Henri Isaac: Building A New Path For E-Merchandising

Henri Isaac is a great source of inspiration for me. He was my teacher as a student @ Paris Dauphine, and I have always loved his passion for what his does, and his ability to envision what technology may bring to customer experience.

I had the opportunity to discuss with him not a long time ago, and he told me how furstrated he was to see how e-retailers were conceiving their merchandising approach. Indeed, whereas the Internet world has changed a lot those past 10 years, with the arrival of social media, smartphones, tablets, and new technologies, product pages have not evolved that much. 

Henri recently published an article about this topic. He explains that the products catalog concept, which is used by most of e-merchants is not adapted to the best online shopper experience. Even though products catalog have improved, it is important to have a better way to link the different products of the offer together, in order to improve the shopping experience.

He also believes that brand content will be key in order to raise the shopping experience.

I must say I totally agree with him, especially when it comes to tablet. I ve tried several times to shop on different websites, and most of the time it is almost impossible to shop with a tablet.

In my opinion, it would be interesting to see what kind of merchandising concepts will appear within the next few years (I shall say few months...) in order to benefit 100% from the different platforms that exist (tablets, smartphones...). And probably this will come from a new comer, as e-retailers for most of them are already too big to try some of these actions.

If some of you owns any kind of examples or great websites to check which are highly innovative in terms of e-merchandising, I'd be thrilled to know. Feel free to comment on this blog about it.

What do you think about it?

Some Thoughts About My Kindle Fire

Since this Christmas, I am the owner of a Kindle Fire from Amazon.
I already own at home:

• A Samsung laptop
• An Ipad (1st generation) which is still working great
• A Blackberry bold

But I was eager to add a new peace, especially for all what is to read things. Here are my different uses of the gears I own at home:

• The Laptop: I use it to blog, to do my Exel's spreadsheets, sometimes to go on the Internet, to upload photos. I still believe nothing replace a computer when it comes to editing and creating things.
• The Ipad: I use it to watch youtube videos mostly, which I do a lot. I also use it to read my Flipboard, or some newspapers like Lefigaro, or the Huffington Post. I also uses several apps, but to be honest, it is not something I do on a daily basis.
• The Blackberry:   I use it for social media usage, such as tweeting, Foursquare's checks in, or Facebook reading. I also uses it to get fast info, for example on websites like wikipedia.

What I use the Kindle for:

• Read books: I got couple of books, and I am pretty happy about it. It is easy to read
• Watch US channels. I don't know how, nor why, but I am able to watch some US TV channels on the Kindle... Like History Channel, Showtime, ESPN, ABC... Love it
• Read websites and blogs: I love the screen and the size is perfect. I love the flipboard app.

I love the Kindle Fire, and I believe this is what I use the most now. The size, the screen quality, the battery life are just great. Also, what I love is how sharp the digital keyboard is. I have always been a fan of Blackberry because I always consider nothing compares to a hard concrete keyboard. The Kindle fire is amazing, especially when I go to conferences to take notes, even though I experienced some problems after a little while, the app to take notes (I use the draft of the email app) tends to bug and freeze. Maybe there are better applications I need to look for. Also, I love the book store. Really well done, it is always easy to find what you are looking for.

What I don't like

• The limited number of applications: All the apps I own are great. But Kindle is working on Android, which counts a huge number of apps. Nevertheless, I can't download (at least officially) any of them! This is silly.
• The bug when I take long notes as I already said.
• The OS is not as simple as the Ipad's one. At the beginning, you struggle to closes some apps or to look for them. But after a while, you adapt. But there is still room for improvement.
• Some videos I can't watch on websites, due to restriction of the web browser. Nevertheless, it is ten times less frequent than the problems I have on my Ipad...

I highly recommend the Kindle, which is cheap compared to the competition, and propose a great added value to a computer, smartphone and traditionnal tablet; 

Social Media And Retailing: How Lidl Uses Facebook In France

Social medias uses in business and retailing starts to be common. Most of retailers on a fan page on Facebook, and sometimes a Twitter account. But today I wanted to write about not a standard retailer, but a hard discount retailer that have decided to communicate on social media : Facebook.

Lidl is one of the largest retailer in the world. Despite a low cost model, short product ranges and very little advertising, it has been able to spead all around Europe, and (even though they don't communicate their sales figures) it is believed they are in the top 5 ranking of the largest retailers.

Lidl has never communicate much. It is in its strategy. As a hard discounter, its goal is to minimize every cost possible, in order to sell its goods as cheap as possible, maximizing the mergins. 

But Lidl has changed over the time, as the hard discount model is starting to go in limbo. They have hence decided last year in France to create a Facebook Fan's page. After one year, they already have 280 000 fans! What is even more impressive, is that they have way more fans than retailers that are at least twice bigger than them in France: Intermarché (200 K), Leclerc (133 K) and Carrefour (the largest one with only 34 Ks). 

We must say that a year ago, Lidl has made a large advertising campaigns on its leaflets in order to launch their fan page.  But nevertheless, even though they don't communicate that much now about it, the fan community growth pace is still fast.

What does Lidl post on it?

Well, mostly, promotions and products reviews. Clearly they don't have a budget to animate the community, like some other brands have (proposing games, specific discounts, content such as receipes...). Despite the little budget they own (once again there are only two people dealing with the whole Internet presence, which is also encompassing emailing campaigns and the website maintenance), they really bond with the customers, as they have a 10% interaction rate on most of their posts...

Some thoughts about Lidl

Even though Lidl is a concept based on private label, and on proposing no brands, Lidl is not a no-brand, it is actually a strong brand, with which customers bond. This is the reason why they have been able to create such a connection with their community.

Social Media in Lidl Strategy

Lidl is evolving fast, leaving the traditional hard discount concept to a more modern one. Nicolas Calo, the communication manager of Lidl France, declares that the social media investment is part of the overal strategy of the group to modernize their concept. He also adds that "the concept goes more toward modernity and proximity: that is what Facebook is bringing to us: Modernity of communication, and proximity to our clientele".

I find that amazing that Lidl, despite very little budgets compare to its competition, despite a concept that is based on very little advertizing and customer service, has been able to become one of the best success story in the Facebook's retailing world.

What do you think about it?

Should You Still Believe In Foursquare?

I have been a big fan of Foursquare since I have tried it couple of years ago. I believe the technology is great, and you can clearly see how businesses could use the service to generate in-store traffic, and therefore revenues.

But for a little while, whereas geolocalization has been a hot trend lately, Foursquare seems to struggle. I recently read an article about why people stop using Foursquare. And I must admit I understand them. After a fast start, with a high adoption, a lot of place registered, and even some specials. 

But still, with all this potential, they haven't been able to convert the service to its full potential. Still I believe Foursquare has a bright future ahead of it. 

Recently, Foursquare raised $41 millions in order to keep on building its capacity to generate revenues. Let's hope it will be enought to buy some time to develop the business model: Foursquare is worth $600 million but only got $2 millions in revenues last year.

Mon feedback sur les salons M Direct Expo, SEMO, et relation client 2013

Comme tous les ans, (ou presque), je me suis rendu aux salons du marketing direct, des études marketing, de la relation client. Cette année, comme ce fut le cas ces dernières années, ces salons ont été rassemblés autour d'un même événement, ce qui est plutôt intelligent, car cela permet de pouvoir voir l'ensemble des intervenants sur la même date.

Mais cette année, plus que les années précédentes, je fus déçus:

• Les conférences étaient à mon goût de moins bonne qualité. Hormis l'excellente conférence sur le neuromarketing, qui a elle seule valait le coût de venir, les autres n'étaient pas forcément aussi intéressante.
• La taille du salon a réellement fondue. Certainement que les prix pour la participation à ce type d'événement à augmenter fortement. Qui plus est avec la crise, beaucoup d'intervenants ont certainement souhaité faire des économies. J'ai participé à d'autres salons professionnels ces 2 dernières années, et pour avoir discuté avec des exposants, beaucoup ont décidé d'abandonner ce type de salon.
• Peu d'intervenants réellement majeurs étaient présent. Ce particulièrement dans les études. Pa de IRI, de Kantar, pour les études, de Soft Computing (qui était présent il y a quelques années), de Microsoft pour le MD. Alors certains étaient quand même présent, notamment Orange et La Poste, mais cela manque de locomotive, qui pourrait faire bouger l'ensemble du marché.
• Une mention spécial pour le SEMO, le salon des études. D'une qualité exceptionnel il y a 5 ans par la qualité des exposants et des conférences, qui remplissait le palais des congrès, il a fondu quasiment totalement. Très dommage.

Je trouve très dommage que ce salon que je qualifierai "du Marketing", n'existe quasiment plus. La France est un grand pays du marketing, avec des agences de communication renommées comme Publicis, des vrais experts des études tel qu'IRI, pour ne citer qu'eux... J'espère vraiment que les organisateurs arriveront à repartir du bon pas, et que les différents acteurs du marketing arriveront à relever le défi de construire un salon digne de ce nom pour la profession.

Neuromarketing Conference In Paris

I attended couple of weeks ago a neuromarketing conference held in Paris during the MD Expo.

I did not know much about Neuromarketing before coming to this event. My knowledge was mainly based on the Neuromarketing blog, which I actually read quite often.

The conference had a prestigious panel: 

• Henri Kaufman was the host, and animator of the conference.
• Pierre Gomy  Marketing director at France Millward Brown France, which talked about the company's experiences held in Great Britain.
• Mark Van Rymenant  founder of Netway, a Belgian company specialized in Neuromarketing since 1997.
• Marie de Linage Europe CRM manager Sony, which talked about her experience with neuromarketing techniques.
• Bruno Teboul, an expert of neuromarketing, soon to get his Phd, he is studying the usage of neurosciences for marketing purposes around the globe. He is also the author of "L'Absolu Marketing",  which explains all the new marketing trends from the big data to neuromarketing. I haven't read it yet, but I am planning to soon.

Here are some highlights of the conference:

Read Montague's Study

Neuromarketing has really emerged in 2003, when Read Montague studied thanks to IRM scans 50 volunteers to taste Coke and Pepsi sodas. It appears that out of these 50 people, 49 prefered Pepsi while blindfolded, but once people knew which brand was which soda, the results were reversed. The study showed how brands could change one product perception. Its since this research thanks to IRM that neuromarketing really started.

The button to buy

There is no real trigger in the brain that you need to push for someone to buy. Though there are some well known now zones that have a key role during the decision making process. There is such a high complexity in the brain that the interconnections between the different zones makes it impossible to resume the action of neuromarketing by simply pressing one button.

The brain map

Thanks to the important work of research around neurosciences, scientists have been able to set up a map of the brain. There are 52 zones in the brain that have been noticed. Each zones have different roles. Actually, the researches have also established that human brains are similar to other human brains by 99%. 

 It is thanks to this map that we are now able to understand and make experimentations through IRM and use them.

Why Neuromarketing Matters

• 5% of what we do is conscious
• 95% is unconscious

Marketers have spent years to work on the conscious part, trying to understand the logical aspect of customers' decision making process. But now neuromarketing techniques allow to explore the other 95%.

Also:

• 85% of decision made are based on emotions
• 15% by rational thoughts.

How That Works?

There are 3 techniques that are used:

• Eye Tracking: We use technologies following the eye movements in order to see what catches the attention of someone.
• Electrophalogram: The most used techniques
• IRM: The most precised one, but the most difficult to use. 

About the IRM technique, most of the time it is used only on 6 to 8 people, because it is pricy, difficult to get (you need to use hospital material), but also because it is enough to have usable results.

Even though it is the most famous technique, it only represents 15% of the researches conducted.

Culture, Sociology and the Brain

There is a certain "plasticity" to the brain. Indeed, people from certain cultures may have been used to certain cultural or social things that may shape the way they percieve things. Even though studies seem to tell that there is no particularity. For example, the color red is associated with stopping, because the color red has been chosen for the red lights. You may change the red light color for yellow, it will take a while for people to adapt and the red to get back to a normal color. 

So far I believe it is too early to say if culture and society may impact neuromarketing results.

Sony Case's Study

Sony Europe had issues with the different local marketing departments to implement the European guidelines about Sony's brand content. Most of the time, local branches argued that the European guidelines were sometimes not adapted to local market. Sony decided to use neuromarketing in order to test then its messages and brand components thanks to the eye tracking techniques. Through small tests, on some emailing campaigns, they experienced great results, which pushed them to experiment more. It helped Sony to rationalized its European guidelines, thanks to the neuromarketing results they got. 

I will post soon a new note about what I think about neuromarketing. The aim of this article is to sare with you the great knowledge I got thanks to this conference.

Carrefour: Un Combat Pour La Liberté: Mon opinion

Il y a quelques semaines de celà, j'ai eu l'occasion de rencontrer Yves Soulabail lors d'une conférence se déroulant à Paris Dauphine. Yves est bien connu du monde de la distribution pour son ouvrage "Carrefour un combat pour la liberté". Je connaissais aussi déjà bien son oeuvre, visitant très régulièrement le blog Carrefouruncombatpourlaliberte.fr . 

Le Pitch

1976, Carrefour existe depuis plus de dix ans, et la croissance folle du début est difficile à maintenir. Carrefour est en pleine remise en question. Cette année, notamment Etienne Thil, directeur marketing et communication, et les directeurs de Carrefour, décide de lancer les produits libres, qui deviendront bientôt les MDD, qui à l'époque est une véritable révolution dans un monde de la distribution dominé par les marques (Nestlé, Coca Cola, etc...).

Ce que j'ai aimé

• Énormément de moments historiques de la distribution française (fondation de Leclerc, début de Carrefour, lancement des MDD chez les concurrents) sont présentés dans ce livre.
• L'incroyable précision et le détail des données du livre. On y apprend les volumes, les chiffres d'affaires, les marges, etc... Bien évidemment, elles sont très loin de celles de nos jours, mais dans un monde de la distribution où il y a énormément de secret, c'est formidable d'avoir pu aller si loin.
• Un ouvrage rare, qui donne beaucoup d'informations sur l'histoire (même avant les produits libres) de Carrefour. Ces origines, sa manière de fonctionner, les hommes importants. Carrefour reste, malgré les problèmes actuelles, une formidable histoire, qui part d'une petite épicerie il y a 50 ans à devenir la 2ème entreprise mondiale de distribution.
• Une vrai leçon de bon sens et de principe pour les distributeurs. Il remet bien en place ce qui est vraiment important pour un distributeur, le volume, l'image prix, les basiques, la gestion des hommes... Etc. Une très grande leçon, que chaque direction de grande distribution devrait garder en tête.

Ce que j'ai moins aimé

• Parfois, le livre est un peu brouillon, car très axé sur donner de l'information "brute" (notes de réunions, articles, données chiffrées, etc...). Ce qui rend la lecture parfois difficile, sur certains moment, surtout au milieu.
• J'aurai aimé avoir plus d'informations sur Bernardo Trujilo, car je sais qu'Yves est le spécialiste de ce génie très méconnu du monde de l'entreprise. Il a façonné l'ensemble de la distribution mondiale, néanmoins il reste quasiment inconnu du grand public. Néanmoins reconnaissons que cela n'était pas le sujet principal du livre. Peut être pour un autre livre?

En résumé

Ce livre est une formidable leçon au sujet de la grande distribution. Il retrace avec détail et précision les phases de lancement des produits libres, et explique bien dans quel mesure ce lancement a changé profondémment le monde de la distribution, mais aussi donné une longueur d'avance à Carrefour.

Je le recommande à tous professionels de la grande distribution.

Auchan's Entreprise Feedback Management: Leveraging Store's Feedback

Enterprise feedback management is an important part of a comprehensive customer relationship management strategy. EFM aims to collect and organize customer's feedback from whereever it may come. With nowadays over connected world, feedback may come from in store comments, emails, mailings, social media, phone calls, blogs, among others.

I have been reading in Linéaires an article about the CRM manager at Auchan Jérôme Desreumaux, one of the largest retailer in France, selling mostly fast moving goods. Each Auchan stores in France welcome every day on average 10 000 different customers! Therefore leveraging the informations these customers may give can be a powerful tool in order to improve the commercial concept. Auchan recieves every year 200 000 feedback. It is important to know how to give meaning to these feedbacks, but also it is very important to know how to collect those.

What is interesting in this article, is the split between the different sources of feedback:

• 25% comes from store comments left in a ballot by customers
• 25% comes from employees from the frontdesks who type in customers' comments
• 25% comes from notes taken by store and department managers
• 25% comes from other media, such as mailing, emailing...

What is fascinating, is that still 75% of comments come from the store! Indeed, in retail, stores remain the main medium of communication. 

It is always more difficult to get these insights, as it is difficult to automate feedback in store. It is interesting to see how Auchan succeeds in getting so many feedback from stores.