What does marketing to Supermarkets and Pharmaceutical research have in common?
Quantifying the ROI of marketing investments remains the single most challenging task of marketers. While marketing costs remain being seen as a variable expense, stuck in the monthly P&L , it will remain hostage to the whims of expediency, corporate...
Is Amazon at it again, remaking retail in their own image.
Amazon launched their 'Dash' button in 2015 in an experiment with Procter and Gambles Tide detergent, the monster of the category in North America. It is a one touch, one product order and delivery system that has succeeded, expanding to a range of 350...
Where is the gap to be filled in retail?
The range of retail format options is huge and multifaceted. At one end of the continuum you have pure on-line retailers, to full service bricks and mortar retail at the other, and everything in between. It is the 'everything in between' where the...
Get stronger, then get bigger
Most businesses find themselves on the 'get bigger or get out' merry go round. Unfortunately, one of the characteristics of merry go rounds is that unless you hold on, centrifugal force will throw you off. Also, the faster you go, the more likely you are...
What is the difference between an Elevator Pitch and a Value Proposition, and when to use them?
Good question, but the challenge seems to be overwhelming for some of those who most need to be clear on the differences, and when and how to use them. I spent most of Thursday and Friday last week at the 'Emergence' conference in Sydney, an event designed to boost...
Time can only be productive, or wasted. Which will it be?
Time is our only truly non renewable asset, and it is absolutely finite. Therefore it makes sense to use it as wisely as possible. In a management context, in measuring a process, time has two dimensions.Clock time. Start to finish, how long does a task...
The 5 types of cost in your business.
Cost is a part of every business, you have to incur them in order to deliver a product. For most, the extent of cost management is via the Profit and Loss account in the monthly reports, and by the comparison of expenditure to budget. Both are by themselves...
The problem with politics
We are facing two elections here in NSW, one for the state government, and then federal almost immediately following. What a mess we are in, disengagement, distrust, cynicism on the part of the electorate, and flatulent promises and claims by the body...
‘Brand Conversations’ are usually just a marketers wet dream.
Brand loyalty and frequency of purchase, are not the same thing, although we seem to act most often as if they were. Sometimes we marketers believe our own bullshit, not recognising we are usually delusional, or at least subject to a severe case of...
10 tips on how to build a ‘learning organisation’
'Learning organisation' is a cliché mouthed too often by those who have no experience with such a rare beast. The key is not to try and help the organisation learn, it is to help the people in it learn by doing, spread the good outcomes, and nip the...