Of a Marketing Masterclass

I attended a Grant Leboff seminar yesterday in Kensington London. Boy was he good. One of his pearls of wisdom is to share as much as you can. So now that I'm a Leboff follower here's what I took from the masterclass. Here's my sharing  :
* Marketing is about getting attention nowadays - we spend much of our day screening due to amount of choice. Familiarity breeds success not contempt.

* The battle in marketing now is for attention and to engaged customers
* What we must ask is are we montarising the right thing? Convenience, security etc are commodities we will pay for. He gave example of the music industry. Madonna could give her next album  out for free. But we would pay perhaps £2 to receive it a month before anyone else. We might buy a bonus track. We might go to her exclusive "webcast" and buy a t-shirt that says we were there etc
* HE ARGUES the growth of the world wide web has led us to a long term customer engagement model
* In order to engage people our marketing has to provide VALUE. VALUE he  argues is not produced through a company's products or services. Rather it is created by relating a business's offering to what the customer is looking to achieve.

* Social media 3 questions 1. Where is the value?, 2, Why would people share it? 3. How will they share it?
* Marketing is no longer about brand and image but the reputation a company earns (what others say). Today, everyone is a marketeer. More marketing messages are created by the public than by marketing departments
* The co-founder of Facebook says we have moved from "The Wisdom of Crowds" to the "Wisdom of Friends"
* The power of marketing today is that others will market for you but companies must Listen, Monitor, Identify Influencers use Radian6 to monitor online profile and that of competitors.
* Leboff argues there's no such thing as a unique selling proposition and I think he's right. We must talk about special differentiators  

* For most purchases you have both practical and emotional stuff going on. IF YOU UNDERSTAND the problems your customers have you begin to understand why customers buy from you. 
* It's essential to work out when people buy as well as why - you can change your web site accordingly. E.g nightclub Friday night front page should contain voucher to show on mobile for free drink. Monday morning it should show normal corporate site.
* Marketing/Information Stickiness for customer engagement should go for :
- Facts - go for interesting facts famous one is "Ten things you didn't know about last week"  combined relevance is good e.g What Xfactor can teach lawyers, What olympians can teach businessmen. 

Of Early Starts

Errrrr. Early starts who needs them? Today started at 4.30a.m. as I climbed out my pit in an attempt to make the first plane out of Northern Ireland for a seminar in West Kensington.

Waiting in the queue through airport security I plugged in to "Bohemian Like You" by the Dandy Warhols in an attempt to pump some energy into myself and some enthusiasm for life in general. Too early I thought. Still way too early.

Of Musing Around for the Weekend

It's truly amazing what you can do on the web nowadays.You see I've been "musing" today. By that I mean I've been trying out a business idea the format of which has been strongly shaped by Tim Ferris's book "The Four Hour Work Week".
Regular readers of this blog (and why haven't you got yourself something better to do yet?) will know that I have formed "The Four Hour Work Week" club consisting of 15 business minds all meeting to critique and help each other build muses.This meets again next week and I know that they'll be loads of ideas and suggestions coming forward to help everyone muse more effectively.
So far this week musing I have come across Elance which is a fabulous site if you what to find a service provider to do just about anything relevant to the world of publication. I'm about to engage a gentleman in Pakistan to DTP a word document for me. This morning I found Problogger a directory of people all over the world who will blog and  write material for you. Yesterday a friend threw me in the direction of Payloadz a site which allows you to automate the process of sending a customer a document whilst also taking payment too.
The friend in question is Julian Wagstaff. I sent him the book a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday he was on the blower to me for a good couple of hours. Clearly he's gripped by it (the book not the phone..) and is already on his way to create his first muse which I think is going to sell and well if he gets it right. His track record to date suggests firmly that he will But will I? Therein lies the excitement of musing....

Of Ballycraigy Primary and Their New Guests

Yesterday I attended our local primary school for the official launch of their new hen house paid for by Legal-Island. It's made out of recycled furniture and includes a washing machine door for a window. It's the grand work of a man called Robert, a neighbour newly retired, who is clearly putting his mind to creative and imaginative projects.
The kids loved the four new hens and barely contained themselves when they discovered two freshly laid eggs in the hens "bedroom" on the first floor of this wonderful contraption.
One boy so small he struggled to reach in and pick up the egg asked me if there was a chicken inside. Another asked if they were always this colour like he was expecting the odd gold one from time time time. Top stuff!

Of Wine Quaffing Part 1

I was a a wine quaffing course last night; the first class or a series of six. As I was driving, most of the wine ended up in a spittoon but note I said most, not all. For some wine tasted that good that I felt I had no option but to employ what the lecturer called "The Irish Spit" and swallow it and commit it to the body (and brain for that matter).
I'm learning a new language for this course and lots of new vocabulary. I now know that a good wine has both balance and length. It may be "off dry" or taste oaky or even vegetal. I've learnt a few new tricks too. Put your hand over the top of the glass, shake it furiously and it's much easier to smell the wine. Uncork a red a good 24 hours before you drink it and it will taste very different (and many would say very much better) than the same red just uncorked. The size of a cork can also determine the taste of a wine. Something to do with the amount of air that gets into the bottle.
It's amazing what the mind can hold when having to decide whether a wine merits swallowing or projecting outwards.

Of Our Man in Malawi

Occasionally, not often, something happens in life that makes you feel quite good about yourself and the things you do.
For the past 3 years or so Legal-Island has been donating £1 every time a delegate completes an evaluation form after attending one of our events. The £1 has gone into our Malawi fund and a good friend of ours, Peter, every now and then takes a whole lot of wonga out to spend it where it's really needed. 

Our latest joint effort is above. This is Rose who now has a tin room. One that doesn't leek. One that doesn't

blow off. One that has no risk of fire.

Of Me n Red Bush Tea

For a long time now I've been trying to find a herbal tea I like. It hasn't proved easy. Tesco do a fine range of herbal teas but their green tea tastes like p...sh and their fruit berry tea just doesn't work for me. For a good while I've been drinking peppermint tea trying to persuade myself that I like it. But I don't. Not really. It's neither refreshing nor thirst quenching.

But then last weekend Eureka! I tried some red bush and I really really liked it. It was soothing on the pallet, refreshing and left a lovely taste in your mouth. It smells glorious too like distilled pot pourri or something. I've tried a number of red bush teas before or "Rooi bush" as the South Africans call it but not thought much of it. But this tea is different. At last!

However, there's a problem. The only shop ever to sell this stuff that I can see is one I visited on Friday night run by a couple of Afghanies in Stratford East London.

Cuppa of red bush anyone?