Marketing Dinosaur's blog

I chose to have an ex-directory telephone number so I would be spared the necessity of answering calls from those wishing to sell double glazing, insurance, an ever increasing number of items designed especially for the older generation. And of course, the experts who can advise me on how to obtain ever larger benefits from a seemingly bottomless pit presided over by an incredibly generous Government. It hasn’t prevented me from receiving such calls. I even get calls from my bank’s head office asking if I am satisfied with the service I receive from my local branch!

I was talking to some retired journalists the other day, we were discussing marketing newspapers and magazines in today’s world as opposed to the world we knew. Somehow our world seemed rather simpler. I reminded them of the comment made by the editor of one of the major titles; he said he produced his paper with the interests of the man on the upper deck of a bus passing through Clapham in his mind. Not very scientific, when you consider all the research that was available at the time.

The General Election creeps closer, the politicians begin their campaigns to attract our vote. The slogans start to appear and “The Experts” offer their advice and comment to all and sundry on a wide range of subjects. One set of Economists tell us one thing, another set says the opposite. It reminded me of a comment a speaker at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Directors once made. He said “If you put all the economists head to toe in line it would circle the Equator… but you still wouldn’t reach a conclusion”.

I suppose it’s our fault really, the Marketing Dinosaurs, we started it. Then successive generations of marketeers saw the opportunities too and began developing, and eventually exploiting the celebrations. It’s happened not just to Valentine’s Day but Easter and Christmas too. I have no doubt the festivals of other cultures, more recently imported into the country, will go the same way in the course of time.

I must confess that the name of Seth Godin was new to me until recently, since when I have read his blogs with some interest. Earlier this week my attention was drawn to a new blog on his website. “Who will save us?” is the heading of the piece, and he goes on to argue that nothing can save us from change. Well that’s hardly an original thought is it?

It’s many years since I took a real interest in the circulation of National Newspapers, even longer since I was responsible for some of the figures. In those days a drop in the sales figure of any title was considered a very serious matter. A fall in any of the titles in my charge would prompt a discussion with the Chairman! The reasons for the decline would be mulled over by everyone involved in the industry and the publisher would make strenuous efforts to recover the lost sales. Now it seems, a drop in sales every month is expected, dare I say accepted?

What an interesting week! The Chilcott Enquiry provided the spectacle of ex-ministers wriggling under close questioning about their part in the Iraq War: The board of Cadbury’s lost their battle and became Schhhhaftbury’s. President Obama challenged the powerhouse that put him into the White House to a fight. And last but not least the Government here up-graded the Terror Alert. What next I wonder? 

How do you market bad news? Well there are those who must. Tobacco manufacturers, politicians, the booze business, to name but three. I am prompted to raise the matter by something I saw a couple of days ago in the local Co-op. A young woman was buying a packet of fags. She looked sensible enough, but there she was shelling out five or six pounds for a packet of material that the very manufacturer was telling her, could kill her.

It has been said that change is welcome only by those creating the changes and are most likely to benefit from the changes they are seeking to make. The theme of President Obama’s election campaign was the need for change, I bet George Bush and his supporters didn’t agree on the perceived need for change, any more than Gordon Brown and his party would subscribe to the current Conservative calls for change.

So it’s all over…2009…. Christmas, New Year, indeed New Decade celebrations are behind us. Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament all lit up and surrounded by the fireworks display, (Outside The House this time) the same happening on a lesser scale all over the country. The people cheering and enjoying themselves, all their problems and troubles forgotten for a few brief hours.