Not all of the below are possible all the time, but Bath Marketing Consultancy have constructed a check list of the sort of criteria you must adhere to when running an advertisement.

I know it is early on a Monday morning and it is raining outside, but this article is not a moan influenced by these factors. The reason for writing this is to try and help manage the expectations of the SME business.

Over the last few months I have come across a trend where I am being asked for fast fix marketing – ‘I need to increase sales by the end of the month’ or ‘I need to get infront of 10 more prospects each week’ or ‘I don’t mind spending money on marketing…..providing I see a greater return’, all via minimum financial investment and very little time investment. (If I had these answers and could give these guarantees, I would have written a book and be Blogging from my yacht in the Caribbean!)

What I say to my clients is that no single marketing initiative will bring retirement closer. Businesses must be realistic in their objective setting, employ a number of initiatives and above all, be patient. For example, Networking is a great way to increase your brand awareness and provides a platform to present yourself, but remember, EVERYONE at Networking is doing the same as you – trying to sell.

Review your website by using Google analytcis to see what visitors are doing. Make sure it is optimised and that it works for you. Drive quality traffic to it via link building, social media, advertising and PR. Speak to your clients and offer them more. Offer incentives for referals. Write articles and/or make comments on relevant websites etc etc.

The most important thing is to experiment. There is no such thing as a quick fix and even the most experienced marketing person will tell you that it is incredibly competitive out there.

Taken from the ONS, I thought it was worth outlining the importance of having an internet presence and the sheer numbers now having access to the ‘world wide web’…

18.3 million households in the UK (70 per cent) had Internet access in 2009. This is an increase of just under 2 million households (11 per cent) over the last year and 4 million households (28 per cent) since 2006.

The region with the highest level of access was London, with 80 per cent. The region with the lowest access level was Scotland, with 62 per cent.

Sixty-three per cent of all UK households had a broadband connection in 2009, up from 56 per cent in 2008. Of those households with Internet access, 90 per cent had a broadband connection in 2009, an increase from 69 per cent in 2006.

In 2009, 37.4 million adults (76 per cent of the UK adult population) accessed the Internet in the three months prior to interview. The number of adults who had never accessed the Internet fell to 10.2 million (21 per cent) in 2009.

Sixty four per cent of all adults who were recent Internet users (having accessed the Internet in the three months prior to interview) had ever purchased goods or services over the Internet in 2009. Of these, 83 per cent (26 million) had purchased within the last three months.

BMC – We hear about the importance of the internet everyday on our personal and business lives, but I think these sorts of figures really drive home the point. When adapting these figures to marketing, it is evident that, not only is it essential to have a website, but it must also be user friendly and able to be found by potential customers. Do not shy away from online marketing!

Havas suffered a 14.3% year-on-year decline in organic growth in the UK in the fourth quarter of 2009, as the French marketing group said its operations were still taking a hit from the “steep reduction in advertising spend in the UK”.

Havas’ UK operations include media and advertising agencies Arena BLM, MPG and Euro RSCG – the latter being my former employer.

In the UK, revenues for 2009 registered at €164m, a fall of 11.6% on the year in organic growth terms. However, one area of strength was the performance of its digital operations, which it said had increased from 9% share of group revenue in 2006, to 16% in 2009. This was attributed to account wins in the past 12 months include Euro RSCG 4D scooping IBM, and Heineken in the US awarding its digital business to Euro RSCG in New York.

It added that digital revenue was forecast to more than double in 2010, to almost 20% of group revenue.

To me this shows the continuing trend towards using online media as a primary marketing tool and highlights the serious reduction in traditional spend in areas like advertising in the local and national press.

Why not get in touch with Bath Marketing Consultancy and I will do a complete audit of your marketing activity free of charge? paul@bathmarketingconsultancy.co.uk

Iceland is finally ditching its celebrity-focused marketing strategy and looking to appoint one of its customers to become its ‘brand ambassador.’

I have yet to notice it, but the supermarket chain has launched a nationwide PR campaign to find a ‘new face of the brand’, inviting people to attend live auditions at the end of March. Digital agency And Digital has created a microsite, Newfaceoficeland.co.uk, to promote the auditions and these will be judged by Iceland’s chairman, Malcolm Walker, and its current ‘face’, Coleen Nolan, who will be giving up her role.

Members of the public will then be able to vote from an online shortlist of candidates, with a winner being selected in April.

As we are all aware, Iceland has used (BMC – ‘so-called’) celebrities in its marketing activity for quite some time now. In 2006, it began sponsoring ITV’s ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me out of Here!’, and has aligned itself with former contestants such as Kerry Katona, Christopher Biggins and Jason Donovan.

I am holding my breath in anticipation, aren’t you?!?

This activity of using celebs is called “testimonials” or “celebrity endorsements”, and apparently, consumers relate to the person(s) appearing in the ad: If the celebrity / athlete / star uses the product, then it must be good, so I will purchase it too.

Does anyone actually think that using celebrities for advertising actually works? Recent examples like Gillette with Tiger Woods and Thierry Henry spring to mind!

Apparently Domino’s Pizza has launched a new social media campaign on Facebook rewarding users’ brand loyalty with prizes and special offers. As part of the campaign, a superfans app sends users a promotional code linked to an offer.

In addition there is an online competition to find Domino’s biggest followers or the ‘Superfan King’ and ‘Superfan Queen’.

The winner, who receives more prizes from the brand, is the user who recruits the most new fans to the Facebook page – a sort of glorified refer a friend type campaign.

“Facebook is central to our social media strategy and this application will enable us to leverage the importance of brand advocates in growing our customer base. Superfans is about giving something back to our customers” said Robin Auld, Director of Domino’s Pizza UK & Ireland.

BMC – Is this yet another example of a well-known brand jumping on the social media wagon or is this part of a well planned marketing strategy. I personally like the idea, although I am not sure what ‘prizes’ Domino’s could offer other than huge amounts of pizza. At least the winners will be easy to spot as the Superfan King and Queen will be enormous!!

Having been bombarded by enquiries from final year students last week asking for comments and help with their dissertations, (I even had a lady from Leeds Uni doing Graphic & Communication Design asking about branding and social media), I started thinking about my days at Bournemouth Uni and my dissertation.

Mine was entitled ‘People do not buy from clowns’ Claude Hopkins 1923 – agree or disagree’ to which I chose the alcohol industry as a case study…funny that eh?! Back in the early 1990’s our TV screens were awash with commical adverts for brands like Fosters with Paul Hogan and the brilliant Carling Black Label ads and you can imagine the conclusion I came to……….after huge amounts of research……………and product testing!

Well, what about today? Is humour a great sales tool? Does it work?

One of my favourite adverts ever has got to be the John West Salmon ‘bear’ advert.
The ad itself became so popular that it turned into one of the world’s first internet virals.

It starts, tamely enough, in the style of a nature documentary, showing a group of bears catching salmon at the mouth of a river.

But things take a turn for the downright bizarre when a John West fisherman enters the fray and starts fighting one of the bears, kung-fu style.

The entertaining bout ends when the fisherman distracts the bear by pointing to an imaginary eagle and kicks his adversary in the balls.

The ad was viewed online by more than 300 million people by 2006 and Leo Burnett picked up the BTAA Commercial of the Year in 2001 for the ad.

Click here to see it and remind yourself just how good it was……

Have you got a fav’ funny advert? Maybe Tango or Budweiser or even the comb over for Hamlet? Email Bath Marketing Consultancy at paul@bathmarketingconsultancy.co.uk and I will publish the results next week.

Bath Marketing Consultancy believes that no single marketing initiative will work in isolation and suggest that between 6 and 10 initiatives is what each business should be running at any one time. As such, I have constructed 30 questions that each business must ask itself to test whether it is looking at its marketing activity correctly.

With under a 10 inch screen, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs has called it “a magical truly revolutionary product”. Jobs said that what this device does was extraordinary allowing users to browse the web with it and manipulate the page with your fingers better he said than a laptop; “way better than a smartphone”, and a “dream to type on”.

With sales down 24.6% down year on year to 188,532, the IPC-owned lads mag ‘Nuts’ is rolling its new look in February supported by a £500,000 ad push across 49 football grounds around the UK, including Tottenham, Chelsea, Everton and West Ham using six sheets, in-washroom and concourse screen advertising.

The marketing campaign will also run across other IPC brands including NME, Loaded, Mousebreaker.com and Superbike, as well as on TV and online on Comedy Central and Mtv.co.uk.

New editorial features include a humorous take on the week’s sporting highlights – ‘Nuts about Sport’, a revamped news section, a new fashion feature called ‘Nuts 10 Must Haves of the Week’, bolder visuals throughout the title and more content on the title’s website Nuts.co.uk.

Dominic Smith, Nuts editor, said: “All our development focused on what the readers said they wanted more of from Nuts. They told us they love our classic mix of girls, sport, news, humour, gadgets and gear.
“The new look delivers a fresher, more modern feel to reinforce that mix, while introducing a new range of must-read editorial franchises every week…’’

BMC – I can’t wait, can you??!