Feb 16, 2010 | Marketing, Small business
What do you do that others cannot?
What enables you to deliver value for a group of customers or potential customers with something in common, which is increasingly nothing to do with demographics, that your competitors cannot match?
Answer those questions, and the rest is pretty easy.
My old mate Louis Marangon at Riverina Grove produces wonderful Italian style products from fresh ingredient sourced as far as possible from around the Riverina region in NSW. Pasta sauces, tapenades, herb infused olives, and other delicacies, almost as if they were from his mothers kitchen. Doesn’t appeal to everyone, and hard to find, but for those who want an authentic Italian inspired product whose provenance is local, know that Louis will break his back to provide it, and they keep on coming back. Thats a CVP with legs, and it is probably the only thing that a small buiness can do as well as, and often better than, because there is less marketing “noise” around, than a large one with substantail financial and personnel resources.
Feb 15, 2010 | Marketing, Sales
The retail end of music industry as we currently know it continues to be in trouble.
This New York Times article is now a bit old, but I am pretty sure the marketing challenge has not gone away.
Imagine, 13 million songs for sale on the web in 2008, 10 million did not sell one, just one, not even to family and friends, and 80% of revenue came from just 52,000 songs, less than 1%.
The web has given us an amazing ability to “publish” but the marketing challenge of being relevant, noticed, engaging, and commercially successful has not changed at all.
Just because you can put it out there, does not mean it is any good, and because it is a big “market”, and you only have to sell to a tiny, tiny % of the punters to make a dollar, does not mean you will.
Feb 9, 2010 | Marketing
My Father always said, “you only get what you pay for” so he instinctively related price to value.
Now, the web has changed everything, and increasingly, “Free” is being used as a means to attract a target to trial, to deliver a generic service that leads into the other stuff, for which you can charge. However, much of the free stuff has a value, millions of Gmail users will vouch for that, and hosting this blogg, written on WordPress is free, but to customise it beyond a basic level costs.
Generic is getting very hard to charge for as the marginal cost of providing the service is approaching zero, so someone is going to offer it free in the expectation that 10% of those who sign up will move up to the paid model, where the product can be made specific to you, and so you become price insensitive, and the provider makes a dollar.
The more narrow and specific to an individual a product is, the greater the ability to charge.
Feb 7, 2010 | Branding, Management, Marketing
During the brand development process, to the extend that is it deliberate, most conversations are about the activities that supposedly drive the objective measures of success, sales, margins, market share, household penetration, and so on.
However, during qualitative research, brands take on human qualities, they are described using personal pronouns, they are young, old, male, female, a farmer, or a merchant banker, funny, quirky, reliable, and so on, but these responses are usually pushed aside, and minimised in order to give the spreadsheets some air.
Sitting in on many market and brand development conversations over the years, it is surprising how often we forget the human dimension, and the difference it makes to our activities, and priorities when we actively set out to describe the brand in human terms, and give the humanity of the brand a central place in our considerations.
Feb 4, 2010 | Branding, Change, Leadership, Marketing
The corporate left brain/right brain conflict is alive and well in Jetstar.
Currently Jetstar is spending on TV advertising their Asian destinations, pushing that they are not just a cut price airline, at the same time they are facing a PR debacle, having left passengers in Penang airport for several days due to mechanical problems with an aircraft. (perhaps they should change their advertising; “an extra 4 days at your expense” not a great idea?)
Gail Kelly at Westpac got it horribly wrong a few weeks before Christmas, raising the banks home mortgage rate beyond the increase in the prime rate, how many advertising dollars did that send down the crapper? Anyone who actually thought about the pricing challenge from a customer perspective would have predicted such an outcome, that the mistake was made by the former CEO of St George whose culture was all about customer care is inexplicable. Even the vaunted Toyota is struggling with a recall in the US of 9 million cars with sticking accelerators, not a good addition to their market positioning.
The list of companies that sacrifice their long term position to get out of a hole in a crises goes on, and on. The corporate “numbers groupthink” takes over, no-one states the obvious, but uncomfortable truth that the P&L needs to take a short term hit for the benefit of the long term.
Very occasionally, someone does it right. The classic is J&J’s recall of Tylenol in 1982, and subsequent leadership in introducing tamper evident packaging. Short term cost was huge, but the long term position was enhanced enormously. Arnotts in Australia had a similar experience in 1993, and came out of it smelling like roses.
Why do most businesses continue to make the same mistake when faced with a crisis, a short term focused response?
My conclusion is that the power of the short term performance metrics overwhelms common sense, and the only antidote to this long term poison is to build a culture that genuinely sees customers as central to the reason for the business existing, and only by serving customers can commercial sustainability be achieved. This commitment to long term customer value needs to be a part of the culture, as fundamental to an organisations shape and actions as DNA.
Feb 3, 2010 | Change, Marketing, Strategy
On the web, you have lost control of the conversations that can impact on you, anyone can say virtually anything they like, and unfortunately because it is “out there” it can gain traction, take on some credibility.
If you cannot control it, you need to be aware and find a way to participate in the conversation as a means to present the facts, alternative views, or a different perspective as a means to debunk the nonsense that can accrue in the absence of facts.
To do this, you need to be an active participant on the web in the forums and communities that talk about your product or service.
In the old days, (and even today) if someone prints lies in a magazine, you could sue, gain a retraction, an apology, some compensation, but on the web, you can do little to force a retraction, the best you can do is enter the debate and point out the nonsense.
Are the skills and aptitudes to effectively debate on line present in your organisation? At the very least, they will be cheaper than lawyers who will be totally ineffective, so look at the cost just as insurance if you cannot see the value in communicating directly with those interested in your product.
