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Articles by Mark Eardley
Owning your space in the community: A guide to community leadership Original
Motherland OMNi understands that authenticity in brand messaging is crucial for brand success in the community. As a community and brand experience partner, we are dedicated to assisting businesses in distinguishing themselves and becoming genuine leaders in their communities. The first of Al Ries and Jack Trout's "22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" highlights the Law of Leadership. Traditionally, this principle focuses on establishing yourself first in a category.
Roasted Bo Ssam: Korean-Inspired, Party-Time Pork
With a centerpiece of slow-cooked, super-tender, shiny-glazed pork, our roasted bo ssam is an exceptional celebration of sharing. Load a lettuce leaf with a bit of rice and kimchi, add a dab of chili sauce, some ginger and scallion relish, and crown it all with pulled pieces of pork. Delicious and fun. When I was trying to sum up this extraordinary party-time spread, I found something that turned out to be a perfect definition from the person who first put it all together. “It’s American food, man.
Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino: Italy’s Hot, Alpha Pasta
Garlic, oil, and chilies — or aglio, olio e peperoncino as they’d say in Italy. Add spaghetti, and you’ve got an absolutely classic pasta dish. Naples might claim it as theirs, but folks in Rome have their own loving name for it — ajo ojo. Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino The real surprise here — the astonishment, if you like — is that something that’s so alive with richly satisfying flavors can be so fast and easy to make. From stovetop to tabletop in 15 minutes, this has to be the ultimate quick cuisine.
South Africa: After the Party's Over
On the Morning After, how you feel is due to an accumulation of effects caused by the type and amount of grog you downed the Night Before. Hangovers - from the gently groggy to the galactically gargantuan - begin with your body's losing the race to process the most abundant of the many types of alcohol in booze - ethanol. The more ethanol you consume, the longer your body takes to deal with it. Result? You start to accumulate nastily toxic by-products from your body's ethanol processing.
THE NEXT DAY: After the Party’s Over
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay On the Morning After, how you feel is due to an accumulation of effects caused by the type and amount of grog you downed the Night Before. Hangovers – from the gently groggy to the galactically gargantuan – begin with your body’s losing the race to process the most abundant of the many types of alcohol in booze – ethanol. The more ethanol you consume, the longer your body takes to deal with it. Result?
BACON BITS: The Best of British BLTs – and Black Velvet
Image by piviso from Pixabay The making of an outstandingly good sandwich is not necessarily as simple as you might reckon it is. When was the last time you finished a sandwich and went weak at the knees? It’s easy to fall into the trap of being dismissive about sandwiches. The sandwich has been tagged with the fast, pre-packed, junk-food label, where quick convenience trounces quality. A “culinary sandwich” sounds like a contradiction in terms. Why is that?
CIRCLE OF LIFE: Bagels and Lox: The Quintessential Brunch of New York City
Image by Ravi Krishnappa from Pixabay Bagels ’n Lox. The simplest of NYC’s classic brunches. A proper bagel – fresh-crusted and densely chewy – halved through its waistline, with the cut surface of each ring thickly schmeared in soft cream cheese and topped by translucent ribbons of cured salmon. A New York icon. Lox? That’s salmon. This is a genuine silver-bullet against what lurks in the darkest clutches of the Morning After.
Back2Basics: Your B2B brand - distinctive or different?
Back2Basics – Mark Eardley Nov 14, 2019 by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) I’ve been reading a lot in the B2B marketing media about “distinctiveness”. It’s all proclaiming the higher branding power of being distinctive, rather than merely different. I’m troubled by this. It strikes me that a potent B2B brand, one that’s unarguably far more effective at triggering deals than a sales team, has to be distinctive and different.
HUEVOS DIVORCIADOS: The Mexican Wave of Brunches
Photo by ding-dang-99 from Pixabay Mexico is the bean’s birthplace. They originated there some two million years ago, and the country now has more indigenous varieties than anywhere else. Though it might not have the catchy ring of Heinz’s slogan for the baked and canned version, in culinary terms, ‘beanz meanz Mexico’.
Back2Basics: Are top B2B marketers thought leaders? Maybe not
Back2Basics – Mark Eardley Oct 14, 2019 by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) It’s dismaying. Commentary from Thomas Barta in Marketing Week highlights the career-ending consequences for marketers who refuse to see that increasing sales, margins and loyalty are the only things that should concern them.
ZAKUSKI NIGHT: The most fun you can have with food – Poyekhali!
Small plates of zakuski, little morsels to bite between traditional vodka sips or tips. Photo Gwynne Conlyn ‘Poyekhali!’ That was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s brave cheer as he began rocketing towards being the first man in space and to orbit the Earth. What a great way to say ‘Cheers!’ when you’re drinking vodka (‘little water’) and eating zakuski (‘little bites’). A zakuski party is galactically good fun.
Back2Basics: B2B connection marketing - getting engaged
Back2Basics – Mark Eardley Sep 2, 2019 by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) “The age of the customer.” What a daft expression. In all B2B marketing’s history, when was it ever not, huh? It’s the sort of dumb buzz-phrase that typically prefaces a deluge of drivel about B2B’s latest smoke ’n mirrors gadgety gizmo.
OUT TO BRUNCH: Give yourself a kiss, give yourself a little coddle
Dublin Coddle. Photos: Gwynne Conlyn Coddle? Right. That would be a Dublin Coddle. Dating back maybe to the 1700s, it has to be the most gently comforting brunch dish in the world. Never mind that it’s possibly best eaten when the snow’s on the ground and your teeth are a-chattering – that’s just an extra benefit which tops-off a Coddle’s caring caresses.
EGGS BENEDICT: Lemuel’s Benediction: The story behind a brunch icon
Photo by Constance Chen on Unsplash For many, Eggs Benedict is the ultimate Brunch blessing. Its origins are squabbled over, but I like the 1894 story about a bon viveur New York stockbroker who, on a Morning After the Night Before, sought restoration at the Waldorf Hotel. The New Yorker magazine of 19 December 1942 takes up the tale: “Forty-eight years ago, Lemuel Benedict came into the dining room of the old Waldorf for a late breakfast.
CONVERSATION PIECE: Beringer’s Brunch: It’s all thanks to the good Guy
Photo by Rachel Park on Unsplash Here’s one to mull over during brunch with your mates on Sunday. While you’re at it, raise your glasses in a jubilant toast to the British journalist, Guy Beringer. He was the guy who, in 1895, first described why we needed an entirely new meal, ‘Sunday Brunch’. Our thankful hurrah isn’t for Guy Beringer’s coining of a word that twinned breakfast with lunch.
RED HOT DOGS: The Birth of the Hot Dog and the world’s biggest restaurant
Photo by Anton on Unsplash On the Morning After the Night Before, how can brunchers resist the innocently simple smile of a hot dog? A hot dog has a gentle grin – and possibly a little wink – that says, “I’m here to help. Honestly.” And it’s a promise it always keeps.
Back2Basics: Your B2B brand - profit-pumping heart or transplant patient?
Back2Basics – Mark Eardley Jul 16, 2019 by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) There’s been an upsurge of talk recently in the B2B marketing press about the importance of brands. The chatter has been prompted by respected research (Binet & Field, no less) that was first covered by The Drum in a top article by a smart marketer called Samuel Scott — well worth a read. What the research shows (and the chatter latches onto) is that B2B brands matter because they can have a positive impact on profitable growth.
Beauty and the Feast: The majesty of Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher
M.F.K. Fisher, author of The Gastronomical Me and How to Cook a Wolf. Photo: Getty Images Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher set the gold standard for culinary literature. Her books about a life lived against a backdrop of cooking and eating – published from the late 1930s onwards – prompted a giant of English poetry, WH Auden, to hail her in 1963 as the best living prose writer in America.
Back2Basics: B2B’s next big, big thing
Back2Basics – Mark Eardley Jun 18, 2019 “My advice is to put the customer at the center, not your organization or the product. Put the customer and the customer experience at the center and then make decisions from there on out.” —Kevin Joyce, The Pedowitz Group CMO and VP of strategy services, Demand Gen Report interview. by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) Marketing’s latest circus act is now very much in town.
Back2Basics: Oh, B2C agency? There’s big money in B2B
Back2Basics – Mark Eardley May 30, 2019 by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) Why develop a B2B competency? For the money. In fact, astonishing amounts of money.
Back2Basics: How to create a real blockbuster B2B strategy
Back2Basics – Mark Eardley May 9, 2019 by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) To create a marketing strategy that’s geared to generating sales, margins and loyalty, perhaps start by thinking about this: “All B2B customers are united by a common demand: reduce our costs and risks.” It strikes me that a lot of us B2B-ers have lost sight of addressing this universal need. You can easily test for yourself if you’re one of them.
Back2Basics: Four drivers of positive professional brand perceptions
Back2Basics – Mark Eardley Feb 19, 2019 by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) Like any B2B enterprise, the success of a professional services firm depends on its ability to attract and retain profitable, long-term clients. To achieve that goal, it’s marketing’s task to shape positive brand perceptions that will trigger engagements.
Brands & Branding: Positively different vs commercially irrelevant
Brands & Branding – Affinity Publishing Feb 1, 2019 by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) Companies competing in the same market may often look like clones. Similar products, similar services, similar propositions. The problem with looking like a clone is that it’s a constant barrier to increasing sales and strengthening margins. From a customer’s perspective (the only one that matters), if all the available offerings look cast from the same mould, how can customers decide which to buy? Simple.
Market Research Wrap: Ad industry still getting gender wrong
Market Research Wrap – MarkLives Jan 31, 2019 by MarkLives (@marklives) Our weekly wrap of the latest market and consumer research: Marketers vs consumers on portraying women in ads Gunn Report rebrands The big story hidden in a little survey Gender bias persists According to Kantar’s latest analysis of advertising creativity and media effectiveness, 91% of marketers think they are succeeding at portraying women as positive role models in adverts, but almost half (45%) of audiences think...
Market Research Wrap: Synergies between meal kits, supermarkets
Market Research Wrap: Synergies between meal kits, supermarkets by MarkLives (@marklives) Our weekly wrap of the latest market and consumer research: The future of meal kits 2019, the year of zero trust Content marketing: not much thought, not much leadership Meal-kit viability Despite the massive growth experienced by South African meal-kit companies, many global food industry experts believe that these companies will only survive if they are eventually acquired, as the ecommerce...
Market Research Wrap: Private labels grab 21% of SA retail
Market Research Wrap: Private labels grab 21% of SA retail by MarkLives (@marklives) Our weekly wrap of the latest market and consumer research: SA private labels worth R49bn 2019 media predictions #1 reason for buyers talking to sales teams Private labels continue to grow in SA Private label products in South Africa now equate to R49.3bn annually, commanding a 21.1% share of the South African retail sector, up from 20% in 2017 and ahead of branded product growth in the country.
Back2Basics: B2B revenue marketing - trick or treat?
Back2Basics: B2B revenue marketing — trick or treat? by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) It’s a treat — a rare one. And there’s a chance to get a R7 500 report on it free. “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Requiem for a Nun, William Faulkner I always like a bit of high-powered advocacy for pulling some marketers’ heads out of the sand — or wherever else they may be — and filling them with some age-old, right-thinking about creating sales and protecting margins.
Market Research Wrap: The Netflix effect on the battle for eyeballs
Market Research Wrap: The Netflix effect on the battle for eyeballs by MarkLives (@marklives) Our weekly wrap of the latest market and consumer research: How big is Netflix Online purchasers seek mother-tongue And introducing The Eardley Analysis The war for eyeballs Written by Brandon de Kock, WhyFive Insights director, this fifth and final selection of interesting insights from the 2018/19 BrandMapp survey examines the eyeball war initiated by industry disruptor, Netflix. by Brandon de Kock.
B2B Customer Centricity: Measuring centric-approach performance
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) In the four previous Q&As with Laura Ramos, we’ve looked at how a customer-centric approach underpins marketing’s ability to attract and retain profitable business. Far from being a touchy-feely cliché, we’ve shown that full-on centricity creates sales, protects margins and reinforces loyalty. This final Q&A looks at measuring — and proving — its contribution to producing those paramount results.
Back2Basics: True importance of value-based pricing
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) That’s the hard-nosed opinion of Mark Bergen, a pricing expert and professor of marketing at Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. For B2B marketers, it’s an opinion that warrants serious consideration. Flying blind on pricing always has two ugly consequences: sales are lost to fractionally cheaper competitors or deals get done at miniscule margins. That’s what happens when B2B companies don’t understand how they create value for customers.
The business of identity
For managers and executives charged with implementing governance, risk-management and compliance (GRC) policies, the ability to control who can do what, when and where in the workplace is absolutely essential. However, gaining and maintaining that control can be a daunting and complex task given the diversity of vendors that claim they can assist in addressing the challenges with so-called access and identity management (IAM) or identity management (IdM) solutions.
B2B Customer Centricity: Defining, targeting content that creates sales
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) In this fourth Q&A with Laura Ramos, Forrester’s VP and principal analyst serving B2B marketing professionals, we’re going to look at targeting — as in channelling the right message to the right people at the right time. In previous Q&As, we looked at the overall business benefits produced by centricity and drilled down into specific advantages it delivers in terms of differentiation and segmentation.
B2B Customer Centricity: Why it’s vital for needs-based segmentation
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) In this third Q&A with Laura Ramos, Forrester’s VP and principal analyst serving B2B marketing professionals, we’re looking at centricity in the context of market segmentation and the role it plays, first, in identifying everyone who influences buying decisions and, secondly, in understanding the reasons that motivate those decisions.
B2B Customer Centricity: Why competitor differentiation matters
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) In this second Q&A with Laura Ramos, Forrester’s VP and principal analyst serving B2B marketing professionals, we’ll examine how a centric approach may be used to differentiate a B2B enterprise from its competitors. Differentiation seriously matters. In B2B: A Game of Clones?, I presented reasons that being seen to be positively different is the engine that drives profitable sales.
B2B Customer Centricity: Moving from lip-service to full service
B2B Customer Centricity: Moving from lip-service to full service by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) Laura Ramos is Forrester’s VP and principal analyst serving B2B marketing professionals. In my next few columns, I’ll be asking her about customer-centricity — why it matters; how to achieve it; the results it produces for sales and margins; and the reasons that it does that. In January 2018, I reviewed a Forrester report about its predictions for B2B in 2018.
Back2Basics: B2B - Bollocks-to-Bullshit
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) In B2B, the primary buying motivators are not based on emotions. Gyro, a respected B2B agency, recently reported the findings of a survey concerning the dynamics of buying decisions. The survey’s goal was to reveal what’s wanted from vendors by the people who influence and make those decisions. The answers were revealed by Kenneth Hein, gyro’s global chief communications officer. Apparently, buyers want the same as players of Dungeons and Dragons.
B2B: Bollocks-to-Bullshit
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) In B2B, the primary buying motivators are not based on emotions. Gyro, a respected B2B agency, recently reported the findings of a survey concerning the dynamics of buying decisions. The survey’s goal was to reveal what’s wanted from vendors by the people who influence and make those decisions. The answers were revealed by Kenneth Hein, gyro’s global chief communications officer. Apparently, buyers want the same as players of Dungeons and Dragons.
Back2Basics: B2B in 2018 - a licence to sell
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) B2B is brimming with tools, techniques and processes. The flow of “martech” innovations and their applications spills forth seemingly endlessly and B2B’s cup runneth over with efficient new ways to get new things done. The impact on sales and margins should be phenomenal. Recessionary barriers ought to be effortlessly swept aside as thoroughly modern marketers drive revenues and profitability ever upwards.
Back2Basics: It’s official - a renaissance in B2B is on the way
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) Isn’t it great when people agree with your thinking? You pitch a concept and somebody says, “You know what? That’s so totally total! We can so up-gear with that!” Or words to that effect… It’s even better when your thinking gets endorsed by a heavyweight such as American research company, Forrester. In my previous MarkLives column, I ended by saying that a golden age in B2B had already dawned.
Back2Basics: Things are what they used to be
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) In B2B, things are what they used to be. Just listen to The Man. Next year, an iconic advert celebrates its 60th birthday. Created in 1958 and commonly tagged as “The Man in the Chair”, the ad earned its iconic status because it’s B2B’s equivalent of the apple that apparently fell on Isaac Newton’s head. Just as that falling apple prompted Newton to explain the laws of gravity, The Man in the Chair did the same for the laws of B2B marketing.
Back2Basics: The digital distraction
by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) Enough! End the digital distraction and focus on B2B’s basics. During the past 10 years or so, B2B marketers have been increasingly bombarded with a dangerously distracting proposition: a new era is dawning in B2B and it’s being driven by technology. The shiny new tools and techniques featured in this deviant proposal typically include: Nothing but tinsel and glitter. A buzz-pack of smoke-and-mirrors that’s been systemised, branded, priced, hyped and sold.
Back2Basics: How to create B2B content that creates sales
Back2Basics – Mark Eardley Oct 3, 2017 by Mark Eardley (@mdeardley) Content has only one purpose: to build sales-generating trust among all the influencers of a B2B buying decision. Here’s a three-step checklist for creating influencer-focused content that will do just that: keep it concentrated, convincing and connected. 1. Concentrated: make sure it sells The first C is over-arching in that it provides the direction to ensure content serves its purpose.
Back2Basics: B2B sales & margins - who really generates yours?
by Mark Eardley. Answer the headline question correctly and you’ll know who influences and makes the business-buying decisions that generate your sales and margins. Knowledge is power. You’ll know which audiences to engage. You’ll have an opportunity to discover their motivations for supporting a decision to select or reject your offering. You’ll know what you need to say to each of them and how to say it. That’s powerful.
Back2Basics: How the brand impacts the business
by Mark Eardley. Want a brand that generates sales, strengthens margins and side-lines competitors? Who doesn’t? Let me tell you a story. A while back I was asked by an ad agency to help define its approach to B2B marketing. It wanted a methodology that could be presented to a potential client and thereby describe how the agency would manage the account to attract and retain profitable customers.
Back2Basics: B2B’s ‘One Ring’ - the buying decision cycle
by Mark Eardley. “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them/One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” In The Lord of the Rings, the One Ring is all-powerful. It controls and influences wearers of the other rings of power. Ok, so you know about Tolkien’s hobbits, elves, dwarves, orcs and wizards. But you might wonder how that all connects to the world of B2B? That world has its own version of the One Ring. It’s not magical but it sure is powerful. Here’s what it does.
Back2Basics: Creativity in B2B? Now there’s a challenge!
by Mark Eardley. 85,863,641. That’s eighty-five million, eight-hundred-and-sixty-three thousand, six hundred and forty-one. Early-ish in April 2017, that’s how many views an ad by Volvo Trucks had clocked-up since it appeared on Volvo’s YouTube site on 13 November 2013. Jean-Claude van Damme, an Enya soundtrack, two trucks, two drivers, one take and the best part of 86m YouTube views. Wow! But, wait, it gets galactically better.
Back2Basics: Digital vs digital
by Mark Eardley. When is digital B2B really critical? And when is it dumber than dumb? Website. Website. Website. WWW. That’s the triple-W where the world-wide web is really important in B2B. In B2B, WWW also translates into WHO you are, WHAT you do and WHY you matter to customers. Who? What? Why? WWW. That’s your website content defined. Hopefully, you know who you are and what you do and can express that really fast on your site. But are you as crystal-clear about why you matter to customers?
Back2Basics: B2B needs to catch a wake up
by Mark Eardley. Marketing needs to catch a wakeup call. A big one. Unless it starts pulling its weight and proving that it creates sales and protects margins, marketing runs the risk of losing even more commercial relevance than it has in recent years. Whether it’s crooked media buying, illusory digital metrics or that the kids are running the playground, the marketing function is in a bad space. As a business communications tool, the internet should have been marketing’s great ally.
Motive: How value motivates B2B buying
by Mark Eardley. The debased word ‘value’ is usually bandied about in a meaningless way. If a company claims to add value for customers or provide the best value or deliver enhanced value, precisely what is being added, provided or enhanced? It’s difficult to say… The entire concept of value has become diluted by idiotic marketing-speak into something that sounds nice-to-have but is completely indefinable and intangible. But is it?
B2B marketing to boom in 2017
by Mark Eardley. B2B is going to attract much more local spend and attention in 2017. This was clearly signalled last August, when Barclays Africa Group split its advertising account and created a dedicated B2B component. Other big-spending brands will surely follow suit. If they do, B2B is poised to become South Africa’s buzz-theme for the year.
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