Problems at Little Chef Popham

In 2006 Little Chef entered into administration. A company that had been around since 1958 had failed as a business. But it got a second chance. It was purchased by RCapital and in 2008 this old British roadside establishment celebrated its 50^th Birthday.

But things needed to change.

The place was becoming tired, the quality was lacking and inside the interiors were looking dated.

Little Chef, Popham - Everything looked promising from the outside

Intern Advice

For the past month I have been buddying an intern called Sarah. I have thoroughly enjoyed this experience and I have some advice to give.

Not the usual advice to interns mind you. No. Advice to interns has been done by a number of different blogs and articles and I don't think I can do better. What I am going to focus on is what you as a buddy/mentor/agency can and should be doing if you have an intern.

I am fully aware that some of my advice is just stuff a good manager should be doing but it is amazing how managerial skills are thrown out of the window when it is an intern.

So with that, let’s begin.

Let's Focus on Focus Groups

I have conducted a lot of focus groups recently for a variety of different products and services. This has led to me loving them and hating them.

Focus groups are both good and bad. They are Lex Luther and Superman, Dr Robotnik and Sonic, Tammy 1 and Ron Swanson.

Briefly I want to look why they can be two sides of the same coin.

Unlike a few other posts, I think this piece works across different job sectors. There are references to advertising and my experiences but the findings stand strong in other areas of industry too.

Boring Advertising is Your Fault

I have worked in a few advertising agencies. Some were integrated, some were digital (whatever that means) and some were wholly creative.

At some of these agencies I have heard statements such as:

“We could be doing exciting work if the client just had the balls”

or

“If only we had a brave client…”

or even

“How do they not get it? It’s not even a difficult idea to get…”

All of these statements derive from one simple thought. Trust.

It’s not only Contagious, It’s a Pandemic

I think customer trends are fine, looking at how people interact with the world right now, spotting links rather than coincidence, no qualms here. 

However, these trend companies, these insight libraries, have moved beyond their remit.

They have moved into predictions. They now tell brands what is important, they use case studies of specific companies to influence others and in doing all of these things, there lies a multitude of problems.

These trend companies annoy me for a number of reasons:

Make the Grass Greener

This is a proper evolutionary psychological-cum-advertising piece that I wrote a few years ago but I think this issue is becoming more prevalent today.

The gist is that many of our choices are based on two influencing factors:

Biospheric Content: The amount of energy in any particular area. The amount of energy would be calculated as anything living in that area. The more plants and animals in an area, the greater the biospheric content and the less vegetation in any given area, the smaller the biospheric content.

and

Mate Theory: Deriving from a concept that Charles Darwin helped to create. This theory implies that every male and female is in competition with each other. Males and females pick each other on who has the best genes and can provide to create the best possible offspring and the best environment for the the offspring.

So let's begin.