We have just found out that our joint submission with VisitScotland ‘In Search of Real People’ has been short-listed in the Consumer Insight category for these major awards.  A lot of work goes into writing the submission paper, but in this case, nowhere near as much as went into the project itself! 

Many months of quantitative research and data analysis gave us the foundation to build a robust, new segmentation model covering the UK tourism market, but also looking specifically at the strength of the consumer’s relationship with Scotland.  This was followed by a few more months of qualitative research and insight development in order to convince ourselves - and the wider organisation - that this was more than a piece of marketing theory.  We proved that we had found a way of accurately categorising and genuinely describing real people. 

As a result, VisitScotland has radically changed its overall marketing approach and even reorganised the marketing department.  The new segmentation has provided very valuable management and planning information, has hugely increased VisitScotland’s understanding of different types of consumers, and is now being shared with tourism organisations throughout the country. It is definitely one of the most challenging and far-reaching pieces of work I have been involved in in my career, so it is fantastic to see it paying off.

If you would like to know more about the case study, then please email me from this site.

At fraoch marketing we focus on helping organisations to understand their customers better and to build stronger relationships with them.  With increasingly sophisticated and cost-efficient techniques for personalisation, both online and offline, there are more opportunities than ever to do this well.  But to personalise you need to know something about the individual you are talking to - who they are, where they are and what they are interested in, for example. 

The above must sound really obvious to anyone in marketing.  So why is it becoming more and more common that organisations only ask for email address at point of data-capture?  It tells you so little - if they are called ‘Chris’ you don’t even know if they are male or female! Transparency builds trust, so asking a few more key questions at this point will get the relationship off to a good start for both parties.  The individual will know what information they have provided, in the expectation that the organisation will then send them timely and relevant communications in future.  The organisation benefits because it has data to help it to understand its customers better, and information around which to build future marketing communications programmes.

OK, some individuals may choose not to provide the additional information, or may duck out of the process altogether.  But I bet you that they are the ones who are more interested in the sign-up incentive and less interested in the organisation’s products or services!

Alongside running fraoch marketing, I am also a director of Scottish specialist tour operator, McKinlay Kidd (www.seescotlanddifferently.co.uk). The business has been going for just four years, and has gone from strength to strength due to a lot of hard work by Robert Kidd and the team.

Earlier in the year we decided that we had enough of a track record to enter the PR Excellence category of the Scottish Thistle Awards, generally recognised as the oscars of the tourism industry here. We heard a few weeks ago that the company had been short-listed - reason enough to book a table at the awards dinner, inviting along staff and business partners who had contributed to the company’s success. 

Imagine our total suprise - even disbelief - when McKinlay Kidd was read out by host Alistair McGowan as a winner on the night.  Needless to say, the champagne flowed… 

Fraoch recently pitched for the DM planning and strategy contract with VisitScotland, and has now been appointed for the next three years.  This is, of course, fantastic news, and we look forward to continuing to make a real difference to the way VisitScotland markets the wonders of this stunningly beautiful country to the UK and Ireland target audience. 

This takes me personally into a fifth year of working with VisitScotland, and I still find it every bit as exciting, challenging and demanding as at the outset.

Few brands are lucky enough to be able to out-spend their competitors.  Even Chelsea have worked out it’s not an infallible strategy.  Our philosophy at fraoch is that quality of thinking makes the difference.  If you have a large database of customers, interrogate it, manipulate it, learn from it, segment it, keep it fresh, and, above all, use it. 

We all know the theory that those who have just purchased a brand are warmest to the brand at that point, and most likely to make a second purchase or to recommend. Yet how many database strategies seek to maximise this? 

Digital printing and personalisation  - let alone e-mail contact - make it so much more possible to respond quickly to a customer transaction.  The technology is there - we’re the ones who need to play catch up!  A communications strategy directly stemming from an individual customer’s recent behaviour is much more likely to hit the right notes in terms of personalisation and relevance with the recipient of our message too- making it all the more likely that they will respond.

We have a great client list at fraoch and are always keen to uncover new opportunities, whether that’s more work with existing clients, or completely new relationships.  One of the key learning curves for me personally in this first year has been balancing future business with the resource available, when at the moment that resource is essentially just me. 

I’ve been lucky enough to receive quite a lot of business so far from people I know and from referrals. I’ve not needed to do a lot of proactive business development work, though I always like to keep the profile of fraoch high in the marketplace.

But I’ve just stumbled across a fantastic business development approach, and I’m prepared to share the secret.  It’s simple and even something you’ll enjoy doing: go away on holiday to some far flung destination like Africa for two weeks! I’ve analysed it and it seems to work in three ways:

1.  Tie up loose ends. Knowing you’re going to be out of contact for two weeks focuses the mind to firm up any possible client business before the holiday and agree a suitable schedule, making sure there’s lots of business on the books when you come back; 

2.  Sort out the important things. Going away makes you realise that you need a back-up contact point, so you have the conversations you’ve been thinking about sooner rather than later;

3. The phone keeps ringing - in the past few weeks I’ve had more requests for meetings and input than ever before.  Somehow everyone seems to sense I’m about to go away…

So if business ever looks quiet in the future, I’ll be off to book another exotic holiday.

So much of my focus as a planner is at the start of the communications process: is the consumer insight right?  Is the brief right?  Is the concept right?  Is the targeting right? How will we know if it is successful?  But the actual execution of the piece - especially a personalised mailing - can make all the difference. 

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve received two mailings using a very similar creative idea.  The first a Dine Around offer from Amex - every time I use my card to pay for a meal in selected restaurants I will be entered into a prize draw to win a holiday.  A good offer, but the execution let it down: a long, large envelope contained a much smaller folded piece, which it took me a moment to realise was supposed to be a napkin.  It was just a folded piece of card at first glance. 

Around about the same time I received a mailing from The Marketing Society about the annual Scottish dinner.  This was a standard size envelope, but contained a real paper napkin, overprinted with a call to action to book.  Excellent production values - putting the Amex piece to shame. And I wonder if it was that much more expensive to produce?  

We’re in the midst of moving to Glasgow at the moment - moving house, moving the fraoch office and moving the McKinlay Kidd office.  Yes, it’s a stressful time, but also exciting.  We first got the keys to our Glasgow flat on 31 March, and although we move properly at the end of this week, we’ve already spent a couple of nights there in a very minimalist environment - futon to sleep on, bar stools to sit on and table football to keep us amused! 

The flat - and base for the fraoch office for the foreseeable future - is in Cowcaddens, just to the North of Glasgow City Centre, three to four minutes’ walk from Sauchiehall Street - a world away from the peace and quiet of an Edinburgh suburb.  In the vicinity we have a police station, ambulance station and Strathclyde firemen’s training college…and some of the training seems to be how to use the sirens!  And even though we’re further from the river and sea than we are in Edinburgh, we still seem to have seagulls as neighbours.  The joys of City Centre living! 

It’s wonderful to be able to walk everywhere, and I’ve just secured a new client in Glasgow - all of five minutes’ walk away.  Just need to remember to take the brolly - it’s true that the pavements in Glasgow rarely dry out…   

It’s official! fraoch feels very real now, after our PR debut in The Drum, the rag of the Scottish marketing community, and our wee launch do last night at The Leith Gallery in Edinburgh.  It was a civilized event, with champagne, canapes and the New Faces art exhibition.  It also gave me the opportunity to personally thank Shona and Heather of Locofoco for the design of the fraoch corporate ID, and to catch up with clients past, present and (optimistically) future.  Best excuse for non-attendance, though, goes to my accountant, who was knocked over by a hit and run cyclist on the pavement earlier in the afternoon.  Wishing you a speedy recovery, Ian. 

Work is gathering pace.  The VisitScotland Segmentation project is a major focus, with a full-scale online survey underway.  It’s wonderful to monitor the results as they come in through Experian’s online tracking.  It does mean it feels like it’s with you every minute of the day though - don’t mention the S word! 

I had a new business meeting earlier this week where I was outnumbered five to one.  A lot of thinking on my feet, but I believe I held my own.  Time will tell when we go back for the presentation!  The first milestone for another large review project is looming in the next couple of weeks too, so there’s plenty happening.

I’m planning to have a bit of fun with this.  Every now and again I will comment on something I’ve seen, received or experienced.  Chances are, it will be quite opinionated, hence the title. 

Last week I received a simply addressed letter.  I mean really simply addressed - my name wasn’t on it, the company name wasn’t on it, there was literally just the address.  I assumed it was from a company with which I had no relationship.  How wrong I was!  I opened it and found the letter started ‘Dear Customer’. It was from HSBC, my business bank.  Not only that, but they wanted something from me: it was a questionnaire asking for my very important feedback.  Well, Mr ‘Head of Customer Experience’ at HSBC, here is my feedback - rule number one is address your customers personally.  It’s really not that hard to do.