All about current standards, practices and more... http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/feed/feed.xml en Tenzing http://www.minttwist.com http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/favicon.gif http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/ All about current standards, practices and more... The future of ocean living? Ome My God, here we go again! Five years ago, at the height of Dubai’s development boom, barely a week would pass without the announcement of an idiotic new concept designed to make the owner feel more cool and ego pumped than the last. Not surprisingly, virtually none of these concepts ever made it past the concept board stage. Mercifully, the flow of such bizarre and ridiculous ideas started to ebb the same day the property crash began. However, the announcement this week of the ‘Ome’ floating villa concept, created by a Dubai based JV between a developer and a super yacht maker, has brought wacky and surreal memories flooding back for those of us who shared Dubai’s roller-coaster ride through the last decade. The Ome is (or should I say ‘would be’) a floating, double-deck, disk shaped mobile home with five bedrooms and a pool. Obviously a pool. The rendering on page 1 of our local tabloid also features a couple of palm trees, which is a nice touch. There is no mention of how many bathrooms it has, but I expect there will (would) be at least five. The project’s target audience is defined to be “super yacht enthusiasts” or “someone with a more recreational boating approach”. I can’t quite see it myself. There was also a suggestion that such seafaring villas could “drift” to, from and conceivably even between The World Islands, which are unfortunately running a little behind their original completion schedule. This front page story was continued on page 2 of the newspaper, although I was distracted on the way and never managed to read whether any suitable methods of propulsion had yet been identified. The ones that spring to mind for me would be solar (good one!) or hot air, while it lasts. Please do watch this space for more Ome news, but don’t hold your breath… Tim Mace Marketer in Dubai   ... http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/65/the-lunatics-bid-to-regain-control-of-dubai-property-sectors-image http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/65/the-lunatics-bid-to-regain-control-of-dubai-property-sectors-image 16 October 2011, 4:25 pm http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/feed/feed.xml No, it’s not the flowing locks, star-spangled outfits or those impossibly unstable platform sole boots. It’s something far more subtle and pervasive… Social and business networking has undeniably taken a vice-like grip on the web-related habits of the world’s PC-literate population. It’s the name of the game. “Take a chance on me” seems to be the message beaming loud and clear from the pages of FB and Linkedin. Whilst the likes of MySpace have apparently met their Waterloo, I do I do I do I do I do believe that our willing dependence on social media is a something which will indelibly mark the early years of this Millennium for social historians. Voulez-vous remember me, be my friend or hire my services??? These questions can be asked of cyber contacts at the stroke of a key. There’s no point in saying “Hasta mañana” because this phenomenon is thriving and we are stuck with it – at least until the next miraculous communication tool happens. I know there’s something big going on when Linkedin offer me the chance to eaves-drop for free on the eaves-dropping activities of many hundreds of quasi cyber contacts and it would take a Super Trouper to resist the temptation to give it a try for a month. “Gimme Gimme Gimme” is what we say to ourselves as we hit the accept button and gleefully check out who has recently viewed our profile. Call me an idealistic Dancing Queen if you must but, Mama Mia, I have a dream that one day we will revert to more conventional and less subversive ways to get to know each other. Anyway, I have to go now, to see whether anyone has viewed my profile in the last 15 minutes. Knowing me knowing you! (ah-haa). Tim Mace Marketer in Dubai ... http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/32/why-linkedin-reminds-me-of-abba http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/32/why-linkedin-reminds-me-of-abba 13 October 2011, 2:04 pm http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/feed/feed.xml I recently attended a highly informative and thought provoking workshop about ‘Online Reputation Management’ run by Husam Jandal of WSI. Husam educated, amused and terrified his audience, using live examples of things which can go swimmingly well or horribly wrong for a brand or person’s reputation if they are unaware or dismissive of the power of the internet as a mass communication tool. The key ‘technical’ messages hammered home by the morning’s session were as follows: Brands must nowadays learn about and make use of the ‘social’ networking world, or risk becoming invisible, overtaken by competitors and irrelevant in an era when the internet is most people’s first source of enquiry for any query or need. A brand which has high internet visibility by contributing and being referenced in online discussions will – by commanding the top search positions for its name and expertise – be effectively shielded from the impact of negative web publicity, whether warranted or not. The critics’ entries will simply not make it onto ‘page 1’ of Google. When a brand with many online ‘friends’ comes under cyber attack, its positive image  should benefit from a barrage of supportive messages, blogs, tweets, articles and so on posted by its allies. For me, there was also one other implicit but crystal clear and very powerful message: Brands which continually exhibit genuine integrity and strive to do good things for their stakeholders are less at risk from attack via any media (not only the internet) whereas dishonest brands will need to watch their backs more than ever before, as the web provides an unprecedented and wide open domain for those with justified grievances to air these to the market. Whilst the information shared in recent times by sources like Wikileaks has thrown up huge moral dilemmas, it has to be acknowledged that the bad guys can no longer depend on traditional methods of coercion, bribery and intimidation to keep their dirty secrets out of the public eye. Likewise, the role of social media in mobilising and coordinating the participants of the so called Arab Spring have been heavily publicised and discussed, which must be applauded. And for marketers, the inherently transparent nature of the internet must be embraced as an immensely powerful tool to enable the best, most ethical and ‘likeable’ brands to rise to the top – regardless of whether they have the TV budget to compete with established leaders – and the worst brands to be exposed and their fortunes decline as a result. Tim Mace – Marketing Consultant www.tenzingmiddleeast.com ... http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/51/the-internet-age-is-one-of-business-ethics--like-it-or-not http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/51/the-internet-age-is-one-of-business-ethics--like-it-or-not 14 July 2011, 11:27 am http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Do you remember the brands behind these TV ads from many moons ago? VW’s “Snow Plow Driver” (and almost every other VW ad in history too) Coke’s “I’d like to teach the world to sing” (corny but momentous) “Reassuringly expensive” Stella Artois By the way, I apologise that these are all old ads (although Youtube has them all) but so am I. When was the last time you saw an ad which really captured your imagination and instantly made its brand subject the king of its domain in your mind? Unfortunately, almost every piece of creative I see these days is clearly the victim of a merciless template of criteria to be satisfied by the client’s brand police. I’ve been one myself and it’s not pretty. If the ad doesn’t tick all the benefits boxes it goes back around the loop to extend a scene or add another line to the already cluttered end-frame. Tom Rayfield, Creative Director of JWT London during the 1980s, taught me that writing good ad copy is like doing a crossword. It is a logical and meticulous process, using all the facts and nuances available for the writer to complete the all the clues. Spontaneity and the Eureka moment really only come into play in solving that last clue of the crossword, which is of course the secret of great creative writers’ genius and why the rest of us can only admire from a distance. Several years ago, I attended a 3 day creative workshop for the benefit of the client-agency brand team. This workshop was in the process of being cascaded through the entire global marketing and creative staff. Team bonding went well and we were treated to a wealth of case studies featuring superb advertising. The common factor for all the ads was the welcome paucity of spoken or written copy; indeed some had no voice-over at all. Three days after the workshop, our agency presented a storyboard for one of our more touchy-feely brands. It comprised a complex story spanning 40 seconds with a script of 119 words. They had thoughtfully obtained pre-approval by the global client and agency category directors (so it was effectively a done deal). How on earth did that happen, after we had all attended the same excellent workshop? Surely a great car ad will make the prospect want to own the vehicle so much that he will postpone his detailed research the fuel efficiency, anti-lock brakes and sat-nav system until after he has sat in the driving seat and is already plotting how to explain this impromptu purchase when he gets home tonight. In other words, great ads do not need long or detailed copy. Is it still possible for responsible and passionate brand custodians to commission memorable and truly effective advertising? Of course it is! We just need to remember the following guidelines: Creatives are the people paid to write the copy, not the client or his account manager. Always provide a comprehensive creative brief, including as much ‘personal’ information about the brand and product as possible, which will help your copywriter to solve the creative crossword. Never accept a regurgitation of the brand benefits as your advertising solution, even though it apparently ticks all the boxes. A great copy writer will invent brilliant metaphors and original, compelling selling stories for your brand without writing an essay. If not, you might as well save some money and write your own predictable and forgettable ads. I’ll climb down from my soap box now. Tim Mace – Marketing Consultant www.tenzingmiddleeast.com ... http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/46/whatever-happened-to-great-story-telling-in-advertising http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/46/whatever-happened-to-great-story-telling-in-advertising 14 July 2011, 9:26 am http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/feed/feed.xml I have just experienced a typically frustrating episode of inconsiderate customer service after foolishly purchasing a sofa and armchairs online from the UK operation of the IKEA hydra. It made me wonder why such a famous company, which is patronised by so many people all over the world, apparently seems comfortable with delivering sub-standard customer service. Surely they would sell more stuff to more people by getting things right..? To pass some time whilst being kept on hold by the IKEA “help-line” team, I Googled the words “I hate IKEA”. Lo and behold, I hit upon 11.8 million search results. Even after stipulating an exact word match for my search, Google unearthed over 72,000 references. Some people even went to the trouble of making videos and posting them on Youtube! Qualitatively, I can report that none of my friends will admit to liking IKEA, although many of us buy their products from time to time. In my humble opinion, IKEA should be credited for being one of the few suppliers of sitting room furniture with removable, washable covers. And their little tea lights are useful. But not much else. So what do we dislike about IKEA? My online research came up with the following key criticisms: Their products have silly names, often sounding rude (which should really be in the positives column). You have to walk through the entire store to escape, even if you only want to buy a light bulb. Their flat packed furniture pieces don’t fit together properly, assuming they are all included. They might sue you for defamation if you post a derogatory video about them on Youtube. To this list I should like to add: They took almost two weeks to deliver my sofa and armchairs when the furniture company supplying my new beds delivered the next working day. They sent a truck too big to drive into my street on their first delivery attempt. When I emailed to complain, they sent an auto response stating “Your message was deleted without being read”. On the brighter side for IKEA, Google throws up 43.2 million results for “I love IKEA” of which 503,000 comply with Google’s exact word match criterion. And they were not all by patriotic Swedes. So, if there were to be a war of words between IKEA’s internet-posting lovers and haters, it seems that the lovers would win by a significant margin. Therefore, I can only conclude that my friends and I must be mistaken and that IKEA are indeed doing a fine job. It just doesn’t feel that way! Tim Mace – Marketing Consultant www.tenzingmiddleeast.com ... http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/16/do-we-love-or-hate-the-ikea-customer-experience http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/16/do-we-love-or-hate-the-ikea-customer-experience 13 July 2011, 5:47 pm http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/feed/feed.xml This rapidly evolving story illustrates on a massive scale how the ethical mis-management of a brand can result in massive repercussions throughout its corporate network and industry sector. Two weeks ago, the News of the World was the best selling UK newspaper, with a colourful 168 year history in print. Last week, shocking new allegations concerning the extent and nature of certain NOTW reporters’ phone tapping activities during the mid 2000s led to a sudden management announcement that the newspaper would cease to exist fter Sunday 10th July. Today, the entire former NOTW team is seeking new employment, the UK Prime Minister David Cameron is under attack by Opposition Leader Ed Miliband for previously hiring and now backing ex-NOTW editor Andy Coulson, other media owners live in fear that their titles will also be implicated by similar practices and Rupert Murdoch himself is in London to oversee the management of a ‘local’ crisis which now threatens to obstruct his company’s take-over of UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB and possibly even demolish the reputation of News Corporation, the biggest global media network. The other News Corp brands now also at risk from the ‘Court of Public Opinion’ include the Fox, Sky and Star TV networks (among others) and various other TV and publishing interests in the North and South Americas, Canada, Europe, India, China and Australasia. Where will this end? Who knows – we just have to wait and watch as Mr Murdoch calls upon all his acumen, wits and experience to minimise the fall-out. Are there implications for other brand owners and marketers? Of course! Brands which do bad things, then lie and try to deceive their stakeholders, can expect to suffer the most severe backlash in loss of reputation and business – perhaps immediately or perhaps much later. Furthermore, a degree of guilt by association is more likely to be applied by the public across related brands than not. The NOTW has always sailed close to the wind in terms of the stories it has pursued and its practices to obtain information. Censures have been frequent but public opinion has always reverted to the positive because the NOTW is generally perceived to attack the bad guys and defend the weak. In other words, although often crude and vulgar, the NOTW was believed to have a good heart. Not any more. The UK public are happy for a cheating politician to be exposed by any means but they do not really want their favourite Royals to be bugged and they despise anyone who listens to phone messages intended for an abducted (and subsequently murdered) teenager or the families of severely wounded armed services personnel. And when public opinion deserts a media channel, advertising budgets soon follow. In this age of transparency - whether voluntary or enforced – immoral behaviour by a brand is likely to be punished without mercy in the marketplace by its former supporters, even more than by its adversaries. Tim Mace – Brand and Marketing Consultant www.tenzingmiddleeast.com ... http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/18/news-of-the-world-scandal-jeopardises-reputation-of-news-corp-business-empire http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/18/news-of-the-world-scandal-jeopardises-reputation-of-news-corp-business-empire 11 July 2011, 1:42 pm http://www.tenzingmiddleeast.com/blog/feed/feed.xml