When we were asked to deliver a talk about Marketing for Beginners to the Wiltshire Business Club this week, we devised a game to make the session memorable and fun.
As the seven building blocks of marketing all start with the letter P, we took our inspiration from long running and popular teens’ quiz show Blockbusters. (more…)
I attended James Averdiek’s talk at the Swindon Business Show today.
He is the founder of Gu chocolate puddings; rather expensive but utterly delicious, found in Waitrose, etc. The business value increased from £0 to £30 million in seven years.
After getting fed up trying to launch Utterly Butterly in Belgium (they weren’t interested in margarine and thought the name was fraudulent) James had an idea for his own business, inspired by his addiction to chocolate and the Belgium attitude to ‘dieting’ – same gorgeous food, just tiny portions. (more…)
Alongside the solicitors, accountants and financial services (though don’t get me wrong – these services are indispensible!) you meet some really unusual and innovative businesses.
The stand-outs for me today were:
Gibbons Gardening who gave me a packet of meadow seeds and had a conversation about how wrong it is to weedkiller nettles. And anyone who has a monkey for a logo can do no wrong…
e-motion electric vehicle company who sell electric bikes. This may be the way forward for someone like me who lives in the middle of the countryside.
Red Penguin consulting for having a randomly coloured animal as a name.
CS Handwriting Analysis – though I was too frightened to show Christina mine…
Young at Heart – who will do an artery age check to see if you are furry on the inside
Inner Flame – who do team and confidence building through fun activities for 14-19 year olds
Solomon Training – who help unemployed people with their basic (and beyond) maths English and IT skills.
Severnprint for their total commitment to quality and eco-friendly printing (and because they gave me lots of free notepads).
And also: Frank Stobrawe from PAT Testing Services who gave me (dare I admit it) some handy tips on marketing via Amazon and QR codes!
As our name suggests, when we’re not helping people with their marketing we are actually Secret Agents. A real bona fide James Bond and Sydney Bristow. Yesterday, we were involved in the extraction of a friendly operative from a bunch of hostiles. We had them surrounded in the Savernake Forest, which was handy cos it’s just a short commute from our Secret Head Quarters. Anyway, we had to wait for Special Forces to turn up to provide extra firepower. Sadly, due to budget cuts, all the military could spare was these two morons (click the picture to watch the video).
Assuming we know about these things, people are always stopping the Secret Agents in the street and asking: “What’s the best social media platform to promote my business?”
The other day we came across this handy guide at www.breakingcopy.com. Hope it helps!
