“As Tiger takes a break from the public eye, we will support his desire for privacy by limiting his role in our marketing programs.” – A Gillette statement as expertly spun as a Tiger Woods chip

Only two months ago Tiger Woods was being hailed as the world’s first billion dollar sportsman. Well, since then he certainly hasn’t been behaving like a billion dollar brand. As the criticism grew the more silent he became in what is a worsening PR disaster for the troubled golfer.

Going silent in a crisis might have worked in a time when you could control the messages being spun in the media. Not so now. The power of social media means people can spread rumours and opinions at a startling rate. Which is why speaking out in a crisis is vital, otherwise inaccurate claims go unchallenged and silence is equated to guilt.

Social media has sped up the need for crisis marketing

Whether it’s sharing opinions on Russell Brand, Jan Moir or BA’s cabin crews, it seems as though every week there’s another story being driven by what people are saying online. Nowadays people rush to comment, Tweet, join Facebook groups and angrily hammer out blog posts to fan the flames of that week’s raging debate.

Much of what’s written isn’t fact checked or balanced, with many false claims accepted as truth. So you must speak up and be part of the debate if you want to challenge inaccuracies and diffuse negativity.

But first you must have a marketing plan in place for when a crisis occurs.

How to market in a crisis

Listen – Before you can respond to criticism you have to be able to hear it. So you’ll need to set up listening posts in the form of RSS feeds for Google, Twitter, YouTube and anywhere else you think your brand name might be mentioned. You’ll then be able to listen to what’s being said so you can prepare your response.

Respond – Paralysing in a crisis isn’t going to win you friends. So you should aim to respond to an outbreak within 24 hours. In this era of transparency and sharing of information, denial will only backfire. Instead you should acknowledge the situation, explain why it has occurred and say what you’re doing to put it right.

When responding you could follow Dominos’ example and post a YouTube video (the most appropriate response in its case), start Tweeting or send out a press release. Publishing a statement on your website is a must.

Make sure you have a process for approving anything you publish and stick to a consistent message. Impulsive, off the cuff comments can live for a long time online, no matter how quickly you try to delete them after.

Prepare for a successful relaunch

In 1982 US painkiller brand Tylenol faced the disaster of a tampering scare. But through the way its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, handled the situation it emerged more trusted and with a larger market share. This reversal of fortune became known as a Tylenol 180, and is a legendary example of successfully turning a disaster into an opportunity.

When crisis occurs, holding your hands up and saying how you’re going to make things right can actually deepen your customer relationships. You can then start planning for a successful relaunch, because the story of redemption is a powerful one.

With sponsors abandoning him daily, Tiger Woods will need to make his tear filled appearance on Oprah soon, or find another way of relaying what the Tiger brand is now about. The longer he stays silent the more time (potentially) false claims will have to weaken his deteriorating marketing muscle.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

This year the Fairtrade Foundation celebrated its 15^th birthday. Over the years it has helped improve the livelihoods of more than 7 million people throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. It’s a well respected organisation, fighting a noble cause. But as more shoppers opt for ethical brands, are companies going Fairtrade just for the marketing value?

This week Nestlé announced its Kit Kats (the four fingered variety anyway) are to be made from Fairtrade cocoa. It’s estimated the extra cash will benefit 8000 Ivory Coast farmers, with more funds being poured into education, healthcare and training.

But with Nestlé arguably the UK’s most boycotted company (thanks to their controversial marketing of baby milk), the news has hardly been greeted with universal praise. Nestlé’s critics have come out in force to question whether its gesture is genuine or just a cynical marketing ploy.

Nestlé aren’t the only company to be put under the ethical spotlight this year, with Starbucks, Cadbury and Tate & Lyle now all basking in a Fairtrade certified glow.

Going green is big business

These days you won’t just find ethical shoppers in Bodyshop and buying wicker baskets in specialist boutiques. The ethical market is now big business, with UK shoppers spending 40 billion green pounds last year. Many High St retailers now sell eco fashion ranges, whilst you can fill your home with sustainably made furniture and choose from 45oo Fairtade certified products.

In a recent survey 82% of consumers said they prefer to buy from companies that are socially and environmentally responsible; 23% will do so even if they’re products are more expensive. So it’s no wonder brands are eager to give their marketing an ethical stamp.

‘Green washed’ marketing risks a backlash

In 2007 the Advertising Standards Authority warned that the ‘green’ claims being made in many marketing campaigns might not be authentic. This followed action against a number of car manufacturers for their shaky claims on the ‘clean technology’ used in their cars.

The ASA’s warning seems timely, with so many brands now eager to paint themselves with a green tinted brush. But in the rush to go green many are forgetting the other values that are intrinsic to being seen as ethical: authenticity, honesty and trustworthiness.

As with all claims made in marketing, if brands are seen to be wearing green badges they don’t deserve they risk a backlash when their misdemeanours are exposed. This is why I don’t expect to see a rush of people lifting their embargo on Nestlé products anytime soon.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

Christmas is fast approaching, and with it the rush to get to the shops. But with all the traffic and crowds, you’d be forgiven for staying away and buying your gifts online. Well, this year you can visit some of London’s top retailers from the comfort of home thanks to a new virtual world called NearLondon.

NearLondon offers laser scanned 3D recreations of Oxford St, Regent St and Bond St, with more streets to follow. Many top retailers have signed up to advertise their wares, although they’re currently limited to selling from a shop window. But as NearLondon evolves they’ll be able to house fashion shows, interactive games and virtual concerts in their branded stores.

Does this all sound familiar? Well, NearLondon’s creators have been at pains to point out it isn’t another Second Life, and for good reason too…

Second Life – Not dead, just evolving

It was only two years ago that Second Life was basking in the media spotlight as brands, businesses and even nations rushed to grab their piece of online real estate. In fact, the number of people joining jumped from 450,000 to 4 million in just one year.

But unfortunately Second Life just wasn’t accessible enough for most people, and failed to attract the numbers needed to make it a successful marketing platform. The branded shops and buildings became ghost towns when the crowds failed to materialise and the buzz fizzled out. In many brand managers’ eyes, Second Life is now dead.

However, the site still attracts a million regular users and is now being touted as a platform for online collaboration, virtual meetings and a teaching tool. But it remains to be seen whether Second Life will ever attract the numbers needed to tempt brands back to what was, for many, an expensive experiment.

Will NearLondon be different?

The fact that NearLondon’s creators are already talking about a NearNewYork and NearTokyo shows they’ve got big plans. But will they be able to attract enough shoppers to keep the brands happy?

Criticisms of Second Life have been its awkward controls and the cartoony graphics. In NearLondon, however, you just click around the screen to explore London’s streets which are rendered in detailed 3D graphics similar to the latest video games.

NearLondon is currently on limited release, with software disks to be handed out in London next Monday. Whether it can compete with the buzz and physicality of the real world shopping experience remains to be seen. But it’s certainly another step towards delivering more innovative branded experiences in the digital world.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

There was a time when the biggest surprise you’d find in a packet of Cornflakes was a plastic toy. But soon you could be finding logos floating in your bowl of cereal after Kelloggs announced plans to laser ‘brand’ individual flakes. Kelloggs hopes this rather extravagant measure will differentiate its cereal from cheaper imitations, highlighting the plight many luxury brands face in persuading customers to pay for the real thing.

Whilst counterfeiting is nothing new, the scale at which imitation products are being made and sold has grown to a whole new level in recent years. Many brands blame the recession and the internet for their piracy woes. But is the success of their marketing to blame as well?

Counterfeiters meet rising demand for luxury brands

In the chase for higher profits, many luxury brands have extended their product range and marketing from niche boutiques to high street retailers and the average shopper. What this means is that more and more people have been seduced with the allure and aspiration of owning a luxury brand. The problem is that many of these people can’t afford or don’t want to pay the price tag that goes along with it.

Luckily for those people, the internet has made it possible for counterfeit manufacturers in China to connect with Western shoppers in only a few mouse clicks. The quality of imitation products is often so good that even savvy shoppers can’t tell the difference. In fact, it’s rumoured that some counterfeit goods are churned out on the same machines that make the originals, with the only difference being that they were made without the brand’s approval or knowledge.

It could be argued that many luxury brands blundered when they moved the production of their handbags, clothes and perfumes into countries which are less regulated and harder to control. So what can they do to fight back?

The carrot and the stick

The war against cheap imitations is already being fought on two fronts: educating shoppers and chasing counterfeiters in the law courts.

A proportion of many brands’ marketing budgets are now being spent on persuading people why they should buy the real thing. Campaigns such as by the Federation of Swiss Watches and Fakes Are Never in Fashion are aimed at spreading awareness on all the evils associated with counterfeiting e.g. child labour, poverty level wages and even funding terrorism.

In terms of the legal war, eBay, until recently a treasure trove of fake handbags and perfume, has already felt the full brunt of the luxury brands’ rage. In June 2008 a Paris Court ordered eBay to pay £15 million to Louis Vuitton and £13 million to Christian Dior for selling fake imitations and causing ‘moral harm’. Louis Vuitton’s lawyers have been particularly busy, launching 24,000 lawsuits in 2007 and shutting down 750 counterfeiter websites.

The luxury brands will be hoping these efforts persuade people to pay a premium for the real thing. As otherwise they’ve created a hunger for their products which seemingly only the counterfeiters can satisfy.

Incidentally, sales of Kelloggs Cornflakes have actually gone up during the recession, as people opt for a reliable and reassuring brand on their breakfast table. Perhaps Kelloggs should worry less about lasers and promote this fact in their marketing instead.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

According to a recent study many of the top brands struggle when it comes to being loved. In fact, none of them scored above 30% at the ‘love score’ amongst customers, based on criteria such as whether the brand ‘makes time to reward me’, ‘relates to me best’ or ‘cares about me more than just money’.

So what’s gone wrong with the top brands’ love lives? Why aren’t they creating the emotional connections that are supposed to come from millions spent on marketing?

Well, the low levels of affection for brands have been blamed on a lack of personalised engagement. After all, you need to make people feel special if you want them to love you back.

Internet dating is about relationship building

Internet dating is like marketing in many ways. There are two main approaches:

• You can send the same message to as many potential partners as possible
• Or pluck nuggets of info from their profile about their passions, hobbies and interests to drop into personalised messages

So which approach do you think works best? Yep, you guessed it – taking the time to show an interest in people as individuals is the best way to get a conversation going in the internet dating world.

Once you’ve started a dialogue you can then keep asking questions to make your messages more relevant before reaching a conversion in the form of a date. Where you go from there is the subject of a different blog entirely.

So what does internet dating teach brands?

If brands want to be loved they should try mirroring the tactics that work so well in internet dating, and deliver campaigns that are personalised to match the interests of individual prospects.

Thankfully, we now have the technology to build these campaigns.

With Purls (personalised URLs) we can create websites customised for each individual prospect, and then use variable data printing to send them personalised promotions based on every click and page view.

Boots, for example, could reward its customer better by sending them personalised print and online promotions based on their purchase history. Not only will this cut down on the printing costs of sending an entire catalogue, but will also deliver marketing that’s more relevant and better received.

Brands need to remember that people are individuals, with their own interests and preferences. So, as in the internet dating world, they need to treat customers as unique individuals if they want to be more loved in return.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

With the announcement of this year’s top ten Superbrands, there’s likely to be a few CEOs banging their desk demanding why they’re not in the list, and others taking their marketing team out to lunch. The results also offer us marketing bods some juicy tidbits on what people in the street are thinking.

With a recessionary thunderstorm still raging, the big climbers this year have been comfort and convenience foods. Krispy Kreme doughnuts are basking in the spotlight of being the highest new entry, whilst fast food retailers have leaped around 150 places up the table.

But the brand grabbing all the headlines is Microsoft, after marching to snatch back its crown as the top Superbrand, and smiting its rival, Google, into third place. Could Google’s fall from grace be a backlash against its controversial Street View? Or is Microsoft now the plucky underdog against Google’s plans for digital domination?

You can’t become a Superbrand overnight

Along with Apple, tech companies Microsoft and Google perform well because they’re seen as innovative, forward thinking and vibrant.

However, this technological sparkle has yet to start appearing on the younger online brands, such as Facebook, YouTube or Yahoo. They continue to languish outside the top 100 despite all the headlines they attract or their millions of users.

Perhaps this is a much needed reminder that not everybody spends all day on the web, and that there are plenty of everyday brands that continue to be more relevant in people’s lives (more on this next week).

What makes a Superbrand?

Many brands come and go in the list, but there are a few that are safe bets to make the top ten, whatever Daily Mail headlines they appear in.

British Airways, the BBC and Mercedes Benz are in the top ten virtually every year because they’ve spent decades developing positive associations with their brand. In the eyes of their customers, they offer tangible benefits in terms of quality, reliability and a sense of pride of ownership.

Having such a well entrenched brand perception is built by having an obsession to deliver excellence in everything they do. This includes customer service, the promise made in their marketing and, most importantly, the quality of their products. It’s this dedication that means they stand for something in the eyes of their customers, whatever else is happening in the marketplace.

So if you want to become a superbrand, whether you’re a solo enterprise or a global conglomerate, you should take some notes from those at the top and strive for excellence in everything you do.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

If you haven’t heard, the impact crowds can have on the news, and society in general, is a hot topic at the moment. Recent examples include the use of Twitter in the Iranian elections and the Guardian newspaper inviting its readers to audit MPs’ expenses.

But is all the hype around crowdsourcing just an excuse for laziness on the part of those who present that content as their own ‘work’’? After all, the concept has been tarnished by being linked to cheap labour and ways for companies to cut costs by outsourcing to the lowest bidder.

As with everything, it all depends on context.

One of the more controversial current examples is Antony Gormley’s art project in Trafalgar Square, where 240 members of the public have the chance to stand on the Square’s famous plinth for one hour each over the course of 100 days.

Should he take all the credit for his ‘crowd’s’ ideas about what they will do once they’re on the plinth – such as the guy who stood there dressed as a poo?

Is Gormley an artistic genius or a lazy sod?

I’m a little out of my comfort zone when it comes to commenting on modern art, but I do know good online crowdsourcing when I see it.

You only have to consider the high quality of some open source software, to realise how effective mass collaboration on the web can be. Linux’s creator Linus Torvalds, can now only be responsible for 2% of its code, whilst Wikipedia and Wordpress wouldn’t be the globally popular services they are today without the input of thousands.

Is crowdsourcing the future of how brands evolve?

Crowdsourcing is now starting to impact branding decisions and product development. Major brands, such as P&G, Starbucks and Dell are now all using social networking tools to help engage customers and get feedback on what people want their products to do.

Some even think that crowdsourcing could dictate how brands and products evolve in the future, now that people are having more input into how decisions are made. Are such predictions correct?

Well, these eight examples of crowdsourcing should give you some indication of the potential crowdsourcing offers:

8 Examples or Crowdsourcing

1. Unilever – Why pay millions to an ad agency, when you can plug into the creativity of your customers? This leading consumer product brand is offering prizes of up to $60,000 to whoever can create the best commercial for Axe’s Hair Crisis.

2. Threadless – An excellent example of how a community can build a brand, Threadless relies on its members to submit T-shirt designs which are then voted on before cash prizes are dished out. After all, who knows better what T-shirts people want than those who’ll be wearing them?

3. We Are Hunted – Ever wondered what’s the most popular song on the web? Well, this website ranks the most popular music on blogs and social networks – certain to be popular with ageing commercial record execs, wanting to know what the kids are listening to.

4. James Patterson’s ‘Airborne’ – These days, with blogs and witty Facebook updates, everyone’s a writer. So it seems apt that earlier this year the world’s first ‘chain thriller’ was born. James Patterson gave 28 competition winners the chance to write a chapter before reaching in to pull all the strings together at the end.

5. Galaxy Zoo – When you’ve got a quarter of a million galaxies to classify, you’re looking at a lot of overtime for an army of temps. Thankfully, so far 200,000 eager stargazers have helped to complete an otherwise impossible task.

6. Brand Tags – Finding out what people really think of your logo can be scary. Has the millions spent on its design and marketing paid off? One way to find out is to ask your customers what they think on this logo tagging website.

7. Oxfam poster boys (and girls) – How can you inspire others to fight poverty? Well, this was the question Oxfam faced in designing new billboard posters. Who better to ask than your loyal members, by requesting suggestions on the Oxfam website.

8. The Game Cartel – With some video games now costing almost as much as Christiano Ronaldo, getting enough funds together can be tricky. So, The Game Cartel, is aiming to make history by offering 100,000 gamers the chance to choose how they’d like their game designed in exchange for $50. They estimate that the game should cost $3m to make, leaving them with a nice $2m profit (if their plan works of course).

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

Your advertising has to compete with a lot of noise these days. With so many channels competing for attention, creating advertising that gets you noticed can be tricky. Not only do you need to engage the interest of ad weary consumers. But your ads also need to have the ‘wow’ factor that makes people sit up and think ‘I want one of those’.

Working out how to create ads that jump out and pull people in is a tricky puzzle. This is why so many brands are waving their cheque books at celebrities and signing them up to give their ads the ‘X’ factor.

Why are celebrity endorsements powerful?

Whenever they’re seen in ads, celebrities transfer their positive qualities, such as their reputation, talent and likeability, onto the product. They also act as the brand’s spokesperson, giving it credibility and the thumbs up in the eyes of their hero worshipping public.

Celebrity endorsements can raise awareness, increase a product’s appeal and influence the buying decisions of fans wanting to emulate their favourite stars, which is why so many brands are happy to pay millions for a brief share of a celebrity’s limelight.

However, as with all advertising, celebrity endorsements cannot build a brand on their own. It takes time, patience and delivering a consistent message through every channel to cement the positive thoughts and feelings people associate with your products.

But having a famous face appearing in your ads can give your brand that extra special ingredient that will help it stand out on supermarket shelves.

A few famous celebrity endorsements

Paul Merson – you’d be right to question the suitability of an ex gambling addict, who lost £7 million and went bankrupt, being the public face of a betting shop. However, the ex-Arsenal player is a well known face and is certainly someone Better Bet’s customers can relate to. Nobody can question his authenticity as a gambling man.

Girls Aloud – the band created by TV now make sure they stay on it at as much as possible. Endorsements for Samsung, Coke Zero, Ultimo lingerie and Sunsilk helps them maintain a high profile even when their music videos aren’t being played.

Johnny Rotten – the ex-anarchist and former Sex Pistol has given many the biggest shock of his career by being so successful at selling butter. Whilst an anti-capitalist in his heyday, he’s now being praised for helping to increase Dairy Crest’s business 85% in the last year.

Barack Obama – whilst the popularity of the new President continues to defy his critics and his halo remains intact, Brand Obama is regarded as the World’s #1 brand. With the image of an exceptional negotiator and communicator, his unofficial endorsement of Blackberry is estimated to be worth $30 million in marketing. And the best part is that he hasn’t been paid to do it.

Prunella Scales – the ex-onscreen squeeze of John Cleese is currently rated as the UK’s most successful celebrity endorser. Her series of humorous ads, with Jane Horrocks in tow, marching around Tesco is estimated to have generated sales of £2.2 billion for the supermarket giant.

Tiger Woods – perhaps the best example of a celebrity becoming synonymous with a brand, the successor to Michael Jordan as Nike’s brand spokesman has helped transform a ‘start up’ golf brand into the most popular clothing label on the fairways. With sales of $600 million a year, Nike Golf is also now competing to be the top brand for clubs and golf balls. No wonder Nike named a building after him.

The moment when the ball pauses after this putt at the 2005 Masters is probably worth millions in free advertising alone:

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

In its Madison Avenue strutting heyday, advertising was the only way to sell. Back when people spent their evenings reading newspapers or glued to the TV, brands relied on ads to grow desire and plant jingles in people’s minds.

But unfortunately for the once cocksure ad man, people and times have changed.

The old adage of ‘advertise or die’ is now being replaced by ‘evolve or die’. People are binning newspapers permanently, and fast forwarding or switching off the TV altogether.

The problem with advertising

Advertising’s first aim has always been to grab attention. Then it implants an appealing collection of thoughts and feelings that spring to mind when people are trawling supermarket shelves.

The problem is that consumers have been dazzled with advertising for so long that they’ve started ignoring it. Over time, the unfulfilled dreams promised by ad men have created cynicism, and an attitude has grown towards avoiding ads altogether.

So, brands need to find new platforms for engaging with their ad weary public. For many, this has simply meant diverting their budget online.

But as studies are showing, people are forming buying decisions based on the quality of the content brands provide, and not just on their advertising.

Brand perceptions are being formed online

Last year brands spent nearly £3 billion chasing after the migration of eyeballs onto the internet. But simply raining down ads isn’t an adequate response to the way in which people use the web.

A survey of UK consumers, last year, found that 86% had researched a company online before deciding whether to buy their product. And 22% always conduct an online background check before parting with their cash. Whilst these stats sound promising, less than half (49%) found the information they were looking for.

So, brands should start providing useful content on their website if they want to engage people’s interest and influence their buying decisions. After all, people use the internet to find information, not advertising.

Brand perception is built at every touch point

Advertising can be expensive and makes less of an impact than it once did. There are also now too many other ways in which people can engage with your brand (and they’re looking for a conversation that isn’t one way).

So you need to consider how your business is engaging with customers at every touch point. Whether it’s via magazine ads, direct mail, email or customer service, every engagement influences how people perceive the quality of your products.

And as the survey shows, people are increasingly demanding informative, useful content that answers their questions and assists their buying decisions. Which is why advertising alone, ultimately, is no longer enough to satisfy the needs of today’s cynical, connected consumer.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

Some marketers have been sounding the death knell of print for years. After all, why waste money printing out 1000s of catalogues and leaflets when people can get all the info they need from your website?

The idea that print is dying is particularly convenient now we’re in the midst of a recession. Many companies are desperately bailing for survival and jettisoning costs wherever they can, with glossy brochures among the first to be shown the plank.

However, what companies need to be aware of, before binning their printed brochures and catalogues altogether, is the ‘flick and click’ effect.

What’s the ‘flick and click’ effect?

The rapid growth of e-commerce, with sales increasing year on year, would suggest that printed catalogues are an archaic waste of trees. But what this view fails to recognise is that print often plays a key role in the process that ends in a customer buying online.

Never shy of praising the value of the printed word, the Royal Mail recently released the findings of their survey of 30 online retailers on the effectiveness of printed catalogues.

From 1800 responses it found a number of interesting conclusions on the influence of printed catalogues on buying behaviour:

• Buy more often – shoppers who received a printed catalogue spent 76% more than those who didn’t
• Spend more – on average they spent £110 more than catalogue-less shoppers
• Driven to websites – over 70% of respondents said it was more likely that they’d visit a website after receiving a catalogue
• On average retailers who included a flyer with their catalogue increased their online sales 30%

These figures conveniently show print’s effectiveness, whether it’s a catalogue, brochure or sales letter, at building loyalty and driving customers to websites.

When you add to the equation the results of a Pitney Bowes survey, which found 73% of consumers prefer to receive offers in the mail, it’s clear that print offers unique marketing advantages.

On its own, digital relies on people finding their way to your website, whether via email or online ads, and then being happy to spend time browsing and building trust before buying.

Printed catalogues and brochures, on the other hand, can be browsed at leisure and they land directly at customers’ feet. The decision to buy is then made offline before reaching for the mouse and taking advantage of the convenience of online shopping.

Integration is no longer just a pipe dream

With print and digital offering unique strengths, an effective marketing strategy lies in being able to use both mediums together, rather than putting one on a drip feed of funding so the other can survive.

Until recently, the idea of integrating print and digital was still a pipe dream and the unattainable Holy Grail of marketing.

However, as we know only too well at bda, marketing is evolving at a rapid pace.

Modern tools, such as personalised URLs, website tracking and digital printing, enable marketers to deliver integrated one-to-one campaigns that are more targeted and personalised than ever. The trick is simply being able to capture data and then knowing how to use it.

So, although times are tough, try and keep your print budget away from the finance director’s guillotine, and don’t get caught in the rush to make all marketing digital. Because as the Royal Mail’s survey shows, there are plenty of online retailers who know how effective print can be at growing your online business.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.