How does the FA repair the England brand?

I've had just over a week to try and repair my broken heart: the 2010 South African World Cup was supposed to be the year that England returned to the British Isles basking in World Cup glory. I, like many other footie fans truly believed we would do it, more so this year than in any year. I'm not sure why I had such blind faith; perhaps it's the economic doom and gloom of the past 18 months that meant we had to win the World Cup just to lift the mood of the nation (particularly with all the cuts that the new coalition are about to introduce). Or maybe I was duped into believing James Cordon and Dizzee Rascal as they jumped and frolicked about on stage cheering on the team, encouraging others to "come and have a go if you think you're hard enough," or maybe I believed David James' confidence when he claimed: the Germans are "...a strong side, ranked sixth in the world, but we are not fearful of them at all. We are confident we can beat them. We have got through the qualifiers, the group stage, into the knockout, and we are confident we can make the British happy by beating Germany." Whatever the reasoning behind my now apparent gullibility - what I do know is that I am hopping mad at the lack of an apology for the woeful performance, and shocked at the apparent complacency of the England squad; how on earth do the FA expect to repair the damage that has been done?

As a marketer, I am acutely aware of the need to ensure that whatever brand I am responsible for I show it some love, nurture it, protect it and at times defend it. If there is negativity surrounding my brand, I need to counteract that negativity with a positive, if a person in the organisation I work for acts in a way that will damage the brand - I need to be on the ball to ensure that external stakeholders are made aware of what action the will be taken to "make things better." England fans do all of this - they are incredibly patriotic and my goodness they love their team; in fact they are a fabulous example of the emotional side of engagement that Gallup has done extensive research into. Gallup identified four related perceptual components that build an overall emotional link, tying customers to a brand - these are:

• Confidence

• Integrity

• Pride

• Passion

The two first levels of brand attachment are the basic requirements for customer engagement; England fans demonstrated high levels of pride and passion for  squad in the run-up to the world cup and throughout England's short campaign. Rooney (despite his half-hearted apology) after the England v Algeria game did an incredible amount of damage to the England brand when he criticised the England fans who quite rightly booed the shocking performance of their beloved team. Feeling valued, appreciated and personally respected are all critical elements of pride and can be felt by both customers (in this case players) and the brand. Rooney and subsequent other members of the England squad appeared to be doing their utmost to destroy any pride they had in their team and by Jove - England fans were anything but proud of the Squad - if anything - they showed great passion with a desire to tell them exactly how they felt!

Fans' feeling of disenchantment was exacerbated by the 4 - 1 thrashing by Germany (who let's face it - have a jolly good chance of winning this year although I am now cheering on Spain). England completely gave up - although I am sure if the disallowed goal had been allowed I wouldn't be writing this blog and the result would have been very different. This "goal" was the one decent thing that Lampard did throughout the campaign and despite being disallowed - you would've thought that these stupidly rich footballers would've put some wellie into their performance and not allowed the thrashing that took place in the 2nd half?

Anyhow - over the past week or so I have been thinking about what these so called men could do to try and repair the damage they have done to the England brand - damage done not just through their woeful performance but through their inability to take responsibility and blame everyone else other than themselves. Rather than whinging about being tired, bored, under pressure and blaming their manager (who - is the best thing to have happened to English football - these chaps have had it way too easy up until now - it's about time they had some discipline introduced to their oh so charmed lives and started "working" to achieve their ambitions). I do agree that Capello made some dodgy decisions - Heskey being one of them but I am not going to go into a rant about that! Perhaps the FA could take a leaf out of the Nigerian president’s school of thought? President Goodluck Jonathan's announcement that he is suspending the Nigerian team from any international competition for two years following their poor performance made me chuckle! However, such punishment would have little impact on the England squad as football in this Country is all about club football - which I believe is part of the inherent problem when it comes to England's performance on the world stage - again, this is another blog!

I would favour the FA taking a leaf out of the CSR school of thought. As we see pictures of Lampard sunning himself in Santorini with soon to be fiancé Christine Bleakley, maybe he would've been better off staying in Jo'burg and giving back to the Country that spent an incredible amount of money hosting the World Cup but continues to neglect its' people? In fact - I think the entire squad; Capello included would do themselves and brand England a whole lot of good by donating some of their millions to much needed urban regeneration in the Country where they over promised and under delivered. Despite not getting paid a salary for playing for their Country - we are under no illusion that the England squad are really just big boys living the dream - they earn ridiculous amounts of money for kicking a ball about and have issues taking criticism. By giving something back to the Country that hosted them I believe they would be able to make headway on winning back some of much needed respect from their fans. They could also do with showing some accountability - I am 100% positive that by holding their hands up and rather than blaming their schedules, the manager, boredom or discipline - if they just said yes - we were rubbish, and we're sorry - England fans would feel a lot better about their teams' early exit from the 2010 World Cup. A sincere apology and some charity would go a long way in my eyes - and you never know - I might, just might, start building myself up for the Euros in 2012 and start supporting my team again...

Is CIM Theory relevant in Practice?

It's almost a month since I completed the CIM exam hell that was the Marketing Management in Practice (MMiP) exam and to be quite frank - I never want to put myself through such abject horror ever again!

 

Having not done a 3 hour exam for 10 whole years (yes, I know my "youthful" appearance often fools others to think that I am in fact a Gen Y product of the 80s and not a Gen X product of the 70s) - the sheer vision of that exam hall was enough to bring me out in a cold sweat. Having to fit studying in and around everyday life is anything but a walk in the park; I longed for my lengthy days I had as a student - when in my final year I was only required to attend 6 hours of lectures a week! The lead up to the dreaded exam resulted in my choosing to end my contract role which was due to go perm** to concentrate on revision. I found myself pacing my roof terrace recounting Mintzberg's 10 roles of management, committing to memory diagrams that illustrated the make-up of a Matrix organisation and attempting to invent acronyms for project management theory (Programme Evaluation Review Techniques is shortened to PERT - which is juvenile enough for me to remember without any worries!) I reverted back to my 21 year old self who was frantically cramming Marx, Rousseau, and Freud - a question of modernity (I read History at SSEES - a specialist department within UCL) - and yet again I am questioning the relevance of what I was learning and how will it enrich my life?

 

I still remember a lot from my university days; I am fascinated with the arts and I am envious of my younger brother who is reading English Literature at Dublin's Trinity College. I have a genuine personal interest in history, politics, philosophy and I love reading - so the efforts made when I was a student were not only to get a degree - but also to feed my interest in these topics. In all honesty, my degree didn't really help me in my career, it demonstrated my level of intelligence and having graduated 10 years ago the "value" of a degree seemed a lot higher than it does today - probably as not everyone was encouraged to go to university when I was studying my A-Levels as they are today. It seems that almost anyone can go to university nowadays (a legacy of the former Labour government perhaps), and almost all 16 - 18 year olds are expected to apply which I personally think is wrong - academia isn't for everyone and as reports today show, competition for graduate jobs is ridiculously high with 270 students applying of every graduate job. I feel we are doing our youngsters a disservice by telling them to get a degree and then your career is sorted. What they will discover however is that if they really want to progress their career then graduation does not mark the end of your studies - if anything it is a doorway into further studying for a "professional qualification".

 

My main motivation for studying my CIM was to provide some gravitas for my career and to help combat the double-edged sword of having a fabulous career, and then suddenly realising that your twenties don't last forever, they whizz by and suddenly I'm in my thirties and I need to get a move-on in developing my career and working out when to have babies!!! Being qualified in my profession demonstrates to the outside world that I have the skills to be a competent and talented marketer, and yes - I hope to have the CIM stamp of approval by 27th August - fingers crossed! However, a lot of what CIM students learn is not put in to practice and this is what is so frustrating. How many organisations conduct a macro marketing audit consisting of a PESTLE analysis and a Porter's 5 Forces analysis? How many organisations in practice conduct an "honest" SWOT analysis and then act on its findings - particularly if under weaknesses the key internal stakeholders were shown to be hindering advancement by a reluctance to react to market conditions, or were not planning and expecting employees to react to demands at the eleventh hour? When I recounted what was required in the exam with reference to producing a marketing plan for the compulsory question based on the case study to an ex-colleague, she didn't have a clue what I meant when referring to a PESTLE analysis or Porter's 5 Forces, yet she is IDM qualified and is very talented with proven success throughout her career.

 

In reality the profession does not practice what it preaches, so what needs to change? Does industry need to start implementing what I and many other students have learnt, or does the CIM need to adjust its teaching? The syllabus has recently changed which is a good thing - teaching students project management is a vital skill and I am pleased to see that the CIM is agile enough to react to industry demands - but seriously - do Marketers really need to commit to memory Mintzberg's managerial roles? Wouldn't CIM students be better off learning how to manage the relationship with the Sales Director who doesn't see the benefit of brand engagement, or how to get the buy-in of the CEO who has trust issues and thinks he /she knows how to write better copy than them? I'm not sure what needs to happen - but what I do know is that I will not be required to detail the complexities of a Matrix organisation or Charles Handy's different models of organisational culture ever again - unless it comes up in a pub quiz or my fears come true and I am required to re-sit my exam - fingers crossed it will be the former and not the latter.

 

** Revision was one reason, there's a whole other blog post regarding employer branding and employee engagement, but I shalln't go into that right now!

If Carlsberg did bosses...

Today is the first day of one of the most hectic weeks of my life. Unlike last year, I can vouch for sure that the job-market has picked up - despite what all the doubters say.


 It was "with regret" that my 2 bosses Ali and George had to give me one months notice on my contract. Regret on their parts and my part if I'm going to be honest with you. I'd just gotten back into the swing of things in my "sparkly new job" - but what I can say - is that I had a niggly feeling that this was going to happen; I put my funny gut feeling down to paranoia and not wanting to have to go and sign-on ever again. Both Ali and George were gutted that they have had to let me go; they want to keep me, but until b2b get the go-ahead to continue with the development of the Careers portal I project managed for a client of ours (major player in the Accounting world) - there just aren't the funds for me to stay where I am. In short, there's not enough work or money so it’s time for me to find a new job. This time however, things are VERY different. I have a whole heap of new skills, I have the support of my current employers but most importantly, I’m confident, I’m positive and I’m smiling lots – and I believe my enthusiasm and positive outlook is going to help me find a fabulous new job and this is very exciting!

 I have loved working at b2b partnerships - I now consider Ali and George friends and no doubt will shed a tear on my last day. When I first started here one of the first things I said to my husband was: "If Carlsberg did bosses ... Ali and George would probably be the best bosses in the world!" They have been amazing throughout my time here; even now they are quite astonishing. Not only am I able to slot my interviews in when they are convenient to me (they are fully supporting me in my search), but they are helping me network, as well as offering to have a consultant go over my CV and help me in what direction I want my Career path to take. They truly are amazing! However, something good always comes out of something bad - and boy - have I got a crazy, manic, demanding week ahead of me: after spending 5 months hunting for work last year and it taking a ridiculous amount of time for me to secure 1 let alone 2 interviews - I have managed to secure myself 5 interviews in one week - yee ha!!!

 My first one is this afternoon and I'm quite nervous, partly because the company's fab, the role's fab, everything about it s fab and I don't want to suffer a dip in confidence due to the possibility of rejection. I also am reluctant to leave the security-net of my current role (despite being pushed). We are quite a nice fit, small team here, we accommodate each other, are flexible and we work from home if the need arises (such as last week, when I waited in all day for the blooming plumber to arrive and he rocked up at 7pm - GRRRR). Both Ali and George are nuts as well (in the nicest possible way) - pliés in the office are a regular occurrence, particularly after a carb-fuelled lunch! It really is hard to find a nice working environment - and I really want to make sure that next decision I make regarding my career ensures that I am able to work with a nice jolly bunch that are also hard working and strive for the best. The problem is - how do you work all of this out when in an interview???
So my priorities for my next role:

 1. good job


2. good team / working environment: it's very important to get on with your boss and also to have a giggle


3. good work / life balance and culture


4. progression - I want to be a digital marketing superstar and I need to work somewhere that will nurture that need


5. package (goes without saying really)

 I'll make my decision based on my gut instinct - women do this more than men and the one time I didn't listen to my gut - it practically ended in tears - note to self: must follow my gut!



So - I'm looking for another Carlsberg employer - who will be amazing and push me to be my best whilst having fun along the way. I'm hoping I'll find him or her sometime this week ... I have a good feeling about this week so fingers crossed we find each other.