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T&T Elections without Manning

Saturday 24th July, 2010

ballot boxIn the recent General Elections in Trinidad and Tobago, I believe there were some people who voted against Manning rather than for the People’s Partnership.  So now that Manning is gone, how will the PP fear?  Well, they will win their 5 existing Councils for sure.  Because the people in those areas are UNC to the bone.  What will happen in the others like say Arima now that there is no Manning to get back at.

Here are some things in the PP’s favor:

The theory of cognitive dissonance may come into play.  According to Wikipedia, Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding contradictory ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying. It is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.

Following a choice, such as voting for a particular party, expectations can clash with experience, as when the party does not deliver on its promises. In a state of dissonance, people may feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment. Despite contrary evidence, people are biased to think of their choices as correct.(adapted from Wikipedia)  So having voted PP in the general elections, they vote PP again in the local elections.

So Cognitive Dissonance Theory works in favor of the People’s Partnership.

  • The COP factor may have  weakened the PNM significantly. Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was a group of middle class and upper class people who felt disenfranchised.  They chose none of the above. (as Lloyd Best would say)  My theory is that some of these people used to find themselves in the house of the Baliser seeing this shelter as the lesser of two evils or not voting at all.  Now many of them have taken up residence in Copville. (or have returned to the UNC now that Panday is gone)

So COP factor helps the People’s Partnership

  • Dr. Rowley was right: “Who have more corn feed more cock”.  It’s been the PNM strategy for years and the PP will benefit from this.

So if I am right, there will be plenty of yellow on our TV screens on Monday night.  This time some of those who voted ‘against Manning’ in the General Elections would be voting ‘for the PP’ in the “Locals” and that, to my mind,  is the bigger problem for Dr. Rowley, not losing some Local Councils.

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10 ways to gain more market share for your service brand

Saturday 24th July, 2010
  1. Make sure you have a brand promise and that it’s relevant
  2. Tell your internal team the promise
  3. Make sure your products/services are true to the promise (eg. Rolex promise with Timex delivery)
  4. Align all customer touch points to deliver the promise better everyday (including people, facilities, technology, pricing, communications)
  5. Recruit people who are happy to deliver the promise
  6. Regularly measure how you are doing in terms of promise delivery (customer feedback and mystery shoppers)
  7. Reward and recognise team members who deliver the promise
  8. Train those who don’t and suggest to those who really can’t that they find another field (yes fire them)
  9. Now you’re ready to advertise (advertising, pr, d-mail, sponsorships and events, digital)
  10. Be fair and honest with your teams, your customers and your community

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Positioning for T&T Local Government win

Monday 5th July, 2010

How should the People’s Partnership (PP) and the People’s National Movement (PNM) position themselves for the 26th July vote?  Just to remind you the last time around the PNM choose the “stability” platform.  We’ve delivered for the last 50 years so you can trust us to keep delivering.  The PP chose to position themselves as the saviours from the evils of poor management, arrogance, corruption  and squander mania. So with PP “we would rise” when you let us fix the mess.

What position should the two parties pursue this time around?  If I were advising the PNM I would tell them to flaunt their newly minted underdog status.  They could adopt the stance of “we’ve made some mistakes, we know that and we’ve also done a world of good and want to continue doing so”.  So don’t throw away the baby with the bath water.  A sub-message could be that you should not put all your eggs in one basket.

The PP boys and girls should stay on their “servants of the people platform” tweaking their message to local government issues.  Both parties need to be real and go easy on the platitudes and empty rhetoric.  Mankind just want to know when the bridge fixin’.    As the incumbent central government, the PP has a distinct advantage.  However, they will have to be careful not to be seen as bullies (given their big majority), so Jack should not be talkin’ about winning everything.  That will only make the PNM more attractive to their faithful and to others concerned about making sure there is someone there to guard the guards.

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Companies of Leaders

Tuesday 29th June, 2010

companies_of_leadersIn a blog posted today by Moira Clark in MyCustomer.com, she shares one of the major findings of a recent Cisco study into the impact of social networking in organisations as being the need to change business mindsets.

In Trinidad and Tobago we are at the very early stage of acknowledging the potential and power of the online and digital space.  For many CEO’s, it’s  not something engaging their time and it has been relegated to brand managers to use tactically in the same way one might purchase a gondola end in a supermarket.

So social media is equated with Facebook which is seen by many of them as digital doodling and the baby is thrown out with the bath water.  It’s hard for CEO’s to trust their staff in the digital space given that many of us don’t trust our people in the real world.  So the minset change we need is more fundamental than one focused on Social Media.  The days of the maximum centralised leader are long gone.  We need companies of leaders and not just leaders of companies.  Once we crack the trust thing, then we can see how we use social media to tell our story and win friends.

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Have a passion for social media?

Tuesday 29th June, 2010

Pepper is looking for Social Media activists.  If you have a passion for the digital space and think you can handle the duties below, then give us a call or drop us an e-mail.  Pepper is ramping up our Social Media(SM) capability and are looking for a few good sm’ers.

The role:

  • Source, select and organize information for inclusion on social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Slideshare, LinkedIn, YouTube etc)
  • Ability to engage users on social media networks through the use of questions, contests, giveaways, trivia etc
  • Ability to set guidelines and monitor activities such as contests and giveaways
  • Monitoring of Facebook activity
  • Ability to review analytical data in the form of Facebook Insights, Google Analytics and other web metrics
  • Ability to make corrections, suggestions and adjustments to content based on metric data
  • Promotion of the Pepper Advertising Brand by – submitting our contact info to online directories, promoting and writing for the Pepper blog, engaging fans on Facebook, monitoring Twitter activity, monitoring brand mentions and competitor brand mentions

You will be:

  • Committed to transparency
  • Organised, with the discipline to document your time
  • Have excellent communication skills
  • Adaptable, willingness to learn on the job

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5 Ways to produce Poor Advertising and 6 ways to avoid it

Wednesday 23rd June, 2010

Here’s what many clients think agencies are:

  1. A supplier- like my stationery supplier except they deliver ideas, sometimes damn good ones
  2. The people I call to communicate the strategy (not the ones I call to help me with strategy)
  3. The people I pay but I’m not so sure what I am getting in return (half of my money spent on advertising is wasted but I don’t know which half)
  4. The people I call for press, radio and TV. Full stop.
  5. The people who I tell what to do and then pay them

Here’s what T&T ad agencies should be:

    1. Partners that understand the strategic intention and who are brought into the inner circle (this would have implications on both sides and agencies would have to play a more thinking role than a tactical one and the current compensation model would have to change)
    2. More accountable so that there is some measure for ROI. In T&T we are doing a horrible job as an ad industry on tracking performance and measuring anything
    3. We should stop being ad agencies and start being relationship builders because ads are not the only way to connect with people. In fact, traditional ads are losing their efficacy
    4. More tough. Don’t let the patient be the doctor
    5. More transparent. Here’s what I did and here’s what that cost (this will necessitate better tracking systems than we currently have)
    6. The owners of more cajones to say no (that’s not the way to go or no thanks if you’re not paying a small pitch fee which does not even cover my costs/clients counter that it’s an investment in new business).

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      Posted in Marketing, Opinion | View Comments

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