please walk on the grass

Ah...Charlie Brooker

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:06:00 +0000

Another great episode, precisely skewering the 24 hour news outfall in which so-called reporters collude to make us believe something has happened, and that we (or indeed anyone) cares.

[Contains strong language...and quite a lot of truth]

Customer service!

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:25:00 +0000

OK. Fair's fair. I was pretty dismissive about Woolworth's customer service. Then they went bust.
So, here's the thing. When I see good service, I really ought to blog it.
My phone (a Samsung with touch screen, that was always a bit irritating) broke. This was the second time. I emailed Vodafone and they didn't reply.
So, I emailed again and then found, to my embarrassment, that they'd sent me an acknowledgment email. Later that day I got a full reply which may have been standard, but was really well written.
I took my phone down to the Vodafone shop where I was surprised to find they employ grown-ups!
They bundled up my phone to send off for repair (they checked my account and knew it was under warranty) and when I tentatively asked about borrowing a phone...they said yes.
So that day, and the next, and the next, I got text messages on my (borrowed) phone to say that my old phone had been send off, that it was being assessed, that it was on it's way back and, finally, that it was ready to be picked up.
So, on Friday I went to pick up the phone.
Problem. It was "moisture damage" and that's not covered by the warranty.
Well, the thing is, my contract isn't up until September which means they couldn't offer me an upgrade until July. But then the staff in the shop suggested I used their (free) in-store phone to call Vodafone and see what 'head office' could do.
They couldn't do anything. But the very nice man outlined the options - I could 'buy out' the rest of my contract. And he had some good suggestions about the kind of phone that might work (Blackberry, better than an iPhone!).
He also gave me another number to call (long story this, eh?).
The chaps in the shop gave me a phone to use. Well, the upshot was that they did (after a bit of 'consulting the manager' which salesmen know well) offer to allow me to upgrade immediately.
SO on Tuesday I take delivery of a new phone. The Nokia E63 which should do everything I need.
And what's more, they're giving me more minutes, unlimited texts and saving me a few quid a month.
Oh, I had to pay for the phone. "Two nine nine" said the girl on the phone...
Silence form my end.
"That's £2.99" she said.
I'll let you know if the euphoria lasts.

Cream :: Blog

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:40:00 +0000

Cream :: Blog

Thanks to Tom for his invaluable contribution to our media course at Greenwich. And he's said nice things about the students too!

Posted using ShareThis

An appeal

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:17:00 +0000

Please click on the link to the right.
You can support me running 13+ miles in February for Demelza House Childrens Hospice.
I can't think of a reason not to.
Thanks
Phil

This might help you

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:42:00 +0000

A very quick post on something brought to my attention a day or so ago (via Twitter).
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11864
Have a look.

Oh my word...

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:04:00 +0000

I just had to include this (thanks to http://whythatsdelightful.wordpress.com/) - if you're interested in sports marketing...oh who am I kidding?

And, why not?

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:32:00 +0000

Matt O'Connor's latest venture ...
YouTube - theicecreamists's Channel
...at Selfridges.
Pure hutzpa yet slightly more attractive than gluing adverts to houseflies.

A month to recover?

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:31:00 +0000

It was a few weeks ago - but I have been busy, honest. Actually I didn't feel too bad afterwards, in fact I felt pretty good.
Thanks to all those who contributed to my modest fundraising effort as I ran 10k for Demelza.
IS that ALL? I hear you ask.
Well, it seemed a lot to me about halfway through.
But as you can see from this pic, I made it (strange hat tho')

So goodness knows why I've decided to enter the Tunbridge Wells half marathon...
...I will be asking for your support again. And I may need to wear it too.

I've been running...oh yes.

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:27:00 +0000

I never thought I would. I used to look at those people in the funny shorts with the smug look and think 'why?'
Well then I decided that paying a fortune every month for gym membership and not using it (especially over the Summer). And then we were asked to take part in the Demelza Run which this year is at Mote Park in Maidstone.
So I thought I ought to get in some practice.
A strange thing happened...I started to sort of enjoy it.
It's not absolutely necessary to be sponsored, but the thought of raising a bit of money is also an incentive. Give a couple of quid if you can by clicking on the button on the right. Thanks.

Is the Nabaztag Rabbit dead?

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:29:00 +0000

There's a rumour going around that Violet, the Company that produces the Nabaztag (Armenian for rabbit - or did I just dream that?) has filed for bankruptcy.
Does that mean the product and (somewhat dodgy) support and development will die too? There are various forums full of Nabaztag owners bemoaning the poor service (such as Nabaztalk and others)but, probably, some very delighted customer too.
If the story is true, it's a pity as the internet enabled devices market could be really exciting - the convergence of media is inevitable, but clearly the road will be rocky. We're getting used to home wifi and TV. This is/was a cute product (Violet had a couple of others) that could have done very well introducing us to the benefits of accessing real time information from the web in very different ways.
There are, incidentally, clear issues with the widespread use of RFID - which Violet were also exploring - when treated as if it is a secure technology. It isn't, so therefore its use in passports and credit cards creates problems, but the applications Violet was working on were largely free of security issues since a) they were within a domestic or office setting and b) they were, broadly, for entertainment i.e. they didn't really matter. Crucially, they were also fun.
Now, who will lead the way? If anyone has any news, let me know.
Updates ...
Here - translation of another report
and an interesting development here. Want to own the company??

For you the war is over...

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:00:00 +0000

I think I've finally done it. Click above for the soundtrack.
After building the compound, digging a trench, strategically relocating flower pots and now, building a cunningly angled inner wall...the tortoise is now contained.
She is currently sitting, sulking, in her hut either playing with a baseball or....or digging!
(By the way, she's called Gerry...honestly)

Put a few things in perspective

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:35:00 +0000

Thought I should just post this and see what happens. Probably none of it surprising, but at this time of year, when we've bee settling marks for students term papers and exams the bit about jobs that don't yet exist makes you think about the skills they're acquiring.
I'm so glad I didn't do a vocational degree!

Appeal

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:30:00 +0000

I don't often write personal things here, in fact I don't think I ever do.
But just in case you're taking a few minutes to read this, please click on the link above or on the 'Just Giving' panel below to read about Ray Hart who is raising money for a great cause.
Evie Hart was a friend of ours - the Hart family's youngest who was taken away suddenly and cruelly by cancer.
We all know someone who has had cancer and one in five of us will develop some form. Survival rates are increasing and the UK Government and Barack Obama's administration are putting a lot of money into research. But that's the future.
Right now little girls and boys are living their life in a hospice as their families try and come to terms with an illness that has no cure. Hospice in the Weald does a fantastic job supporting them in Kent and here in Greenwich.
Just give a few pounds or dollars to help them keep doing it.
Thank you.

Plagging for beginners

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:42:00 +0000

Admire my parking skills, originally uploaded by Bashed.

I've been thinking (don't groan like that please).

The banking crisis - the general downturn of everything as a result - is quite a complex demonstration of Garrett Hardin's 'Tragedy of the Commons' and his observation of the number of times organisations and people are selfish - despite the negative consequences even to themselves.

I thought the photo was quite a nice illustration of behaviour that clearly seemed perfectly logical to the driver, but at some cost to others.

In many areas of life, people engage in behaviour which has short term personal benefits, but causes other people to suffer. But Hardin's insight was with regard to unregulated commons (or common goods) which are a limited resource to which many have access.

This issue is that there can be a considerable incentive to exploit the resource to the detriment of all other users and that, ultimately, to one's own. This is a kind of prisoner's dilemma in which two prisoners will be set free if both keep quiet. However each can incriminate the other and the first one to do so increases his/her chances of release. The result is that both are likely to co-operate with the authorities.

In the commons problem Hardin had it that cattle herders using a common would tend to over-graze the land. They tended to 'commonize the costs' and 'privatize the profits' and some have argued that is exactly what has happened in the financial services industry.

Incidentally I first came across Hardin many years ago writing something for my Masters about altruistic behaviour which I was hoping would turn into a doctoral thesis. I was inspired by the retelling of this, with some elaboration, in a fascinating book called 'The Origins of Virtue' written by a guy called Matt Ridley. It's a very well-written book and I'd recommend it.

I also found a reference to PLAG - protagonist loss/antagonist gain - behaviour. The fact is that many people do act altruistically. It's possible to reduce this down to some kind of selfish exchange behaviour ("well, they get a kick out of giving to charity" or the 'feel good' reward); a utilitarian argument, but I think this over-simplifies behaviour.

At the time I was thinking about all this I established that there were enough examples of people exhibiting 'PLAG' behaviour to demand an explanation that wasn't just about selfish exchange and then I found Bourdieu...but that's another story.

Back to the financial crisis. It's fairly clear that institutions were acting as if the market could go on climbing and they could continue to profit from this without considering the 'resource' that was being exploited. This 'common' resource could be said to be the real economy or maybe it's just people (as workers and consumers) but, in any case, there was and is a limit to how far you can repackage and re-sell debt.

Even as the mortgage market collapsed like a souffle, banks continued to commonize costs - in fact the world's governments seemed conditioned to accept this - after all they are there to step in and protect the little people...aren't they? So houses and life and medical insurance are propped up by giving money to the banks.

Well, I've said before that I struggle with some economics, but surely the more efficient route would be to give the support direct to the consumer so they could spend or save (in a bank) as they needed. Writing off a lot of debt would help.

Instead governments, working within a broken banking system, are enabling a few to continue to 'privatise profits'.

Matt Ridley...mmmm...feeling you've heard that name before? Possibly.

Until October 2007 he was Chairman of Northern Rock.

He doesn't mention that on his CV.

[Having written this check out George Monbiot putting the boot in far more effectively than I]

New year, new enthusiasm

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:18:00 +0000

I know I introduced this idea some time ago, but now it's 2009 and a time for new brooms and all that, I thought I'd kick it off for real.
Here's the deal.
Last year, whilst writing Virtually Free I met, either actually or virtually, a lot of nice people who were enthusiastic about their businesses.
What I noticed (and indeed have noticed ever since I was teaching MBA students) was that these business-people didn't just care about what their strategy was or if they'd got their marketing mix right. They seemed to care as much, or maybe more, about their enjoyment of the business and the challenge or connecting with customers and collaborators, producing neat ideas and forging ahead.
So I asked myself; 'What gives these kind of entrepreneurs their sense of direction?'
A long time ago now, I read a paper by two academics - Andrew Campbell and Marcus Alexander - asking an even simpler question; 'What's wrong with strategy?'
I'm paraphrasing them (badly) when I sum up their argument as the following.
Strategy doesn't work as most textbooks say. The idea of a cascading structure of corporate objectives feeding down into strategies and tactics doesn't appear to happen.
In truth (as John Rossiter observed of marketing strategies) most people can't accurately recall what strategy they are using.
What happens (Campbell and Alexander argued) is that companies (that is, people) oscillate between gathering and using 'insight' and revisiting or revising their sense of 'purpose'.
Insight can be internal - how things can work better - and/or external - what those customers really need.
Purpose is, in a sense, far clearer; what are we in business for?
Between these two (which you will see repeated in our book Marketing & PR and in Virtually Free) many small businesses get a sense of direction, of what they could do to achieve their ambitions.
But, as I observed from some of the contacts I made last year, a successful business needs more.
After some wrestling - well, serious frowning - I came the tentative conclusion that organisations need the two other 'cardinal points' that appear above.
Truth can relate closely to insight, since a 'true' solution is one with honesty where any exchange is transparent. But it also relates to how an organisation conducts itself. Truth means having nothing to hide...and that makes all communications (with customers, suppliers and others) so much easier: essential in a web 3.0 world. Truth is also a test of how well you know your customers' needs - are you confident in the truth of your view of them?
Beauty may be more contentious. Again this links to the other cardinal points above; a truthful service solution can be beautiful as can a product that simply works. But I think we also have a responsibility to make people's lives better by what we do (I think Guy Kawasaki agrees) - it might just be about making the world a better place to be.
The links between all these points isn't, by the way, a weakness. Imagine these points all exerting force on the centre and you get the idea that a strong organisation exists in an equilibrium.
I would suggest that those who haven't really worked through these issues has a blind spot somewhere.
I'm aware this is all slightly esoteric so I'm asking all my contacts (and complete strangers) to flesh this out in the next few months. I'm starting with Linked-In and will gradually seek to infect other social networking platforms as we go - feel free to do it yourself and claim some ownership!
All we want is a ratio of 70% example to 30% discussion - do successful organisations have this 'compass'? Can we gather examples of good practice - insightful, purposeful, truthful and beautiful?
The Linked-In Group is called (surprisingly) 'Insight, Purpose, Truth & Beauty'. Let's see what we can do with it.

A Quick & Happy Christmas to both our readers

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:17:00 +0000

I quite like the idea that the YouTube generation has a short attention span. Like all sweeping generalisations it's attractive and has an element of truth. That is, it affirms your preconceptions.
But if you think about it, by the same token, so did the 'telegraph' generation, the 'christmas card' generation - why not simply write a letter?
For what it's worth - here is our Christmas card to all you out there - courtesy of the Churches Advertising Network - which ran a competition for a 30 second nativity.
According to a spokesperson on BBC radio today they got literally tens of entries...

Happy Christmas or Season's Greetings to you all (delete as applicable)

Web Wise Women presentation

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:18:00 +0000

As promised; here's the presentation which I realise makes little sense without my explanation...

...if you want me to explain, just invite me!

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:15:00 +0000

I'm pleased to have been invited to speak at the Web.Wise.Women event at the Kings Place in London. Although it's unclear how I fit the bill since I'm not wise or a woman...
Organised by the Camden Women's Forum the event focuses on social media - essentially where web 2.0 is now - but it will inevitably have to deal with what small enterprises should do in a recession.
That's where I think I come in.
I'll be trying to dispel a few myths about the web and about marketing and trying to show how SMEs can invest in marketing right now - despite the 'crunch'.
No doubt I'll post my presentation up (expect a link to slideshare) and I'll be setting up a PWOTG forum for 'Virtually Free' so that anyone who buys the book can contribute or ask questions.
If you are interested in attending just go to http://webwisewomen.eventbrite.com and register - it's free, of course.

What a night!

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:05:00 +0000

The best man won, originally uploaded by robbroccoli.

Good morning from the UK and...phew, thank goodness for that.

For a moment yesterday I wondered if it might all dissolve in the kind of disaster of the last couple of elections.

Now I'm fearful for the next few months, the weight of expectation, the capacity of Americans to do weird things. This may be just British pessimism.

Great speeches from both candidates (far more impressive than you'd get in the UK).

But most of all...wow. An educated, intelligent, globally aware US President. Well done.

You'd never know I studied economics once

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:48:00 +0000

Wall_Street crisis, originally uploaded by semarlfb.

Let’s imagine there’s a world with 1 million people (easy numbers for my poor maths).

Each person has £1000 in savings and is paid £100 per annum to work for one of 100 companies. (You could make it more realistic, but the maths, the maths!)

Ten of those companies are banks.

So…

Each company employs 10,000 people (including the bosses) and pays out £1m in wages. So has to make at least £1m a year to keep going.

It makes things that the 1 million people buy…with their £1000 savings and/or their £100 wages.

Ten companies look after all this money. £1000m in savings and £1m in current (checking) accounts. They have to take out of the system £1m to pay their staff, but of course each £100 goes into other companies – like supermarkets, car dealers etc and then ends up back in one of the ten banks.

I don’t speculate on the value of the companies – there is only so much money to go around so it’s irrelevant.

Some companies will be good at bringing in money and others will go short. The former will bank the money (or spend it) and it will still end up in a bank. Where the latter kind of company might ask to borrow it.

If they end up not being able to pay it back, they’ll go bust. But the money will still be in the system.

So, my question is this, how do they screw up?

Explanations for the hard of thinking, welcome. And feel free to elaborate on my model.

Extremely Social Marketing

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:59:00 +0000

Just got back from Brighton where the first 'World Social Marketing Conference' was held at the Metropole.
I didn't see much of the sea but the event itself was fascinating for all kinds of reasons.
First of all, I met and spoke with Philip Kotler. I have to get this fact out of the way because my colleagues are all ribbing me about this. Whatever you think of the guy I can assure you he seems nice enough - even when I started telling him about my research. He stayed awake anyway.
There's no doubt that social marketing is a large and growing sector.
It's an area Nick and I are realising (slowly I know) that we are working in more often than not.
To present marketing - in our writing, consultancy or teaching - as just commercial, profit-focused is not only undesirable, it's inaccurate.
In Marketing & PR we made sure we discussed how small businesses and nonprofits could benefit from clear marketing thinking. In the forthcoming Virtually Free we likewise apply sound marketing principles to all kinds of organisations.
In any case, very few business people rush to work simply to make money.
We know that, for many of us, money is a 'hygiene factor' [it's a kind of minimum requirement] but it's not a motivator. Of course as you take hygiene factors away you can start to 'disincentivise' work. As you build up motivators, you get more and more committed and industrious.
The World Social Marketing Conference was packed with highly motivated people, marketers, from agencies, nonprofits, universities and other, hybrid, organisations.
I came away enthused. Eager to do more with the knowledge we have at PWOTG.

--------------------------------------------------------------

PS...I can't see what all the fuss was about when Philip met Philip...

The future is coming...

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:03:00 +0000

Just a few weeks ago I was writing about this as the future. Just a little refining and it becomes awesome. Think about shop fittings, newspapers delivered wirelessly, clothing....

Discuss.

Let me tell you about this T-shirt

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Since finishing the new book I’ve been thinking about how a smaller organisation can get its act together.

A great marketing strategy isn’t just about getting all the elements of the marketing mix ‘right’. As marketers never tire of telling you – it’s more complicated, deeper than that.

But complication means problems.

For a small organisation, like an SME or a charity, execution of a marketing plan is where it all happens. Because of the limited resources to hand, the basic tasks of a marketing plan can seem overwhelming and, importantly, take valuable people away from running other vital operations.

There is, in fact, a related problem for larger companies. How do they communicate what must be done – internally and to others such as agencies – in order to allocate sufficient resources?

One reason this struck me forcibly as I finished the book, and then discussed this with Nick, was that the ‘new marketing’ demanded by the web and other converging technologies gives us even less room for manoeuvre.

Even more than ever, marketing is something you have to do now and every day. And it all has to work together, day after day.

Great small organisations know and do this. Larger organisations often struggle.

So as I wrote about online promotion and the maintenance of an online brand, I emphasised ‘consistency’ and ‘integration’.

Consistency. When everything you say and do refers to your core values.

Integration. When everything you do links to everything else you do.

Since then, Nick and I have been discussing a marketing strategy ‘mantra’ that could remind us of what the rules are. I’ll go into all this at greater length in the next few posts but for now I’ll just leave you to consider…

Insight, purpose, truth & beauty.

Religion, Lies and Videotape

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:52:00 +0000

Thanks to my brother for sending this. Have a look; it's interesting from two perspectives.

One is that the Republicans (and media) are clearly using the same formulae to try and unsettle potential Democrat voters (remember a small proportion of the electorate decide the outcome by shifting from one party to another).
It's also interesting that this video is edited in such a way that it's difficult to note anything other than that fact - the same phrases crop up - sometimes the context is obscure...who is saying what about whom.
One thing is clear, some (ignorant) people see it as their job, or their right, to spread disinformation for their own ends. Take the assertion that 'Hussein' or attending a Muslim school makes Barack Obama a Muslim... that's basically distorting the truth.
Or lying.

Another useful tool

podcast@pleasewalkonthegrass.com — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:58:00 +0000

Well, I just thought I'd tryout clipmarks.
It looks like an wasy way of picking up content from anywhere on the web and keeping is. But more importantly you can clip it and immediately post it on a blog. This is great, not just for public blogs like ours, but also for collaborative working using a private blog.
Anyway, I'll see how this turns out - I've just clipped some images and words from the clipmarks website - you should get some links as well...

clipped from clipmarks.com

Clipmarks anywhere!
You can easily syndicate your clips to FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, and more. You can also read, pop, and comment on clips from your iPhone (m.clipmarks.com), iGoogle, or Netvibes homepage.

On Clipmarks.com, you can see clips of text, images or video about all sorts of topics that other people find while surfing the web.