A Failure of Joined-Up Marketing

Posted in money on 27.05.06@851 by pjh

I got a flyer through the door today
from a venerable nation-wide high-street shop.

I always look at these
to see what they’re selling and how
although I rarely buy anything.

Today I saw an offer for something
that I’ve wondered about getting for a long time now, and
at half price I just might bite.

So I went to my local branch to look for the product.
And couldn’t find it.

Sales staff were friendly
but knew nothing of the product being promoted
in the company flyer.

“Maybe its only in our larger shops.”
And which are those?
No one could say.
Neither could the company website.
(Although it could sell me the product at full price.)

That’s a sale lost. My
impulse to purchase abandoned in the face of
barriers to purchase.

So if you run a promo
Tell the sales staff about it.
And if the item is only in some locations
Make sure the customer can find it.

It’s not hard to get right
But it’s easy to get wrong.

Thoughts for Today (and always)

Posted in evolution on 21.05.06@541 by pjh

Thoughts for today as I wrestle with productivity and accomplishment in the face of uncertain longterm goals. Each deserves a post of its own, and will get it.

  • Integrity in the Moment of Choice
  • Discipline as Muscle
  • Asking always, what is the most appropriate thing for me to do right now, given my goals, energy, and resources available?
  • Gain a sense of how long things take
  • Aggressive Time-boxing, followed by an assessment of quality
  • Monitor & Measure Everything

Thanks to David Allen, Gavin Gibson, Steve Pavlina, Tom Peters, Grant Rule, and others who have entered the melting-pot of my consciousness over the years.

Three Questions for Life Perspective

Posted in evolution on 17.05.06@781 by pjh

I went through an interesting exercise yesterday. In trying to get out of a recent funk, I tried to answer three questions. The three questions helped to provide focus and motivation, but I’m still waiting for fullness.

The questions are these, and I spent 10 minutes answering each of them:

What do you want your life to be like when you’re 60?

For me, that’s nearly 30 years away. If you’re older than me you might want to push it out so that it’s at least 25 years into the future. This question was interesting because it’s far enough removed that you can accomplish pretty much anything you set your mind to by then. For myself, I don’t want to be worrying about money, or needing to work for somebody else. Given my parents ill health, I definitely want to keep myself in good shape.

Also ask yourself how you want to feel at that age. Where would you live, what sort of lifestyle would you have? There’s a spiritual element to all of this, in that I’d definitely want to become the sort of person who is at peace with myself and the universe, and who energises others and myself at every point of contact. I have imperfect elements of that now, but still suffer from bouts of not-quite-depression.

What do you want to have accomplished in 5 years time?

This question pulls the timeframe so very much closer. What are you going to do with your life in the not-so-far future? For me, this brought my thoughts to more practical matters, of what could be accomplished in five years that puts me closer to having the desired life. Five years is such a long time, and yet it slips away so easily.

I know that there are things that I’ve been thinking about doing for five years, and yet am no nearer to starting or finishing than when they first were conceived. For me this question gave rise to some concrete goals, stepping stones, reasonable milestones on the way to some of the answers in the first question. There were some outliers that weren’t related to my envisioned future life, and I’ll have to resolve those.

What would you do in the next six months, if that’s all you have left?

Wow. That’s pulling the timescales right in close. The chance to do something amazing against the odds. Satisfy long-standing desires and remove now-trivial barriers that may currently seem insurmountable.

Oddly for me I found very little to answer this one. I’m largely content, with no large goals to prove or set in motion before time runs out. For practical reasons I’d probably keep my job, because that’s where my life insurance is funded. I’d like to go live in Paris, because of happy times and favourite restaurants, but I know restaurants in London too. This was a very peaceful question, but I think that for most it wouldn’t be.

Next Steps — Gaining Focus

  • review each question’s answers
  • mark the most important three or so answers for each question
  • take the list of most important answers, and reduce it further
  • choose just three answers — and make them real

This may be enough for you - these final three things might well be the goals that will motivate you to take action. For me, it was interesting that the final three mirrored the results of another exercise I’d done some months ago.

No change in answers, and yet no tangible progress either. Maybe they aren’t sufficient in themselves to motivate me. Something must be wrong, so I resolved to figure out the reason I’d chosen the same things each time. Ask yourself why each item has ended up on your list. What is the true underlying reason that it is so important to you? Maybe the answer to ‘Why’ is closer to the answer you meant to give in the first place.

Rinse and Repeat

This isn’t the end, but only the beginning. I’m still answering the why question for myself. Awareness is the first step towards changing something, and I don’t yet know my purpose, only that where I am now isn’t right for me, and that the things I’ve been trying haven’t been working to change that.

Win more on the lottery with lotto-stats

Posted in money on 14.05.06@279 by pjh

I’ve recently gathered together lots of raw data from lotto draws around the world, and have started the process of analysing them. For example, I know the best and worst numbers to have played in the UK National Lottery (now Lotto) since it began. To keep up with my progress on putting the numbers together into meaningful and useful information, register for updates at lotto-stats.com.

By understanding how people choose numbers, and you can play smarter, and win more when your numbers come up. I don’t advocate playing the lottery as part of your retirement plan, but if you’re going to play, play smarter.

Unsubscribe Me — How To Do It Better

Posted in blogging on 02.05.06@676 by pjh

Today I unsubscribed from two newsletters. It’s an interesting experience because even getting off of a list is part of your relationship with a company. Here’s how the two lists differed in getting me off.

Chatty and Unbranded

The first one was a very chatty unsubscribe. The unsubscribe me link opened an email, to be sent to a particular machine-processed address. That’s ok, but the subject and body were blank. So, liking the company but wanting off the list, I told them why I was leaving. How valuable is that? Extremely. You want your customers to complain, or you don’t learn anything about your business. I don’t think that anyone will ever see my comments, though.

This automated unsubscribe led me through a weird dance — first it sent me a mail to confirm that I really wanted to unsubscribe. Ok, so I click on the link to confirm, and it takes me to an unbranded web page telling me that I’ve been taken off the list. Then I receive another email confirming my confirmation. Brother, that ain’t marketing. Three emails and a web page, none of them working on our relationship, however tenuous.

Succinct and Welcoming

The second unsubscribe couldn’t have been more different. The unsubscribe me link went directly to a branded web page that thanked me, confirmed that I was off the list, and solicited my opinion on how they could improve. It even had a if you keep getting mail from us emergency removal link that may well have a human on the other end.

Even if I never do business with this company, I’ll remember them fondly should they ever come up in conversation. Indeed, it’s this second process that prompted this post — I don’t want to forget to be just as good, if not better, than company #2.

There’s always a flaw

There’s a flaw, though. Company #2 encourages me to forward their newsletter to all of my friends. What if one of them clicks on the unsubscribe me link? Where the first scenario I got too many emails, the second one could have done with a single email to confirm that it was really me who requested deletion. Otherwise I might inadvertently lose what I think of as a valuable resource.