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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 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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Ann Handley is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs (www.marketingprofs.com). She directs all of the content in various forms produced on the MarketingProfs Web site and is the Primary Caregiver of its blog, the MarketingProfs Daily Fix(www.mpdailyfix.com). She also blogs at The Huffington Post. A lifetime ago, she co-founded of ClickZ.com.

1. How the Internet as a media is changing? What are the major trends?

Well, in terms of content on the Internet, there’s a whole lot more of it – and many more voices creating it and extending its reach.

That’s a huge change, obviously, from when only professional writers and editors were creating the content that most of us read and were therefore influenced by. Now, anyone who is armed with a computer and an internet connection has a voice, anyone can create and share content, and everyone can be one of the “who’s who.”

The ease of creating and sharing content has huge implications not only for those of us who make our living via it. But it also has huge implications for marketers. For years, marketers have talked to their customers. Now, they are hearing those customers talking back. (Read the article)

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Mr. Paul Chaney is Internet Marketing Director for Bizzuka.com, a web design and development firm based in Lafayette, LA.

Mr. Chaney has been an Internet media consultant for the past four years and is widely known and respected in that field. He understands at a granular level how conversational media tools can be used for marketing purposes and has worked with a number of clients assisting them in deploying online marketing strategies.

Mr. Chaney has served as Technical Editor on a number of For Dummies series books related to blogs and Internet marketing, and was contributing writer on the book Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies, published by Wiley.

Specialties: Business blog consultant, online marketing consulting, conversational media marketing, real estate blogging, blogging

Great thanks, Mr. Chaney for sharing your experience!

1. What is the role of blogs nowadays? How they are changing the Internet?

Blogs were the forerunner that ushered in the social media movement and they still play a vital role. However, that role has changed thanks to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and other social tools. By that I mean you see less “day in the life” blogging and a greater emphasis on what some are calling “value” blogging. Let me explain.

In the early days, bloggers had one place to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions, and that was on their blog. Now, the more spur-of-the-moment, anecdotal posts are finding themselves being placed on micro-blogging tools like Twitter, Pownce and Facebook, leaving the more thoughtful, well-researched posts for the blog. That’s not to suggest bloggers don’t still write impromptu posts. They do. It’s just that other tools are now available allowing for greater choice and flexibility in where to publish. (Read the article)

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Mack Collier, Social Media Marketing Consultant, Editor/ Blogger about social media, community empowerment, and the death of big music labels at The Viral Garden

Thank you Mack, for sharing your ideas! 

1. The market realities and the marketing are changing. How social media influence these changes?

I think that marketers have slowly begun to appreciate the power of word-of-mouth in recent years.  And social media just makes it that much easier for customers to create and share information and content.  As marketers begin to get a handle on what social media is and why it’s important, I think they are beginning to incorporate social media into their marketing plans.

(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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