They call them vanity metrics. Likes and comments from loyal staff but no engagement from actual customers. The problem with vanity metrics is you're spending vast sums of time and money creating content that no one sees. It’s like you’re talking to yourself. Vanity metrics will never move the needle for your business. You need to change your social media strategy and content plans if you want to be noticed and get engagement. Here’s how…

Sales is getting harder for everyone. Only 29% of people want to talk to a salesperson to learn more about a product whilst 62% will consult a search engine. 57% of the purchase decision is complete before a customer even calls a supplier. Only 13% of customers believe a sales person can understand their needs. We need to get better and quicker at sales training.

We use supermarkets because they are convenient. It's easier to use a full service agency too but like relationships, opting for convenience can mean you're settling for second best. The problem with full service agencies is you pay a premium. You pay for all the bodies and lights in the building, not just the ones you use, through the overhead and profit multiples that agencies apply to their rates. Convenience becomes far less convenient when this happens.

Fonterra is too big and important as a $20 billion exporting company to fail for New Zealand and its farmer shareholder base. This isn't the time to look for blame. It's the time to look for solutions. However, the longer things stay the same, the longer nothing changes.

When we find truth we create trust so when it comes to branding you need to tell your truth and tell it well. That way people will know you're the real deal. Humans are hard wired to seek the truth. In court we vow to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God. The Hippocratic oath in essence means "do no harm". Marketers and their agencies could take that same oath...

Using the brand equity of someone else to prop up your own can signal a weak brand or a creative team out of ideas. It seems if you have little brand credibility, you can simply purchase it. Here are some examples on how you can build credibility in your own brand without relying on celebrity endorsement.

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Fieldays at Mystery Creek and is the biggest show in town. Whilst it has many advocates, including its own passionate PR dept, equally there are as many who don’t like it, think it’s got too big and commit to regional field day events instead. The problem is unless you’re a big fish it is very hard to get cut through at National Fieldays…

We’re too small a country to be divided. Rather than look for differences and positions between rural and urban let’s look for a common ground and a shared vision: to be world-famous in food. When we get this right the world will love New Zealand even more.

Let’s talk towards this synthetic meat challenge and meet it head on, not shy away from thinking it might go away because it won’t. When it’s natural, real and as nature intended we have a real competitive advantage so long as we have our story straight.

Like our homes, lives, relationships and public infrastructure, brands need to be built on strong foundations and be kept well maintained. Short term cosmetics never pay off. If you build your brand right and maintain it regularly it will cost you a lot less and earn you much more in the long run.

Value add is a term tossed around so much it’s become meaningless and tiresome. People use it in the hope it will excuse them from the cognitive challenge of deeper thinking and problem solving. It’s a simplistic statement with those that use it in danger of being perceived as rather simplistic themselves.  Like the catch cry “we just need to tell our story better”, value add is easy to say but far harder to execute. That’s why I’m calling for a moratorium on the term "value add" in NZ Ag until we’ve worked out how we properly define it and apply it.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) should be applauded for commissioning such a thorough analysis on the challenge and opportunities from alternative protein. Its Future Meat Report is a solid piece of work that will be doing the stakeholder rounds and roadshows up and down the country as we speak. However having read it what are the next actions? And does it go far enough?

“Marketing are cost centres and sales are profit centres.” When I look at this statement it’s generic but also contains some truth. Over the years I've seen plenty of marketers yet met very few who can sell despite sales being the commercial lifeblood for companies. Because of this I’ve always believed marketing should be  a function of sales. Any marketing department that struggles with this definition is in danger of being that cost centre or overhead so the formula for me is simple: marketing teams deliver qualified leads for sales team to close. 

Some of the best talent I have been privileged to work with run their own businesses because they are good enough which means they can. Only the good ones survive. The great thing about working with people out on their own is that they have skin in the game. They are heavily invested to make sure the work works. Years ago I was told by a Client "we're a business that follows the talent, not the agency"…

Understanding the emotional drivers behind your customer's decisions can be very rewarding especially for those rural marketers who want to get closer to their customers and secure more sales... 

We’d be wise as an industry to beware of our biases which might be lulling us into a false sense of security. Blockbuster, Kodak and Nokia didn't see it. Let’s hope we do...

When clean meat is getting a lot of press and billionaire directors James Cameron and Peter Jackson are getting into plant protein as well, NZ Ag would be foolish to ignore it. So could NZ Ag be the Intel inside, or ingredient brand, of clean meat?