Trousers

So after all the prohecies of doom, the UK figures on retail spending last month showed a very small drop. All that noise and frenzy, and maybe things aren't really that bad. Except we've had our attention distracted by the noise and frenzy.

Walking the dog yesterday afternoon, I passed a mother and child. The child was probably three years old, dressed warmly against the chill of the early twilight. The mother was on her mobile phone, and had been since they came into my view. As our paths crossed, I could hear the child saying "Mummy my trousers are falling down", as she continued to chat. He was right, they were.

Beware the distant voices, they might be distracting us from the real business at hand.

Posturing in the wilderness

In the last few days, three friends have expressed their amazement and frustration at the way in which some marketing agency people work (time management and ego seemed to be a common theme).

That's not entirely a revelation, since it's been that way for a long time. It is amazing though that someone hasn't changed the prevailing model to fit better what clients want, and how the world is starting to work (collaborative, peer-to-peer networking, rather than sequential hierarchies). What a huge opportunity for an agency prepared to make the change. Or to build something new.

The idea for a specialist service around data-driven, media-neutral creativity and execution, is starting to look more like an idea for a new kind of marketing agency.

Photo: Yogaslackers.com

Falling

Word is, direct marketing response rates are falling in many sectors. Some companies are starting to talk about reducing or even cancelling their dm spend.

Or ... what you could do ...

... is be smarter with the spend. Use your data and your insights to create marketing that is better targeted, more relevant, data-driven, to strengthen customer relationships, and improve lifetime value.

We should be doing this anyway. With tighter controls being put into place, and sharper eyes on the budgets, all the more reason to do it now.

Photo: George Johnson

Fear

Attended a presentation last Thursday evening by key players in the campaign for Thomson Holidays that won the Business Performance Awards from the Institute of Direct Marketing.

Brilliant work. A great example of the kind of creativity, precision and skill that I want to deliver too. Hats off to the client and to their agencies WDMP and Creatormail.

Also learned something acutely depressing. It appears that the same agency is behind the excellent work for Carphone Warehouse that created highly personalised - and effective - welcome books and upgrade packs.

So three examples in the UK where data, creativity and technology have brought fantastic direct marketing results (the third is the TUI travel ticket book, now copied by Thomas Cook too) - are all from the same agency. I asked the guys what they thought was stopping anyone else doing this kind of work.

Their answer was that clients were afraid.

If that's true, then we're all falling down on the job. Or, maybe, from the 'glass-half-full' view of the world, there's a huge opportunity out there.

Photo by Terry Goss

Losing

John McCain has impressed even more in defeat than in the contest. I thought the manner of his choice of a vice-president was a sign of good leadership (and even though he turns out to have been wrong, that was not the reason he lost). Now his heartfelt endorsement of his former adversary, and his honest wish that everyone works together with the new president, show true leadership.

Good decision

There's been plenty of study of the way the mind works after it's made a purchase decision (see wikipedia here on 'post-purchase rationalisation', and here for a really interesting finding on the positive difference that branding can make). We tend to filter out any evidence that we made a bad choice, and to seek those things that tell us we chose well.

The people in Procurement are just as prone to this, but probably more aware of it than most. They are going to want something a little more objective to measure the impact of their decisions.

There's an interesting opportunity here to provide external measurement and validation of the effects of long-term decisions such as placing or renewing outsourcing contracts. Such a validation would also benefit the service provider, since it would be independent verification that they had delivered on the promise.

So I'm setting up something to do just that in the marketing services space. It's called an Independent Assurance Review. It's a really simple idea - and it's not even a new one, it's already quite common in the public sector. There's a bit more about it on my website - or you can call me to talk it over.