At the end of the third quarter of 2007, the average UK house price (according to the Halifax House Price Index) stood at £199,766. By the end of the third quarter of 2011, that had dropped to just £162,211 a nominal fall of 18.8% over 4 years. However, UK house prices have dropped by more than that in real terms, when adjusted to take inflation into account.

The Retail Price Index was 208.0 in September 2007, rising to 237.9 in September 2011  (Source: Office of National Statistics – ‘RPI: All items: 1947-2011’ – where January 1987 = 100). That is an increase of 14.4% in the 4 year period. So, if real (inflation-adjusted) house prices had stayed level, an average £199,766 house in Q3 2007 would cost £199,766 + 14.4% today, that is to say £228,532. The fact that it costs £162,211 shows that real house prices have dropped by 29% from 2007 to 2011.

This shows just what good value residential property has become since 2007. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the world economy and the stability of the eurozone, is it time to take advantage of an almost 30% correction in average UK house prices?

Here are some of the exciting marketing trends in store for the year ahead, as predicted by ‘The Marketer’, the magazine of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

1. The only place to be seen this year is on screen, especially in the medium of video, where limited advertising budgets will have maximum effect and brands will be attempting to attract consumers’ attention through gamification and interactive apps.

2. According to the report IDC Predictions, 2012 will see more money spent on tablets and mobiles than PCs, so marketers will need to reflect this in communications with their customers. It’s not enough for your website to work on a PC screen; that is not where most of your customers are viewing you.

3. Marketing to baby boomers could be the next untapped niche. As people live and work longer more marketing will be targeted at the over-55s. This will lead to the creation of more products that are tailored to their specific needs and more communication that talks to them in their own language (including correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. 2012 could be a good year for the apostrophe!)

4. Your purse or wallet could soon become a collector’s item. Contactless payment devices like QR codes will enter the mainstream in 2012.

5. Community focused initiatives are set to capture consumers’ attention and loyalty, with local marketing becoming more important than global marketing.

6. There is likely to be a growth in DIY health apps – helping to monitor and improve consumers’ wellbeing ‘on the go’ (although surely we would need fewer health apps if we weren’t ‘on the go’ quite as much?)

For more details of all of these trends, visit The Marketer’s website – or give me a call and I’ll investigate any trend you  think may be particularly useful to your business.

I have been working as interim head of marketing & communications for The Pennies Foundation, creator of Pennies, the electronic charity box. The role culminated in a showcase event at BAFTA, which premiered the new Pennies video (‘The Power of Pennies – One Year On’), launched a new social media campaign, using a Facebook app, and announced a series of new high profile supporters of Pennies, including Gary Barlow, Cheryl Cole and Jason Donovan. Pennies was also featured on the BBC and in the Guardian.

My role has been to take over from the previous head of marketing & communications at the end of July, manage in-house and external marketing resources, oversee the autumn campaign detailed above and recruit, coach and support a new permanent ‘head’, handing over the role at the end of November. It’s been a privilege to work alongside some inspirational people, as well as a great learning experience!

Designing An Effective Website and Social Media Communications Strategy
I met Sophia Warner, the British Paralympic athlete, at a business event in Dorking, Surrey in early 2011 and offered my services as a marketing and communications consultant. The aim was to help her tell her story to key stakeholders, particularly potential sponsors who could support her financially in her quest for a gold medal.

Website design
With the help of Allen Betchley at Progression Design we built a website template, linking it to a bespoke content management system, which I could populate with relevant copy, images and links. The website design, build and content population took around a month, from concept to launch.

Launch campaign
The integrated communications launch campaign was executed via email marketing to a total of around 180 contacts across three different database segments (corporate, media and personal), Facebook (to friends), Twitter (to followers) and LinkedIn (to professional contacts).

Campaign results
Since launch, over 1,000 people have visited Sophia’s new site, viewing an average of 3 of the 6 pages, spending an average of 2½ minutes on the site.

Business results

• Chandlers Brighton BMW has agreed to supply Sophia with a branded MINI Countryman in the lead up to the Paralympic Games in 2012.
• Procter & Gamble has appointed Sophia as an ambassador for its ‘proud sponsor of mums’ campaign for the 2012 Paralympics.
• Boots has agreed a long-term sponsorship deal with Sophia and she spoke to 5,000 of its employees at an event on 23 June at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

For a more detailed account of this successful website, social media and e-mail communications campaign, please read Sophia Warner – Communications Case Study – Update Sept 2011

The UK mortgage market has changed fundamentally since 2007. Stricter lending criteria have created millions of ‘mortgage prisoners’ who cannot remortgage (e.g. high LTV, credit impaired, self-employed and buy to let). In addition, the large differential between variable and fixed rates means that many borrowers are unwilling to remortgage from their standard variable rate (SVR) or tracker (particularly long-term Bank Rate trackers).

Both the ‘cannots’ and the ‘will nots’ are therefore exposed to the effects of interest rate rises on their monthly mortgage repayments. The FSA estimates that this represents around 70% of all UK mortgage borrowers.

In a good example of its innovative nature, the industry has responded to customer needs with a range of products that can ‘cap’ an existing SVR or tracker mortgage without the need to remortgage. There are various products suitable for different customers, such as insurance policies like RateGuard, where the borrower pays a monthly premium to protect his mortgage payments against future Bank Rate rises.

Interest rates have always been unpredictable; the experts did not predict the fall of the Bank Rate from 5.75% to 0.5% and it is unlikely that they will accurately foresee future moves. These innovative new products offer the same protection as a capped mortgage to those who either cannot or do not wish to remortgage.

(this ’60-second strategy’ was first printed in the Summer 2011 issue of Argent, the journal of The Financial Services Forum)

Speaking at the CML Mortgage Sales & Distribution Conference on 9 May 2011, I argued that the truly interesting parts of the UK mortgage industry are its niche product sectors, which will grow far more rapidly than the mainstream over the next few years.
 
Apart from the Buy to Let sector, which has obvious macro-economic factors in its favour, other niches to watch are large loans, offset and current account mortgages, self-build and islamic mortgages. Sub-prime will also stage a comeback, albeit from a low base. Finally, look out for innovative insurance products such as interest rate protection, ideal for mortgage borrowers who want the security of a fixed rate but are either unable to remortgage because of current lending criteria or unwilling to move away from their historically low SVR or tracker rate.
 
Please view a copy of my slides here – CML Workshop 9 May 2011 – and do contact me if you are interested in using my experience and analysis as you develop new products in one of the growing niche sectors.

Would you like to support an inspirational Team GB athlete who is going for gold at the London 2012 Paralympic Games? Her name is Sophia Warner and she is living proof that, as she says, “If you put your mind to anything you can have anything you want.”

Please watch a short feature on BBC South East Today about her here

36 year-old mum of two young children, Sophia, who was born in Dorking, Surrey, and now lives in Hove, West Sussex, has Cerebral Palsy, a life-long condition that affects motor control. Her events are the T35 100m and 200m and she is currently ranked number one in Europe and number two in the World.

As well as working 40 hours a week as a marketing manager, she spends 21 hours across 6 days a week training with the Worthing Harriers and at Lee Valley Athletics Centre in north London and this dedication was recognised last year when she was awarded ‘Disabled Sports Personality of the Year’ at the Sussex Sports Awards.

Recently, Sophia travelled to New Zealand as part of Team GB to take part in the IPC Athletics World Championships, winning a bronze medal in the T35 100m, setting a new European record, and a silver in the T35 200m, breaking her previous personal best by over 2 seconds. She is one of 43 Paralympic athletes on the UK Athletics World Class Performance Programme (WCPP) which supports elite athletes in their preparation for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Having seen her speaking recently at a pre-Olympic business event in Surrey, I know that Sophia would be a great motivational speaker in front of staff and an enthusiastic company ambassador to business partners. She is articulate, funny and, most importantly, brings a message that positive thinking leads to positive outcomes. If you would like to get involved with the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in a very personal way, then this could be it.

If you would like to meet her, to see if there is any way you can help this remarkable woman in her quest for gold in 2012, then please get in touch. Sophia is looking for financial sponsorship, but also any other relevant support that you feel you can give.

The EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive comes into force on 25 May 2011, although it’s not clear exactly when the law will be fully implemented in the UK. When it is, companies that put a cookie on a consumer’s PC in order to create targeted online advertising will need to get the consent of the consumer first.

The online advertising industry has responded by introducing a privacy icon (above), currently being tested on a  small number of websites. The icon will appear on all advertisements that have been delivered via the use of cookies. Consumers clicking on the icon will be told that they are not personally identifiable and that  targeted advertising helps to keep content free. It is hoped that this will reassure consumers, but debate continues as to whether and how the icon will ultimately be implemented across all websites.

New research I have just compiled for Largemortgageloans.com, the specialist large loans mortgage broker, reveals that million pound property sales in Great Britain increased by almost 58% in 2010, compared with 2009. In the past year, 7,451 million pound properties were sold in Great Britain, compared with 4,725 in 2009.

For the full pdf report, including data tables and more detailed analysis, please click here.

Financial services marketing has come a long way from the mass marketing of the 1970s, through the development of brand marketing in the 1980s and target marketing in the 1990s. It’s clear that the ‘noughties’ will be remembered for the dawn of digital marketing. Despite being told by one financial services CEO in 2000 that it would be ‘just like CB radio’, I think that the internet might just be here to stay, along with email, texting, tweeting and other digital communications.

Television and print media have become increasingly less cost effective over the last decade as online communications such as Money Saving Expert have become the place where most people look for genuine advice. This search for truth will characterise financial services marketing in the next ten years.

We have lost our faith in financial institutions and now seek independently approved experts in whom we trust.

Marketing needs to concentrate on providing expert opinion to customers so that they can rebuild their trust over time. It will not happen overnight but it does need to start now.

(this ’60-second strategy’ was first printed in the Winter 2010/11 issue of Argent, the journal of The Financial Services Forum)