My recent
work, partially driven by consolidation and having worked for all the major
radio groups, has diversified into sectors I probably wouldn’t have considered
were it not for financial need and a desire to stretch myself. In many respects
though it’s been a relief to engage in proper marketing even if the goalposts
have shifted since I last found myself actively selling.
The biggest
development is of course with regard to social media, search marketing, online
in general. It was a steep learning curve and one I’m still attempting, with
crampons and ice-picks. That I am doing it in a sector that I’d not actually
encountered until 14 months ago added to the challenge. Thus I am abandoned in
the world of hair loss and a radical, innovative solution – Scalp
MicroPigmentation.
My
involvement began with content creation and copy-checking, putting together the
foundations of the company website. It was a useful way to get a grip of the terminology and an
understanding of what it does for the recipient. I’ve always found it difficult
to ‘sell’ something I don’t believe in so this was a valuable grounding, the
reasons to believe.
This
nascent industry had crept under my radar and that of many others but to those
who have sought it out it has provided a transformation in both their
appearance and confidence. Part of my role is to piece these stories together
and reach out to the wider – and balder – community.
Consequently,
I am now managing a range of social media streams and getting involved in
content generation and marketing. It’s a brave new world.
One result
of managing spend across social media is that you encounter unlikely trolling.
A response to one of our recent posts about our pioneering scalp
micropigmentation treatment was a message that simply said ‘Prefer to use the
company that invented it’.
Naturally
I’ve heard worse but it made me think of the role occupied by originators when
a product was popularised elsewhere. Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player or the
mobile ‘phone for example, they may have had a claim on the original ‘windows’
operating system but we all know who made money from that.
This is a
service industry though so the inventors would have a claim if it was they who
had perfected the treatment or if they still practiced it even. The originators
could have their prize if they had not alienated everyone they employed,
abandoned business partners and franchisees, let their best employees leave. We
would all bow down to their invention had they not put it in the hands of the
unskilled and de-motivated, their trust in people who turn up only for the
wage.
It’s a
common problem for companies that expand without underpinning their principles
or possibly failing to have any. I have worked in many similar places. It
appears to be the British way: a lack of management training and an eye only
for the sales graph. When you only want the numbers it’s hard to focus on the
people – whether they’re the staff or the customers. This is where most
companies, whatever their sector, get it wrong.
For listed
companies the issues are compacted by having to constantly feed a voracious
group of shareholders and investors, some of which may be institutions that
have no grasp of the industry they’ve invested in. Much less have they any care
for it beyond the yield they expect it to deliver. Britain is beholden to the
markets, stats that are driven by a requirement for constant growth. It is
unsustainable, we don’t have industries that can consistently produce
double-digit percentage profit increases.
The
originators so often sell out. Mr McDonald didn’t see the rapid franchising of
his brand – he took the quick buck. In music the pioneers are rarely the ones
who reap the riches. Most people remember Elvis but not the hordes of
blues-pioneers who cleared his path to success, the same would be true of The
Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and others.
We praise
them (as I did Bowie here) for having the commercial nous to popularise a form
of music, to take the blueprint and weave it in a way that it entrances the
masses. Often we don’t even see the join. I went out of my way to praise The
Heavy many years ago without knowing that the basis of their near-hit, How You
Like Me Now?, was a sample from an act I’d never heard of. No-one notices the
originators if someone else does a better job with ‘the product’.
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