The Encounter Business

The

iain — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:25:17 +0000

When physics professors do market research, I think it makes sense to pay attention. Russell Stannard wanted to publish an entertaining introduction to Relativity for youngsters. His first stop was the local library, where he looked through the date stamps to find out the post popular childrens’ books. He found that they had certain characteristics: illustrations, lots of dialogue, humour and short chapters. So that’s how he developed Black Holes and Uncle Albert. Courtesy of Jurgen Wolff.

There

iain — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 07:53:31 +0000

I’m still taken by Rolf Jensen’s notion that there are only six markets. Here they are, with some examples:
1 The market for adventure – lastminute.com, Ann Summers, Boardman Bikes, , Cisco, Virgin Atlantic
2. The market for love and belonging (togetherness) – BBC Worldwide, Wickes, Centreparcs. National Trust
3. The care market: To care and be cared for – Guide Dogs, Body Shop, babeswithbabies, BUPA, Hilton, Fairy
4. The who-am-I market: defining ourselves – The Economist, London Business School, , Sunday Times
5. The market for peace of mind: feeling safe and secure – UPS, Pfizer, Bosch, Zurich, AA, Sage, Eddie Stobart
6. The market for convictions: having opportunities to demonstrate them – The Medical Foundation; BBH; Liberal Democrats

Or perhaps this only does a good job at defining which category you’re in? Perhaps you get interesting when, having established your category credentials, you begin to taste of something else: c.f. Eddie Stobart or UPS, where peace of mind is essential, but you’re really buying like the taste of adventure, expansion and possibility. To be continued.

I

iain — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:52:09 +0000

But it’s a really good one.

Sign

iain — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:05:57 +0000

Lovely new 4m film from my sometime collaborator Jethro Skinner (he’s the board guy.)

Why

iain — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:12:07 +0000

Good stuff from Justin Basini.

Just How Special & Different Are Financial Services Brands?

View more presentations from Justin Basini.

It

iain — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:41:24 +0000

McKinsey tell us that 70% of Chinese leisure time is spent on the web.

This confirms my increasing paranoia that anything that’s not

1 About China

2 Online

is increasingly irrelevant.

Someone get me a copy of Lao-Tze. Or a bottle of Tsing-Tao. Or something.

A

iain — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:10:30 +0000

8 March 2010

Hello Aviva.

I’m writing this while on hold. 37 minutes and counting.

1 You’ve sent me a renewal pack for home insurance.

2 The payment instructions are wrong: the wrong name, bank, account number. Your representative has let it slip that you’ve been taking money from this account. It turns out someone else has been paying my premiums. Thank you, Ms Stella Nicholson.

3 I contacted you online last week about this. (Monday 1 March) but no-one has responded.

4 I’m now on the phone to you. I’ve been through three different units – from India to Scotland and back.

43 minutes and counting. Luckily, I’m calling an 01603 number on Skype, or I’d be paying you 3p a minute for the privilege of listening to that bloody inane couple talking about leaflets and toast.

51 minutes and counting.

5 57 minutes. It’s sort of sorted. Hallelujah. Except your agent tells me that they have ‘no way of contacting’ Stella Nicholson to tell her she’s been paying for my insurance. (Perhaps this is what Twitter is for.)

I’m left wondering how many other Aviva customers are inadvertently paying someone else’s insurance premiums.

Iain Carruthers

The

iain — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:21:26 +0000

Welcome

iain — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:38:59 +0000

On fieldwork. I do like the Brummies and their ways. (The way the girls at Bebo were helping out the panicky till girl on her second day with a three mile queue seemed to capture it.) The industrial muscle of the city is waning, but the civitas somehow cherished. You can sense the city fathers at your elbow. I seem to take comfort here. A proper city. And the Yardbird’s a good club too.

Middle

iain — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:32:40 +0000

So, having a rest in the sauna at the gym. In come three lads (18ish) after their workout, doing lots of verbal fist bumping. They were riffing about their upcoming trip to Amsterdam.’ Bruv, I’ve got £200 ready to go stylin’ it.’ ‘£200?’ ‘I worked for that bruv. I sold my PSP!’