The blog

Commoditization… A word that we often encounter these days… But how to escape this commoditization trap and while doing so trying to remain profitable. I had to tackle this question already myself when being product manager of mobile modem, in fierce competition with Chinese brands. I’ll not elaborate on that case, but take as example the “video disc” player market.

Strawberry, Root Beer, Bubblegum, Buttered Popcorn, Cappuccino, Caramel Corn, Chocolate Pudding, Cotton Candy, Dr. Pepper, French Vanilla, Island Punch, Kiwi, Very Cherry, Tutti-Fruitti, Toasted Marshmallow, Pink Lemonade,…The more choice the better; give us as much as possible!… Said no consumer ever (unless you’re a Jelly Bean affinado of course). Although consumers seem to be attracted by more variety, this isn’t reflected in their purchasing behaviour and therefore often reduces their motivation to buy. This can be explained by the fact that an extensive amount of choice is enjoyable because there is a higher chance of choosing the right option. At the same time it is overwhelming due to the amount of information and limited time and energy available in this fast paced world. As such the fear of later regret comes into play; more attractive options go hand in hand with more lost opportunities.

“The drift from art to science has eclipsed the magic that made marketing so marvelous…” …is typically the type of newsletter header that makes me click on the link and read through the entire article. This one was published last October by Marc Mathieu (SVP Marketing at Unilever)[1]. His point is that we’ve tried so hard to make marketing predictable that we’ve lost the magic that makes it unique. He calls on marketers to find the right balance between magic and logic to conjure exceptional experiences that build brand love time and time again.

We find more and more examples of TV shows with a ‘second screen’ element (for instance, you can quiz along with het Spiegelpaleis on www.een.be/nu. But you can also have as a Channel a mobile app to let the customers interact with your programs, like vier/vijf has it’s ‘Tweede Scherm’.

Once upon a time there was a local family business, called bakery Vanhelden. For more than 100 years, generation after generation, the business values were quality, tradition and authenticity. My father, the last baker’s generation, added an extra value: simplicity. Being brought up in the spirit of these values, I listened fascinated to the discours of Alain Coumont, founder of Le Pain Quotidien, at the STIMA congress 2012. A story about choices … The choice for the customer. Alain Coumont started off with a very concise offering: only 2 kinds of bread and 3 types of sweet patisserie. But he made a shift from a small offering towards an abundance of choice. I asked myself two questions. First of all, doesn’t the stress of choice, that comes along with the offer, conflict with the general business ambition to de-stress his clients? Secondly and most importantly, isn’t less more?

An optimistic outlook for 2013! Is your glass half full or half empty? The theme of STIMA’s International Marketing conference[1] last December was “The Survival of Optimism”. The main thesis was that as a marketer we have a choice to look at the glass as half full or half empty.

We have all been confronted with process improvements and adaptation of organization structures. The objective is always to improve efficiency, to be more customer-oriented or to reduce costs. While some are just small improvements, other may have a large impact on the organization and way of working. In both cases we are nevertheless often confronted with questions like ‘do we really need to change the process’ or ‘why should we change a process’. Asking these questions before changing a process is good as we don’t want to change processes only for the sake of change.

In our world-of-any, customers want anything, anytime and especially anywhere. Since our amount of time willing to wait has reduced substantially, multitasking has become common property. In this hyper-fragmented world with numerous sales and communication channels, customers are well-informed and have much more control over the buying process than today’s marketer does. The cross-channel customer is born and is here to stay…

Dashboards are everywhere, in daily life in your car, microwave or heating system. But they are also more and more present in companies. Just yesterday I was in a major customer service center with TV-screens projecting the KPI’s in real time (such as queuing and handling time). This is a very good evolution, but too often not used to its full potential! Isn’t it funny that as a manager, you do react immediately to the signals on the dashboard of your car (e.g. call the garage for servicing when you get a reminder) but just stare at your company’s dashboards and signals in a boardroom meeting?

When I was a kid, my father – a GP in a small Wallonia village – regularly travelled on the account of some pharmaceutical companies. These hoped that a “seminary” on a trendy topic (like the benefits of red wine on coronary diseases) taking place in an inspiring environment (like a sunny Greek island) would positively impact his willingness to prescribe their product. Twenty years later, my father gives his accountant headaches when he so much as receives a pen from any pharma company. So yes, things have changed. The legislator has struck down on practices that Hippocrates might have disapproved, strictly framing the relationship between pharma companies and GPs.