NY Marketing!

Well, the World Cup has been and gone (for another four years). Tears of sorrow for some, tears of joy for others, and sighs of relief for the rest of us. What has this to do with the New York team's marketing initiative? More than you might think…

What's the first thing you do when you move to a new town? Find somewhere where everybody knows your name perhaps? Cheers? Well, this ain't Boston, this is New York we are talking about and, as appealing as getting your name known round the local bars and pubs is (which I'm sure is not a problem with our New York team), revenue generating it ain't (unless you're a publican).

Before the ink was dry on the NY Office contracts (probably even before they were signed) the NY marketing initiative was under way. The British software consultancy QUIDNUNC opens in New York. Postcards on 908 people's desks, showered over the city in a helicopter. Second hit a week later with grand opening date on May 25th (this turned to be a NY holiday but luckily New Yorkers are such workaholics that most people were working anyway. Phew! Collective sigh of relief at Penn Plaza.)

Then came the fun bit. Cold calling. A salesperson's nightmare, Quidnunc NY team's make it or break it tactic. But they showed NO FEAR . They did the "Hello, we're Quidnunc and we're in New York." approach (friendly and casual, ie good cop). They also did the AA (Alcoholics Anonymous rather than the Automobile Association) approach of getting the (potential) customer to admit s/he has a problem (bad cop) and then offering a solution in the form of one of our key competencies (ranging from Scenario Modelling to Enterprise Architecture; good cop again). In addition, there's Julian's new tactic of leaving his meeting notes on other people's desks as an excuse to go back and hassle them yet again. (Dan, is this a technique to patent for our sales team?)

Check out the QNY pages for some of the wacky responses they came across. Of course, another key marketing resource is our top quidnunc.com website which led to the first New York win! J&H Marsh & McLennan have commissioned an Enterprise Architecture Study. Wahey!!

Now for the World Cup link which didn't make any sense…A whole bunch of people interrupted our intrepid NY sales team half way through their pitches to ask what they thought of the World Cup. One potential client from the New York Mercantile Exchange told them of his daughter's plans to shave her head if France won the World Cup!

Well, she's bald, and we're in New York. Maybe like the French team we can rise up through the big players and win the big contracts, but one thing's for certain: I'm not putting my hair on the line!

Tony B
Webmaster