Marketing Eye

Tag: consultant

Consulting firms these days are a dime a dozen and range from freelancers through to large multinationals.
Published in Marketing
Over the years, I have been dumb-founded by what former employees have written on their LinkedIn profiles about what they did while working at Marketing Eye.

The first one that had me gob-smacked was a French assistant, who wrote that she had developed and managed the Marketing Eye brand, building the company’s marketing strategy and executing it.

In reality, she was a personal assistant, who had poor English and was struggling to do any task at all from an administrative perspective. She didn’t write anything, had no contact at all with design or branding but was excellent at organizing my dinner appointments, assisting me with my wardrobe and in general being a great personal assistant, albeit one that could not write on an email on my behalf because of the poor English factor. She worked for me for a few months only which I did it as a favour for her boyfriend who was a good friend at the time. In the end, I had to tell him, that her English was so bad, I couldn’t afford the luxury of her impeccable taste in clothing, makeup and picking restaurants at that stage of my life.
Published in Marketing
Tuesday, 13 September 2011 21:55

Someone's First Choice

Travel diaries: I am currently travelling to Amsterdam for a Global Entrepreneurs Conference. All stories are inspired by conversations with other entrepreneurs and adventures along the way.

Someone's First Choice

I want to be someone's first choice. But what happens when you are not?

In the movie with Kate Hudson "Something Borrowed" Ginnifer Goodwin's character has an affair with her best friend's (Kate Hudson's character Darcy) fiance.  Now this does not seem like your typical feel good scenario as it goes against the grain of what friendship and loyalty is all about, but it does make you question the whole concept of first choice. To be someone's first choice is a romantic notion and is not only my fairytale but the fairytale of millions of girls the world over.

In business, we all want to be someone's first choice. When you first lock eyes, that the connection you have with that person is so intense that it forms a lifelong relationship, right there and then. It's like love at first sight, but in a business sense.

But the question is, ' can you create that moment where you become someone's first choice'?

When you choose Burger King over McDonalds - can Burger King really do something about making their burgers your first choice? Or when a consultant walks into your office to sell you a service-can they be your first choice by changing the way they look, the tone of their voices, the style of their presentation or the warmth in their smile when they say goodbye? Presentation coaches would say that you can create a love at first sight scenario - but can you really?

I want to be someone's first choice, but is their first choice more than being just about me being me? That really is the question that every business person needs to answer.