How do you allocate your marketing budget?

There are of course many different ways, but I'm willing to bet that the most significant factor is precedent. Not only are we creatures of habit by nature, but we are also emerging from a particularly nasty dip in the world economy. Now is not the time to take big risks, so it's not surprising we like to stick with what worked in the past.

But it is interesting to look at a gradual evolution of marketing budgets over the years. Starting with the very origins of budget setting and the very first advertising model, I have taken a small - and quite unscientific - look at how marketing budgets have changed.
 
It is fascinating to see how this has changed because we stand on the edge of a further stage of evolution. We have to account for a very different marketing mix these days and it all starts when we sit down and work out where the money is going to go each quarter.

Let's start by recapping the last 100 years...

The phrase "customer experience" is on everyone's lips these days, so we thought it was high time we ran a series of blogs to deal with how this issue is being dealt with in the B2B world. So, over the next few months, that is precisely what we aim to do.

But before you can answer the question of how to improve customer experience, I think it is useful to ask why it should suddenly be so important. After all, isn't all a bit obvious? We've known for some time that making customers happy is a better idea than pissing them off.  But as with so much business thinking, there are some critical subtleties of meaning here. Look a little closer and you'll see why customer experience is actually a more complex issue than it first seems, and deserving of further analysis by B2B organisations.

Here are, I believe, the three main reasons that the concept of customer experience has risen up the business agenda.




Today's FT carries an interesting spread on the difficulties large brands face when their reputation is somehow besmirched by public perceptions of accidents (BP's oil spill and safety record), financial impropriety (Goldman Sachs paying huge bonuses after being bailed out) or just getting too big for your boots (Starbucks global expansion). An article by Morgen Witzel and Ravi Mattu looks at perceptions of leading brands and the difficulties of Asian brands like Tata to transcend local boundaries.

Today is my final day at Base One. I have had a fun and varied week and I feel that my stay here has been very worthwhile.

Although I've only been here a week, I have tried out several different aspects of marketing including competitor research and a variety of tasks for the Search and Social media department. I briefly sampled design on Wednesday morning but then I remembered why I gave up Art and D&T at school! I quickly retreated back to the safety of a laptop computer, away from the gigantic Macs that the design team uses.

From left to right: Mark, Dan, Me, Becks and Krupa

Hi, guys.

Today I thought I would try something different to a diary. I have been interviewing some of my co-workers and finding out what they think of Base One and what they think of themselves. Hopefully, it will give you a little flavour as to what it's like to work at Base One. Here's what they had to say.