The UsefulTechnology Blog: Marketing

McDonalds flips out in style in the UK

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:41:28 GMT

Marketing news: UK Designer Bruce Oldfield has stepped in to add a little respectability to the uniforms worn by McDonalds staff in the UK. Gone are the garish red smocks, presumably tinted to match the acne on the faces of McDonalds' young workers. In come subtle shades of beige and brown, and even pencil skirts and scarves for female managers. I think it looks quite smart, but it would take more than a sharp suit to make me eat one of those burgers.

The revamp of all 67,000 UK staff is reported to be costing a whopping £2million. Small change to a chain like McDonalds as they continue their restaurant restyle programme. I wonder if those little star badges that give an indication of how long a member of staff has held a McJob will also get the chop? I really hope so...

More here

Bag o' Crap returns 23.59 04/04/2008

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:27:10 GMT

BigPockets.co.uk is causing a stir amongst its customer base with the continuing saga of its Bag o' Crap. As their latest newsletter explains:

"Where do I start? How about the Bag Of crap (BOC) for £2.99? Well, you broke our servers, insulted our staff and attacked one another on chat rooms and forums. Some of you showed some absolutely ridiculous political views and made some very bad videos… here we go, your last chance to buy a bag of crap. We have nearly run out can you believe it you have cleared out our warehouse of crap!! - Well done."

Their tongue-in-cheek and candid attitude is remarkably refreshing in today's hard sell world. And it seems to be working, with all stock selling out in record time. Give it a try in your next marketing campaign!

The next batch of Bag o' Crap stock will be ready to go on sale at 23:59 on 4th April. Mark the date in your diary if you're mad enough to want to take part.

As for the videos that customers sent in, they were almost as bad as the contents of the bags they bought. Here's my pick of a bad bunch. Surely you can do better than this?!:

Duelling designers and developers

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:50:54 GMT

Here's a nice video that does a fine job of highlighting the challenges facing developers and designers as they seek to deliver great marketing campaigns!

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/expression/webharmony/

Recognise someone you work with in there? I did!

Life's too short for bad marketing

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:07:41 GMT

Sometimes the best marketing activities are the simplest. Like this photo, prepared by Scotland's Rock Radio 96.3, that has helped them reached a huge online audience for the cost of little more than a few borrowed guitar racks and a cheap sign.

Or this beautifully produced advertising campaign for www.jobsintown.de which deserves its current cyber fame for its brilliant simplicity and a cleverness that just makes you wish you had thought of it first.

See more examples from this campaign at http://blog.photos-n-designs.com/?p=224.

The best marketing work today is rooted in simplicity and cleverness of wit, not in vast overflowing budgets or global frameworks.

Hats off to the maestros behind these campaigns. More power to your pencils :-)

Online Customer Service Madness

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:40:23 GMT

I recently bought a new pair of BT Esprit 1250 cordless DECT phones from the BT Shop. Good deal, I thought, at only £59.99 for two quite technologically advanced phones with answering machine. But, one week after receiving them one of the rechargeable AAA batteries in a handset failed. It won't take a charge. It's a duff battery. Seeing as the phones were only a week old I phoned BT asking for a replacement battery. The first person I spoke to couldn't help me and gave me another number. That number rang and rang without being answered. I tried about 5 times. Finally a lady answered the phone, took my details, and explained that they would send me a new set phones and I could return the faulty set free of charge. "But I only needed a replacement AAA battery," I explained. "Sorry, we can only send you a new set of phones," the BT lady repeated.

Here's my predicament. I know I can go out and buy a rechargeable AAA battery. It would probably cost me less than £1, but why should I when the battery's failure is not my fault? Equally though it seems complete lunacy for BT to have to ship a complete set of new phones to me when I only need one common or garden battery. The cost to BT of this exercise, the time required by everyone involved and, more importantly, the environmental cost to the planet, just don't make sense. Of course, I understand that BT cannot easily keep every spare part in stock, but surely finding me an AAA battery shouldn't be an impossible feat. Or, why not just send me a voucher for £5 so I can buy my own batteries and not be out of pocket?

So what did I decide to do? Without any other offer of help forthcoming from BT, and completely against all forms of logic, I agreed to let BT send me a new phone set. They will also send me, under separate cover, a 'returns kit' so I have a prepaid bag to return the unwanted items. When the phones arrive I will open the box, remove one of the AAA batteries, then post everything else back to BT. How mad is that? The sad things is that this leaves me feeling guilty for inflicting so much damage to the environment and angry towards BT for having such an inflexible attitude to customer service. With more purchases being made online, companies like BT have a real responsibility to rethink their product returns policy. Online customers need and should demand flexible solutions that don't place such a burden on the environment. And BT might even save some money into the bargain.

Are you a 'democrat' or a 'paternalist'?

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:46:57 GMT

I joined the great and the good of the UK marketing industry at last night's Annual Marketing Society Dinner in London. One interesting debating point was whether marketers should consider themselves as the creators, shapers and ultimate guardians of brands, or whether the power has now shifted and changed marketers' role to one of listening, engaging and responding to what customers tell you they want. I guess it come down to the difference between marketing to customers and marketing with customers. We labelled these two viewpoints as being either a 'paternalist' or a 'democrat'. Which makes me a definite 'democrat'.

The Social Customer recently drew my attention to an excellent posting on the Lefsetz Letters which really capture my mood right now. Bob was writing about the hype surrounding the new Borat movie, but also condemning some marketers' obsession with over-publicity. His final paragraph is a peach:

Hearing the movie’s good, I’m gonna give it a chance. Then again, if Fox keeps trumpeting the story, they’re gonna kill MY word of mouth, I don’t want to work for the man. And neither does the Net generation. WE make the stars, not you. Give us reasonable choices, WE’LL do the work. It won’t happen instantly. First week grosses, first week SoundScan numbers, are no longer important. It’s about longevity. It won’t take forever, because word of mouth happens so quickly on the Net, and we’re all in touch with SO many more people on a regular basis. But it’s now our game, not yours, don’t ever forget it.

That's the sort of bravery it takes to be a 'democrat'. Having the courage to create something good then seed it to the net generation to let them decide whether it will succeed or not. Whether we marketers like it or not, social communities now have the power to decide. It takes a courageous and forward-thinking marketer to surrender that power and concentrate instead on just making good stuff.

The photos of the Marketing Society Dinner can be found on this Windows Live Spaces page. My colleague Lucilla and I are below.