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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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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Lydia Sugarman, CEO/Founder of Private Label InterActive, seminar speaker, specialised in providing marketing managers with an effective and measurable marketing platform that facilitates intelligent, segmented/interactive outgoing email communications with CRM tools; generate/manage lead generation; identify hot prospects keep the pipeline filled; demonstrate quantifiable ROI; website assessments, database management, online marketing strategy consulting.

1. What is the role of Interactive marketing nowadays? How do you see its future?

Interactive marketing is still in its infancy. Media will be more intimately integrated and, as devices and their users become more sophisticated, transactions will be more immediate. The millennial will have a profound influence on how they are reached, influenced, and how they react. As their disposable income grows, interactive marketing will have to respond.

(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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 Bill Brelsford, Owner of Rebar, Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach, helping small business owners and independent professionals attract more of their ideal customers

Thank you Bill, for your ideas!
 

How the SME can compete the big companies with big advertising budgets?

In Duct Tape Marketing, we define marketing as getting someone with a particular need to know, like, and trust you. Many big companies rely on big advertising budgets to help buy some of that know, like, and trust. SMEs on the other hand, have a significant advantage over big companies because of their ability to connect with their customers personally and talk to them on a regular basis. This allows them to build know, like, and trust without having to spend millions of dollars on advertising. People want to connect with and do business with people that they like. This is why we are seeing such an interest in blogs and social media. It’s up to the SMEs to leverage this advantage by listening to their customers and responding to meet and exceed their expectations.

(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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 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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