Why do 9/10 new FMCG products fail?
There are lots of reasons, I have heard them all, and even used a couple myself, but blaming the retailers, engineers, competitors, lack of advertising, or the weather misses the essential truth. The process is flawed. We know the constraints of the retailers, they...
Marketing’s great dilemma: Too much choice.
Faced with so much choice of technology and platform options to reach and engage consumers, many marketers are paralysed. On the other hand, many are tempted to be all things to all people, simply because the tools are there to reach them, and they hope that they...
4 steps to a positive cash flow for small business.
Do I have enough cash to...................? This is one the 4 fundamental questions for small business survival, and is the one I hear far too often. It is all to do with how much cash is available at any given time to pay the bills. It is almost...
KPCB Internet trends 2015 report.
For 20 years, Mary Meeker of KPCB has been collating and publishing an annual report on the growth and growth of the net and the services and products it carries. This 20th publication contains information that will be useful to every business. The local lemonade...
10 easily forgotten factors in strategy development.
Writing about strategy, and practicing its development with clients, there are always a number of things that do not fit comfortably into the various academic boxes. That is the nature of the beast, uncertain, instinctual, and driven by insights that usually evolve...
11 Brand foundations. Build to last.
"Brand" is a widely misused and misunderstood term, often referring to a whole range of devices, symbols and expressions that are no more than single elements of the whole. Building a brand in the digital age of speed, idea cloning and ubiquitous communication is a...
8 questions to assess a strategic plan
Part of what I do day to day is made up of business reviews. Whilst every business is different, and the competitive environment is different, there are some common questions to be asked that tend to reveal the effectiveness and impact of strategic and business...
How to make the “godfather offer”
Making an offer they cannot refuse is the ultimate selling outcome, notwithstanding the limitations of the law, and common decency. So how do you make a Godfather offer? Know your customer intimately Know their business intimately Know their pain-points like they were...
Sales mindset switch
Access to information, the tools to make up our own minds has not just changed our behaviour in the way the sales process works, it has changed our mindset. In a fundamental way. We believe information we source ourselves, and distrust anything we are told. We filter...
Where is your “post-it-note”?
Before 3M came out with the now ubiquitous little yellow pad of semi stuck sheets, nobody realised they needed them. There was no clamour for sticky note papers to use as messages, place-holders, and the thousand other uses we have found for them, no market...