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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Designer , writer, producer, photographer& keynote speaker Marc Gobe, is the author of the best selling book Emotional Branding. His philosophy has created a movement and forced a consumer driven thought process on how to connect brands with people from a rational to an emotional perspective.
As former President and CEO of Desgrippes Gobe /Brandimage one of the top 10 design firm in the world he brought on a new vision and approach to Design that changed Branding forever.
Now, as President and the leading force behind his new Think Tank Emotional Branding LLC, Marc brings innovation and consumer understanding into all the hidden corners of the  branding process by producing documentary films on Emotional Events that impact brands  and consumers. Sao Paulo was his first stop: a city whose mayor banned all form of outdoor advertising.
Clients such as Air France,  Abercrombie and Fitch, Ann Taylor, Starbucks, Telefonica, Victoria’s secret or Coca Cola Trusted Desgrippes Gobe to create the experiences that made their brand famous in people’s heart.

Dear Marc, thank you very much for dedicating your time!

“It’s not just the skills that are important , it’s the ability to emote”.
Steve Jobs. Fortune magazine 2008

1. Today the consumer has more choices than ever and can access more information about products and brands easier than ever. In what manner the emotional branding can respond to these new business realities?

Emotional branding is about understanding people’s reality. Consumers today have more choices and more information’s but are they happier? In an economy that is inflationary and where even the cost of food and gas become prohibitive the notion of a consumer economy loses a lot of its meaning. Relying on more consumption to create jobs and survive requires a new set of rules and understanding.

(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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