Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Watch the details when you cut costs

In time of recession what do most businesses do? They cut costs, they drop marketing and stop the ads. What kind of signal does that send out to hard pressed customers also in the recession?

  • It says that you probably went under with the recession.
  • That you have no new products.
  • That you don't care about service.
  • That you don't care about them.

That last one's a bit of a tough one but let me explain. If you have a friend for years and you've been through the good times together, they got what they needed from you and you made a nice profit out of them too. How will they feel if you suddenly don't talk to them anymore?

They feel hurt and find someone else to talk to or buy from.

Changing your friendship hurts too. A friend who suddenly stops offering you coffee when you visit changes in your eyes.

Business is the same, when the little things change customers are upset and look for others who can give them what they were used to.

So when you cut back, be careful what you cut back on and ask yourself how would you feel if your friend did this to you?

Here's a great post on watching what you cut back on.

Take heed! Customers really do care!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The future of music? The 17!

Driving home last night I listened to Radio 2's Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Marconie show.
The guest last night was Bill Drummond who you may know as the driving force behind the KLF. Bill had a brainstorm one day and decided that all music was now just repetition and he threw out all his recorded songs and decided to find something on a much higher plain.

His idea was The 17. Simple idea. Take 17 people, no musical talent needed, and get them to make a noise. Any noise is fine, record it and play it back. Once you've played it once destroy it. That way the music lives only in your mind and the only way to hear it again is the re-create it again. And because it was only performed once and no recordings exists no two performances will ever be the same.

I'm not sure if this is genius or just a gimmick. What do you think?

Have you ever recommended a book you've never read?

Seth Godin is pre-launching his new book The Tribe on his only on his blog.

Seth's books are must reads for anyone in marketing because they are a guide to how business should be done and how thinking differently about the world of business helps everyone.

Seth's concept for pushing this book is pure genius and should become the subject of a entire book on it's own, written by a better man than me I'm sure.

Seth's promise is that for all pre-orderers of his book he'll offer untold benefits. Seth has such a loyal following that the offer is already oversubscribed, it was only added today (29th July). Even without this the book is due to be massive, the really clever part is that he's got all the pre-orderers, me included, all ready spreading the word about it. I've no idea what the book is actually about yet but I'm already so sold that I've bought it and I've recommended it to my work colleagues.

Have you ever recommended a book you've never read? I haven't - 'til today.

Order your book now. If you're quick enough you can join the tribe too! Look he's even got me to give a free plug. The man is a legend

Friday, July 11, 2008

Really good advice for writing copy

Seth Godin points to this really good article on writing copy. There are some really good points in here which I'll be trying to put into my own ranting, writing whatever you want to call it.

I've no idea if anyone is reading this but hopefully you are and will be kind or cruel enough to tell me whether I'm interesting or crap. Knowing either will be useful because how can I develop otherwise.

Anyway here's the link: How to say nothing with 500 words.

Enjoy