Recommended reading – 30th April 2010

This week, I am mostly recommending: Will Humphrey on the differences between PR and advertising, having now worked in planning departments for both sides Bud Caddell presents a very thorough overview of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Not a bad basis for questionnaire design in certain instances. Sam Page has an excellent analysis of Jeff [...]

Avoiding insights

I really don’t like using the word “insight”. As I wrote here, the word is hideously overused. Rather than being reserved for hidden or complex knowledge, it is used to describe any observation, analysis or piece of intelligence. And so I’ve avoided using it as much as possible. In an earlier tweet, I referred to [...]

My name is my name

So says Marlo Stanfield. And he has a point. Reputation means a lot. But reputation is about perception, and there are multiple perspectives in which it can be viewed. Broadly, reputation can be thought of in four inter-related spheres Yourself – your personal brand Your organisation (this itself can have several facets, if your organisation [...]

Recommended Reading – 24th April 2010

I decided against posting a list last week, and instead held out until I had a decent number of quality links worth sharing. I now have a high-quality list, which can be found below: Laura Miller on Salon suggests how Apple could learn from Amazon in its use of metadata, if it is serious about [...]

Criteria for agency selection

According to my CIM coursebook, the following criteria should be used to shortlist agencies Area of expertise Quality of existing clients Reputation of principals and experience of staff Agency fees and methods of charging/payment In-house resources Geographical cover While the selection of the agency should be based upon Credentials – track record and feedback Creative [...]

The mobile phone is the drill to extract the data

Last week I wrote a blog post entitled “If data is the new oil, we need a bigger drill“, where I complained that we weren’t making enough use of the potential data available to us. That post was in relation to online research. But on reflection, the opportunity is far greater elsewhere. On the mobile [...]

If data is the new oil, we need a bigger drill

“Data is the new oil” is a phrase I’ve heard a few times recently, notably from Gerd Leonhard. And it has the potential to be true. Data can be extremely powerful and extremely valuable (though I’m a researcher, so I would say that). Yet few companies seem to be exploiting this to its full potential. [...]

Customer retention shouldn’t be inferior to business development

New business development is obviously an important part of business. But client retention is integral. It is far more important than new business development in terms of sustainable growth, yet doesn’t always have the prominence necessary to achieve this. In some respects, it is a false comparison since client retention is a form of business [...]

Recommended Reading – 10th April 2010

A few things to read over your Saturday morning coffee (or a coffee at another time. Or a different drink. You get the idea) Chris Heathcote has transcribed a lovely little piece about Londoners queuing, originally written in 1951 Graeme Wood has a thought-provoking piece on artificial scarcity, with regard to both music and the [...]

Name ownership

Is being referred to by a single name the ultimate recognition of cultural primacy? When I was at ITV, all the main bosses were simply referred to by their first names (though the sales floor had the problem of the “Three Garys” – not dissimilar to “The Four Marys“) Reading several tech blogs where the [...]