To those loveable souls who helped me last month – a confession and one or two promises

When I was performing to utter indifference punctuated by occasional snorts of derision in my first school play I recall being told that dress rehearsals are usually a disaster.

So it was with my trial of Commonsense Marketing last month. The idea, if you recall, was to offer you something a bit better than the sort of thing typified by an email I just got – “Is it this easy? Simple data entry earns up to $924.73 a day” – because it bloody well isn’t.

I thought – and still do – that out there there must be a few hundred people who recognise bullshit when they see it, and would like to learn from the ghastly mistakes I made and the odd triumph I enjoyed over the last 50 years in what I now reckon is 50 countries.

I also hoped that there might be a few people who realise that there is life outside the internet; there are still people watching TV commercials, reading ads, opening and replying to direct mail, filling in questionnaires – and so on.

And so it proved. There is intelligent life out there. Thee is room for serious stuff. Quite a few of you are bright enough to recognise and dismiss lies when you read them, and hanker for the genuine article. E mails I sent out got up to 27% opening rate at the beginning of December and I recruited enough of you to teach me how to do better.

So I’d like to thank everyone who gallantly volunteered to give it a try and do one thing I learned is essential: tell you what the results were – especially as I shall spend most of tomorrow filming stuff for you.

1. Everything did indeed go wrong. Despite our prior tests, people didn’t receive emails about what was happening about money and when I was running seminars. My friends who attended the EADIM course in London were neglected. The first webinar was a disaster. My pricing was up the spout. My explanations of the deal were confusing. Timing was wrong for people in Australia and New Zealand. And just to distract me, at the same time one or two clients screwed me around for serious money

2. But despite it all, most of you who bravely persevered loved it. Thank you! And thank you, too those who didn’t for telling me what you really want. You are all individuals, so your views differed, but I shall try to accommodate as many as possible.

3. Some people wanted a structured A to Z course. I shall be filming the start of that in the morning (though it is morning now, I realise) analysing what marketing is really all about with revealing examples and how to set about it.

4. Others asked for analysis of creative work. I shall give you it. Not just in one medium, but many. TV commercials, direct mail, websites, ads – the lot. Not just selling to consumers but to businesses. Not just British or US, but from all over the world, aimed at all sorts of customers and selling all sorts of products and services at all sorts of prices. Tomorrow I shall be analysing a piece I wrote which doubled the membership of a supporters group at a world-famous Soccer club.

5. Some asked what relevance the interviews I planned would have. I can only say that if you can’t learn anything from spending time with some of the world’s most imaginative and successful marketers – some of whom have never revealed their secrets – poor you. For example in the past month I have set up interviews with a friend in Santa Monica making big money in the ONLY type of advertising that’s currently flourishing, with another in Hawaii who is, quite simply, a REAL marketing legend, and with a man here in London who will explain why one medium which most people are not using at all is going to transform marketing.

Some of you asked if there would be an affiliate programmne. The answer is yes. And one man asked what I could give you that two other experts he named couldn’t. The answer was simple: neither of them had worked for a major brand in their lives. They just sell “I’ll make you rich” stuff they mostly picked up in seminars. Oh, and I am entertaining, so they tell me. Why should getting better not be fun?

That’s enough from me now. It’s 4 30 am in London, and time to go to sleep. Keep an eye open if you’re interested. More to come.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

4 Comments

  1. rezbi

    It's always a good idea to get feedback before the actual launch.

    Having been part of a launch for a product from the word 'go' I know how many problems can crop up.

    And that's the good thing about what you did – you need to know where the creases are and iron them out before you roll out to the masses.

  2. draytonbird

    You have NO IDEA how many things were wrong. Many tings we has tested did not work – the worst being an online discussion and emails to people that simnply did not arrive — which we never knew until much later.

  3. rezbi

    I wouldn't beat myself up about that if I were you: I was involved in one launch where anything that could go wrong, did. And they actually own all the technology they used.

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