Even century-old firms die … because they don’t adapt
Darwin was right … those who adapt will survive and in the race to survival smaller species seem better placed. This seems also to be true for firms. The biggest ones are not –always- the most resistant to shocks and the quickest to change. Browsing recently through my archives I found back the articles that the Italian press dedicated to Richard Ginori, a eighteenth century firm that went bankrupt in early 2013. Richard Ginori, a porcelain...
The importance of unplanned buying for retailers’ profitability
It is difficult to overstate the importance of “unplanned buying” to retailers and branded goods suppliers. As we have explained in an earlier post unplanned in-store buying behavior accounts for a major part of supermarkets profits. Actually Advertising Age has reported that consumers tend to make 70% of their brand decisions in the store! In a recent article the effects of “preshopping” factors—the overall trip goal, store-specific shopping objectives, and prior marketing exposures that the shopper...
Mono-product marketing strategies: the exemple of l’Atelier de l’Eclair
There is no such difficult thing than to start a successful business with only one product. Yet, we have noticed recent initiatives in the retail sector of innovative mono-product marketing strategies. We visited last month “L’Atelier de l’éclair” in Paris, a store dedicated to a traditional French pastry called “éclair”. Ladurée made the macarons famous and launched a long-lasting trend; the three founders of l’Atelier de L’éclair found old papers related to this pastry and also...
Abercrombie & Fitch accused to sell only to thin people: good or bad marketing strategy?
The press covered extensively the charges against Abercrombie & Fitch to sell only “small” sizes to avoid getting obese clients among its customers. The famous American brand has recently opened a store in Brussels, which has reinforced the local impact of this news. The question that arises, however, is whether or not A&F followed the right strategy by focusing on a “thin” market segment. In other words is it better to sell only to a limited...
Have supermarkets signed their own death warrant ?
The latest stats show that prepared shopping carts tend to help supermarkets sustain their growth. Whereas in France supermarkets (-0.2%), hard discount (-0.4%) and small urban stores (-0.2%) all lost market shares, “drives” gained 1% on the same period. It’s therefore logical that all players propose it. Only for our subscribers: exclusive analyses and marketing advice Email address * Subscribe By signing up, you agree to our Terms of use and privacy policy. "I thought the...
3 steps to align your online and offline experience with your global brand positioning
Brands sometimes take advantage of their positioning to launch some funny initiatives and propose a funny communication. Yet, when the positioning doesn’t match the communication, it can backfire (remember for instance the example of this bank that we gave a while ago). We already dealt with these aspects here and we would like to give you here another –good- example of how products can carry a touch of fun and be extremely well aligned with your...
Consultants, learn how to be flexible!
Flexibility and goodwill are of the essence when you are an entrepreneur and when you work with entrepreneurs. Being in the 2 categories, I pay great attention to those qualities when I meet a candidate for a job at Intotheminds. Unfortunately, most of the time I’m not happily surpized. Most people whom I meet behave like “simple employees” and expect a cool job, with good money and little to do. This is unfortunately no something that...
Affordable and efficient design strategies
When it comes to design regular readers know that we firmly believe it can be a differentiating factor and it can add value to a business. Yet, design depends on trends, on taste, in other words on lot of external variables that are not under your control. What was well designed yesterday may seem old-fashioned today. The ROI of design If design is considered an antecedent of value, then we should talk about return on...
How design can help increase your revenues
The Paris Chamber of Commerce organized this year a contest dedicated to the best design initiatives in retail environments. As we explained in an earlier post we started taking appointments and visiting as many stores as possible that applied (even if they didn’t win a prize). We started our tour with one of the winners, a dry cleaner called “H20”. We met with Bruno Benizri, the founder of the company who, in the meantime, opened another...
Examples of vertical integration and definitions
Vertical integration is a relatively rare business strategy these days. Few companies still practise it because the time has come to reduce structural costs and cut costs. Among the large groups that continue to practice it, we could mention Samsung, Swatch. Still, these dinosaurs are on the verge of extinction (whereas vertical integration can be a competitive advantage). The DNVB (Digital Native Vertical Brands) have brought this business model up to date. Below you will find...
Niche markets are sometimes larger than you expect. The case of Pedon.
Pedon is one of those brands that has a solid market share but is not known very well, even in Italy, its home country. A manufacturer of dozens of private labels product, Pedon has also its own lines of products, one of which deserves special attention. Pedon has developed a line of gluten-free products which Luca Zocca, the marketing manager, saw as a natural extension of traditional product lines. Especially interesting was the typology of consumers...
Do you want to do business or not?
This post is a little be off-topic but it’s a kind of therapy for me. Writing is good for the peace of mind, isn’t it ? Over the last few weeks I’ve been disappointed several times by potential suppliers and partners who have shown themselves non-responsive and far from what one could call “customer oriented”. Let’s start first with a little bit of background. We are constantly dealing with a dozen of customer projects and...
From ready-to-eat to ready-to-prepare, a new product experience
An important aspect of the work of a marketing agency is that we must detect, track and follow nascent trends in a broad range of industries. This knowledge is required by our clients who expects from us that we have deep knowledge in as many sectors as possible, so that they can benefit from innovating concept and future trends across industries. We track these trends through qualitative analyses, through following up many different firms, visiting fairs...
What is the future of luxury brands in Asia?
Specialized media flood us with figures all the more crazy than the others. Prada plans to open 160 new stores in Asia to support its growth, PPR (Pinaud Printemps Redoute) plans to open 100 new outlets, the Swedish group H & M announced it will enter the luxury segment to counter its rival Zara. “Last but no least” if the industrial future of France seems to be doomed to die (the ratio of industrial value added...
Lytro will fail and go bankrupt, unless …
Do you know Lytro ? Most probably not. The technology behind this new product is still in its infancy and distribution of the product has remained confidential. Yet it is a disruptive technology. What is Lytro ? There is a very good explanation on the science behind Lytro on their website. Let me nevertheless explain the product with my own words. Until now you were taking 2D pictures; zooming in, zooming out, focusing on one point...
Is Germany an ecosystem for SMEs ?
In a recent column published in Le Figaro, Jean-Pierre Robin echoed a column by 2008 Nobel Prize of Economy Paul Krugman in the New-York Times. In his article Krugman was dealing with Apple’s industrial model, based on outsourcing. At the opposite of ventures creating wealth through jobs in their own country, Apple has based its strategy on outsourcing in China. It has actually created far more jobs in China than in the US, which seems logical...
Drawing some parallels between Volkswagen and Swatch: two very similar strategies
If you are reading economic newspapers those days, chances are high you come across articles on Volkswagen and Swatch. Both groups are profits champions and analysts just love them. On the one hand Volkswagen became the world’s #2 car manufacturer and ambitions to become #1. The current #1, General Motors, which still sells more vehicles than VW but it has undergone a difficult crisis (which led the Detroit-based giant to bankruptcy) and its profitability is far...
Low-cost and high-profits: business models reshaped
In times of economic crisis it is well known that price sensitivity increases. One visible consequence is that low-cost business models like Ryanair, Aldi, Colruyt, Ikea and the like are doing very well. They outperform actually older players and you just have to look at European airlines to feel the disruptive power of low-cost players. The airline industry is further consolidating like never before; I dare to say that even the consolidation of US airlines is...
Unicredit explicitly warns investors about national currencies reintroduction scenario
Very few people have noticed it but readers of this blog will be aware of an event that recently took place in Italy, when Unicredit launched a capital increase on the market. The bank edited a 300-page leaflet which sums up all risks for the investor and on page 66 you can read the following: Furthermore, concerns that the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis could worsen may lead to the reintroduction of national currencies in one or...
Pay What You Want
In 2009 a paper was published in the Journal of Marketing on a new concept called “Pay What You Want” (PWYW) which seemed to be interesting for firms. This research showed counterintuitive results, namely that consumers will exploit their control and pay nothing at all or a price below the seller’s costs. The interest for this pricing method was born after the Motorhead proposed customers to pay what they wanted to download their latest album. The...
The coffee capsules war will not happen
Sara Lee launched last year its Nespresso-compatible capsules. In Paris only 100000 samples were given for free. In August Sara Lee announced that they had reached the 100m$ revenues with this product. Still, the question remains for me whether this can be considered a success. Last year we already challenged this assumption on our blog and we are confirming our analysis today. What if this result was only the consequence of a temporary switching from Nespresso...
The counterfeiting industry and the consumer behaviour
I already dealt with Bottega Veneta this week, the ultra luxury Italian brand. Like many other luxury bag brands, Bottega Veneta is subject to counterfeiting. A long-debated question is whether counterfeiting is a fate or a sign that a brand is successful. This was the subject of much discussion at the International Marketing Trends Conference in Venice, which ended January 21, 2012. Bottega Veneta, Vuitton and the like are a privileged field of study for behaviorists...
1855.com : how long can they survive?
Life is sometimes hard, especially for losers. Within a few days I read two different articles about 1855.com. The first one was published in the magazine “la Revue du Vin de France” which is a magazine specialized in wine and wine making. The other one was published in Le Figaro, a few years ago. I must admit 1855.com did very well in getting outstanding press coverage. They went to the stock market, and purchased two other...
A PESTLE analysis may have helped the eco-construction sector
One of the decisions the Belgian government took to reduce the debt was to cancel the 40% tax deduction on works carried out to reduce energy consumption (isolation, double-glass windows, …). The consequence of this decision will be to change dramatically the competition landscape for firms specialized in energy-reduction construction works. We can with certainty expect that the least robust of those firms (which have popped up in the last years) will die. I discussed my...
Meet first the legal requirements first, then speak about customer service: the Mobistar case
First of all please allow me to mention than by sharing this post on Facebook and twitter you will help other individuals. The purpose of this post is to write about my fight against Mobistar in an attempt to enforce my rights as a customer. Don’t hesitate thus to use the above Facebook and Twitter buttons. Help me make this world better. Thank you. Let’s start with the end, that’s to say the result I achieved....
Is this what marketing in the wine industry looks like?
A friend just offered me a bottle of wine. It was just wonderful. Thank you. What surprised me was the tag attached to it, which claimed the 94 points obtained from Robert Parker in the Wine Advocate. Well, ok everyone knows that Parker decides on whether a wine will be a success or not. But let’s face it. It has lasted for too long. Wine lovers were happy to find a reference years ago to limit...
What is the marketing positionning of Blancpain (Swatch group)
Blancpain is a famous watch brand owned by the Swatch group which, in my opinion, deserves attention for several reasons. Blancpain is first of all a brand with history; not only an historical tradition of watchmaking that goes back to the 18th century, but also a more recent entrepreneurial history when the brand was revamped by the great Jean-Claude Biver. Blancpain is today the result of a subtle positioning on its 280-year history and a managerial...
Sara Lee vs. Nespresso : missed target
When I attended the “stratégie clients” show in Paris two weeks ago, I heard Julien Morel, the COO of Nespresso, explain how Nespresso was able to keep its market share in spite of new players like Maison du Café (Sara Lee) and Casino. While in France I went to a supermarket to test the Sara Lee capsules by myself and I’ve got an explanation. Sara Lee’s coffee is simply not as good as Nespresso’s. From a...
Customer experience in Paris : « stratégie clients » trade show
I spent two days in Paris to observe the latest trends as far as distribution is concerned and also to attend the “stratégie clients” show which was dedicated to customer relationship, loyalty, CRM and the like. This show was reserved for marketing professionals and exhibitors were actually mainly suppliers in the IT and call-centre fields. As far as I’m concerned I found that it had therefore not much to do with the relationship itself but more...
Aligning customer’s and firm’s perspective on quality
I’m currently re-reading Prof. Oliver’s monograph on consumer’s satisfaction. The chapter on quality reminded me of one striking example. Oliver explains that quality is to be understood differently whether it is approached from the consumer’s perspective or from the firm’s perspective. This may seem obvious but actually it’s not. If quality is considered an antecedent of satisfaction, both perspectives should be the same to be aligned with the marketing concept which emphasizes delivering satisfaction (not just...
The service-profit chain at work
I recently read a post by Bruce Temkin on his blog who was emphasizing the importance of employees in the customer satisfaction process. The link between employees satisfaction and customer satisfaction were first made popular by Heskett et al. in 1994 in the Harvard Business Review. I’ve attached the original diagram by Heskett et al. which is a pretty complete view of all the relationships. This being said I’d like to stress here that, although important,...
Customer experience: CEO’s passion is essential
I’m just back from a week in New York where I followed a workshop on the management of Customer Experience at the Columbia Business School. From the work sessions with my colleagues we found out that the CEO plays an essential role in setting up an environment which is likely to create a positive customer experience. Think about Steve Jobs for instance, but not only. Livia Marotta of Swarovski mentioned a less know example of a...
Customer-centricity lost : it’s all about industrial revolution
Think about it for one moment. Three-hundred years ago, when you needed let’s say a tool, you just had to go to a craftsman who had specialized in manufacturing that very tool. At that time, such a craftsman was mastering all the facets of the job: he was able to work the metal, forge it, was carving the wood and eventually assembled the two pieces to make the desired tool. How does it look like today?...
Century 21 grows on industry inefficiencies
I discussed in a previous post how unprofessional real estate agents in Brussels seem to behave. A quick survey showed disastrous response rate from real estate agents, about 90% of them failing to answer a written inquiry. In my conclusion I explained that this inefficiency was a great opportunity for real estate agencies which would correct their weaknesses and re-center on customers (real estate agents have two types of customers – buyers and sellers- with complete...
It’s never too soon to prepare the sale of your company
I was visiting a client in the south of France last month and on my way back, in the plane, I was seating (as it is too rarely the case) next to a very sympathetic passenger who was willing to chat a little bit. I had a wonderful trip back to Belgium discussing some business-related issues with this entrepreneur who was thinking about selling his company. The company was apparently in good shape, made good profits...
The energy drink market at SIAL 2010
One of the markets I discovered the amazing vitality of, was that of energy drinks. Basically, for me, the energy drink market was limited to Red Bull, Burn and a few alternatives which put millions of Euros in advertisement. What I discovered at SIAL was that the market was much broader than what I thought. What I saw is a low-tier invasion and a cost leadership strategy adopted by many players. One good example was No...
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