With Sports Direct and BHS in the news recently, I was reflecting on the relationship between employee engagement and business reputation with Elizabeth Judson, Head of Employment at Jolliffe & Co. LLP.  How a business deals with customer complaints has an obvious impact on customer engagement and brand value.  How a business deals with, or […]

I may be the only one but I do get irritated by a “Polite Notice”.  It might be because I feel I’m being told off for thinking about doing something I never thought of doing.  Until, that is, the “Polite Notice” reminded me of the many ways I could misbehave.

I was discussing the plan-do-review cycle with David Ashworth of Flintloque the other day.  The plan-do-review cycle is a classic continuous improvement model used in many business disciplines, not just marketing.  David commented that he saw the model as spring not a ring.

I was having a chat with Mark Pemberton at The Heath in Runcorn the other day.  Mark’s business, Global MSDS Ltd, won the Chemicals North West “Product Services Supplier to the Chemical Industry” Award in March this year.

One of my favourite models is the Strategyzer Value Proposition Canvas.  Value propositions concentrate on the benefits of your product or service and are important for a number of reasons.

Marketing talks about benefits and value. You’re likely to be more successful if you market your product or service on customer benefits and the true value your customer gets from your product or service. Yet different customers look for different benefits.

I met up with Karen Davies and Fiona Davidson of Dav-idea Workshops, in Cheadle the other day. We were talking about innovation in business. Karen and Fiona consult, mentor and train businesses in the management of innovation.

Creativity is not just about art, and innovation is not just for science and technology businesses. Every business can and should be creative and innovate. Karen and Fiona reminded me of the Darwin quote “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that […]

A couple of marketing books I’ve been reading have mentioned the importance of choosing your customers wisely.  Marketing tends to advocate niche marketing – targeted so you can concentrate your resources where they are best served.

International standards have been around for many years.  Some small businesses find them invaluable, enabling sales and providing a point of differentiation; ISO 9001 (the quality standard) and ISO 13485 (the medical device standard) being two examples.