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We sacked our cleaners last week. They had been getting progressively worse to the point that in the last two weeks, they didn’t even vacuum the building.

It’s interesting that when we first used this company, the person who started the company was the person cleaning, or at least coming to check. As the company grew, the actual people who came in got progressively worse.

When Jacqui placed the call to the company last week to sack them, their indifferent response was “you’re only as good as the people that represent you”.

When I think of how companies market themselves, through PR, advertising, etc. retention still boils down to customer service and yes, you are only as good as the people that represent you on the front line.

And that, is why all marketing starts at home. Employees are the most effective form of marketing and their development is well worth part of your marketing budget.

We were notified today that City Link are introducing a minimum weekly order value of £50 and that this would be starting on the 28th September 2007. Coupled with this they are decreasing their payment time to 14 days via Direct Debit only.

Well City Link, this is one client you will be losing, we won’t be able to justify a minimum of £50 to any of our clients, quite frankly it’s daylight robbery.

An interesting interview with Eric Kintz from HP about new web technology and how it is affecting print on demand - via Drew McLellan.

From late November 2007, new industry minimum clearing standards are being introduced by all banks.

This (allegedly) will provide us all with greater certainty on whether a cheque paid into our account has actually been paid.

This is being referred to as ‘Certainty of Fate’.

Some more news is that in 2008, banks will offer a new payment solution that will provide same-day clearing of electronic payments.  I have no idea how much they will charge us for this service which I’ve seen classified as “near real-time basis”.

You know what banks are like, they make things sound much more complicated than they really are so I suggest you all check out your own branch for advice on this key change to banking.

Marketing, indeed business, is getting harder - or easier - depending on how you look at it.

So, when people moan about Prince giving away his latest album free, are they right or are they clinging onto the traditional way an industry works?

Prince also plans to give away copies of his album to fans attending one of his 21 concerts at London’s O2 arena next month. That means it will reach many more listeners than the artist’s last album, 3121, which only sold 80,000 copies in the UK on release in 2006. (more…)

As you may know we sponsored Basingstoke Live last week (a local music festival) and ran our own ‘branded’ campaign of “supporting creative talent” across the event.

Part of the campaign involved taking some famous song lyrics and having them on banners around the various stages… “we bet that you look good on the dancefloor”, “it’s only rock ‘n’ roll but we like it”, etc. to add a bit of fun to our message.

One of my fellow Escapees showed me a forum post on the Basingstoke Live website with someone mocking it:
(more…)

A recent survey by Robert Half (Financial Recruitment) found that 44% of UK companies appreciate the importance of having a brand strategy, reports Personnel Today.

They recognise the importance, but what are they actually doing about it? I am constantly amazed at the amount of companies we talk to, when it comes to starting on a project, that don’t have clear brand guidelines, leaving visual treatments up to to us.

Now, when you think brands, you may be thinking Coca-Cola or McDonalds, but there is no reason you can’t apply some brand strategy to your own business, no matter how small.

As any company grows, engagement of customers (both B2C and B2B) relies on a level of rapport between your company ‘brand’ and them as a personality or business and that’s why the larger brands of the world invest so much money working out who their typical clients are, so they can attract them more effectively.

And, for growing companies (especially start-ups) that wish to move away from the personality of the owner, creating a clear brand strategy is also a route to clearer customer engagement - one that is more sustainable for the business over the longer-term.

Now, this may seem much harder for a smaller business due to cost, but there is nothing wrong with analysing the type of clients you are working for now and using this as a basis for adapting your own brand. Some brand development and strategy is better than none and you’d be amazed at how much you can do yourself.

Which brands do you aspire to now?

So you’re not creative hey? Logic and Emotion have a nice post that should make you think otherwise - All those who are creative say ‘I’.

There will never be a shortage of people willing to call creativity a “crock” and embracing your “bohemian self-expression” as a waste of time and money.

Don’t ratify their censorship of your creativity by telling yourself a lie. Sing your song, build your business, re-invent your industry… draw your picture.

Around 130,000 UK businesses now sell online, in a market representing about 2.5 per cent of all household spending (over £18 billion a year in total) according to this article at the Retail Bulletin.

In the last five years, internet retail sales in the UK rose by over
350 per cent, compared with growth of only 20 per cent for all retail
sales.

In 2005, the typical online shopper spent £560 online, and
forecasts suggest that this could grow to over £860 per year by
2010.

News like this is sure to continue the rise of online retail. It’s funny though, how in the beginning, as Amazon was actually building up their online presence, the high street failed to take note. Now they are all rushing to make sure they get their share. The problem is, in my opinion, that they are still thinking like offline retail shops. A bit like TV companies and ‘old school’ marketing people - ‘let’s just take what we’ve always done and stick it online’.

The problem is, this doesn’t work. People don’t want adverts, they have choice and they are fickle. Which is why, if I were them, I’d be sh*tting myself about the future. Well actually I wouldn’t, because we realise (at The Escape) that change is the only constant). I would have my head searching the web, reading blogs, taking notes, joining in and getting down dirty with web 2.0 and the way forward.

Over on The Escapee Blog, Chris Pearson from Channel Advantage laid down a bit of a challenge:

"I suggest ‘the Escape’ you show us your skills and list out 10 areas
the post office went wrong and maybe a few ideas to get them started."

We like a challenge so here goes (please bear in mind I don’t know about the regulations that surround Royal Mail so these may not be implementable in the real world). Also, I always like to look forward, not back, so won’t dwell on where they may have gone wrong.

1. Rural Deliveries: It seems that one of the bug bears of RM is that they have to deliver to the less profitable rural ares. Why not also introduce deliveries of different items, not just post. If this is not feasible, why not partner with a third party who could do this. Also, why not offer a collection service as well for Free? Groceries, dry cleaning, banking, etc.
2. Advertising: People love freebies and don’t mind if advertising is involved. Why not reduce the cost of some postage by introducing a second service (advertising class), against allowing advertising on the envelope. This would obviously only work with personal mail but there is still a market. You also know that all local post ends up going through a local sorting office - so the advertising could be localised.
3. Free Business Collections: £500 per year to collect my business post - no thanks, I’d rather send an email.
4. Scrap 2nd class post: It’s all second class these days and it confuses people.
5. Flexible Stamp Prices: You buy one first class stamp, it costs 32p. You buy 100, they cost 32p each. Why no discount?
6. Free Postage For the over 65’s: (not sure how you’d manage it though)
7. Two-Way Stamps: Two-part device for stamps to encourage a reply. Like a return ticket on a train.
8. Online Postage: On the same lines as Chris’s idea - there must be massive scope for an online community. They also have the idea vehicle to advertise - on the envelopes of the millions of bits of post every day. This could also include ISP services.
9. Online e-mail marketing services seems like a good extension to their current services offering - extendable to text messaging also.
10. Hire a better PR firm. They always seem to be taking a battering in the press - they need to sort it.

Probably could come up with some other better ones but it’s Good Friday and it’s me in my kitchen on my own (saddo). So much better in a team- At The Escape we love nothing like a good brain storm - it’s how we come up with our best ideas.

If you are a company, small or large, that are looking for some creative solutions - why not challenge us with your business. Some of the ideas may take you outside a comfort zone but these are challenging times for business. And long may it continue…

Other reading:

• Funky Business
• All Marketers Are Liars
• Tipping Point
• Purple Cow