Last night, 8 pupils from my Higher Business Management class and I attended a Business Master Class hosted by the East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce. The guest speaker was Graeme Lindsay, one of Scotland's leading marketing experts with nearly 20 years of experience. His CV contains companies liked Tennents, Scottish Courage and Glenmorangie and he led the global marketing activity for brands such as Glenmorangie, Ardbeg and Glen Moray. Recently he has been working as the Marketing Director for Whyte & Mackay.

The first part of his talk covered how he had helped relaunch Glenmorangie. This was a whisky which had no discernible difference from it's competitors and having conducted thorough research, it was decided to aim it at specifically at two target markets - the luxury end of the market and women. The idea to aim it at these markets inspired all the packaging and promotion that Glenmorangie did. Promotions moved from the traditional man in a kilt tasting whisky to talking about the taste and emotion fo whisky, utilising a female master blender. Advertising became engaging, premium, impactful and always focused on the luxury element of the product. The website was updated - it changed completely and got people talking again. Displays of the product moved from the idea of cramming as much in as possible to the complete opposite - focusing on a "less is more" idea. Displays of the product played on the idea of scarcity with individual bottles carefully displayed. Public relations events changed style as well, moving to cocktail parties of style and allure, attended by both men and women.

Obviously there was a cost to all this but with the new luxury branding, Glenmorangie could charge higher prices and increase their profit margin which increased the bottom line. High end hotels and clubs were now stocking the product and charging high amounts which further strengthened Glenmorangie's position.

Some interesting marketing points which Graeme Lindsay made about launching or relaunching a product:

1. A well defined positioning will lead to stronger communicaton and ideas that cut through.
2. Go back in time to the foundations and heritage of your business to "get" your positioning/identity.
3. It's better to ACT yourself into a new way of thinking (than THINK yourself into a way of acting) Court controversy in creating interesting PR angles.
4. Polarise opinion - don't try and and please ALL of your target consumers. Be prepared to sacrifice.
5. Steal ideas from other sectors.
6. Identify industry conventions and then challenge them.
7. In generating innovative ideas, be chaotic, emotional and random. Be meticulous and disciplined in execution.
8. Refuse to be constrained by challenges and restrictions. Tackle them head on and turn into opportunities.
9. It's not enough to get digital. Companies and products have to get "SOCIAL" - use all social networking opportunities available.

It was a really interesting evening and hopefully gave some of the pupils a greater insight into one of the main units we study in Higher Business Management. For some, it may even impact on future career plans!

Did you know?

The rise of social media!

The office of the future!

Check out the link below to see the office of the future. Designed by students at Edinburgh's Napier University, it costs around £150,000 and features touch screen technology on desks and walls. Experts believe in 3-5 years, this could be commonplace technology.

The Office of the Future

The end of the road for Cadbury's

An agreement has been reached between the American food company Kraft and Cadbury's, the 200 year old British confectioner, over a £11.5 billion takeover. Cadbury's started in Birmingham in 1824 when John Cadbury opened a shop selling tea, coffee and hot chocolate as an alternative to alcohol. It now employs about 45,000 people in 60 countries and it's brands include Dairy Milk, Flake, Crunchie, Chocolate Buttons and Milk Tray.

What are the details:

• Cadbury's board recommended to the shareholders that it accept a bid of 840p per share, valuing the business at £11.5 billion.
• Each shareholder will receive 500p per share and the remainder will be made up of shares in Kraft.
• This is an increase in the previous offer by craft when the valued Cadburys at £10.5 billion.
• The move could lead to possible job cuts within Cadbury's UK business as a result.

Supported Study - Intermediate Business Management

We will be running a supported study session in preparation for the Business Management prelim on Tuesday 26 January 2010 at 3.45pm. If you are interested, please let one of the Busienss Studies teachers know you wish to attend.

If it doesn't work out as a teacher.....

......I could always become a pizzaiolo! Taking a break from NAB marking.

Managing The Band (S2 Admin)

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task 2 (4).doc (106 KB)

My S2 class have started the Managing The Band project, a 20 task integrated activity which covers a variety of skills which will help the class when they move into Intermediate Administration. The project covers areas like word processing, spreadsheets, databases, internet researching and is all based around managing a fictional band as they travel across Europe.

The first couple of tasks have been completed and this years real-life band of choice amongst S2 seems to be JLS closely followed by Pussycat Dolls. Here is a sample of the first task.

Posted via email from Mr Alexander's Posterous

First time on Posterous

I was introduced to Posterous today by Mr O'Donnell and I am considering the possibility of using it with my S2 Business Management and S2 Administration classes. They can easily use it to post work that they have done in class and share it with their families or friends at home. This is just a little trial to see how it works! Fingers crossed!

Posted via email from Mr Alexander's Posterous

Should employees tell bosess what they think of them?

My S4 Business Management class are currently looking at the internal organisation of a business and one of the areas we have been looking at is the relationship between managers and employees. My Higher Business Management class are about to move on to the Human Resource topic and this may also be of interest to them.

New research has suggested that firms would have a happier and healthier workforce if employees were able to tell their managers what they think of them. The relationship between line managers and employees is the most common source of stress in the workplace but many people in senior positions are unaware of how they come across and think they are doing a good job already. Stress in the workplace is a significant cause of sickness absence and can lead to people experiencing anxiety or depression.

The study showed that if employees could provide feedback to their managers, the bosses were more likely to change their management style and become more effective. This could be in coping with the employees emotions, empathising with individuals and resolving conflict. Those who don't get feedback were unlikely to change.

Milk deliveries hit by icy weather

My Higher Business Management class were looking at external factors which can effect the distribution and delivery of goods and on the BBC website tonight, there was an article which illustrates that point.

The recent icy weather has severely affected the distribution of milk as suppliers struggled against the wintry conditions. In order to keep fresh milk in the shops, dairy farmers require collections every day or second day but drivers have struggled to negotiate country roads in eight-wheel tankers. As a result, farms have had to dump milk due because few of them have facilities capable of storing more than a day's stock. This is likely to have a serious financial impact on farmers with the average dairy farm having 120 cows producing up to 2,500 litres every day. In Somerset, one cooperative said it would have to dump more than 10,000 litres.

What does your social networking site say about you?

I have just finished watching a really interesting documentary on the trial of Amanda Knox, one of the three people found guilty of the murder of Meridith Kercher in Perugia, Italy in 2007. The documentary was trying to establish the true identity of Amanda - was she the innocent, Seattle student her family said she was, or the hard partying girl the media portrayed.

The thing that came out was how the media had used social networking sites such as MySpace to build up a picture of Amanda Knox. By simply accessing her site, they had picked little things she had posted, little videos she had made, and put them together to form an overall image of her. It was this image they used throughout the murder trial and it became a powerful weapon in the prosecutions case.

As the trial unfolded, blogging became a powerful weapon in determining public opinion. Blogs started supporting Amanda Knox and blogs started accusing her of the murder and stating her guilt. Comments left on blogs became more and more vicious as the murder trial continued.

Amanda Know was found guilty and I am not in a position to say if this was correct or not. However, what it showed me was how careful people should be when posting comments, videos etc. on social networking sites such as Bebo, Facebook & MySpace as you really don't know who will one day access them. I have already talked on my blog about potential employers using them to get a fuller picture of who someone is. The most worrying aspect is that unless you delete it yourself, the images and information stays on the web.

My advice would be to think before posting stuff - does it give a true reflection on who you are and would you want other people to read it?

Financial turmoil at Old Trafford?

Really interesting article on Manchester United's current financial situation posted on the BBC website today by Robert Peston, the BBC's Business Editor. Well worth a look!

Can Manchester United spend?

The hidden costs of unemployment on the young

Over the last couple of years, most of us will have been aware of the headline news screaming "Unemployment Rises", "Unemployment Hits 2 Million" etc. without really having any understanding of the effects it has on people.

The Prince's Trust have just conducted a survey of 2,000 people youngsters between 16 and 25 and it showed 1 in 10 who had been out of work had turned to drugs or alcohol. Those not in education or training were twice as likely to suffer feelings of depression or isolation. 25% felt being jobless had caused arguments with parents and 15% felt their life lacked direction! 15%!! Between 16 and 24, the world should be a young person's oyster!

Recent figures show almost a million 16-25 year olds are unemployed and the fear is that this generation becomes a "lost generation" - their skills and talents are lost to the economy as the long term emotional issues result in them failing to reenter the job market.

I remember first hand the experience of being jobless. I moved back from London in 2003 at the age of 24 and for about 3 months I couldn't get a job. Initially I was full of motivation, spending a long time on individualised CV's and letters of application. Eventually, as the rejection letters piled up I started to just "Copy and Paste" my applications which further reduced my chances of getting a job. I started to spend longer and longer just watching daytime TV and doing nothing. Thankfully, I have a very supportive family and group of friends and they kept my spirits up until I got a job in a bank. However, in that short time I could see the damaging effect that unemployment could have on someone and the effect it has on your self-esteem. It is a vicious circle - the more rejections you get, the lower your confidence goes and the higher chance you have of getting the next job.

Let's hope that we don't lose this generation of young people to this fate.

New Year's Resolutions

Ok, 2010 is now well underway and like many people, I am going to make some resolutions this year. To try and make sure I stick to them, I am going to post them here so I can be constantly reminded. I may add to these over the coming week as I think of more things I want to achieve.

Run a 10km in sub 40 minutes

I used to do a lot of running but gave up after a couple of bad experiences with half marathons so haven't been out for a while. I know sub 40 is a bit optimistic but I think I could achieve this by the end of the year.

Save a minimum of £4,000 towards a house deposit

Sick fed up of living in rented accommodation and not being able to do anything to my house in terms of improvement. Have set up an Cash ISA as the first step and managed to get £600 saved before the end of the year so on the way. Got to take advantage of these bargain basement prices.

Successfully finish PGC Leadership in Learning

My course runs until the summer and I want to make sure I successfully complete it.

Complete 50 pressups without a break

My real weak point fitness wise! Can probably do 20 at the moment so I think 50 is an achievable challenge!

If anyone else can think of anything I could add, let me know!

Business news over the festive period.......

WIth 2 days to go until school starts again, I have to admit I have been pretty lazy in keeping up to date with what is happening in the business news. So, with nothing but Hole in the Wall to keep my occupied for half an hour, I thought I would see what has been making the news over the last couple of weeks.

Tiger Watch

AT&T have joined Gillette and Accenture in dropping Tiger Woods from their sponsorship. As well as these 3 companies, Tag Heuer and Gatorade have also reduced their use of Woods since news of his infidelity broke. A recent study by the University of California suggests the total economic damage for everyone involved could be up to $12 billion.

House prices continue to rise

House prices rose by 5.9% in 2009, making some recovery from the massive 15.9% fall of 2008. In December, the average cost of a home went up by 0.4% to £162,103, the 8th consecutive monthly rise. However, industry experts have warned that recovery in 2010 will be slow as the effect of increasing unemployment takes hold and whether cash buyers who had reentered the market when it was at a low are likely to continue to be significant in house buying market.

Christmas spending up

Nearly £500 million was spent on 23 December which enabled this years Christmas sales to outperform 2008. Overall, consumer spending was 2.4% higher this year according to Barclaycard. Even on Christmas Day, shopping continued as 700,000 transactions worth £24 million were made online. However, as in the story above, unemployment and other economic issues mean that consumer confidence is still low and it may be that the increased sales is simply people taking advantage of the 15% VAT rate before it goes back up to 17.5%.

Now, let's hope Hole in the Wall is finished......