Category Archives: brands

It pays to engage your employees

Posted on Wednesday 13 April 2011 | Leave a comment

Only a real idiot would fail to nurture and care for his employees.  After all, your employees ARE your business.  Their personal traits are your assets, their values are your values and their passions the seeds of your future products.  They have the ideas that, in an environment where a business is only as good as its NEXT big idea, are the difference between success and failure.  Its also down to them that these ideas get turned into products and services and delivered to market and the level of efficiency with which they do that is also in their gift.  That’s why my Brand Discovery programme focusses on engaging the organisations’ workforce.  They, not the directors are after all, going to bring the brand to life.

Internal marketing will deliver by far the fastest performance improvement for pretty well any business.  For one thing its massively neglected.  Many businesses don’t even have a budget for it and we are all familliar with the law of diminishing return, so its easy to see why a little attention given to such a neglected subject will quickly deliver disproportionate results.  When I am faced with a business that’s strapped for cash, but needs to turn around, my first call will be to the internal marketing toolbox.  Its rare for my marketing strategies not to include HR initiatives.  I usually have HR people on my project teams and I’ve frequently delivered results without increasing marketing investment by switching marketing funds from external communications to internal initiatives.

My fascination with this subject explained my glee when I came across Dr David Kelly’s account of “Designing Curious Employees“.  Just about every paragraph on this piece contains a priceless insight that most businesses I encounter could do well to contemplate.

Although he may not express it in these terms, David Kelly recognises that getting your employees behind your brand is the key to success.  Brands fail because they don’t live up to expectations and that’s down to employees, but for employees to do their stuff requires that they are comitted to playing their part in delivering your brand promise and in my experience few employees even know what that is, let alone have a sense of ownership.  Most businesses issue instructions to their employees rather than explain and involve them in decision and as Dr Kelley says, that’s the worst thing you can do. Why should they feel anything for a concept or even a business that they haven’t been allowed to participate in the development of?

Keeping them in the loop is but a facet of internal marketing.  If you want your employees to truly own your strategy (and belive me you do) they have to have played a part in its formulation.  There are all kinds of tools that you can engage to ensure this is happening, but most of all you need to engage your ears.  Once they know you are listening, in my experience emplyees will respond with all manner of ideas and suggestions that could set your business on the road to success.  I once created an entire business unit from an idea that came from a junior secretary and businesses that harness their people power are doing the same every day.  So, take heed of what David Kelly says.  Internal marketing is a powerful tool that in the right hands can transform a business.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in brand, brand character, brand community, brand development, Brand Discovery, Brand equity, Brand promise, branding, brands, brandships, communications, decision-making, Dr. David Kelly, efficiency, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, internal marketing, marketing, phil darby, The Full Effect Company, Training, Uncategorized

Genuine brands and really great musicians – you can always tell the real thing

Posted on Tuesday 5 April 2011 | Leave a comment

I would never have considered myself an Alison Krauss fan, but this track took my fancy.

Its by no means a stand out song, its put together in a pretty standard sort of way, but the musicianship is great and I really like the contrasts in the arrangement of mandolin and steel guitar.  Its a demonstration of how attention to detail can make something special.

At the other end of the tempo scale is this version of Imelda May’s Inside Out.  I love her stuff and my daughter put the rawer, album version of this on a loop in the car last week so I know it well.  I love the way that Imelda produces lots of different versions of the same number – a real artist with a band made up of great musicians including her awesome guitarist husband Darrel Higham.

These are both examples of how the genuine will stand out in a manufactured world.  Just like brands.  You simply can’t build a strong brand on pretence the values have to go all the way through – just like the lettering in a stick of rock or songs by real musicians.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Alison Krauss, brand, brand character, brand development, Brand Discovery, Brand equity, Brand promise, branding, brands, brandships, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, Imelda May, marketing, music in marketing, phil darby, The Full Effect Company

Is your customer support a bit of a let-down?

Posted on Wednesday 30 March 2011 | 1 Comment

Most businesses these days understand that they are driven by Brandships.  Many appreciate that Brandships are built on trust and few would fail to recognise that if their words and deeds are in any way inconsistent, either with each other or with their Brand Promise, they stand little chance of establishing the level of trust that success is built on.  So where is it going wrong?

Having acquired this wisdom, organisations around the world now devote a great deal of time and invest heavily in initiatives designed to represent their brand values consistently at every touch-point.  Getting every communication to say the same thing is the essence of integrated communications.

Because customer acquisition for all the reasons I’ve explored here in the past, is getting horribly expensive, Brandships are more valuable than ever, which is why businesses are increasingly seeking to improve their customer support,  a factor that is accentuated by the growth in e-tailing where the incidence of customer complaint is, as I mentioned last month, a bit of an issue.

I’m encouraged by the increase in the number of businesses who, instead of trying to make customers with a complaint feel like Oliver Twist asking for “more gruel”, have adopted a no-quibble replacement or compensation policy.  It seems that,  at last, the penny has dropped on this one (Although you’ll note from my earlier post on this subject that Halfords still don’t get it!).  However, you can have the best complaint resolution policy in the business, but it ‘aint worth a hill of beans if your customers have to navigate a maze of on-line and telephone obstacles to get to it!  There’s no more telling evidence of a genuine commitment to Brandships than an organisation’s on-line or call-centre process and it’s certainly taken by customers as a pretty good guide to brand values.  So why do so many businesses get it wrong?

My guess is that they simply don’t recognse what’s happening.  I’ve been advising senior execs lately to call up their own customer support line from time to time, rather than rely on the KPIs they get every month.  Whether your process is automated or not, the way you handle after sales contact with customers can be pivotal to the success in Brandships.  This isn’t just about damage limitation (because nearly all the calls you receive are going to be potentially damaging), many businesses have demonstrated that you can actually reverse the momentum, turning a potentially damaging situation into one that strengthens Brandships, if you handle them correctly.  For most this is nothing more than aligning the process to the brand model, which, sadly, few businesses do well.

In recent weeks I’ve experienced both the best and the worst in customer call handling.  The worst being the episode with Halfords that I reported on here last week and a more recent still, an encounter with HP’s customer dis-service process that starts with their un-navigable web site, designed to send you round in circles until you screw yourself!  Yes HP seem intent not to engage with you unless they absolutely have to, which is a pity, because if you can get around the system and actually manage to speak to the person you need, the response (in my case anyway) was exemplary.

I was also disappointed when re-visiting a brand that I have been happy to deal with for years.  I have never before had cause to complain about Polar UK, The local distributor for Polar, who manufacture heart-rate monitors for athletes, but I’ve called and spoken directly to their service people in the UK a number of times.  Such an old-fashioned process may have been a little at odds with their global positioning, but it was very reassuring and, overall, it worked.  Sadly, they have succumbed to pressure to automate their calls handling, but in their case the band-waggon has a wheel missing.  In fact, its possibly the most bumbling and poorly conceived process I have come across for a good while and the antithesis of everything that I have come to expect of the Polar brand.  This takes me right back to the principles of Full Effect Marketing – individual marketing elements, which because they are neglected, neutralise some of the brand building benefits of higher-profile elements that the business is investing in.  In other words … waste!

The up-side of my engaging with customer service processes has been a discovery I made of a business that specialises in designing models that actually contribute to brand development.  Brand Audio in Edgware, North London, will study your brand (even work with you to help you profile it if you haven’t already) and then bring it to life in navigation, messages and music.  Just what every business needs in fact.  This isn’t about hardware or programming (although I’m told they can provide that too), its pure brand development and while I am sure they are not alone in this space, it made me feel good to know that there is someone my clients can turn to for this kind of specialist help.  Brand Audio work with a host of leading brands who recognise the need to prioritise their customer handling processes.  At least, one route to great Brandships (and therefore a healthy business) is in the way you interact with customers on-line and on-phone and I recommend to every business to address this area of their marketing before its too late.

Footnote: Brandships, as it suggests, is the name I use to describe the relationships we have with brands.  Enter the world of Brandships at www.thefullblog.com or follow me on Twitter @thefulltweet.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in brand, Brand Audio, brand character, brand community, brand consultancy, brand development, Brand Discovery, Brand equity, Brand Model, Brand promise, branding, brands, brandships, communications, community, customer, customer service, customer support, customers, e-tailing, efficiency, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, Halfords, HP, integrated marketing, marketing, phil darby, The Full Effect Company, Uncategorized

In the retail – e-tail war detail could be the decider.

Posted on Tuesday 1 March 2011 | Leave a comment

So, HMV is in a state of meltdown yet again and with today’s profit warning following a Christmas trading period that turned out to be more of a turkey than a gift, it all looks pretty glum for this once retail icon.

In fact HMV is one of two high street retailers that I feel deserve a kick up the arse right now.  Both are frustratingly short of a few tricks that would counteract the biggest threat to their future.  The other is no-brand WH Smith, whose stores are dismal, amateur, badly lit, over stocked, over-priced and poorly staffed.  There’s an irony somewhere in the fact that HMV’s sister business Waterstone’s is the one showing WH Smith how its done.  Smiths may be in growth mode right now, but it looks like the short-term market-trader kind of success that begs questions like “So what do we do for our next trick?”.

Compare the two – On the brightest day a visit to WH Smith can make you feel like ending it all.  A bit like a church hall jumble sale, the mess of books, school equipment, magazines and sweets(?) and lord knows what else, trying hard to be all things to all people and succeed in being nothing much to anybody.    Waterstones, on the other hand, with their founder back at the helm, have single-mindedly established their authority in a sector where authority is everything.  These days Waterstones are ticking all the boxes, with knowledgable and intelligent staff and meaningfully stocked shelves (no pick n’ mix sweets in grubby pots here).  They have even mastered the trick of using their High Street presence to establish the authority they need to succeed on-line and with a million plus e-book downloads under their belt I have no doubt that both clicks and mortar numbers will follow.

Like Waterstones, WH Smith and HMV have both encountered the Internet challenge, but while WH Smith firstly buried its head in the sand, hoped it would go away, then muffed the response, HMV, like Waterstones, are focussing on doing things in-store that only in-store can do and using on-line as a sort-of take-away format – well almost.  And that’s the rub.  They aren’t getting down to the detail quite as I would have hoped.

For one thing, despite the live music elements they have added, they haven’t really mastered the brand community thing and they are missing some of the small practical things could make doing business with them easier and more fun.  Take for instance the art of the demo.  A focus of all record stores in the past and certainly a useful community building tool today.  Remember the Saturdays (That’s the day of the week not the band!) spent in the listening booth at your local record store listening to Friday’s releases and deciding what to spend this week’s pocket-money on?

When vinyl went out of the door, so it seems did the listening booth – replaced, admittedly by HMVs listening posts, which were fine, but then … silence!  Sure, they’ll play a CD in the store if you can get close enough to the check-out for your request to be heard, but it’s not the same as sharing a set of headphones with your mates in a sweaty booth.

Maybe they think they have that one covered with their in-store radio (Is it live? – I’m not sure), but they kinda’ come out of that looking like the guy who invented 6-Up - just a natz short of success – not enough interaction, which they could have built-in even with an AsLive solution.  They also miss the same trick on-line because, except for a few albums like Jessie J’s latest which features her brilliant Price Tag video, you can’t listen to even samples of selected tracks before you buy.  In the store they make great play (excuse the pun) of introducing new acts with short, on-shelf biogs, but if you can’t listen to the music, you have to risk £10 to buy the album blind (or is it deaf?) which, when we are all being austere, is a non-starter really.

To WH Smith I say, before turn yourself into a Moroccan bazaar, I suggest you don’t copy Woolies, because we all know where that gets you, pop across to Wilkinson instead and see how multi-category retailing is done cheerfully and tastefully (and with staff that you’d consider striking up a conversation with).  Oh and switch the lights on.  Reading in bad light is bad for anybody’s eyes.   HMV on the other hand need to write a thousand times “retail is detail”.  Put yourself in your customer’s shoes, get the little things right, tackle these and I’m sure you’ll find your days will be brighter.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in brand community, Brand Model, branding, brands, brandships, e-tailing, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, HMV, ideas, in-store music, Jessie J, on-line, phil darby, Retail, Retail format, Retail marketing, retailer, Store design, The Full Effect Company, Uncategorized, Waterstones, WH Smith, Wilkinson, woolies, Woolworth

James Bond – brand agent

Posted on Saturday 19 February 2011 | Leave a comment

There’s a new series on BBC TV called Faulks on Fiction, which in reassuring as-it-says-on-the-tin fashion is Sebastian Faulks taking an entertaining look at the world of novels.  This week his subject was heroes and featured Ian Fleming and James bond.

Faulks receives useful and well-informed help from John Hegarty, described in the caption as “Brand consultant”, with justification when you consider the part he has played in the development of so many famous brands, but better known to marketers, simply as the Hegarty in Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty – another great brand.  BBH, you’ll remember were, responsible for the Levi’s Launderette campaign , which I am sure I am not alone in believing, is the campaign that marked the coming of age of Brand Development.

Faulks hits the nail on the head in his analysis of Fleming’s genius in the creation of the Bond character, when he and Hegarty highlight the way Fleming defined Bond in terms of famous brands.  In a featured interview, Fleming himself confirmed that brands are a great way to define a person.  However, until Bond, this idea had never been fully exploited.  Bond is Rolex, Ritz Hotel, Smirnoff, Dom Perignon and a whole lot more.

Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with the theme.  I’ve explored, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs  a number of times in the past, in particular, the theory that we are all gradually ascending to a point of self-actualisation, but currently stuck at a point where our goal is the approval of others and the pursuit of belonging.  I have called this the “I am what I buy” or “I am what I wear” syndrome, which is represented admirably by this story and continues to be the heart of any well-founded brand strategy.

In fact, Bond matured to become an iconic brand himself, ironically adding substance to brands like Smirnoff and Aston Martin from which he was forged and many more besides in a kind of DNA cycle that is replicated in BBH – builders of brands that define their brand and the many other examples that surround us daily.  I can think of no better illustration than James Bond of what brands and branding is all about.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Bartle Bogle Hegarty, BBH, brand, brand character, brand development, Brand equity, brand name, brands, brandships, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, Ian Flemming, James Bond, John Hegarty, marketing, Maslow, phil darby, Sebastian Faulkes, The Full Effect Company, Uncategorized

Saatchi & Saatchi London and T-Mobile. A big idea worth sharing

Posted on Wednesday 16 February 2011 | Leave a comment

Its not just because I’m one of the old Saatchi alumni and I’m sure I am not alone in this, but I get a kick everytime I see this campaign.  In fact, although I have worked for most of the big mobile operators over the years T-mobile hasn’t been one of them, so why am I giving it space here?

The answer is simple.  Its a great example of something that I have been banging on about for years – “The big idea”.  In the old Saatchi days, this is what we did – Silk Cut, British Airways, Intercity, there’s a long list of big ideas that have originated in Saatchi.  For years now though I’ve felt that (and Kevin Roberts will hate me for this) the old place had struggled to get its head as far above its competitors as we used to, but looking at what has been coming out of Charlotte Street recently, I have to say, things are looking good.

Keep it up folks!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in above-the-line, advertising, Big Idea, brand development, Brand equity, branding, brands, brandships, British Airways, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, Kevin Roberts, phil darby, Saatchi & Saatchi, Saatchi's, T-Mobile, the big idea, The Full Effect Company

Brand Britain or Big Society. Could Cameron use some marketing expertise?

Posted on Sunday 13 February 2011 | Leave a comment

It may be another word for the kind of national service the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have only recently abandoned, but it seems to me that David Cameron’s “Big Society” idea is missing a basic ingredient for success.

Those who have followed my comments on National Branding in the past will understand where I am coming from on this.  I’m all in favour of a self-supporting society and a move away from the nanny state that far too many of us have grown to rely on, but are those who are driving the Big Society initiative seeing it as a step towards Brand Britain or reliant on it?  My feeling is that in order to get there you have first to nurture a feeling of belonging among the populous and, judging from the debates on the Big Society that are currently taking place, this just isn’t there and the media are doing their usual best to divide us still further.

I see there are a number of facets to the Big Society.  There’s the need for us to stand on our own feet as individuals again, there’s the need to cut the cost of the services and resources that have supported the lazy and over reliant among us and there’s the belief that by focussing on community and encouraging people to participate, society and our nation can begin to realise the many opportunities that a community mindset opens up.  However, government is missing far too many opportunities to “big up” British and Brits’ achievements and, as I have said before, this is a key component of any Brand Britain development programme.

If I am reading Dave’s agenda right, I can’t see anybody grabbing and managing this initiative nor can I see what is being done, apart from a lot of talk (which has its place, of course) to get everyone on the same page.  If the “Big Society” is, after all just a money-saving scheme, then David Cameron is surely missing the bigger trick?  Anyway, ultimately it won’t work, because the people who are supposed to be implementing the programme at local level have neither the skills or experience to make the right judgements or the motivation that a real Brand Britain campaign would provide.

Cameron and the Tories may have come closer than previous governments to getting this kind of campaign right, but we need a whole lot more internal marketing and brand-building to be brought to bear if the Big Society is going to be the really worthwhile initiative I hope and believe was the intention.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Big Idea, Big Society, brand, brand Britain, brand development, Brand equity, branding, brands, brandships, central europe, community, Conservative, David Cameron, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, internal marketing, National Branding, phil darby, the big idea, The Full Effect Company, Uncategorized

The wonder of Wilko

Posted on Wednesday 2 February 2011 | 1 Comment

In what appears to be an increasingly grey and mundane landscape the occasional ray of sunshine is more than welcome.  My personal shining star right now is the retailer Wilkinson who seem to have suddenly awoken to become everything that Woolworth failed to be.  They are even doing it in the very shop units in which Woolies crashed and burned.

It’s hard to fault the new look Wilko.  Great new logo that manages to be both contemporary and friendly in equal measure, stores that despite their stack-it-high-sell-it-cheap approach to merchandising still appear orderly and inviting and whether it’s just my local branch or common throughout the chain, the staff are friendlier, and more helpful than those in many premium stores.

Their array of categories offer the diversity that Woolworth failed to cope with and rationalised away long before their eventual demise.  Wilko’s homewares sit better in the store than those of Matalan or TK Max and partner with decorating products more comfortably that Homebase.

Wilkinson, remarkably, was top of mind for me when buying a few stationery items today, even though in Newbury High Street, WH Smith are directly opposite (But I always think of Smiths as a venue for a wrist-slashing anyway!).  I bought de-icer from there a few weeks ago in preference to Halfords, and a few homewares items that I could have picked up from Tesco, had I been so inclined.  Admittedly there is a chasm between the old Wilko stores and the new smart format, but with a roll-out planned I’m sure it won’t be long before everyone will be able to experience the wonder of Wilko!  Even their web experience is good.  Frankly, I can’t see how they would fail.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in brand, brand character, brand development, brand name, Brand promise, branding, brands, brandships, customer service, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, phil darby, Retail, Retail format, Retail marketing, retailer, The Full Effect Company, TK Max, Uncategorized, Wilkinson, woolies, Woolworth

Music – The High Street retailer’s secret weapon in the battle with e-tail brands

Posted on Friday 21 January 2011 | Leave a comment

Is the shine wearing off the on-line retail gem?  Customer service has always been the Achilles heel of on-line retailers and it seems as though it’s a problem that’s not going away.

In November, Nick Robertson of ASOS and Mark Newton-jones from Shop Direct told delegates to the Skillsmart Retail Parliamentary reception hosted by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, Nigel Evans MP, that on-line retailers need to learn customer service from traditional retailers.  On-line customer complaints are high and margins are stretched when the e-tailers try to up their anti.  However, this week Mary Portas has been taking the High Street to task for what she says is “crap” customer service.  So, like most things, it seems its not that simple.

What this boils down to is the age-old marketing fundamental of playing to your strengths.  Internet retailers are never going to have the same opportunities to foster “Brandships” that a high street retailer has, so if the traditional players fail to leverage that now, I for one, won’t be sympathetic to their future cries of “unfair” when their business is left in the dust of the smart young things of e-commerce.

The Internet is a cold and impersonal place.  You have to work much harder than you might on the High Street to achieve anything close to that warm cuddly feeling you get in your favourite store.  To a customer, feeling “at home” with a retail brand is everything (actually, feeling at home with any kind of brand is the key to business success) but achieving this requires the ticking of a lot of boxes.  Some of these boxes are purely practical, like availability, delivery, ease of use, customer service, which is where the Internet brands can compete.  Sure they are failing on customer service right now, partly because the business model that remains viable when the levels of returns and complaints that this channel is prone to has yet to be found, but they’ll get there.  Meanwhile, the “trads” need to wise-up and start polishing up the soft elements of Brand Promise that are tougher for the e-shops to influence.

I’m thinking environment.  Sure you can make an on-line environment comfortable and inviting to customers and it’s not beyond our capability to even modify the on-line environment of a single e-retailer to fit different customer types, but the trads definitely have more scope.  My readers will know that I’ve been focusing on in-store music recently and that’s because its one of those great untapped opportunities of retail brand building.

Shoppers love in-store music when its right.  Give them what they want and they’ll visit you more often, stay longer, spend more and tell all their friends, or so the gurus at MusicWorksForYou.com  tell us.  Retailers know they can influence behaviour of shoppers and staff with the right music and store staff say the right music makes them feel more energised, so you’ll take care of some of Mary’s customer service issues too.  Put all this together and you can’t fail.  But, the onus is on the words “the right music” and that’s where the work needs to be done.

It seems we all know music works, but the secret of quite how it does so are held by only a very few.  People like Bruno Brookes and the rest of the folks at Immedia Broadcast who have been creating bespoke live radio for some of the High Street’s biggest brands for the past ten years.  However, you don’t have to own a multi-million dollar radio station to add something extra to your brand or even drive sales, because with the right play-list a simple music stream will do both and that’s what Immedia are doing right now with their new Dreamstream offer.  Retail marketers need to disabuse themselves of the belief that they know what music works with their audience and hand the job over to the experts who know what “tailoring” really means, then perhaps we’ll be able to wave goodbye to the ubiquitous local radio station (that actually can do more harm to trade than good) or repetitive CD’s of nearly-bands playing covers and start hearing more in-store music that reinforces the brand and fosters real “Brandships”.  Then the High Street will really be able to show the e-tailers a thing or two about brand-building.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in brand, brand character, brand development, Brand Model, Brand promise, branding, brands, brandships, Bruno Brookes, customer service, customers, Dreamstream, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, Immedia, integrated marketing, Mark Newton-Jones, Mary Portas, Nick Robertson, phil darby, Retail, Retail marketing, retailer, Store design, The Full Effect Company, Uncategorized

The things our fathers didn’t tell us

Posted on Thursday 20 January 2011 | Leave a comment

Did Wickes commission the Comcero.com survey that revealed that Britain’s young men lack DIY skills, or are they just promoting it on their web site?  Whichever, it may have “got Wickes name on it”, but it seems to me that this isn’t news to their competitor B&Q who have been playing this card for a few years already.

The fact that B&Q’s older shop staff are intrinsic to their brand DNA can’t be an accident.  These are the people who grew up in an era when you measured a man by the weight of his tool box and he could fix, build or re-model pretty well anything.  It’s just a pity that the big orange sheds haven’t done more to build “brandships” around this theme.  Maybe now Wickes have shared this with us, they will.

Its definitely a generational thing.  Back in my other home in Prague, where society, despite its desperate scramble to become Western and “up-to-date”, lags a few decades behind the West in many ways, a remarkable and endearing Czech character trait is their reluctance to throw anything away.  Czech men, even the young ones, fix things.  Its not always a pretty sight, but there are things in every day use in most households, that would have been thrown out years ago by a faddy, fashion-obsessed Westerners who legions of manufacturers exploit annually with the introduction of new product models.  My Czech neighbour, who runs a business on a vintage PC with Windows ’97  just doesn’t get it.  Why should he upgrade when the things he has still work (albeit slowly)?

The Czech government had to introduce laws to stop drivers running ancient Skodas with drum brakes and three forward gears.  Every urban street has a communal car ramp where residents for years have worked on their Skoda 120′s and even today my guess is most motorists do their own servicing without questioning it.

My Czech brother-in-law needed a house, so he built one – I mean, himself, on his own – bricklaying, carpentry, services, the lot!  But to him that’s nothing out of the ordinary in a society that’s probably forty years behind us in many of its attitudes.  In fact, when Britain’s older DIYers finally retire for good, maybe our DIY sheds will be able to bolster its ranks with young recruits from Central Europe, who still know how to do all the handy jobs about the house that our fathers did?

→ Leave a comment

Posted in B&Q, brand, brands, brandships, customer service, czech, developed markets, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, integrated marketing, marketing, phil darby, Retail, Retail marketing, retailer, Skoda Auto, The Full Effect Company