The Marketing Observer

COS

I like COS as a brand, I really do.

Coolish clothes, nice materials and not too outrageous prices.

They really messed up on the email front yesterday though.

I was due to attend an invite only mens clothing evening with 20% off last night but couldn't make it.

Glad I didn't as at about the time I should have been attending that evening event I received an email saying the mid-season sale was starting today (the following day) with discounts of 30-50%. How annoying would that have been?!!!!

Internet Retailing event

I attended this event yesterday.

Surprised by the non-appearance by certain ecommerce platform providers.

For example where was Venda?

I saw guys from Portaltech, CSI, E-in-B, Snow Valley to name but a few but no sign of the "market leaders".

Are they too busy?

email anomalies

I recieved yesterday an email that was a tad demeaning.

It came from BA - who have a patchy record of emailing me in the past.  Previous highlights have included offers that couldn't be linked through to (when I actually wanted to take up the offer) and the need to complain in writing about email issues.  Yes that one was true and they only guarantee a response in 28 days.

And it isn't as if I am an unknown person to them. I ahve been an exec card member of the most basic kind for many years. And so this brings me back to yesterday's email.

The title of the email was:
"Mr Sample, boost your BA Miles with British Airways and Avis".

Put simply, they forgot my name!

Since my colleague got an identical email a little earlier in the day it clearly wasn't that they got my name wrong - someone didn't spot that the data merge had gone wrong.
BA obviously are not the only organisation with email issues.

With this in mind I suggest you read this article by Evan Schulman which sums up a lack of attention to detail with some emailers or possibly a lack of testing in the budget. - This is one of the classics:

"The ROI That You Can’t Afford”.

A click revealed what they had intended to say

“The ROI That You Can’t Afford To Miss"

Another example of a failed attempt at integrated CRM

I thought Orange were starting to get better! (They used to be reknowned for their customer service, back in the "the future's bright, the future's orange" days).

Had an univited SMS text from them this morning - the second in 2 days mind - saying they had reviewed my usage and that I should go to the website to look at the best plan for me.

With a nice simple URL included it all seemed simple so I duly entered the address into my browser address bar, logged in with no problems. And then I was presented with:

Unfortunately we are currently experiencing a technical problem. Orange is aware of the problem and is working to resolve it.Please try again later.

You can imagine how I felt. I've just tried it again a few hours later and the situation hasn't changed...

Grrrgh - Hurry up 3G iPhone - I cannot wait to move!

Why does Gap (not) do it?

Gap has a good brand in Europe and Banana Republic now has a flagship store on Regent's Street in London (about 5 doors up from a big Gap). I haven't picked up the vibe on BR to see if people rate it or not yet. I was underwhelmed as it seemed like a poor Gant clone.

However, the real reason for this blog is that neither brand has a website worth speaking of. That is unbelievable given the advanced state of the ecommerce offerings from both brands in the US. What are they thinking?

Interesting article about this here from Internet Retailing

Everybody admires the way Abercrombie launched in the UK, so why haven't Banana Republic followed suit?

ISP data pimping

I am not generally in favour of conspiracy theories.

But I have been following the recent saga of Phorm with great concern. Basically Phorm is looking to take the major ISPs user data and as a result produce targetted advertising.

Horrible data privacy concerns arise from this and it is very worrying to see how far BT, Carphone Warehouse & Virgin have gone with this so far.

I won't repeat all the information here but try these links in the register...

ISP data deal with former 'spyware' boss

Phorm is adware

BT lies

Please make sure you add your name to the growing numbers of people who have signed the Downing Street petition about Phorm
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm/

Beware the Phorm

Great article in the Register today.

Whilst it is a bit of a diatribe on the evils of Phorm and Big Brother, there is a very real and very worrying bucketload of truth in here too.

See the article here

Don't get sold out to Phorm. When Virgin Media ask me/ tell me about this I will move to someone like zen methinks...

Orange DM destroys customer value

Today received a  DM piece from Orange.
I am an orange customer and am beginning to regret it all over again. I so nearly didn't renew with them last time, but succumb I did, due to inertia  and a critical need for a new phone.

So, back to the DM piece. As I am opted out they are only allowed to send me service messages. The leaflet talks about Orange bestplan. This dounds like a great idea as they will automatically update your plan to ensure you are on the best one for your profile of usage. Hey, they only do it every 6 months and you have to register on their website.

So far, so good. Imagine what happens when I go to the Orange Bestplan part of the website?
I have to login - which is OK as the brochure said I would need to. Once this is done I cannot find any reference to bestplan!  Eventually I find a reference saying that the service isn't available yet.

So why did Orange kickstart demand by sending out a direct mail leaflet for a service that hasn't kicked off yet?

I can only imagine, and so can you!

Revised CV

Just noticed that my old Curriculum Vitae is still on the blog - it's now over 2 years old and has therefore missed an important part of my recent life.

So here it is:

Download MPCV_may07.doc (49.0K)

A rant about English in advertising

I was prompted by a conversation in our office today to put fingers to keyboard.

There are several inaccuracies in current marketing speak being used today.

The two which particularly frustrate me are:
Better than half price - better for whom? The retailer or me?
The example that immediately springs to mind is the Holland & Barrett Better Than Half Price Sale.

And the real classic:
More than 10x savings - I mean what absolute rubbish is this? Ten times what?
Does this actually mean 90% off - maybe I'm atypical but this is rather more appealing to me.

I feel more like Lynne Truss every day!

Does anybody out there have any strong views?