John Barnes

Speaker Subjects:

• Marketing Judo. Hands on developing marketing strategies and plans

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
John Barnes and Richard Richardson are an inspiring team, they are probably best known for their transformation of Harry Ramsden's Fish & Chip Shop and as the creators of Marketing Judo. However, prior to creating their own business successes they spent many years working with large international corporations.
 
John Barnes had a successful career with blue-chip companies such as Procter & Gamble, Playtex, PepsiCo and UK MD of KFC. Whilst Richard Richardson began his career in marketing with Rowntree Mackintosh before spending the next 12 years with multi-national advertising agencies such as BBDO and Young & Rubicam. It was when John moved the KFC advertising account to Young & Rubicam that they met. Having worked so well together, John and Richard decided to give up their big company jobs and start a business partnership.
 
Using the leverage of borrowed money they moved their families to Yorkshire and bought a fish and chip shop called Harry Ramsden's. Together they transformed Harry Ramsden's from a single restaurant in Yorkshire into a world famous brand. 12 years later, having opened in 7 countries, floated on the stock market and grown UK brand awareness from 17% to 73%, they sold to Granada-now Compass.
At Harry's they fell into a way of thinking, which they now call Marketing Judo. In Judo, you lever other people's strengths or assets to your own advantage. In Judo, your mind matters more than your size. In Judo, anyone can become a black belt if they move quickly enough, keep their balance when others don't and train hard enough. Marketing Judo is not an academic concept, it's a practical hands-on framework based on their own experiences, which they have found helpful in developing business strategies and marketing plans.
 
Since selling Harry Ramsden's they have "gone back in" and are applying these moves successfully both to their own and other companies. Their framework, called the Marketing Judo Game Plan, is a series of seven moves designed to help businesses achieve marketing success. Their principles have been successfully applied to both large blue chip organisations and small businesses with limited budgets.
Together they have also formed Marketing Judo Ltd, and written a book "Marketing Judo - Building your business using brains not budget" published by Prentice Hall Business. They are frequent speakers at corporate and industry conferences sharing their principles for success.