I was invited as a guest to attend the
Marketers Annual City Lecture, an event organised by the Worshipful Company of
Marketers, where the guest speaker was Kevin Roberts, Worldwide CEO of Saatchi
& Saatchi. The Great Hall at Barts (St Bartholomew’s Hospital) was a
splendid setting, the regalia of the livery officers fitting and the speaker
gave a mesmerising overview, fitting to the current climate of recession, of
why and how ‘it is up to the marketers to build the future’.
No longer would customers buy items they
either didn’t want or couldn’t afford. Marketing initiatives had to change;
‘yesterday’s values do not apply today’ and we have to be ‘innovative’, ‘relate
to the senses using mystery, sensuality, feelings, emotions and humour’.
Thinking about how this related to selling
our own knowledge, information and library services, providing ‘priceless
value’, ‘building loyalty’, ‘power is in listening and relating to the
customer’ and ‘about finding the stories’ seemed to fit our agenda.
Understanding that we could no longer live in the past and had to respond and
adapt to change whilst at the same time recognising existing strengths and
understanding what not to change, are all things we are striving to do to move
the value of our services to an unassailable position within organisations.
Kevin illustrated his talk with some
amazing adverts to show how novel and emotive approaches to advertising, laced with
humour really hit the mark. Perhaps we should start using the odd joke?
Dr. Vivienne Winterman, Senior Consultant
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