Dickensian advertising techniques for 21st century business and politics.

Is it time for some retro-advertising techniques for the business and political worlds?

You don’t get more 21st century than a Wolves-Aston Villa match. What is surprising, is seeing the style of one of the techniques used to advertise the event. In the last century and before, it was common place to see pedestrians walking the street and carrying display boards hung from the shoulders – a type of A board. They either advertised consumables or noted that the end of the world was nigh. So it was a surprise today, to see somebody doing the same and inviting one to buy tickets for the said match. Time, date, price and vendor details were read easily. You felt you were in a time warp and it certainly caught the attention. But this was not a one off.

A month before, I had seen something similar at various road junctions around the city. This time it was an entrepreneur and franchisee-holder advertising his fast food wares – a spoiling action to counter the opening of a competitor nearby. The imaginative spoiler employed forty students over the weekend. Recruited from a local college and paid above the minimum wage, the students worked in shifts at road junctions to convey the messages on their boards.

So what? Well, it was low key, simple, cheap – almost intermediate technology and in the slow-moving traffic flow, the message was put over effectively. It stood out from the usual marketing and advertising techniques with which we are bombarded. We have our trade fair vertical banners today, but somehow we don’t do just justice to the investment placed in their design and manufacture. Political hoardings are being ridiculed by subversive graffiti copywriters, whilst the rotating electronic devices lack a certain presence. Perhaps a revisit to Dickensian media might be worth a try. It really would be localism and if business is giving it a try why not politics?

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"Bullet Points" say it all about communication. We need gentler language.

An interesting piece of research published by Ofcom recently, suggests that the average citizen is using communication technologies and their different platforms, to the tune of over seven hours a day. This hides the fact that an individual might be multi-tasking the technologies in the first place, ie watching television with a blackberry to hand.

One wonders what the neurological implications might be ie thought, concentration and other cognitive attributes. They might throw up awkward issues, but even more worrying, is the implication for social interaction and how we communicate with each other.

Having just returned from a trekking trip around the Mont Blanc Circuit, I reflected on conversations with fellow travelers as we negotiated forests and glaciers. One stands out in particular.

A beef farmer from Scotland observed that language could be brutal. Strange how chance conversations can develop in unexpected ways. He noted that emails and texting encourage a perfunctory and terse exchange of information and we took it from there.

It is as if technology dominates the communication process and personality and conversation become the casualties. You can’t get much more brutal than the use of terminology such as “bullet points”. The term conjures up images of finality, precision and the snuffing out of life standing opposite the attributes of humanity, relationship and conversation. The logical outcome is that when people actually do meet, their communication and inter-personal skills have been stunted. People will have to learn conversational skills later in their lives, when an earlier socialisation process should have enabled it early on, whether it be across the kitchen table or playground.

How does the next generation actually cope with the prospect of meeting people and having to converse?; how will businesses recruit employees with abilities to handle customers?; will the interview process just be a series of psychometric tests?; how will the budding politician engage with the voter on the doorstep and how will the employee engage the skills of tendering, networking and negotiation? In business we tend to buy from people we like, but how do you develop these interpersonal skills in the first place?

2011 has been designated the National Year of Speech, Language and Communication – a campaign to raise the profile of such skills amongst children; an opportunity to focus on their learning difficulties. It should also be an opportunity for everyone to reflect on how much conversation is going on at home and school when the screen is not so much a source of information but a childminder. The photocopier and wordprocessor together gave us information overload - the democratisation of publishing. The mobile phone and computer now gives us people who can’t talk to each other. In the 21st century, never have we had so much communication, but so little conversational ability when we actually meet each other.

Thoughts on motivation in Afghanistan - a rebel with a cause.

One cannot disagree that in difficult circumstances our troops are doing a great job. The question is whether it is the right one. Listening to Liam Fox on the Today programme, makes one wonder as to why it is taking so long to get the Afghan army up to speed, when their kith and kin (Taliban) seem to be having a successful war. Might it have something to do with the motivation of fighting for a cause one believes in? A message for our less martial business and political worlds perhaps.

Gender differences and use of the phone - lessons for business, politics and life.

An interesting piece of research from BT shows that men and women use the phone in different ways. Tarzan's calls show three times as much functional content (50%) compared with women (17%). Jane's calls by contrast measure three times as much personal conversation (28%) compared with her friend(10%). Men want to talk quantitively and women qualitatively. Obviously, a confirmation of anecdotal evidence and Men from Mars.... The next bit gets interesting. Much of our communication is transitory, cryptic and perfunctory or else gushing with emotional overload. Extremes of a kind. Lessons here for political dialogue, tendering in business, networking, and the myriad of other contexts where we communicate. Endearments, elaboration of thinking and the expression of nuance are the casualties, whilst on the emotional side it can be difficult to assess what is important. Either way there are casualties of misunderstanding. We confuse listening with hearing as we do looking with seeing. As Gertrude Stein observed in the 1930's, long before the appearance of Twitter and other social media - "Let us stop communicating with each other so that we can have some conversation."

Trade Fairs - have they passed their sell by date? Preparation for a party conference.

I have just booked my place for one of the Autumn party conferences. Whilst thinking of what is to come, thoughts moved to a similar gathering - the business or trade exhibition. Living on the doorstep of the NEC and ICC, opportunities abound to observe participants at these watering holes. This element of business seems to have eluded management consultancy books expounding best practice. Millions must be spent each year. Has the time come for us to find a new model for bringing exhibitor and client together?

The chosen stand-minders set out the stall, plug in the gizmos, fill the bowl with sweets and tidy up the leaflets. Some worrying seconds pass as the vertical banner is erected with a prayer, that it does not snap back into the box. A few furtive glances at the opposition to see how you match up, a quick walk along the aisle to see whether your stand "works" and then it is count down to letting the rabble in.

The exhibition is a rich laboratory for observing human interaction at its most embarrassing. Take the punter first. We have all walked the souks and souvenir markets abroad, not quite knowing how to handle the uncertain world of a different language, no labelled prices and hawkish sellers invading your space. I am not saying the British exhibition is anything like that, but the body language of the punters suggests a distinct unease at knowing either how to open a conversation or respond to an opening gambit. Perhaps some lessons from speed dating are in order.

And then you want some refreshment and the bowl of sweets beckons. Innocuous you might think but a minefield. These freebies are there to break down barriers but the reality is otherwise. If you take one without asking, it seems a cross between shoplifting and childhood when you took without asking. On the other hand, asking permission seems rather precious - Catch 22. Over the counter, the exhibitor has a problem - seems a bit strange to be in conversation and then to proffer a sweet. Not the icebreaker it could have been.

For the exhibitor, the trick is to stand out. Not that difficult if you develop a style where you make it easy for people to come on to you. Eye contact, co-ordinated gesture clusters and open body language are the ingredients. Standholders spend so much time talking to each other that breaking in is not easy. If you want to stand out literally, move into the aisles and the public space. Take some leaflets and some good open question chat up lines.

As the day progresses everyone tires. Business cards are mislaid and plastic bags overflow. Your legs are on their knees and a litany of inane conversations forgotten. Surely there must be better ways for these commercial fests to be played out. Wonder what the conference offers?