Discovering business opportunities

 Interview with Dr. Dan Herman, CEO of Competitive Advantages, a strategy consulting and branding services firm, serving worldwide clients ranging from local mid-sized companies to “Fortune Global 500″ corporations. Together with his highly trained team, he creates Unique Success Formulas, Emotionally Significant Brands and Short-Term ‘Hit’ Brands for their clients. Among the many organizations and brands, he has worked with are multinationals such as Coca-Cola, IBM, Unilever, Motorola, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Holiday Inn, Apple computers, Suzuki, Chrysler, Warner Brothers, H. Stern as well as many others. The list also includes FC Spartak Moscow and many of Israel’s leading companies in the fields of banking and financial services, telecommunications, health services, food and beverages, toiletries and cosmetics, public transportation, hotels, retail chains, the national lottery and several non-profit organizations, government agencies and political parties.

Great thanks for this interview, Dan! 

What can be said about the return on investment of a STB, when it’s compared with a LTB?  One should think more money can be made with a LTB.

I never said we should stop thinking long-term altogether. We must think long-term in the management of our companies and organizations. Even in marketing and branding we need to think both long and short-term. I advise my clients to use combinations of long and short term brands. They have different marketing roles. The long term brand inspires trust. The short term brand raises excitement. Oftentimes marketers should use a long term background brand (e.g. Volkswagen) but create excitement with foreground short term hits (e.g. the New Beetle). Most innovations are not ground breaking. They are, in our terms, Minimally Effective Innovations (MEI). In order to maximize their revenue potential it is preferable to create and market them as a series of successive short-term meteoric successes. Contrary to the traditional point of view it seems that now, as consumers are more responsive to novelty, it makes more sense to launch new brands instead of “new and improved” product versions under a long term brand.An expertly created and marketed short-term brand reaches a higher sales volume and market share than an long term brand and it is far less expensive to launch. From a financial perspective, a succession of short term brands achieves a higher average market share over time. (Read the article)

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 Interview with Dr. Dan Herman, CEO of Competitive Advantages, a strategy consulting and branding services firm, serving worldwide clients ranging from local mid-sized companies to “Fortune Global 500″ corporations. Together with his highly trained team, he creates Unique Success Formulas, Emotionally Significant Brands and Short-Term ‘Hit’ Brands for their clients.

Among the many organizations and brands, he has worked with are multinationals such as Coca-Cola, IBM, Unilever, Motorola, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Holiday Inn, Apple computers, Suzuki, Chrysler, Warner Brothers, H. Stern as well as many others. The list also includes FC Spartak Moscow and many of Israel’s leading companies in the fields of banking and financial services, telecommunications, health services, food and beverages, toiletries and cosmetics, public transportation, hotels, retail chains, the national lottery and several non-profit organizations, government agencies and political parties.

Thank you, Dan, for your time!

You recently published a book in the United States titled “Outsmart the MBA Clones: The Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing and Branding” (www.outsmart-mba-clones.com)? What have you got against MBA programs and graduates? And – why do we need “an alternative guide”?

I have nothing against MBA programs or graduates. I am an MBA graduate myself. However, we should remember that management is very different from, say, engineering. When you take a strategy move in the market you do not only change the situation in the market – you potentially change the characteristics of the market. For examples, your innovative service strategy can change consumers’ expectations and the market norms. Therefore, management and marketing practices lose their effectiveness when everybody is using them and they should constantly change. Despite the apparent diversity among MBA programs, they produce executives who think and act in a similar and predictable manner. This undermines the competitiveness of their companies and provides a strategic advantage to those who recognize these biases and think differently. I do not, however, tell marketers to ‘think out of the box’ as so many do. I supply them with a new and comprehensive toolbox for success. My book, “Outsmart the MBA Clones” provides a set of new concepts and a toolkit unlike anything taught in MBA schools. The ambitious promise of this book is to help managers create business strategies that will succeed and yet amazingly will not be copied by the competition, resulting in private monopolies.

(Read the article)

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Marco Bevolo is Director at Philips Design. He joined Philips Design in 1999, assuming responsibility for the cultural trend research program. He was instrumental in the creation of CultureScan, an ongoing trend forecasting research project investigating cultures and aesthetics at regional and global level.

Mr. Bevolo’s work has been published in ‘The Art of Advertising’ and ‘Nuova Enciclopedia della Comunicazione’, the Design Management Review of Boston. His opinions on cultural futures, trends and branding have also appeared in Axis, Repubblica, ViewPoint, Der Spiegel, AdMap, Contagious and WGSN. He has lectured at the Domus Academy of Milan, Temasek Polytechnic of Singapore, the Pasadena Art Center College of Design, and was module coordinator of the Master of Arts in Design Management at INHOLLAND in Rotterdam.

As part of representing Philips Design he is regularly invited as speaker and chairman by various event and conference organizations worldwide.

In 2006 he was nominated for ‘Best Conference Paper’  of ESOMAR, New York.

He is Advisory board member of:  Authentic Luxury Foundation (London);  Eventica Global Luxury Forum (2008); Caramundo (Amsterdam / Rio de Janeiro); Platform 21, the international center for design, fashion and creation (Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Design Management Institute (USA); Association of Professional Futurists – APF (USA); ESOMAR (The Netherlands).

Dear Marco, thank you very much for sharing your point of view! 

1. The consumers (their habits, buying behavior, aspirations, preferences and attitude) have changed nowadays. Upon you how the luxury consumers’ profile is evolving? What are the major trends for the future?

For the purpose of our editorial research in the context of the Wharton School Publishing book “Premium by Design”, Howard Moskowitz, Alex Gofman and myself created a quali-quantitative framework to capture the future dynamics of this market, from thought leaders vision to actual common people’s statistic response. The outcome of this comprehensive study is multifaceted: after all, luxury is part of culture, and we are facing times of macro-cultural change both at regional and global level. These could be some among the key trends we identified:

- sustainability: as the work of Prof. Jem Bendell for WWF’s “Deeper Luxury” shows, there is a deep need for a sustainable “revolution” in the ways luxury brands operate. This is not purely a corporate strategy agenda item: this is a rising demand from worldwide audiences;

- design leadership: we expect a transfer of multidisciplinary processes and insights from mature design operations, those working at strategic level on brands and in companies, to the craftsmanship-driven galaxy of luxury design masters: the relatively recent appointment of innovation directors at classic luxury brands like Hermes or Moet Hennessy is a clear step in such direction;

- residual value: in the age of discount outlet retail, the ability of a luxury artifact to retain value over time, possibly becoming a vintage item or even a collector’s object, will make the difference between who’s in luxury, and who’s not. This is a dynamic that companies should definitely study and eventually stimulate in their own design and marketing strategies – difficult as alchemy, however feasible and definitely more and more crucial.

(Read the article)

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Zahid Adil, Strategic Marketing & Brand Consultant at Thinkmor™ . He is one of the top 10 MarketingProfs experts, recognised by its strategic marketing knowledge and professionalism. The company he works for – Thinkmor (London, UK) has 45 years of combined experience, most from well known brands or corporate backgrounds, working together to help B2B & B2C companies in Services, Retail, NPD, Fashion, IT to deliver higher profits, streamline costs and secure future growth.
 

Thank you Zahid, for sharing your opinion!

How the habits of the luxury consumers are changing and how the luxury brands adapt to these changes?

Before addressing the habits of Luxury Consumers it’s important to briefly summarize the Luxury Brand perception over the last 50 years.
Traditionally Luxury Brands/Items were mainly bought by the Rich, Aristocratic and Royalty. Luxury was all about status and separation from the masses. Luxury used to be defined by brands such as Rolls Royce, Bentley, Yves St Laurent, Dior, Chanel, and even travel in the 1960-1970’s was seen as a Luxury. Luxury brands used to be rare and only accessible within controlled channels.

(Read the article)

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 Howard R. Moskowitz is president and CEO of  MOSKOWITZ JACOBS INC. . Dr. Moskowitz is both a well-known experimental psychologist in the field of psychophysics (the study of perception and its relation to physical stimuli), and an inventor of world-class market research technology. Among his important contributions to market research is his 1975 introduction of psychophysical scaling and product optimization for consumer product development. Whereas these methods are standard and well accepted today, they required a massive culture change in the 1975 business community. In the 1980’s his contributions in sensory analysis were extended to health and beauty aids. He has also developed and refined procedures which enable research to interrelate products, concepts, consumers, experts and physical test instruments, in order to accomplish product optimization and reverse engineering. Finally, his research and technology developments have led to concept and package optimization (IdeaMap), integrated and accelerated development (DesignLab)), and the globalization and democratization of concept development for small and large companies alike, in an affordable, transaction-oriented approach (IdeaMap Wizard; IdeaMap.Net).
Dr. Moskowitz developed the notion of RDE or research developing experimentation. RDE comprises easy-to-use Internet-enhanced experimental designs (similar to conjoint analysis), coupled with high-level, automatic analyses. RDE reveals what messages synergize to produce exceptionally strong performance, and what messages either work with each other or do not work with each other. RDE further segments people by their mind-sets, using direct responses to messaging, thus making segmentation immediately actionable.

He is autor of the book Selling Blue Elephants, awarded with Best 30 Business Books of 2007 Excellence Award by Executive Book Summaries.

1. How to understand the mind of the consumer?  What are the major tendencies in this area?

The big problem here is the drift of market research towards two areas. The first is tracking studies. These studies don’t tell you much. The second is observational research or ethnography. These are in-depth, but too expensive.

I favor experimental design of ideas, where you mix and match ideas, present these as test concepts to consumers, get ratings, and identify what works. If you do this properly you learn a great deal about the algebra of the mind. I have written books on this (see my website www.SellingBlueElephants.com – go to ‘about the authors’, and see the ‘books’. You have a table of contents. The books and chapters dealing with concepts go into this area of understanding the customer’s mind.

(Read the article)

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 Reg Nordman is the Managing Partner for Rocket Builders, a sales and marketing consultancy for high growth companies. He works with large and small companies such as: Asentus, Maximizer, Sophos, Microsoft Canada, and Research in Motion. Previously he has worked in direct and channel sales for major firms such as Unisys and Commodore. For his clients, Reg assists them in breaking through various sales and marketing challenges to grow the business. Using RocketBuilders Precision Sales and Marketing process he helps CEOS get more from  Sales and Marketing.  Reg is focused on getting clients “more effective selling time”. Reg has been publishing executive book reviews for his clients since 2002, and a blog since 2004.

Thank you Reg, for sharing your experience!

What are the major tendencies that characterize the new market realities?

No company can prosper and grow without significant and thoughtful investments in marketing. Everything is getting more difficult.
Eg my post Nov 8:  News from the trenches- The sales process starts before you think it does

Describes how the customer is first engaging the sales force about 20% of the way down the sales process. What does this entail? Prospects go online to identify their problem and look for solutions. By the time the customer engages the salesman, they have created a short list of companies to talk to and they believe that this company is one of a few that have the potential solution to their problem. This immediately creates two problems:

1. Most sales people are unable to shift gears to accommodate the needs of these customers. They do not want a demo, a brochure or a proposal. They want you to quickly get up to speed on their business and issues and how your product brings value. How are you different? The results of a poor response is that the opportunity disappears as fast as it appears.

2. Marketing becomes of No.1 importance with the brand promise, materials in the public eye and the ability to drive “qualified leads ” to the sales funnel. The Marcomm dept has to really be on top of things. But you never will never know its not working.
Hidden problem. Are clients looking at your online “story” and dropping you from their shortlist, and thus never engaging you? Guess what? You will never know!

So business is changing yet most sales training is stuck in the 90’s . That is so like , yesterday.   (Read the article)

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 Jeff Rothe,  Top Marketing specialist focused on applying brand stewardship to all phases of marketing, from websites and trade shows to advertising and public affairs; owner at SELMARQ Brands’ Best Friend (a company of 25-year history of building brands)

Thank you very much for sharing!

Is it a “no brand” in fact “a brand”? Why?

In the strict sense of the question, “no brand” is, by definition, not a brand. This is mostly exemplified by those companies who do not understand branding, or don’t think that branding is of any great importance to their company’s success.

In a real sense, “no brand” means “no promise.” Your brand, in my opinion, is your company’s promise to perform in a particular manner. This means your brand is your reputation. If the quality of your products and services varies based on market fluctuations (demand, resources, taste, style, price, etc.) the market can expect that you cannot be counted on to deliver consistently. (Read the article)

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Geoff Livingston, CEO  Livingston Communications  (a company specialised in public relations and social media), Marketing, PR and New Media Strategist, Author of the book “Now is gone”

1. Nowadays a new (and old in the same time) term has appeared – c2c (consumer-to consumer). What is the importance of c2c marketing and how marketers should deal with?

My big issue with the term “C2C” marketing is that it assumes consumers make a conscious decision to market products. That’s not necessarily what’s happening, although affiliate programs and eBay are certainly examples of true C2C.

When Word of Mouth (WOM) referrals occur it’s because a customer believes in a product.  The brand promise of marketing has been matched by the actual user experience.  Thus, they are happy to confirm the marketing and lend their credibility to the product/service/solution.  This is third party credibility, a result of good public relations using social media tools, not a conscious paid-for-marketing action. 

Word of mouth cannot be paid for so easily.  It can be inspired, but products and services must also be inspiring.  Marketing can only accelerate the consumer’s excitement for a product they would generally like anyway.  At the same time marketing and WOM can also accelerate a bad product’s failure.

(Read the article)

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 Gianfranco Chicco, Marketing Director at HSM Italy, (World Business Forum, the Annual meeting for the business community), specialized in strategic planning, alliances with media partners and associations, online strategy, partnership agreements and development of new events. You can find his blog here

Thank you, Gianfranco, for sharing.

 1) What is the importance of the brand today? Have it lost from his power?

Brands (as a concept) haven’t lost their power, how could they? What happens is that in the last 5 years or so, in most mature market-driven economies, there’s been a strong power-shift back to consumers. Some brands have resisted, others have disappeared or lost its fancy, and a bunch of new ones have jumped to stardom. Even a “no-logo” is a brand. I like Kevin Roberts (www.saatchikevin.com) classification of brands according to two axes: Love and Respect. This representation of brands creates 4 basic groups:
+ Love and – Respect: fashion brands with a short but intense life
 - Love and + Respect: most brands lay here, especially some classic ones
 - Love and – Respect: commodities
+ Love and + Respect: a lovemark! (www.lovemarks.com)

(Read the article)

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 Mr. Milko Georgiev is a ITC Entrepreneur, Management and Marketing Professional, Member of the Board at Mail BG (www.mail.bg), Founder, Owner and Editor at www.yvox.net, the leading Marketing & Communications portal in Bulgaria
 

Great thanks for sharing your vision, Milko!

What is the place of the traditional marketing in the changing new reality?

First of all, in my humble opinion, there are no such things as ‘traditional’ or ‘modern’ marketing.  Being more a craftsman work, marketing is a set of rules, tools and approaches to resolve the problems in the product-customer relationship. Every marketing professional with a broad vision has the opportunity to express himself using this broad range of solutions that marketing science has built over the years. However, we should not perceive any of those tools and rules as a one of God’s Commandments on Marketing. Technology, being the most rapidly changing element in our environment, has created the biggest challenge since ever commerce exists – the one-to-one relationship opportunity between sellers and buyers. This dramatic shift is changing how marketing is applied, not the marketing science itself. We’re facing new opportunities and threats in terms of research, segmentation, differentiation, positioning and communication of our products and services, but we’re not challenging the basic rules of marketing. So, at the end, my answer is – marketing has a growing and already overwhelming role in the new market reality.

(Read the article)

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