Back British products and business.

Over the last say 15 years we in Britain have not supported British Business. In my opinion it all started with the lack of long term vision and the short term investment banking attitude. The banking and city investors in general always want quick returns on investments. Another key issue is that governments appear to only want to look to the next general election and not at long term projects.

If you think about it, we have sold off so many of our Great British Companies to foreign company's over last 15 years. For example Rolls Royce and Bentley were sold to BMW and VW for £430m At the time of the sale we in the UK wasted millions on the someones ego called the Millennium Dome  The Rolls Royce brand was a major advert to promote Great Britian.

An example in the lack of support was the sale of Land Rover and Jaguar by Ford to Tata of India. The management team wanted to buy it but Tata won. What I find wrong was the fact that within a short space of time Tata asked the government for a loan ,why did they not give a loan to the management in time to keep the company British!  Think how many companies have gone, ie British Steel, Tetley Tea, Cadburys etc.

When we sold off so many crown jewels utilities we should have only sold off 49% of all the gas, water and electricty companies as we now have no control over pricing or service.

What I find so sad is the amount of land where manufacturing was that has been redeveloped into retail parks or apartments. Liz and I with the children went in Birmingham for a weekend, we went on a canal trip, it was so sad to see all the land where demolished factory's once stood just as waste land waiting to be developed.

The country has not invested and supported manufacturing for so long that we now have major up hill battle. 

We need to look at getting the education system right so that we have the right motivated and trained engineers etc. 

One way would be is to develop more sponsorship placements in SME's and PLC's for students.The students sign for example a 4 year contract but in return the company sponsor the student, some of the costs for the business is offset by reduced company tax. This would be a win win situation ie students coming out of university with less debt and the students getting real work experience, and the business wins by having a student who is motivated and can bring new ideas etc to the business.

So what we all need to do is to support British business and products. Great Britain needs to think more of what's in it for us and learn from the French who if they do not agree with EU law then they don't bother with it!.

We all need to start to focus on Britain so that we can be proud of British business and products. 

The other day on Twitter I tried a #hash tags of #backbritishproducts #backbritishbusiness and the amount of interest was great, so with a new financial year starting in April, why don't we have a national campaign promoted by the government and business to showcase our great skills, products and businesses. 

The only way we can get the country out of the current state is for us all to work together to trade the country out of the mess.

Selling with no gimmicks and no constant sales.

Very interesting TV last night, watched Mary Portas Secret Shopper this program is about customer service. Last nights program was about the furniture business. As we all know there are some very big retailers out there there, ie DFS etc.

The main method of marketing is having constant sales with products that have been so called discounted by say 50%. But as we know the original price is not a real price!.

What Mary Portas did was to worked with CLS Sofas by changing the shopping experience. She created lifestyle zones so people could understand the size of the sofas in average size rooms etc. The best thing that she did was to get the pricing policy changed, what they did was to do way with the "sales" and inflated prices and now have " always best price guaranteed ". That means no more gimmicks and customers feel that they get best price first time.

What happens with having offers all the time is that customers do not trust the pricing and will just wait until what they want comes on offer.

Having a clear, best price policy is a great way in building customer loyalty and as the MD of CLS said has increased sales!!

We are looking for New Clients

Due to the up coming public sector cuts we are looking for new clients to fill in the gaps.

Do you want, your logo reworking, your brochure brought up to date,  packaging design that flys off the shelf, leaflets that sell your product or service, a website that wows your customers?

What we are looking for is clients who want great graphic design, websites that work and printed material that make you standout.

Do you want a refreshing change as our policy is always under promise and over deliver.

So who we are looking for are marketing managers in medium to large size businesses, owners of SME's and start up businesses who value the power of creativity, understand the values of two way respect and honesty and also understand about long term business relationships where service is important but in a cost effective way.

So if you a feel that we can work together or you know someone who fits what we are looking for please give me a call on 01773 599159.

Many thanks for reading this.

Regards

Mike Handley

Ps If you don't value creativity, who just buy on price and not service then sorry but we are not interested!

Business tips.

Always look at your client mix and review.

Make sure that your clients are clients that fit your profile, ethics and values.

Be pro-active and not reactive ie we all know cuts in the public sector are coming so plan now.

What SME's can learn from WHSmith and Woolworths.

Christmas has been and gone, as we all know a big historic brand of Woolworths left the high street a fews years and in my opinion unless they make major changes another might be WHSmith. 

The key reason that Woolworths failed is that they lost sight of who the customer was and most of all the change in high shopping and the big supermarkets. Woolworths were stuck in the past and WHSmith to me are also living in the past.

Both Woolworths and WHSmith seemed behind their competitors getting into internet shopping. So these are also some of the key issues that affect WH Smith.

First key issues is being aware of what customers want and to be able to change your mix of products or services and methods of selling. 

If you look at WHSmith their core products are books, newspapers, magazines, stationery products and DVD'S / music and if you think about it they are positioned in very expensive high street locations. 

Over the last decade shopping habits have changed so people do "onestop" shopping in big supermarkets. All the core WHSmith  products can be sourced for large supermarkets. They may not have the range but do sell the key core best sellers in books etc.

Within the music market the supermarket has destroyed the high street sales. Another area in music sales is the amount of retail download sales ie Itures. So again WHSmith have lost out there by not embracing change in technology.

As for stationery shopping again the high street has changed over the years with the likes great retailers like Rymans who use more cost effective retail units.

Also another key fact is the increase of internet shopping, this is where WH Smith lost a lot with in the book market. Amazon who only started in 1994 in the USA have used technology to take the majority of book sales in the UK. How many websites do you see with Amazon promotions running? 

One of key advantages in using technology is that Amazon will have better stock control and less money tied up in dead stock.If you think how many retail units that WHSmith have, how much stock they have to stock just to keep their shelves looking full. So if you are running a retail business make sure that you keep your stock levels right and review all products, if not selling just promote and discount to turn the product back to cash.

Make sure that your marketing and point and sale looks right, over Christmas the point of sale that was in the windows of WHSmith in the Westfield in Derby just looked so boring and lacked any punch.

So what can the SME market learn then?

Understand who your customer is and what they want to buy.

Embrace technology, make sure that you can sell, promote on line. Today don't think local think global!

Always keep reviewing what you are doing right, but find out from customers where you can improve.

Always beware of what your competiors or doing and what there strenght and weekness's are. Then you can plan your marketing.

Make sure that all your marketing, advertising, point of sale stands out, looks professional and most of all works.

I hope that the directors, management and staff can sort out WHSmith as it would be sad to see the loss of another historic British brand dating from 1792.