While the world still is concerned with reductions of costs, Disney just launched a huge plan to redynamise its retail outlet with the support of Steve Jobs and Apple. The plan is to transform the shops in complete experience parcs where children will want to go as often as possible and become part of the Disney world all around them.

Steve Jobs’s fingerprint

Apple and Steve Jobs will provide their experience of the success of the Apple stores - average store sales is about $4,700 a square foot in 2008¹ - and the technology that has made Apple Ipod’s so popular. Steve Jobs’ message: "Dream bigger" makes the idea behind this project clear and shows his fingerprint behind the plans.

The experience ecomony

The idea of experience in a shop and in marketing approaches has already started in different branches some years ago - Starbuck’s is one the of the exemples - and seems to have appealed Disney. As Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide, puts it in the NY Times article: “The world does not need another place to sell Disney merchandise — this only works if it’s an experience”. Disney is planning to spend $1 million per store over the next five years as to succeed in their idea.

Read more

• NYTimes.com - Disney stores

« Apple makes Disney dream bigger » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 20 October 2009 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

TheQ4 2008 Mobile Advertising Report from Limbo and GFK Technology published recently shows that iPhone users might be more tempted to react to advertising by phone. This might represent an interesting challenge for the advertising market.

« Report suggests iPhone users more attracted to ads » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 9 February 2009 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

I just came across an article written on BNET’s blog about the organisational conflicts that may arise between sales and marketing. As both services are in fact made to work closely together, this issue seemed rather interesting to me and I thought about sharing it with you.

Conflicts are not to be considered normal

Whereas Steve Tobak, the author, gives word to the most common thoughts that this animosity is inevitable, he claims that on the contrary this is not inevitable" and should not be considered normal. He clearly points out the type of organisational conflict he stresses on: "about organizational conflict — the seemingly endless animosity, finger-pointing, and disruptive churn that plagues most companies."

Facing the conflict may offer ways to solve it

When acknowledging the problem it provides you the possibility to approach it in a more rational way, thus being able to suggest different solutions. Let’s face it, any organisational conflict jeopardises the company’s results. Whether the CEO may or may not be aware of it, sometimes these conflicts are very delicately hidden but very persistent; he (or she) wants results in the end.

Steve Tobak suggests some guidelines on how to overcome this conflict situation, and moreover with some rational ideas such like different measurement types: they can share certain success metrics and goals for example.

Read more

If you want to read more about Steve Tobak’s article: Steve Tobak at BNET on sales vs marketing conflicts

« Sales and Marketing - organisational conflicts » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 4 November 2008 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

117 years old Philips group launches a controversy new product and aims to reorient its strategy towards health and well-being.

The new product launch of Philips can be called more than surprising for a company that is renowned for its lightbulbs and is seen as an electronics player. Indeed, on the 8th of September 2008 Philips has entered into a possible new era of its positioning with the launching of specific intimate massagers for couples (target 35 – 55 years). The launching started for now only in the UK and in specific stores as the market there seems to be more accustomed to this type of «toys». It will be sold at Boots and Selfridges or Amazon UK and the packaging seems not to be forgotten and appears to be rather discrete so no worries about being «noticed» by the neighbours.

Strategy change, but how will it influence the global Philips image?

We were aware that Philips was focusing more and more on the markets of medical healthcare since the consumer electronics is more competitive with players from Asia, but this takes the Philips strategy in an even more intimate health care direction. As it turns out, the past two years have been busy at Philips for specific research on the market potential as well as product development studies. This new launching may represent thus a turning point but sceptics are still waiting on how this may influence the global image of Philips.

More information

For more information look on internet or read more about this on the following dedicated pages:

• Business Week: www.businessweek.com – Philips Massager for Couples
• Philips website of the UK

« Philips launches intimate massagers for couples, that’s a change in strategy » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 14 September 2008 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

According to an article in the Fortune Europe edition (April 17th, 2006) Procter & Gamble (number 24 in their Fortune 500 list) owns as much as 22 brands that top 1$ billion in sales. P&G gained 5 of them in its $61 billion acquisition of Gilette (the largest merger of 2005).

According to ACNielsen, 99% of U.S. households now use a P&G product.

« Facts & Figures: presence of Procter & Gamble around you » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 21 June 2006 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

This is the first of a series of articles about ImFusio’s creation from a marketing point of view. More about this series:.

Their previous article of this chronicle: Market Research… or the search for a market!

Introduction

Quitting an employer to become your own is just like getting on a boat thinking about the final destination, but not realizing the essence is in the actual journey, and the destination is never final… This article will be exploring the redefinition of our working frame and habits, and how we had to undergo a sustained and deep analysis of our attitudes and behaviours in front of these new challenges.

It can be paralleled to a «Usages and Attitudes» survey for a given customer target: it is important to understand their values, their purchase behaviours, their expectations, how they live, what they do, to fine tune the products, the offering, etc. Well, facing the realities of creating, developing and managing a business, we realized we had to revisit a lot of our convictions and preconceived ideas.

Jump in and see what can be done to manage and improve a key asset of your business plan and your offering: yourself!

The comfort of employment

Being employed brought us three levels of comfort:

• The financial comfort: we had to work hard, so we could justify our pay checks. However, our performance had an effect only on a mid to long term basis, but rarely on a short term basis. The risk was limited, and easily managed.
• The process comfort: we were part of a group, an entity, and whether we were a driver or a follower, we did not have to worry night and day about the “what to do?” or the “why do this rather than that?” because it was being expressed and managed collectively.
• The time management comfort: this might be the biggest challenge, because you never see the truly positive aspects of office hours until you loose them.

The combination of the three brought a whole new dimension to our professional lives, and clearly challenged our pre-conceived convictions.

On the financial aspect, the key learning is simple: we have to work to earn money (and not to justify our pay check), and worse, it is not assured that it will be enough. This creates a different type of stress. The danger lies in feeling paralyzed. It has a direct impact on our relationship to time: suddenly, our anticipations go further and have a different feel.

Planning becomes a key driver, while it was only a tool amongst others in our employed life. Process-wise, we suddenly had to think and decide on every single detail of our professional life. No more false excuses, it was the end of complaining about our boss, or hiding behind our personal bad opinion of management’s strategy. This as well had a direct impact on our relationship to time: if you take reporting to hierarchy or management away, you can easily procrastinate and never go anywhere.

Time management was indeed our biggest shock. We had never realized the chance of working office hours! Extracted from employment, it took us a few months to adjust to our new working times: as we already knew, we are not efficient 8 or 10 hours a day. But it is difficult to admit, and tough to change your habits. We now know when to stop trying if we are not efficient, and focus on something else… or relax and go back to work 2 hours or 10 hours later. In that perspective, your working hours are more flexible (with a clear tendency to widen too!). It creates this paradoxical sensation of total freedom and unbreakable ties with your work!

These differences made it difficult the first 6 to 9 months to be really efficient. It led to waste of energy, concentration, even personal confidence. We had to do something to improve this situation: understand what it was about and know how to react.

Learning about ourselves: a personal U&A study

We followed two routes: we looked for training that could help us improve in the fields we felt problematic, and we went out for advices, asking questions to our (more experienced) peers.

Training:

• We followed a 3-day session helping us to understand our personal relationship to time, and how to improve your efficiency while limiting your feeling of guilt (for not doing what you think you should be doing). The key learning on this is that ready-made solutions are not applicable to all. If you are reading books about time management, be aware that all advices or exercises are not fit for you profile. Use the ones that seem simple, natural to manage – you will keep using them over time. Others, despite their excellence in practice, will be difficult to sustain over time, and only add to your feeling of guilt!

To give you an example: let’s say you are a creative person, always looking ahead, thinking about the next step, and not so keen in looking backward. With such a profile, it can be useful to create TO DO lists, to organize your day, and make sure you don’t forget anything important. But don’t be frustrated if you never do everything in your to-do list or if you never really look back at it! It is normal: your profile calls for moments where you put everything on paper to clarify your thoughts, but not for an item by item guideline for your day.

• We also did our MBTI. It helps understand how you act in professional environments, and it helped us understand, as a team, how we work together. A very strong tool to enhance your self understanding.

• We also rapidly identified fields where we could gain more expertise. We followed sessions that helped us improve professionally. They included training and group facilitation, phone marketing techniques, sales tools and techniques.

Networking:

We spent (and still do) a lot of time exchanging with peers, mentors, supportive people from our close friends or family. We actually created an informal group of 3 start-ups with similar profiles (selling B2B services, owned by two managers and created at the same period of time), to share our doubts, difficulties and ideas. It brings all of us a lot, and helps move forward when you have doubts or questions. We also have a couple of “mentors”, i.e. experienced people that informally support us, with advice and to whom we can show elements for feedback.

Networking to openly discuss your situation and doubts is the number one element to do, as, here again, it helps rationalize what we are experiencing, and improve.

And finally, we identified elements or expertises that we could not get without a tremendous effort. Since our energy goes into the project, we decided to use specialists to help us: accountants (it is a temptation in the beginning to save on this item by doing it yourself. It can be a big mistake once your business takes off), lawyer, PR, amongst others.

Conclusion

Take care of you when launching a business. You are, at its start at least, its most valuable asset. If you have malfunctions, or if you cannot identify some personal (and technical) limitations, you are putting your project at risk. No one can do it all by himself. Don’t be afraid to ask and exchange. Do not put your pride in trying to do it all by yourself, but in making things happen. You are the driver, even when you look for advice.

Tips:

• If you can, join an incubator. No need to be a Bio-tech start-up or a dot-com company. We are part of Paris Pionnières –helping women launching a business: www.parispionnieres.org
• Networking events: make great use of Viaduc, E-cademy, OpenBC to meet people. Out of all the members, you will find a couple that matches your view and expectations. With time passing by, you will get a good proficiency level in managing your expectations with these networking events. The authors of this column met Marketing Planet’s editor in one of these evenings: as you can see, you can never anticipate what will come out of such a meeting, but it can only be for the better!
• More information and resources on MBTI: wikipedia.org/wiki/MBTI
• A particularly interesting method for international managers, mixing personal preferences and cultural aspects: SPM profiling, from www.futuretobe.net/

Web sites and references:

• «Good to Great», from Jim Collins. A very wise book on what makes the difference between performance and excellence in a company. Buy this book at Amazon.com
• «Briser la dictature du temps», from Bruno Jarrosson. A disruptive approach to time, mixing philosophical and empirical approaches. A must read if you can read French.
• «Imparfaits, libres et heureux», from Christophe André, to read whatever degree of self-esteem you have for yourself.
• Networking sites: www.openBC.com, www.viaduc.com and www.ecademy.com
• For women specifically: EPWN – www.Europeanpwn.net. A very good networking site for professional women.
• For France-based readers of this column: if you are looking for training in the following fields:
• Phone marketing techniques: www.Janusia.com
• Sales tools and techniques: http://scorrdv.siteo.com/fr/. These 2 consultants clearly made a difference for us.

The introduction to this chronicle on ImFusio can be found right here: Introducing ImFusio

« Entrepreneurship vs. employment: a genuine difference » has been published by Nathalie Nowak, Yael Guillon on 24 March 2006 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

«Taking care of brands through vertical integration» is a paper from November 2005 by the Boston Consulting Group as a result of a study they carried out regarding the retail market and the possible threats for the manufacturer’s brand.

Are retail market principles a threat to today’s brand effectiveness?

The paper starts with examples from H&M, Zara and Esprit who have obtained sustainable results by controlling the whole value chain. In today’s consumer markets traditional retail principles no longer seem to be a reply to success activities and therefore manufacturers are looking for better ways to manage their way to consumers. It is for this reason that BCG carried out a detailed survey where they studied different ways of integration. The study includes the different types, risks and advantages. The paper presents its highlights.

It is true that today’s retail market faces a different situation being in between specialty shops and discounts. Retailers find it difficult to manage the quantity of products and how to increase the quality of communication towards the manufacturer. As a result, the manufacturer faces a risk regarding its brand effectiveness, precisely the part that is so important to him and often transmitted by a large part though the retailer.

Vertical integration: advantages and risks

One of the approaches of vertical integration is directly operated stores, such like flagship stores. The advantages can be numerous and this type of integration is often found in luxury brands: Versace shops, Luis Vuitton shops etc. It enhances the brand but costs a lot. The paper develops various pro and cons regarding this type of integration.

Read the BCG paper

There is no standard solution to what type of integration should prevail. During the study of the topic, each manufacturer should take into account costs, local specificities, importance of the retailer and its added value and the capacities of the manufacturer.

Marketing Planet invites you to read the full highlights of the study on the website of the Boston Consulting Group:

• www.bcg.com – Taking care of brands through vertical integration

• About the Boston Consulting Group: «The Boston Consulting Group is an international strategy and general management consulting firm whose mission is to help leading corporations create and sustain competitive advantage. As a truly international firm, our strong global presence offers clients and employees a wealth of cross-cultural experience.» BCG has opened its first office in 1963 and counts end of 2005 2.900 consultants and 60 offices in the world. Visit the corporate website: www.bcg.com

« BCG paper - Taking care of brands through vertical integration » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 22 March 2006 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

The movie "Last Holiday" is about to come out in Europe this beginning of 2006. Nothing special at first sight, wouldn’t it be that the main actors are not mainstream actors making it a movie that would have been impossible 10 years ago. What’s the role of marketing?

An "un-common" casting for a "common" movie

Last Holiday is a movie in which the main actors are Queen Latifah and LL Cool J. Not actors that much famous for making a blockbuster. The doesn’t matter, the movie will be positioned like a mainstream movie.

The target of the movie being all type of public is quite original for the fact that till now, mainstream movies were having in general a white casting. Not to be racist but, especially in the USA, Afro-American actors are not that much taking all the main roles. But maybe time has changed and so the "rules" and habits.

The story of Last Holiday is not especially about Afro-Americans, not is the subject. It is a story about a woman who learns she has only 3 more weeks to live and decides to take up all her savings and leave for holidays and enjoy life. As you see, nothing special, some nice ingredients for a beginning of a humorous movie.

Last Holiday - the movie

Queen Latifah and LL Cool J are not that much known neither for these kind of roles. Both more known in the music world, they have had some experiences in the world of cinema but not in these kinds of movies.

What has made it possible to position this film as a mainstream?

Ten years ago, a movie like this would not have been imaginable. The public would have been shocked or the public would only have been Afro-Americans. Even those might not feel attracted to see the movie for it would not deal with topics of their interests.

A lot has changed though, or at least the producer and actors think so. In an interview, LL Cool J mentioned that it is all about marketing, less about the product. He compares the positioning of Last Holiday like the way rap music has been positioned:

Originally rap music was made by Afro-Americans and dealt with their topics and their environment. The music was nevertheless very quickly diffused throughout all types of population and adopted by them. It was the marketing around the music style that positioned it like music for all. Even is many rappers are Afro-Americans, there are quite some American and European rappers that have joined the "catwalk". How about Vanilla Ice - quite some years ago already - and today’s Eminem.

The actor states that with Last Holiday it can be the same: position the movie as a mainstream movie is possible as long as you use the marketing to this positioning: "it is not about the product, it is about the marketing."

Marketing, the solution to all our questions?

Whereas some voices say that marketing is in a dull era and needs to be reinvented, maybe other are right when saying that marketing can do it all. Probably, the right answer is in the middle - as often - but most of all depending whether you are willing to use marketing properly and to its real extension.

Though we from Marketing Planet will not state that marketing is the solution to all your questions - there are a lot of questions to be answered in the world - marketing can definitely do more than many think or will admit. Most of it’ success depends on how you use marketing. If you play it right, marketing can indeed do a lot for many products: it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.. Haven’t we heard that before already?

« Is marketing the answer to all? » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 18 January 2006 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

A "déjà-vue" in marketing warfare

Remember about 30 years ago when the video cassette war was being fought? Well back then it was the Betamax format from Sony fighting its place against VHS format from JVC. Even if you don’t remember this – it has become a major classic in marketing case studies – you know that today the video-cassettes run on VHS.

The same case is applying today, in the market of the high-definition next generation DVD. The actors:

• Sony, with the Blu-Ray
• Toshiba, with the HD-DVD

You see that Sony, still renowned for its market research but in a less favourable position today then yesterday, is back on the stages. Its competitor has changed though from JVC into Toshiba. In today’s situation it is Sony that has most at stake: their profits have declined in the electronic and entertainment industries and they don’t want to loose again.

What went wrong before?

Sony lost the previous match with its Betamax, but what went wrong at that moment? On the market of video cassettes there were different players: Sony (Betamax), Philips (V2000), and JVC (VHS). All trying hard to impose their standard as the official one. Sony wanted to start alliances and proposed JVC, not aware that they were about to launch their own standard. Logically, JVC declined the offer. Philips’s V2000 declined first in the market, thus leaving the floor to Sony and JVC.

Though the Betamax was technically speaking a better product, people were not aware of this aspect and not necessarily seeking this. Sony was late in some crucial alliances and communication. During a moment, both standards lived together. But, Sony finally made a wrong move by having shorter tapes. The VHS tapes were weaker in quality of the tape but enabled a longer recording period. It seems to be this difference that helped JVC win the game.

Today’s situation – the lessons from the past

In today’s situation, both players have technical products that differ but have equal advantages. In the same time, both have signed major strategic alliances:

Technology: As mentioned, both products have a very good technical standard. Sony’s Blu-Ray is a leap forward in technology with high storage, super copyright protection and Java menu software¹. Toshiba’s HD-DVD is rather an evolution, but this makes the product cheaper in production, whilst providing high quality images.

Alliances: Sony convinced FOX and Disney studios, as well as their own of course. Dell has also promised to use this standard for their PC’s. On the other hand, Toshiba says it has a partnership with Microsoft and Intel. Even Universal is to be said to have joined the HD-DVD clan.

Use: On the same side we see the use of the computer games: Xbox vs PlayStation, where both parties implement their standard. Voices say that Microsoft, in their war for the position of the Xbox, may also make theirs compatible to the Blu-Ray.

Lobbying: In the market for the DVD, no one wants to have to cope with 2 standards – having good memories of the Video cassette war. Currently, both are still in the preparation phase with commercial launching scheduled for spring 2006. Those who want to have good copyrights or those who prefer cheaper production cannot be together. As stated in an article from the magazine Fortune, ed. december 12, 2005, it is important to see what other big players will do such like HP and Apple, as well as what decisions might be taken for compatibility by Universal and Microsoft.

The Outcome?

The DVD market has grown very quickly in 2005, maybe consumers will want to have cheaper DVD’s, in which case the HD-DVD will win. But on the other hand, with the increase in copyright violation, the Blu-Ray will win points too. What will be the verdict? A special DVD-Forum is said to be created as to facilitate the outcome …. but this doesn’t withstand that everyone must first choose its camp.

And what if there is no "quick" outcome? As mentioned on the website www.consortiuminfo.org If that happens, according to Mr. Lieberfarb, the developer of the original DVD format, "everyone is a loser, particularly Hollywood studios, the retailer community and, most importantly, the consumer."

What counts in a marketing war?

• It is not the technology that wins it in the end, even a product that is less performing in the end can win the battle.
• Strategic alliances and lobbying are very important to position yourself.
• Your product needs to be available: if your customer sees it everywhere he will think in the end that it must be the best.
• Communication on the product must be done: the common public will not always read the technology papers and must be confronted with your products. Word-of-mouth is important. See also to point above.
• It is not always the bigger player that wins, you can be small and play smart: sell the features that interests the customer.

• Some backgroup articles regarding Betamax vs VHS case and the new situation:
• Wikipedia: Betamax
• on Wikipedia: Blu-Ray and HD-DVD

« DVD marketing war: Sony’s Blu-Ray against Toshiba’s HD-DVD » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 22 December 2005 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

What’s your country’s branding?

When speaking about marketing, we all know that branding and positioning are important elements. However, who did think about bringing this into the spheres of geopolitics? Well Simon Anholt did so since beginning 2005 when he launched a completely new topic: the Nation Brands Index.

This index ranks various countries and the image the have upon others in the world. How about explaining the fact that some prefer German cars, Italian design, or French cooking? According to Simon Anholt and the company GMI, together Anholt-GMI, these nation brands are far more important than a Nike or Nestlé. It is their vision that with globalisation, "countries compete with each other for the attention, respect and trust of investors, tourists, consumers, donors, immigrants, the media and the governments of other nations." It is thus clear that as a country’s government or organisation it is important to know where you stand.

How do you define the branding of a country?

The Anholt-GMI Nation Brand Index is based upon people’s perception of a country by means of 6 different areas. These areas are:

• Tourism
• Exports
• Governance
• People
• Culture and heritage
• Investment and immigration

Each country will be ranked on these 6 areas and the result is indicated by a hexagon. The country with the highest overall score will become the country with the best branding. But beside the world’s number 1, there is also a winner for each area.

Anholt Hexagon

The first Nation Brand Index was edited in Q1 2005 with a limited number of countries. In the edition of Q2, this number already rose to 25 and gradually increased during the rest of the year.

The Q3 Edition: even more innovations

Recently the Q3 edition of the Nation Brand Index was edited and showed a new approach. This time it where the inhabitants of a country that ranked the other countries. Some of the major results were that for tourism most inhabitants preferred their own country. The main exceptions on this were the Dutch and the Polish. The Dutch, often prefer to go the South of Europe for their holidays, and place their country only on an 8th place. It is indeed rather Dutch to "poorly" appreciate their local aspects.

Cover of the NBI Q3-2005

This Q3 report can be downloaded for free - after a simple and free registration. To have a look at the report, simply tick on the link: Report Q3 2005 Anholt-GMI Nation Brand Index. (Link for the NBI-Q2 edition The Q4 edition promises some more features that may interest many.

But who are Simon Anholt and GMI?

It may sound strange to you that this Nation Brand Index is for free available; there are today very few philanthropists. But the occupation that brings in the real money for Mr Anholt and GMI is probably not the Brand Index. Let’s have a look who’s behind this all:

• Simon Anholt has had a large international experience with Proctor a Gamble, notably in market research. On his own website Earthspeak.com it says that he’s "regarded as one of the world’s leading specialists in creating brand strategies for countries, cities and regions". Further on, his biography states that "Simon Anholt advises governments, ministries, civil services and NGOs on the branding aspects of public diplomacy, economic development, public affairs, cultural relations and trade, tourism and export promotion."

• GMI, founded in 1999, provides e-Business solutions for global market research offering a range of software applications and database services which enable MR firms to conduct global research, either on an ASP basis or via stand-alone Enterprise systems. Accordingly, Net-MR, GMI’s main software product, integrates panel management, project management, mixed-mode data collection, data processing, analysis and reporting into a single solution, enabling their clients to more efficiently conduct market research.

Well, you can combine the two and you will end up with the Anholt-GMI Brand Index family.

And now also: the City Brand Index

The Olympic Games for 2012 have already been appointed to London, but if the City Brand Index would have existed before, maybe this could have saved Paris from their defeat. For yes, Anholt-GMI have recently also launched the City Brand Index. What city - out of currently 30 in the world - is the most attractive? The website on the City Brand Index reveals the secrets.

Anholt-GMI_city brand index

The principle of this index is the same as for the countries. Especially for tourism this index may be very interesting. Not only government organisations but also the tourist offices can find their interest in positioning their city among the others. Knowing with what cities you have to compete for weekend tourists is very important. Here the rules of marketing apply without any difference from any other products. The first report can be found here: citybrandindex.com/downloads

Its clear that this reports are condensed ones. More specific reports are available - not free - and can reply to special needs such as:

• Compare their city’s image against their regional competitors
• Identify which cities are their real competitors
• Create more understanding and collaboration between stakeholders and sectors by showing them how they all can contribute to their city’s brand
• Show potential investors which overseas markets are likely to favour their city’s exports
• Track progress in city’s image enhancement
• Create pride in their city’s international profile
• Target investment promotion more efficiently and effectively

To find some more information about this new Brand Index, you can have a look at their press releases.

What will the future bring?

With the development of these brand indexes, we are likely to expect some more innovations from Simon Anholt and GMI. With Anholt’s link to government organisations, maybe we can even expect a brand index regarding organisations or associations (like Red Cross, Unesco etc...)

« Nation Brand Index - what brand image does your country have? » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 22 December 2005 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

This is the first of a series of articles about ImFusio’s creation from a marketing point of view. More about this series:.

Their previous article of this chronicle: Finding your business idea

Introduction

So we had it! Our own business idea. We were going to manage Japanese tourists, and help them make the most of their stay with a comfortable furnished apartment filled in with elements from Japan and France, as a “trait-d’union” between the two cultures.

It was – so we felt – a «brilliant» and, moreover, very motivating business idea. Yet, thinking on your own is not sufficient. We had to take this idea from a constraint-free environment to a competitive one. The first step for this is Market Research: our first rendez-vous with the real thing - marketing in action!

From an «business idea» to a «business deal»

We had multiple challenges: where to start from? What were we researching? Who would be our clients? Our competitors? What was the frame of our competitive field, precisely? Where to find the necessary information? How to find it? What could we expect?

It was clear: before going any further, we needed to go back to basics – the field. All these questions needed to be organized and phased. Doing everything at once was certainly not the right solution.

We split the process in 3 steps:

1. Benchmark and competitive review: Looking for best practices in a sector or an industry, as well as identifying and classifying key competitors. It is designed to help us frame the scale of our project, what we are facing, and adapt our ambition with a (sometimes cruel) existing market situation.
2. Customer surveys: They are meant to give us a laboratory understanding of customer behaviours faced with our concept or product. Customer feedback helps identify main pitfalls.
3. Analysis and conclusions for action

1 - Benchmark and competitive review

Benchmarking and looking at our competitors was not as easy as we thought initially. In this phase, we did our first – and very soft – confrontation with reality. Well, it was not so good, and dimmed a little our excitement.

Starting with a search on the Web, we quickly realized two things: first of all, we were not the only ones going for this market. And secondly, we were actually quite behind!

We concentrated the review in a limited period of 30 days, using the Internet as main source of information. We found approximately 80 companies doing something that was more or less what we wanted to do. And this number was for the Paris region only, not even the entire country! We also found about half a dozen specialized in the Japanese market, with Japanese management for all of them. The fact that a non-japanese management did not exist meant that either nobody had the guts or that they all failed!

We also quickly identified the 20% top companies dominating the market. You do not need to have figures, it shows by their offering, the staff, the services, the quality of their communication tools, etc. This identification helped us understand the standards in this market.

We also classified our competitors in sub-categories, to have a better understanding of the market’s dynamics, and try to see where we fit best. We understood that key categories were: volume-based transactions, family-runned (very) small businesses and niche-market service offerings.

By being aware of the standards, we had the ability to:

• make sure we would provide to our clients what they expected in terms of offerings and services. You have to match with market standards
• identify innovation holes, where we could differentiate ourselves strongly

What were the learnings of this first analysis?

• If we could not (or did not want to) go for volume, we needed to create a very qualitative, therefore Premium priced, service.
• We decided to continue to focus on the Japanese niche market. We also realized at that point it was necessary to open our market and go for the B2B target, especially the short-term assignments. This decision is a key finding, as it has had a tremendous impact in our evolution: it has become the cornerstone of a «revolution», in the Copernican meaning. But more on this later.
• We found room for innovation and we realized that our idea of bringing elements of their own culture was clearly a good proposition

2 - Customer surveys

Because we identified Premium Service as the right strategy, we needed to understand what our future customers were expecting. Thanks to personal relationships (it is key: use your network to get professional tools at a very limited price), we were able to build an on-line questionnaire, in both English and Japanese, and distribute the questionnaire to all our contact lists. We received just enough responses to analyze data, with a little over 100 completed questionnaires.

To be honest, it was quite disappointing at first, given the efforts we put into it. But then, when we looked at how we considered surveys before doing our own, it’s no surprise and quite a good score actually. What’s sure is that we now respond to questionnaires, especially those coming from entrepreneurs!

We had surprises in the results, with, for examples, some very exciting ideas receiving a negative feedback from our target. This survey helped us narrow people’s expectations, filtering our ideas to keep the most relevant.

3 - Analysis and conclusion

It took us a little over 2 month’s full time to complete this work. The end-result was more than useful:

• It helped clarify our offering
• It helped gather quantitative and qualitative information on our market. This info was useful when talking to people or financial institutions
• It gave us reassurance and therefore confidence in our decisions and choices
• And it was from this analysis that our final positioning and offering started to build up.

Another important thing we learned in this market research process is that of attitude toward quantitative survey results: this process will have an effect on your initial idea. You must adapt to the results, it has very positive benefits. This period of work is ideal to challenge your initial thoughts, to stay open and to be creative and adapt subsequently. Otherwise, you are just wasting your time doing this.

You also need to keep in mind that a survey is nothing compared to launching your idea in the real world. The small bumps that you drive onto are very limited compared to what you will face later. But if you leave these bumps as they are, they will grow and eventually become a very big wall in front of you. Anything you spot or identify during your survey is gold for your future deployment.

And finally, if you need to remember one thing from this article: the key information is not in your survey, but it is rather this little thing that bothers you when you work on your project. This thing that is not truly conscious and yet already in the back of your mind. Well, keep it, don’t let it go, work on it: it is more than probable that your project will fail or will expand thanks to it.

Conclusion

Doing a Market Research (of any kind) is a key step: it’s a step forward, it’s a step into reality, it’s also a key moment to modify your project accordingly, and fit with your market as best as possible. What you’ll get from a research can be various: understanding that your idea is not economically viable, discovering that your market is too small to survive or that you should go for the big one that initially scared you a little bit, or simply finalizing your business plan.

But overall, doing a market research is the moment when you go from idea to project, and that is a big milestone in your business development process.

Tips

• Persevere: it takes time, it is sometimes repetitive and not exciting to benchmark competitors, but the reward is worth it.
• Give yourself a deadline: you could spend a year looking for information and never complete your survey
• Be curious, and «waste» time going to new directions, different fields of competition. It is helpful to broaden your perspectives in the beginning; you will always have time to narrow them.
• Objectivity is the last and most important tip: you have to look at competitors without judgement, looking for what they do best. If you find your exact idea in one competitor’s, don’t close your eyes and use it: call them, test them, become a client, search more. You have a terrific field of investigation to find best practices and innovations.

Web sites and references

• All our thanks (again) to Tequila Japan, who helped us run our on-line survey, using their technology: TEQUILA\ASK. You can find more details on the website of Tequila Japan.
• French speaking readers can go to Creatests.com. They provide survey support for entrepreneurs.
• Do not hesitate to contact Business Schools: you can find students ready to run a survey with or for you, for limited costs
• Use Google smartly: you can register for free to «google alerts», and receive daily or weekly new sites mentioning the words you have selected.

The next article to this chronicle on ImFusio can be found right here: Entrepreneurship vs. employment: a genuine difference

« Market Research… or the search for a market! » has been published by Nathalie Nowak, Yael Guillon on 7 December 2005 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

In this interview, Stéphane Jousset from Pamina, explains to Marketing Planet readers how to make best use of promotional products: turn them into ambassadors of your company. Between Asian products, luxury, delays, budget and the services of an agency, it will all be unveiled to you.

Marketing Planet: As an introduction to this market, can you explain since when companies use promotional items and what evolutions have taken place?

Stéphane Jousset: Like promotion and publicity has always been part of the stock of marketing possibilities, promotional itmes have also been part of the ways companies use to differentiate from competition. Remember in France the “Bonux Cadeau” or the “Pif gadget”.

Regarding its evolution, we can notice two directions. The market reduces as a result of the restrictions of budget from the advertising companies due to crises and cost limitation and also because of the whole sellers that want to sell directly to the advertisers. This reduction of budget and intermediaries can be risky for the market in total. On the other hand the market gets more dynamic with important events: the year 2000, the introduction of the Euro (who doesn’t have a Euro converter), the Olympic Games, and World Foot Cup etc. These different cycles of events are important for the market and keep everyone active.

MP: What is the difference between a promotional item and a business present?

SJ: Generally speaking, the promotional item is of little value, almost systematically marked with the company brand (company logo, slogan, website etc.) On the contrary, the business present, more expensive, is moreover offered like a general present and not to spoil its value with the company branding or any publicity message. This is notably the case with real value branded objects: who would like to have a nice Waterman pen inlaid with the brand “La Vache qui rit”¹?

MP: What are the trends in promotional items and what products are the “best sales”

SJ: There are the items that seem not sensible to trends and still highfliers like the T-shirts and pens. Nevertheless we do notice a clear trend in all types of Hi-Tech products. Advertisers are more and more interested in these types of products such like accessories to mobile phones, USB sticks etc. The products that are mostly used for promotional items are the pens, textile and key hangers. But all depends on the market activity and the segment of population that is aimed as well as the available budget.

MP: Where are most of the products being produced?

SJ: Most of the products are nowadays produced in Asia, and moreover in China. This is especially valid for all the electronical products (calculator, radios, watches, etc). For these products the European manufacturers have stopped production since some time already. Nowadays European production is mostly limited to certain areas like pens, leather-tanning products, art de table and luxury products.

MP: Are there reasons to be afraid of products from Asia, in terms of quality, or are some precautions to be taken?

SJ: Normally there is no reason to avoid Asian products and there is no real alternative. Avoiding Asian products reduces thus the choice as we have just seen. Besides, the times where all Chinese producers offered bad quality is now far behind. Precautions that can be taken are to work with professionals of this market who know what they are doing. It is their role to guide and advice you but also to validate the quality for you. This is a real job that cannot be done just like that; it has its rules, procedures and also its risks. The part of the intermediary is precisely to manage this risk on behalf of the advertiser.

MP: How can you know if you pay a price too expensive and if you buy a product of quality?

SJ: There is no mystery, regarding the quality of any promotional items it’s just like everything else, there is a market price. If on 5 sales propositions (for an identical or similar product) one of the prices is clearly lower it will most probably be due to a lack of quality. The reseller puts pressure on the manufacturer as to obtain a competitive price ahead of all competition. But, since the manufacturer will have to be profitable he has to obtain his margin from somewhere and probably cuts down on labour or material. For example, the USB sticks reflect a price difference that is often linked to difference in quality regarding the chip that has been used: certain use quality branded chips whereas other don’t, the price is the result. In the same way we can still see the difference from a pen “made in China” and a pen “made in Europe”.

MP: How much time should one schedule –in the best case- in order to have the promotional item in time?

SJ: For an importation to Europe from Asia one should count with 10 to 12 weeks, out of which there are 3 to 4 weeks for the boat. When the product comes directly from Europe, and there is a stock, count between 3 and 4 weeks. If there is no requirement for the branding, than it takes far less, only about 1 week, if the product is available of course and if the product can be delivered without any other operation (like printing etc).

MP: When is it better to prefer working with an intermediary (an agency) and when not?

SJ: Working with an agency enables often to be more creative: the agency is used to work with short delays in the various part of the value chain and business activities. The agency can also propose you suggestions and original ideas and has a better view of what is currently “in fashion” or the latest trend and where to find it. On the other hand, if you need to order T-shirts or pens, there is no reason to use an agency and you can as well contact directly the distributor. Working with an agency is justified when there is a need for a added value, a reflection more profound on the brief.

MP: How can the advertiser facilitate the relation with the agency and benefit a maximum of the services?

SJ: The most important in the relation with the agency is the quality of the brief from the advertiser: target, message to be communicated, budget, delay, imperatives of the marking (communication guidelines). The better the agency will be informed, the better they can carry out the work. The agency for promotional items is not a substitute for the advertiser to define its message, target and budget.

MP: How can one detect the quality and make the right choice for the budget?

SJ: Before passing your order it is of importance to see a sample of the proposed product. Before launching the production it is imperative to validate the «Go / No Go decision».

MP: What advice can you give us for the «End of the year» presents?

SJ: It all depends once more of the segment, the target. If the target is large, best would be to choice a more general item, that will be largely accepted and appreciated by as many as possible (wine accessories, an fine branded pen, etc.). If on the contrary you aim a smaller target, and a more homogeneous target, you can find a more suitable and precise present (ex. An indoor golf set, some fine cigars etc).

About Pamina

Pamina was created in 1991 and is part of the international group Eurimage – number 1 in Europe promotional products. It is the unique French member of this network and benefits of the advantages of Eurimage’s network and services. Since their existence, Pamina has managed to develop into a full added-value agency for promotional products, managing all elements of this market with high reactivity and the capacity to reply to on-demand creations. Their catalogue, printed in 20.000ex., is edited twice a year. To contact Pamina, Stéphane Jousset: (+33) 1 47 03 64 46.

« Promotional products: ambassadors in your customers’ environment » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 15 September 2005 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

On September 12th, the Disney Company has widened their «magical empire» towards China, by opening a new theme park in Hong Kong’s suburbs. More than 10 years after Disney opened its European park near Paris, “Euro Disney”, in the full American style, Disney, this time tried its best to incorporate local culture. The time since «Go West» seems to have cleared a path for «Go East».

Eurodisney: the American Way

In fact, different experiences have shown the importance of some adaptation to local tastes and culture. For instance, when the European park opened in 1992 in France, restaurants weren’t serving wine. This has been a huge misunderstanding on French culture and has lead to quite some discussions. Yet, in many respects, the new park in China looks as older ones from America. In fact the classic Disney thoroughfare of 50 years ago has been re-created for everyone’s pleasure. Nevertheless, hamburgers have been substituted by noodles and there is only one fast-food restaurant for seven Chinese ones. Also, the “American standard toilet” has been replaced by a more local type of toilet, considered more suitable.

Disney and Feng Shu

To avoid any other cultural problems, Disney even contacted a Feng Shu master who helped the company to create a specific environment that answers to the Chinese “way of living. As a result, the Feng Shu master has not only decided of the opening date (a specific favourable date), but also advised them to reposition cask registers, to change the aisle to help the vital energy’s (chi) good circulation, and to adjust the number of hotels floors in order to close all second - and fifth floors to public. According to the Feng Shu, the number “2” represents illness, and “5” misfortune.

Even Disney’s stars will undergo some major modifications: Mickey will have a red and gold Chinese suit to wear, and Mulan will have her own pavilion designed like a Chinese temple. Other details such as the building of a fountain and reducing the numbers of clocks in the park have been taken into consideration as to enhance the park’s success.

The American way revisited

Seeing these adaptations, Disney seems to have learned that they can’t simply impose the American culture on another continent. However, some say that they might have taken this policy of cultural adaptation a little too far with the intention to serve shark soup at banquet, something that the environmentalists didn’t appreciate.

Having created this all “new brand world” Disney hopes to satisfy their Chinese clients, even if spitting in the park remains prohibited. The stakes for Disney in succeeding in China are huge. Besides the big population who is not yet a “Disney customer” and who represents a big market for their accessories and DVD’s, Disney also need to succeed the park. Euro Disney is since quite some time under discussion for the profitability and the general management of Disney seems rather in search of stability.

The question that still lies open is to know whether Mickey mouse will soon have slanting eyes.¹

Financial highlights on Disney

T/O on 2004 went up with about 13% to 30.752 Million Dollars (2003: 27.061 M$). The park revenues seem to represent 7.750M$ and the sales of consumer products 2.511. The main part still comes from the Media Networks: 11.778M$ (2003: 10.941M$).

« Disney opens itself to cultural differences and adapts its latest park to the local culture » has been published by Caroline Goutard on 15 September 2005 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

The American Marketing Association, AMA organises its 26th Marketing Research Conference. This year’s conference will take place from September 25 to September 28, in Boston.

Information to Action - Power of Research

The theme of this year’s conference will be «Information to Action: The Power of Research». As is stated in the welcome word of Joan Treistman, Committee Chair: "This conference will focus on value by looking at it from upper management’s point of view – in other words, what do they want from us? You will see that we have to address marketing research in a different way today, versus the research of yesterday because marketing has undergone many changes."

We can indeed notice that there are discrepancies between the "famous marketing methods" and today’s expectations expressed by the CEO. One of the marketing challenges lies therefore in the capability of marketing managers to include more research in their tasks. How to combine operational - short term activities - and longer term, more academic, research activities. Some companies already manage to do well, but some not.

What the conference will offer

"Powerful research strategies drive today’s most effective marketing decisions. What lessons do they offer? What new models can help you turn information into action? And how can you demonstrate the value of your role?"

The AMA flyer proposes to "Explore the idea of "What? So what? Now what?" at the world’s leading forum for marketing researchers. You’ll come away with practical tools, valuable contacts and renewed enthusiasm for your work."

Various company cases will be presented and the agenda lists a variety of speakers. You will find amongst others Google, Unilever, US Army, TNS, IPSOS, E-Bay, GE Finance and Hewlitt Packard. There will also be the 2005 EXPLOR Award (note: The EXPLOR Awards annually showcase advancements in research, honoring client companies demonstrating the most innovative applications of technology). Of course, the Conference will also propose an exhibition part where marketing research companies can be found (A list of companies present on the exhibition can be found online).

What you’ll learn

• New trends in marketing research
• Best-practice solutions across multiple industries
• The latest online research tools and tactics
• Techniques for demonstrating ROI
• How research builds brand equity
• Modelling that gets results
• Keys to measuring value¹

Who should attend

• Mid- to upper-level marketing research executives wanting to network, enhance their strategies and influence future trends.
• Newer marketing researchers looking for resources, knowledge and contacts in the field².

For more information or to register

• Visit www.MarketingPower.com/research
• Recall on the date: September 25-28, 2005
• Place: Boston, MA - Marriott Copley Place
• Price: between 745$ (for members) and 1.020$ (for non-members). Additional 100$ will be charged for registration after August 26th.
• The AMA holds various events, have a look at the general page on their events: www.marketingpower.com/aevents.php

« The AMA - 26th Annual Marketing Research Conference » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 22 August 2005 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

Customer case studies are good ways of generating testimonials and good material for promoting your business. Some practical tips of how to create them and make the best use of them.

Why are case studies useful?

• Case studies provide an excellent example of the successful application of your company’s solutions to client problems.
• They show prospects that you are experienced in their industry sector and can offer a solution to meet their issues
• They are useful to the sales force
• They can be issued to the press
• They can be placed on the Website, in a newsletter etc
• A prospect is more likely to be impressed by a ‘real’ client than a keen sales person!

How can you generate a case study?

• It is important to have a relationship with a few members of your sales force. They will be your best source for finding a happy, loyal client
• If this is not possible, then look at the existing client list and pick a few companies from different sectors who have bought different products and have been clients for more than one year. The ones with well known names will be the most useful of course.
• The process is then to call the client (with the agreement of the sales person if there is one) and ask their permission to use them as a case study. Usually they are happy to do this because they know that they will get some publicity as a result.
• The best way to get the right information is to «interview» them. Structure your interview to make sure that you get an outline of:

• The problem they faced
• How they tried to solve it
• Why they came to your company
• What solution was offered
• Why they decided to buy the solution from you
• How they implemented it
• What they feel about it now
• Any recommendations they have for a new prospect
• Make sure that you get a “quote” from the client
• Make sure that you have their permission to use the case study

How to make best use the case study

• Once you have your case study written up you will need to make use of it.
• Pick out the quote and use it as a testimonial in presentations
• Place the case study on your website
• Issue a press release or article based around it to your target press. Journalists love a ‘real life’ story to illustrate their articles. You may need to offer it as an exclusive.
• Give a copy to your sales people
• Publish it in your client or business partner newsletter
• Let your client publish it in their own newsletter and thereby give you wider coverage

« How to generate a case study » has been published by Dominique Vaughan Williams on 10 August 2005 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

This is the first of a series of articles about ImFusio’s creation from a marketing point of view. More about this series.

Good ideas always seem obvious… afterwards!

How often have you thought to yourself, when faced with an innovative product or service: "But of course! This is so clever and simple, what a brilliant idea!"?

But have you ever thought of how ideas come first?

Most people will think that these entrepreneurs have probably been struck by lightening or chance at one specific moment of their life, and right on the spot understood the potentiality in this great and very obvious idea. Consequently, on a personal basis, we have a tendency to push away our entrepreneurial ambition, simply because we are waiting for «The Big Idea».

Well, reality is quite different, and this is the first paradox in the process of launching a business: there is no such thing as an obvious idea striking you… Innovation is a process, and it’s a full time job!

Finding your business idea means deploying all the existing marketing tools and theories that you have at hand.

Finding the right business idea: a full time job

Let us give you a little background on our business options:

• We did not have enough cash to invest in an existing company or finance a technological breakthrough
• We did not own a patent that could turn us into rich people right away. We did not have any patent actually
• But we had time ahead of us (a luxury in the business of launching a business), a strong experience in business services and consulting, and the necessary energy and enthusiasm to launch a company.

This situation analysis helped us focus our search in specific directions. To re-interpret Sun Tzu’s Art of War, we had to find an idea were we could capture our market – a spot that nobody’s touched yet. And we had to ensure that whatever the offering, it would either be too niche to be challenged by market leaders, or innovative enough to build good leads before competitors react. In other words, our overall strategy to find the right business idea was to look for underserved elements in a given market.

We had to phase the search, from the more general to the very specific, and follow different tracks in parallel.

Phase 1: curiosity and acute observation

Your best tools: your eyes and a critical mindset. Whatever you do, wherever you are, observe what is going on, analyse the processes in action, and search for ruptures, missing elements, discomfort, unexpected reactions, the difference between what your pre-conceived ideas and what actually happened, etc… You would be surprised how simple it is. And how quickly it becomes a game where you find yourself having 10 good ideas per day.

Phase 2: filtering

10 ideas a day, that’s 50 a week, if you decide to close your eyes during the weekend! In the search for your business idea, quantity is reassuring but not productive. Therefore you need to be able to establish a shortlist of ideas, evolving according to dropouts and new coming ideas. When faced with too many ideas, we started to build a selection grid. We built it by following Sun Tzu’s wisdom: we had to look for underserved elements of a given market. Our grid was built around selection criteria for any ‘given’ market!

• Our competences
• Our business experience
• Our investment power
• Our personal and professional objectives

It was key at this point to link our personal subjectivity/ one cannot be successful if he/she is not passionate about his business. This first grid helped us sort out the best 20%.

Phase 3: marketing analysis

That selection was then analyzed deeper, following marketing theory.

• Market environment: market in decline or growth, mature or immature, concentrated or not, evolving (innovating) or not, etc.
• Competitors,
• Customer targets,
• Distribution network,
• Etc…

Based on the above information, we used a SWOT analysis on each idea to see if we were able to see a major weakness or strength in our proposition. It was also a matter of going deeper into each option, and find its relevancy… or not! An apparently revolutionary idea can turn out to be inapplicable when you start looking into details.

Phase 4: the choice – when marketing theory cannot help

Marketing theory will help you greatly in the process described above. But if it is a decision tool, it is not taking the decision. Furthermore, marketing analysis is as good as the information you feed it with.

Because in a process of building a business you do not have the necessary time and money to build on 4 or 5 different options, you will need to make a choice using a very strong feature that no machine can have: intuition.

The beauty of Intuition

Intuition is very powerful, but certainly not very easy to manage. It is a quite surprising tool, because it helped us make the right choice, but took us through very long curves before we were able to center ourselves on what ImFusio is about today.

Our initial intuition was to help Japanese tourists have a true French experience when coming to Paris, by giving them an alternative to tour-operators and groups. We wanted to manage furnished flats and include references to Japanese lifestyle so that they could enjoy a French way of life without anxiety.

12 months later, ImFusio is specialized in international training and consulting for international managers and for their families. Our fields of practice include international mobility (going on expatriation, for a short or a long term), and multicultural management (running international / multicultural teams and building synergies on a multi-country level).

The road from A to B was not a straight road, but the initial intuition was the right one: help people (Japanese tourists, managers or their families) adapt and enjoy an experience abroad or a multicultural experience.

Conclusion

Finding the right business idea is a full time job: it is a little bit like building marketing cases all day long. It uses all the tools that you have learned in college. It is very rewarding and very frustrating at the same time: you have a lot of ideas, then you have a few good ideas, and excellent or applicable ideas become very scarce. And in the end, if marketing theory is a key component, nothing or nobody will decide but you. And this decision is a compilation of rational elements as much of what constitutes you: your past, your experience, your beliefs, your interests, your opinions, your culture, your vision, your conviction… It took us approximately 1 month to find and agree on a project that motivated us both. We then had approximately 6 months of work to come to what we do today. Overall, we can say that the project changed 3 to 4 times before becoming a company, during a 9-month period.

Let your intuition speak; don’t be afraid to not grasp 100% of the reasons that pushed you to launch a given idea on a given market!

Tips

• Always keep a pen and notebook with you. Ideas are like shooting stars; they come and go in seconds.
• Do not limit your ambition at this stage: think big, there is plenty of time to shrink your ambition.
• Search the web: there is hundreds of free information about new customer tendencies, product innovation, etc.

Web sites and book references

• Thank you to MarketingProfs.com. You will find Sun Tzu’s analysis very well summarized in this article: How Should You Test Your Marketing Strategy? by Michael L. Perla
• In order to analyze markets and ideas, we used mind mapping techniques. Mind maps help you be more effective and more creative. They are easy to handle, and very powerful to work with. You can go to the following websites to learn more:
  • Mindmaps definition on Buzan Centres
  • Mindjet, the editor of the MindManager tool
• French speakers can go to Good Futur’s web site. This company is collecting new business ideas from markets around the globe.
• French speakers can also read Bienheureux les fêlés from Philippe Bloch.

Read also the next article of the ImFusio Chronicle: Market Research… or the search for a market!

« Finding your business idea » has been published by Nathalie Nowak, Yael Guillon on 13 July 2005 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

Presentation

ImFusio is a young company, founded in January 2005 by two associates. ImFusio is specialized in International Training and Consulting for International Managers on short term assignments. Their objective is to help clients improve their chances of business success in multicultural environments.

ImFusio founders Nathalie Nowak & Yaël Guillon will publish a series of articles for Marketing Planet readers describing their «journey» from an initial business idea to the launch of a company and its first client – a complete business launch story, from a Marketing perspective.

The ImFusio chronicle

These articles will be a transcription of how they mixed Marketing theory with reality, how marketing helped, and where its limits in the process were. This series of articles will therefore be voluntarily partial, will not necessarily represent the full scope of marketing and business development, and will be obviously based mainly on personal experience and facts. But it will bring you a pragmatic approach to marketing, and a testimony of a true business launch, step after step.

You can learn more about the authors by clicking on their profiles. Your feedback, questions, interest, comments are more than welcome!

Have fun reading

ImFusio Chronicle articles

• Finding your business idea
• Market Research… or the search for a market!
• Entrepreneurship vs. employment: a genuine difference

« Introducing ImFusio » has been published by Nathalie Nowak, Yael Guillon on 7 July 2005 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.

Recently, Erwin Wijman – a Dutch journalist – carried out a study on new branding strategies in the Netherlands. It appeared that more and more companies use a first name as a brand. Marketing Planet gives you a resume on this study.

Independent first names

Today’s new brands in the Netherlands tend to attract by using a first name for their brand. What is interesting in his study is that the origin of this first name branding trend is not Dutch. You can think of Madonna, Tommy (Tommy Hilfinger), Hugo (Hugo Boss), Ben & Jerry’s and Oprah. These first names are all directly linked to the name of their founder(s). The Dutch version of it has nevertheless moved from this part. The first name brands in the Netherlands are no longer linked to their “creator” and can be a complete independent first name.

Some examples

• Ilse: an internet search company
• Ben: telecom company
• Johan: magazine for football
• Alex: online investment bank
• Fred & Ed (bakery)

This doesn’t withstand that quite some Dutch companies exist that use their full name, like Douwe Egberts, Albert Heijn, or even with their family name, Philips, Blokker, Zeeman as a brand.

It’s these recently created companies that use only a first name for their brand in their search to differentiate and manage their positioning.

Why choose a first name for a brand?

What makes a company choose to position their brand by using a first name? Companies are looking for ways to escape the mass market. They want to avoid having an anonymous approach. A first name can help them with it.

A first name makes a company more human, more personal. It increases the impression of dealing with someone instead of a company. Especially for IT sector companies, this argument is important. Ben was a huge success, before it was brought by a Danish company for its international development. A first name also makes a company more accessible, less distant. In the Netherlands, the informal side of live is highly present and the first name branding trend is an example of today’s society.

A straight forward first name can also be a sign that the company is straight forward itself. For discounters and supermarkets this can represent that they re not expensive and no «nonsense».

To keep it simple and close to the customer, the first name is in general also a short one, maximum 2 syllables. Longer names like «Charlotte» would sound more chic and change the positioning of being close to the customer.

Beware of the risk

This doesn’t mean that all companies can succeed their strategy with a branding based on a first name. Not all type of companies should position close to the customer, and not all first name are suitable. All first names have their history and signification in a country, if you pick out a name that doesn’t correspond your strategy or the type of offer you propose, the name can badly damage your brand. For examples, a high class company selling furniture wouldn’t call their brand for sofa’s «Billy», it is too cosy and doesn’t sound chic¹

To emphasise on the risk, some examples are given in the study:

• Adolf is still used as a first name, but there would be few companies choosing it for their brand.
• You would not find an Emma, Anna or Roos in sex-advertisements. Female first names have special connotations, especially in this environment.

Read more

To read more about the first name branding you can go to brandchannel.com where Erwin Wijman wrote the article «Branding on a First Name Basis». It provides more examples and details.

« Branding with first names in the Netherlands » has been published by Jacqueline Oud on 6 July 2005 on Marketing Planet.

© Some Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise stated, every content on Marketing Planet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 License.