Five crisis lessons from the Oxfam prostitution fiasco
Oxfam’s reputational debacle continues to unfold following the prostitution scandals in Haiti and Chad. What do you think we can learn from this about how to behave in a crisis? Five points jump out at me ....
How not to prepare for a plane crash crisis
I received a bizarre crisis enquiry the other day. Is it just me, or is this an extremely strange way for an international airline to ...
Purpose or strategy – which should come first?
This Harvard Business Review article has an important message for all organisations. It's main point is that an organisation's core purpose should come first. It's the reason it exists. It should be a big, clear, enduring mission which ...
Media push to raise profile of €11 billion technology giant
We've just been appointed to help Austrian industrial giant voestalpine raise its UK profile as a technological pioneer. Voestalpine has a turnover of €11.1 billion and 49,000 employees. One of the largest global producers of steel, it's shifting its focus from mass metal production to specialisation in high-value technology components ...
What behavioural economics means for your marketing
I’ve just read an interesting article in strategy + business magazine about Prof Cass Sunstein - the leading figure in behavioural economics. The article focuses on his work in US social policy, based on the principle that small changes to the way choices are presented ...
Kick Start for regulator charity
We have been hired to develop clear new messages and a communications strategy for charity NRCPD, the regulator of sign language interpreters and other communication professionals working with deaf and deafblind people. NRCPD has commissioned this work to help raise its profile, expand the number of registered professionals and encourage ...
Carpetright covers flaws with corporate gibberish
Britian’s biggest flooring retailer, Carpetright, has revealed its latest figures, with overall growth dragged down to just 0.8% by a fall in bed sales. Nothing too remarkable there – except for this bizarre ...
Prestige brand brief for international market expansion firm
International market expansion company Intralink has hired us to develop a marketing strategy and build a long-term prestige brand. Intralink specialises in enabling Western companies to start business in the high-growth markets of China, South Korea, Japan & Taiwan. It delivers market research & sales programmes & helps clients establish overseas operations. We’re beginning with a Kick Start exercise to develop a clear, compelling proposition. We're undertaking ...
Another ‘instructive’ media interview!
Last week gave us another astonishing media interview - with more lessons of what not to do. Irish channel RTE interviewed John O’Keeffe of the Garda Representative Association about an investigation which found the Irish police have been falsifying breath test data. O’Keeffe looked calm enough, but ...
Message & strategy work for blind & deaf charity
We have just completed messaging and marketing strategy work for Sight for Surrey – an ambitious, long-established blind and deaf charity. The organisation originally started in 1922 to help people with ...