Use marketing to grow your business… cost effectively

I was surprised to see that over 37% of Grapeviners regard marketing as the most difficult area when growing their business. Why? It’s really just the application of common sense …more

Using door drops to grow your business

In the mid-eighties – when ‘understanding your customers’ meant advertise to everyone and see who buys first – I was working for General Mills in London. Before I joined, the company had distributed a money-off coupon for a cereal bar to half a million households in the South-East and achieved a respectable 5% redemption …more

Buying lists of potential customers

In the 18 months of Blade’s existence, the most common query we’ve been asked is how to go about buying lists of potential customers. Back in the dark ages when we worked for big agencies (boo loudly please!) and clients with large budgets, we’d have media specialists on tap and they’d do all the work (well, log into a database actually) for a very fat fee …more

Consumer marketing on a shoestring

True or false? If you’re selling to the public, you’ll have to spend lots of money on advertising or nobody will buy your products. Before you remortgage your house to pay for a few late night TV ads, have a think about some of the things you can do yourself …more