Letters 05 April 2005

Neil Thackray was spot on to say that attracting the right kind of talent to the sector is key for the future, and that things haven't moved on for 16 years.

But what these gents fail to acknowledge is that the emotional attachment to so many products is what seems to keep them alive, rather than sound business reasons.

The brutal truth is that we are all sent magazines we don't read – either requested or un-requested.

If the vast B2B circulations actually read all the magazines they are sent, nothing in this country would get done. Sectors like manufacturing, IT, health, public services and farming are a few examples where losing some titles would be no bad thing.

As someone who spent much of my early career in B2B I can cite outdated management styles, loose deadlines and publication dates, ill-thought out online products with no clear sales strategy, poor or non-existent training programmes and a complete lack of communication between editorial and advertising as major problems – it doesn't sound like things have changed much.

Many new, high-potential sales people find their first sales jobs in B2B, and are usually left to sink or swim. They are given arbitrary targets and activity measures to hit, and discouraged from being creative in their pitches. Then, when things get desperate, they are instructed to abandon any kind of rate integrity. B2B is also the perfect place for the journeyman to work, someone who can turn it on occasionally while blaming market forces for poor performance and actually get away with doing very little.

Of course, not everyone's like this – but this is the impression many external companies get from B2B publishers.

There are bold solutions – like re-examining the purpose in customer terms and adapting our services to deal with the readers and the advertisers' purpose, and only that.

But how do you dismantle 30-year-old hierarchies? Or tell a publishing director that his best place is in front of customers rather than behind a desk? Or that an editor needs to visit advertisers with his commercial head?

Unless B2B can change quickly and adopt the professionalism and product flexibility more common in B2C it will always be seen, at best, as a second-tier media option.

Telemarketers are just joy to my ears

Adam Fahn, founder, Vendescent

I have a different opinion to Jeff Hyams' view on telemarketers (Get
off the line, there's a train coming, page 36, 29 March) – I love them.

Not
because I sit at home bored all day watching Neighbours, but these
lovely people, including last week's lady from my home town of Ilford,
are like flies to my spider's web.

As the owner of a vending
company based in Bedfordshire with nationwide coverage, I often work
from home on acquisitions and customer care, and view each call as a
sales opportunity for me, but even better than that, they pay for the
call.

I have a couple of happy customers who originally contacted
me as sellers but ended up as customers. When you have a good product,
turning it round is easy. But, of course, that highlights the problem
with many telemarketers – the product they are selling is not always
that good, making my job so much easier. Of course, if they don't end
up buying from me at least they can't wait to get off the phone.

Put
me to the test, if any company would like to sell me ad space or a
prime-time TV slot and walk away with a modern bean-to-cup coffee
machine for their office, or even a hot food vending machine stocked
with healthy food and snacks, you only need to call 0845 644 2921 .

I
received a call at 7.30pm on a Friday evening from a pushy telesales
person who "had a designer in the area" and they wanted to give me a
free kitchen redesign. He asked me for my name and my address, which
was fair enough, but then he asked for my phone number (I wonder how he
called me in the first place). I told him twice that I lived in a new
property but, undeterred, he booked the appointment and I helpfully
gave him directions to the property, explaining that "I am not on the
map yet, as it was only built a few months ago".

The look on the
poor salesman's face when he arrived and saw a brand new kitchen and
appliances was pure disbelief. We had a good chat about effective
appointment booking and he left with a business card. Hopefully he will
be in touch for a machine one day.

Mark Jones, sales director, Ion Group

As a proponent of telemarketing as a relationship building exercise, I would be the first to agree with Jeff Hyams that frequent, untargeted calls are highly intrusive and damaging.

However, let's not forget that the UK contact centre industry is moving away from high volume calling towards more targeted calls, aimed at nurturing customers.

Wider advertisement of the Telephone Preference Service would help to protect the public against receiving such calls.

After all, how can it possibly be profitable for a company to attempt to sell a product or service to consumers who are quite clearly disillusioned with intrusive telephone calls?

They're never going to respond!

The only answer must be a long-term move to improve targeting standards.

Telemarketers must ensure that they are using accurate, reliable and up-to-date data so that they do not call people who have opted out of receiving telemarketing communications, or have moved house for example. More importantly, adequate suppression will stop calls being placed to the deceased, which could be particularly stressful for a family member taking the call.

All these problems are only compounded by the fact that the Direct Marketing Association is not doing enough to promote the industry in the best possible light.

It is spread too thinly across the DM industry as a whole, and could hardly be described as being either proactive or effective.

In the absence of any successful official representation, perhaps it is time the "good guys" within the industry take control and to create our own contact centre regulatory body.

Danger lurk in dealing with direct owners

Andrew Burgess, managing director, Equimedia

I read with interest Alastair Ray's article on how media agencies are being increasingly left out of the loop (Cutting out the middleman, page 26, 22 March). Surely the question we should be asking ourselves is: are we really surprised?

Fundamentally, the sidelining of media agencies comes down to distrust – clients believe they can get better deals dealing directly with media owners, without paying media agencies' fees on top – particularly as there are now many more opportunities to deliver value across several different media channels via one media owner.

However, the danger in dealing directly with media owners is that they will only understand their sector, and will not provide a balanced view.

When dealing directly in this manner, clients risk losing sight of their marketing strategies in favour of piecemeal activity.

Ever since the emergence of the internet, measurability and accountability of marketing campaigns have been high on everyone's agenda. As ad budgets are being squeezed especially in the new media landscape, the need to prove RoI has never been greater. Media fragmentation has led to clients demanding an increasingly creative approach to media buying.

Rather than throwing money at them and hoping that "big agency" buying strategies will work, smaller agencies can add value for client activity by understanding brand marketing, direct marketing and the mechanics of web advertising, and purchasing to accurately integrate, execute and evaluate this type of campaign.

The idea that bigger agencies can deliver smarter, more responsive, more creative campaigns or are able to provide a more robust media plan just because they work for an enormous network of agencies is plainly untrue.

The only way to ensure advertising is effective, is to ensure every consumer response is accurately measured. This doesn't need a large agency, it needs a competent one.

Kay McCarthy, sales and marketing director, Sunrise Radio

I found your feature Cutting out the middleman very interesting, and hopefully it will trigger a major wake-up call for agencies.

Sunrise Radio is considered a niche medium by many, and it seems as a result it is not taken as seriously as its counterparts.

It is given little, if any, consideration when planning FMCG campaigns (believe it or not we all use soap and toilet paper) and by most is considered only when specifically targeting an Asian audience. Come on guys… wake-up! We live in a vibrant, multiculture society in which we are all now part of the "mainstream"… if you are targeting "all adults" in London does that really mean "all white adults" in London? If it does, I think we have a major problem.

Anyway, what I really want to say is that ideally we want to work with agencies, but more and more we are finding that initially clients are coming direct… don't let it happen, you guys are the experts don't let your clients come to you with the ideas – you take it to them!

Recognising the proven spending power of the Asian community makes them one of the most powerful consumer groups in the current marketplace and that Sunrise Radio is key in communicating with them.

We are a determined, serious medium, we are accountable, we trade by your terms, we won the NTL Commercial Radio Award for Marketing Excellence, were shortlisted for Media Week's Media Brand of the Year and we reach a cash rich sector of the overall population, which traditional media fails to communicate with effectively. We won't be ignored!

Christine’s no mother of mine

Nick Walker, managing partner, Walker Media

Further to my Media Mentor article (page 45, 22 March). In future, could anyone who mistakes me for a relative of Christine please mistake her as either my slightly older aunt or sister, and not my mother.

There’s a shift in viewer habits

David Ratcliffe, sales development director, DTV, 24/7 RealMedia

The traditional TV ad break is under threat as the use of PVRs becomes more widespread, allowing viewers to time-shift should they wish to avoid watching the ads. Undoubtedly, this will affect the advertising industry.

Sophisticated developments in iTV technology have paved the way for channel owners to produce more creative ads and reach audiences in a new way.

Ninety per cent of the digital cable TV audience use the Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) and interactive services portal, providing a platform for channel owners to promote programmes and services. This is an area where people are looking to be entertained and are likely to interact and take notice of adverts, more so than the traditional 30-second spot ad breaks which take a more passive approach.

This is good news for channel owners, as it creates the chance to better target audiences by using the EPG to offer additional interactive services such as games, competitions and free merchandise, enabling them to strengthen brand loyalty and drive viewers to their programmes.

The introduction of PVRs and iTV will not have the damaging effect that many industry experts predicted, but will force the industry to be more innovative.