To arrange a meeting with Marketing Statements, please contact Jenny Patterson on 07957 473 270/020 983 3984 or jenny.patterson@marketingstatements.com

“The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change.  Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard.  People can only hear when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them.  Even the choices words lose their power when they are used to overpower.  Attitudes are the real figures of speech.”   Edwin H. Friedman

To arrange a meeting with Marketing Statements, please contact Jenny Patterson on 07957 473 270/020 8983 3984 or jenny.patterson@marketingstatements.com

“Most companies find it hard to transform themselves in difficult circumstances.

It’s relatively rare for transformation programs to succeed; many surveys, including our own, put the success rate at less than 40 percent. Our recent research, however, underscores the fact that certain tactics promote successful outcomes. The most important tactics are setting clear and high aspirations and targets, exercising strong leadership from the top, creating an unambiguous structure for the transformation, and maintaining energy and involvement throughout the organization.

Companies that used all of these tactics succeeded more than 80 percent of the time.

The same research also shows that what we call defensive transformations (those undertaken to stem trouble) have lower success rates than progressive ones (launched, for instance, to boost growth or to move from good to great performance). This finding seems to contradict the common wisdom that it is hardest to transform a company when it lacks an acute and apparent need for change.

In our experience, however, while employees are more likely to see the need for change when a company is in crisis, this advantage is outweighed by difficult circumstances.”

To arrange a meeting with Marketing Statements, please contact Jenny Patterson on 07957 473 270/020 8983 3984 or jenny.patterson@marketingstatements.com

Marcus Rich Interview

The second part of this interview, will be posted over the next couple of weeks.  In part two Marcus talks about generation X and generation Y in this digital world, as well as sharing his views on the future of advertising.

Marcus Rich is the Managing Director, Mail on Sunday and Deputy Managing Director, Associated Newspapers – http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk

To arrange a meeting with Marketing Statements, please contact Jenny Patterson on 07957 473 270/020 8983 3984 or jenny.patterson@marketingstatements.com

Words play a huge part in the thinking process, and the words race through our brains at speeds much higher than 125 words per minute.  When are listening we ask our brains to receive words an extremely slow pace compared with its capabilities.

When we listen, therefore, we continue thinking at high speed whilst the spoken word arrives at low speed.   Our brains are capable of comprehending speech 4 or 5 times the rate at which most people can speak.

Slowing down our brains is near impossible. The human brain is made up of 13 billion cells and operates in such a complicated but efficient manner that it makes our computers seem slow-witted.

The differential between thinking and speaking rates means that our brain works with hundreds of words in addition to those that we hear, assembling thoughts other than those spoken to us.

We can listen but we have some spare time to think.

Ideas are associated with change and must be sold – to directors, to managers, to employees and often also by them to customers, suppliers and shareholders – before they are accepted.

We promote new ideas, analyse the competitive forces that are driving change in your industry or market, highlight opportunities, overcome barriers and create an appropriate environment to persuade your directors, managers and employees to put these ideas into use…for the great benefit of your business or organisation.

To arrange a meeting with Marketing Statements, please contact Jenny Patterson on 07957 473 270/020 8983 3984 or jenny.patterson@marketingstatements.com

Listen closely to your customers and revise your market segmentation assumptions.

Are people looking at your service and product in the same way as they were?

As the recession progresses, have the copy mechanisms of people become ingrained and define a new normal?

The ability to suspend your judgement, when listening to somebody speaking, is a skill that is very hard to master.

To arrange a meeting with Marketing Statements, please contact Jenny Patterson on 07957 473 270/020 8983 3984 or jenny.patterson@marketingstatements.com

Please listen to the audio above, it is a real company but I have edited out the names.

A clear corporate image is essential for communicating with clients, everything communicates and at every point of contact.   Therefore, I am always surprised when companies put temporary staff or untrained staff on their reception desks to greet visitors and answer the phone.

People are the brand, they create an impression within seconds.  The immediate impact that your front office make is crucial.  It is often the strongest and longest, both verbally and visually.  Get it wrong and it is very difficult to change the image that your customers have imprinted in their minds.

They say “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”.

To arrange a meeting with Marketing Statements, please contact Jenny Patterson on 07957 473 270/020 8983 3984 or jenny.patterson@marketingstatements.com

2. You must offer your clients a product or service with a perceivable or tangible benefit or advantage.

3. You must innovate your product or service continually to give an ever increasing level of benefit or value to keep ahead of the competition in some way, however small.

We live by these rules at Marketing Statements.

To arrange a meeting with Marketing Statements, please contact Jenny Patterson on 07957 473 270/020 8983 3984 or jenny.patterson@marketingstatements.com

Change is the only thing that will remain constant.

The longer and deeper the recession, the more likely consumers will adjust their attitudes and behaviors permanently.  Don’t assume a return to normal.

To arrange a meeting with Marketing Statements, please contact Jenny Patterson on 07957 473 270/020 8983 3984 or jenny.patterson@marketingstatements.com