marc duke

2011-03-23T09:43:00.000Z

Please note my blog has now moved to http://marcduke.wordpress.com/ thanks for your interest.

Marc

2009-08-05T17:33:00.000Z

The 'ethical pitch'

Don't panic this is not a post about sustainability or recycling etc but rather on some of my musings on pitch ethics based on personal experience. Having been a consultant for the last seven and a half years I rarely find myself in straight pitch situations, I have found myself on the selection panel a fair few times or reviewing proposals for work as well, so not sure if I am the best man to comment, but here goes.

I know you have heard this before but people buy people, never mind the tender, brief, or scope of work required, it comes down to a simple match, can you do what is asked? And for that matter is this a client/company/person you wish to work with? There have been numerous times when I have asked myself that question and in some instances walked away from the business.

Then there is the question about what about my existing clients and if we take on the work will they be compromised in any way. I have had a number of situations where there were great revenue opportunities for me but in the back of my mind I knew that the risk of conflict of interest was great and again walked away. Why? It has to feel right or else it won’t work.

Then there is the trust issue - either it is there- or lets pack up and go home. Some like the focus of payment by results, I have not explicitly worked in that way, but I make sure people know what they are getting and if not why, as there may well be issues that the client overlooked that my significantly hinder generating results.

One other point is reputation, what goes around comes around and in my view ultimately the truth will out. It is the backdrop to any new business situation, it will get you to the pitch table and in some instances will protect you if the presentation performance is not what it should or could have been.

While all of the hygiene factors are important for a pitch - answering the brief, good presentation style, good listening/people skills etc... Ultimately it’s a people thing as after all business is done for people by people. Now back to that proposal.....

2009-04-22T19:27:00.002Z

In this game the customer is king...

Feel the need to post about a customer event on Monday I organised and attended, the third customer event I have been involved with since working with this vendor and each one has been very, very different. The format is very simple - let the customer do the talking and the analysts will take the discussion where they wish. Keep the vendor content to a minimum - there are other opps elsewhere for this.

What was great was a very diverse analyst audience and a customer that stimulated debate about issues that at the outset you would never have imaged would be discussed.

The take home, running any analyst customer event is in my view as good as it gets.

2009-04-22T19:21:00.002Z

Meeting the AM call

I had a meeting with an account manager and two key members of the marketing team today (wow big news;-)). The objective simple - lets meet, let's chat and let's see if there is anything we can do. No need for huge detail but one thing struck me. Its always good to meet with an account manager as you can learn LOADS about the firm, as much about the culture of the company as about what is on offer.

I have posted before about the balance between commercial relationships and pure and simple AR comms, but one thing that never ceases to intrigue me is how an AM 'sells' the analyst firm and how the customer or potential customer buys or what they are looking for.

Guess its time to write up the follow up action list....

2009-03-04T18:00:00.003Z

Spot the difference - Recession proof AR??

OK another post on recession proof AR, actually the post stems from a question I was asked a few weeks ago: There are a fair few AR Pros being laid off and as a result they have gone freelance. How do you remain competitive?

My gut answer was - 'I just do the best I can' a fairly simplistic answer I know but I am fairly simplistic. As I see it no one knows what the future holds so having been caught in the IT slump of 2000 - 2002 and having worked as an independent consultant for some seven years the key things I have learnt is: you have to deliver value, ALL the time, there is NO room for downtime and FOCUS is the key. Either you deliver what is asked for or you don't deliver at all.

The fact is, it shouldn't matter if we are in a recession or not, as a consultant you have to deliver value, focus on what's being asked and never, never get complacent.

I know its obvious but in a recession there is less business and more competition, the truth is there will always be competition, what makes one AR provider better than another? There will be personal taste, methodology, price (yes price) but in my view value and quality will out.

Sounds obvious but in uncertain times, certainty helps.

2009-01-29T21:54:00.001Z

No sweat???

Here's piece I wrote for my local CIM branch:

http://www.greaterlondon-cim.co.uk/blog/

No names needed

2008-11-17T11:48:00.003Z

Calling in the auditors??

Calm down, I may be married to an accountant but this is not a piece about anything accountancy related!

I have recently been involved in overseeing a couple of analyst perception audits and while in the past I have been happy to go with direct perceptions and details of analyst output. Things have changed.

One of the audits was based on classic parameters and confirmed our original hunches, it also served the purposes of what the client wanted perfectly well. The second was much broader and featured several 'AR 2.0' elements (twee phrase but for purpose of this post it works). The results were much richer than what I had found in the past.

Aside from the issue of infleuncer relations there are more tools that are being used today by analysts that make tracking perception more complex than before, rather than ignore the output, integrate it into the mix or you run the risk of of having an outdated AR strategy.

2008-11-17T10:44:00.005Z

Playing the numbers game?

I was on a vendor briefing call last week, the aim of the call how to get the most out of the analyst firm as an AR professional. All good and interesting stuff.

When it came to the Q&A bit, I thought time to ask a question and kick things off. The question:

How many end users do your analysts talk to?

In an open forum you get an open response. We have xx thousand clients which mean yy thousand customers. Each analyst speaks to x hundred end users over the year.

A good stat when asked how influential are analysts.

Thinking through this and other conversations I have had with other AR professionals, THE key thing I have always based my AR work on is the extent of influence. The raison d'etre (apologies for poor spelling) for working with analysts is to develop relationships that benefit the business on multiple levels (no I won't expound on this at length - contact me off line and I will be happy to do so). In a non-tech non business environment I explain AR as influencing people that influence customer purchasing decisions.

There are times when having a quantitative approach really helps. (tangentially this in my view explains the power/allure of all things online - I can track it, I can measure it, I can build a business case for it, I can secure budget for it). This kind of data helps BUT it does not provide the full picture, because an analyst 'touches' xx thousand people does NOT mean all of those people will make a purchasing decision based solely on their advice/opinion.

So in short playing the numbers can work some of the time. But DON'T base your entire strategy on it.

2008-11-13T10:55:00.003Z

Rl8shp sqz

I had a conversation with a friend yesterday who I want to invite round for lunch. The gist:

My wife has tried calling your wife three times and no answer!

Ah you'd better text her, she sends around 4000 texts a month.

Within three minutes we had a date in the diary - excellent, but why blog about it??

My wife commented - I don't like texting if I had a call with her it would have been so much nicer.

This got me thinking we have voice, email, Twitter (and other tools) txting and face-to-face all of which support relationships. But each tool comes with parameters and uses, the trick is to use them all in the right way.

For marketing this could not be more prescient. I don't text an analyst a briefing request, but I would a stand location at show where we are meeting. I don't email sensitive comments I'd pass that on in person or over the phone.

Ultimately the need to nurture relationships to grow a business are the same as ever but the plethora of tools is greater than ever, the challenge is to match the right tools to the right people for the right uses.

Now how the hell do I use predictive txting!

2008-11-13T10:25:00.002Z

Forget me not....

No this is not about Remembrance day or Armistice day at all, but something that I felt was worth posting.

I have organised a few analyst events recently with different clients, a webinar, a customer event and have been doing some business development (haven't we all).

I read about blogs, social networking, Web 2.0 etc... but one thing that always strikes me is that when all is said and done it's all about relationships. Be it AR or any form of marketing. While we may have the tools to broadcast our views to the masses etc. The power of the direct relationship should never be ignored. Chances are that given the current (economic) climate this has never been more relevant than ever.

Yup, this is obvious but sometimes the obvious needs to be restated.

2008-06-05T13:27:00.003Z

Commercial musings

In mid briefing session and one analyst I spoke to mentioned after we had finished that my client is on her target list to secure as a client this year. This got me thinking about the whole pay for play situation.

Correct me if I am wrong but the conventional wisdom is that this much more of a feature of US AR than in EMEA, with the exception of the US firms - hence the vendor briefing process which is radically altered if you have a commercial relationship with the majors. In EMEA there is much more of a gentleman's code regarding briefings, being slightly more reserved (hope no offence caused here), briefings will be based primarily around information exchange and in some instances s commercial relationship might be in the equation. I recently organised a briefing with a printer vendor and a major analyst firms where we had the head of MI in the room with the analysts pitching their services, the objective was two fold:

1. To delve into more detail with the analysts about a topic covered in a group briefing a month back

2. To give the analyst firm a chance to showcase its wares

The vendor was well aware the pitch was coming and also knew there was no pressure to sign on the dotted line.

I have often seen analysts provide healthy tasters of insight and feedback in a briefing the reason being - here is a taster of what is on offer.

Ultimately as I see it there are two positions on the commerical imperative:

1. Major's - were a quality brand and our end user customers think as much and pay for the pleasure, so vendor the same rules apply.

2. The minors (in company size not acumen, influence and insight) - you can see the quality, to get the best value a commercial relationship is a really good idea.

I have been singing (at semi-professional level, I hasten to add) in a choir for years at and I remember someone saying at an open rehearsal :' I can't see why you guys are getting paid, you'd do it for free as you love the singing! The point is payment ensures commitment and quality.

With the Minors I feel that there comes a point that considering commercial relations is not merely gate entry issue but one of quality and commitment and getting the maximum value from analysts that have a great deal to offer.

The alternative, keep the briefings going - pick up some titbits of insight, but there may well be a whole lot you are missing out on.

2008-06-04T17:12:00.003Z

Twitter yea not

My thanks to Dominic Pannel of Hill & Knowlton for introducing me to Twitter. Having been slow to the blogsphere, I guess I was somewhat slow to this fab Web 2.0 application. This tool and I am sure there are others, clearly provides a new dimension to AR, but one thing I am mindful of, is that nothing replaces investing in professional analyst relationships and getting a clear understanding of exactly what each analyst is after and more importantly what there are not. Might be an obvious point but I have always been a big believer that while technology is an enabler/enhancer of relationships it will never replace the human element which great AR professionals are valued most for.

2008-05-07T12:49:00.003Z

Working from home - to do or not to do?

I have been quiet for a while but thought you might appreciate a recent article on remote working I wrote for Hertfordshire Matters News run by Flexible Skills Bank

Working from home - to do or not to do?

Remote control - is it viable for a small business to employ people that will work out of the office or is this the preserve of the large corporations?

The advent of the blackberry, broadband and mobile phones have made working remotely the reality that some talked up a decade or so ago. Additionally the stress and cost (both financial and psychological) of commuting to an office makes working remotely incredibly attractive. While we have probably all worked from home when waiting for the repairman or plumber is this a viable employment strategy for a small business?

As with all of these questions there is no hard and fast answer, it all depends on the type of business, degree to which an employee is customer facing and for that matter if that interaction is face-to-face, via the phone or web/e-mail. With email and web the key is speed of response not the location of the respondent and the advent of VoIP (digital telephony) means an office call can be routed to wherever your employees are.

Then there is also the question of data and systems, if all that is required is accessing email, doing so remotely is relatively straight forward but entering customer data into a Customer Relationship Management system may only be done in an office.

However the most important issues are not technology or process but people namely staff competency and management mindset.

Staff competency - the key here is can your employees deliver what is asked of them? By and large junior staff need guidance and support that make working remotely incompatible with carrying out their role effectively. Senior staff who know what is required of them are the more likely candidates to work from home. It's no coincidence that the example given for remote working are mobile salesforce who either generate business or don't and need to be in front of customers and not in an office.

Management mindset - some management have the view that if an employee is not sat at their desk then they are not being productive, such a mindset is limiting for two reasons firstly the manager is likely to spend time worrying who is doing what rather than on providing support to subordinates to deliver value to the business, while junior team members may well get resentful over time! Supporting staff working remotely requires managers to be very organised, communicate very effectively on what needs to be done by when and have sufficient intuition to spot problems before anything can be done.

From my experience it is best to take a mixed approach spending some time in the office and the remainder working remotely, this is especially useful if you need to brainstorm ideas or find solutions to problems facing your customers. But the trick for both office based staff and those working remotely is to communicate effectively about who is doing what and to flag up issues as quickly as possible.

Marc Duke is an independent marketing consultant, helping businesses grow through effective marketing advice. He can be reached on marcduke@btconnect.com

2007-06-12T15:41:00.000Z

Ti's the season...

Nothing festive in this blog, after all summer has just begun. I have been working in AR for a while and one of things that struck me recently is how AR changes depending on the life cycle stage the company is at. It sounds obvious but the AR needs for a start up are radically different from those of an established vendor but not everyone sees it that way. As the nature of analyst influence changes so does the way AR needs to be done for companies at different points in their evolution. Some classifications:

Start up - finance and noise centric AR
Challengers - challenge based AR
Established - status quo AR

Having some classifications in place really helps with driving what sort of programme is delivered. Well it has for me.

2007-04-24T17:59:00.000Z

Does size really matter?

There are some who make a big play on the size of an analyst database or target list. The inference being the more on the list the better, as the greater the reach and hence influence. Sure the list may tiered but does size really make a difference? My view is that its the quality of relationship and for that matter the ability of the AR practitioner to foster the right sort of the relationship that really counts and of course understanding exactly the way the connection should be utilised to help grow the clients business. So in AR (in my view) size doesn't matter but relationships do.

2007-03-05T21:30:00.000Z

In Brands We Trust

What strikes me most about branding is the role that trust plays. The theory about branding is it that a brand is a source of value - the vendor can charge a higher price as the consumer is prepared to pay, they can assign a balance sheet value to it (I'm not an accountant but the calculations are pretty standard), and the consumer has the status of the product/service.

But trust is the key to a brand, consumers feel they can trust that the product/service will deliver on what is promised and the vendor has trust that its offering is an accurate embodiment of what the company has invested be it in capital or human investment.

Looking at it from an AR perspective trust is the key. AR agencies or PR agencies offering AR have to gain the trust of analysts and this is effect defines their brand. AR Professionals that analysts can trust are the ones who can then offer vendors a more valuable AR service. After all trust also underpins relationships which is what AR is all about

2007-02-26T21:44:00.000Z

Please can I have some MOAR?!

There is an old debate in the AR/PR industry on the implementation of AR, should it be outsourced/handed over to an agency or not? In my view the key to this lies in what sort of AR is being delivered, I see a big distinction between Communications Oriented AR (COAR) and Marketing Oriented AR (MOAR).

What is the difference between the two? COAR is by and large one way, and runs the risk of treating analysts as press/journalists i.e. information consumers/re publishers - but no dialogue please, unless the feedback is positive, while MOAR is a two-way relationship based approach that looks at the inherent value of the analyst, the capability of his/her firm compared to the current and future business strategy of the vendor/business unit.

While it looks like I am playing with TLAs or FLAs, pulling off MOAR is as hard as any attempt an organisation makes at being Marketing Oriented. But I am always up for MOAR!

2007-02-15T16:44:00.000Z

Influencer Marketing and AR - coming to an agency soon?

Having read Duncan Brown's article on Infleuncer Marketing in the recent The Marketer publication, I wonder how long it will be, before the AR community start to offer this discipline? I just hope it is real Influencer Marketing not rebadged AR. Only time will tell.