I came across a number of marketing ‘facts’ this morning some of which caught my eye:

The more data you have, and the more you know about your customers, the better your marketing will be. This data is available from many published sources, or you can collect your own by asking your customers lots of questions.

Marketing should be changed every few years to keep it fresh and new. Fact: The longer your marketing promotes your product or service, the better, e.g., things go better with …

Your customers will be buying a lot more than merely your product or service. They are buying your personality, your reputation, your service, and your status in the community

It makes a lot of sense for a small business to retain the services of an advertising agency. Fact: No it does not. Better work at more reasonable prices is available from marketing consultants.

If you need someone to help you plan your markeitng activity for 2010, please get in touch with me.

As the ‘January Sale’ battle starts in ernest today, Bathstore, the bathroom specialist retailer, has launched a £1.5m January sale campaign rolling it out across TV, press, leaflet and POS to highlighting the up to 50% off offer.

Featuring the voiceover of Spooks actress Hermione Norris, the TV ads break today and will run until the end of January using the strap line ‘Value that makes you look twice’.

The retailer, which has over 160 stores nationwide, will also run press ads will in national press and regional titles including: The Times, Metro, The Evening Standard and Aberdeen Evening Express. Localised London magazine press ads show a still from the TV to communicate quality and value messaging.

7m inserts will also run in The Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Radio Times, The Independent, Ideal Home, 25 Beautiful Homes and Elle Decoration.

Is there any particular area of marketing news that you would like me to write about?

Happy Christmas all from Bath Marketing Consultancy.

Tesco claims sales of comedy and TV DVDs will outsell its film chart for the first time, attributing the change to the success of stand-up comics such as Michael McIntyre and TV shows like Gavin and Stacey.
Tesco said that Michael McIntyre looks set to see off competition from blockbusters including the latest Harry Potter and Transformers film, to become the number one-selling DVD. (he must be loaded that bloke! BMC)

Sales of classic comedy box sets grew by 800% year-on-year, with Only Fools and Horses, The Vicar of Dibley and Fawlty Towers among the top sellers.

Tesco’s DVD buying manager Keith Metcalfe, said: ‘Customers are clearly looking to have a laugh this Christmas and in these gloomy economic times who can blame them?’

Let’s be honest, it is not as if we can rely on terrestrial television over the festive period either is it Bath Marketing Consultancy says?!

Although it has not been around for long Google Chrome is getting a major marketing boost in the UK. Today there are wrap-around cover adverts in the free Metro newspaper which circulates across the UK to morning commuters. We’re also getting reports on billboards appearing all over the country and online marketing on Facebook and other sites.

We’ve seen Twitter reports of the newspaper ads appearing in London and Manchester, but it looks like it’s across the whole country, which would give the campaign a total Metro circulation of over 1.3 million. Google is also doing Billboard ads.

The advert describes Chrome as “A fast, new browser. Made for everyone.” (Bath Marketing – arent they all?!)

Chrome is obviously a minority browser in comparison to Internet Explorer and FireFox, but it’s clear Google is going all out to give it exposure in a key market.

Do you use Chrome? Let me know – paul@bathmarketingconsultancy.co.uk

As Bath Marketing pointed out in Twitter recently, several of Tiger Woods’ sponsors such as Accenture and Gillette, are distancing themselves from the golfer as a brand ambassador.
Taken from Brand Republic, below is our list of sponsors who are unlikely to step in!

Volkswagen: “Drivers wanted”
Tiger Balm: “Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire”
Brylcreem: “Control yourself”
Hanes underwear: “A man can’t swing if his underwear doesn’t”
Duracell Bunny: “It keeps going, and going and going”
Butlins: “Play Happy Families”
Trust House Forte: “Yours Faithfully”
Vauxhall: “Put the fun back into driving”
Greggs: “Ready when you are”
Peugeot: “The drive of your life”

I personally think he will return to the game and am actually not sure how it is possible to have so many off the course commitments and still have the strength to be so far better than anyone else!

Even though I am not a huge fan of his, Bath Marketing Consultancy thinks that you’ve got to give credit where credit is due. Simon Cowell; the saviour of ITV to some, the destroyer of music to others, is now responsible for the most watched online video of 2009.

In what has been the biggest year yet for online video, Google’s YouTube has unveiled its first official Most Watched listings, and it’s led by Susan Boyle’s audition on ITV talent show Britain’s Got Talent back in April.

The clip of Boyle singing ‘I dreamed a dream’ from Les Mis attracted more than 120 million views from around the world. Put into some kind of perspective, that’s the equivalent of two “view counts” for every person living in the UK, or more than the entire population of Mexico!!

None of YouTube’s staple user generated content – cats on skateboards, dogs up trees, or wedding dances, made an appearance in the top 5.

But as Google continues to broker deals with established publishers and broadcasters around the world, YouTube appears to be moving towards a business model based on sourcing strong content producers that can attract audiences, which in turn advertisers want to be in front of…….in other words, a traditional media business.

Any thoughts on this readers? paul@bathmarketingconsultancy.co.uk

Just as we all thought it was safe to turn on our TV’s again at the weekend there is ANOTHER reality show called ‘Take Me Out’, due to air in early 2010. Domino’s Pizza has quickly signed a sponsorship deal with ITV1 for its new dating series.

The program is presented by comedian Paddy McGuinness (is this a step up from being the face of Greggs?!) and produced by Talkback Thames. It is studio based and will feature 30 ladies from across the UK looking for ‘Mr Right’. (let’s hope Ulrika doesn’t get involved again!!)

One ‘single’ man will walk into an arena of 30 single women; announce his name and where he is from. Each of the girls have a light in front of them and if at any point they decide this guy is not for them, they switch him off.

The deal was negotiated by ITV commercial and the sponsorship idents will be created by Big Communications.

I can’t wait can you?! All comments to Bath Marketing Consultancy please.

Just as we all thought it was safe to turn on our TV’s again at the weekend there is ANOTHER reality show called \’Take Me Out\’, due to air in early 2010. Domino\’s Pizza has quickly signed a sponsorship deal with ITV1 for its new dating series.

The program is presented by comedian Paddy McGuinness (is this a step up from being the face of Greggs?!) and produced by Talkback Thames. It is studio based and will feature 30 ladies from across the UK looking for ‘Mr Right\’. (let’s hope Ulrika doesn’t get involved again!!)

One ‘single’ man will walk into an arena of 30 single women; announce his name and where he is from. Each of the girls have a light in front of them and if at any point they decide this guy is not for them, they switch him off.

The deal was negotiated by ITV commercial and the sponsorship idents will be created by Big Communications.

I can’t wait can you?! All comments to Bath Marketing Consultancy please.

A cracking bit of intuitive, online marketing took place yesterday that I thought you would be interested to know.

The word on the street is that Google has given employees a prototype mobile phone to test, which it is reportedly planning to sell directly to consumers early next year.

The web giant handed out the mobile phone, called Nexus One, to its employees late last week, but no details are being released to the public. Mario Queiroz, vice-president of product management confirmed that Google researches its products via its employees saying and rumours are that the Nexus One is set to launch in early January 2010. (why wait until after Christmas?).

Google plans to sell the phone itself online and not through a wireless carrier. If this were to be the case, users would have to buy their wireless service separately via suppliers such as Orange, but in my opinion it is hard to see O2 supplying such a product as it would surely compete with the iphone.

The phone will run on Google’s Android mobile operating system, which the web giant has already implemented on various mobile phones through partnerships with hardware makers and wireless carriers over the past two years.

Manufactured by HTC, the Nexus One is thinner than the iPhone, has no keyboard, and features a voice-to-text service.

Bath Marketing Consultancy says watch this space, but it would have to be something major to prize my iphone 3Gs out of my hands!