Freelance Brand and Creative Strategist / Strategic Planner and Fractional Strategy Director
We've been doing a mini-refurb at home so for the last 8 weeks we've had a house full of tradesmen - plumbers, electricians, joiners and so on. Which it turns out isn't terribly conducive to working half the week from home. But aside from that it's been a real eye-opener in terms of client expectations … Continue reading what I’ve learnt from being the client for once
So in the last 48 hours I've been asked to explain what Black Friday is by my sister, the yard manager at the stables, the lady who does my nails, approx 16 focus group respondents and my Dad. Asda have clearly had a very busy and successful day with their enthusiastic embrace of USA-style Black … Continue reading SherlockLives on BlackFriday
The vouchers above are what's left in my purse after I used seven others up on Monday. Which seems excessive. At Boots, I used five vouchers, got three back and took advantage of a 3for2 resulting in over a tenner 'saving' on my basket of health and beauty stuff - and an extra £7 in … Continue reading I came, I shopped, I vouchered
I came across this post from agency Sell!Sell! today, which basically says that agencies create unreasonable clients by consistently capitulating to unreasonable client demands. Which is all very well, but as an agency you have to be in a pretty strong position to consistently say No to clients - you need a cash flow that … Continue reading unreasonable clients? – well, they *are* the customer
A warning tale for anyone whose job includes data analysis, via the lovely @AlWightman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZXUq7Pln3g
I worked on a pitch last Spring that I was really pleased with. I like pitching, it's like Old School Planning but with the whole process set to fast-forward and this particular pitch prep went pretty much swimmingly with a talented team producing IMHO what was a very strong pitch. The research was robust, the … Continue reading do clients get the creative they deserve?
Marks and Spencer announced towards the end of last week that they were extending their payment terms for almost 500 of their suppliers (75 of which are based in the UK) from 60 to 75 days. OR, they’ll pay up straight away in return for a “substantial discount”. I can’t believe that there hasn’t been … Continue reading why payment terms take the p**s
I was debriefing some work on Shopper Missions recently and there was a certain amount of disbelief in the room regarding some approaches to parenting I found that tied into a key Occasion customers were shopping for. I had to remind everyone present that the customers we were talking about were not necessarily the same … Continue reading you aren’t marketing to your mates
I’ve found a brilliant example of nudge marketing – and a Planner (much less a Behavioural Insights team) hasn’t been near it. The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust‘s mission is to help keep working horses and donkeys in the area healthy – and a healthy working animal can increase its owners income by up to … Continue reading why Donkey Football is great nudge marketing
images via the BBC online and TV forecasts I love all the weather-related retail stories that come out whenever there’s the slightest sign of a heatwave in the UK. It’s a gift for PRs (who are probably sitting on a load of Royal Baby press releases they can’t send out yet) and a fun way … Continue reading retail winners and losers in a heatwave