July 4, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

In my 20-year plus career within journalism, public relations, marketing and social media I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with some of the most successful global organisations in the world including Andersen Consulting (Accenture), Disney,  BBC,  The Scout Association, Shell, Ferrari, the International Cricket Council and the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.

Very often it’s been my job to train chief executives on how best to put across their messages to audiences ranging from several hundred employees and millions of TV viewers.

Whilst all of these communication skills are very important – what we aren’t taught either at school or indeed when we work wit...

June 30, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle  2 comments

Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions has just published (20 June 2013) the finalised guidelines on circumstances under which prosecutors may pursue a legal action against those who post comments on social media.

What’s clear is that the CPS guidelines don’t create some form of ‘litigants’ charter’ where the police and the CPS are automatically involved in every instance of social media comment considered as rude, distasteful or even painful to those on the receiving end.

The guidelines indicate that there may be mitigating circumstances under which those making unguarded and grossly offensive comments on Twitter or Facebook but repent by taking them ...

June 29, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

This year has seen the blurring of the traditional line between marketing, PR and communications.

In the past, they were once stuck in their own silos.

But 2013 is changing all that.

Research for High Impact Marketing That Gets Results shows that the industry is in the throes of reinventing itself.

Making the customer, client, prospect or supporter the centre of the communication process is still some way off for many organisations but the signs are that marketing and communications are moving in this direction at a much faster rate in 2013.

The reality is that the customer doesn’t care where the info is coming from, just that they can get that info easily...

June 24, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

In the good old days, brand marketing looked like a piece of cake, didn’t it?

All a brand owner needed to do was to use what we used to euphemistically call “mass media” which meant using the loudest volume level possible in order to be heard above the white noise of the competition.

Fast forward to today and that’s hardly a recipe for success!  Successful brands need to find ways of creating an enduring and mutually rewarding relationship with customers, clients, prospects and supporters.

As I’ve written in my latest book, The Art of Influencing and Selling, real relationships are difficult to form and even much more difficult to sustain...