Taking it easy on a Spanish beach or a supermarkets captive audience?



Holiday - Nerja - Spain

Relaxing on a beach on the southern coast of Spain – you may think you were free from most marketing messages especially those of the large supermarkets. I mean what could they possibly do to impair my relaxation on the beach, in the sun, looking out to sea?

They could fly a plane along the coastline with a banner trailing behind it inviting all beach goers to visit Lidl. Lidl know that on a hot day the beaches will be packed with holiday makers so where better to communicate with them? They have a captive audience of beach goers that couldn’t get away from Lidl’s message even if they tried. This may do one of two things, remind the beach goer of something they need to pick up for this evenings dinner, or to stock up on sun cream at Lidl or infuriate the beach goer to such an extent that they will actively shun Lidl in the future as punishment for infringing on their otherwise peaceful day.

I think Lidl overstep the mark here, as consumers we expect their messages on bus shelters and other outdoor spaces however we don’t expect to see it flying above us as we relax on a beach. It feels more like an intrusion than a gentle reminder.

London 2012 guerrilla construction marketing

Image shows similar signage

As I was walking around the Olympic park I happened to notice two construction companies take advantage of their site positions in the vicinity of the park for a bit of shameless self-promotion. One can hardly blame them especially with LOGOCs (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) stringent rules with regards to publicising involvement with the Olympics, which heavily regulates contractors communicating involvement in Olympic construction projects. I noticed this one by Ardmore and one by Barratts on a nearby site. 

Any company or sub-contractor that has supplied the Olympic Games with products or services has to agree not to publicise any part of their involvement until the end of 2012. This obviously gives the official sponsors (that have paid millions for the privilege) to capitalise on their involvement. I think a more lax approach would have been beneficial particularly to the construction industry. What have McDonalds or Panasonic got to lose if a major contractor publicises their involvement in construction the athlete’s village on time and on budget? For the construction companies however, having such a prestigious and well-known project under their belts may have helped them in securing work in the immediate aftermath. So who can blame Barratts and Ardmore for jumping on the tailcoats of Olympic the Olympic park?

The 'Crane Mobile'

This unbelievable series of lifts at a Liebherr customer day at their manufacturing centre in Germany is one of the jaw dropping, eyes wide open moments. The event attracted 1800 visitors across the two days and certainly didn’t disappoint. Amongst the usual show-casing of new models and innovations this incredible lift was the focal point of the meet. It was the brain-child of Hans-Dieter Willim, Liebherr’s chief crane designer, a very brave and confident man! The largest crane, the LR 13000 lifted the smaller crane and so on,. The engineering, mathematical calculations and weather forecast must have been incredibly accurate for the lift to work so well. It’s great to see companies like Liebherr pushing their machines to the fullest. This exhibition doesn’t only show how capable the cranes are but creates such a reverberation of chatter in the construction plant / lifting communities. It’s a great way for Liebherr to showcase it’s cranes on the world market.    

LR 13000 lifted all three cranes - with a combined weight of 1,430 tonnes which was 94 percent of its capacity. In front of an astonished audience, the LR 13000 rotated as well as moved in a travel direction with this 1,430-tonne-heavy “crane mobile”.

Why marketing is necessary in construction, now more than ever

The marketing budget is quite often the first to be slashed when the economic outlook worsens and the order books start to slacken. The UK construction sector has seen prolonged limp market activity since the wider slowdown in 2009. This is why construction firms have been looking inward and cutting whatever they feel is not strictly necessary.

Such short term actions can be detrimental for the company in the long run. If a construction company increases or sustains their marketing budget in a time of economic gloom they should, at some point, expect a positive return on their investment. When things pick up customers are going to spend with the supplier they have the relationships with.  Any marketing spend should be measured against coherent marketing and company objectives. Measuring and tracking marketing activities has never been so important. If marketers can prove their activities produce results then there shouldn’t be a problem in securing budgets. The onus is on the marketer to prove that having a marketing presence is financially worthwhile for the company.

The UK contractors group states that every £1 invested in construction generates £2.84 in economic activity. Although there are variants on the amount generated in economic activity it is widely accepted that if you invest in infrastructure and construction projects there will be a positive social and economic return on investment.

This may go some way in explaining why George Osbourne has today (18 July 2012) announced he will be providing guarantees for up to £40 billion worth of projects in the National Infrastructure Plan. There will also be a £6 billion lending programme to kick start stalled public and private partnership schemes. This will be a welcomed initiative in the construction sector that has seen a hesitance to invest stunting many major and mid-sized projects.

If the marketing budget is spent wisely companies will be better placed than their more conservative competitors when the market picks up or when something like the guarantee or lending programme kicks in. The contractors and companies who have stayed at the forefront of their customers minds will be first approached when customers start spending again. This is true for contractors, sub-contractors, consultancies, building product manufacturers and equipment manufacturers.

The Personal Branding Guide (for beginners)

Website

Business cards

Blog

Video CV

Twitter

Email

Linked in

CV

Facebook


Website
Website can be free ie make your own and then just use the url it gives you. So if you use wix.com to create the site then your address will be www.wix.com/username/what you've called the site. But if you buy a domain from someone like Namesco you can just point all traffic to your wix address from your professional address. "davidjfitzgerald.co.uk" is actually hosted by wix but the wix address doesn’t show up in the address bar it stays as my professional one.

My website is quite out dated but it just has a ‘quick cv’ a lot more info about me, some of the work I had done and a link to my blog. It just gives a potential employer another look into your personality. You can make it quite professional and fun.

www.davidjfitzgerald.co.uk

See the links to all of the personal websites:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/26/10-steps-to-the-perfect-portfolio-website/

Business cards
These are just something I done I used to leave them with people at interviews or even when I was out and chatting to people who were in marketing. Might be a bit over the top but I had my name, number, email website, twitter on them. £5 for 500 from vistaprint.

Blog
Set-up a blogger profile and if you think you have nothing to talk about then talk about current affairs in your chosen area of work. Or politics as everyone has an opinion on politics or if nothing else talk about your job search / uni course, the trials you face etc.

Video CV
Video cv – there are loads on youtube – I have never done one but was going to before I got a job. I would keep it a min and a half tops and keep it as funny and interesting as possible maybe do it in movie maker where you can add graphics and writing at the bottom of the screen. Even if you don’t want to put yourself in front of the camera make a slideshow to share online http://www.slideshare.net/

Or check out www.prezi.com which is a really interesting way to make presentations.

Twitter
Make sure all your tweets are something that you wouldn’t mind a potential employer seeing. If you have a particular area or industry you want to be in then tweet about that and try to network.

Email
Email address should be firstname.lastname@whatever.com

Have an email footer that links to all online profiles.

Linked In
Make it as searchable as possible which means filling out the profile completely.

CV
I would say keep it quite traditional but link to everything that is mentioned here. Let the CV be the portal to the rest of your online profile. Always send cv’s in pdf format.

Facebook
This is something I kept completely away from all of my job-searching make sure your profile is completely private.

Useful article:

http://mashable.com/2012/02/10/students-job-search-social-media/