Category Sales practice

August 5, 2014,  Guru in a Bottle, Sales practice, Social marketing practice  No comments

While most marketers and retailers are familiar with the online shopping concepts of “showrooming” and “webrooming”, new research by e-consultancy Red Snapper suggests that the majority of UK online consumers are now “boomerooming” which is the habit of researching online, visiting a physical store to check out the physical product and then returning online to make a purchase at a lower price.

By comparison, “showrooming” occurs when consumers examine products in-store and then go online to find a cheaper price, while “webrooming” is the practice of researching products online before buying them in a bricks and mortar store.

According to researchers, almost two-thirds...

June 28, 2014,  Brand marketing, News, Public Relations practice, Sales practice, Social marketing practice, Sponsorship News  One comment

According to Nike, this year’s spike in sales of its merchandise can be attributed to its World Cup marketing platform ‘Risk Everything’ campaign that’s helped it achieve a 13% increase in sales to £4.34bn in the three months to 31 May.

Nike is not a sponsor of the FIFA World Cup and these rights are held by rival Adidas.

Nike ramped up its marketing spend in the period, spearheaded by ambassadors Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr ahead of the start of the World Cup in Brazil.

The company didn’t strip out marketing spend but said that a 36% increase in ‘demand creation’ expenses was driven by marketing support...

June 7, 2014,  Brand marketing, Guru in a Bottle, Sales practice  No comments

Cobra Beer is one of the fastest selling beverages in its category and is to be found in over 98% of all Indian restaurants in the UK.

But without the tenacity of its founder Karan Bilimoria, it could so easily have been a very different story.

Prime Minister David Cameron recently paid a visit to to the brewery in Burton-on-Trent in the West Midlands and Lord Bilimoria advises the PM on Anglo-India relationships.

As a small businessman, Lord Bilimoria understands first-hand what it feels like to take risks as well as borrow money to finance a venture that requires substantial capital but that has phenomenal prospects of being hugely successful.

Lord Bilimoria survived a “pre...

May 15, 2014,  Consumer behaviour, Guru in a Bottle, Sales practice, The Art of Influencing and Selling  No comments

Yesterday I had a wonderful lunch at my club Bafta in Piccadilly with a great friend of mine, Lena Robinson.

Lena is one of the most gifted business development professionals I’ve ever worked with when we were together at WPP and she now runs an incredible business development powerhouse for agency entrepreneurs called KiwiGirl.

Check it out!  Lena is an inspiration of ideas and new ways of thinking. And yesterday she shared something very special that I wanted to share with you too.

But before I share this with you, let me take you briefly into the conversation we started with over sausages, crab bites, burger and chips and a very nice bottle of wine!

We talked about Guru...

February 26, 2014,  Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, Legal update, Marketing practice, Public Relations practice, Sales practice  No comments

Sales and marketing practices of online retailers selling similar products and services of well-known brands will need to change after the High Court ruled that online giant Amazon can’t use a Google Ad Word of soap and beauty brand Lush to lure customers to its own retail site for alternative products as this amounts to a breach of the Lush trademark.

Lush has built a brand platform based on its own code of ethics – something which it jealously defends and contends that Amazon doesn’t subscribe to.

As a result, Lush decided it won’t sell its products on the retail giant’s website and probably never will...

January 23, 2014,  Consumer behaviour, Guru in a Bottle, High Impact Marketing that Gets Results, Sales practice, The Art of Influencing and Selling  No comments

There was a time when global brand owners thought all that mattered was their own brand. Coca-Cola led the way in showing how powerful the monolithic brand of its eponymous carbonated drink can be around the world. And of course the same could also be said of other great global brands like McDonalds, KFC, Levis and Microsoft.

However, the assumptions about power of brands and the way they need to be built in emerging markets are being turned on their head.

Let’s take the humble cup of coffee and what US-giant Starbucks is doing in India right now to get Indian consumers to drink more coffee rather than just tea...

January 17, 2014,  Guru in a Bottle, Marketing practice, News, Sales practice  No comments

This year will mark a watershed in the way in which sales and marketing knowledge is shared across the world as technology continues to shape the way we work, play and learn.

The following predictions on how e-learning might trend over the next five years (2014-19) is based analysis of key business drivers across different territories; learning and development (L&D) challenges facing many sales and marketing professionals and the interest in new methods of learning such as ‘gamification’ as well as ‘byte-size’ learning.

Open access for workers who want to improve their sales and marketing expertise

Europe and USA

In mature markets such as Europe and US, e-learning an...

January 9, 2014,  Marketing practice, Sales practice, The Art of Influencing and Selling  No comments

The primary difference between a poor and a great ‘pitch’ is in its delivery.

It’s not just what’s being said but how it’s said that can really make the difference. 

But that doesn’t mean you have to put on a gorilla suit to get noticed!

If you’ve ever been in a situation where there isn’t much time to deliver a ‘knock em dead’ sales and marketing pitch fear not!

By following these Top 10 Tips you’ll soon become an expert at delivering the perfect ‘pitch’.  And you can read more about how to make a great pitch in The Art of Influencing and Selling!

#1: Conquer your nerves

Most people get nervous when doing a sales and marketing pitch and that’...

December 31, 2013,  Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, Legal update, Marketing practice, News, Sales practice  No comments

UK-based companies will face a major shake-up in how they conduct consumer sales and marketing activities over the next 12-months in the wake of a raft of new laws and regulations emanating from the UK and European Union (EU). The following is a quick guide to some of these key legal and regulatory changes and more guidance is available in Essential Law for Marketers (2^nd edition).

Direct marketing and e-commerce practices

A radical shake up in this area is already underway as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has signalled a number of important changes that effectively erode the reliance by marketers on an ‘opt-out’ as a strategy for driving direct marketing (DM)...

December 28, 2013,  Consumer behaviour, Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, Legal update, News, Sales practice  No comments

Indian consumers could soon be shopping in hypermarkets partly owned and managed by Western retailers as a result of the relaxation in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regulations see a surge of business interest and investment from European brand owners in 2014.

For example, it’s just been announced that British supermarket chain Tesco is the first international retailer to have its plan to invest USD 10m (GBP 67m) approved by India’s Commerce and Trade Ministry. The deal paves the way for Tesco in partnership with a Tata subsidiary to open multi-brand stores across India by taking a 50% stake in Trent Hypermarkets, which in turn operates Star Bazaar stores in the sta...