Date: March 2015

The long road to establishing a commercial version of Marketing Eye magazine is now complete. It took almost six months to get it publishing ready, but after losing a bit more hair and seeing the ones that I have left go grey (almost), it was well worth the effort.

By putting this magazine together, I have learnt a great deal about marketing, about the client services sector and about staying the course, even when the Tough Mudder founders seem to have come along and put insurmountable obstacles in my path.*

I see and hear it all the time. “Our eco product just doesn’t sell as well as our normal brands” and “people are just not that into buying eco products”.

Comments like this just confirm that the marketer (and the company) are treating eco brands as ‘brand extensions’ the way Coke treats its Zero and Diet products. But eco, green or ethical products cannot be treated in this way.  Coke’s eco plastic bottles still contain a beverage with a long list of health impacts – and people looking for healthy, sustainable alternatives will never reach for a bottled soft drink.

I have been back in Australia for a week and it really has been an incredible experience in so many ways.

I feel more "entrepreneurial" than at any point in the past 12-months which is hard to believe given that Marketing Eye continues to grow, innovate, expand and further cement its position as a world-leading SMB marketing company and this journey is something that I live with every single day.

In July last year #24yrold asked me to buy her a bike as a bonus for her performance as a Marketing Manager with our firm.

I didn't hesitate, as I know that if someone who works hard does exercise, they perform better and more efficiently than those who do not. Once the dollars and cents worked out, I was completely onboard. 

The problem was that we were both in Atlanta, and if one chose to do something, the other usually followed suit. Afterall, there is no point in riding by yourself all the time, as it could be quite lonely and in some cases particularly in a city like Atlanta, dangerous.

Yesterday I had a meeting with a prospect that is about to list a company on the Australian Stock Exchange.

We discussed his plans, then I went through an overview of Marketing Eye and what we do. In my overview, I discuss four different areas of our business; outsourced marketing department, technology, media and education.

When I go through media, I always discuss our publication Marketing Eye Magazine and the company's significant social media presence. In particular, I talk about the number one reason people arrive at our website, our blog.

He said, "I know about your blog. I saved one of them to my iphone in 2013 that resonated with me". 

There is one question that is on every marketers lips. While traditional marketers who are focused on outbound marketing place their faith in creativity and understanding customers' wants and needs, the sneaky inbound marketers are finally having their day in the sunshine.

There is no doubt still a place for outbound marketing, but for any company that really cares about their customers and are open to ensuring that they have the ultimate customer experience, inbound marketing is really the only way forward.

There are many challenges running an international marketing agency. The first being the tyranny of distance, with travel being instrumental in providing real life face-time in front of staff and clients. The second, the fact that many marketers struggle to be abreast of the latest in marketing techniques and technologies.

We have built a business on education and the training of marketers through on-the-job experiences. When someone has worked for a year at Marketing Eye, they are equipped to do any marketing job. It's something we pride ourselves on and has set us apart from the rest of the pack of small to medium sized business marketers.

When a marketing manager starts at Marketing Eye, they often feel overwhelmed. They need to learn fast and efficiently, and face-time with clients is always within weeks of starting through meetings and online communications, which require them to know everything there is to know about the client and exactly what the clients marketing expectations are.

Companies put in place inside sales models to excelerate sales performance. The problem with this is that when it actually occurs, you need to be prepared. That means having all the systems and processes in place to take on new clients and onboard them in a manner that keeps them engaged long after signing the contract.

Marketing Eye has a well-documented strategy. We work with a flat organizational structure with no defined hierarchy, just a team of self starters and people capable of making a difference to the businesses in which they work.

We collaborate our efforts and always work using a team approach preferring to hire all fulltime employees rather than bring teams of people together that are not able to collaborate at the same level as an internal team may be able to do so.

Back in the ’70s when I was just a wee bairn in London, my parents would straighten up and fly right to the sunny climes of Paris or Barcelona, where apparently I would eat only eggs (which I still believe is great holiday food for a toddler!). That is another hard-boiled story.

This one is partly about Polaroid and what Polaroid means to the generations that lived through the ’60s to the ’90s. It is also about reinvention and how this former brand giant reinvented themselves to become a digital dynamo.

I have a personal fascination with colour: the history behind it, the emotions it evokes and the simple beauty of it.

Since entering the marketing industry, I now have an appreciation of how colour influences brand identity.