Antony Showman, the Managing Director of
Zest Promotional had taken a leisurely drive to Royston from Manchester, booked
himself into the Old Bull Inn which had been recommended to him by a client and
then waited for Maurice who had arranged to meet him in the bar because it was
only a short distance from the office. Although Antony had only known Maurice for a
short while, and then only through his purchases of promotional products, Antony got on really well with him and was
quite concerned about what had happened to the poor guy in the last week.
Maurice arrived and joined Antony at the
bar, ordering a large scotch from Joaquim the pub landlord. Trying to make light of the situation Antony
told Maurice that he had the expression on his face of the donkey that asked
the mole to look after his carrot in the TV advertisement for something or
another adding “now tell me your life story?”
“Who was it then?” asked Maurice
“Who was who?” replied Antony.
“The company that is running that silly
donkey and mole ad”
Antony thought about that for a while and
admitted that he knew it was something about a bank but couldn’t think which
bank it was.
“That’s where the marketing agency has made
the mistake” said Maurice “people can remember the ad but not the product or
service, so it isn’t a good advertisement.
It’s a bit like that ad where they had hedgehogs running over cars and
ducks firing guns at people. We all
remember the TV ad but not what it was advertising. Now if they offered to give a donkey or mole
toy away for every account opened then it would be memorable for the product. Look at the way the meerkat campaign has
taken off.”
Antony agreed with him because in reality
the meerkats are effectively promotional
products to back up a TV ad campaign for the website www.comparethemarket.com and it has
worked really well for them.
“Anyway, how are you?” asked Antony.
“A bit shell shocked but I’ll get over it”
said Maurice.
Antony asked if Maurice had got any plans
for the future and Maurice said that normally he wouldn’t be too worried about
getting another job because he was very good at what he did and had an
impressive CV; but with the economy as it was he knew that, albeit stupidly,
businesses always seemed to cut down expense on marketing when times were
hard.
“Do you think you could market Zest Promotional products and enhance our
brand?” asked Antony.
Maurice said that he could but he didn’t
want Antony creating a job just because of the circumstances and Antony assured
him that this wasn’t what he was doing.
He explained that Zest Promotional had received enquiries from lots of
small to medium size businesses and what was needed was someone who could
advise prospective clients as to how they could use promotional products to enhance their marketing campaigns. Since Maurice had used selected products to
achieve outstanding results in his previous job, it would be great for Zest
Promotional to have someone on board for that purpose among many other things.
“Would I have to move to Manchester?”
Maurice asked.
“Only if you want to” said Antony “but we
supply nationwide and internationally so provided you come in for regular
meetings you could work from home or we could look for a satellite office here
in Hertfordshire.”
After a few drinks, Antony invited Maurice
to stay for a dinner and the two ironed out details of what Maurice’s job would
entail; his salary and benefits etc. It
was arranged for Maurice to visit the Zest Promotional offices in Manchester
the following week, meet the people who were to become his colleagues,
familiarise himself with the promotional
products range and then come up with a plan of action for his newly created
role.
