Probably the worst strike in the world..?

So recently there have been strikes by cabin crew at BA, tube workers on the Underground, the AA are threatened with one by a major union, the dockers in Finland refused to ship paper into the UK and other territories but now the worst of all is upon us... workers at the Carlsberg Factory in Denmark are on strike! Why? Due to a ban on drinking beer throughout the working day!

Up until last week workers (and drivers!!!) were permitted free beer, water and soft drinks everywhere but on Wednesday the beers were removed from all refrigerators. Now workers can only have a beer at lunchtime. An old Carlsberg policy permitted drivers to have up to 3 beers per day outside lunch hours and the warehouse workers had the same right.

Now I'm all for giving people the rights afforded to them under their employment, but these rights seem dangerous in a driving and warehouse environment!

But Carlsberg workers obviously feel strongly about it as 800 of them have walked out in protest...will it get resolved soon? Probably.

Innovate or Die: A lesson from Bebo

Trying to hold a share of the market in a world dominated by big brands can be tough and none tougher than in the fickle world of 'social media'.

The inhabitants of the world of myspace, facebook and until more recently Bebo are a demanding crowd. After all, like the best bars, clubs, shops and brands you only go there if your friends do - and in social media it's even worse - whilst you might chose to wear clothes to stand out, there is no point or way to 'stand out' on a website that no one visits or joins...and so Bebo - once inhabited by c.6m members in the UK & Ireland (that's nearly 1 in 10 people!) - has been put to pasture by AOL - the company that bought if not just 2 years ago for a staggering $850m! Now try explaining that one in the board meeting - ouch!

In contrast, during the time of Bebo's demise, Facebook not only gained about 8m new users (more than Bebo had it total) but also monetised its model into a high-targeted ad-space. I do wonder how much of this assumption that things could stay the same and be ok is as a result of the previous owners (Michael Birch and co) entrepreneurial spirit being removed from the development process at Bebo? Perhaps the era of big corporates thinking they can just stuff and make money from it is over?

The lessons for me are clear - if you aren't focused on delivering to your audience the experience they seek you will die (in a corporate sense at least!) This doesn't mean yesterday's rules are acceptable today. If you're not careful it won't be just the rules but the entire game that will have changed before you even knew!

This means choosing either a target market (niche) or being not only early to market but consistently fast and best of market for innovation.

Online communities relying upon an existing base to remain loyal must either become the medium of choice (as for now at least, Facebook has been come) or have a solid and clear niche (like Keiron O'Neill's Playfire.com has become for online gamers). It doesn't mean it is impossible to top Facebook's reign - it just becomes harder the ubiquitous it becomes.

Offline the rules are the same - albeit a little slower - but if you stand still you will be going backwards and on the slippery slope to doom, disaster and death.

In a sentence: innovate or die.

The Power of Paper

Few will deny the delight of opening a birthday card, wedding invite, job offer letter or even a brochure for that new car/gadget or product you desire in your wildest dreams, but in recent years as texting, tweeting and ecards and ebrochures have become the norm and with a green agenda some have struggled to reconcile traditional hard-copy vs the online alternative....plus in these frugal times you don't want to waste budget on time wasters!

Only last week, I went to test drive a few new cars and despite the brochure for each brand being online I wanted to take away a hard-copy to review at leisure - all 3 of the car dealerships I visited had only a over-thumbed internal copy to peruse at their desk and didn't have any to give away. I felt robbed of the enjoyment of reviewing the car, page by page whilst I sit in the bath or sipping a coffee at the dining table. As rich as the video and flash technology on their respective websites for me it just doesn't become part of the rich shopping experience I seek from a luxury purchase... even a "request a brochure" on the website has failed to make the brochure appear on my doormat.

I can almost understand that an online enquiry should solicit an e-brochure - the enquiry mirrors the medium of response but why not demographically profile me using some clever technology and decide whether my request for a hard-copy brochure is warrantied (do i have the credit score/lifestyle profile to match my enquiry etc) then send me the extra-value brochure as it would seem I'm a worthy bet for the extra investment and then follow-up with a phone call or a personal email (not an automated one!)

I would suggest that these days hard-copy versions of your online documents actually hold more value than ever before (especially if you combine it with intelligent data capture).

We are all bombarded by emails (spam and otherwise), it is so very hard to stand-out when images don't download unless accepted by the receiver (as in outlook), every email looks pretty much the same - you can't smell or feel the difference that a fine paper or finish gives a printed document on screen and I guess that is why - for me at least - the values I associate with a quality printed document retains its value. After all, which has the greater impact another email in your inbox marked "high priority" or the one well-crafted formal letter to arrive in your mail today expressing a customer's concerns/supplier's desire to supply to you an item they know you're interested in?

I think technology gives us huge benefits in not having to produce huge ranges of documents that require constant updating and product data changes but to encapsulate your brand in a way that stands out from the crowd there is still a place for the well-printed, target-focused document. And, it doesn't have to come at a compromise to the planet - with sensible use of environmentally aware inks and papers (even Conqueror - seen by many as the premium brand of paper - is CO2 neutral these days!)

Recently UOE did an email and traditional letter-based comparison communication. Both targeted the same group of interested parties with the same words, but one sent by post on a quality letterhead, personally addressed, personally signed; the other a personalised email (sent from the same person's email address)....the response rate: 40% of those we emailed opened the email, 12% clicked the link and 4% responded. Of the posted version we obviously don't know how many opened it (but as we were sending it to their home - I'd reckon over 95% will have), the response rate was 35%....still think it isn't worth it? Perhaps it's time to think again about targeted offline marketing?

So if you want to stand out - try using some paper, some ink and bit of old-fashioned quality design - the results will be amazing.