Customers are the last hurdle to remove for a smoother supply-chain
The Nespresso Prodigio case shows that companies are trying to remove the last uncertainty factor to maximize loyalty. This factor is the customer himself. It’s not a bad idea indeed. Rather than building complex algorithms to predict customers’ behaviors, why not just remove the human factor from the equation ? If the proposed added value is sufficient it may well work. Prodigio’s value proposition : enough to automate customer’s decision process? That’s what Nespresso probably thought...
Nespresso : the secret behind the new Prodigio connected machine
Nespresso just launched a new connected machine called “Prodigio”. This machine allegedly allows you to prepare a coffee with your smartphone and make sure you never run out of Nespresso capsules. This machine will however allow much more than that … but the customer will probably never get to know it. Let’s have a look behind the scene and discover the secrets of the Prodigio strategy. Churn : the one metric Nespresso is concerned about For...
Are smart boxes the future of car insurance?
Telematic units, also called black or smart boxes, are devices installed in a car to monitor a driver’s behavior (speed, acceleration, deceleration, …). They are increasingly used by insurance companies to develop a pay-as-you-drive pricing. Such pricing may be especially interesting for young drivers who are hit by high insurance premiums. Young drivers are victims of their youth One metric sums it up all: 25% of accidents are caused by young drivers. This is quite a...
Creative business cards : we are almost there
Last year I felt the need to have new business cards. From the very beginning I wanted to create creative business cards that people would remember. After searching the internet and in particular pinterest, I drafted a few concepts that combined all my objectives. I also spotted this one example that I found absolutely stunning. Creative business cards : 3 tips for a wow effect I listed 3 elements that in my opinion define...
Not sure SnapChat will become a profitable business
71% of snapchat users are under 25. In a world where businesses try to attract and touch youngsters, this is a very unique selling proposition. Despite a market capitalization of 16 to 19b$ doubts still exist about the business model of snapchat and how it will monetize its users’ database. Will Snapchat be able to really leverage the value of its users’ database ? This is what will deal with in this blog post. Snapchat’s concept...
How to drive Generations Y and Z back to traditional media
Traditional medias have a huge problem to get in touch with the Y and Z generations, which both have their own media consumption habits. A recent initiative launched by Egmont, a UK-based press house focusing on children, brings a possible solution to this difficult problem. A new magazine format for Generations Y and Z Egmont just launched a new magazine entitled Oh My Vlog ! which is dedicated to famous YouTubers, those guys like Tanya, Alfie...
TUZZit : 8 great online tools for your startup
Many would-be entrepreneurs we meet strive to either look for or even make up the visual and creative collaborative tools that will ease their team thinking process. This difficulty further increases when those teams are decentralized. Business model canvas, 5 forces of Porter, Important / Urgent matrix … TUZZit offers a collection of visual models to work with creativity online. Initiated by a Belgian startup, TUZZit (pronounced / ‘tΛzit /) is based on the principle of...
Fedex wants to take TNT over: will it happen or not?
In 2010 we predicted already that the market of courier delivery services would consolidate.Our prediction quickly turned true as UPS tried to take over TNT. This takeover was later rejected by the European commission, arguing that this would have restricted competition (read the press release here for more information). In some member states, the Commission argued, the competition would have been reduced to two players, leaving DHL and UPS head-to-head. What is happening today, with Fedex...
Marketing strategy: should banks charge customers more?
The boss of the National Bank of Belgium suggested that banks change their tariffs and charge customers for services like cash withdrawal, payments made by bank cards, yearly fees charged to have a bank account, … Is it a good marketing strategy ? Why were such proposals made when, at the same time, consumers keep losing purchase power each and every year ? If such proposals were to be implemented, what would be the consequences on...
International retailing of « Made in Italy » products
The results of a market research carried out in the UK and France revealed some interesting pieces of information about how brands leverage the “country of origin” dimension in the stores. This market study was presented at the International Marketing Trends Conference that took place in January 2014 in Venice and is the result of the work of 8 researchers. It starts by showing that the previously acknowledged COO (Country of Origin) dimension has been slowly...
iDTGVMax: What is the hidden agenda of the French railways?
The French railways company (SNCF : Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer) made the news this week when it announced the launch for an unlimited offer with its iDTGV. For 59.99€ per month, travelers would be allowed to take online booked high-velocity trains (called iDTGV) as many times as they’d like. This offer is called IDTGVMax and can be discovered on the dedicated website at IDTGVMax.com This unlimited offer was however limited in size and reserved...
Data Mining : a concrete example for SME’s
In 2015 one of the topics we would like to discuss more often on this blog is data mining. You have all heard about Big Data, data mining, business intelligence ; but what those terms really cover remains mysterious for most of us. I guess there is also a desire to keep these terms opaque and fuzzy so that they actually seem complicated and reserved to specialists. But is it really the case? Everyone can do...
Competition forces traditional taxis to change : finally !
The traditional press is full of articles regarding the legal procedures against Uber in Europe. In this judiciary fight, traditional taxis and VTC (Vehicule de Tourisme avec Chauffeur) have joined forces to fight Uber’s aggressive strategy to enter the market despite legal requirements (for more information read our previous article on this topic). Brussels minister for mobility was proud to announce that he had seized vehicles participating in the UberPop program (article in French). This is...
Can a normal airline still compete with a low-cost pure player ?
After SN Brussels Airlines announcement to launch a low-cost alternative, Air France tried to do the same but the plan was stopped by 2 weeks of strike (which may have cost up to 300m€ according to newspapers). Yet what you observe on the market is that low-cost has become the dominant business model. Ryanair had been the undisputed leader for years (in terms of profit) and became the #1 airline in Europe. This year EasyJet took...
Zalando : e-commerce giant recruits clients offline
How can you push your organic growth in e-commerce? That’s basically the problem that Zalando is facing. The e-commerce giant is still not profitable and believes that profitability will come with economies of scale, which can only be achieved through recruitment of more customers. But customers are difficult to convince and Zalando must therefore go offline to find them. Two types of consumers with different behaviors This may seem like a caricature but there are only...
Marketing strategy : Hello Bank launches a pop-up store in Brussels
Pop-up stores belongs to the marketing toolbox as a promotion instrument. Fact is that they have been usually used by brands in the fashion sector to promote a collection, raise awareness in conjunction with another event (for instance the Fashion week), or to touch customers in some particular areas. Pop-up stores are much less used by players from other sectors and that’s why the initiative of Hello Bank (a brand of BNP Paribas) is so interesting....
Quality improvement through reengineering of business processes
We are currently conducting a big assignment for a BEL20 company to improve financial provisions processes and increase operations quality. This assignment encompasses the description of AS-IS processes across several divisions, reengineering them into something “lean” and improving the quality of the output. A big challenge given the complexity of those financial processes and the variety of people involved. Most assignments of this type end up on recommendations that are never implemented. But what’s so difficult...
Online gambling : how has the market evolved since the opening of the market to competition?
On May, 13th 2010 the law was passed to open the market of online gambling to competition. Two years after, how does the market look like? Prior to that date online gambling was forbidden in France and gamblers using Gilbratar- or other exotic countries-based websites were in complete illegality. After May 2010 numerous new actors popped up and everyone was expecting hard times for the old and venerable PMU, which had the monopoly of horse gambling....
Pop-up stores: what do they reveal about the future of retail
I’ve received several interview requests during the summer to discuss the future of retail. In today’s article I want to share with you my thoughts about pop-up stores, a (relatively) new forms of retail that reflects changes in our world and changes in the way the consumers behave. 1999 : the start of the pop-up stores It seems that the first pop-up store opened in 1999 in Los Angeles. The word pop-up meant at that time...
Marketing strategy : how Tic Tac uses downsizing to make you buy
Tic Tac is a brand of the Italian group Ferrero that has a been on the market for more than 40 years. Literally everyone knows the little transparent box containing a few dozens of hard mints. In its country of origin (Italy, where it was introduced in 1969), Tic Tac is now also sold in a new packaging that fits with its time. Downsizing trends in packaging With the crisis we’ve witnessed a general downsizing of...
What does it cost to be a franchisee ?
The questions and myths around franchising are very present in the heads of entrepreneurs. Would-be entrepreneurs dream of creating a brand with the potential of launching a franchise, while others are interested in becoming franchisees. The question of the costs attached to the franchising concepts are however difficult to answer. Except if you take the time to do some market research and compare a 13 brands as we did below. 13 brands compared We decided to...
Innovations in the postal sector. Episode 3: new delivery options
Here is episode 3 already of our series on innovations launched by postal operators. You can access the first episodes of the series here (episode 1) The innovation we’ll be dealing with today is driven by societal and behavioral changes. E-commerce rise can’t be stopped anymore. We are about to witness some dramatic changes industry-wide and the supply-chain providers will be put under pressure for the next decade to come. Episode 3: in search of new...
Innovations in the postal sector. Episode 1: 3D printing
As announced in our post last week, time has come to give you a comprehensive view of innovations in the postal sector. Some innovative services may be known to you already (depeneding on where you live and how innovative your postal operator is). Most of them will however surprise you (at least we hope so) and will show you the undergoing revolution in terms of business models and revenue creation. As we explained in our previous...
Innovations in the postal sector: business models revamped
The postal industry is unique. Its original business model is threatened and the industry is forced to reinvent itself. What can be observed there in terms of innovation is just unique. I met with Delphine Desgurse in Venice in late January where we use to attend the same marketing conference. Delphine is the vice-president of La Poste, in charge of innovation. Like two years ago she headed a very interesting and inspiring presentation on innovation, with...
The right marketing strategy to sell products with a premium
While on business trip in Venice I stumbled upon wonderful postcards of Venetian monuments. I couldn’t resist the temptation and despite the price bought some to send to clients. Don’t shoot me dead … apparently such 3D pop-up cards have been on the market for a while, but this was the first time for. You can’t know about everything, right? To make a long story short these cards were so amazing : complex, surprising, yet with...
What is the value of a “Like” for your business strategy?
An article on the excellent consonaute blog recently made me (re)think about the role of social media in B2C and B2B businesses. In this post Bruno Fridlansky reflects about the value of a “like” on Facebook and of “favorite” on Twitter. He concludes that “Likes” and “favorites” are overused and that their actual value has been tarnished. Do they still mean something for the user who “likes” or “favorites”? If it still does Bruno concludes, it’s...
How and why data analysis can help increase your profitability and fuel your growth
We are currently doing several big data-based assignments for very various clients and we’d like to share with you common mistakes that are often made by companies when considering analyzing their data. Mistake #1: where is my data? First of all what we see is that most companies have a HUGE problem finding their data. Either they don’t have collected data at all (which often is the case in retail environments and we know brands with...
Have customers become unsatisfied about low-cost services and products?
There is something strange happening on the low-cost market. There is a rising wave coming in our direction and we begin perceiving the first signals of it. Camping sites, Ryanair, Supermarkets are all experiencing the same problems on the market It all started with camping sites a few months ago. While digging into the sales data of private camping sites, I found out that 5-star sites were booming while 1-star site were declining in terms of...
Three criteria to differentiate good and bad prospects
Over the years I have developed a sixth sense for recognizing uninteresting prospects, those who consume your time and will have a zero ROI. Criterion 1: The emergency factor A prospect contacts you. It is urgent. He/She needs your offer within 24 hours. You have no idea how he found you (the miracles of Internet most probably), you’ve never seen him/her before and never had him/her on the phone. What is sure however is that he...
Be responsive: a business strategy that works … if you apply it!
Here’s a true story that many of you have already experienced and which resulted in a incredible feeling of frustration. It’s the story about looking for a company to provide a service or a product you need. Sending a request for appointment to all the biggest banks My story begins with the quest for a new bank; a bank that could host my private as well as professional accounts. The bank I’ve been with for 10...
Will Ryanair really improve service quality to satisfy its customers?
Michael O’Leary, the arrogant yet charismatic CEO of Ryanair, announced last week that the company would strive to improve customer service. “We should try to eliminate things that unnecessarily piss people off” and “A lot of those customer services elements don’t cost a lot of money … It’s something we are committed to addressing over the coming year,” O’Leary said on Sept 20th 2013. Market conditions have changed Why Ryanair is now finally addressing customer complaints...
The soon collapsing delicatessen market
After visiting the Gourmet Food & Wine fair in Paris a strange feeling remains in my head: that of an endless repetition. I got bored. From booth to booth noting emerged as really different; everything was alike : exotic spices in showy packagings, Espelette chilli under all possible forms, seafood and their improbable packaging, falsely old-looking wooden shelves made by Chinese children. A –too- homogenous market Nothing stands out. Innovations are now all about packaging and...
Black money hunt makes Ferrari sales drop
Tax evasion remains very popular in Italy (and in Belgium too by the way) but since January 2013 the Monti and Letta governments are testing a new approach. The latter , as you will in this article, continues to fuel the great 300-year old debate on the very nature of taxes. Based on the Italian example this short article will help you understand the difference between circumstantial tax and declarative tax systems. How does the Redditometro work? The...
Ryanair’s CEO better at provocation than Abercrombie&Fitch’s CEO
Mike Jeffries, Abercrombie&Fitch CEO, was under fire this summer about his declarations on excluding people from his targeted clientele. Back in 2006 he declared : “We go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive, all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.” I was interviewed this summer by the French magazine l’Expansion to deal...
BNP Paribas Fortis: how their hotline make them lose customers
Websites have become nowadays a tool to attract and retain potential customers. They either allow the visitors to perform certain actions by themselves or get a trigger to call an agent. This mechanism is especially important in B2C transactions where customers want immediate contact. The role of hotlines is therefore to make the customer acquisition process as smooth as possible to increase the acquisition rate and retain as many potential customers as possible. My personal experience...
The market of recycled devices grows with the crisis
There are some markets which benefit from the crisis. The market of recycled electronic devices is one of them. With the growth of smartphones and a diminishing buying power, consumers tend to look increasingly for bargains in the second-hand market. A recent study shows that only 20% of cell phones are recycled and that each houselhold has 3 to 4 phones on average sleeping somewhere in the drawers of the house. Some startups have developed a...
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