Author Archive
Consultants, in multiple genres, have been around for thousands of years. History is full of kings, queens, emperors, tsars, presidents and others who used myriads of advisers to direct or misdirect them in all walks of life. In relatively modern times, management consulting grew at a time when management was establishing itself officially as a […]
Posted in: General Business Topics
Leave a Comment (0) →Introduction and scope All lawyers and law firms are brands. Whether or not they are the brands they would choose to be is another matter, but they are brands nonetheless. In addition, lawyers and law firms deal with brands, some major, on an ongoing basis. These brands incorporate individuals, corporates, not-for-profits, products, services, cities and […]
Posted in: Branding
Leave a Comment (0) →Imagine you are attending a classical concert. The string and woodwind components are superb, but things go badly wrong when the percussionists enter the fray. Unfortunately they were not included in rehearsals and are badly off key. They spoil the entire rendition. It’s been a memorable afternoon, but for all the wrong reasons. Later that […]
Content marketing is the provision of ongoing, high calibre and objective information that adds value to your target market by providing meaningful ideas, insight, and quality solutions for their needs. Companies engaging in content marketing do so to grow their businesses as a consequence of the positive relationships that are engendered between themselves and their […]
Posted in: Marketing and Communications, SME
Leave a Comment (0) →Alan Kaplan Many SME’S ask about the relative merits of conventional versus digital marketing. This depends on many factors such as objectives, strategy, target market, budget, timing, degree of interaction required and others. For larger corporations brand marketing has traditionally occupied a large slice of conventional media primarily through TV but also in print, and […]
Alan Kaplan International trends confirm that time spent with social media continues to grow at a considerable rate with social networking and blogs accounting for approximately twenty five percent of time spent online. In tandem with this, the use of social media in a business context has been growing for both large companies and SME’s. […]
Posted in: Social Media
Leave a Comment (0) →Alan Kaplan Marketing strategies are vital to any organisation. Whilst there are many different strategic models that are regarded as sophisticated in today’s business environment, some classic and conceptually simple strategies are as valid today as the time they were conceived. In 1957 Igor Ansoff developed his now famous growth matrix. Whilst some regard it […]
Posted in: Strategy
Leave a Comment (0) →Alan Kaplan A significant issue with many SME’s is that they personally lack the internal resources to optimise performance. This could be due to time constraints or a lack of skills or experience in specific areas. In these instances a professional business consultant can add significant value in many ways, providing that key criteria are […]
Posted in: General Business Topics
Leave a Comment (0) →Alan Kaplan Brand building is an essential activity for any organisation whether for profit or not for profit. There are many facets which help shape and develop an optimal brand identity, one of which is a tagline. The stronger the synergy between a well developed and successful brand name, logo and tagline, the better the […]
Posted in: Branding
Leave a Comment (0) →Alan Kaplan Brands have enormous potential to create wealth for their owners. The brand value of many of the world’s largest corporates such as Google and Apple is billions of dollars and in some instances constitutes the majority of the value of the enterprise. According to Brand Finance Nike (84%), Prada (74%) and Acer (71%). […]