I have to get something off my chest, something that happened to me recently… something that made me question how a certain offline brand can possibly compete with the online. Yes, this is slightly off topic in relation to social media of course but still concerns forward thinking marketing prowess.
The Scenario
Picture this, your son is turning 7 and is football crazy. He’s requested an England football kit (goodness knows why) with his name and favourite number printed on it. Not a problem, anything to see the smile on his little face. I do a fair amount of research online and find 3 companies who would do it, but they all look a little dodgy to be completely honest and I’m not convinced I want to spend my hard earned dough with them.
So I decide on a trip to Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, a fantastic spot for a bit of shopping and not a million miles away. I find a Sports Direct store there and my luck’s in – they do the kit I’m after and do all the printing too – I can also see a sample to check the quality, which is fantastic. It’s also £5 cheaper than on line too – turn up for the books!
The only downside is that I have to wait 2 hours for the printing to dry – acceptable and no moans here. But, I’m called back to the office and decide to call the shop and get it delivered – simple right?
Wrong! Later that afternoon I make the call and get a rather fed up sounding shop assistant who tells me she is too busy to talk to me. Fair enough… I’ll call back in 30 mins and here’s how the conversation went.
Ring Ring, Ring Ring
“ello, Sports Direct?”
“Hi, I purchased and paid for a football kit earlier but unfortunately had to leave Portsmouth so was wondering whether you’d be kind enough to put it in the post for me please?”
“Nah, we don’t do that service”
“Why is that then?”
“Company policy”
“OK… so where does that leave me?”
“You’ll have to come back and collect”
“Even if I pay you an extra £5 for postage”
“Yep”.
“Hmmm… I don’t get it, but seeing as I’m British I’ll just keep my mouth shut and not moan any more, I’ll collect in a week”.
A week passes and I make a special journey back down to Portsmouth which is a 2 hour round trip and about £20 worth of fuel.
I get to the shop, same lady is looking even more flustered this time and grunts at me. She snatches the receipt and shuffles off into some room out the back. She appears 5 minutes later with a bag with the kit in.
Yay – mission successful. She passes me the bag without even a glance let alone a smile and immediately grunts at another customer.
The real sting in this tale is what is written on the bag – “24 hour delivery”
Now you don’t need to be a marketing guru to see the issue here. So many retailers have moaned to me about online competition killing them – it’s time to take a long hard look at your best asset, CUSTOMER SERVICE and going that extra mile, for if you don’t then you won’t survive.
Invest in training your staff and an infrastructure that can go way and beyond the call of duty for your customer. Make shopping a pleasure again!
We recently organised a Lady Gaga themed ‘flash mob dance off’ for The Bentall Centre in Kingston a few weeks back, but we’re not entirely sure whether the correct terminology for it is a ‘flash dance mob’ or ‘flash mob dance’... either way it was tonnes of fun and seemed to entertain the crowds.
The dance itself was well planned and choreographed by some friends at Vital Signz Dance, a very cool local dance troop – keep your eyes out for these guys as they are going places!
Check it out below:
Interested in arranging a flash mob to raise the profile of your brand?
Come and talk to us, we can help you plan your event, promote it and of course produce something for you to take to the masses online.
As we’ve been hinting for the past couple of weeks, we’ve recently started working with some rather groovy new clients, one of which is The Bentall Centre (Kingston Upon Thames), arguably one of the UK’s most forward thinking, aesthetically impressive shopping centres.
We’ve hit the ground running and launched into the online promotion of BFest, an innovative event that sees some of the UK’s most promising pop acts perform in the centre over 2 days. It’s a free event (so make sure you don’t miss out) and happens on the 7th & 8th August 2010.
We’re planning a few surprises that are set to ensure this event generates global online coverage and the Bentall brand recognised as a leading voice in shopping centre social media marketing.
We’re also managing their blog and producing engaging content on a regular basis, directly connecting with the local community and strengthening ties with local businesses wherever possible. Growing Facebook ‘likes’ and Twitter ‘followers’ is the key objective.
Finally, we’ll be promoting events throughout the year to our broad online connections in fashion, style and mummy/baby categories.
We tracked down Silas Amos, Creative Director of leading UK packaging design agency Jones Knowles Ritchie and asked him if and how the packaging design industry has been affected by the prominence of the web and the rise of social media.
JKR have been doing what they know best for over 20 years now and have witnessed such design revolutions as the end of typesetting and the evolution of the Mac. They also have to their name the iconic Bodddingtons’ can design still in full swing today. If there have been any trends in packaging design thanks to the rise of the modern web these guys will know about it!
During the past 6 months we’ve spotted some very interesting social media related trends appearing that are set to directly affect the journalism and PR industries. Over the next 2 years these trends will grow in importance and restructure the marcomms industry as we know it and more so than it already has!
Public relations agencies employing/merging with SEO agencies and social media agencies
As the social media revolution evolves and PR agencies get to grips with the effect they can have on search rankings through effective online PR, we’ve been noticing a few of the UKs leading agencies make approaches to buy into SEO and emerging social media practices and/or employ SEO experts for their copy/keyword research, blogger outreach and conversation listening skills. PRs are increasingly recognising the importance of SEO in their offering and are looking to compete more effectively / add a differentiator that will help them win more business whilst create a sustainable future for themselves. We as a social media agency have had 2 such approaches in just 4 months!
