Do you want to inject more originality into your marketing?

As we trudge into the final quarter of a particularly difficult year, the time has come to contemplate a new future. Like every other year, you will be setting up marketing planning/budget meetings with your department heads and sector leaders. The format and conclusions of these meetings are predictable. You uncomfortably wince at overspend caused by unplanned projects (of dubious value). Everyone at the meeting makes solemn commitments to be more rigorous, more robust and more measured in the year ahead. Then drained of all inspiration due to the depressing reality that budgets are going to be slaughtered once again, you resign yourself to do the same as last year but more economically: a few seminars, minimal advertising, refreshed brochures and an entertainment box at the firm’s favourite sporting event.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. 2009 has been a landmark year; the most difficult of decades and not one we are easily going to forget.

Is now the time to break the cycle and inject some originality into our marketing plans?

The case for originality is clear. The delivery will be more challenging.

If you are looking for support with your marketing planning I am offering a special offer on my Brainstorm & Blitz product - a fast-paced, action-focused half day planning session. For more information on what the session includes and to find out more about me, please visit - www.laurajanejohnson.co.uk. Or you can give me a call on 07803 926 239.

What's happening to business news?

The media is changing; regional newspapers are dropping like flies as advertising revenue evaporates, print publications are getting thinner and more and more of us are relying on the internet to feed our hunger for business news. The business news world is changing so does business need to respond by updating its approach to media relations and PR too?

I went to an interesting panel debate this morning at the University of Warwick. Chaired by BBC Media Correspondent Torin Douglas, a panel of experts (David Arnott – Associate Professor of Marketing & E-business, Warwick Business School, Marc Reeves, Editor of the Birmingham Post and Richard Lambert, Director-General of the CBI and former editor of the FT) debated:

“Does business news no longer make for good business?”

The answer … in its current form no. The media world as we know it is balancing precariously on crisis point. No longer subsidised by advertising revenues, the traditional style daily business pages are no longer profitable or sustainable.

David Arnott started his opening presentation with the Chinese letters for crisis: one symbol representing danger and the other opportunity. His message – look for opportunities in the danger the internet presents to the dissemination of business news. Marc Reeves’ explanation of the struggles the Birmingham Post is experiencing in finding a profitable business model for regional news, clearly demonstrated this is easier said than done.

What is the danger? The internet has enabled the democratisation of information – if someone hears about something they have the power and the technology to find out more about this and spread this further. We no longer rely on newspapers for information.

As marketing professionals, we need to accept this reality. Instead of focusing all of our time and PR effort on the traditional print media, we should embrace and leverage the new ways to build profile through electronic word of mouth. Look for new media outlets to channel our messages. Use social media (blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn etc) as signposting tools to grab readers' attention and drive traffic to our websites. Make our releases and posts stand out amongst the masses of information by saying something exciting, insightful or challenging. As the media changes, work alongside it to become a trusted source of information and build your own followers (and in turn customers).

The recession has attacked our budgets and resources, don’t let it take our creativity too!

Brand, reputation and profile – they all need to be managed but now on a much tighter budget. It’s a competitive and tough market out there. The recession encourages clients to question what they are spending their depleted funds on and forces them to consider alternatives. And in many markets the difference between the actual product or service on offer is negligibly small.

So, why should your clients stick with you? Why should new customers abandon their long-trusted supplier and take a chance on you?

This is where effective brand management – which encompasses your reputation, your values and the emotional appeal that leads people to buy – becomes crucial. Even more so in these current times of economic stress and strife than ever before. But to complicate the situation, falling profits mean marketing budgets have been brutally cut. Spending on flashy campaigns and impressive hospitality packages suddenly seems reckless. And maybe a bit insensitive to market pressures too. The result – marketing teams slip into being reactive fire fighters rather than go-getting entrepreneurial types.

Taking a back seat and removing your brand from the spotlight can be equally treacherous. It communicates a lack of confidence and acceptance of the situation. Whereas carefully targeted and imaginative plans can maintain profile, a self-assured approach and a determined defiance to conquer the economic gloom that adds endearing credibility to what you are offering.

The question is: Do slashed budgets really have to amount to a cull of our creativity? Maybe not. It’s all about injecting a bit of originality into our ideas and focusing as much on the message as the medium. It’s about being honest – did the expensive campaigns of the boom times deliver real return on investment or were they just a way to show off and indulge in an interesting project for the marketing team? By cutting back on the frivolities and ending the back-slapping bravado of recent years, is the recession an opportunity for marketing to being taken seriously?

A legitimate business tool or a passing trend?

It’s hard to escape it. Conversations and the press are liberally scattered with references to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging. Everyone has a view on it and more and more people are dabbling in it. Some commentators are even arguing it could transform business interaction, providing a new way to promote businesses and keep in touch with clients. And more and more businesses are signing up. Let’s face it, we’re in a recession and any free form of marketing is worth considering.

But is the business legitimacy of social media limited to the digital and creative industries or can all businesses benefit? A thought-provoking presentation by Kirsty Farrelly of The Open Book Agency convinced me social media is worth serious business consideration. By having a professional social media strategy (e.g. a carefully defined market to target regular insightful updates) and tools in place to measure its effectiveness (e.g. Google Analytics) social media can offer a unique and cost-effective way to spread PR messages, start conversations with market press, build a reputation as an esteemed commentator on a topic and initiate relationships with potential clients and new recruits.

However, it remains a relatively new phenomena that still has stronger links with the celebrity world than professional marketing at the moment. This is where the challenge for marketers lies. In all but the most progressive of corporate firms, I can imagine requesting work time to dedicate to updating social media will prompt raised eyebrows from an organisation’s leadership. Convincing sceptics that social media has a real business value is still hard at the moment. The tag “social” media and playful terminology (such as tweeting) don't exactly help the selling of these potentially useful marketing tools as serious profile raising, reputation enhancing methods.

So the question is, is social media worth the effort? And with the longevity of these sites still uncertain, are companies that don’t sign up really missing out or is social media simply an over-hyped passing trend?

Teaching women to talk - who would've thought it?

"A&O teaches female associates to communicate"; when I saw this headline glaring at me from The Lawyer website this morning I felt my feminist blood boiling. Are they suggesting women need extra special hand-holding to help them communicate in the big, bad business world?

But I quickly calmed down (the incentive behind this is to retain female talent after all). And then I had to smile. How ironic is it that after years of being stereotyped as gossips and natterers women in business are being told they are lacking in communication proficiency?

It also got me thinking about networking – that essential marketing skill that can be so feared and avoided. Walking into a room of strangers, armed with nothing more than a wodge of business cards and a name badge for comfort is daunting. Even the most experienced of communicators still feel the jitters from time to time. But is this more common in females? Is it harder to command a professional presence in business networking situation as a woman?

Maybe it is. After all these events can be wine-fuelled, male dominated ... and sometimes end up in a lap dancing lounge. Which makes it even more important to approach these events …

Prepared - do your research. Find out who the delegates are, look up their businesses and come up with a hit list of people you want to meet. A planned approach (or a mission) will prevent that feeling of being lost and unsure where to go and start. It also enhances your professional image, business and market awareness and creates a good first impression.

With confidence - a few deep breaths to calm the nerves is preferable to too many glasses of wine! And preparation will help of course. Have your introduction line practised, your business cards ready and arrive early to show you mean business.

Stick to your plan – it can be easy to get drawn into a conversation that takes a personal twist. But you don’t want to spend the whole event talking to one person. It’s important to remember your mission, set yourself objectives of how many people you want to meet and keep to it.

Whether this advice is more needed by women or whether it is men in fact who need to be re-educated in 21st century business communication etiquette is a matter for debate.

Keeping it real

I like to think of myself as an optimist; the type of girl whose wine glass is always half full. But I also believe there is a time and a place for honesty. Even if it presents a less than appealing reality that I would rather fling off my stilettos and run away from than face head on. It's all a matter of balance and having a solid connection with the real world. In the corporate world it could be called emotional intelligence - something that is instinctive in all great internal communicators.

I am a great believer in the power of internal communications - employee engagement is so important in driving forward a united, motivated workforce. But it's not easy. Especially at the moment. Honest communication with staff is a lot more scary when things aren’t going well. The sound of lively chatter and champagne corks popping to celebrate a new deal have in the last year gradually been replaced with miserable silence. The carefully thought out newsletters, intranets and forums that thrived in the good times are now a chore as you scramble around to find any good news stories to cover up the grim reality of the recession.

The question I pose is: Should we be trying to fool our employees by providing communications that offer them nothing more than rose-tinted glasses?

Not in my opinion, although others may disagree. Burying our heads in the sand and trying to pretend the good times never ended isn't going to engage disgruntled employees. But it may just insult them. As companies face unachievable bonus targets, pay freezes, redundancies and reshuffles, staff are left unsettled and disillusioned.

But they’re not delusional. Morale won’t suddenly rise from the deepest of ditches and reach an all time high just because a communication goes out about a new contract and inviting them to a cake sale. No matter how yummy the baked produce is.

Employees will, however, want to know the true situation, understand the impact on them and the role they can play in recovery. Internal communications, therefore, need to be balanced to be meaningful and honest in order to motivate the support of employees. Otherwise all the effort to create glowing intranet stories and amusing newsletter features risks being dismissed as leadership propaganda.

I'm not trying to spread doom and gloom, but we shouldn't be too scared to cover the difficult subjects too. They are after all, the ones that will dominate water cooler gossiping and feed a potentially morale murdering rumour mill if allowed to fester.