e-by-gum

It has been reported that marketers are turning the e-communications to weather the current storms. E-marketing is certainly catching on as a cost effective tool and so you might be interested to find out more about e-learning at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE17YnuzyGs
Pay attention, you may just see a familiar face!

Communication let me down...

... and I'm left here.
Yes, for those of you old enough to remember I've been playing Spandau Ballet in my car recently.

Anyway, I have been thinking a lot about communication over the past couple of weeks and I wanted to share those thoughts with you.
We had an interesting event the other week in Sheffield and the topic of communication brought me to thinking about how I communicate, especially with my teams and why do we so often beat ourselves up in this industry for not communicating well, when that's our bread and butter.

When I first started in this job, I thought that I had to tell everyone everything - and very soon found myself exhausted!
Then I took to changing my method of communication from mainly written (i.e. email) to verbal whenever I could and that had an amazing affect of encouraging people to communicate verbally with me more - which is always the best way.
I have now started to employ the tactic of giving people the information they want when they ask for it as that is the best time for them to take in what I am saying. This could be problematic, of course, because people don't ask they tend to make things up themselves. The classic example of this is when you assume that something is not done and then go off doing it yourself wasting time and resource.

I suppose what I am asking is - have we really got this communication lark sussed?

The changing face of marketing education

I am late writing because I have been working on a presentation for the North West Universities Association (NWUA).

'Am I bovvered?' I hear you say. Well actually you may be because it is all about the changing face of marketing education.

The Marketing and Sales Standard Setting Body (MSSSB) is in the process of bringing a marketing apprenticeship to fruition, and is working with bodies such as NWUA to shape the future provision of marketing education.
We want to work with more people though, so if you would like to know more about this visit www.msssb.org or contact Chahid Fourali (chahidfourali@cim.co.uk)

Pasta Hut

I have been prompted to post early this week by Pizza Hut.

Did you hear on the news this morning that they are changing their name to Pasta Hut? I was at a CIM event this morning and that was the topic of conversation so well done whatever you are calling yourselves on a great marketing exercise.

As true marketers we were debating the pros and cons of name changes, especially in the current climate, and just trying to get our tongues around the new name.

If you want to know more then check out their website http://www.pastahut.co.uk/

Personally I like one of my members suggestions of being hyper trendy with just 'Hut' or perhaps they have got a whole line up of names to take our mind of the credit crunch? I propose 'Jabba the Hutt'.

Anyway, must dash I think it's pizza, or is it pasta, for tea?

Are you up for some learning?

Learning 2.0 that is.

We have got an event in Manchester on 9th September called Learning 2.0. It will look at the way we are learning is changing and discuss how the responsibility of keeping up to date for the benefit of our career is now firmly placed with the individual. The event will also see the regional launch of our new Continuous Professional Development (CPD) portal and there will be help and advice on how to keep up to date. So don't get left behind, find out more and join us for breakfast on Thursday!
To book visit http://www.cim.co.uk/NewsAndEvents/Events/EventDetails.aspx?ObjectID=21485