Simon Middleton
Simon Middleton is writer, presenter and co-producer of The Brand Effect TV series. Simon is a regular commentator on brand issues in international media, and appears in Virgin 1’s series Seaside’s Last Resort as expert brand advisor to Duncan Bannatyne.
Simon has worked with blue chip companies including: Aviva, Barclays, British Airways, Pret A Manger, Deloitte, McCann Erickson, Merial, Lovells, Xansa and Denplan. Simon has also worked extensively with charities, including Comic Relief, St John Ambulance, London Youth, Voluntary Norfolk, Anthony Nolan Trust and Northmoor Trust, and with numerous public sector organisations. He also advises on the brands of visitor destinations, including Great Yarmouth, Hemsby & Newport, Felixstowe, and The Broads (a member of Britain’s National Park family).
Simon is also a brand entrepreneur in his own right. He is founder and Chief Executive of Norfolk Leisure Limited, a company created to develop visionary tourism projects in Norfolk and beyond. He is also Managing Director of Left Hand Bear Limited, a specialist online musical instrument retailer with its own unique brand of acoustic instruments.
Simon is a member of The Institute of Directors, The Chartered Institute of Marketing, and The Association for Place Branding & Public Diplomacy, and is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. He lectures regularly at the University of East Anglia and Norwich University College of The Arts. In 2007 he was awarded the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s regional Marketer of the Year prize.
In 2008 he became the first Brand Leadership Fellow of the University of East Anglia.
Marketing is shrouded in arcane mystery and buzzwords. It frightens many and bewilders others. Yet every business, from the hand-car-wash by the side of the road, to the world's most famous brands, engage in marketing every single day. This is an essential, reliable, speedy and up to date guide to the most robust and important concepts in marketing.
This book shows you how to understand and do marketing without having to study a degree or a diploma in it. Along the way it shows you what has been learned about marketing over the centuries, what experts can teach us that we can use ourselves, how marketing has changed in our new ‘digital' world, and how to avoid classic mistakes.
In short, this is all you need to know about marketing.
Introduction - Marketing: the world's second oldest business activity
Chapter 1 - The Product.
Chapter 2 - The Marketing Strategy and the Marketing Plan
Chapter 3 - Your Customers.
Chapter 4 - Pricing and Promotion
Chapter 5 - Placement or Distribution.
Chapter 6 - Customer Engagement
Chapter 7 - Branding
Chapter 8 - Social Media and Digital Marketing
You don't need a marketing degree or intensive training to build an attention-grabbing brand; you just need this book - and 30 days.
Simon Middleton shows you how to create, manage and communicate your brand profoundly and effectively, in just 30 days, by following 30 clear exercises. How you work through the book is up to you, the result will be the same: an authentic, compelling, and highly distinctive brand that will attract and engage customers and fans. You will learn how to:
- Establish your brand values and positioning
- Get the all-important name right
- Bring your brand to life
- Turn your customers into your advocates
- Manage your PR and use your marketing budget wisely
- Inspire your staff to live the brand too
- Deal with problems when something goes wrong
Branding isn't about funky logos and expensive advertising. Your brand is what your company means to the world. Getting that meaning right is the most important thing you can do in business.
'Passionate and persuasive, Simon Middleton has a natural instinct for uncovering the Wow! factor in every brand.' Dawn Gibbins MBE, Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year and Star of Channel 4's The Secret Millionaire
