For some years I have been running programmes with companies on writing up marketing plans and developing marketing strategies. As I teach marketing strategy right up to MBA level, I know how complex marketing strategy can be. Yet companies want me to help them come up with a plan in a matter of hours. Is this an impossible demand? Can anything useful be done in a few hours, when we know that so much research is required?

Continue Reading »

• Categories: Marketing, Strategy
• Comments Off on Why clients love the one page marketing plan

In a recent Edelman Trust Barometer has some shocking but not surprising findings. Trust is a rare thing in Ireland at the moment. And that matters hugely. Every time you hear the word ‘trust’, think ‘confidence’. And when you see confidence in short supply, think ‘lethal damage’.

Even if you didn’t know intuitively that consumers who don’t trust don’t buy, this report helps us understand the corrosive impact of low trust. Over 90 per cent of those surveyed in Ireland said […]

Continue Reading »

• Categories: Strategy
• Comments Off on The Leadership Deficit – in business and politics

In the field of influence and persuasion, Dr Cialdini  (pronounced Chilldini) is the most quoted social psychologist in the world today. And he talks a lot about the importance of being likeable when going about our business. Whether you’re a surgeon, a mountain guide or a receptionist, you need to influence people to like you and like the ‘brand’ you represent, as an individual and as an embodiment of the organisation and its values.

For example, for all you surgeons out […]

Continue Reading »

• Categories: Customer Experience
• Comments Off on Never forget the Likeability Factor when providing a service

1st Secret – People buy for emotional reasons and then rationalise it with logic.

But the emotion comes first. Have you talked to anyone recently who has bought a new car? Well, ok, there aren’t too many examples out there at the moment but I spoke with two neighbours recently. Both said that the reason they bought a (fancy) new car was because they were getting such a rotten trade-in rate. Now that doesn’t make too much sense. That could be […]

Continue Reading »

• Categories: Uncategorized
• Comments Off on 3 Secrets About Consumer Behaviour that even Consumers can’t tell you #1

2nd Secret – The Right Brain is the Right Way

Research shows that people need to engage with a product before they decide to buy that product. According to a recent posting by Jamie Turner in the 60 Second Marketer, when people engage with a product that event is stored in short term memory. However, if we can channel our communications to casino online the emotional side of the brain, this memory is stored in long term memory. Once you’re in […]

Continue Reading »

• Categories: Uncategorized
• Comments Off on 3 Secrets About Consumer Behaviour that even Consumers can’t tell you. #2

3rd Secret – People don’t always tell the truth to researchers
Looking at some recent research on Irish lifestyles, you can read between the lines when significant percentages of people claim to take exercise regularly and live a healthy lifestyle. They’re not being truthful to the researcher, but often they’re not even truthful to themselves. So if, for example, you’re offering activity holidays to people, they often imagine that for two weeks of the year they can get into camouflage gear […]

Continue Reading »

• Categories: Uncategorized
• Comments Off on 3 Secrets About Consumer Behaviour that even Consumers can’t tell you. #3