Would you buy from this man?

This article rides on the back of the Giant Rabbit article (no pun intended).
I was visiting the 'Internet World' trade fair at Earls Court, London recently and as you would expect there was intense rivally between stands to attract visitors attention. In the same way that the 'Giant Rabbit' had failed dismally, there were some equally frightening attempts to get attention. Top of the list of poor ideas, was the stall that had employed a midget, dressed him in a purple suit and had painted his face hair and hands purple. Oh dear!
It was actually quite sad, and didn't provoke the humorous response intended.
a: Because it wasn't funny.
b: Because you don't like to laugh at people who are vertically challenged.

It was a marketing attempt that had failed poorly and was having the same affect that the giant rabbit had on everyone. You gave their stand a wide berth.
Interestingly, the stands that were offering face to face advice (no pun intended at the expense of the midget!) or hands on trials and demonstrations of their products were very busy.
If the principle aim was to get the company noticed, then that failed too - partly because I was doing my best to avoid getting too near to the stand (and most others were too) so I wouldn't have to enter into a conversation about business with a 3ft purple midget.

For anyone who did make a point of noting the companies name, I am convinced that it would be for the purpose of avoiding them at all costs in the future.
For me they lost all credibility with that marketing stunt and I would not be able to take them at all seriously.

Would you buy from this man - a purple painted midget? NO.

Bournemouth to get 100mb Broadband

It has been announced that Bournemouth will be the first town in the country to become a "Fibre City" with broaband delivery of up to 100Mbs. This is great news for those of us who work and live in Bournemouth and as work is scheduled to start straight away we shouldn't have too long to wait before we can test the benefits!

H2O, the company behind the project, announced;
This will be the largest Fibrecity project in Europe and the company will be funding and providing the network at a cost of around £30 million. The majority of the fibre will be put in the sewers using H2O Networks' patented FS (Fibre Optical Cable Underground Sewer) System. The fibre will provide ultra high bandwidth to all Bournemouth's businesses and more than 88,000 homes at speeds far exceeding current DSL or cable modem speeds, typically by tens or even hundreds of Mbps.

The bit that caught my attention was that the broadband cables will be put laid in the sewer. So for those of us that spend time worrying about the internet going down the pan - it seems we aren't far wrong!


For more info on the announcement, see: BBC technology website and Fibre City website

The giant rabbit

I was watching the Apprentice on the BBC the other night and the 'apprentices' had been given the task of selling wedding products at a weddings trade show, with the team that made the most money being the team that one and the losers.
One team was offering wedding cakes and the other wedding dresses. In an effort to attract attention one of the team members (I can't remember for certain which team it was, cakes I think? - I hope this isn't the start of 'senior moments' affecting the old grey cells) had dressed up in costume as a giant rabbit.

It was comical watching the lengths that people were taking to avoid 'the rabbit'. Needless to say, this had a negative effect on the number of visitors they received at their stand and no guesses which team lost.

In the boardroom, the giant rabbit was delivered with Sir Alan's immortal words 'You're Fired' (just to clarify, the apprentice wasn't still in costume when he was in the boardroom being fired).

It proves the point that if you are not careful, you can try just a bit too hard to generate attention and it can all backfire.
Trying to be clever with marketing if it is misunderstood or ends up scaring or intimidating your audience is not going to work. You need to give careful thought to your marketing.

Understanding what will attract an interest need not be that hard, keep things relevant to your product, informative and be approachable.
Anyone for a piece of cake?

If you want a job done quickly - ask someone who is busy!

I received a cry of help from a well respected local company a couple of weeks ago. They were being messed about by the company that had been given the job of developing the companies new website.
They had started in August 2007 and by May of 2008 the website still was not ready!

I suggested that I take a look at what progress had been made and detail what was needed to get the job done, but from first glance it was obvious that this was not the job of anyone with web development knowledge.
The guys had tried to bodge together some 'off the shelf' template design breaking every rule of website development in the process.

Fortunately, the company took my advice, severed the relationship and let us start from scratch with a bespoke website development for them. Oh, and this also included an additional bespoke website development for their sister company.
It did make sense to have both websites ready for when the company re-located to larger premises, but this put us up against the clock.
We only had two weeks to play with and two websites to build - eeek!
But hey, there's nothing like a tight deadline to get everyone springing into action and rising to the challenge and sure enough we completed both websites on time!

It's not the first time (and won't be the last) that we have had to turn a development around in a very short time.
So, if you want a job done quickly - ask someone who is busy!

Internet World - Stand back and observe!

One of the things that I found most interesting during my attendance to the 'Internet World' trade fair (29th April - 1st May 2008) was observing which seminars were most popular.
As the trade fair is primarily attended by business managers, It is prudent to stand back and observe what the business community finds interesting. If advice falls on deaf ears, no matter how good the advice is, it is ignored. It is better to preach to the converted and it is good to see that the business community are now very interested in the virtues of the internet as a method of marketing their business.

The queue's were out of the door for all of the seminars that focused on the grey art of Search Engine Optimisation and to a lesser degree on Internet Marketing - there is a blurry line over what falls into which category.

Typically it would seem that many of the businesses I talk to now associate Search Engine Optimisation as the all encompassing activity of promoting themselves on the internet. This is not technically correct. Certainly Search Engine Optimisation is an important area. But it is important to have a rounded understanding of what methods are available for marketing online, and not become blinkered on one activity at the expense of others.
Whether you choose to call it Search Engine Optimisation or internet marketing or both is up to you, but make sure that you have a strategy that stretches beyond just tweaking keywords or page content. There are many other marketing activities that should also be considered and many will provide you with more success.

It's good sometimes to stand back and observe rather than rush straight in, but if you haven't started thinking about your internet marketing strategy don't leave it too long. Your competitors have been out and about and have done their homework. If you want some help with yours, we are here to help.

another story resulting from my visit to Internet World