Get ahead knowing what’s affecting you

I’m not a lawyer but… What’s new in marketing law? The latest paper from the Institute will launch in central London on 21 February 2012, from 08:30-10:15 at the CIPR, Russell Square, WC1B, and you’re invited to attend. Your speaker will be Mark Blayney Stuart, Head of Research, The Chartered Institute of Marketing.

What’s it all about?

New laws, regulations and guidance directly affecting marketers appear regularly on the statute books. However, there’s a concerning lack of knowledge of these laws amongst practising marketing professionals. The last set of the Institute’s Marketing Trends Survey results revealed that 87% of marketers surveyed admitted to poor or non-existent knowledge about the CAP and BCAP Codes, and similar numbers stated ignorance about other key Regulations and Acts.

It’s up to all of us as business professionals to ensure we are up to speed with developments in law. Having knowledge and understanding of law can help prevent the expensive and potentially disastrous effects of a high-profile case. Join the debate at #CIMmlaw.

What’s in it for me?

• Get the personal career advantage of having the appropriate knowledge
• Gain a brief and clear overview of laws and regulations
• Discover which laws and regulations affect you and your business
• Learn from best practice examples
• Earn one hour of CPD
• Receive a complimentary hard and PDF copy of the paper.

Fellows and Chartered Marketers attend free when phoning 01628 427340, or its £15 for all other members, and £25 for guests and students. Book today.

With a new report stating that one in five of the UK’s young adults is out of work, it’s fair to say that the job market is a difficult world for some. Because of this, brands need to pay close attention to this demographic, as research highlights that young consumers are responding to economic hardship in different ways.

Young people are showing diverse attitudes towards the economy, and brands aspiring to connect with 18-to 24-year-olds must now tailor their offer to 5 groups, according to an agency. 

The research surveyed 1,000 18 to 24-year olds, calling the group the ‘Con-Demmed Youth’, a clever play on words between the Conservative and Lib Dem government they exist under. The 5 groups are:

• Go Getters – 23% of the sample, classed as the most ambitious and socially aware people
• Cotton Wool Kids – financially protected young adults who make up 23% of this sample
• Passive Massive 22% of the sample, the laissez-faire segment
• Minimum Rage group – 17% fall into this segment, the most likely to be unhappy and lacking in ambition
• Shundergrads – the 15% who are very savvy and see little need for a university degree.

The Go Getters are perhaps where some brands should take note. Mostly female, this group are academically successful, socially aware and with high career goals. Although not particularly materialistic and happy to mix designer and high street brands, they’re likely to spend money on some premium brands and eating out.

On the other end of the scale, the Passive Massive group shows little discrimination and lacks opinions on brands, and has little interest in the state of the economy. Unsurprisingly this is where the highest level of unemployment sits, with 55% saying a career is not necessary for their happiness.

The report makes for interesting reading. Take a look at the five groups that make up the ‘Con-Demmed Youth’ study and their favoured brands. Which group affects your brand? Tweet us @LondonCIM and let us know.

Hey, we’re on the same side!

The latest discussion paper entitled “Marketing and sales fusion” from the Chartered Institute of Marketing seems to have put the cat among the pigeons if the coverage given to it by Marketing Week and the comments that followed are anything to go by. I’m not about to join the debate but it does bring back memories of a previous life. Before joining the CIM as Regional Director for Greater London three years ago I was the Director of Marketing at a regional media company. I was responsible for the development of a number of valuable print and online media brands, as well as newspaper sales and distribution.

The basic business model went something like this: marketing was responsible for developing offline and online audiences to enable the advertising sales department to sell press and banner ads.

The media business is closely linked to the economic cycle – when the good times roll it isn’t hard to make money but when the economy dips so does revenue. So when things started to get tough, and our ROS went south, inevitably “marketing” took a back seat to sales. Unfortunately, at the same time that I was trying to get the Board to look at a range of metrics related to the long-term health of our brands, including net promoter scores, the only thing the senior management team was interested in was this week’s newspaper sales and advertising revenue figures.

The pressure to deliver audience numbers, whatever it took, meant that compromises had to be made and the marketing focus shifted heavily towards short-term sales promotion, despite my protests that this could damage the brands in the longer-term.

I guess the point I am making is that whether sales and marketing are “friend or foe” not only depends on the culture of the organisation but also the KPIs set by the senior management team. There has to be a balance between long-range marketing objectives and short-term sales targets for there to be any hope of the two disciplines “fusing” together for the long-term benefit of the organisation.

Every year people make and often break New Year’s Resolutions. How about making your New Year’s Resolution really meaningful in 2012?

To become a CIM Chartered Marketer you’ll need to successfully complete two years of CPD, if you already hold either MCIM or FCIM membership grade you’ll be upgraded automatically on 1 July 2012.

If you’re not MCIM or FCIM yet, you can complete your qualifications and collect CPD points simultaneously.

You need to record 35 hours of CPD activity (per year) and submit a record card along with supporting evidence by the end of July 2012 to qualify. Your 35 hours can be achieved in a combination of ways including proof of attendance at short courses; language training, teaching or training others; attending conferences/exhibitions etc. You can even get 8 hours for reading the marketing press!

One of the most effective ways of achieving this is to sign up to one of the new CIM/CAM Digital Marketing qualifications. For example with the SSG two day course, plus homework and assignment (fees apply), the whole 35 hours is covered! For further details please call Caroline at SSG on 01784 463057 or email caroline@studentsupportgroup.co.uk or visit www.studentsupportgroup.co.uk

Resolve to record your CPD properly this year!

For those of you who struggle to record CPD on a regular basis, make a commitment now to start properly recording your CPD. Lots of you were probably given a calendar for Christmas by someone who didn’t know what to buy you. But that unwanted Christmas present can be very useful for managing your CPD. Often you learn lots but are too busy to write it up as CPD there and then; when you have some time for your CPD reflections you can’t remember what you learnt. Having a calendar to hand can be a useful tool to jot down notes so you don’t forget them when it comes to recording them at a later time.

Try to make your entries as reflective as possible

For example you could include: a description of events; experiences and processes; an indication of your feelings about these events; both positive and negative experiences; self-questioning about these experiences; analysis of your work and evaluation of your progress; suggestions for future practice; an honest appraisal of your experience; and links to your coursework and theories.

Getting started

For important dates and deadlines visit www.cim.co.uk/cpd/cpdandcm/cpdandcharteredmarketer.aspx

If you haven’t started recording CPD yet you may need to refer to some resources to help you get started:

• Get the CIM CPD booklet and CIM CPD record card by post or at www.cim.co.uk/cpd/cpdandcm/cpdandcharteredmarketer.aspx
• Call 01628 427273 or email charteredcpd@cim.co.uk

Kevin Tewis from London’s BPP Business School

This month, London’s Kevin Tewis, shares with London marketing professionals his insights for getting the year 2012 off to a successful start by ensuring you know your organisation inside out.

Re-design your strategy – know your enemy well but know yourself the most

Building on the theme of Sun Tzu ‘The art of War’ 400BC, many businesses will need to re-design and refine their strategies for 2012 and onwards to ensure successful competitive advantage and penetration into existing and challenging new markets. In the business world so many companies are focused on the ‘enemy’ or competitor whilst their own internal organisation is not functioning anywhere near correctly, affecting its output and performance and potentially shortening its lifecycle.

Getting your own house in order is the most critical thing as of 2 January 2012 that is if you are a director who can manage to sleep over Christmas whilst existing and new competitor brains outwit your current positioning and charge into your markets more effectively. It is the most basic of principles; Charity starts at home. Internal first, external second or else all you ensure is that the likely output of your organisation is not “wow”, not effective, and certainly not one that commands retention from customers addicted to the digital click tick (Like) market.

The more and more businesses get to know themselves they can then close highlighted market gaps (not always known by firms) and win critical loyalty through the recognition of business action from responsive consumers.

• Know your internal customers well (staff)
• Know your faults and what is being done to address them
• Know the impacts of process, systems and structures

Does your current internal position and operations stifle or create innovation, creativity and revenue? When were these last evaluated? Can costs be controlled further and what investments need to be made today to ensure business survival.

Then there is the external environment to deal with. Knowing your key customer groups/stakeholders and satisfying them regularly is where most businesses are missing a trick in today’s market. Competitive Intelligence (CI) has never been so crucial in winning, securing and retaining business both B2C and B2B globally. Not enough is done to fully understand and respond to raw data that has a pattern and a picture to demonstrate to the senior teams.

Providing actionable data that is timely and appropriate will demonstrate to the business world that you really do mean business. Secondly you will be able from this identified data to understand the need to protect business activities against competitor intelligence that will be gathering information on your operations and will try to steal or capture some of your well earned thunder.

If you are unable to see key obvious trends or key performance indicators then design your own portal through a detailed CRM process and capture data that is finite and that actually helps you when re-designing your strategy.

Here are key examples of what to look for:

• Anticipate competitor activities (Use historical reference to make a judgement)
• Analyse global trends and emerging markets
• Learn from the firms past, rebound and innovate upwards, fast
• Improve the quality of output processes particularly communications

Sun Tzu didn’t have the luxury of digital technologies 2412 years ago; however the distinctive and transparent example of completely understanding a firm’s strategy, particularly the army (or in today’s case, employees) must be the core principle which literally defines businesses and the designing of strategy.

Here’s to 2012.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing is predicting the demise of separate marketing and sales departments within the next ten years in it latest paper, ‘Marketing and Sales fusion?’ The paper takes the Institute’s centenary year as a motivation to reflect on the history of marketing and sales, and to consider the future direction of both disciplines.  It argues that businesses who have integrated their sales and marketing functions have experienced significant benefits, while those companies retaining separate departments are hindering their own growth.

Launched in London, the paper proposes that marketing has reached an evolutionary cul-de-sac, and must return to its roots in sales to continue to develop in the next decade. 

Members can download the paper, at no additional charge, and find out why we believe it could be time for marketing and sales to fuse together and work as one. Non members can purchase the paper for just £15 from CIM Direct

As Britain slides down the rankings from position 10 to 13 in the Future Brand’s Country Brand Index, a global study of country brands, it shows how factors such as economic problems and unrest have a negative affect on a country’s brand.

It’s not surprising. One minute Britain is basking in the pageantry of the Royal Wedding, relishing our history and sense of occasion. The next, the streets are full of rioters and unrest.

Having a strong country brand is pivotal as it influences the perception of tourists, investors and buyers of British products. Can we recover? The signs are positive having just won the bid for the 2017 World Athletics Championship, and Brand Britain marketers are hoping that the London 2012 Olympics will give us an opportunity to showcase a fresh image.

Let’s take inspiration from the countries who’ve improved their brand. Japan’s increased its ranking despite the earthquake, and Thailand is showing a strong performance in tourism despite political upheaval in the country. Brazil has seen a boost following successful bids to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games, and Canada which took full advantage of promoting its natural beauty throughout the 2010 Winter Olympics tops the Index.

I’m hopeful that next year Britain will have a fantastic year. With campaigns such as Visit Britain’s tourism campaign to inspire the tourism industry to promote our country in the run up to the Olympics, we’re heading in the right direction.

I’ll be playing my part by working with British companies to help them market themselves effectively. We’re putting on a very British event, a family Olympics day and a Street Party celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 in Marketing Zone’s home town. And on the subject of Marketing Zone, we’re delighted to take our place on the CIM Marketing Excellence Awards Finalist List in the Retail Category.

There’s a new member service launched this month from the Institute, Marketing Expert. In this excellent resource hub, you can explore a range of tools, templates and marketing guidance in a quick, easy to use format.

Take a look at the website where you can find the answers to your questions on a wide range of marketing topics including strategy, segmentation, law, data hygiene, web analytics, blogging and much more. Marketing Expert will be available to CIM Studying Members in January 2012.

The new resource features:

• Consultants Directory – where you can benefit from a brand new feature called ‘Post a project’, as well as the traditional ‘Search for a specialist’ functionality
• Over 5,000 pages of marketing content
• Search function so you can quickly find what you need
• Regular content updates to ensure it stays relevant and meets your needs.

It will help you access the resources you need to effectively manage everything from budgets and brands to people.

Have a look for yourself!

To visit the site, log into MyCIM and the link will appear on your welcome page.

John Lewis is using ‘Made in UK’ on over 4,000 products as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme. So I’d like to know if London members think that ‘Made In’ is relevant to today’s consumers.

My opinion is that it works for certain countries. Switzerland is synonymous with fine timepieces, Germany highly regarded for precision machinery, Italy is the ultimate for gold jewellery, and France is associated with perfumes and luxury accessories.

What does Made In mean?
It sounds obvious, but it needs defining. Currently, as long as imported goods are 51% produced in Europe, it can qualify as ‘Made In’. But we suspect that John Lewis has a more stringent category, because as a British retailer, their customers expect it to support other British firms when it can.

What does it mean for Britain?
What do you think ‘Made in Britain’ conveys? Is it design, creativity, quality, traditionalism? Let me know your thoughts on @CIMLondon Twitter. Certainly, ‘Made In’ triggers the emotions and branding is all about emotional connections.

So maybe its time to ride the wave of British Pride – keep calm and carry on style.

30 November 2011
8:30
LCCI, Queen Street, EC4
£15 for CIM members
£25 for guests and students
What’s it all about?
A century ago a group of sales managers met in London and formed the Sales Managers’ Association, which eventually became The Chartered Institute of Marketing. This paper suggests that the time has come for the two disciplines of sales and marketing to be reunited, after years of fragmentation. It asks if sales and marketing intrinsically belong together. Organisations that do create closer links between them seem to post better results, have more effective inter-departmental relationships and create positive culture change. Yet the challenges to successfully merge these powerful business forces are significant.

What’s in it for me?
Sales person or marketer – join the debate!
Get insight into how sales and marketing departments can intellectually fuse together, gain one hour CPD and receive a complimentary hard and PDF copy of the paper.

Sign in, find out more and book.