Strategy And Execution

Strategy is important but execution is even more important.

Brands fail to grow because management teams spend 80% of their time working on the strategy and tactics but only 20% of their time on execution.

Brands become successful when they realise that doing is more important than assessing and deciding.

There are three words which motivate every go-getter – just do it!

Loyalty Beyond Reason

You don’t own your brand – your customers do.

You manage the brand but it’s your customers who own it.

It’s your job to present the brand to them in all its glory.

It’s your job to stimulate passionate interaction with the brand.

It’s your job to make the brand emotionally irresistible.

It’s your job to ignite customer loyalty which touches the heart as well as the brain.

Inspiration Not Information

The role of marketing is to sell more stuff.

To sell more stuff, brands need to bond with people and inspire them to buy.

Nine out of ten brands don’t do that.

They provide information, not inspiration.

Information is boring. Inspiration is exhilarating.

It’s the magic dust that makes brands meaningful.

Don’t Write Off Television

The sun is over the yardarm as far as TV advertising is concerned but it’s far too early to lament its passing.

Ad-blockers and YouTube may have taken their toll but there’s life in the old dog yet.

In the halcyon days of television you could bring an average product to market, sugar-coat it with advertising and watch the sales roll in.

The more money you had the greater the impact you could make and the more powerful your brand would become.

It’s not like that anymore but while TV advertising may have lost much of its potency, it still packs a powerful punch. 

Old And New

People are fascinated with what’s new rather than what’s good.

It’s why we queue for new iPhones, wear new fashions or drink new wines.

We want to be in vogue and we want to have something to talk about.

What we forget is that nothing is new. 

New becomes old in the blink of an eye.  As soon as we’ve got it, everyone’s got it.

Give me good ahead of new any day.

Simple Builds Brands

Creative marketers hate the obvious.

But to reach consumers you need to be obvious.

Complicated and sophisticated marketing doesn’t work – it goes over the head your audience.

To make an impact – keep your strategy simple, keep your tactics simple and, most of all, keep your ads simple.

Cherish Creativity

Everything in marketing is a commodity except for creativity.

Data, market research and programmatic advertising are available to all brands.

Channels to market and new technology can be exploited by everyone.

Creativity is what separates one brand from another.

It’s the only unfair advantage a brand can have.

Say No

As an integrated communications agency, Beattie turns down more new business opportunities than we pursue.

We walk away from invitations to pitch if the opportunity is not right for us.

It doesn’t matter if the brand is big, sexy or rich, there is no point in pitching if it can’t deliver fabulous results.

We won’t pursue an opportunity if we are too busy with existing clients, the people chemistry isn’t right or if the budget is small.

It’s time more agencies followed our lead and learned to say no.

Take Training Seriously

Training never stops for a professional athlete and it should never stop for us.

It doesn’t matter which profession we’re in, to stay at the top of our game we require constant learning and coaching

Unfortunately, the world seems to have forgotten that.

Young people are not properly trained any more. They are expected to learn on the job. Senior people, on the other hand, are expected to make their own arrangements.

We can’t afford to invest in people who will not be here in a year or two’s time, is the dismal cry from the boardroom.

Perhaps people would hang around if the C-Suite paid more than lip service to training, coaching and learning.