MARKETING: The world of mass marketing has evolved at an astonishing rate and the vehicle which has brought the business of the future to every consumer in the land lies in the web of the internet.
Traditional marketing, whatever that is these days, has become a dinosaur. Changes in information access have forced the game to evolve. Now, businesses can enjoy presenting their product to those who seek them out.
EXPERTISE – showing how marketing directors and their staff can use technology to support their marketing campaigns effectively: Digital is now an expected element of the modern marketing mix, and I’ve used my knowledge of Information Technology to explain how it can be used effectively to support any marketing business – from direct marketing to sales promotion.
Publications I’ve written for include:
Marketing: Haymarket’s weekly bible for the UK’s marketing community. Wrote features and analyses for the newspaper and its sister titles, but increasingly was brought in to write the Marketing Guides. As well as covering the inevitable technology innovation, these guides contained best practice approaches to many of the traditional marketing disciplines, such as exhibition planning and field marketing.
Marketing Week: Centaur’s respected weekly magazine was positioned against Marketing but I was allowed to contribute special features, usually related to how marketing technology was developing, and how useful it could be as part of a modern marketing mix. Less best practice, more information update about the digital technologies marketers needed to keep their eyes on.
Marketing Direct: Wrote for this monthly magazine from the first issue in 1995. It set out to inform marketers intelligently about the brave new world of direct marketing. A magazine for the whole marketing community, it defined direct marketing as a state of mind, not an industry; a way of using customer data to solve marketing problems.
Event: I spanned two generations of Haymarket’s monthly offering – launched as Marketing Event – for the UK events industry, writing about the marketing skills and issues required in modern practice. For three years, I practically owned the Live Issue section of the magazine which tackled issues in a practical way – everything from managing leads, stand safety and vocational qualifications to boosting events overseas.
Promotions & Incentives: Produced news analyses for the regular magazine serving the promotional marketing industry and covering technology and market issues. Became something of a permanent fixture compiling the Special Reports sections. Featured a huge range of issues, from the pros and cons of phonecards to extolling the benefits of database marketing.
Incentive Business: Featured all the techniques and special know-how required to service the sales promotions industry. Explored ways of supporting brands fighting for share of voice and seeking standout on the shelf, analysed most forms of incentive, and tracked down agency experts asking them to share some of their secrets – as well as own up to promotions that they too admired.