Gordon Brown Gets It Right?
Downing Street has confirmed it. Our beleaguered Prime Minister has now taken to calling voters at home.
Apparently the calls were an attempt to create positive word of mouth. But even this almost backfired…
Apparently Mr Brown, an early riser of note, had the Downing Street switch board connect him to a shift worker at 6.00am one morning. Fortunately the shift worker was already up. Otherwise the caller may not have received quite the welcome he had hoped for..!
Messages Being Tuned Out
Nevertheless, in his approach at least, Mr Brown is right. Because despite the abundance of conventional marketing resource available to him as PM and leader of the Labour Party, it appears that a fresh approach is needed to reach out to voters, or indeed consumers…
According to independent research, an average person in this country is now exposed to as many as 1,600 sales messages every single day. As a result people are “tuning out” advertising messages leaving businesses and embattled politicians wondering how to effectively communicate their sales messages to the public.
Stuart Morris is Director of New Business for Cooper Bearings Group, a manufacturerer of componentry to an international client base
So what can they do?
New Approach Required
You can’t just walk up to a stranger in a bar and ask them to marry you! First there is a chat up line, then a first drink, a date, days out and the creation of a relationship before you “pop the question”. The same is true of marketing these days, says Mark Emmott of Word of Mouth marketing experts, REM.
Now organisations have to engage with people. Stop shouting at them, with their brash advertisements and sales efforts, and become part of the conversation with a trusted reputation. Businesses need a new approach…
The change of emphasis is evidenced by decreased investment in conventional media. Capital One, MBNA and Loans.co.uk are believed to have recently axed their direct mail expenditure by more than 40%. Advertising revenues are down 8% at ITV.
So at least in one respect it seems that Mr Brown is leading the field. Pity it is not the opinion polls!
For more information contact Claire on 01603 632527 / clairevincent@rem-uk.com
|
