Interview with Angus Bradley @safedropdotcom MD -
very interesting it is too :)
We had a good meeting at vistage yesterday, @Robert_Craven came in and gave a talk on disruptive marketing. I made some good notes (first time taking notes on the ipad!)
Here’s some of the things that really resonated with me, I like to do a summary like this so I remember things better, hope it’s useful to you too.
‘Delighted customers are 5 times more likely to buy again than satisfied customers’
’67% of customers leave because they think you don’t care’ - I believe this stat and it’s often quoted, would love to know where it’s from though. See more here.
Financial performance is the average of Marketing performance and Operational Performance, you can’t have good financials without good Marketing and Ops. < Ok, very basic, but I found it useful, as we (and most of the businesses there) tend to focus on Ops, not marketing.
‘If marketing doesn’t generate sales, it’s just spending money’
76% of people don’t believe adverts « Mind you, that means 24% do believe, which isn’t too shabby!
“I don’t know who you are,
I don’t know your company,
I don’t know you company’s product,
I don’t know what your company stands for,
I don’t know your company’s customers,
I don’t know your company’s record,
I don’t know your company’s reputation,
Now, what was it you wanted to sell me?”
(David Ogilvy copy) . This one is getting printed out today!
Robert really pushed being ‘disruptive’ his favourite model being charge customers whatever they see fit to pay, a la radiohead. One surprise example of this was Agency Nil (http://www.agencynil.com/) What a cool model, mind you it looks like they are going to be pretty selective about who they take on.
I’ll not spoil the workshop, but a few quick wins he suggested included raise prices, reduce costs, and my favourite, ‘be remarkable’
On raising prices - If you raise prices by 10%, and lose 25% of your customers you would make the same profit. This is an interesting concept to think through, the converse being that if you drop prices by 10% you need to sell 50% more to make the same profit.
During this process, I realised that while we really care what our customers think, and want the service to work amazingly well, often the only communication they get from us is a monthly bill. This isn’t exactly remarkable, so I’m going to look at how to communicate more regularly, without interrupting people too much. I figure a once a month phone call wouldn’t upset anyone, and would help us.
What do you do to be remarkable to your customers?
“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King, Jr
In a snappy paper called ‘Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly’ by Daniel Oppenheimer, he discovered that big words slipped into reports to make the writer sound more intelligent just doesn’t work. In a series of 5 studies, Oppenheimer created samples of vocabulary used in various passages including cv’s and essays, and then asked people to rate the intelligence of the person who wrote them. The simpler language resulted in much higher ratings of intelligence.. In other words using complex language isn’t smart.
Oppenheimer also found that writing in a hard to read font lowered peoples evaluation of your intelligence.
So simplify and use nice fonts !
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_M._Oppenheimer#cite_note-1
http://web.princeton.edu/sites/opplab/papers/Opp%20Consequences%20of%20Erudite%20Vernacular.pdf
In Jan 2008 we were choosing a web framework, and went with Django. At the time, to help decide, I surveyed ODesk for the number of freelancers offering expertise, and Jobserve, for the number of jobs for that skill.
Now, three years on, it’s time to look again and see if we made a good choice.
* Thats the number of jobs listed in the last 7 days, as of 3rd Feb 2011.
From our point of view, as a mainly python house, Django looks like a good choice, seems like pylons, turbo gears and zope are niche at best (in fact I think Pylon changed name).
.Net is of course monster (but it gets used for lots of non web tasks also), and I was surprised to see django usage seeming to be growing quicker than ROR.
What frameworks have I missed?
For anyone interested in such things, http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html provide a nice list of language popularity over time.
tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST HUMAN MEMORY?
looking at a toy soldier through the bars of my cot
Manybooks.net offer loads of kindle friendly ebooks for free. You can actually download straight from your kindle.
Make sure you’ve got network access (wifi or 3g), then press menu, then experimental, then launch the web browser. From here you have access to thousands of books.
Useful excerpts from a Smith & Williamson ‘managing your exit’ workshop I was at last week, targeted at owners looking to sell their business. We talked a lot about a clear vision, and a storyboard, and giving the buyer permission to buy.
Never tell anyone the value of your business - Stating a value puts a ceiling on the price. The owner can walk in and announce “I’m not taking less that £10M” just as the buyer is poised to offer £30M!
I’ve been super happy with my Kindle since I took delivery a month ago. My best find so far has been that using longform and Instapaper gets me a free weekly magazine with content from magazines like Rolling Stone, Wired and the New York Times.
Here’s the very short list of apps I’m using most days:
Got any good tips to share? My only gripe these days is that not all the books I want to read are available on kindle yet..
Awesome.
I’ve been using the kindle for a few weeks, and with free 3g internet access in 100 countries, it could be the cruising yachtsmans dream. Here’s why:
- The battery - It lasts for a month, you won’t even need a charger for most trips
- 3g wireless web access - You won’t go surfing the net, or shopping with this, but it’s perfect for checking the shipping forecast, or a quick look at email.
- Free internet in 100 countries - no huge roaming charges when you get into port.
- It works in a waterpoof bag! So you can keep it in the cockpit, and flick it on when you need a weather update.
- It works outside - If there is sun, which is not always a given in the UK, you can still easily see the screen.
Now obviously this isn’t much use if you’re out of cell coverage, but for most of us doing 3-4 day cruises around the coast, the kindle could be a great investment. If only they’d publish an e-almanac..
Have you used your Kindle at sea? Any recommended web sites?
Kindle friendly links
MetOffice shipping forecast - text only
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/marine/shipping_printable.html
Google mobile - http://m.google.com
Bramble bank weather! http://www.bramblemet.co.uk/
Kindle - bagged up and in action with the shipping forecast!
Great job Boris! The london bike scheme looks fantastic, check out Old Street station #design.
UK Companies - useful reference for shareholders rights.
want to know the sunniest parts of the UK? UK average sunshine hours map -
Since we moved to Deal, we couldn’t believe how sunny it is, and nobody else believed it either. So I found this map, hah!