Friday, July 31, 2009
The power of New Age Media
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
How do you communicate value to consumers & shoppers?
There is a perpetual quest on part of marketers, salesmen, retailers in communicating and getting acknowledgment of value on part of the consumers and shoppers. Over the years I have come to believe "value" is an experience not a tangible take away not even real bills of money the consumer or shopper may put in their wallets or pocketbooks.
So what is "value"?
The classical marketing concept of value is the difference between benefits and price. Benefits are the intangibles that can be morphed to the solution, the venue, the product, the establishment, the people and so on. There are a number of different schools of philosophy on "value" and "value proposition", the one that I subscribe to believes "value proposition" is the same as "brand positioning" targeted towards businesses versus consumers.
The question still remains; Is the communication of value enough to generate a sale or does the consumer and shopper need to realize the value? What happens when the consumer converts and closes the sale but delays the actual consumption? Is purchase of a branded product or service the proof of value or does it take consumption to realize value?
Monday, July 27, 2009
Pricing... ooh la la
"a proprietary algorithm system, Digital Online Exchange™ continuously identifies the 'sweet spot' where prices follow perceived market value and generate the maximum economic return"
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
A “scarcity” mind-set to an “abundance” mind-set
Priced to Sell - Is free the future?
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
An interesting role play exercise
XX,000 CEOs at
BY NEIL BHANDAR FOR
Tough economic times can be like a smelting furnace, the intense heat melts away everything, slag and impurities skim to the top, added fillers segregate into their own layers based on their individual specific gravity and the base metal stands by itself. The global Retail sector has experienced a similar smelting from the economic turbulence in 2009.
The smelting caused the slag to rise to the top which is in the process of being washed away; those brands that have a defined unique identity have coagulated into their appropriate layers/positions. The big and the small have each formed their own isotropic layers.
The emergence and survival of
We took time to understand the drivers of this transformation and the investment it took to make this transition happen at
Every change driver has a feedback loop that enables the organization to experiment, get feedback and fix the gaps quickly. This closed loop system combined with a trusting culture, honest, open communication creates the framework for constant improvement at every level within the organization.
Change Drivers | Benefits |
Organizational Capacity | Work life balance |
Organizational Capability | Knowledge Continuity & Institutional learning |
Measured Deliverables | Intrinsic Motivation |
Strategic Plans | Direction & Vision |
Change Drivers | Feedback |
Organizational Capacity | Succession Planning |
Organizational Capability | Individual Development & Lateral growth |
Measured Deliverables | Timely, Direct & Actionable Feedback |
Strategic Plans | Organizational Transparency |
The feedback loop fosters learning, the systems thinking and the closed loop helps break functional silos.
In a conversation with NSB the Director of the Marketing department, NSB shared some of the tactical action plans that the Marketing department has instituted. These tactics though Marketing centric are an evidence of the holistic nature of drivers that have helped
NSB says “We are a retailer but we behave like a business services company” at every level and every function including Marketing. The Marketing department sets aside time every other week to think of next generation ideas; These ideas include debates over what is the SCA for
NSB also said “Our strategies are so focused and targeted that changes to our plans from week to week take less than 5% of our time, most times we choose to ignore other grocery competitor’s tactics because we are so unique our guests visit our stores for more than just what is one our shelves and the weeks promotion item”. We spend a disproportionate amount of time out thinking ourselves not our competition.
In talking to members of the marketing department their knowledge of the state of business was quite obvious. Every one knew the P&L numbers, their market share, the competitor’s market share, the revenues and profit targets for the year and everyone literally recited the top 5 strategies for 20XX.
NSB also added “
NSB also told us about how the changes has positively affected in the overall approach to pursuing and delivering projects. Marketing no longer thinks of its own deliverables but meticulously lays out the string of tasks and functional owners, then works across functions to get their engagement and alignment. The organizational transparency and deep knowledge of the financials (P&L) creates an interesting dynamics of interactions. The team is eager to take calculated risks and understand the implications to the business from every action before it is initiated. The culture rewards risks taking and honest open communication helps everyone express a point of view as long as it is constructive, actionable and supported by metrics.
Conversations with the Marketing folks revealed no one takes no for an answer and everyone get a voice and everyone is heard, with the type of culture and the processes in place there are always many heads working on a every opportunity and always many solution options to choose from, each solution as great as the next. The toughest part is to decide which option to pursue and who is really running the ship at
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
K@W - Getting to "WOW" in retail
The article points to five major areas that contribute to a great shopping experience:
- Engagement: being polite, genuinely caring and interested in helping, acknowledging and listening.
- Executional excellence: patiently explaining and advising, checking stock, helping to find products, having product knowledge and providing unexpected product quality.
- Brand Experience: exciting store design and atmosphere, consistently great product quality, making customers feel they're special and that they always get a deal.
- Expediting: being sensitive to customers' time on long check-out lines, being proactive in helping speed the shopping process.
- Problem Recovery: helping resolve and compensate for problems, upgrading quality and ensuring complete satisfaction.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Boehm
Recently I finish a book by Gary Hamel, The Future of Management. I found the book to be interesting, and appreciated the point of view on how modern management is still stuck in the mold developed in the past century and longer by Frederick Winslow Taylor, Adam Smith, etc. That includes functional philosophies of brand management from Procter & Gamble, financial analysis by DuPont, etc. Dr. Hamel convinced me that we continue to perpetuate the old in more ways than we think and yet within the community we operate many of those are appreciated as unique and different.
What is a true innovation? What is true discontinuous breakthrough? Architects with pony tail, Executives in suit, Software programmers with their disheveled appearance, Geeks wearing glasses, Golfers with caps, Truckers with big bellies, Trekies with their funny lingo, Soccer moms driving SUV/minivans, Environmentalists adorning a beard and I can go on and on. All of these individuals appear to be rebels to the normal citizen but within their communities they are conformists to the core, perpetuating the old. How does one define a breakthrough/breakway? This is often the question brands struggle with day in and day out.
Is the answer to ‘differentiation’ a function of the domain, geography or time? Said differently distinguish from the past or distinguish from my peers? Is innovation the philosophy of being something/someone or not being?