualified to do so, as his life is a real rags to riches story – he nearly lost it all too.
For those that don’t know, Felix Dennis is Chairman of Dennis Publishing. Titles include The Week, Auto Express, Computer Shopper, Blender, Mac User and Evo. Dennis Publishing is also the owner of Maxim, the world’s biggest selling men’s lifestyle magazine. The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimates that Felix Dennis is worth £750 million. He is also a best selling poet, and poetry is his favourite past time.
Dennis uses his poems and passages from those he admires to illustrate key points and chapters in the book. He is not being indulgent either, they do convey the sentiment very well and some are quite pogniant.
The book is essentially an autobiography about Dennis’s business career. Starting out in the late sixties with the controversial OZ magazine, then a well timed Bruce Lee biography in 1973, followed by Kung-Fu magazines then pioneering personal computer titles in the eighties. From here Dennis Publishing introduced other titles with varying degrees of success. The Bruce Lee book was his first major financial success and the circumstances around it are bizarre. Dennis has no interest in Kung-Fu for a start.
Dennis likes to explain his errors and failures more than his success, in the hope that the reader will take heed and avoid similar pitfalls in their journey, even if it’s on a smaller scale. He has come close to losing everything by succumbing to drink, drugs and other vices. Luckily he pulled himself out of the quagmire. Although he regrets the consequences to his health and the time he lost. He wishes he used the time to practice poetry instead.
Dennis’s business principles are usually backed up with a story from his past, which are always interesting and sometimes surprising. For example, few would know that Dennis and Pet Shop Boy’s singer Neil Tennant worked together on the launch of magazine Star Hits in the USA. Tennant left at the height of the magazine’s success to pursue the Pet Shop Boys. His parting shot to Dennis was that his band would be on the cover of the Star Hits within a year – they did it too. Tennant’s departure from the successful US magazine, demonstrated Dennis’s credo of never procrastinating on your ambitions or passing on better opportunities.
Overall the book is difficult to put down and deserves several readings. I like to re-visit chapters every now and then. While one may think being rich is the only way to be, there are many downsides as Dennis explains. While he owns many homes and collects art, the author values time as it’s greatest advantage, as it gives him freedom to do as he pleases – like writing poetry everyday and worthwhile books like this one.
Read more reviews on Amazon.