Friday 30 October 2009

Marketing to Businesses at the Royal Mail - bad timing


According to the BBC, the second day of the second wave of postal strikes has begun at Royal Mail.

Ironically, the Royal Mail have been sending me stuff to help me grow my business!

Two links you should look at are:
The quote I like is the one that says "No matter what your size of business,we've got the answers to all your questions."

Meanwhile we are desperately waiting for an item sent to us by a client on Saturday!



RELEVANT LINKS

Marketing to Independent Small Businesses - blog entry

8 comments:

Marjory D said...

Robert, you are too polite. (You leave us to draw our own conclusions)

Google on 'R Mail' and 'smart' and you come to a magazine called "SMART - inspiraton for the modern entrepreneur" - a various curious mix.

You were looking for somone who sells well into indepenedent businesses and this has a bunch of interesting names attached (Simon Woodruffe, Sahar Hashemi).

However it lets itself down because the answer to everything is the Royal Mail.

The panel of experts you can ask questions includes Royal Mail's
- Head of Media Development,
- Small Business Market Development,
- Head of Data Stategy,
- Head of International Social and SME products,
- Head of Supply Chain in Royal Mail Marketing,
- Product Manager – Early Product Applications.

Not hugely independent which should be an attribute of an expert(?).

Madge

Anonymous said...

Thank you Robert for not attacking the R Mail and its marketing people. It takes a mature point of view to recognise that these things do happen especially in larger organisations.

All looks a bit like a home goal (see the mention in Private Eye) but you can understand where all this has come from. And yes it is embarrassing.

Like other large organisations we target the SME community as a key market. We market to SMEs actively and have bought in some big names/celebrities to add value to the offering. That said, we are not full business portal and do not pretend to be that.

The people in marketing (and the agencies we use) have no control on the grass roots activity. Our job is to find and keep customers for the Royal Mail.

It may not be joined-up but that's the way it is.

Meanwhile you are all witnessing a car crash in slow motion.

Jon D (Royal Mail, London)

Marjory D said...

John, We'll be gentle with you! And yes, Robert could have been a lot ruder.

However own goal is the right phrase to use.

Do you realise how patronising and transparent your SMART magazine is? All weasel words and focusing on your own solution. Sorry, I will stop now.

Royal Mail is in a state and I wouldn't know what the solution is myself.

Madge

Anonymous said...

Quite right re being gentle. The R Mail/PO is flat on its back (like the economy). No-one blames you Jon but no-one seems surprised cos this is what is expected of the service: under-performing and clutching at straws. Not a great combination.

Jim (also anonymous [cos I work for Business Link - potentially as imilar situation!])

Anonymous said...

Fed-up small businesses are considering dropping the Royal Mail as their postal services supplier.

In response to the threat of a national strike, 75 per cent of SMEs reveal they are looking elsewhere for a more reliable service, according to a survey from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

Ian Middleton, managing director of Argenteus Jewellery, says: ‘We’re holding back on the online side of the business at the moment because of what’s happening with the postal strikes.'

Of the 250 companies surveyed, 90 per cent said they were concerned about the planned industrial action.

Steve Hughes, economic policy adviser for the BCC, says: ‘The results of this survey are quite explicit. Businesses are very upset by what's happening and they're worried about how it will affect their services.

‘All they want is consistency. That means the Royal Mail providing a service they can rely on and at the moment they can't do that.’

In a recent poll by SmallBusiness.co.uk, 76 per cent of respondents said it had affected them.

Anonymous said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8318191.stm
Royal Mail's one man competitor!
Jim

Anonymous said...

Fed-up small businesses are considering dropping the Royal Mail as their postal services supplier.

In response to the threat of a national strike, 75 per cent of SMEs reveal they are looking elsewhere for a more reliable service, according to a survey from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

Ian Middleton, managing director of Argenteus Jewellery, says: ‘We’re holding back on the online side of the business at the moment because of what’s happening with the postal strikes.'

Of the 250 companies surveyed, 90 per cent said they were concerned about the planned industrial action.

Steve Hughes, economic policy adviser for the BCC, says: ‘The results of this survey are quite explicit. Businesses are very upset by what's happening and they're worried about how it will affect their services.

‘All they want is consistency. That means the Royal Mail providing a service they can rely on and at the moment they can't do that.’

In a recent poll by SmallBusiness.co.uk, 76 per cent of respondents said it had affected them.

Marjory D said...

Robert, you are too polite. (You leave us to draw our own conclusions)

Google on 'R Mail' and 'smart' and you come to a magazine called "SMART - inspiraton for the modern entrepreneur" - a various curious mix.

You were looking for somone who sells well into indepenedent businesses and this has a bunch of interesting names attached (Simon Woodruffe, Sahar Hashemi).

However it lets itself down because the answer to everything is the Royal Mail.

The panel of experts you can ask questions includes Royal Mail's
- Head of Media Development,
- Small Business Market Development,
- Head of Data Stategy,
- Head of International Social and SME products,
- Head of Supply Chain in Royal Mail Marketing,
- Product Manager – Early Product Applications.

Not hugely independent which should be an attribute of an expert(?).

Madge