Dangerous Marketing is therefore asking for the opinions of business owners on the value of using an external marketing resource to grow their business.  The survey is brief and only take a couple of minutes to complete (only 6 questions in total, 4 of which only require a simple tick to answer). All answers are anonymous so respondents are encouraged to be completely frank and honest in their opinion.

Click here to take the survey

Thank you in advance for taking the time to help with this research – your opinion is very much appreciated!

If you want more information on the new Dangerous Marketing Interim Marketing Manager service, you can make contact via  Twitter or the Enquiry Page on our website.

As well as the details and sheer quantity of data that was collected in late 2009/early 2010, this survey’s other key value is in providing trend/comparative data to monitor changes since it was first completed in 2006.  Below are are its main findings (click on this link to access the full data on the IPA website) – percentages refer to amount of time or usage in a week:

• Communicating with others: People are spending less time talking face-to-face than previously but it is still the dominant way to communicate (81% of time in 2006 down to 75% in 2010); 57% of adults use a mobile phone, typically using 11% of their communication time to do so, whilst texting & picture messaging is up to 4%. Time spent writing on paper has dropped to just 1% in total.
• What we watch: TV still dominates with an average of 3.7 hours watched a day (and a weekly reach of 98%) with the internet only taking up an average of 1.8 hours a day/75% reach (although this is a 38% increase since 2006 up from 1.3 hours which is driven mainly through the use of social networking). The BBC is dominant as the supplier of media, reaching 98% of all UK adults via TV, radio, online & magazine channels.
• The internet: 75% use the internet (up from 53% in 2008), with slightly more men than women using it, but a large majority of usage being London/ South East based. Emailing takes 20% share of internet activity whilst social networking has risen to 11% (just under 40% of adults use social networking for at least an hour a week ). Time spent accessing media online is growing exponentially – radio/podcasts up 166% and TV up 216% from previous surveys. 16% of adults use mobile phones to access the internet.
• Social media: vast majority of users are 15-24 year olds but in total 37% of adults use social media. 35% of adults use Facebook (compared to 79% of 15-24s!) whereas only 4% of adults use Twitter and only 1.4% used Linkedin.
• Life-style: the recession had a clear effect with 33% of respondents agreeing they work longer hours, with 44% feeling more stressed. 54% said they had “tightened their belts significantly” with 72% preferring to save up for something expensive rather than put it on their credit card.

We hope you can use this summary to help you target your marketing and sales activities in 2010. If you would like to know more about how market research benefits your business, contact us for a discussion or alternatively, we can introduce you to our specialist Market Research partner who can devise specific research for your business.

Filed under: 02 Externally Sourced News, Marketing & Sales Tagged: Digital, IPA, Lifestyles, Social Media, TouchPoint Survey ]]> http://ppgnews.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/ipa-release-results-of-its-3rd-touchpoint-survey/feed/ 1 Dangerous Marketing Avatar_PPGNews_Investigate http://ppgnews.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/smes-increase-their-marketing-spend-in-2010/ http://ppgnews.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/smes-increase-their-marketing-spend-in-2010/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:35:00 +0000 Dangerous Marketing http://ppgnews.wordpress.com/?p=314 ]]>

Today’s Dangerous Marketing Blog article highlights the latest survey to come out on how SMEs are spending their marketing budgets in 2010 – concluding that SMEs are using more marketing channels more frequently and increasing their marketing spend accordingly to accelerate their growth out of the recession.

Full article available here. Alternatively, if you would like to explore how Pragmatic Performance Group’s Interim Marketing Managers could give your SME the boost it needs to beat the competition, contact us now for an initial consultation free of charge.

Hot on the heels on one Entrepreneurs Bootcamp graduate’s award winning exploits follows a second one!  MD of SketchWork Productions, Justin Heasman’s special effects prowess on indy film ‘Burn’ has helped the film get an Honorable Narrative Award in the Los Angeles Movie Awards.

See our Bootcamp News Blog for more details.

See our Bootcamp News Blog for more details.

The Institute of Director’s Chief Economist Graeme Leach describes today’s Emergency Budget as a “welcome dose of common sense” and congratulates the chancellor for a “bold and decisive” Budget.  Read more about this and our summary of the changes affecting business in our article IoD believes Emergency Budget is “right medicine for the economy” on our Leadership & Strategy Development blog.

The next Upstarts Club™ for new and would-be entrepreneurs is booked to take place on Thursday May 6th 2010, between 6.00 and 9.00 pm, at the University College of St Mark & St John (Marjon) in Plymouth.

The Upstarts Club™ is an off-shoot of the Entrepreneurs Bootcamp™, where any would-be or new entrepreneurs get the chance to chat informally about developing new businesses with experienced entrepreneurs who have “been there and done that”!

Thanks to our hosts Marjon, the Upstarts Club™ is free of charge to attend but you will need to book for catering purposes (there will be a light buffet available and the event takes place in the Student Union Presidents Bar, so drink available to buy at college prices. Book your place by contacting either Sue Windley (PPG’s Marketing Director and Founder of the Upstarts Club™) or Nicky Primavesi (President of Marjon’s Student Union).  You can also join in a virtual Upstarts Club™ group on FaceBook and LinkedIn.

Peter Ibbetson (Head of Small Business Banking at RBS) commented in the BBC website article “Bad debts and late payment of invoices are endemic problems for UK businesses. What’s concerning is that so few are making use of services from their bank to help alleviate the problem.”. He recognised that a key problem for small businesses is that they simply do not have the resources to focus on debt collection.

However Stephen Alambritis of the FSB countered in the same article that the banks are helping the problem at the moment: “It’s a huge problem for small businesses. When a small firm is paid late, it’s forced to go to the bank and with the banks being a bit tetchy at the moment, it’s a difficult position. Banks are not loaning and giving overdrafts which means small firms feel like banks themselves. Large firms are improving their cash flow on the back of smaller suppliers.”

In earlier research in February 2010, the FSB had also pointed the finger at the public sector for being the worst offenders, with one in three payments being made late.  In the FSB/ICM research, businesses were asked whether they received payment from different types of organisations early, late or on time. Broken down by sector, whilst the figures for ‘late payment’ for the Private Sector were 34% and the Education Sector 22%, the Public Sector made up the rest (listed in ascending order: Police/fire 18%; Devolved Government 23%; Olympics 2012 25%; Local authorities 25%; NHS 29%; Government agencies 30%; EU institutions 30% and UK Central Government 31%).

This reluctance to pay on time caused 41% of small businesses to resort to using personal savings; 43% being reliant on overdrafts and 21% using a personal credit card to stay afloat. The feedback implied that this self-reliance was forced on them as they met with more refusal than support from the banks.

In their rbs_liquidity_magazine_issue5 the RBS offers a number of ways for businesses to look after their cash flow and keep their liquidity safe.  As business owners we all know that cash-flow is king, and as we all work through the recovered from the recession, there is still a lot to do to sort out payment processes to smaller businesses. At PPG Ltd, we always recommend to our clients that they pay on time (or even early!) to encourage a good relationship with suppliers that can provide a life-saver is tough times. When was the last time you reviewed your payment processes to your suppliers? If you would like an objective view on how you can get yourself into a more secure cash-flow position, contact us for a free of charge review.

The Women’s Business Club (TWBC) helps and supports women at all stages of their business or careers, to move forward and grow.   Led by founder and MD Kelly Stevens, who is passionate about supporting women in business and encouraging entrepreneurship, the TWBC enables business women to learn from each other, promote their businesses, find inspiration and make important business contacts.  TWBC members are a supportive community of women in business from all over the UK , who have vision for their businesses and careers, and work to encourage and support each other.

PPG Events are delighted to announce that our Marketing Director, Sue Windley, has been selected as the host for the new TWBC Premier Business Club in Plymouth to complement the recently set up clubs in Exeter and Truro.  The TWBC Premier Business Clubs aren’t just another networking group, but a hub where women can focus on collaboration and peer group support to develop their business relationships faster and add more value to their membership.

The Premier Clubs are for business founders, freelancers and professional women at management level within larger companies – ambitious women with the long term vision for their business careers who understand the immense benefit gained by working cooperatively.

Premier Club members meet once a month over a working lunch to work closely together to pool resources and share experience, contacts and expertise. Memberships at each club are capped to ensure each club remains small enough to facilitate a highly charged collaborative environment.

The TWBC Premier Business Club has its first meeting on Wednesday 17th March 2010 at noon at Duke of Cornwall Hotel, Millbay Road, Plymouth, PL1 3LG.  You are welcome to come along as a guest or member, but booking is essential to ensure a space.  Click on the TWBC Plymouth link to see the upcoming meeting dates and book your place with one click!

March 2010 is BeMyGuest month. Thought up by Adam Vincenzini and Emily Cagle, it encourages social media bloggers and tweeters to share ideas on each others’ postings. As they state on their website: “It’s what social media and sharing is all about.”  The campaign has a simple approach: during March, you can get to feature as a guest on at least one other person’s blog and invite at least one person to post on your own blog.  You start by using Twitter to tweet out your own blog details with the hashtag #BeMyGuest – including what your preferences are (eg topics, editing style etc).

At PPG, we are delighted to be hosting blogs written by other people on our Dangerous Marketing Blog. These are people from the on-line world who all have marketing in common – and we hope their different approaches will help and inspire ideas for new marketing approaches. Look for our #BeMyGuest Avatar (to the right) to indicate our guest blogs.

To make your search easier, we will be updating the links to each of our guest blogs here:

• Our first guest blog is by David Clare, a University of Lincoln PR Student who wrote a piece on how new media has changed traditional Public Relations PR 2.0 – A Definition
• Emily Cagle, co-originator of the #BeMyGuest concept writes about how the idea came about: Blogging fever: how #BeMyGuest was born
• Robert Pickstone wrote a follow up post to a piece he had done on his blog Is it wrong for others to write your company blog?
• Janelle Hardacre, a final year PR student at Newcastle wrote Your Digital Footprint – 5 Tips to Remember
• Mark Jennings, Managing Director of D8 Digital gave us How Far Would You Walk to Save 20p?
• and finally, Colin Shelbourn, a professional cartoonist and writer gave us a light-hearted piece A Dog in the Office

Our guest writers have also kindly reciprocated with by allowing Dangerous Marketing to write blogs on their sites – you can take a look at the different posts here:

• A Newbies View of Social Media: Time for a fundamental shift in thinking – posted on David Clare‘s The PR View
• What a Tramp taught me about Selling! – posted on Robert Pickstone‘s social media blog
• 5 tips for attracting prospective customers’ attention on Twitter – posted on Social Small Biz blog, a great place for ideas and advice for small businesses
• Communicating with Customers – posted on Karima-Catherine Goundiam’s Three Angel’s Marketing blog – where I took an unusual view on learning about the context of communication, which was made even more light hearted in my guest blog
• Cats, Clients and Communication on Colin Shelbourn’s Radio Cartoonist Blog, complete with cartoon drawn by Colin for the article.

The #BeMyGuest idea is a simple way to promote your business brand to a new audience. Give it a try for yourself in March!