Posts Tagged ‘Trinidad & Tobago’

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Super Barry

Friday 30th July, 2010

Super Barry

I have been in the advertising industry (if we can call it that in Trinidad & Tobago) for approximately ten years. I may have probably spent just as many years dreaming of entering the exotic world of advertising. When I eventually got in, in 1999, I was ecstatic. I had dreams of grandeur. I was going to revolutionise local television ads. I was going to save the T&T television viewing public from the doldrums that paraded on the airwaves daily. Super Barry to the rescue!!! Unfortunately, this hero got hit by advertising Kryptonite in all forms. (more…)

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What’s holding back our customer service?

Wednesday 28th July, 2010

What’s holding us back from giving really great customer service?  We focus too much on policies, procedures and brand manuals.  And that’s a lot to focus on,  When we add to that company politics and turf guarding, we end up forgetting why we come to work everyday.  So we need to focus our companies  on the one thing that we can be truly remarkable at delivering.   Sometimes it a physical thing like efficiency and other times it could be emotional like our friendliness or approachability.  Search for the one thing that you can credibly lay claim to and that is important to your customers.  Identify it, get your troops to embrace it (all of them not just the marketing department) and then align everything you do towards delivering it, down to your voice mail message.  It’s as simple and as hard as that.

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Fatima Brand Loyalty- Class of ’75

Tuesday 27th July, 2010

 

 

 

 

10 Reasons why Class of ’75 is so loyal to Fatima College because:

  1. We spent 7  years there (some of us eight)
  2. We had special leaders including Ryan and Pantin
  3. We had caring teachers like Fr. Farfan, Pouchet and Francis John
  4. We met icons like Freddie, Holman and Mr Romero
  5. We knew how to lose and did that often
  6. We were taught that extra curricular was as important as curricular
  7. We have the best Carnival Fete (and need tickets)
  8. Community-ship always trumped scholarships
  9. We want our sons to go there
  10. We had friends like Gerard Deane. RIP.  (it was always hilarious when his name was called in Assembly)

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15% changes everything for the PNM

Sunday 25th July, 2010

In a post today by Seth Godin, he reminds us of the power of 15%.  Listen to Seth:

“When a newspaper loses 15% of its readers or 15% of its advertisers, it goes out of business. There are still people who want to read it, still people who want to advertise, but it’s gone.

When a technology company increases its sales by 15%, profits will double. The sales line doesn’t have to increase that much for profits to soar.

It’s so tempting to head for green fields with a new thing, a new market, a new business. But in fact, 15% right here and right now might be exactly what you need.”

I think the PNM will have a tough time holding on to 100% of the people who voted for them in the last Locals and they are definitely not going to attract 15% more.  Dr. Rowley has had the impossible task of defending the indefensible.   His real work starts on Tuesday 27th July.  Starting Tuesday, he must hope that his opponents make many unforced  errors while winning some points of his own doing.  The PP errors will come, that’s life.  It’s up to Dr. Rowley to not just re-brand the PNM but also to check to see if the PNM product needs a make over, building on the strengths it possesses while changing some of its ingredients.  So “Seth’s 15” is not likely to serve the PNM and Dr. Rowley well tomorrow, but it can get them started towards another 15, 2015.

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Bikinis Beads and Feathers (BBF’s)

Saturday 24th July, 2010

The Annual parade of band launches have started.  Masquerading as mass, the Bikinis, Beads and Feathers (BBF’s) really are all about sexual and sensual expression and mulah.  The girls love it and so do the boys.  And a few people are feeding their families and educating their children courtesy BBF’s.  It’s the free market system at its best and worse.  People love it and we move further from who we are with every new morphed version.  So what do we need to do as a country?  Nothing.  BBF’s will self destruct.  The thing is by that time we may have lost the mas.  And that’s all we island people really have.

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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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