Blog

Here's what's on our mind...

Vive la Révolution!

To be frank, it's tough convincing people that they need your help (which unfortunately is a big part of what we do). It's not that people don't want better MI, data warehouses, optimised marketing, or any of the skills we can deliver for our clients - it's just extremely tough getting internal support for such a project. I know all too well, and if your reading this with a knowingly furrowed brow then you have my full sympathy.

The reason for this compassion? I've spent years on the other side of the fence battling against a backdrop of competing business priorities, continually changing leadership regimes, obstructive people in the organisation who either lack the vision to look beyond next week, or have their own agenda to push through, limited budgets, or any one of many other blockers to innovation and business improvement.

The wonderful thing about being in the position I am, having the opportunity to help creative, visionary, strategically minded people to deliver their projects, is that I get to see the fruits of their political manoeuvring.

I'll give you the example of one of our current clients. Marketing Effectiveness Team have been driving greater return on marketing spend across all of the direct brands of a top UK insurance grounp for years. This has been achieved by creating MI reports and data models against a range of disparate data sources from different core systems. The limitation was in the run times and manual intervention required to nurse the processes to completion every day. To cut straight to the happy ending, MI reports and data analysis are now run against an integrated data warehouse which runs on a scheduled batch and is complete at 4am every business morning which has led to a saving of 1 full resource (who, I hasten to add, has been re-deployed onto generating more valuable output instead of stepping through BAU processes), more timely data, more accurate data, and more actionable business insight.

That's not really the moral of the story though. The real credit goes to the Head of that team, who valiantly battled against competing internal pressures, a gloomy market, and a changing leadership regime to secure the backing to get the project signed off. Several months later the momentum of the project continues as it becomes evident at each stage that there is several-fold return on the investment.

Vindication is a wonderful thing.

So, be brave comrades - your revolution will come...

Tom McGuinness: 20/05/2009

Re-launch: Watch this space!

We're very excited to announce that Llando Knight Consulting is re-branding and re-launching for 2009!

To date LKC has been the freelance pursuit of analysts working full time in the industry, but as of now that's all about to change. LKC started because we weren't satisfied by the offerings available in the agency market and we knew we could do better. Turns out we can and do! We love doing what we do, and it seems our clients do to, so we're going to do it full time.

It's become clear that our vision, approach and quality of delivery is in dire need, and the timing couldn't be better (see 'Boom or bust - the choice is yours')!

We're very excited about this move and if you're reading this you should be too. Why? Because we now have capacity to take on more work than before and help increase the profitability of many more businesses just like yours.

Tom McGuinness: 2/11/2008

Boom or bust - the choice is yours

The Credit Crunch (I have to confess i hate these labels that are assigned by the media, but if the shoe fits...) isn't just a story in the news. Real people and real businesses are feeling pain.

What to do?...

If you've asked yourself that question then you've taken the first step. When costs have risen, market spend has gone down and consumer behavior has changed every single one of your profit drivers needs focus. Every penny you spend on marketing should be targeted to generate maximum return. Every customer you already have should be retained or reactivated. Every product you sell should be priced to maximise profit contribution. Every business process you have should be automated and fine tuned.

The truth is that we should have done all of the above years ago, but now that circumstances have forced your hand you'll wonder why you waited so long. Becoming efficient now is all about survival, but when the economy turns for the better you'll be in rude health to become more profitable than you ever were before.

So, boom or bust? It's really a question of action or inaction.

Tom McGuinness: 28/10/2008

Reach for the sky

The 80:20 rule is a cruel mistress (although i'm not sure Pareto would be keen on the term). On the one hand she gives an invaluable rule of thumb for focusing your efforts. On the other, she limits your vision.

An example;

It's true that when it comes to email marketing a significant chunk of benefit will be generated from the simple step of bulk sending some basic emails to your customer base. Lets say, 5% of the people you mailed bought a product because of the mailing. Job's a good 'un right?

What could that 5% become? What if you had 2 emails, one selling widget A and one selling widget B, and targeted those at the people that want widget A rather than widget B. What if you adjusted the timings of your mailings so that it arrived in the inbox when the customer was in the market for your widget? What if you experimented with the subject line of your email to make it more personal to the recipient? The list goes on...

The morale of the story? Don't let yourself be constrained by a glass ceiling. Go for the best. Go for the optimal solution. Don't just stick to the basics - reach for the sky!

Tom McGuinness: 1/10/2008