We Think …

Most industries are well organised to have their interests effectively represented to parliament, government and the EU.  Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, utilities, retail, telecoms, the much vilified banking sector...  it is difficult to think of an industry that does not have its trade association robustly ensuring that its collective voice is heard in the halls of power.  Except, that is, the marketing industry.

Our sector seems to have an extraordinary propensity for internicine squabbles, and a highly developed talent for being unable to see the wood for the trees.  Part of the issue has to be...

Since the demise of IDMF, the Technology for Marketing show has become the trade show to be at – and not just because it seems to be the only truly direct marketing event in the UK at the moment.

Last year saw a turning point in its organisation. The organisers stepped up their game in terms of thought leadership, and this year are offering up to 80 sessions and keynotes from leading industry organisations like Google, Chartered Institute of Marketing and YouTube. This was also helped by the move in 2008 from the smaller Olympia venue...

If the ‘noughties’ were the decade of celebrity endorsement, might the ‘teens’ herald a reversal?

The trend has already started with companies turning to everyday employees to promote the brand rather than expensive famous faces. High street banks are an obvious example (although, ironically, the gurning Halifax Howard has now become a minor celebrity in his own right).

Then, of course, there have been the major brand embarrassments. Tiger Woods, John Terry, Ashley Cole – all previously lending their name and face to at least one product in between their extra-curricular activities.

Surely, any clear-thinking marketing managers will now think twice about the...

Right now unfolding before our very eyes is a classic example of a major PR and customer communications disaster that is spinning out of control largely because the company in question, Toyota, waited until it was far too late before admitting that there was any problem at all and taking action.

First there was the issue of the apparently defective accelerators that led to lawsuits in the US and, splashed across the global media, the heart-wrenching story of a family heard on a 911 call to emergency services in the US as they sped into a crash...

So The New York Times is preparing to charge for online content. Will this finally signal the beginning of a trend that might just rescue the newspaper industry, which has been locked in a slow but seemingly unstoppable death spiral that is all but certain to end with hundreds of sputtering titles around the globe crashing and burning?

This must be welcome news indeed for News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, who would have begun to feel just a little alone on a very high limb after announcing last August that his newspapers...

“Marketing budgets are still in decline but optimism and confidence is growing according to the latest IPA/BDO Bellwether report.  So says Marketing Week’s report on the latest prognosis on our industry.  DM and online are up.  All else is down.  Yet is the main statistical survey on marketing’s barometer becoming rapidly redundant?

If we keep the analysis of the marketing industry’s health focused on traditional silos, then we will learn nothing.  What does the category of direct marketing now mean?  Is a DM campaign that drives web traffic categorised as direct marketing, or online?  How do we...