Mar 16, 2012 | Strategy
I am a strategist, with a marketing background, so sometimes the expectation is that there will be a lot of talk.
Often, and too often with many of those I see, that is the case. Talk, talk, talk, and talk.
However, a strategy discussion without concrete action plans, and performance measures against those plans is not strategy, it is wishful thinking, perhaps delusion.
If you want just to feel good for a while, keep talking, but if you want to really achieve something, the hard work of implementation needs to be undertaken, so get out there!
Mar 15, 2012 | Category, Collaboration, Management, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
Produce marketers are not all that different to most FMCG marketers, except that the power of the retailer in produce categories is magnified by the total lack of proprietary branding, effectively insulating the consumer from the producer, making brand building and innovation a greater challenge. This lack of branding power and engagement with the consumer puts them at the mercy of retailers.
In an effort to put some parameters round the problems, the Mildura Development Corporation funded a study that sought to articulate the challenges and choices faced by producers in the Sunraysia region, particularly by drawing the comparisons with the competitive environment in the UK.
The headline elements in the conclusions are:
- The power of the retailer
- Scale of producer operations
- The role of the business model employed
- The increasingly critical nature of data, its collection, analysis and leverage potential
- Marketing choices made.
These factors are all connected in cause and effect relationships with each other, and with the customers, and consumers of produce, but most forget, or get confused about the differences in the approach, which can be summarised as:
Sell to your customers
Market to your consumers.
Perhaps the report can add to your thinking, contact me for a copy, or discussion.
There is a downloadable copy of the report in the “Sharing” pages of this site, let me know what you think of it.
Mar 14, 2012 | Customers, Marketing, Sales
Rarely does anything happen behind a desk, so why do you spend so much time there? Just like the old saying “the harder I work, the luckier I get” small business owners should say “the more customers I see, the greater chance of an order”
Most small business owners are usually specialists of some sort, they are not often sales people first, they are something else first, and it takes an effort to get out and sell.
Do the preparation, know the customer know how you can add value to his/her business, and get out there.
Mar 14, 2012 | Management, Operations
Retailing is under pressure, all the established retailers are suffering declines in profitability, and the media is full of retail CEO’s bemoaning the eroding margins.
Australians appetite for flat screen TV’s over the last couple of years were is amazing, we now have TV’s in almost every room in the house, and prices have dropped precipitously as volumes have increased, and we are unwilling to pay for fat retail margins.
Surprise, surprise.
The reduction of the 40% margins for retailers, delivering from $530-600 for a unit 2 years ago, to single digit margins and $40 through the till today has all the retail CEO’s crying poor.
The change in the retail competitive environment has not been matched by the performance measures bricks and mortar retailers employ, and their business model is becoming redundant.
Retailers focus on dollars through the till, product and category margins, and returns for floor space. Generally they forget that business is about making a return on investment until the AGM, not counting margins that get chewed up by working capital requirements down the supply chain.
E-retail is driving a stake through the heart of bricks and mortar retailing of electronics, and it will come in white-goods very soon. E-Tail retailers focus on the return on funds employed, not margins. When you take the customers order and 10% deposit before you pay for the stock, and get the balance COD, it matters little if the margin is $40 when the volumes are skyrocketing, because the funds employed are very low.
Mar 13, 2012 | Communication, Marketing, Social Media
This is a pretty common call amongst the junior marketing staff of my clients, most of them are familiar with facebook, they use it in their personal lives to fill a whole range of functions.
When asked “Why must we be on Facebook”? there is usually an awkward silence, and the standard response is likely to be something like “just because!”
Facebook, Twitter, and all the others are just tools, they are able to deliver an outcome, but it is the outcome that matters, not the tool, used to get there.
You measure the performance of a car on a journey in many ways, petrol mileage, comfort, handling, and so on, but the reason you get in the car is to get somewhere. Social media is no different, measures of the media themselves are just measures of efficiency, not measures of the outcome.
To make it worthwhile, to create engagement, to build a relationship, there must be something for the traveler at the end of the journey.
