Global marketing

The global language of marketing

Not so for McDonald’s. Order a Big Mac at a restaurant in Israel, and the chances are it will be served without cheese – a practice that allows for the separation of meat and dairy products in kosher restaurants. Purchase Procter & Gamble’s Rejoice shampoo in Japan, and you will find showu root extract as a main ingredient, renowned locally for keeping black hair shiny.

What these examples demonstrate is that when marketing a brand globally, there are two vitally important issues to consider – culture and local sentiment. Or, as stated in the McDonald’s marketing philosophy, “think global, act local”…

Corporate identity

Corporate identity: using good design to give you competitive advantage

It’s been a mantra repeated by many over the years. Yet the evidence to support the link between investment in design and shareholder return has been scarce and largely apocryphal. But now, nearly 30 years after Watson entitled his Wharton School of Business lecture with those five famous words, comes proof that he was right.

A recent in-depth study of the stock market performance of 166 design-led companies in the UK has finally proved the business case for design. The Design Council funded study showed that, from 1994 to 2003, the 63 companies identified as the most effective users of design and winners of the most design awards – grouped together into the ‘Design Portfolio’ – outperformed the FTSE 100 index by 200 percent…

Bid management

Bid management: a new cause for anxiety

In this age of text and email, there is a diminishing ability to write clearly and convincingly without resorting to jargon, and to use a coherent style that consistently reflects corporate brand values. At the same time, more and more deals can only be won through costly, complex, competitive bid processes that demand highly professional documentation of your pitch. Now add into this mix the probability that more and more of your bids will be in teams with your business partners. The problem gets worse.

Bid managers – where should you start?
For you to succeed as a bid manager, your organisation needs a robust process for bid management, one that all key players know well before they join any given bid team. Don’t over-complicate it because not all bids demand the full works, but it must cover the fundamental points…

Bid support

Bid support: editing bids for competitive advantage

Precise, well-written communication can mean the difference between winning and losing business. If that business is worth millions or billions of pounds, the cost of getting it wrong can be disastrous. Ironically, while companies bidding for contracts of this magnitude will stir apparently limitless amounts of specialised technical expertise into the stew, few will commit a similar expert resource to communicating their solution.

It appears that corporate sales and marketing teams have failed to recognise good communication as a deal maker or breaker or – unusual for this group – have been slow to pick up on it for competitive advantage. The alarming conclusion to be drawn from anecdotal evidence is that these key corporate teams do not – or cannot – perceive anything amiss in the way they pitch for contracts…

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