What’s Hot in the World of Digital Marketing?
Here’s a quick note of some of the more exciting companies I encountered at TFM&A 2014: cloud.IQ cloud.IQ specialises in cart recovery. On average 75% of online shoppers abandon purchases at some point during the sales process (so-called “dropped baskets”). cloud.IQ’s software lets you track site visitors and automatically remarket to them if they abandon. […]
How to Find Your Way Through the Maze of Digital Marketing
The digital marketing arena is becoming ever more complex. At TFM&A this year there were 180 different seminars covering an enormous variety of topics from content management to web optimisation, customer relationship management (CRM) to data analytics, social media to mobile marketing and on and on. It’s becoming increasingly clear that you can’t be an […]
First to Market – Good or Bad?
Back in the 1990s, when I was involved in telecoms, there was a thing called “First Mover Advantage”. The popular belief among VCs and entrepreneurs was that it was important to be first into the market with a new product or business model, so you could take the lion’s share of the market before anybody […]
Guerrilla or Gorilla? What kind of Marketer are You?
Just before Christmas I received the sad news that Jay Conrad Levinson had died at the age of 80 after a two and a half year battle with bone marrow cancer. Jay was a Giant of the marketing world. In the 1960s he was an old-fashioned Ad Man. As an executive at Leo Burnett and […]
A Simple Lesson from one of the Most Successful Business Women who ever lived
Mary Kay Ash founded Mary Kay cosmetics in 1963 with an investment of $5000. Today Mary Kay Inc. is a multibillion dollar cosmetics company with a sales force of 1.7 million in more than 30 markets around the world. The company’s explosive growth is largely down to its creative business model. Mary Kay is credited […]
Are you a Capitalist or a Gambler?
One of the basic principles of our economic system is that capital flows towards the most deserving hands, normally the opportunity for the best return for the lowest risk. So the entrepreneur, as business owner, acts as a magnet for capital attracting wealth to his business, whether from investors in exchange for a promise of […]
Carrot or Stick? Or is there a Better Way to Motivate your Team?
One of the most common challenges all business owners face is how to get the best out of their team. As Tom Peters once said: “Most employees are motivated, energetic, committed, enthusiastic and loyal….. except for the eight hours a day they work for you!” Seriously, have you ever considered what kind of relationship you […]
Iceland Foods – a confusing Brand Message
If you haven’t yet picked up on the BBC’s series on Iceland Foods I suggest you have a look at it. Iceland is an amazing entrepreneurial success story. The company was founded in Oswestry on the Welsh border in 1970 by Malcolm Walker. Malcolm is a colourful old fashioned entrepreneur: failure at school, streetwise, unsophisticated, […]
Which is more Scarce? Time or Money?
I get around quite a few SMEs in the London area and the two most common complaints I hear from business owners are that; 1) there never seem to be enough hours in the day and 2) there just isn’t enough money to go round. This has been particularly so since the Big Freeze took hold in […]
Coffee Table Talk – Jane Austen and Entrepreneurship
The other day I paid a visit to Chawton Cottage in Hampshire, the house where Jane Austen lived during her most productive period as a novelist. I’ve always been fascinated by Jane Austen. When I was at school she wasn’t as well-known as she is now, so being an Austin freek was a bit pretentious, […]