Honey Trap

I returned from a great, sunny week in Sardinia recently with 3 identical jars of local honey.

Nothing unusual in that - the Sardinian people are well known for their production of bitter sweet honey. The interesting thing was how we got them.

It seems that the hotels and agriturismos of Alghero and Olbia have discovered the combined power of honey and the internet in pulling in overseas visitors. Specifically www.tripadvisor.com where, in return for each delicious jar of honey, we were kindly asked to post our glowing reviews of each of the 3 places we stayed.

Three different places. Three identical jars of honey. Maybe the honey farmer is the real smart guy here.

Anyway, they got their reviews (and in this case they were all great) and I have got a couple of early Christmas presents. So all good.

And for the record, this was the best hotel of the 3 – Hotel Lucrezia near Oristano.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187884-d578775-Reviews-Hotel_Lucrezia-Oristano_Sardinia.html

Madonna, Mum and Dad

I was enjoying a meeting yesterday when the subject of the ‘grey’ pound came up. “Good idea – get the over 50’s in our target audience matrix” came the cry!

I sensed we had a problem.

Stats from Age Concern show that as much as 40% (£260bn) of total UK annual consumer spending can be attributed to the UK over 50s. In 2003 one in three people in the UK were aged 50+ and by 2031 this is predicted to rise to two-fifths. There are already more people aged 60+ than are aged 0-14. People aged 50-65 spend twice as much on leisure and entertainment as under-30s The over 50s buy 80% of all top of the range cars, 50% of skincare products and 80% of leisure cruises. Go mum and dad! And Madonna!

There is no doubt it is a very valuable segment, but also a very large and diverse segment. This is not an audience that can be seen as a homogenous group. To generalize is to surely miss out.
Do marketers understand this? Of course many do but that doesn’t seem to stop advertising often falling short. I spotted some research from The Leadership Factor research panel that showed how the 0ver 50s believe marketers treat them. The findings showed room for improvement (!):

• 55% said ‘patronising


• 29% said ‘old fashioned / technophobes
  
• Only 16% said intelligent / discerning

The same research also looked into the different product categories that are pushed towards this age group. As the chart shows they would rather hear about cars and travel than life assurance or dentures!

So it looks like the message is clear -- more thought needs to go into segmenting and targeting Madonna and her 50+ peers!! How? That's up to you - it's time for the pub now …..

Crunch Time

We did a quick poll last week with just over 2,000 UK consumers using our online research tool >ENGAGE.

We’ve been working on cars and wanted to get a feel for how the current economic climate and the media’s coverage of events were influencing consumer purchase intentions.

We asked: “Thinking about the current economic environment, which of the following purchases were you considering 6-12 months ago that you are not considering now?”

Top answers were:

- Holiday 26%
- Home extension & other improvements 22%
- New car 18%
- New home 8%

What does this mean?

Well in our case it makes selling cars more difficult (!) though behind the top-line numbers we found some interesting insights. One of these was that the over-50s seemed to be far more resilient to the current economic challenges. In fact the ‘grey market’ – debt free, with significant savings and a hold on 40% of UK consumer spending – start to look like a relatively recession proof audience.

We plan to dig deeper ……

Another useful source of research in these turbulent times – for B2B marketers – is the B2B Marketing Insight Report 2008. It was created by B2B Marketing and Gyro to provide a definitive picture of the rapidly emerging B2B marketing sector, during the heart of the credit crunch.

More details can be found here http://www.b2bm.biz/insightreport/

Football - How Big Will The Bubble Get?

Came back from a meeting this afternoon to find a trail of emails featuring a lively Friday afternoon discussion on the state of football. Seems some of my premiership friends - Man United, West Ham and Pompey fans in this case - are feeling more detached from their teams, their players and the game as a whole than ever before. I can relate to that (being an Owl) but it was interesting to hear it from these guys. They would usually be in full Sky watching mode by now.

So I guess the question is does football keep getting bigger and bigger or is there a point when the football bubble starts to deflate? Isn't that inevitable if it loses touch with its audience as it seems - based on today's inbox chatter - it is doing? Looks like a classic brand problem that - whatever the outcome - will be textbook stuff of the future.

Is the end nigh? Or do we have European super leagues and the further demise of international football to look forward to first?

Watch this space ......