Yesterday I hosted a visit for thirty students from the School of Communication Arts. I have to admit I had not heard of the school before, but have been very impressed by Marc Lewis their enthusiastic Dean.
I was initially a bit intimidated by presenting to such a young and dynamic audience, but they gave me an easy ride, and seemed genuinely interested in what the Library and the Business & IP Centre had to offer.
The school have created a great Prezi slide show to explain how they are different.
And here is an introduction from their prospectus:
Have you noticed that the best ideas are usually so simple that it is hard to believe that it took so long for someone to conceive of the idea in the first place?
School of Communication Arts is unique for so many reasons. Here are three things that make it such a unique place for you to launch your career;
A student to teacher ratio of 1:6 (that’s six teachers to every student!!). Every teacher is a top creative practitioner. Which means that our students develop a powerful network of valuable contacts whilst developing their abilities.
An entirely new vocation (Ideapreneur). This has captured the imagination of the advertising and venture capital industries. So much so, that some of our Ideapreneur students will receive £10,000 of funding for their start-ups whilst at the school.
An accredited curriculum written by practitioners using wiki tools. This simple idea enables us to teach the most up-to-date knowledge, which is essential in such a fastchanging world.
There are plenty more ways in which The School of Communication Arts is considered to be the leading school for advertising, some of which you will find in this prospectus. But the thing that sets us apart, more than anything else, is our cohort.
I wish you good luck in winning a place at the school. If you are successful, you are on a fasttrack to a very rewarding creative career. All the best, Marc Lewis
The most important activity for any start-up (or existing business come to that) is research. If you don’t understand your customers, your market, or your products properly, you will make mistakes. And these could cost your business.
With this in mind, it looks like Guandong Enterprises ltd failed to do their research when producing a piece of memorabilia to celebrate our forthcoming royal nuptials. Although the names are correct on the ‘Royal mug’, the image is of red-haired Harry, instead of his older brother, less colourful brother Will.
Ironically although this mug is not likely to be a best seller, its value is going to go sky-high due to the mistake.
Despite having probably the largest collection of freely available market research reports in the UK, we always emphasise the importance of field research.
So I was fascinated to read the story of Tom Mercer, the founder of MOMA foods in yesterday’s Evening Standard.
To test his idea, Mercer spent a night in the kitchen of his Waterloo home pouring his fruit, yoghurt and oats concoction into Tesco water bottles, on which he had Pritt Sticked his own labels. After a long night that killed off several blenders, he set up a trestle table in Waterloo and handed out his shakes to commuters for free, in exchange for their email addresses.
Later that day, he sent out surveys asking for feedback. “The positive responses gave me the impetus to quit my job,” Mercer says. That decision led to four months experimenting with recipes, and biking around London train stations looking at sites. “I would stand there for hours, counting the number of people who walked by and the proportion who stopped in coffee shops. On one occasion I was chucked out by police for loitering.”
Mercer worked out that he needed a footfall of about 10,000 people between 6.30 and 10am to make the business viable. Eventually he secured a first site – at Waterloo station – and spent £10,000 of savings on a van, stall and cooking premises under a Deptford railway arch.
Last night I attended a packed Insider Trends’ talk at the Business & IP Centre. Last time the topic was How to become a cutting-edge retailer, but this time Cate Trotter the founder and Head of Trends was talking about the rise and neglecting of the over 50’s market.
As a newly minted 50+ myself (well last September anyway), I was doubly interested in what Kate had to say, and was pleasantly surprised to hear that by 2020 the over 50’s will form the majority of Britain’s population. So that makes me part of the only growth market in the UK.
Once again Kate provided an excellent talk, and left the audience pumped full of relevant statistics and marketing angles.
Here are my notes from the evening:
Untapped markets: The grey pound – Monday 24 January
Profile Marketing Opportunities
– The population in the UK is getting older, already more +60s than -16s
– People are living longer
– Family sizes are shrinking
– Number of 90 year olds expected to double in 25 years
– 78% of income retained post retirement, but loss in commuting and mortgage costs increase available money
– +65’s spending £100 billion a year Recession
– Older customers are better prepared for economic decline than younger
– Many are working part-time to bring in an income Segmentation
– Important part of understanding your customers
– Need to add more age categories. 50-65 and 65+ are not enough
– Need to be aware of not pigeon-hole by age – much more diverse than the younger categories, due to widely varying life experiences
– So use lifestyle segmentation instead
Live Wires – active and working, many interests, technology aware, spend on holidays
Happy and fulfilled – active, but more traditional, financially well off, lots of holidays, spend on quality traditional brands
Super troopers – often have lost a spouse, don’t like advertising and new technology
Living day to day – spends rather than saves, more interested in material wealth than time, tend to choose premium brands
Unfulfilled dreamers – hard working, dreams of un-achieved ambitions,
Rat race junkies – could retire, but not yet, into technology, more than one marriage
– Need to be aware of sets of baby-boomers coming through
Flower-children are now approaching their mid 60s
So interested in green such as Prius cars and green funerals
Believe that old age starts at 72, not 65
More old travellers going further afield and more adventurous
The SKIers – Spending Kids Inheritance
Adapting your business
– Attitudes, physical (eyesight) and cognitive (memory) impairments
– Over 50’s buy 80% of top of the range cars (BBC news report)
– But many have enough mainstream products (washing machine, microwave, TV). However, they might upgrade at point of retirement with help of lump sum
– From products to services – or service related products (e.g. sport) less equipment for the home
– Travel
Generally continues until late 70’s and early 80’s
GrandTravellers – grandparents and their grandchildren on holiday together – something relatively new and growing
Travel gripes – single supplements, insurance costs, active sports insurance
– Clothes
Comfortable and cool clothes lacking in the market place
A younger style, but to fit an older shape
Children’s toys and clothes as presents
– The Home
Home improvement rather than new products
B&Q
Employing independent traders + reputable traders marketed towards an older customer
Ergonomic tools (SandBug from B&Q)
Packaging older people can open – %80 are not – Primelife President
Smaller packs and designs – one person teapots (Debenhams small wok a bestseller)
– Home health care
Philips Defibrillator – talks you through
Retrofit-friendly homes you can grow old in – e.g. doors wide enough for a wheelchair, room for safety handles – Joseph Rowntree Foundation – www.lifetimehomes.co.uk
– Fitness
Pensioners are fastest growing group of gym members
Scope for specialist centres
Zumba – very popular with older dancers
Design
– Product and service design, also websites and fixtures and fittings
– A lack of interest in older consumers from mainstream companies
– Specialist
Simplicity computers – replaces Microsoft Windows with 6 buttons – option to pay by cheque in the post
Tesco online shopping has an access setting
Photostroller – purpose built controller to access Flickr content
PostEgram – a Facebook app for printing out content
Presto – an Internet printer with a remote control system for the sender – customer doesn’t need a computer
Kaiser’s in Austria – e.g. easy to reach stock, reduced glare lighting, slip-proof flooring, pleasant places to sit, reading glasses to borrow, all employers over 50 – sales 50% above forecast
Odeon Senior Screen – with different snacks – coffee and cake instead of fiz and popcorn
Danger of alienating older customers who still feel young – if they can reject it, they often do – don’t want to be associated with ‘that group of people’ – they expect products and service to cost more
– Inclusive
Kindle – allows you change size of text and have text to speech
Nintedo Wii is becoming more popular in care homes – active game playing
ClearRX by Target in the US – simplifies medication for entire families
Ferrari Enzo – with wider doors and lower floor o Harley-Davidson – trikes for the older market – still cool design
Mobilistrictor – a suit to age the wearer by 40 years – useful to test our store design etc
– used by Ford when developing the Focus – e.g. boot has no lip, dash doesn’t reflect light – became Ford’s best selling car
– used by Derby City General Hospital building design
– General Motors used older engineers – key card and push button start
Richard Hammond trying out the Mobilistrictor
Legibility of writing
– Larger fonts
– Bolder colours
– Clearer typfaces eg Tireseais typeface
– Use of icons and symbols
Interface design – e.g. Apple iPhone and iPad, Facebook (103 year old woman who uses an iPad to interact)
– Additional advantage of extended appeal to disabled, parents of young children, those heavily laden – e.g. small trolley in supermarket
– Involve audience in your designs
Marketing
– Only 1 in 5 sticks to brands they now – happy to try new products and service, but as late adopters
– Only 1 in 3 own a mobile phone
– Less influenced by mass media as advertising does not reflect their interests, have become cynical, but not being wired, are more open to national and local marketing
– More time to shop around – and more time to think if they really need it, so more critical, and more time to write reviews. Can become experts in new products
– More time to tell their friends about products and services – word of mouth becomes even more important
– Need to use younger (not too young) faces in images – or take out faces – e.g iPad just shows hands, so appeals to all ages
– Retail and experiential – e.g. Harley Davidson stores – older are less likely to buy online
– Only 1 in 4 over 65’s have used the internet, but this is growing very fast
– Over 50’s represent 25% of online population, but those that are spend longer online
– Silversurfersday – increase confidence
– Raceonline2012 led by Martha Lane Fox from LastMinute.com – can buy a £99 computer, with a cheap wireless dongle from 3
– Better designed websites – e.g. Jitterbug from Samsung aimed at older customers, who can call to order as well as online
– Email marketing more effective with older customers – e.g. eldergym newsletter
– Free magazines – e.g. Staysure magazine for the over 50’s – based on airline magazine model
– Segmented approaches – e.g. Ninento DS using Girls Aloud and Julie Walters in different ads for the same product
– Car adverts tailored to age group. E.g. the young are interested in loans, the older are not
– Appealing to the adult child
– Look for older people in marketing agencies, if you can find them.
– Be aware of emotional issues associated to buying older products such as walking sticks or elasticized trousers
Conclusion
– They represent the only growing market in the UK
– They have time and money to spend
– There is currently very little competition
– Be aware that they are difficult to profile – very varied with more variety in the future
Approach requires
– empathy
– must not be patronising
As someone who spends much of his time helping entrepreneurs develop their business plans, Lawrence has seen many hundreds.
Top ten business plan mistakes
Typos and spellings – it sounds small, but it is a killer. Nowadays there is just no excuse. My own spelling is atrocious, but I use a spell checker all the time. Use a spell checker, proof-read your work, or get a friend to proof-read it. Sloppiness in producing the plan will indicate sloppiness in your business.
Poor structure – again no excuse. There are templates and examples around, we ourselves run business plan workshops and there’s software that will structure it for you.
Executive Summary – people get confused as to what that is. It’s simply a short, punchy, straight-to-the-point summary of all else in the plan. About 2 pages, that is interesting enough and factual enough to almost stand-alone. After reading it, you should want to reach for the phone to contact the author, or at least feel you want to read more in the main plan. Although at the front, it’s the last section to be done.
No contact details on the cover page. Someone reading the plan shouldn’t have to hunt through it for contact details – put them clearly on the cover.
Over hyped – expressions such as “fantastic”, “unique”, “incredible” are meaningless and over-hyping your product or service shows naivety. This is closely coupled to the next point…
Lack of evidence – if you state a market figure, or statistic, try and show where it came from. It gains credibility. Do real market research; don’t just ask friends and family (they don’t count).
No effort made to sell the product/service – the proof of the concept comes when you get sales. There are many, many, good ideas around, but not all of them are commercial. Will customers actually give you their cash for your product? Get out there and make some sales, show it will be bought.
Not using Appendix’s – cluttering up the plan with pages of market statistics is not conducive to having it read. No one will struggle through a badly organised plan, just mention the facts and refer to the full information in the relevant appendix.
No detail to the sales and marketing plan – it’s as though you think that the product/service will sell itself – it won’t. This is often the worse part of the plans we see.
Unbelievable and incomplete financials – We’ve all seen the “hockey-stick” projections, where in the first year the revenues are minimal, but then by golly they shoot up at an incredible rate. Having unrealistic numbers, or incomplete numbers, or contradicting numbers are all plan killers.
Thanks to SpringWise, here is the perfect answer for those of you who aren’t quite sick of shopping just yet. I have to admit I am enjoying the temporary calm between Christmas shopping and the New Year sales.
The product comparison sites such as Reevoo offer millions of reviews on thousands of products, but this is often overwhelming if you just want to know what the best product is in a particular price bracket.
Just buy this one sidesteps this information overload by taking the cumulative ratings of reviews, to offer a single recommendation for each product category.
Nine categories are featured, including laptops, TVs, toasters and vacuum cleaners, with multiple price points available for each. The site simply offers an image of the best rated product alongside a brief list of features and the best price available — with a link to buy. If they want more information, customers can click through to Reevoo at any point to see the full range of products and reviews.
Last week I attending an absolutely fascinating workshop on future trends in retailing.
Cate Trotter the founder and Head of Trends at Insider Trends was the speaker, and had an impressive knowledge of the key issues affecting on-line and off-line retail business.
Here are my notes from the information packed two hour session:
What are the main trends that will affect retailers over next two to five years?
Why?
Trends are like ocean tides an cannot be controlled, but if you recognise them you can ride them to success.
Who?
There is now a more sophisticated and more connected customer base than ever before.
Segmentation for individuals – more tailored products and stores
Examples:
* Alton Towers’ Sleepover Suite (sponsored by Superdrug) for teenage girls
* Blends for Friends – an online tailored tea store – unique flavours and labels
* Elemis Skinlab – technology to assess skin leading to tailored products
Co-creation such as product modification.
Examples:
* Nokia phone covers – an early example
* Nike iD range of shoes (choose from 60 shoes and select design of each element) – not a new service, but sales up 20% in last year
* Zazzle – uploaded designs printed on thousands of different products – recent sales surge
* Chocri.co.uk and Chocomize.com
Concept development and product development
Examples:
* BMW – asking for ideas for new cars with online voting for favourites
* Denham – store designed around what the customer wants
Use SurveyMonkey – to find out what your customers want, or how about a coffee morning discussion. Much more than just a focus group asking for opinions.
Changing family structure leads to convenience trend
– more singles than married in the UK by 2020
– more single person households in the UK – impacts how people shop – from weekly shop to convenience shopping. Growth from 19bn 2000 to 41bn 2015
– Asda have bough Netto
– Easier payment – Visa PayWave system
– Debenhams – mini-wok is most popular item
– Dinner for one packages
– Waitrose – small stores with fresh food, warm bread, deli
– Reprise of the milkman – milkandmore.co.uk – findmeamilkman.net
What?
Two types of retail – Online vs Offline
Online
– strong advantages
– price and value
– convenience – to your door
Offline
– needs to compete with online success by expanding on…
– experience
– relationships
Don’t get caught in the middle – if you are on the high street, don’t try and compete on price or you will fail
Online Retail
– Moving onto portable devices and digital television
– Growing at 20% a year – more people online – more confidence shopping online
– Brand loyalty reducing online – one click away from a competitor + price comparison engines
– Small business shouldn’t not be drawn into price competition – e.g. with Amazon
– Make shopping easier for your customers – one click shopping – PayPal – clickandbuy.com and buxter.com (for Facebook shopping).
– Move to ‘right first time’ e.g. Levis curve fit
– Problem of home delivery – 10% of deliveries fail first time
– Example of collectplus.com can deliver to home or to a local store (later hours than local Post Office). Makes returns easy with label and convenience store, with post paid if wanted.
The more unique your business the more loyalty you will get from your customers.
Examples:
– Trunkclub.com online personal shopper who makes a commission on clothes bought.
– Plan B Salon – Skype interviewing
– Tissot.ch/reality – create a paper watch which generates facsimile of their designs.
Tissot.ch/reality
– Neuvomonde.com – watches on your wrist
– Supermarketsarah.com – Portobello Road market in her house – a new photo each week. Also collaborates with designers
Growth of mobile retailing
– Expected to double in next four years, but is still a tiny fraction of sales
– Will use phones to find out about products so website must include phone capability
– Phone apps will grow, but might be out of the reach of small business.
Offline Retail
Examples:
– Abercrombie and Fitch – more of an experience than shopping – all five sense are covered – loud music – A&F scents –
– The Brand Showroom – e.g. Disney Stores – putting the experience before the product
– J Crew (share of life retailing) – a range of products for a particular segment of the market / customer
– Monocle Stores – London, New York, Tokyo, Zurich – sell their magazine plus accessories for readers of the mag
– Mellow Johnny’s in Texas – bicycles, café and related
– Lomography Gallery, London – retail and support services
Lomography Gallery London
Competition now comes from other experiences instead of other retailers
e.g. kids, shopping, theme parks
ROBO shopping – Research Offline – Buy Online
Maximise sales by
– selling closer to the time of need – rollasole.co.uk
– selling closer to time of consumption
– exclusives
– charge for stocking goods – ladenshowroom.co.uk in the East End
– own label products – e.g. Apple – use stores to promote products – don’t mind if customers buy online
– Own label – houseoffrasser.co.uk – Dyson have tried a pop-up store
Where?
13% of stores are now empty – lower rate in the South East
Increasing demand for accessible / high street stores
People losing trust in big name brands – moving to local stores and farmer’s markets
Authenticity and localness – you don’t want to be located in a mall
Choose you neighbours carefully – think about pairing up with a like minded business.
Example of A Gold (UK produce) and Verde’s (European produce) in Brushfield street in Spitalfields.
Attention spans on the web are shortening over time.
Store payback time 5-7 years on average
Example wesc.com – using trolleys to keep store fresh
Amorepacific.com use projected displays in store – others use LCD displays
Liberty change signage fonts and colours
Could use posters
Fast moving stock – Zara has 11,000 new products a year
Temporary retail spaces – pop-up-stores – now hitting the mainstream
Toys R Us open up 200 pop-up-stores for seasonal sales
The Secret Restaurant and now The Secret Market (food fair) – marmitelover.blogspot.com
Retail trucks – Adidas pop-up truck – can use Twitter to announce where you are
New mobile app and widget to take credit card payments – squareup.com – 3% charge
How? (including marketing)
Less brand loyalty than in the past
Customers more inclined to listen to each other than conventional advertising
Haulvideos.net – people buy goods and post comments online – leads to discussion
High satisfaction leads to word of mouth and social media
So concentrate on quality delivery rather than low price
Happy customer vs unhappy customer – £600 vs -£400 – Research by a mobile phone company
Nudging customers to promote your products or services
Example:
Shopkick.com - customers get points for registering in store
Foursquare.com and gowalla.com – social media element
– Be interesting – sketch.uk.com
– Tell stories – your customer might want to share – hubbards.co.nz newsletter in every pack
– Educate customers – Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle – sealed chambers
Apple store free workshops
– Make business more interactive – made.com – furniture designed by members of the public with votes to decide
– 4food.com in New York, customers design their own burgers online and save recipe, with 25cents for each one sold
– Swipely.com – records purchases and shares online
– Uniqlo’s Lucky Line for every 26th customer who joined the line – massive social media coverage
Conclusion
Growth rates predicted for next 18 months
Offline 1% – existing £263bn
Online 39% – existing £11bn
The future is customer centric so think P2P Retail – human interactions
– Be human!
– Celebrate your smallness
– Who is your service going to be tailored to?
– What do they like?
– How will you adapt to them?
– How will they change and how will you move with them.
– Be authentic – with innovations which will benefit your customers – connect with your local community
– Be conversational – put the relationship before the sale
– Finding out what your customers think and how to trigger them to promote you.
Having worked in the City of London for many years, I was somewhat surprised to discover that financial institutions are now giving away their highly valued stockbrokers reports.
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Needless to say they aren’t giving everything out, but through the The London Accord, you can get access to nearly 100 reports on a range of green and ethical related topics.
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Welcome to the London Accord
The London Accord presents a compendium of reports, written by a range of financial services firms, providing insight into issues ranging from renewable energy to the price of carbon.
The financial services industry produces pertinent and valuable research which could, and should, be used by policy makers and NGOs who are shaping society’s response to long-term issues such as climate change and global pandemics. However, much of this research only sees the desks of a select few and all too soon disappears into the filing systems and cupboards of the commercial sector.
The London Accord allows access to this research free of charge – offering policy makers an insight which they may not otherwise access and giving the financial services industry a way of engaging with society on long-term issues. The London Accord is simple, get more recognition and value from research by sharing what you are about to archive.
Although we have free access to lots of expensive market research relating to digital entertainment here in the Business & IP Centre, it seems some generous folk just want to give it away.
Each year the kind people at Wiggin LLP law firm commission a report (pdf) from Entertainment Media Researchand then make it available for free on their website. They survey 1,592 UK respondents, representative of the national demographic in May 2010.
Coming at 116 pages long, it contains some fascinating information. My favourite is how people would spend £1,500 on shiny new technology.
Introduction, methodology & sample profile
Headline findings
Detailed findings
Entertainment and digital activity audit
Future trends
Technology and device ownership
Cloud services
Platforms for watching movies / TV programmes
Willingness to pay for content
Social networks
Music sites & software
e-Books
Magazines
Mobile gaming & apps
Piracy
I am always looking for an excuse to include motorbikes in this blog, and today thanks to a colleague I get an opportunity.
We have one published report by Mintel, but it dates back to 1999 when the UK bike market was booming. However, the Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCIA) publish free monthly sales figures, and as you can see from the table and chart below, the situation has changed significantly since 1999.
However it’s not all doom and gloom as the number of bikes on the road has increased (perhaps due to restored and revived classics such as my KR1-S ‘green meanie’).
UK POWERED TWO WHEELER MARKET BACKGROUND INFORMATION
NO. OF MOTORCYCLES IN USE (2006 : DEPT FOR TANSPORT)
1.6 million
MOTORCYCLES RIDER TEST PASSES (2006 : DEPT FOR TANSPORT)
51 thousand
TOTAL DISTANCE (KM) TRAVELLED BY MOTORCYCLE (2007 : DEPT FOR TANSPORT)
5.6 billion km (3.5 billion miles)
Finally, in order to help reverse the decline in biking, the MCIA have created a Get On website, where you can find out where to have a free try-out on a motorbike.
In case you were wondering what is meant by ‘Naked’, a helpful glossary is provided at the end of each report, enabling you to bluff your way through, the next time you find yourself talking to a biker.
Adventure (including Supermoto) – These bikes are similar in style to enduro motorcycles but are predominantly designed and capable for on-road use. Often they will have features similar to
machines included in the Touring category e.g. fairings, luggage carrying capacity etc.
Custom – These machines include ‘cruisers’ and ‘choppers’. They have flat but typically feature high handlebars, low seat height and forward footrests. Body panels
and fittings contain high polished chrome content.
Moped – In law, a motorised two-wheeled vehicle with an engine capacity of less than 50cc and a maximum speed capability of 30mph, riders must be aged 16 years
or over. Mopeds are available in Motorcycle and Scooter styles.
Motorcycle – In law, a motorised two-wheeled vehicle that is not a moped, riders must be aged 17 years or over.
Powered Two Wheelers – All types of two-wheeled motor vehicle, including Mopeds, Motorcycles and Scooters.
Sport/Touring – Machines that fit between Supersport and Touring bikes categories. Typical features include full or partial fairings and practical rider and pillion seating with
low to medium ride handlebars. Tend to have medium to large capacity engines.
Supersport – These machines are designed to mimic or directly replicate racing bikes. They normally have full fairings and low handlebars and are sometimes referred to
as race replicas.
Scooters – Have an engine, as an integral part of the rear suspension or the chassis is a step-through type, irrespective of cc or wheel size. Includes all types of
transmission.
Touring – Bikes generally have large engines and are designed for long-distance riding. Typical features include a more comfortable seating position for rider and
pillion, luggage carrying capability and weather protection, such as fairings with a fixed or adjustable windscreen.
Naked – Machines are built to a basic specification with no fairing (or only a small handlebar fairing) and an upright riding position. Engines are large to medium and
often called retro.
Trail/Enduro- These bikes encompass trials, enduro and trail bikes with an off-road or cross-country capability.
Produced : 10-May-2010 00:38:37
Copyright 2009 – Motor Cycle Industry Association Limited
Yesterday I hosted a visit for thirty students from the School of Communication Arts. I have to admit I had not heard of the school before, but have been very impressed by Marc Lewis their enthusiastic Dean.
