master-distribution.info

Since I am responsible this year of my master's website, I was really thrilled about that idea. However, with technical problems and scholar work to do, me and my team we did not really have time to spend on the project. Don't worry it will change. I hope the website will be on in a month from now. For foreign recruiters most of the pages will be translated in english. If you want more information about that program, I planned to add some pages on my website, www.schriver.fr, you can also log on http://pvolle.net (however it is not in english).

When B to B has to pass through customer

I wanted to react about a topic we had in class. We discussed about Lafarge, a french leading company in industrial materials. Lafarge propose to its customers some communication tools, to create their own advertisements, publicity, and then attract new customers. Then, Lafarge's customer raise their quantities sold per customer.

This example shows well how and why b to b company should regard more final customers. In the early 90s, Intel had the same technique, advertising their processors on TV, to create brand equity. Thus, customers new about the brand and its equity, and asked retailers to get computers processed by Intel. Therefore, Intel has more power on its customer, since final customers (or "the customers of its customers") want its products.

I had the same approach and idea while I was in PB Gelatin. Since arthritis has no cure, but couple of products helping people to cope with it, gelatin has to advertise and to be known by final customers, to convince nutraceutical companies to propose gelatin based products.

In my opinion, b to b company must get the awareness of final customers about their products, to gain negociation power on their customers, by giving to final customers added value, or advertising on them.

Interesting websites

I wanted to let you know about two interesting websites we talked about today in class.

The first one, last fm, is a website proposing a free radio. But this radio adapts itself depending on the music you have on your computer. It brows all the music you have and give you content regarding your tastes . It proposes you a music style (80’s, hip hop for example), and adapts the artist list to the one you have on your computer, to help you out finding artists related to your music tastes. Then, when you click on a song, you can download it and buy it.

The second one is Tuneglue. This website is proposing you to type the name of an artist, and then, depending of the artist, to show you some other ones who have the same type of music. Then, whenever you feel comfortable with an artist, you just click on it, and it appears all the albums. You then just have to click on one of them to go on Amazon.com, and to purchase the album.

Those two examples show well how technology can bring customer personnalized content, and then created equity.

Publicite Carrefour

Je viens de voir lors d'une conference de mon master une publicite televisee en avant premiere de Carrefour. Je dois vous dire honetement que je n'ai pas compris. La publicite est tres belle, avec de beaux visuels de la montagne, du monde rural, une superbe musique, quand tout a coup... Arrive un prix (3 euros) et une publicite sur des steaks surgeles.

Je comprends bien la tentation pour Carrefour de montrer face a face la qualite et le prix, et expliquer que l'un peu aller avec l'autre. Mais honetement, l'effet de l'apparition du prix a plus un effet comique que marquant pour le consommateur...

Des fonctions régaliennes de l'état

L’une des premières théories politiques est basée sur les fonctions primaires de l’état. Elle s’appelle le minarchisme. Dans ce système, l’état possède uniquement des fonctions régaliennes, et le monopole de la violence. Il se charge du maintien de l'ordre, la justice et la défense du territoire. Cette théorie est proche du modèle libéral, où la société et l’économie s’auto régule, l’état n’étant qu’un arbitre, bien qu’elle soit très minimaliste.

Cependant, une autre notion est venu se rajoutée à ces fonctions primaires de l’état : l’écologie. En effet, on s’est rendu compte ces 20 dernières années des problèmes que générait la société de consommation sur l’environnement. Dans cette idéologie de l’état régalien, la notion de défense du territoire se réfère au besoin de garder les frontières des états. Cependant, au vue du problème écologique que nous allons affronter dans quelques années, il est important de ne pas oublier le respect de l’atmosphère. Ainsi, de tous bords, socialiste ou libéral, l’écologie est devenu un point essentiel de la campagne présidentiel, et je pense que dans les principales fonctions de l’état, la sauvegarde de l’écosystème du pays devient aussi nécessaire que la justice, le maintien de l’ordre ou la défense du territoire.

Différence entre marge arrière et marge avant

Petites explications pour les étudiants en marketing concernant une notion clé en grande distribution : les marges arrières. En effet, une spécificité française des négociations entre industriels et la distribution sont les négociations hors facture. Mais quelles sont ces marges arrière.
Pour cela, il faut s’intéresser au métier de la distribution et de son évolution. Le métier basique de la distribution et d’acheter en masse, afin de le revendre en faisant un bénéfice. Le bénéfice est appelé marge avant. Imaginons un produit acheté 2 euros et que je revends 3 euros, je gagne 1 euros. Cette marge est le différentiel entre le prix de vente et le prix d’achat. On peut considérer le métier de revente comme le métier de base, traditionnel d'un revendeur/distributeur.

Cepedant, de nos jours, on voit que ce cadre et bien trop petit pour caractériser le métier de distributeur. Les distributeurs offrent diverses prestations aux consommateurs, comme le conseil, la gestion des retours des produits, ainsi que parfois tester les produits sur place.

De même, le distributeur propose des services à un industriel. Il met en avant son produit, en le mettant par exemple en tête de gondole. Il peut proposer d'éditer de la publicité sur les documentations publicitaires envoyés aux clients. On dépasse donc le cadre simple de la revente, mais on met en valeur le produit.

De même, des grandes marques nationales peuvent générer du traffic dans un magasin. L'exemple le plus fringuant est l'Ipod. Un client allant à la Fnac s'attend à voir un Ipod, et parfois il ne se rendra dans ce magasin uniquement pour ce produit. C'est pourquoi le distributeur lui aussi paie aux marques des remises en fonction des objectifs atteints (chiffre d'affaires, taux de rotation, ou simplement traffic...).

La différence entre ses prestations et les remises des distributeurs sont appelés les "marges arrières", ou coopération commerciale. Ainsi, c'est ce qui ne figure pas sur la facture au moment de la signature du contrat, mais à la fin de l'année, lorsque les objectifs ont été atteints.

matelsom : case studies

I wanted to give to american Internet businessmen an overview of a french success story : matelsom. I wanted to talk about that since I know the cousin of this company's president, and also because we talked about that in class.

Matelsom is a direct marketing company selling beds and mattres. They started around ten years ago, advertising in the Parisian Metro. Now, thanks to an innovative way of distribution and customer service proposal, the company is one of the leader in the Parisian market. Thus, whereas most of the companies propose beds and mattres within 1 to 2 weeks, matelsom delivers in 24 to 48 hours. Thanks to an excellent supply chain that allows them those delivery times, matelsom succeeded in challenging big retailers such as Conforama, or But. It shows first of all the importance of customer service, especially logistic importance in e commerce. But also that with a few money and great ideas, even nowadays we can create innovative on line businesses.

The next question that the company has to face is their ability to spread their idea out of Paris, which will requires more wharehouses and a more complex logistic strategy, to target people living outside of towns. In my opinion, this company should develop their activities around big other french towns such as Lyon, Bordeaux or Marseille...

mondomix

I wanted to talk to you about a company that sells world music on line, mondomix.com. My girl friend just had an interview with them for an internship, and I have been very impressed by the quality of their website, especially by the information they give about artists and albums. This website is specialized in the world music industry, and then give a good over look about music all around the planet.

Congratulation Dell

I wanted to congratulate Dell's aftersales service. Thus, My girl friend had a problem with her computer that she bought in the US. She is currently in France, and had a problem to play DVDs. She called the tone free phone number of Dell, and despite it was six o clock in the US, she reached a person that handled a problem. Thanks to the Internet connexion, this person was able to surf on the computer, and to solve the problem. It took an hour, but finally, the problem was history. It changes from the old school method, to wait in the line for hours to hear from the technician we have to let the computers for two days. In my example, no delay, and the computer is working fine. To me, this is a good example of how with Internet and new technologies we are able to provide good customer relationship without having to have a human interraction. Those kind of offers helped Dell a lot in being leader in its market.

Advertising for retailers in France

Retailers were not allowed to make advertising on television in France, because french governements wanted to protect the small retailers faced to companies such as Auchan and Carrefour. Those companies had to advertise on radio or newspaper, but could also sponsor some programs. Darty had for example sponsored the weather news for a long time. But now, since the 1st of jannuary, those companies are allowed to advertised on french national television. What was my surprise for the new year to see that out of ten spots, 6 of them was retailers'!

But my main question is : will it really increase the traffic or the sales of the retailers? Will it convince some customers to change their grocery store for another one? In the US, I have already seen some advertisement, by Wall Mart, or by Dickies, but I don't really know if those kind of advertisement really contribute to increase the figures of a grocery store. I understand it is very important to advertise on TV, for example to improve the brand image or to communicate during a crisis or an important discount period, and therefore I am wondering how it will be developped.

Deux milliards sont dépensés sur le Net à Noël

Je voudrais vous faire part d'un article que j'ai lu sur le Figaro du vendredi 22 décembre 2006. Cet article met en avant la monté des achats de cadeaux de Noël sur Internet. Ainsi, 15% des achats en France sont effectués sur la toile, soit deux milliards d'euros. Le trafic en ligne est deux fois plus important qu'au cours de la période précédant la saison des achats de Noël. Il faut savoir aussi que selon une étude réalisée par le cabinet deloitte sur les achats de Noël dans 14 pays, 32% des Français ont l'intention de dépenser plus d'argent sur Internet, et 47% d'entre eux pensent dépenser le même montant.
Le principal atrait de cette solution pour les achats est qu'elle permet d'éviter les queues interminables lors des périodes de Noël. Ainsi, ces chiffres confirment la montée de l'Internet, notamment pour les achats plaisirs et de cadeaux.