All posts by : janinepaterson

And it could become law.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the ICO’s Direct Marketing Guidance, as it governs your marketing and advertising activities.

Following its first appearance in 2016 and updated version in 2018 to reflect the GDPR, the latest incarnation was issued in December 2022.

It was supposed to be the Direct Marketing Code of Practice, a piece of legislation and something the ICO has to create under the Data Protection Act 2018.

This code has been written. However, because the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill is working its way through Parliament (although currently stalled in its journey) there could be changes to the current rules, so the ICO has issued the code as guidance now to help businesses understand and comply with their current legal responsibilities. 

The guidance will form the basis of the new code once any changes to the legislation have happened, which could see the current “best practice” suggestions from the ICO becoming a legal requirement. Watch this space.

The guidance runs through the stages of a direct marketing campaign, looking at how personal data may feature.

It starts with what is direct marketing and why it’s important to comply with the rules. This covers the difference between direct marketing messages and service messages, an area for enforcement in recent months by the ICO.

There is then a look at the types of personal data you may use; the marketing channels and the rules that govern them; the information you have to tell individuals when you collect their data; and the lawful bases you can use (there are 6 available but in reality, only 2 apply, consent or legitimate interests).

Lead generation has also featured in the work of the ICO, so the guidance looks at what you need to do if you either want to collect data to sell for lead gen purposes or you are looking to buy or rent a data list.

Personal data can also be used in the planning of your marketing campaign, to find new customers, and to update your customer records with information you may not have. So profiling and adding or updating customer data are covered.

I will be looking at the guidance in a little more detail in future emails. If there are any particular questions that you would like me to cover, please let me know and I will try to answer them.

I think the guidance is helpful, although there are still grey areas, and it will be interesting to see how these are treated when the code is finalised.

It’s been happening for years!

I read an outrageous news piece the other day.

McVities are removing 3 digestives from their standard packets so they don’t need to raise the price. Penguin and Club multipacks are also shrinking from 8 to 7 bars. ?

This is apparently due to Shrinkflation, a term that describes reducing the size or quantity so the price remains the same.

This affects food items the most, with snacks and chocolate reducing in size. There was an outcry last year when Mondelez, the parent company of Cadburys announced the reduction of Dairy Milk from 200g to 180g. ?

Despite claims that Shrinkflation is due to inflation being at its highest for decades and energy prices skyrocketing, this has been happening to some of our favourite guilty pleasures for years.

As long ago as 2010, Toblerone bars were reduced by 30g to 170g and Tetley reduced their boxes of teabags from 100 to 88.

Since then, products such as Twix, Magnum, Pot Noodle and McCoy’s crisps have had the chop.

I remember changes in packet sizes I’ve bought over the years, so I’m not sure why there is so much hype now. Maybe the current financial crisis has meant more people have realised this is happening.

However, one worrying trend with this is as well as reducing the sizes of the packet, some producers are changing the recipe of some of our favourites as well. Mini Cheddars have shrunk from 25g to 23g in their bitesize versions and from 50g to 45g in their standard bags. But the amount of dried cheddar in the recipe has also reduced, from 12% to 10%. So not only are they more expensive, they don’t taste as nice!

One solution, according to William Sitwell writing in The Telegraph, is for us all to stop buying them. It will save us money and be good for our waistlines! I think there is some merit in his argument. ?

It seems even our pets will be affected. Pouches of Whiskas have shrunk from 100g to 85g!

It’s so easy to avoid this.

I’m always trying to widen my horizons, learning new things that impact marketing and advertising (and more personal subjects – I’ve got a few books on psychology at the moment).

So if I see newsletters or webinars that cover something interesting, I’m keen to sign up.

However, my experiences of doing this have not given me a very good impression of the companies involved.

They make what I call 2 fatal mistakes (one of which is actually illegal) and you need to avoid doing this if you want to build new relationships with clients and prospects.

No.1 mistake: asking for too much personal information!

No.2 mistake: making you agree to marketing in order to sign up! This is the one that’s illegal

These actions really make me feel, despite reams of copy to the contrary, that they don’t actually care about these subscribers/prospects. They’re just going for numbers – the vanity metrics of social media.

You might get hundreds signing up for a webinar, but if you make these 2 mistakes they will not be potential new clients.

Some will immediately unsubscribe as soon as the webinar ends, and many will do the same over the following days (especially if you send out 7 emails in one day – as experienced by one of my clients!)

And what will be their lasting impression of the company? Certainly not a favourable one.

Needless to say, when I came across a sign-up form for a newsletter which asked me for

First name

Surname

Company

Email address

Mobile number

Postal address

my heart sank.

Not again!

However, when I took a closer look, none of the fields had the * indicating I had to complete them.

I, therefore, added my first name and email address and pressed  SUBMIT

I was in! And I didn’t have to agree to email marketing.

I was so happy (I know, a little sad to be happy about this).

With hindsight I should have asked why they wanted so much information about me, just to send a newsletter.

The lesson: ask for the minimum information you need to do the thing they are signing up for, and give them a choice as to whether they want to receive your marketing.

It’s the circle of life.

Times have been hard for the wildlife where I live. The sub-zero temperatures overnight have caused many animals to venture further afield and make greater efforts to feed themselves and their families.

I have certainly been trying to make sure the bird feeders are fully stocked for our feathered friends.

However, an incident recently has reminded me of the truth of the natural world.

I have told you about my hen-sitting escapades in the past, and I had the pleasure of looking after the girlies again while their owners were away.

Due to avian flu, they have to stay in their enclosure, so I just needed to check on them in the morning, making sure they had food and water. I also take them a treat. Some little gem lettuces, corn on the cob, and 1 day they had Mr Kipling angel slices!

Everything went fine to begin with, but one day when I went in, the door to their hen house had not opened properly. I went over and opened it up, but only 5 hens came out, not 8!

I took the lid off the hen house and it was empty. I then saw some feathers on the floor and following the trail to the back of the enclosure, discovered a hole in the fencing. I went out and round the back of the enclosure and found what was left of one of the hens.

I knew a fox had tried to get in before, but its attempt this time was more successful. I felt so bad about the situation, especially telling their owners what had happened, but it had been so cold their normal food sources were scarce so they had to look for alternatives.

I did wonder if there was something I could have done to prevent this but knew it was not my fault. In fact, when I did text their owners, they said how bad they felt that I’d had to deal with this!

When they returned they reinstated the electric fence which should mean no more incidents like this.

I have to remind myself that this is the way that animals live and this plays out every day in the wild. It has made me appreciate the resilience and ingenuity of all the animals and birds that live around me.

Just ban it!

Did you see the new consultation that is going on in Scotland?

It was launched in Nov 2022 and looks at further restricting the marketing and advertising of alcohol. This follows the ban on buy one get one free and other multi-buy offers and the introduction of Minimum Unit Pricing which the Scots government claim has reduced purchases of cheaper, more potent alcohol products.

Restrictions on advertising otherwise legal products like alcohol and cigarettes have always been controversial. The argument for cigarettes is based on good medical evidence that smoking is bad for your health, but the case for alcohol is not so black and white.

Alcohol consumption in Scotland is a pressing issue for the Government. In 2020, the Scots bought alcohol to the extent that every single person aged over 16 could drink 18 units a week, 28% more than the guideline of 14 units. This is an alarming figure, especially as 16 and 17 years olds are included in this despite the fact they can’t legally buy it.

Alcohol-related deaths in Scotland in 2020 were 21.5 per 100K people, whereas, in England and Wales, it was 13 and 13.9 respectively.

I can therefore understand the need to “do” something to stop this from getting worse, if not improve things. But the consultation could threaten the alcohol industry in Scotland according to a growing voice of opposition.

The consultation overview states that alcohol marketing appeals to “large volumes of children and young people in Scotland” and that “it is also likely that alcohol marketing influences higher-risk drinkers, and acts as an incentive to drink alcohol”.

The proposals would see a ban on outdoor adverts, including on vehicles and in public spaces, a ban on sponsoring music and sports events, banning newspaper, magazine, tv and radio advertising, and restricting alcohol-branded social media channels and websites.

However, the proposal to ban alcohol-branded merchandise has led to the whisky industry suggesting this will see the end of visitor centres at the distilleries across Scotland, threatening the existence of the rural communities employed there.

Scotch whisky has geographically indication protected status reflecting its unique and special qualities. Visits to the distilleries in 2019 were the 3^rd most popular tourist attraction in Scotland, generating £70 million in revenue.

It is a difficult balancing act, the freedom of the individual against the influence and potential damage excessive alcohol can have, but it seems this may be the case of “throwing the baby out with the bath water”.

The opinions in the consultation and many of the proposals come from evidence from some of our European neighbours.

I would suggest that maybe the Scottish government should look again at evidence closer to home, as attitudes to alcohol in Scotland are more likely to be closer to those in England and Wales I would say than Norway or Sweden.

And on that note, I’m off for a glass of red.

It’s just a tv show

A post from a connection on LinkedIn started with:

“8 fundamental marketing lessons from the latest edition of Love Island”.

Like many reading this, I paused, slightly confused, before continuing to read:

“Na, just kidding”.

There were many comments from relieved LinkedIn users, probably like me thinking maybe we had got Love Island wrong!

Whether you love or hate it, there is no doubt that the show’s premise is not one to teach us how to market our businesses.

There are some tv shows that can teach us about life, love, and the universe. I have a guilty pleasure which has taught me a thing or two.

Doctors!

This is a programme on BBC1 on weekday afternoons. My husband calls it a soap opera, and it does have similarities to Eastenders and Coronation Street.

I don’t watch traditional soap operas, and although Doctors similarly follow the lives of the main characters, who all work at a doctor’s surgery, each episode looks at a particular medical condition or injury and the way this affects the patients concerned. They have covered many interesting and sometimes hard-hitting topics over the 20 series so far.

I am sure that real members of the medical profession may criticise the portrayal of the doctors, nurses and midwives shown, or how the various medical conditions are handled. Self-diagnosis, whether via the internet or from watching a tv show is never good. As the saying goes:

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”.

Luckily for me, there are no tv shows, as far as I am aware ?, that try to depict the world of marketing and advertising law, as only getting half the story about email marketing or how to advertise an alcoholic product compliantly could cause a whole heap of trouble should a business try this on their own.

With a medical issue, it is always best to ask a professional.

And the same applies when it comes to marketing your business legally.

Gary Thuerk could never have imagined.

Yes, that was the number of emails sent in 2022.

Gary, an American marketing manager, and the “father” of email could not have imagined where this would go when he sent the first email in 1978.

Email has become a necessity in life, both personally and in business with many people relying on it to keep in touch with the world.

However, for some, the intrusion of email by its content and frequency can cause frustration, annoyance and sometimes more serious outcomes.

Receiving an unwanted email can be an inconvenience. Most will delete and move on. But for some, the consequences can go beyond mere annoyance, especially if they have been targeted due to vulnerabilities.

Most companies sending marketing emails are responsible and just to make people aware of their products and services. The last thing on their mind is to cause upset to customers or prospects.

But if you don’t plan your email campaign properly, from researching your ideal audience to ensuring you have permission to send the email, you could find yourself on the ICO’s radar.

And this could mean being listed on their website as an upheld complaint, and as many companies engaged in email marketing have found out, a financial penalty.

It will be nowhere near the £4 million the ICO can impose for data breaches. However any fine together with the negative publicity of being featured on the website’s list of rule breakers can have a devasting effect on a company’s future.

Not only will customers and prospects think twice about engaging with them, but suppliers and other B2B contacts will also reconsider any relationship.

Email marketing can be a great way to promote your products and services, but it is also a channel where it is easy to get things wrong.

For when things go off track

My younger daughter has gone back to uni. I drove her back to Loughborough, telling the security guard at the entrance to campus that I was “returning an inmate”. He seems to appreciate the joke!

She ran me 2 days later. She had woken up in her uni accommodation to no electricity. Strange she thought.

She opened up the uni app and discovered that a pipe had burst in a flat above (she is on the 2^nd floor) and had flooded the flats below. So they had rightly turned off the electricity supply to the whole block.

Luckily for her, the flood was not in her corner of the block so she did not suffer any damage. Some of her friends did, however, as there were inches of water in some rooms, damaging their possessions.

The uni had to find alternative accommodation for 68 students.

They did well for Maddy. She was found a room in a flat across the courtyard, so didn’t have far to take all her belongings. Some of her friends were moved further away. She spent most of the weekend helping them move.

I can only guess at the nightmare this caused the uni.

But, like any other business, they probably had a contingency plan for when things like this happen.

This is an important part of running a business because things will go wrong, but I have found that many forget this when it comes to their marketing.

Take a product promotion for example. You cover the basics: how to enter; what products need to be purchased; what the prizes are and how they will be allocated.

But what happens if entry is via the post (because they need to include their receipt) and there is a postal strike, as we have experienced recently.

Or you’re sourcing your prizes from a 3^rd party company and they go bust halfway through the promotion!

You need to cover this in your terms and conditions, and you need procedures that you put in place to deal with them should they arise.

It can be difficult to think all this through and make sure you are covered, so sometimes having an expert eye on your plans is needed.

Although 28 companies can do nothing about this now!

I’ve written about the ICO and the damage a complaint to them can have.

They have the power to fine you up to £4 million for breaches of data protection, although most companies will never see a fine anywhere near this.

But there are other more important reasons to avoid coming on their radar.

The first is the adverse publicity and reputational damage an investigation can cause. Appearing on its website and in the media can cause a loss of respect and goodwill for a company, even if there is no fine.

The second is the disruption and stress caused by an investigation. The ICO will look at all your data processes, not just the one complained about, which can lead to some uncomfortable truths that may have been hidden, whether deliberately or not. A number of companies failed to comply with the TPS and have been shown to be less than trustworthy, demonstrating that they are not companies to do business with.

The third reason is that the reprimands issued by the ICO are now listed on its website. These more informal investigations were previously confidential, but the ICO will publish these on their website unless there is a good reason not to, for example, the cases include issues of national security.

The change in strategic approach is to make the ICO more transparent. The Information Commissioner has said: “Members of the public, and those affected by a breach or infringement, are entitled to know that we have held the business or organisation to account, and that they have changed their practices as a result.”

Those issued with a reprimand may be more minded to comply with its terms if they know their progress will be public, and other organisations can learn from these cases to improve their own data handling.

This move seems reasonable to me, although I am not sure the 28 organisations issued with a reprimand in 2022 will agree as they will now be on the new Reprimands webpage as the ICO has decided to backdate this action to 1^st January 2022!

Personally, I would feel a little miffed as these investigations were started under confidential arrangements, but now all of this is public knowledge.

Yet another reason to avoid coming to the ICO’s attention if you needed any more. I appreciate it can be difficult to keep all those plates spinning throughout your data protection processes,

They all know what they are doing

A newsletter from a connection on LinkedIn talked about his aspirations to keep bees. He is having his first lesson soon.

I too have plans to keep bees when I finally find that piece of land to build my dream home.

We had a swarm of bees that came to rest in a tree n our garden a few years ago. It was fascinating to watch them.

We called a local beekeeper who had suffered the loss of a hive due to illness, so he was more than happy to come and collect them and see them happily working in the once empty hive.

We received 2 jars of honey in return!

Bees work together to support the Queen and produce new bees to build a stronger hive and ensure its future. They all know what they are doing, having specific roles to fulfil. Worker bees go out and find pollen, returning to explain the location by dancing. The drones’ (male bees) only role is to reproduce, eating honey when not mating with the Queen. As long as everyone carries out their role, the hive thrives!

What’s your point, Janine?

Well, the teamwork of the bees, each carrying out its designated role works to ensure the future of the hive is the same as your employees helping to build your brand and company and ensure its future.

Your people, like bees, need help to understand their place in the business so they can create the best company they can (making you money on the way!)

But to do this, they must be familiar with the rules that they need to follow and understand how these apply to their role, and this is no more important than when they are marketing your brand.

You may not know but I have been training people on the marketing do’s and don’ts for over 15 years and I can help ensure your employees become the best advocates for you by creating marketing that talks to your ideal audience and are legally compliant.

If your employees need the knowledge to promote your brand in the right (and legal) way…