The Factory Blog | Design and Marketing Agency Leeds, West Yorkshire

Barratts put the right foot forward when e-marketing.

2011-02-14T10:30:00.000Z

Shoe retailers Barratts have increased their email conversion rates with sales from emails accounting now for 10% of the companies online sales. So how have they done it?
Barratts have invested in segmenting their client base and gathering data on individual customers rather than 'mass marketing'.

The rise has come from understanding the needs of the individual, a daunting challenge for a large company to undertake as it requires a structured collation of facts and figures so sense can be made of a myriad of individual purchases.

By understanding the 'preferences' of an individual customer based on age, past purchases, location and time of year the company have been able to offer individuals more relevant marketing messages into their in-box.

Use of date-of-birth data has also been utilised to great effect, however, mining website analytics to identify customers who have abandoned baskets at the checkout has also proven to be a successful tactic to adopt.

Barratts have demonstrated the finical rewards that come from treating customers as individuals rather than stereotyping. This is an approach that more and more companies are beginning to turn to as their data collection becomes more sophisticated.

Is Desire What We Crave?

2011-01-20T17:59:00.000Z

A recent study has found that brands that create 'desire' in the mindset of the consumer are beginning to outperform the more traditional brands.

So which brands are doing it the best?

In a recent survey the top 100 'desirable brands' were cross referenced with the S&P 500 which showed that the average return on investment for a company that owns a desirable brand is 12.8%, versus 7.5% for the S&P 500 as a whole, based on the last five years’ performance.

The list of the UK's top 20 desirable brands is as follows...
1. iPhone
2. Rolls-Royce
3. iPod
4. Cadbury
5. Ray-Ban
6. Emirates
7. Sony
8. Red Cross
9. Fairtrade
10. Aston Martin
11. Nintendo
12. Prada
13. iTunes
14. Disney
15. Google
16. Playstation
17. Rolex
18. Apple
19. Bang & Olufson
20. Tag Heuer

Desire however does not necessarily correlate with expensive.

Out of the top 20 brands only 8 are considered 'expensive' and only 25% of the top 100 UK brands that featured are 'luxury products'.

So how do we make a brand 'desirable'?
The key (as ever) lies in understanding what motivates your audience.

Money invested in direct discussions (such a focus groups) with your audience is never money wasted.
Desirable brands tend to appeal to the hearts and minds more so than the practical side of human nature. To do this they generally need a simple proposition rather than lists of features and benefits (although these are still important)

This Christmas the 'youth market' bucked the trend for high street shopping. As a whole, this new generation of consumers are less brand loyal and more likely to follow trends.

The more savvy brands were quick to realise this and have appealed to fashion more so than reason.

The whole article AND the top 100 list can be found here, it makes for interesting reading.

Who says data analysis is dull?

2010-12-16T14:52:00.000Z

When Facebook intern Paul Butler told people he was busy plotting the relationships between 500 million people to present them visually on a chart, most people looked at their watches, made their excuses and left the room.

However, the people who decided to stay were in for a real treat.

Paul decided to plot Facebook users by location using longitude and latitude then plotted 'interactions' between users.

The final results were stunning.

Butler found that the interactions not only resembled the continents of the world but also picked out political boarders.

The final image is a stunningly beautiful map of global communications.

You can find out more about the project here or check out a large version of the image here as these smaller images don't really do it justice.

How does your web site sound?

2010-12-07T17:34:00.000Z

You know what your web site looks like, but have you ever wondered what it sounds like? No? Neither had we until we discovered this funny little site.

One of the wonderful things about the internet is that it never fails to surprise.

Codeorgan is on such web site. Basically, you point it at your web site, it reads the code and then it interprets your code as music.

How have we ever managed to get this far through life without code organ?

Have a play...

The internet makes you stupid...

2010-11-29T16:47:00.001Z

Attention spans aren't what they used to be. Some of you won't even get past the end of this sentence.

Intellectual heavyweight Nicholas Carr has just released his thoughts on the matter in his new book The Shallows - what the internet is doing to our brains.

Carr argues something we marketing types have known for a long time. People have short attention spans.

The very nature of how we use the internet means that we have a tendency to leap from article to article and only digest a very small proportion of what we read. In fact, a growing number of lecturers cite that many of their students can only concentrate on text for between 30 seconds a minute before becoming distracted.

Are you still reading? Good. So how does this affect the world of business?

It is more and more important to grab someone's attention with your sales and marketing literature. To do that you need to understand how and when people will take notice of your outbound communications.

If you want to get noticed in today's communication saturated world you need to keep your messages short and to the point. A fantastic tool for helping you do this is AIDA. This is short for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and it is a rule that all marketing communications should follow to be successful.

Grab a readers Attention; if you do this correctly you should then hold their concentration long enough to stimulate some Interest in what you are trying to say. If you have done your targeting correctly, the recipient should then begin to realise they need your products or services (Desire might be too strong a word but it makes for a good acronym). All you need to do then is leave them with a clear instruction as to what Action they need to do next, call this number, fill in this form, take it to the counter etc etc.

So, as we all get more and more stupid it would seem it's going to become more and more of a skill to capture someone's attention. True to AIDA, if you want to know a bit more about this, give us a call on 0113 290 9244 (sorry, I couldn't resist that last bit).

Short web addresses just got bigger.

2010-10-07T18:40:00.001+01:00

Google has done it again. If you use any form of Social Media in your marketing mix you really must read this article.

Google have created their very own web address shortening site which can be found at goo.gl and as ever they have put bells on it.

You may already be familiar with sites such as tinyurl.com which have become very popular with the advent of twiiter as it allows you to add a link and not use up too many of your precious 140 characters.

As more and more of us use Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic to websites and promote our corporate messages it can become quite frustrating trying to monitor if our efforts are having any effect what-so-ever.

The beauty of goo.gl is you can now monitor clicks on your shortened links and see which Social media is pulling in the crowds for you.

It's a really useful tools for monitoring social media and very simple to use. Why not take a look for yourself.

Twitter gets a face lift

2010-09-28T17:24:00.000+01:00

Here is an exclusive screen shot of the new Twitter interface and I have to say - I for one love the new improvements.

Twitter have clearly been working hard in the background to make Twitter easier to use. The new layout is fantastic.

I've attached a screenshot below but you can find out about the new features at http://twitter.com/newtwitter.

I'm certainly excited about the improved functionality with Flickr as it helps reduce the amount of sites you need to upload images to.

What do you think?

How happy is the nation?

2010-09-22T15:37:00.001+01:00

In marketing the 'feel good' factor is always mentioned in meetings, but can it be measured?

Well, it's starting to be. Mappiness is a social experiment to measure the happiness of the UK at any given moment - and you can join in right now.

To find out more, visit the web site at www.mappiness.org.uk - you will need an iPhone to contribute at the moment.

To take part you need to download the App from the App Store. It will then start asking you where you are and how you feel on regular occasions (about once a day).

Your response is then plotted as an average (anonymously) as an indicator of how happy people in your area are. I've just checked and Leeds seems to be extremely happy, must be the sun!!!

The state of the nation as this post was published.

Very brave viral video - featuring dogs...

2010-09-21T16:01:00.000+01:00

As the old adage goes, never work with children or dogs. Thankfully masters of the viral video 'OK Go' chose to ignore it (at least the bit about dogs).

I hope you enjoy it, we did.

Imagine life without photoshop....

2010-09-09T14:15:00.000+01:00

Photoshop is an incredible 20 years old (where did the time go!). It's become the 'must have' piece of software for the creative industry. But what was life like before Photoshop?
Now, I'm old enough to remember life before Photoshop. One of my first jobs was as a paste up artist. I had to draw letters by hand then blow them up on the new fangled photocopier and then glue them to the artwork. Sigh - what happy days.
Anyway, it brought a smile to my face when I found this. A great little movie about life without photoshop. One for the anoraks I think.
Before I go, does anyone remember their first job in the creative industry? What was life like in the studio when you started?

Jargon driving you mad? You need Unsuck-it.com

2010-08-20T15:10:00.001+01:00

Every-so-often you find yourself in a meeting with someone pouring out a steady stream of jargon laced gibberish.
At last, someone has created a fantastic web site to unscramble the scrambled.
Take your frustrations of the misuse and abuse of the English language to unsuck-it.com

Enjoy...

Vintage Internet adverts

2010-08-11T12:49:00.001+01:00

Brazilian Ad Agency Moma Moma have recently created these fantastic vintage adverts for Facebook, Skype, YouTube and Twitter.

They are to promote a lecture about new technologies quickly becoming outdated.

We just think they look great.

Are you paying the price using free social media?

2010-08-05T17:54:00.001+01:00

It's a well known saying that 'there is no such thing as a free meal'. The recent surge in the utilisation of Social Media by marketeers is largely down to the fact it is free.

But free seems to be coming at a price.

Panasonic have recently launched their new digital camera, the Lumix G2. One of their channels to market has been to release an advert filmed using the very camera it is selling. In itself a brilliant testimony of the quality of this camera.

However by using a free service, in this case YouTube, to syndicate the advert it has already opened itself up to abuse.

The screen shot below shows the kind of comments being made now the brand is out of the hands of the brand owner.

I too am now looking seriously at the Canon 5D thanks to Panasonic's advertising.

I don't suspect Panasonic will be losing too much sleep over this for now but it demonstrates how 'free' coupled with 'unsupervised' can sometimes cost your dearly.

Learn something every day

2010-08-04T15:51:00.000+01:00

Happy 1st Birthday to the gang at Young for completing a whole year of dispensing fascinating information using nothing more than a pen.

If you haven't heard about them yet, here is a link to their 1st Birthday promo video.

This man LOVES his business card design...

2010-07-30T17:08:00.001+01:00

We are working on a new sales pitch for business cards. What do you think?

Facebook Open Graph lets users search the internet - kind of...

2010-07-20T18:22:00.003+01:00

Facebook have just announced plans to let their Open Graph search engine begin to draw in content from outside of Facebook.

For a while now there has been speculation that Facebook is trying to produce a 'Social Semantic Search Engine' to serve up search results based on user information rather than 'html content' as google does.

The intention is to keep users 'within Facebook' when they need to search the internet for something.

Although this is seen as another step towards competing with Google, the service is far from perfect and also requires websites to have changes made to their meta data to be included as a search result.

It's early days yet but it will certainly add an extra dimension to consider when optimising web site for the internet.

Our Claire wins at the World Cup...

2010-07-16T09:51:00.005+01:00

England might not have done very well at the 2010 World Cup but one of our creative team didn't do too badly.

Scooping 2nd and 4th place in the office sweep stake wasn't enough for our Claire. Fighting off fierce competition she also won first prize of a flat screen HDTV in a competition held by AB Wellan - one of our favourite suppliers.

Claire is chuffed to bits and was presented her TV by Fabio look-a-like Michael Hinchcliffe, Director at AB Wellan.

Claire said "I can't believe it - I don't know anything about football". Michael is also availablefor Fabio Capello look-a-like work.

The worlds most tagged photo or the worlds best viral?

2010-07-02T09:32:00.005+01:00

I'm a huge fan of Orange. I love it as a colour, I love it as a drink and I love it as a mobile phone provider.

For me, Orange get it right so often.

They currently own 'cinema going' in the UK with their fantastic Orange Wednesdays campaign and now they are moving in on Glastonbury, one of the worlds most talked about events.

Orange have been present at Glasto for many years offering free mobile charging and a great space to meet up with friends and relax.

They have just pushed their barbed hooks further into the festival by being the brains behind 'The Most Tagged Photo Ever'.

Taken during the England world cup match and delivered in partnership with Facebook this I suspect is a viral that will go on for many years. Well done Orange.
http://glastonbury.orange.co.uk/

Marketing inspiration #5 - If you want to increase sales...

2010-06-22T09:37:00.003+01:00

...you need to think like a Starfish.
Starfish have been around for quite some time now and they know a thing or two. In fact, they know a thing or five.

To stop them getting washed out to sea and lost forever from their other little Starfish buddies they have evolved five sticky legs to keep them firmly on the ground. These five quality points of contact allow them to feast from the sea bed, even when the tide turns and less secured creatures are being bashed about in the coral.

This five quality points of contact is something you should seriously consider for your business as time after time it's proven to increase sales for companies the world over.

It's difficult to stay in touch with current customers at the best of time - to start cold calling new business as well is highly demanding and for those of you who don't have a dedicated new business team, you need to consider an alternative to help you grow your business.

Five quality points of contact, done correctly, will keep your business bubbling around in the forefront of your potential customers mind. By spreading those five points of contact out over a 12 month period you are greatly improving your chances of your message being delivered 'right time, right place' and getting that all important opportunity to quote.

An example five point strategy might be....

December/January: Desktop Calendar sent out with covering letter - great way of staying in front of a customer for an entire 12 months

February: Chocolate for Valentines Day - we send out Rolo's once a year to customers and invite none customer to sign up for emails from us in return for a pack as well. They are always well received.

March/April: Newsletter - this is a time of year when many people have their end of year and are planning for the next 12 months so getting the opportunity to quote is often a bit easier.

July/August: Brochure and covering letter - many industries find summer a quite time so you're more likely to get your brochure read rather than filed under 'B' for bin.

October/November: Special offer - Typically industries tend to pick up speed again as Christmas approaches. Having a good offer in place can often help you get a foot in the door at a time when people are thinking of buying.

So - time for your homework class. What five quality points of contact are you going to employ to stay in touch with the leads in your database?

UK Party Politics Research Tool...

2010-04-28T15:10:00.001+01:00

...this is a fantastic little site for anyone interested in politics.

As the long awaited general election draws nearer, our conversations in and around the office have naturally turned to politics.
The conclusion we draw was that no-one was really sure of any of the main parties policies which is a shocking admission given that we will shortly be voting on which one we want to run the country.

Now, any regular readers of the site will be well aware of the importance of making decisions based on facts rather than assumptions or gut instinct. So I decided to look for an unbiased site which would give me bite sized pieces of information about all the major parties.

It took a very long time to find such a site, but here it is: www.pocketpolitics.co.uk

I compared the three main parties and have to admit that it's really helped me make my mind up about who will be getting my vote. I hope you find it equally interesting.

Happy 25th birthday .com

2010-04-13T10:30:00.001+01:00

Did you know the first .com site was registered on March 15th 1985? And contrary to popular belief, the .com boom hardly started as a big bang with only five other .com sites being registered that year.

The first site was registered by Symbolics Inc and can still be found on the internet today at www.symbolics-dks.com (could this be the first World Heritage Web Site?).

For those of you with an inquisitive mind you can find a link here to the other 99 .com sites that were also registered: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_currently-registered_Internet_domain_names

Also, I decided to try and find the first web site in the world and it would appear to be this one, created by Tim Berners-Lee (father of the internet): http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

There you go fact fans.

Google v's Facebook...

2010-03-22T09:36:00.005Z

Is it just me or do you find it odd that Google's main competitor is a social networking site and not another Search Engine?

On March 6th Facebook achieved the seemingly impossible. It became (admittedly for a brief moment) the most viewed web site in the U.S. Facebook has long been seen as the main competitor to Google. Not Bing, Not Yahoo. Not Twitter.

So why is this?

If you take a look at the following graph you will see that Google has remained fairly constant over the last 12 months whereas Facebook has increased its share of web views by around 185%.

To understand why this causes a concern for Google you have to remember that Google got where it is today not by being a great search engine but by gathering information about its users so it can deliver more and more relevant content in the form of paid for advertising.

Basically Google is the ultimate proof that successful marketing is based on understanding your customers.

Google has had to fight tooth and nail over the years to find out about us and still its coming up with new ways, if you haven't already, check out Google Buzz.

Facebook however, we give all our information to readily. Facebook then uses this information to deliver highly targeted advertising campaigns.

Currently Facebook's advertising seems based on user demographics (such as age, sex etc) but I'm prepared to bet it is only a matter of time before the advertising becomes more relevant to the content of your status, threads and, with the increase in popularity of mobile social networking via iPhones and the like, your physical location.

With this in mind, Google has every right to be nervous. There is only a finite amount of advertising revenue in the world and although Google currently has the Lions share, it's only a matter of time before Facebook begins to seriously erode into Google advertising income by simply understanding the customer.

Top Tips #1: Are you struggling to get 'things' done?

2010-03-12T10:18:00.005Z

My typical day goes something like this: start a project, stop for a phone call, back to project, check email, deal with email, back to project, phone goes again, return to project, phone goes again - deal with emergency, back to project - repeat to fade. I think you get the picture.
Recently I have discovered a fantastic bit of software called 'Things'.

It's based on the 'Get Things Done' principle but the reason I like it is it's so simple and intuitive.

The program sits quietly in the background on your computer and has a handy 'In Box' folder. If you get a phone call or remember something that needs doing, you can quickly get it out of your head by typing a quick note in the 'In Box'. These are called 'tasks'.

When you have a spare minute you can then go through your 'tasks' and assign dates to them.

Tasks can also have handy 'tags' added to help you sort through them when you have a busy to-do list (for example you can just view 'urgent' and 'phone) and Things will display just your urgent phone calls for that day.

Tasks can also by added to projects to keep them all nice and neat.

At the moment Things only runs on Apple Macs running OS X but it also has a really handy iPhone or iTouch app which syncs with your computer so you can still stay in control of your to-do's when you are on the move.

You can find their web site here and download the software.

Give it a try and you'll be churning through your to-do's in no time!

Factory Freebie - How to get sales quickly...

2010-03-04T18:09:00.001Z

If you didn't know already, we recently wrote a short and sweet document about structuring a simple sales process to win new business for your company.

When talking to customers the biggest barrier to sales is usually no clear plan on how to develop a process.

You can find it on our web site here: How to generate sales

Don't worry about entering your details, we don't keep them, it's just to keep the 'Spam-Bots' out.

Marketing Inspiration #4 - No one cares what you do...

2010-02-24T15:42:00.007Z

I hate to be the person who pops your ego bubble but nobody cares what you do. Honestly. No one.

This seems to be one of the most commonly overlooked facts when people start to market their businesses.

Companies' websites are rammed with information about what they do and facts and figures about the products they sell and it's all a waste of time and money because nobody cares.

Now it might sound like I'm suffering from a little disparity but bear with me.

Let's use a drill as an example.

How many people do you think wake up in the morning thinking 'today is a great day to buy a drill'? I'll tell you. None.

People wake up needing to put up shelves or build a fence. They don't want a drill, they want the holes the drill makes for them.

What I'm essentially describing here is 'Features' and 'Benefits'.

Features are the dull, specification of a product whereas benefits are exciting or useful or essential to a more fulfilling life!

Features are important, you need them to compare 'apples with apples' when you are deciding to make a purchase but it's the benefits that will have helped you narrow down your choices from the bewildering array of options available to you.

Let's stick with the drill for a minute more. Which would you most likely want in your hand when putting up some shelves?

Drill A - 3.3kg, 2 x 12v power packs 10+1 torque settings.

or

Drill B - light weight cordless drill with 11 power settings to tackle all your DIY tasks around the house.

So, time for some homework class. Have a read through your company brochure or website and take a look at what you are saying. Is it an exciting read that makes the hair on the back of your arm stand up or is it simply just a list of features strung together with some other words?

Marketing Inspiration #3 - Kick 'em to the curb...

2010-02-15T11:52:00.005Z

"Get out of my office and never darken my door again" is not a phrase you would expect to hear from a supplier - but perhaps it's time to start saying that to some of your clients?

When I first started out in business I got very busy, very quickly. By busy, I mean I was working long hours and really giving my customers my pound of flesh.

'Nothing wrong with that' I hear you say. But it began to dawn on me that some clients I was sinking a hugely disproportionate amount of time into, they didn't want to pay for anything and when I finally got an invoice out to them they would drag their heels in paying me.

But they were my clients and I was scared to let them go. After all - I was very busy.

This went on (for several years I'm ashamed to say) where I always found myself owed a lot of money and owing the bank a lot of money - which was costing me money.

So I had a cull.

I started to get tough with my 'problem clients' and started to ask them to agree to things in writing. I'd stop working for them the second they breached the agreement we had made and I started to log my time and present it to them at every stage of the project so they could see a 'running total' of costs.

Do you know what happened?

Very quickly my bank account started topping up and my overdue accounts started going down. I also started getting home at a sensible time.

The 'deliberate' time wasters disappeared and good riddance to them, they are now someone elses problem, but the 'good clients'. The ones who appreciated the work I did for them stayed, many of which are still clients nearly a decade on.

Now, this might not sound like 'marketing advice' but I'm a great believer that how you conduct yourself with your customers helps people form an impression of you and your company and in my mind, that is part of creating a brand and is as important as having an eye-catching and consistently used logo.

Not only that, it's far better to work with people who appreciate your efforts.

Now, today's homework class: write a list of your 'problem clients' and start the process of 'puppy training' as my business partner likes to call it.

We have loads of advice on processes that can be used to keep your customers in check. Let us know if it is of interest and we might start a mini master class on the blog.

Marketing Inspiration #2 - Know how your products are used.

2010-02-11T13:26:00.008Z

"I know how my product is being used!" I hear you cry. But do you really?

Let's look at a dying product. The pen.

Imagine being a pen manufacturer in this day and age. I use my computer keyboard for about 90% of my writing and since I got my iPhone I can use that for the other 10% (I've even downloaded an app that lets me sketch ideas on the screen and save them).

So here is a question for you. 'How do I use a pen?'.

The obvious answer is to write and that was the answer that nearly all pen manufactures would give, even in the late 1950's when Bic perfected the Ball Point Pen previously invented by the Biro brothers (even to this day some Bic pens have the name Biro on the side as testament to their inventors).

As ball-point pens became cheaper and cheaper, many pen manufactures stared to lose market share and go out of business.

Parker however decided to find out how people were using their product and to their surprise, people weren't using them for writing. They were giving them as gifts.

Anyone could buy a Bic but a well made pen was more of a gesture. It was given to loved ones who were leaving as a way of saying 'please stay in touch'. Wives bought them for husbands when they got promoted or got a new job so they could 'make a good impression' at the office.

Parkers weren't used for writing, they were a gift to a loved one or a token of thanks.

As a result of this Parker repacked their pens in gift cases and represented themselves as a gift idea rather than a writing tool.

By understanding how their product was used Parker are still around today to tell the tale unlike the vast majority of their competitors back in the 50's.

Whenever we have been asked to conduct research, our clients are nearly always surprised about how their products or services are used or perceived.

This invaluable knowledge often changes the direction a company is heading and invariably improves their fortunes as well.

So, to conclude - ask yourself this qution - "How are my products (or services) being used?".

Half Price Print for O2 Business customers.

2010-02-09T09:23:00.002Z

The Factory have teamed up with Printing.com and O2 to give any O2 Business customers half price stationery and flyer printing.

This is a combined saving of over £200.

If you are an O2 Business Customer or know someone who is and is thinking of getting some stationery printed, point them towards this link to register: http://www.o2blueroom.co.uk/business

Then give us a call with your voucher codes.

This offer runs right through to December 31st 2010 - give us a call on 0113 290 9244 if you want to take advantage, have any questions or want some samples.

Marketing Inspiration #1 - Stop chasing new business.

2010-02-05T09:59:00.008Z

If you are responsible for bringing in new business for your company you probably got a momentary sense of relief when you read the headline for this article, probably followed straight after by the rational side of your brain shouting something like "Yeah right - now get back on the phone and start cold calling again".

New business is important, but so many companies are actually making more work for themselves by constantly chasing new clients and neglecting the easiest place that sales will come from. Your existing and lapsed customers.

Now take a moment to answer this question...

How many of your previous customers have gone on to use an alternative supplier for products or services that you could have supplied to them?

If the answer is 'none' you are either very lucky or very naive.

Imagine all that lovely money going to someone else. All that time bending over backwards and burning the midnight oil for a customer only to have them go and find another supplier for something you could have done with your eyes shut! Doesn't it make you sick?

So how do we stop that happening?

The answer (as ever) is surprisingly simple. Stay in touch. Communicate. Inform. Let them know you enjoyed working for them and keep them informed of everything else you do.

Now this isn't always easy to do, especially if you are in a small business and especially if your time is taken up looking for the next new client.

So what can we be doing to stay in touch when we are short on time and resources?

The phone is always a great way to stay in touch but is easily 'put off until tomorrow' when you are busy with other things. Also, if you have a lot of clients it isn't always practical to call them all.

Why not consider a newsletter? These are a great way of conveying news and services to multiple customers in a consistent manner, they can also be sent to coincide with seasonal trends in your business such as Christmas or Summer Holidays.

A 'post sale' brochure is a great tool as well - send it after your first job with a client, it can contain the all important 'did you know we also do...' message.

Emails have become very popular but are easily ignored.

The letter is a great tool as are 'special offers'. A simple voucher book giving a new client X% off your other services.

So, here is another question for you to answer...

Can you list ten lapsed customers who would benefit from one of your services?

Do you have your list? Good - now how are you going to tell them you can help?

Is Internet Explorer 6 finally on it's way out?

2010-02-03T15:39:00.006Z

The internet has constantly bounded forward at an alarming rate. I remember when we early web designers gushed at being able to make text blink on and off. Wow.

Now you can drag elements around screens, interact with sites even build your own at the click of a button, stream video, download audio. If you can think it, chances are somewhere in the world someone is working out how to do it.

One of the greatest challenges web browsers have to face is being 'forward compatible' to ensure they are not out of date the second they are released.

Which brings me to one of the biggest mysteries on the internet.

Why is a browser that had it's last update in 2001 (that's right dear reader, nine years ago) still specified as a requirement for government projects and many larger corporations?

The answer I suspect is simple. The security for IE6 can be controlled on the server rather than at each individual access point (computer). This makes life very easy for IT departments as it's one configuration rather than many.

But what are we missing out on as a result of this?

Many new technologies on the internet don't fair too well in IE6. What is now considered to be 'best practice' for online design an development always has to include a 'work around' for IE6.

In short, it's become very out dated.

News today however might make governments and organisations re-think their IT strategy regarding browsers. Google is about to phase out support for IE6 from March 1st 2010.

Initially it will only be for what it describes as 'lesser' areas such as Google Docs and it's Blogger Sites (personally I think the Bloggers sites are more than just a 'lesser' service). But soon it also plans to stop supporting other services such as Gmail and Google Apps.

Once this support goes, I suspect that most developers will also stop holding back on progress simply to support and ageing relic.

If you want to see a beautifully presented diagram showing how IE6 usage is beginning to decline, click on the following link (please note this may not work with IE6).

http://www.michaelvandaniker.com/labs/browserVisualization/

Could there be a bigger gesture of love than saying it with flowers?

2010-02-01T14:42:00.002Z

Apparently yes - try a tree for size.

Forest of Bradford in association with BEAT are giving you the chance to plant a tree for your loved one. It's a great gesture and will certainly last a lot longer than a bunch of roses. You can even go and help plant it.

www.beat.org.uk

The Factory have been behind schemes like this for quite some time now; last year we helped plant 50,000 trees as part of Printing.com's Tree Appeal and this year the goal is to plant 100,000 trees.

With every 20th order of Printing.com products, we plant a tree. We also have a full range of 100% recycled products, should you be interested in making your marketing campaigns environmentally friendly.

The Factory, saving the planet one tree at a time!

Can shaving eyebrows really increase your profits?

2010-01-28T11:27:00.007Z

I think I speak for the majority of male readers who can't understand the concept of paying £80 for a haircut.

My barber is just around the corner from my house and charges £4 for a haircut and £3 for a cut throat shave. I have yet to go and not queue - he's a very busy man.

Yesterday when I popped in for a trim something unusual happened. He asked the guy in the chair next to me if he wanted his eyebrows trimming - only 40p.

At first I thought this was an unusual request, however, the gentleman who had just been asked positively leapt at the idea.

"I didn't know you did that! Brilliant" he said.

I then thought about all the time (and pain) my girlfriend has invested in trying to yank out my wayward eyebrow hairs and I decided it actually was a good idea; so when it was my turn to be asked I too said "yes please".

It took the barber less than 10 seconds to 'buzz both brows' yet he had added 10 per cent to his turnover simply by making his customers aware of this additional service. One I would never had thought to ask about but definitely needed.

What simple thing can you do to increase the value of your sales? And why aren't you doing it?

If you are doing it, tell us about it.

The worlds best cakes (in my opinion)...

2009-12-23T11:06:00.004Z

Last week our new neighbours Chocolate PR recently hosted a very successful PR Workshop.

They came back with a couple of boxes full of Fanny's Cupcakes.

Now I'm not much of a cake fan but 'sweet lord' the cup cakes we tried out were out of this world gorgeous!!

I managed to grab a quick photo of the last cup cake (which doesn't do them justice - each one is a work of art!).

I don't know much about Fanny except I found her web site and Facebook page, but Fanny, wherever you are - thank you so much - those are the best cup cakes in the world!

Free e-Book courtesy of Seth Godin

2009-12-23T10:57:00.004Z

I'm in love with the Purple Cow!

Anyone who has spoken with me at length will know how much I love Seth Godin's 'Purple Cow' book. It's all about standing out from the crowd and daring to be different.

Seth has just released a free e-Book called 'What Matters Now' which covers a broad span of topics in bite sized chunks.

If you want something to quickly skim through in your lunch break that gives you a bit of enthusiasm to 'do something special' then download it from here:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/12/what-matters-now-get-the-free-ebook.html

You might also want to check out his blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com

Does your brand stand for adultery or a night club brawl?

2009-12-18T15:27:00.003Z

It's hard work to gain favourable opinion from the paying public and to build that all important 'Brand Loyalty' so is it any wonder some brands look for short cuts?

Attaching a famous personality to your brand is a short cut to public approval.
The idea being that if your brand has been endorsed by someone who is, in the mind of the public, a living legend, sports star, genius, housewive's favourite, etc. then your brand must be credible and therefore trustworthy.

But what happens when the personality falls off their pedestal?

Is Tiger Woods and his wayward winky the last nail in the 'celebrity endorsement' coffin?

Accenture seem to think so as they have withdrawn all ties with the man where as Gillette are still unsure and have opted to 'cut back Wood's role'.

Here is a list of Celebrity Endorsements that have gone wrong for the sponsor...

1). Martina Hingis and Sergio Tacchini

Marina was given a $5.6 million sponsorship deal by Italian sportswear company Sergio Tacchini in 1996. One proviso of the deal was she had to wear their trainers and clothing (the very least you would expect for that money).

The deal blew up in Sergio Tacchini's face when, in 2001, Hingis sued claiming the the shoes were defective, unsuitable for tournament play and the cause of an injury to her foot in the 1998 US Open.

2). O. J. Simpson and Hertz

Just in case you missed it, O. J. Simspon was charged with two counts of Murder in 1994. Previously to that; O. J. had been the public face of Hertz rental cars. After his now famous 'car chase', Hertz dropped him like a stone.

3). Helena Bonham Carter and Yardley

in 1993 Helena was chosen as the 'Face of Yardley'. It was a face which was soon to turn red for Yardley when Helena publicly admitted she didn't wear make-up.

4). Kate Moss and H&M, Chanel and Burberry

The enduring and seemingly un-ageing face of the Brit Pack scene, Kate Moss was riding high in the Red Tops as her romance with, ex Libertines front man, Pete Doherty leapt from crisis to crisis. The final straw for the sponsors was when she was photographed allegedly snorting cocaine.

5). Cybill Shepherd and the Beef Industry Council

In the late 80's The American Beef Industry Council enlisted Cybill Shepherd to be the face of their 'Real food for real people' campaign to encourage people to eat Beef. In hindsight a Vegetarian might not have been the best choice.

You know you are doing well when...

2009-12-10T21:05:00.002Z

You know you are doing well when you start to make people nervous.

The internet has certainly changed the world we live in - particularly when you rely on advertising revenue to survive.

The Sun are just one of many newspapers struggling to maintain liquidity when millions of pounds of advertising revenue are moving away from news print and turning to the web.

Here is their clever parody of the famous iPhone commercials.

So where are your customers these days?

2009-10-28T14:00:00.001Z

Still wondering if making a substantial investment in the internet is for you? By 'substantial' I mean a web site that you treat like a business with budget invested in customer research, getting found, updates, etc.

Here are some interesting facts that might help sway your thought's.

Look how long the following media took to build up an audience of 50 million.

Radio - 38 years
Television - 13 years
The internet - 4 years
iPod - 3 years
Facebook - 2 years

I've no idea what the next big thing will be but I'm, pretty sure where it will happen.

Who didn't eat all the pies?

2009-10-12T12:29:00.002+01:00

Hell hath no fury than a pie fan scorned.

I'm sure you all have a friend or colleague whose job it seems to be to scour the internet looking for interesting offers to forward to you.

Occasionally, some of them are quite interesting and one morning last week, I received an email offering me a free pie from a certain well known high street bakers shop. A great idea, I thought - well done to whoever thought up that promotion.

Now, I love my pies and I immediately clicked the link to claim my free pie. After I had filled in my details I was greeted with a message informing me that my 'voucher had already been claimed' - a technical hitch, I'm sure.

Needless to say I was slightly annoyed.

Shortly after, the very same email did the rounds again but this time with a long string of angry pie fans' comments, all venting their spleens about the promotion (or lack of it).

The message of this story is, always test your promotions before you release them to the masses, especially where technology is involved. What might start off as a seemingly fail-safe way to win favour can sometimes have the opposite effect and promote negative feelings toward your brand.

Branding is just for big companies - right?

2009-10-05T14:09:00.001+01:00

We are working with a new client that manufactures tools. Within the hand tool market they are, comparatively speaking, a tiny company. In my early discussions with our client they didn't want to spend money on a brand as they saw the process as being "too expensive".

As part of the project we conducted some customer research to see what the paying public thought of the tools.

With no packaging and with the branding covered up, they fared quite well in peoples' opinions when compared with similar tools from other manufactures.

However, as soon as the branding and packaging were revealed, the popularity of the products plummeted in favour of companies such as Stanley and Draper.

The product went from being "quite likely to buy" or above in the opinions of the participants to '"not at all likely to buy". All that had changed within the perception of the participants was the brand name and the associations with that brand were now known to them.

So just how expensive is a brand?

Below is an illustrated 'life cycle' of a brand and the stages you should be aiming for. It isn't expensive (no more so then any outbound communications you are already doing) but it does take time, planning and commitment.

Here's the list....

1. Brand rejection
If someone associates your brand with something negative, they will purposely avoid your product. If public opinion is turning against you or your product, launch a campaign to alter it.

2. Brand non-recognition
This is where your customers simply don’t recognise your brand… probably because it is not clearly differentiated from competitors. Boldly state your product or service’s benefits. Find the differences in value between your product and your competitors and highlight that difference mercilessly.

3. Brand recognition
This is a good stage to aim for if you don’t have any recognition at all. Brand recognition will help people lean toward your product when given the choice between your product and one they have never heard of. Continue to differentiate yourself and be sure to add value to your product in order to get to the next stage.

4. Brand preference
This is where customers – given a choice between two brands – will choose yours over someone else’s. It often is the result of a sense of differentiation and that your product or service uniquely serves their needs.

5. Brand loyalty
This is where customers will choose your brand time and time again, even if another product comes along that seems to be better suited to their needs. To achieve brand loyalty, you need to provide a product that is highly differentiated, with plenty of value added, but also you need to offer them remarkable service at a level they will not get anywhere else.

Why it's okay to stab your clients...

2009-09-15T21:00:00.003+01:00

Cavemen had the right idea about acquiring new business.

Way back in time, around the stone age, some bright young thing went after a wooly mammoth with a newfangled contraption called a spear.

Up to that point in time your average caveman was content with pounding his prey with rocks and sticks but clever caveman decided a sharp point at the end of a long stick was more effective at getting through the leathery hide of a savage beast.

The spear caught on and as time past and a few developments were made, namely the addition of 'barbs' to the back of the spear head.

The purpose of these barbs is to hold the spear in place once it's broken through the tough exterior of the animal.

This exactly how a good sales and marketing strategy should work.

Start with a simple message, a single point that is well targeted and delivered to the right place at the right time to break the tough exterior; then keep pushing bit by bit until your barbs are in and you become very hard to get out.

You can try and hit a potential customer with everything you do all at the same time, but just like throwing rocks at them, you might get lucky occasionally but more often than not your message just bounces off and irritates.

So next time you are thinking about going after some new business why not try giving them a quick stab and see what happens.

The 17 best business cards...

2009-09-10T12:23:00.001+01:00

My desk is wrist deep in other peoples business cards. I see so many of them, some good, some bad but very few 'clever'. We've been scouring the internet for some ideas for great business cards. Hopefully it might provide you with some great ideas to make your business card get noticed...

1). Balloon Business Card.
Here's a card that isn't actually a card. It's a balloon. Obviously these won't fit in a traditional card file but what a great idea and not too expansive either. Perfect if your business is expanding. (ha ha ha).

2). Simple Business Card
The best ideas are usually the simplest. I love this business card because it's so, well, simple.

3). Handy Business Card
A great way to get your business card kept is to make it useful. Look at this great idea, A business card and a bottle opener. Cheers.

4). Simple die-cut, Business Card #1
I love die cuts, which is 'technical talk' for cutting shapes out of business cards. This idea works so well with the name.

4). Simple die-cut, Business Card #2
This is so simple and so pretty. Probably one of my favourite business cards of all time.

5). Interlocking Business Cards
Great for a partnership. I've seen this idea before where the business cards come together and make a 'whole'.

6). Simple die-cut, Business Card #3
Quite obvious but still very effective business card design.

7). Embossed Business Card.
So few people 'emboss' any more. Probably because it's quite costly to do, but the results can be fantastic (or should that be (fang-tastic).

8). Creative Business Card.
How great an idea is that? Putting exactly what you do into the hands of a potential customer when you first meet them. Brilliant.

9). Interactive Business Card.
A similar idea to the personal trainer business card. I do lawns, here is a baby lawn.

10). Creative Business Card idea #1.
I love this card, simple but obvious. But I love it even more when you see the next business card....

11). Creative Business Card idea #2.
Brilliant. Simply brilliant. I wonder which came first?

12). Match Box Business Card
I imagine these will have been quite expensive to make as they have some hand finishing on them (the staples) but still, I bet people who get them remember the company.

13). Mini Me Business Card
I've never been a fan of 'photos' on business cards. It's a bit cheesy. However, a mini pop up model of the person. Now that is something.

14). Plastic Business Card
Now these cards are expensive to produce but they last and last. Plus you can use them to de-ice your car in the morning.

15). The ultimate recycled Business Card
I saw this one and it made me laugh. Whet better business card for a second hand store than a second hand business card.

16). SEO Business Card
After you've spent thousands of pounds getting to number one on Google, why not brag about it?

17). The special offer Business Card
So many people hand out business cards but I've never seen one with an incentive to buy attached to it before. What a great idea.

18). Shameless Plug about Business Card Design and Print.
Don't forget, we can combine our creativity at The Factory with the bargain print prices at our sister company, Printing.com to produce you are card that other people will always remember.

The future is so close you can touch it.....

2009-09-10T10:49:00.002+01:00

Want to see the next two 'big things' for us media types to play around with?

Big thing number one: Moving images in magazines.

This month Pepsi and American TV Channel CBS will make history as being the first company to produce a video advert in the pages of a magazine (US magazine Entertainment Weekly).

To find out more about this amazing technology click here

Big thing number two: Touchable 3D holograms

Hailed as the next big thing in gaming and point-of-sale, Shinoda Lab in Tokyo have developed a 3D hologram that can interact with the user and, by using targeted jets of air, give the sensation of touch to the user as well.

People who have used the system have said that it's quite unnerving at first to see, feel and move an object that your mind knows doesn't exist.

It looks set to start making appearances in arcade games and POS advertising sometime in the next few years.

I can't wait!

Take a look at the YouTube video.

Remember: older people love their tables...

2009-09-09T18:35:00.002+01:00

Earlier this year my parents (by which I mean my Mum because my Dad gets no say in these matters) were considering putting a gas fire in their living room to replace the coal fire.

My Mum said she wanted "the kind with a door on that looked like a coal fire but didn't require the maintenance of a coal fire".

So, they phoned around a few fire companies and requested some brochures and on Saturday night after tea they spread all the brochures out on the kitchen table and compared 'gas fires with doors on'.

Fast forward to a hot summers afternoon mid July and the family and neighbours are stood in the living room looking admiringly at Mum's new 'multi fuel gas stove' as she calls it and sweating profusely.

After the coo-ing had died down and a few of the neighbours had passed out from heat exhaustion my Mum mentioned something that caught my ear.

"You wouldn't believe how many people we spoke to who wanted to email me a brochure" she said.

Now I found that quite interesting as it proved a point I have been harping on about for many years now. As a company it's seen as a benefit to produce 'e-literature' and send it out via email to potential customers. You save on post, print and when amends are required they are quick and cheap. As a company we do it ourselves.

However, when the decision to buy is being made, many people still like to spread their options out in front of them, usually on a table, and see what they are buying.

Now it's not like my Mum and Dad are computer illiterate, far from it. They are just from a generation who want to 'compare apples with apples' and they like to do it around the kitchen table looking at glossy brochures and getting all excited.

They do it for cars, holidays, double glazing, anything they consider to be a major purchase is done around the table looking at the options available.

And guess what?

This same buying process goes on a thousand times every single day around boardroom tables all over the world.

And guess what else?

A large proportion of the people who make the decisions at these companies are from the same generation as my parents and they too like to sit around a table looking at brochures so they can see what they are buying.

In this day and age an online presence is, in almost all cases, essential. Cutting back costs on tonnes of printed material makes perfect business sense. But saving money on the tools your customers use to buy from you?

Out of the companies who sent my Mum a glossy brochure, the one who got the order has now installed a further 3 fires (based on referrals from my Mum) into the houses of my Mum's friends. And at around £2,000 per installation....

So, next time you are emailing a potential customer a photo of whatever it is you sell along with a short description, stop and think 'I wonder if this will end up on their table when they decide who to buy from?'.

We all remember the ginger kid at School...

2009-09-07T14:53:00.006+01:00

Copper Top, Duracell, Rusty. Whatever you called the ginger kid at your School I bet you still remember them now.

Standing out is something we British seem to try hard to avoid. We embrace new fashions so we can all look the same and when it comes to our company brochures and our web sites, people always want it to look a bit like their competitors.

But why?

Standing out from the crowd is the easiest way to get remembered. If people can remember your company they are more likely to come to you when they need your product or services.

Seth Godin's book 'The Purple Cow' is all about ways to stand out and the success enjoyed by those who 'dared to be different'.

Take Apple for example. They could have played it safe and put their new computer in a beige box and called it the Apple TT1234 like everyone else was. But no, they gave you a choice of bright colours, made it look like a crash helmet and called it the iMac.

It's safe to say that by being different, Apple caught the eye of the customer and turned the fortunes of the company around almost over night.

So next time you catch yourself looking at your competitors marketing and thinking 'I wish mine looked like that'. Stop. Take a deep breath and think 'how can I stand out?'.

And if anyone reading this is brave enough to do a brochure covered in Ginger hair, give me a call and I'll make us both famous!