Platonik blog

Platonik have been hired to redesign and rebuild the website for Ayrshire property developer Viga Limited. We shall be freshing and modernising their corporate identity as well as building a website to showcase their services and portfolio of previous home building projects.

Here's the new corporate identity

Here's the older identity which we felt was rather outdated and the company name was rather difficult to read with the dot of the letter I situated above the letter V. A subtle change which should better communicate the client's brand.

Yesterday, I got a phone call from a person whom I would now deem to be a bit of a business mentor.

"Fraser, pop in and see the new offices"

So I popped in for a coffee and we swap customer and business stories for a while. Then he brings up a business venture he is pursuing. He starts 5 businesses each year ! So he shows me the website and tells me the sales progress he is making. So I share my insight and give him a multiple sales channel strategy. I sketch up a marketing plan on the whiteboard. Then he tells that the reason he likes interacting with me is because of my ability to not only see the bigger picture but deliver a tactical plan of action. He shows me the website. It's cool. Perfect for the target market. I look at one product, look at the on page optimisation and then google one product to see if it ranks.

I then see 20 product results the exact same as his.

"I'll cut you into the deal" he says. 

Sorry but I don't do commission or revenue share deals. This baffles him. "Why would I give away my skills when i don't have what I call control of the deal ?"

"This is actually a worse deal than a job" "Ok", he says, "why don't I pay you to implement a marketing plan and budget then ?"

So then I hit him with what I call the neglected Marketing P.

For the past 20 years in marketing I have always been working on the promotional side, the pricing side and the sales distribution side of a product or brand. With a budget you used to be able to go out buy sales.


"You are selling a commodity, my friend. There are at least 20 other companies selling the exact products you are selling. The people you are calling up on the phone are too busy to listen to your "we've got a better price and service" story. They already have established suppliers. They ain't gonna switch just cos you called up. They ain't gonna take an appointment. If you do any online activity, those other 20 guys selling the same stuff as you will outspend you on SEO and PPC"

So that's why I chose not to get involved.

The neglected Marketing P is of course The Product. This is the part of the marketing mix that most marketers aren't involved in. This is mainly the field of designers, developers, inventors or engineers. 

So my friend if you want to succeed you are going to have to go back to the marketplace with one of the following :

• Game changer
• A purple cow
• Totally new solution to a problem
• Find people who are dissatisfied with what they have
• Easier way for people to do something
• New version of an existing concept

I'm involved right now with 4 companies that have come up with new ideas, game changers or solve an obvious problem no one has solved before.

And marketing these products will be easier than marketing a commodity. Opening doors with sales channels will be much easier. Competition should be near zero. Margins will be better as the business owners can dictate the relationship with buyers.

So right now when you say your marketing isn't working or your business is struggling, look at the product; therein lies your solution to your problem.

If you don't know who Tom Ford is, he was the designer of the Gucci fashion label. He increased their sales by 90% in his time there taking sales to $3.4billion. So you kinda have to listen to what this guy has to say about business and people.

Talking about the fashion industry on The Culture Show he stated

"I think of myself as a commercial designer. I am not an artist. Fashion by its very nature is about a surface. It is about selling optimism. It's about confidence."

So if you are selling a "surface" or optimism, what brand or angle of optimism are you selling that isn't already owned ?