So in 2012 the wheels of business will begin turn. Marketeers will start to not return calls, send junior managers to meetings on their behalf and generally look for as much grey area as possible, as sure as the banks won’t be lending. The big marketing noise will need to give teams a collective rattle. Reminding them of their new found passion of working with the sales team on the route to glory. The sales guys in return will obviously swap lunches for planing sessions and sharing data before returning to the office on Friday afternoons with a car boot full of used POS and an abscence of golf clubs.

Our customers will begin to think they never left us, and will be reminded to tell friends and family about what we are doing now and what we are going to be doing next. Because we will make the effort to communicate creatively and honestly through everything we do. Maybe even considerately, personally and in a timely manner. Because we will have closed the gap.

gainc tfam

Consumers want to really desire a brand or a set of brands. Pushing or pulling your product into this brand set requires objective thinking, great execution and knowledge of how much each platform can and should deliver. It is important to deliver creative that hasn’t been done before by anyone, don’t copy part of an idea think of your own. Lots of creative proposals can be delivered through unique ideas. It is feasible to move customer thinking into a positive mode through advertising.By using clever support work get the framework in place to turn potential interest into future purchases, trap the early adapters, and maintain momentum with involved with your core and future core customers.

At a time when consumers are being invited by lots of brands to do lots of things one example stands out. Skoda. After a serious and brave piece of brand repositioning the brand has continued to pull new customers in. It has broken into the desired brand set of an ever increasing target market. Initially by getting people to just think. Think about benefits, price and over time style and performance.

The current campaign starts to immediately make you think by being different, like nothing you have seen before. After you have seen the creative you feel entertained, informed ultimately you feel Skoda are clever and have very stylish products.That you might want now. Or some time in the future. The radio work shows how again a unique soundtrack pulls your mind in to remembering the visuals, the ad lines. The product.

Skoda and Fallon. Well Done

Clients really don’t need to be planning to be social media black belts or employ agencies with newly created social media gurus. Creative brand themes or digital applications can wait.Thinking needs to lead the focus. Not just you and your agencies thinking, but most importantly your customers thinking. Until you have completed the simple but critical analysis of  your customer needs how can you claim to give them what  they desire or need? Thinking is being surpassed by the need to de doing or at least understanding how to do, walking before the runners. Start at the beginning, look at the currently over shadowed and forgotten elements of planning to be successful. First think, what do customers think about our brand/products/services?. Think, lets look at why customers are not buying from us. Don’t use last years research or a two year old brand tracking study that was used to justify why you increased you advertising spend. Ask todays customer, now.Or the customers you don’t have ,but would like, soon. Ask customers what they might want next?, why they left you? why they came back? what they have recommended to friends? what have they tried thats better? what they really need, hate or love? But ask your customers first, see what they think. Now start to use your communication platforms efficiently, creatively, effectively and to drive information back to your business.Think, lets use this information objectively. Apply your marketing mix to react to the needs, trends, communication routes and information delivering options. Think about telling the story and selling the promise. But think first.

During a cluttered Saturday night schedule dominated by ad bumper after ad bumper of easily forgotten ads, Yeo Valley breaks the mould. Trying to be down with kids and funny are two areas generally avoided by creative teams as the have a habit of being difficult to crack but big up to Yeo. I laughed right the way through their spot but didn’t want to miss a minute, absolute genius. Great setting, type casting, wardrobe, track and it is so easy to remember. Advertising that makes you stop and think has really done its job. Big  Yo to Yeo.

Too often players and team captains were met by on course reporters asking  ” So how did that feel?….when completing a round, Why is the Ryder Cup different?….What was the last speech like from your captain in the team room? This really one dimensional approach could of only been worse if stars signs and favourite English food were questions.

The tv coverage constantly stalled with adbreak after adbreak, segway after segway, ad bumpers of where the Ryder Cup would end up next….what is this adding to our experience?

After four/five days surely we deserved a little more. Most of these answers could be garnered from the players actions which were much more animated than normal, or facial expressions etched with emotions . So this constant line of questioning really added little to the overall experience of the event for the viewing public. Where were the fan interviews?, how did our tv partners prove that the nation puts this event in their diary first before anything else, what about the amazing setting? how did the weather play its part in altering normal preparations, the travel plans, the families,coaches, the hosts, the build up?

BBC radio managed to deliver a much deeper insight by getting closer to both sides of the event, the players and the fans. Clever and constant dialogue across all media kept fans in the loop with a deeper understanding of how this event got under the skin of everyone, gripping even the most partisan bystander.

TV can continue to be the main channel, but its approach needs to add more to the experience beyond 3d glasses.

How enthused are you about critiquing your own work? Appraising your customer service, experience or management?

The challenge as a true marketeer is to objectively figure out two things:

Why

Why Not

If you can clarify both rationales when dealing with your business , you could become a rare asset.

Cadburys new 2012 Olympic creative is brilliant and brave. Why ? Because to go early shows that you don’t care if you are copied, which Fallon have been and still are. But to go this early on 2012 strategy is amazingly brave and can only be because this is going to capture the Olympic spirit at the most basic level. Lets Play, lets compete but lets play hard and have some fun. I can’t wait to see how this plays out on all levels and how Cadbury manages to make up for some heavy handed steps taken before now.

The hardest thing for businesses  to do is put the customer experience central to the planning process. The marketing team will be borrowing/using retail sales data or last years ATL brand tracking studies, re-call figures, awareness increases, or PR results with the estimated value of a one bad flat in Monaco. This data combined unobjective opinions can fudge this part of the planning process to ensure the customer experience is a long way from the central measure we start to build business and marketing plans.

Companies need to put Customer Experience central to planning and look at all the touch points a product or brand is experienced, on-line, DM, social media, tv, radio, trade communications,promotions and instore pos/pop, instore service, delivery and handling . Evaluation of the customer journey cycle  will highlight where and why people get off the brand bus and more importantly what the business can do to get them back on board, with a friend, or two maybe?

Armed with this information businesses can really start to focus plans, minds and budgets to improve performance  in a timely fashion.  The best tactics an providers will be clearly defined using the same measure. The Customer.

But we knew this was all on its way and we believed it, some queued for it and lots bought it. The experience is an outstanding result. It doesn’t work. To be specific, to all left handed friends and dextrous counterparts, the iphone antenna is housed in a place that comes into contact with the hand and negates connectivity when used………like a phone. What?!!!!

Apple has advised the use of a bumper ( to match your sunglasses, handbag, or team colours) will stop this issue and allow you to use your phone, like a phone.

Apple have tested this product, obviously. More than likely using there own engineers who already accustomed to long lead time technology and in ” iphone 5″ mode are using the bumper on iphone 4 without detecting the glich.

If a product is not 100% ready for market it should not come to market as this is the most damaging factor for customer experience. It doesn’t matter what crisis PR tactics or media contacts you can use in situations like this, the brand has not lived up to its promise. Customers will expect to be able to experience your products as you have led them to believe and they will extol your benefits to (1:18) friends on average through direct conversations and now a much wider audience through social media. This is now too powerful a platform to allow customer experience to not be central to marketing and launch plans.

Weather a recall transpires or the world buys bumpers, Apple have let the side down.

I have had no DM, not something I am normally hungry for, but surely now is the time we could be fed more brand creative to draw us into trade, events or  just maximise the experience the opportunity of mass media dominance offers during times like these. Because guess what Telly is under pressure. Telly will not play the central role in brand plans it has done going forward, ad breaks are saturated, messaging is a mess and no one is winning.

This will be the last time media buyers have a free for all, television work is starting to be a bit one dimensional and media consumption will become more complex the next time around. Which is  a good thing. Free media options and social networks are going to dominate as consumers look to formulate opinions early and move ideas around the system based on their individual experiences.

People  will get information quicker, more often and businesses will have to be more engaging with both creative and messaging. Planning will need to consider broader demographics and establish pure routes to really focused target markets, at the exact times of choice to deliver on cue. Television alone cannot do this, it does not have the degree of flexibility to be as dominant in consumers’ experience of brands, sponsorship, events. It has programming but this will always be an opt in or out for consumers.

Creative agencies should welcome this change in the future as it will open the opportunities for specialists to deliver experience and manage communication plans with greater creativity and measurement. Results will be good, mediocrity will become old school.