plugged into politics

I am sure some politicians do their research.

From the UKIP manifesto on the environment they suggest "control the environment by controlling immigration".

Simple things to get right:

Facts:

You would have thought that they had worked out that "the environment" is a world thing rather than a UK thing. If cows release methane in the UK rather than France - cows still release methane.....

Opinion:

Are the people who are Eurosceptic also Envirosceptic? Are they broadening their vote by extending their hit on Europe to the environment. It is true that there is some clear blue water between them and everyone else.

Interestingly enough the topic of UKIP is very relevant as their manifesto is riddled with the word "sceptic". They do not believe much of the research that other people have done. They have not done their own either.

For instance they believe that the UK must increase nuclear power to 50% of output in the country. A quick mention of this to someone from RWE had them in stitches.

When you vote - what are the chances that the politician you vote for a) understands what they are talking about b) has some affinity with your personal views c) actually stands a chance of being elected?

Plugging into music

What would you like to listen to today? There are (were in 2007) more than 4,300,000 hip hop and rock acts registered on MySpace alone. Major labels have a mere 4000 signed and this will have a churn of perhaps 25% every 12 months or so.


Major labels are about using broad media to "break" an artist or single track e.g. the most popular music stations, or TV. The emphasis is on BROAD. They do have their "cash cows" that continue to earn profits. EMI own the Beatles back catalogue and have issued it in vinyl, cd, and then remaster. Pink Floyd have recently taken EMI to court as they have been selling "single tracks" on iTunes and Pink Floyd want to retain their artistic integrity. EMI would argue that the 1/2 a million £'s they spend per new artist distances them from the rest of the digital "noise". 


Broad is not necessarily best. The Beatles back catalogue may have something of "best" about it, but a new artist has something more about broad. Would EMI sign a budding Pink Floyd today?


On the other hand the potential for small niche markets to flourish must be higher. If I were into Mongolian folk rock I would be able to listen to Altan Urag on Youtube and be quite content. If I went into Chippenham I am no longer aware of a CD or record store. The nearest is in Bath. I doubt whether even in a "Megastore" whether they would stock Altan Urag. You do need to know your "tag" though - otherwise who will find you? This may not be best, but it gives more choice than you need. Nick Harper related recently at a concert that he was labelled as "folk music". Clearly unhappy with this tag, and not actually knowing what else to call himself, he also commented on his stalled career.


As a market it is peculiar. It is mature, there are the big music companies that control the largest percentage of the industry. Most types of music have been tried. Since the electric guitar, the synth, and various recording methods most permutations have been tried. My daughters listen to AC/DC, Queen, Abba, Beatles, Genesis, (and Don Mclean!) asking carefully who is dead before they ask to go and see them play. The structure of the industry is going through technical changes, but the product "music" has not changed.


Digital music in itself is different. Vinyl was recorded with a fairly standard frequency range but had some playback issues. CD's were a compressed format and whilst cleaner were also a standard frequency range. MP3's are a nightmare. iPOD's are a nightmare. Unless you work it out - do you know the quality of the music you download or record from your cd? 


It does make a difference, and possibly enough of a difference to change your mind on whether you like something. Super audio CD format is tonnes better, but you wont fit many of the tracks on an iPOD, the format works well for classical music, but not for hip hop. The market seems to have chosen form over function. iPODs look good. Most docking stations also look good. Music "looks good". 


One of the issues of digital music is synchronising.  If you are not careful you will end up with lots of copies of the same thing. Evolution suggests that there will be a jukebox in your house that you can use in and out of your house that contains all your music rather than lots of different computers, cd's and mp3 players with different things on them. This may be a server, that also contains your pictures, films, and all your admin. One of my network is just installing one of these for a customer who wants his system "the same" in both his houses.


Recorded music has been valued at $15bn and the music equipment and related markets $160bn. Much of this is in the control of large businesses, but much also appears to be broken, or imperfect. This attracts new entrants into the market who want to improve or mend what they see. From artists who believe they write better songs to engineers who want to provide better quality sounds. 


This light research suggests that music must look good and sound good enough to be successful. How true is this for other markets - indeed your market? Many small businesses discuss being "best of breed", implying quality. There is an interesting parallel here.


10 artists that are "really good" but will you hear them in 2010?  Perhaps it is easy to rate them in terms of 2010 sales, perhaps its more difficult.


Robyn Hitchcock - countless albums, very credible, but no hits in nearly 30 years


Espers - psych folk - where would hear their music being played


Eluveitie - viking metal. They have had a hit in Switzerland, but limited outlets in large markets. Is singing in Gaulish (a dead language) a drawback? 


Monsters of Folk - very talented and much talked about!


M.Ward - performs with Zooey Deschanel which may help


Shearwater - explorer with an interest in rare birds


Emilie Autumn - child prodigy violin player turned goth.


Vampire Weekend - Indie afro pop 


Euro Childs - Welsh, has given his whole album away for frreeee.

Creative research

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" was originally referred to by Mark Twain. He attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli, however this is disputed. How appropriate!


Do you think "creative research" was simply a way of disguising the complete unknown or a lack of work?


If you are "looking for something" new e.g. growth markets, new products, new markets, then you are looking for a "NEW" and useful position. e.g. market position. If you indeed find this place then you have been creative whether it was trial and error or using a psychic to get you there. 


The difficulty with anything new or creative is that it is difficult to know where to start. Actually starting and getting somewhere can be "creative".  Academics that study entrepreneurs talk about "heuristics". By this they are suggesting that entrepreneurs have experiences and when they meet new situations they instinctively can process that information and make a good decision in the knowledge that they will be more right than wrong.


Plugging into your market is about deep involvement in your market place and being observant. When you have studied lots of markets you learn how to tune in and look for the significant information, to analyse, to synthesise and make decisions.  


"I would stand on the pavement outside the empty shop with a recording counter. I checked the number of people walking by. I counted the numbers in the queues at the nearby bus stop; I counted the students and teachers coming in and out of the nearby polytechnic; and became increasingly convinced that this was the site for me." Charles Forte on his first site in upper Regent Street


Quite simply this act of market research coupled with his vision for what he wanted to create gave him the confidence that he had chosen the right site and the right service.


There is nothing creative about sitting outside a shop with a counter. If you read his statement again Forte was doing more. He was being observant, analytical, he did not simply "click" to measure customer footfall.


Some hard questions:


Just how much information do you require before you make a decision and stick with it?
How comfortable are you with the results?
If you had to part with your cash to "bet" on this decision. How much can you afford to bet?
What are the cash needs to do what you are considering doing? (Including hidden costs of marketing etc)?


We find particular forms of "hell" in unsuccessful start ups. They have mostly done a plan and put in it what they want to. They have not assessed the market and what it takes to become a successful business in the market. It might be that they want to do everything themselves, rely on "buzz" marketing, yet they are prepared to start and they believe they will succeed. This leaves them under resourced and struggling to survive. 


The creative research is finding out new things that are relevant even if they are difficult for the business. So whilst it is possible to hide behind statistics, it is possible to hide behind almost anything. It is the hiding that should be called into question, not the statistics. For more information contact us.

Plugging into gender

Demographics are essential for consumer products. They are also interesting for business to business marketing. Gender is one of the more clear distinctions that you can make between people. It does affect your marketing mix decisions, and therefore a good question to ask is whether your service or product is going to a market that is dominated by women, men or is it gender neutral.

Websites collect data on who uses them. This is widely available for well used websites.

For instance Facebook is used more extensively by females than males.


Get Facebook Buttons

Youtube is gender neutral

PinkFloyd.com is white males aged 35-49. Interestingly they have a broader profile than David Bowie - who pulls in a more caucasion audience.

Pink Floyd are the first group to get a Royal Mail stamp - fantastic marketing!

In a business to business market personal sales are important. If you look back through your list of clients that you have got would you be able to type them by character or gender? My suspicion is that you would. If your company stayed the same, but you changed the sales and marketing process and either feminised it or made it more masculine, would you get different customers? Again my suspicion is that you would.

Gender in itself is not the "answer" to a particular question, but it is an influence as a part of the character sales approach that most small businesses have. What can you do?

Ceteris Paribus is the economic principle of holding everything else constant. Whilst this is quite difficult in a practical situation, it is a starting point. Try the following:

Change one or two small things on your website and notice if you get a different pattern of visitors.
Reflect on things your stock phrases, change one or two, and then look for differences in responses from people.
Change colour on marketing materials (or even how you dress) and consider whether you get a different response by taking careful note of reactions.

The above 3 things are relatively a quick fix. All of the customer facing activities have an influence on sales and gender therefore influences everything.

This idea of testing and measuring abstract things does require personal focus. For more information - contact us