I found this in my archives. A great book, and important info for any business.
The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market
by Michael Treacy and Fred WiersemaAddison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1997 edition
Buy it at Amazom.com or Kalahari.net.
“The message of The Discipline of Market Leaders is that no company can succeed today by trying to be all things to all people. It must instead find the unique value that it alone can deliver to a chosen market. Why and how this is done are the two key questions the book addresses.” (p.xii)
The authors maintain that there are three different types of ‘value discipline’ that successful companies can adopt to command leadership in their markets. Which of these (if any) is taken by any particular firm depends upon the sort of product or service that they provide, and upon the organizational culture that they maintain. These three ‘value disciplines’ are summarized in the chart below:
Continue reading ‘Book Summary: The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market’
We’ve all heard of viral marketing, product placements in movies and TV, and know the power of word of mouth. But now Proctor & Gamble (P&G) have taken this a step further. They’ve started paying hundreds of thousands of moms (literally!) to drop their products into conversations and subtly promote P&G’s brand in their everyday interactions.
“By crafting product messages mothers will want to share, along with giving them samples, coupons, and a chance to share their own opinions with P&G, [they're] using personal endorsements to cut through advertising clutter. ‘We know that the most powerful form of marketing is an advocacy message from a trusted friend,’ says Steve Knox. The program is a state-of-the-art method for reaching the most influential group of shoppers in America: moms.” Read the full story from BusinessWeek here.
Like network marketing, this might work with Boomers, but I wonder how Gen Xers are feeling about it? I wonder what I would think of a product that was recommended to me, and I later discovered the person was rewarded for recommending it? And, most importantly, I wonder what I would think of the person who made the recommendation - originally supposedly just out of friendship, but now I discover for some personal gain?
I’m interested to know what others think of this venture.
I’ve always said that the people who sell bottled water, especially in countries that have perfectly good water in their taps, are genius. They’ve taken what is essentially a very cheap commodity and applied sufficient marketing spin in orer to increase the price, by thousands of times, and then sell it to the very same consumers who can buy it for next to nothing. In another world it’d be like me buying a BMW from BMW for R500 000, applying sufficient marketing spin to sell it to my friend who owns the very same model BMW for R500 000 000. It’s great business if you can get it.
But then I come accross this post. A post about Seven Eleven Japan, who have launched ‘canned oxygen’. I kid you not. If these guys can pull it off, and there’s no reason they can’t based on bottled water why they can’t, then they become king of my list of people I wish I was.
Suck it up baby!
Technorati Tags: canned oxygen
The “No Name” brand is instantly recognisable by any South African. Its a brain child of Pick n Pay (SA’s equivalent of Tesco’s, Safeways, etc). The concept was to provide quality products, from a trusted source, without having to pay the costs of a brand name.
As I was driving into Durban this morning, I saw a big billboard with the standard phrase: “Why should you pay extra for a brand name?”, promoting No Name cooking oil. But, I noticed for the first time (maybe just because it was so big), that “No Name” is trademarked. It is No NameTM. How ironic!!
Did the advertisers not see this irony? Did Pick n Pay not see it? Its “No Name” BRAND!
Not a deep thought, I know. But its my thought of the day.
There’s a well used analogy around the buggy-whip and the introduction of the motor-car. It didn’t matter how good your whip was. Didn’t matter how cheap. Didn’t matter how well you could make them. No market = no sales.
There was an interview in my Sunday Times (newspaper) with Dr Ismail Jakoet (SA Rugby’s Medical Officer) this weekend around school rugby and injuries. One of the questions asked revealed that the headgear worn by Rugby players,
has proven to be useless in preventing certain injuries, but is still being worn.
When the reporter asked why they were still being worn, because that was the primary reason for wearing them, Dr Jakoet responded with,
No, no, no. If you look at your professional players, it’s the revenue they can derive from wearing those things. High-powered players have told me they know it doesn’t wor but they get payed for wearing them.
So rugby headgear has learnt at least something from the buggy-whip… when you’re looking down the barrel of a gun, market your way right outta there.
Marketing, media and consumer behaviour redefined
Standard Bank recently had a few marketing and banking tongues wagging after forking out millions to change their well known and fairly acceptable ’simpler. better. faster.’ pay-off line to the abstract, Triple-B: ‘inspired. motivated. involved.’
Sentiments echoed across the blogosphere were all somewhat scathing, which illustrates the power of blogging and the fact that consumers have found their voice and are not shy to use it. (A good example of what was and is being said can be found on the popular community blog about all things cherry - Cherryflava). One wonders what results Standard Bank would have enjoyed had they pocketed their marketing budget and instead implemented a direct mail campaign asking clients for recommendations on the new slogan. They could even have thrown in a sparkling new iPod as a prize for the best submission. Let’s face it, for the most part 50,000 heads can only be better than 50.
Continue reading ‘Tracking the World Wide Buzz’
Perhaps you own one. I don’t. I barely write anymore – most of my thoughts get hammered out on a keyboard or spoken directly into a digital recorder. But I’m intrigued. Not by the odd Moleskine-bearer strolling nonchalantly around Melville or Rosebank (I usually dismiss them as artsy-types), but rather by the phenomenal online following the ol’ Moleskine brand enjoys.
The Moleskine (pronounced mol-a-skeen-a) is simply a brand of notebook manufactured by Modo & Modo, an Italian company, bound in oilcloth-covered cardboard (Moleskin) with an elastic band to hold the notebook closed and a sewn spine that allows it to lie flat when opened. Not particularly high tech, or particularly sexy, for that matter. The pocket notebook’s reputation has grown in stature through the endorsements of the likes of Bruce Chatwin, Neil Gaiman and Pete Doherty, and rumour would have it that the Moleskine was a favourite accessory to the likes of Picasso, Hemingway and Van Gogh.
Whether all the folklore is verifiable or not the Moleskine brand, through its product’s minimalist design and stylish simplicity, continues to enjoy a formidable, almost cultish following. I’ve never heard Moleskine notebooks advertised on the radio, nevermind on the telly, and yet everyone who’s anyone either owns one or can tell you something about them. That’s exceptional - the immense power of viral marketing, personified by a wad of blank pages.
I was interested to hear Jackie Huba of the Church of the Customer blog talking about her Moleskine-fetish, and she listed some fascinating links to some of the more fanatical Moleskine Evangelists in the online world. Moleskine blogs, a MySpace site and even a comprehensive Wikipedia entry (from which, just by the way, I got most of the information for this article). All this free marketing by unpaid, enthusiastic citizens, who believe in the unobtrusive allure of an overpriced notebook.
How many citizen marketers does your brand have?
Regular readers of this blog will know we try and track uses of the term, “Connection Economy”. For us, its a key term that describes the emerging reality of the 21st century. Its a world in which WHAT you sell is becoming less and less important (since its the same stuff as that which your competitors sell, anyway), and WHO you are and HOW you sell are increasingly becoming your only means of sustaining a competitve advantage.
I recently stumbled onto a blog site, by Ray Podder, looking at branding and advertising, in which some of the implications of being technologically interconnected are fleshed out. You may want to amble over there and check it out: GROWblog.
A quote from the latest post:
Along with all the instant communication the connection economy affords us, it has also divorced us from sharing a common context. To compensate we join social networks but still feel disconnected. We communicate more than ever but feel less and less understood as we slice our shared meanings thinner and thinner across an wider audience. Is it any wonder advertisers feel the same way? If we don’t feel like we’re connecting to anyone in a meaningful way, how will companies who’ve only engaged us in a relationship of convenience? Yes, if you think a relationship with a brand is anything more than that, you’re kidding yourself!
Continue reading ‘The Connection Economy and the Death of Advertising’
I am pretty jaded about advertising. Only the surprising and clever (and possibly the downright wierd) adverts even et my attention. And very few of them even entice me to part with my cash. So, maybe I’m not the best commentator on the advertising industry. Or, maybe I’m their best case study. I don’t know.
But either way, I was seriously impressed with Isuzu just a few days ago.
Continue reading ‘Chuck, The Hoff and Isuzu’
We’re convinced that one of the largest, largely untapped markets across the world is the ageing Boomers. Born 1946 - 1960s, the is the world’s richest, healthiest, “youngest” set of old people ever. Although they don’t like to think of themselves as “old”, they are getting that way. But at 40 or 50 years old, these days, you’re only just getting to the half way point of your life. The point is this - the Boomers need special focus and attention as a market, because their needs, priorities and lifetage are changing rapidly. We are constantly on the lookout for stories of success and failure in this market (for more, click on the Prime Time category of this blog).
I picked up a great item on Reuters this morning about food retailers targetting Boomers with smaller portions, better placement and different advertising. Read it online here.
They say:
Many new products are marketed to younger consumers who are part of Generation X, Generation Y or the “Millennials,” but food manufacturers and retailers are recognizing that they need to go after aging baby boomers who have money to spend and time to shop….
I was fascinated yesterday while reading through my local Caxton newspaper to see a brochure from KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) on their latest offering….oven grilled chicken. WOW!!! In a world marinated (literally) in junk foods, fast foods, flavourants and the like, this is an interesting new strategy from the colonel. What I find most interesting is that they are punting the new option as “a matter of taste”. This may be a marketing faux pas, it does imply that their other offering (deep fried, cholesterol filled, artery hardening option..) doesnt taste as good, but whatever the case this is an interesting move on their part. So what would be the reasoning:
Continue reading ‘KFC gets it!’
Would you invest money in Colin Fitz-Gerald….
“I’m currently launching RoofShout.com with no money, no real experience running a business on the internet, and no real solid business plan,” Fitz-Gerald said. “But I figure there’s a lot of blank roofs and a lot of advertising that could go on the roofs.”
I’m not sure I would, but what criteria do you use when making a decision about investing in a roof advertising company? Roof advertising? Not for planes or parachutests. But for Google Earth and Microsoft’s Live Local.
RoofShout.com isn’t the only one doing this. There’s also RoofAds as well.
In fact we’re thinking of purchasing RoofBuzz.com in anticipation of this being the next big thing! We figure that if Wired Online carries a story like this, with a guy talking about starting a business with credentials like that, then anything is possible and we’re going to be ready for it. Colin watch out, we’re watching you from the sky!
I’m just finishing a good read looking at retail and the power of the women consumer market.
“Power of the Purse� by Fara Warner (get it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net).
The book looks at the power shifts in gender roles statically, and combines this with practical application taken from some of the biggest world brands, ie McDonalds and Nike. They work through the thought process and research that these companies used to get the competitive edge. Although the stats are all USA based. I think in South Africa we are moving into a similar situation at an alarming rate.
In dealing with generational and gender issues, this is a must read for anyone in retail, marketing or even product development, for insight into connecting or tapping into this growing market.
Continue reading ‘The Power of the Purse’
The Wise Marketer today, gives a summary of Foxhound’s top ten marketing trends for the year ahead. Read it here.
Its a short read that will get you thinking, and prove again that the focus is moving to connections, rather than impressions. I have listed the headings below, and as you will see, each is written so as to show a move from an existing trend to its extension in 2006. I think they’re all pretty accurate trends.
Continue reading ‘Ten practical marketing trends for 2006′
PVR was recently introduced into South Africa for the first time. MyPVR.co.za is a website built by an individual (Jason), completely dedicated to glorifying DStv’s new product. According to Jason, he does not get paid for the site or for his positive recommendations – his site is a labour of love. MyPVR.co.za is not the only site Jason has built around a brand - The Sad Life of a Penguin Pools Customer (www.supersmart.co.za) is the antithesis of MyPVR.co.za - it is a detailed, fact-supported account of Jason’s horrifying ordeal with the company.
Jason is a member of a fast-growing online community that is choosing social software (blogs, wiki’s, podcasts and RSS) to share its voice in the public domain. Before clients or customers (or employees) had only mainstream media (MSM) as an option if they had an important message to tell the world. Now anyone with an Internet connection can set up a free blog at Blogger.com for the entire world to see and interact with. It is reality Internet. Forget Isabel Jones’ Fair Deal, Carte Blanche and Special Assignment - citizen journalists are a force to be reckoned with.
Continue reading ‘Social Software and Citizen Marketing’
Not like the name suggests, this is a strand of marketing that is being borne out of how the Smoking Co’s have been cornered by global health legislation (and soon too the breweries!). Now that they’re no longer able to utlise the ‘tried and tested’ marketing channels, smoking companies are needing to prove themselves as being adept at pitching their product “below the line”.
Hence Black Marketing - the art of selling their product through face-to-face interactions i.e. Direct Marketing. Now direct marketing is not new. It is a marketing strategy that has been growing over the years in popularity as companies realise the intangibility of billboard advertising and realise the rewards of actually connecting with customers (e.g. at the bottom of this post).
Continue reading ‘Black Marketing’
I have been on too many planes in the last 7 days. Probably a total of 40 hours actually sitting in the plane, let alone the airports and taxis. While doing so, I was reading an article about how TiVo 9and similar technologies) are causing great concern amongst advertisers. The ability for people to digitally control their TV watching, choosing to fast forward (or not even record at all) the adverts, is worrying. Early plans include paying people to watch adverts (or giving free TV to those who choose not to block out adverts).
Then, one of the pilots abused (!!) his position, and promoted a calendar through the PA system (OK, it was for animal welfare, but it was still abuse of his position). Then, a great thought came to me. Why not sell advertising on plane flights? You have a captive audience, most of whom have nothing better to do. Most adverts are better than the rubbish they normally show on short flights anyway. Why not designate certain flights on certain routes as “adverflights” and make them much cheaper than usual - advertising revenue pays the difference.
Hey. Whatever. Its just an idea, OK. Use it. Don’t use it. But if you do, remember that you heard it here first.
In doing research for a feature article on “Cool Hunters”, I cam across a white paper on “Understanding Youth:. What Works and Doesn’t Work When Researching and Marketing to Young Audiences”, by By John Geraci, Peter Silsbee, Sarah Fauth, and Jennifer Campbell (2000). Although 5 years old (so don’t rely on the stats), its still an excellent read for anyone involved in connecting with young consumers.
The “do’s and don’ts” are great.
Continue reading ‘Researching Youth’
‚If you ask the wrong questions, you’ll get the wrong answers every time.‛
Travelling to different conference venues means that I get to spend a lot of time in the car. One of the favourite venues of South African conference organisers is Sun City. Located in the Northwest Province in an extinct volcano crater, Sun City is one of South Africa’s premiere conference and holiday destinations. The 2 hour one way journey from Johannesburg to Sun City is reasonably scenic, and is a fairly descent road, although single-carriage most of the way � and if I’ve seen any really bad driving on my travels, most of it has been on this particular route.
Continue reading ‘Speed Kills’
A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to the movies (not as easy as it sounds with three pre-school children at home). We saw “The Island” - a fairly good futuristic thriller about cloning (although it bugs me that future visions of disaster always outdo future visions of happiness).
What really irritated me was the number of not so subtle product placements in the movie. Supposed to be set in the future, we were nevertheless very obviously exposed to at least the following: Nokia (phones), Maxim (magazines), MSN (search engine), Puma (shoes), Mack (trucks), Aquafina (bottled water), Jack (drink), ck (deo), amtrak (trains). There were a few more - these are the ones I could remember (I wrote them down after the movie).
I understand the need for advertising and promotions. What prompted this post was me watching yesterday’s Brazilian F1 and Brands Hatch A1 Grands Prix. The drivers and cars and circuits are covered from top to bottom in promotions. Even one of the teams “lollipops” (the stop/go sign for drivers in the pits) was sponsored by Panasonic cameras (quite a clever use of the equipment, shaping it like a digital camera).
Continue reading ‘They should pay me to watch their movie’
BizCommunity today had an interesting report under the heading, “Internal branding values ignored“.
“A UK marketing study by Price Waterhouse Coopers shows that less than a third of senior managers believe their companies’ external values are matched by its internal values. There is nothing more destructive to brands than for customers’ expectations to be disappointed and this misalignment is creating a massive threat to companies and destroying customer loyalty.
“Terry Behan, MD of The Fearless Executive and a specialist in the field of brand success, says: ‘Companies spend millions on building a brand only to disable it by neglecting to communicate with their employees on what the brand stands for and how to deliver it to its customers. Without ongoing brand integration, the promises made to customers are fundamentally not achievable. As we move into an experience driven market, bridging the divide between what a brand says and what a brand does is key to the protection of market share and growth.’ ”
This is one a key pillar of the connection economy - that internal and external values are fundamentally aligned.
“Behan says few companies get this right because of the silo mentality within company departments, management’s resistance to change and a lack of know-how in the basics of branding at the operational level. These shortcomings are universal and not peculiar to any one industry. However it is a sobering thought that brands that do get it right out-perform their competition by a ratio of three to one.”
Adage.com ran a story under this title on 27 July 2005 (read it here - requires free login). The basic argument is that some action groups are demanding that Congress regulate mobile phones marketed to children. The industry is clearly targeting young children as its next growth market. It sounds to me a little bit alarmist and over the top. The arguments include the fact that cellphones will distract children at school, and that “even though cell phones for children are marketed as a tool for children to contact parents in an emergency, in reality the phones allow advertisers of all kinds to better market to children. Despite the [wireless] industry’s rhetoric, [Walt] Disney and the telecommunications companies really want to use children as conduits to their parents’ wallets. And marketers want another way to bypass parents and speak directly to the nation’s children.”
Shock horror! Who would thought that advertisers were so evil - actually wanting to connect directly with kids? And what evil device is this cellphone that allows them to do something they have yet not been able to do via magazines, games, TV, radio, music, billboards, in store promotions, sponsorships, and many other techniques? Oh wait… they have been doing for some time now, haven’t they? (The article goes on to give some good stats about current cellphone usage amongst US kids).
Would it surprise you to know that Ralph Nader is behind this? Probably not. The lesson is simple - if you want to find a political hot potato, just kick up a fuss around the Millennial Kids of today - you’re bound to grab attention and win the sympathy vote. But I wish adults would think with their brains on these issues, and not get all neaderthal about the use of technology. Rather than banning their kids from using cellphones (Internet, TV, etc), why not spend some time teaching their children how to learn to discern for themselves what is good and bad, and give them techniques for managing the deluge of advertising information that flows our way each day. Why not? Because most parents don’t have these skills themselves. Maybe Ralph Nader should start educating, rather than protesting.
…is Time Europe’s phrase-of-choice when describing word-of-mouth networks and tagging in this article entitled Taming the Wild Web, published on the 14th August.
A great quote from the article states, “…companies are banking on the notion that, in the aggregate, these (personal content) pages represent a gold mine of credible consumer information. “Whether you are referring someone to either a great restaurant or a local hairstylist, since the lead came from a trusted source, there’s a good chance that the person will be much more qualified to react not just to the content on the page, but also to the advertising”.
The social network that supports this blog (and is supported by the blog), got a taste of this magic in action when Barrie posted about his hair problem the other day…
I attended a breakfast this morning where Sue Adkins an international expert on Cause Related Marketing did a presentation .
See more about her book at Kalahari.net or Amazon.com ISBN 0 7506 4481 8
What struck me was how technology is changing the global consumer . We are now able to view and be made aware of bad behaviour by corporates far away from their consumer base through the internet, television, blog sites, cellphone cameras etc. The statement that who you are will be much more important that what you sell is being defined through a new set of rules that cannot be controlled by governments or the mighty corporates of the past.
This is a great read for anyone interested in making a difference in the 21st century enviroment.
As young people spend less time watching television and more time online and playing games, advertisers have devised a new way to reach them. So says a report in the Economist (11 June 2005 - see here - premium content). “In the 1930s, the sponsorship of radio serials by makers of household cleaning products led to the soap opera. Listeners were enthralled by episodic, melodramatic storylines, and advertisers were guaranteed a big audience. Today, the same thing is happening with another new medium. Video games have been crossed with advertising to produce a new genre: the adver game.”
Research is showing that gamers seem to have a very positive view of ingame advertising. this is particularly true in sports games, where advertising mimics real world stadiums and gives a more lifelike feel. For now many of these, the ads are currently built in, but in future they might be piped in via the Internet and games consoles.
An early example of the advergame is “America’s Army”, first released by the US military as a recruitment tool in 2002. It is a free downloadable and strikingly realistic war game, covering basic training, tactical planning and a variety of missions and now has over 5 million registered players. The United Nations has “Food Force” which was released by the World Food Program, intending to raise awareness for global hunger with players acting as emergency aid workers. There are also many browser based games on the Internet, and these are becoming more and more popular.
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