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May » |
Archive for the ‘NAKED blog’ Category
Get out the duster!
It’s time for Marketing plans, PR campaigns, product launches and customer contact initiatives that were put on hold when the economic downturn first hit to be dusted off and put into place.
Activities such as marketing are usually the first to be dumped when money’s tight but should be the first to be revived NOW… because if YOU don’t get your marketing and sales drive up and running now, your competitors will beat you to whatever business is out there.
BITE SIZE BUSINESS: There’s no such thing as …
There’s no such thing as “overnight success”.
Advice, please: how do I protect my ideas?
Last week, I was invited to pitch for the publicity and PR for an upcoming product launch.
As is my habit, I did my homework: I researched the company and its marketplace, examined what they were already doing with publicity and PR and compared it with what else they might be doing as well or instead. I spent some time exploring their website and phoned the business development manager to get some insight into their perceived publicity and PR needs and wants.
I then wrote up a comprehensive set of initial proposals and suggestions, including “optional extras”, cost estimates and a timetable for delivery. I emailed these proposals and also had a set of hard copies bound and posted in advance of a meeting arranged for them to ask questions and clarify points.
The meeting seemed to go well. They were very complimentary about the thoroughness and scope of my proposals.
But when I got back to my desk, there was an email waiting for me that said, in essence: Don’t call us, we’ll call you if and when we feel the need.
That in itself doesn’t bother me. No-one ever won every bit of business they went after. Anyone who’s ever tendered for some business knows the odds of getting it are stacked against.
No, what bothers me is that these people now have my comprehensive proposals … which they said they were impressed by… and what’s to stop them taking my proposals and just doing it for themselves? Or getting another PR company to do it for them?
I slap copyright © all over my documents but we all know that merely protects the physical content from being plagiarised. It can’t and doesn’t prevent someone nicking the ideas described by the physical content.
Apart from that, researching, writing and presenting my proposals report took a chunk of my time, effort, energy, resources and knowledge, so it has a value. It’s worth something. And now this company has got it for free.
What do others do to protect their intellectual copyright in circumstances like these? How much time, effort, energy and resources are you prepared to invest in a speculative bid for business?
At last, some not quite so terrible news on the economy!
At last, some good(ish) news on the economy! The CBI, which represents the bulk of the UK’s employers – so they ought to know about this stuff – says that the UK economy is NOT going onto another recession.
Despite the Eurozone debt crisis, UK gross domestic product is expected to rise slightly by about 1 per cent over the next few months and by over 2 per cent next year.
Although growth will remain subdued and conditions tough, the CBI thinks the UK will avoid an official recession – two quarters of declines in a row – as it bounces back from its 0.2% fall in the final quarter of 2011 with growth of 0.2% in the first three months of this year.
Okay, so we’re still a long way from breaking out the champagne and dancing in the streets, and it’s possible (likely, even) that conditions elsewhere in the world will adversely affect the UK economy, but even small growth is better than no growth at all.
The CBI’s figures reflect the mood among the businesses I come across - all kinds of businesses from multinationals to backstreet metal-bashers. I’ve been helping organisations grow and prosper through the use of marketing, sales campaigns and publicity, promotion and PR for over 20 years and for some time now, they’ve been telling me the same thing: To hell with the recession! If we believe everything we read and hear in the media, then we’re all doomed! The only way to make things better is we grow ourselves out of recession.
So marketing plans, PR campaigns, product launches and customer contact initiatives that were put on hold when the economic downturn first hit are being dusted off and enacted.
Activities such as marketing are usually the first to be dumped when money’s tight but should be the first thing to be revived as soon as there’s a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. On the principle that: if we don’t get our marketing and sales drive up and running now, our competitors will beat us to whatever business is out there.
So my question is: What’s YOUR take on current conditions? Is it: Keep your head down, draw in your horns and hope for things to improve? Or: Sleeves up, head down and “if it is to be it is up to me”?
PS. Come to the Beat the recession roadshow on March 23.
Publicity and PR
With a printing firm to look at doing the publicity and PR around the launch of their new direct mailing service.
Then to a private healthcare provider to look at managing their media relations.
