Leshop.ch la success story du commerce alimentaire en ligne

Nous avons vu hier les raisons pour lesquelles les entreprises de distribution alimentaire via Internet n'arrivaient pas à trouver la voie de la rentabilité. Mais il semblerait qu'un de nos voisins suisses ait trouver la solution. En effet, Leshop.ch a vu ses ventes progressaient de 13% au premier trimestre 2010, et devrait passer les 106 millions d'euros de bénéfices (oui, vous avez bien lu, bénéfices) cette année.

Les facteurs clés de succès

Leshop a toujours été à la pointe de la technologie. Ainsi, au début de l'année, il a lancé son application Iphone, ui permet aux consommateurs de faire leurs courses en toute mobilité. 3 mois après le lancement, Leshop comptait déjà 100 000 téléchargements. C'est énorme pour un petit pays comme la Suisse, surtout que moins de 600 000 Iphones ont été vendu là bas. Les ventes via ce nouveau canal de distribution représent déjà 4% du CA, avec un objectif de 15%.

Mais l'une des deuxièmes clés de succès, afin d'optimiser les coûts de distribution, c'est que la distribution des produits est assurée par La Poste Suisse. Ainsi, le réseau est très vaste et très flexible, pour proposer des heures de livraison qui conviennent aux consommateurs.

Comme quoi, il est possible de pouvoir réussir sur le marché de la consommation alimentaire en ligne.

Le commerce alimentaire sur Internet connait toujours des problèmes

Le e-commerce de produits alimentaires existent depuis près de 10 ans maintenant. L'ensemble des enseignes de distributions alimentaires en France possèdent leur site:

• Télémarket pour Intermarché
• Auchan Direct pour Auchan
• Ooshop pour Carrefour
• Houra.fr pour Casino

Cependant, malgré la croissance exceptionnel du commerce en ligne depuis dix ans, le commerce de l'alimentaire est loin de connaître le même succès. Pire, l'ensemble de ces acteurs arrivent avec peine à dépasser chaque année le seuil de rentabilité...

Mais pourquoi est ce que cela ne marche pas?

LSA nous donne 5 raisons dans un article datant du 20 mai 2010:

• Des prix trop élevés, intégrant les surcoûts logisitques
• Une offre identique à celle du magasin
• Un marketing relationnel inexistant ou mal adapté
• Des cyberacheteurs occasionnels, exigeants et infidèles
• La difficulté à se faire connaître sur Internet

Je vais essayé de vous donner mon avis sur chacun de ces points:

• Des prix trop élevés: C'est bien là le problème. Les produits alimentaires sont des produits basiques. Aussi, le monde de la grande distribution s'est développé sur sa capacité à baisser les prix, grâce aussi bien à l'achat en gros pour faire baisser les prix, mais aussi à optimiser au maximum les coûts de distributions, qu'ils soient humains, immobiliers ou matériels. Or le processus de livraison, mais aussi et surtout des "caddies" requiert beaucoup de mains d'oeuvres et beaucoup de coûts. C'est pour cela qu'il faut être capable d'accépter ces coups et de rajouter de la valeur ajoutée pour justifier cette hause de prix. Bien sûr, il peut y a voir le côté pratique, mais je pense qu'il peut être améliorer, notamment en créant des systèmes de "commandes automatiques", pour remplacer des produits basiques qui sont acheter chaque semaines tels que le lait, les oeufs, etc... Cela peut aussi passer par du conseil, des caddies déjà préparés répondant à des besoins des consommateurs (pas cher, bio, régime...)
• Une offre identique à celle du magasin. Sur ce point là, je ne peux pas être forcément d'accord. En effet, l'offre est identique à un magasin, mais un hypermarché, c'est des dizaines de milliers de références. Rajouter des références complexifieraient encore le processus de sélection des produits. Aussi, je ne pense pas que celà soit bien de rajouter des produits, qui là encore augmenterait les coûts de gestion. Par contre, améliorer le moteur de suggestion de produit, se basant sur les historiques d'achat, pourraient aider à faire du up selling et cross selling, tout en apportant un service au client.
• Le marketing relationnel: Bien sûr, je suis fan de relation client et de marketing relationnel. Et je pense qu'il y a des choses à faire à ce sujet. Dans le monde "réel", la promotion est un moteur incroyable de génération de chiffre d'affaires, alors pourquoi ne pas faire de même sur Internet? La seule différence est que le média Internet requiert une forte personnalisation des offres, contrairement aux magasins traditionnel. Mais je pense que des systèmes de fidélisation innovant pourraient être développer pour faciliter la répétition des achats, et donc créer de nouvelles habitudes de consommation.
• Des cyberacheteurs occasionnels: Je reviens sur le point précédent. Le marketing interactif sur Internet, mais surtout une politique innovante de fidélisation permettra sans problème de développer la répétition des achats.
• La difficulté à se faire connaître: Je ne suis absolument pas d'accord sur ce point. Les moyens de ce faire connaître sur Internet sont nombreux. De plus, certains acteurs font aussi des campagnes d'affichages. Ce n'est donc pas une raison.

En tout cas, 11% des internautes ont déjà commandé des produits alimentaires en ligne en France, contre 47% pour les vêtements ou équipements sportifs. Cela représent 1 milliard d'euros de CA en 2009 (2 millions de clients). C'est sûr que le commerce alimentaire n'a pas une place "naturelle" dans le e-commerce, mais il va bien falloir trouver une solution pour développer une activité en ligne profitable sur Internet.

Et demain, nous verrons comment un acteur suisse à trouver les clés du succès pour réussir dans le commerce en ligne...

Web 2.0 Tycoons Are Going Down

The social media industry is maturing. You can see it as Facebook is starting to generate large amount of revenues, samewise as Youtube. Twitter also is starting to show very interesting skills to monetize its audience. But as some actors are getting stronger, some others have been left aside. And not small ones: My Space and Six Apart.

There was a time, not so long ago, Myspace was ruling the social media world. It was actually the first social media to hit the main stream. It was loved by teenagers and young people to access news from music artists. Myspace has also succeed big time while they have been bought by NewsCorporation.

Six Apart also experienced large success while blogging sprung up all around the world. Most of blogs, especially the most influential ones, where hosted and design by Typepad. It was actually a great success, because it was I believe the only main platform to success while not being free. Blogging is for sure declining, as people are getting more and more busy on social media. I keep on blogging because it really help me in developing my business ideas, and to construct my vision of customer relationship management in the future. But for regular people I totally understand why they have switched to Facebook.

But those two companies are going in limbo. I read 2 articles recently, where Six Apart is borrowing some money to pursue its activities, and Myspace is heading toward a new direction, after having failed to compete with Facebook. Actually, MySpace situation seems to be more problematic, as they are already loosing money while others are just starting off generating revenues. The goal of Myspace is to retain its audience, which shows how desperate they are while most of the social media audience is rocketing. Also, what I don’t understand in this article, is why they say Myspace is no longer a social media. What is it then? What will it become. A lot of things seems unclear.

But we should see the bright side of those news. It means that the landscape of social media becomes clearer, and hence, as clear leaders emerge, social media is now a main stream media.

Software Updates As A Brand Loyalty Tool For High Tech Companies

Every time we have to replace a product, our loyalty is tested. It’s not a painful test when the product is a box of cornflakes, but it is when it’s a consumer electronics gadget costing several hundred dollars — and when it has grown obsolete before it has worn out.
Now this technique must be handled with care. Indeed, I am the first to be upset while a software asks me constantly to update. Hence, it seems I am constantly spending times turning off and on my computer because this or that company has made updates.

But this article gives a particular senses, while we are considering how Apple managed the launch of its new Iphone version, in order to keep customers loyal and happy.

When it introduced the iPhone 4, for example, it said the phone would have new operating system software, giving it more powers than earlier models. That might have been an incentive to dump the old phone and to buy the new one. Especially because the investment is high on a short period of time to get the new Iphone version. As premium buyers which spent large amount of money (compared to other cell phones) to get the old version, you can’t disappoint them and assume they’ll get every 6 month a new version.
But Apple also downloaded the same software to the previous year’s model, the iPhone 3 GS. Suddenly, that old phone could run an application in the background while another app was being used, apps could be organized into folders, and users gained access to Apple’s new electronic bookstore. Without having to spend a dime, people got what was essentially a brand new phone, one that could do nearly everything the newer model could do.
Was this a stupid move by the company? To the contrary. Apple still offered incentives to buy a new phone, but those enticements were built into the hardware, like a front-facing camera so a user can make video phone calls. While Apple’s existing customers were locked into contracts, they didn’t need to spend the duration seething with envy and resentment. (Well, some people seethed because they thought it made their phones slower or buggier.)
“It’s delightful for the consumer when they turn on a device and it has all this new functionality that it didn’t have before,” says Sarah Rotman Epps, a consumer products strategy analyst at Forrester, the market research firm. Apple is expected to upgrade the cellphone software again this month.

This is actually a “web 2.0” illness: Companies have thrilled on proposing incomplete services and constantly improving to get a final proposition. It may also be called the “beta syndrome”. Because some companies are in “beta” for years which is an absolute non sense. .
Especially in a world where technology evolves so fast, there is no way you will have a finite version as the product will constantly evolve.


I am not sure actually we may talk about brand loyalty for this occasion, but what is sure is that while you launch a new version of your software, it is important you also propose an update for your former customers, in order to:
Keep them happy with the old system
Show them a teaser of what they may get with the new version
Keep in touch with them in order to get chances to convert them in a near future to the new version.

La promotion génère-t-elle toujours du traffic en magasin ?

L’impact de la promotion en magasin est remise en cause dans un excellent article de LSA du 4 novembre 2010. Depuis le début de la distribution, l’activité promotionnelle d’une enseigne a toujours été l’un des facteurs principaux de génération de traffic en magasin. D’ailleurs, depuis le début de la crise en 2008, les enseignes de la grande distribution ont intensifié leur agressivité promotionnelle afin de pouvoir faire face à la baisse de leurs chiffres d’affaires.

Mais la promotion reste une arme très dangereuse. Comme l’avait expliqué Lars Oloffsson la promotion est souvent destructrice de valeur. En effet, qui dit promotion, dit marge assez importante pour pouvoir la financer, et donc souvent ces promotions s’accompagnent de hausse des prix. Beaucoup d’enseignes ont d’ailleurs refusés de jouer à ce jeu. C’est le cas de Wal Mart, qui après avoir tenté le jeu de la promotion a décidé de conserver son Every Day Low Price, qui lui assure aujourd’hui sa compétitivité.

Cette article de LSA d’ailleurs semble bien marqué que la promotion perd de son efficacité. L’évolution du chiffre d’affaires réalisé par le prospectus est ainsi en baisse par rapport à la pression en prospectus. Ainsi, il y a plus de prospectus, plus de promotions, une part du chiffre d’affaires réalisée par la promotion en augmentation, mais une baisse de leur efficacité.
Ainsi, est montré du doigt les produits portant plusieurs mécanique (exemple, remise immédiate + cagnottage sur la carte fidélité).


Cependant, il semblerait surtout que la promotion soit en pleine mue. Ainsi, les offres sur prospectus semblent perdre de l’intérêt au profit des coupons, qui sont d’ailleurs de plus en plus nombreux. Notamment, on peut voir apparaître une vrai percé des coupons sur Internet.

La Caisse d'Epargne lance une nouvelle application

J'ai eu l'immense privilège d'être invité par la Caisse d'Epargne a un évènement pour le lancement de leur nouvelle application Iphone, ainsi que la nouvelle version de leur site m-mobile.

Parti d'un simple Tweet du compte twitter de la Caisse d'Epargne, l'idée était de réunir des bloggers client de la banque, afin de leur permettre de tester en avant-première la nouvelle version de leur application. La tâche me paraissait tout de même difficile. En effet, il y a de nombreux bloggers, mais pour identifier ceux qui était client de la banque à l'écureuil, c'était tout de même difficle. Néanmoins, nous étions une dizaine présent pour cette soirée.

L'idée était donc de lier ces bloggers, passionnés de technologie et client (donc ayant une bonne connaissance du fonctionnement de leur banque, mais aussi concerné par les avancées de ses outils), avec le lancement de la nouvelle application, afin de pouvoir aiguiller au mieux les potentielles améliorations.

Vous trouverez ci-dessous une vidéo sur l'application:

Pratique, gratuite et sécurisée, cette application permet de réaliser l’essentiel de la gestion de ses

comptes :

• consulter et gérer vos comptes,

• effectuer des virements,

• suivre votre compte S’Miles,

• accéder aux coordonnées des agences et distributeurs automatiques Caisse d’Epargne,

• trouver tous les numéros utiles et les informations nécessaires pour faire opposition.

Etant client, bloggeur, et spécialiste de la relation client, j'ai été enchanté de cette nouvelle, car j'ai beaucoup d'attentes de la part des mobiles concernant les utilisations bancaire.

J'étais d'ailleurs déjà utilisateur avancé de la première version du site mobile lancé cet été, qui me permettait de consulté mes comptes à tout instant.

Mais j'ai aussi des envies pour le futur. Lorsque je vivais aux Etats-Unis, ma banque me permettait de classer mes dépenses par catégories (alimentation, essence, etc...) et ainsi de mieux gérer mon argent. Depuis plusieurs mois, Mint aux Etats Unis permet de faire la même chose à un niveau plus avancé, en permettant une vision plus large regroupant aussi les crédits. Je pense que ce type de service prend tout son sens sur une version mobile. Ainsi, il est facile d'avoir une vue globale de l'argent pris en compte.

En tout cas, j'ai beaucoup d'attentes et d'idées sur ces sujets, qui plus est car j'ai travaillé dans le secteur de la finance personnelle, et qu'il y a beaucoup de choses à réaliser à ce sujet.

Carrefour innove avec sa carte fidélité grâce à Carrefour Planet

Connaissez vous Carrefour Planet ? Si vous êtes dans le monde de la distribution vous avez certainement du déjà entendre parler de ce concept prometteur, que Carrefour a lancé en grande pompe cet été. En effet, afin de pouvoir relancer l’activité des hypermarchés, mis à mal depuis quelques années par des formats de plus petite taille et par la crise, Carrefour a décidé de lancé un nouveau genre d’hypermarché, en travaillant au maximum pour que ses rayons soient les plus attractifs possible.

Lors de ce processus de réinvention de l’hypermarché, Carrefour en a aussi profité pour redynamiser sa politique de relation client, en créant un nouveau système pour sa carte de fidélité. En effet, il est rare de voir des programmes de fidélisation innovant dans le secteur de la grande distribution, alors que c’est ce secteur qui avait contribué à sa popularisation.

Ainsi, Carrefour propose un système de fidélisation basé sur la fréquence d’achat. En effet, la fréquence d’achat est un facteur clé de réussite pour un distributeur en particulier, mais aussi pour tout programme de fidélisation. Henri Kaufman, l’a d’ailleurs très bien expliqué dans une récente note sur son blog, où il propose « un système reposant sur la régularité des visites ou des achats, plutôt qu’un système lié exclusivement au chiffre d’affaires réalisé ».



Carrefour propose comme avantage a ses meilleurs clients de gagner des journées à -10% sur tous le magasin, dans la limite de 1000€.

La clientèle est segmentée en 3 en fonction de la fréquence des achats (1 visite = un achat d’un montant minimum de 40€, une seule visite par jour étant comptabilisé:

• Or : 5 visites par mois (soit 30 visites/semestre) = 3 journées Carrefour Planet par semestre



• Argent : 4 visites par mois (soit 24 visites/semestre) = 2 journées Carrefour Planet par semestre



• Bronze : 3 visites par mois (soit 18 visites/semestre) = 1 journée Carrefour Planet par semestre.

Les programmes de fidélisations à plusieurs niveaux
De plus en plus, les entreprises proposent des programmes de fidélisations à plusieurs niveaux. En effet, l’idée même de CRM et de gestion de la relation client repose sur le fait que les consommateurs n’ont pas tous la même valeur, en fonction de leur potentiel et de leurs volumes d’achat.

L’un des besoins primaires de l’entreprise lorsqu’elle développe un programme de relation client est de développer sa connaissance client. Aussi, il est important qu’elle touche le plus grand nombre possible de ses clients, pour pouvoir avoir des données exhaustives sur sa clientèle.

Mais passé cette première phase, dans les programmes de fidélisation mature, les clients A+, Or, ou les 20/80 (en fonction du terme choisi) exprime bien souvent une envie d’une plus grande reconnaissance. C’est pourquoi de plus en plus de société propose comme Carrefour Planet, des programmes à plusieurs niveau en fonction du profil du client. Ainsi, Micromania propose différentes cartes de fidélisation payantes en fonction du profil du consommateur. La Fnac a récemment lancé son programme de fidélisation Premium, Fnac One, pour une niche de consommateur. Néanmoins ce programme a été décrié car les conditions d’admission au programme semblent être opaque, et ainsi ne donne aucune possibilité à un consommateur d’aspirer à rejoindre se groupe.

Le système de Carrefour Planet a le mérite d’être clair, et on sait exactement ce à quoi le client à droit et comment accéder à un nouveau statut.

Calcul du taux de générosité

Comme je l’ai appris lors de mes cours de fidélisation, je vais calculé le taux de générosité pour les clients or :

• 30 (visites par semestre) x 40 € de montant d’achat minimum = 1 200 €



• Soit 100 € x 3 (montant maximal de la remise) / 1 200 € (montant minimal d’achat pour accéder à la remise) = 25% de taux de générosité théorique.
  

Je dis bien là que c’est un taux théorique, car le panier moyen en hypermarché est au minimum 2 fois les 40€ dont parle le système.

Néanmoins, je trouve que le système est attractif pour le client, et favorise la fréquence d’achat, donc les occasions de ventes complémentaires. De plus, le client peut savoir a n’importe quel moment le nombre de visites qu’il a déjà effectué.

Et vous, qu’en pensez vous ?

Leclerc lance une application Iphone pour booster son Drive

Les concepts de Drive font fureur dans le monde de la grande distribution alimentaire. Le pionnier fut Chronodrive, enseigne indépendante mais faisant partie de l’AFM (association familliale Mulliez, qui possède aussi Auchan). Dès que le modèle fut en place et démontra sa rentabilité, Auchan le déploya en supplément de son offre supermarché, puis les concurrents suivirent, E. Leclerc en tête. Carrefour reste en retard sur le sujet, mais possède un plan ambitieux d’ici à 2012, où il compte ouvrir 156 Drive Carrefour, 86 adossés aux hypers existants, et 70 autres indépendants, qui seront placés dans des endroits stratégiques tels que les entrées/sorties d’autoroutes.

Leclerc vient de lancer une nouvelle application Iphone très innovante, nous révèle le magazine LSA du 12 novembre 2010. Cette application permet d’accéder au site Internet « Leclercdrive », avec les mêmes identifiants, mais propore aussi des nouveautés. Ainsi, on peut entrer ses informations de carte de fidélité, mais aussi scanner les produits qu’on désire rajouter à la liste de course. L’intérêt étant de facilité les procédures de réassort, et donc de développer la fidélisation du client au service. De plus, Leclerc lance via cette application ce qui semble être la première plateforme de paiement en ligne via mobile.

Je trouve que c’est une très bonne idée de développer ce type d’application, notamment pour le service de Drive. En effet, le Drive a réussit à s’imposer grâce à une interface soignée sur Internet, qui permet d’avoir une excellente expérience d’achat. Retrouver la même qualité sur mobile propose un vrai service à valeur ajouté au client, et donc permettra certainement de travailler la rétention de client, mais aussi certainement le panier moyen.

Et vous, qu’en pensez vous ?

Questions about Advertising on Twitter

As I have been doubting for the longest time about how to make Twitter profitable, I found this very interesting article about how Twitter intend to generate revenues from its activities. Indeed, they have already launched an advertising platform, “Promoted Tweets”, which remains in an early stage, and needs some improvement.

This article asks very interesting questions, which actually will drive the chief of marketing interest. Indeed, it is interesting to empower the full potential of Twitters advertising, by getting tools which will secure campaigns’ efficiency.

How well can I segment my audience?
Twitter didn’t comment on the news, so there aren’t explicit details about how the targeting will work. "Ad Age" says users will be targeted based on the people and products they already follow. Makes sense, but in-stream ads will be more effective if Twitter can offer more granularity.
In the case of Red Bull, for example, has a potential ad recipient tweeted about energy drinks in general? Or can Red Bull target them because they’ve tweeted about being tired? Will keyword-based targeting be an option? What about geographical targeting, or segmenting messages based on different times of day (dayparting)? What kinds of segmentation on Twitter would be most useful to your campaigns?

My Thoughts: I believe it is important that Twitter provides a clear tool, which would be easy to use to the announcer, in order to set clear advertising strategies. Google has made a great job by creating tools which will provide great estimations of campaigns’ success, and ways to think a keyword campaign.

How much control do I have over the content?
Social media marketing is about giving up “control” over consumer reactions, but not about completely aborting a brand’s core messaging. The 140 character limit for tweets means that messages need to be quick, catchy and yet still retain the brand’s unique “voice,” all while delivering a pitch or call to action.

Will Twitter offer assistance with customizing these messages? What about retweets? Will users be able to forward an ad in its entirety, or will they be able to retweet it with their own (potentially cheeky or negative) commentary? Are there filters to ensure that Red Bull's in-stream ads don’t show up between other tweets that contain profanity or other undesirable content?

My Thoughts: On this one, I don’t see any solutions. Social media is about giving up control, and hence, it is important to provide great content which will lower the risk of bad buzz. Also, social media is not for all companies. It is important to have a strong brand equity, which will secure a great conversation with the audience, and hence lower the number of bad comments and negative buzz.

How do I determine my ROI?
This has been an obstacle for many social media campaigns that aren’t tied to specific ad units. Twitter could solve this by giving advertisers custom, shortened URLs for their promoted tweets, and providing the analytics on clicks.
The company has its own URL shortener – t.co – that makes this possible. A t.co link within an ad could even drive traffic to special landing pages, or serve as a link to download a coupon. This would make Twitter a more effective tool for direct response marketers, not just brands. How would your team determine the ROI of an ad in a Twitter timeline?

This would be very interesting to have tools to estimate return on investment. Especially because announcers will compare Google keywords campaign efficiency versus Twitter, or Facebook. It is therefore important to provide data of the interest to go for Twitter.

Facebook Launches New Deal Feature For Business

Competition in the geolocalization market is about to kick off. Facebook has been late in the market, while some spiking start ups like Foursquare and Gowalla have already been able to build a strong audience. Of course, geolocalization brings a lot of interest for business, especially retailers, as it might trigger in store traffic generation with the appropriate offer.

Mc Donald’s have already set up a great case study, while it increased by 30% its sales thanks to a Foursquare campaign. Hence Facebook has launched recently Facebook Places, which aims to compete with Foursquare. Facebook has a great advantage on Foursquare, as it owns already a way larger audience, which already spends a lot of time on the social network.

Facebook has declared it will launch a new deal service for business to use. Businesses will be able for free (at least so far) to create deals which will be displayed to Facebook Places users. When someone will check in somewhere, it will be able to see the deals proposed nearby.

I believe this is a great strategy for Facebook to propose this service for free, as it will give a lift to Facebook Place, which will be more attractive for customers as it may propose a larger amount of deals than Foursquare.

During the conference, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg seemed to place a particular emphasis on the friend deals — after all, the ability to tag friends, including friends who don’t normally use check-in services, helps Facebook Places stand out. When I first heard about the deal tagging system, I was concerned that it might lead to lots of fake check ins, but Zuckerberg noted that users need to present their coupons in-person to claim a reward. So it would be hard to claim that you brought three of your friends to the store if you’re there by yourself.

During our interview, Kendall also emphasized the tagging feature: “We think it’s a real digital representation of how people discover local businesses offline.”

Facebook uses its size in order to get leverage, and hence to get a competitive advantage on the competition, which remains small start ups. I find the strategy very interesting.

How To Improve Blackberry

I wanted to share with you a need I have about my Blackberry. I have been owning a Blackberry Curve 8900 for about 2 years now and I have been very happy about it (even though it is sometimes slow to go on the Internet, but it is OK).

Nevertheless, with the rise of web 2.0, Twitter and social media, I believe my needs have evolved in terms of smart phones. My expectations for this kind of devices increased. Prior to my Blackberry, I used to own a windows mobile handheld, which was very convenient to manage both my contacts and my schedule.

My Blackberry is better though than my old handheld. It is very easy to enter my to do list and agenda. Nevertheless, as I am blogging a lot and surfing on the Internet to get source of information, It seems that it is difficult to manage different sources of information through Blackberry.

What is on Blackberry seems to remain on Blackberry, while I’d like to access it everywhere I am, on a laptop, computer and so on. Therefore I believe Blackberry should own an app which would allow to store some files which could be either used on Blackberry or on a regular computer, but also would allow to save and range easily articles found on the web.

The idea would be to have at all time a copy of my Blackberry activities on line, which could be actually accessed thanks to either a website or an application.

Is there anything which looks like what I need? Feel free to contact me to discuss about it.

Offermeatrip: A Great Vendor Relationship Management Example

Vendor Relationship Management, or VRM, may be defined as a reverse customer relationship management concept. Instead of a company making you offers, the customer is expressing a need, and companies are in competition in order to complete.

Offermeatrip is a soon to be released website which proposes to users to design their dreamt vacations. Travel agents access to these data, and may make an offer which will fit customer’s will.

VRM concepts have been around for a while, but cases are pretty rare so far. Offermeatrip is a good example applied to the travel and leisure business.

Ipad to Improve Customer Experience

What is fascinating with the Ipad is the way Apple has been able to create a need by designing a brand new handheld which does not look like any other handheld in the market. And as it is brand new, Apple needed to explain how to use the tool. Now some people have been able to find new interesting ways to use it to improve customer relationship management, especially customer experience but also to improve sales force tools.

Here are some few examples you may adopt to help your customers and your sales team:
Provide an Ipad to the shopper: You may provide to your loyal customer as a premium service an Ipad while shopping. Thanks to a brand application, your customer will access to some interactive information on the product. He may watch videos, user comments, or maybe ideas on how to use it.
Use it as a tool for your sales fore: Your sales force may use it to display some strengths of the products. Let’s take the example of Mercedes USA. Car dealers have tested the system where salespeople have instant access to marketing programs for specific models, credit application process, among other information.
During business fairs, Ipads are very convenient to hang around the halls, and to provide quick Powerpoint presentations on the go.
Improving staff service: Some hotels have given to concierges Ipad, which help them provide information to customers about the area and potential events.

Do you have any other good examples of the use of Ipad as a CRM tool?

The Art Of Mobile Advertizing

I hate to copy and paste an article from another website without adding value to it. Hence, I believe my expertise, experiences and opinion are valuable assets which I like to share on this blog. Nevertheless I found a great article about mobile advertising.

To be honest with you I don’t really master the art, as I don’t have much experience in this field. I also believe not a lot of people do, because it is new, at least in terms of real media (prior to this year, mobile advertising results were pretty low). What I really like in this article, it’s exhaustive.

Mobile Display Formats
For this first installment, I’ll focus on the prevailing mobile display formats. Mobile tech and content is always moving forward, creating new opportunities for brand impressions and actionable ads (read: still the wild west to some degree), so I am bound to miss some here.

Mobile Web Banners and Text Links
Mobile web banners and text links were among the first - and are still – among the most common forms of mobile advertising. Banner ads (sometimes with accompanying text links) are displayed on mobile web pages and are typically clickable. For the sake of this post, I will define mobile web (aka WAP) as content viewed through the phone’s browser (not though a native handset application).

Best practice is to create mobile-specific banners with a strong, simple call to action. Please take this seriously. Reusing banners from wired web campaigns is a recipe for failure. Your client’s logo may be microscopic and unrecognizable on a small mobile web banner. The Mobile Marketing Association has great documents that track the current typical banner sizes. Naturally, you should check with each of your publishers and networks to get their updated specs.
Text links on mobile web typically sit just below the banner, but are sometimes stand-alone. They are simply clickable text links that act like banners.
So what happens when a user clicks on a banner or a text link? There are several cool things that can happen. More often than not, if best practices are followed, a click links the user to a mobile website.

Mobile Web Sites – And Why You Need One
There are a variety of ways that a mobile user can arrive at a mobile web site (a.k.a. WAP site, mobile landing page, mobile microsite, etc.), but most typically this happens as a result of a user clicking on a mobile banner or text link as described above.
Mobile websites are a critical piece of a mobile marketing strategy for almost any brand. Most (wired) websites do not display properly on a mobile phone. And yes, this includes Iphone and Android phones. Without a mobile-optimized site, you not only risk a sub-par (and possibly very frustrating) user experience, but you also miss out on special specific opportunities such as click-to-call a phone number and share with a friend via text.
Additionally, mobile-specific search engines (including Google’s mobile search) will typically prioritize their search results, putting properly formatted mobile sites at the top of the list. From this perspective, any brand that depends on search is taking a risk by not having a mobile optimized site.
I’ve seen many mobile media sales reps discount the necessity of a mobile optimized site, especially when pitching a media buy to a brand that doesn’t have one yet. Even if you are only targeting smartphones, I believe that linking to a wired website is very shortsighted and destined to provide lackluster results.

Text-based SMS ads
Text based SMS (Short Messaging Service) ads appear within text messages sent to subscribers of newsletters and alerts. At the bottom of these short messages, the publisher inserts a text brand message. When written as a call to action, these can be clickable links, providing an opportunity to link to a mobile web site or invoke the click to call functionality of the handset.

MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) Ads
MMS ads, like SMS ads, are sent only to users that have opted in to receive them. Unlike SMS ads, MMS ads can include branding in the form of images, audio or video. I felt it was sensible to include MMS in this article to be comprehensive, but it is a bit off the topic of mobile display because, typically, a user has requested the ad content. As with other mobile formats, it is critical to understand the specs required by the provider before executing creative.

Mobile video
Initially, mobile video advertising was a passive low-tech experience for a tiny audience. Ads ran inline with video content and were not actionable (much like on broadcast TV).
Mobile video is now scaling along with other mobile media as smartphones and better carrier data plans have gained market share. Depending on the video platform, there are various opportunities for display ads. Some are passive (not actionable) as described above, yet more advance interactive ad units are becoming more common. These tend to be similar in function to those used on web-based video players, allowing users to click buttons on overlays, video player frames, etc. On a mobile device, these actionable ads can be more powerful when they leverage click to call, share with a friend via SMS, etc.

Mobile Applications and In-App ad units
Native mobile applications have been a prime driver of the recent growth in mobile content and advertising and have created a variety of new opportunities for marketers. Before I discuss the type of ad units that exist within mobile applications, let’s look at mobile applications themselves.
Well-developed mobile applications can offer a better user experience and increased functionality compared with mobile web experiences. Developers have much more refined control over the look and feel of the application and can also access features that are native to the phone. These include interaction with the users address book (to make it easy to share content), access to the phone’s camera, accelerometer, GPS, etc. Typically, these tools cannot be accessed through the mobile browser but with the advent of HTML 5 and updated browsers, this will soon change, allowing the browser to access more of the phone’s internal features.

Let’s now take a look at the display advertising opportunities with mobile applications:
Branded Applications
These don’t need much explanation at this point. The brand creates a mobile application that (ideally) supports the brand’s goals and offers some level of utility, entertainment, information or incentives. We can certainly go deeper on this subject, but it is likely better addressed as a separate subject.

Sponsored Applications
Usually, this means a brand “owns” the app for some period of time and has some “run of site” opportunity. The format of those brand messages is usually customized in some way for the sponsor. Some of the possible formats are described below. A sponsor may also get rights to brand the application, for example “The Brand X Tip Calculator” application.

In-App ad units
Many media companies are now creating mobile applications and tablet applications to distribute their content. Some of these are offered by paid subscription, but many more are free-to-consumer ad-supported applications.

• Banners - Much like the mobile web, banners are the most common form of advertising within mobile applications. Within an application, a click on a banner can create a variety of interactions, but the most common are:
  User clicks the banner and the application launches the native browser on the phone and displays a mobile web site
  User clicks the banner and the application launched its own internal browser and displays a mobile web site within the application. This is a superior user experience as it easily returns the user to the application after they have interacted with the ad unit.
  User clicks the banner that initiates a phone call or text message.
• Rich media ad units - Mobile rich media ad units are very flexible and are usually customized for the advertiser.
  Several companies have emerged that are creating portfolios of mobile rich media ad units that operate within mobile applications. Expanding canvases, fixed position/persistent banners and location aware ads are quickly getting traction across mobile and tablet applications. There are exciting creative possibilities with rich media ads due to refined user experience. These units often click through to video or what I’ll call “mini applications” within applications.
  These ad units typically require some integration of an SDK at the publisher or network level. Ask your media salesperson what’s possible.
• Integrated ads (in game placements, etc.) - In game ad placement is already common in mobile, yet these ads are usually static advertisements and are not clickable. That said, there are ways to reach mobile gamers via networks that specialize in gaming properties. A gamer may see a brand message alongside the game window, between game levels, etc. Some of these ad units are interactive.
• Interstitials - An interstitial or “splash page” is simply a branded message that is displayed while an application is first loading or when the user requests a new page. Interstitials can be static or clickable.
  As always, it is critical to check with the publisher or network to fully understand capabilities and ad specs.

In-call audio advertising
In the interest of being comprehensive, I should also cover in-call audio advertising. This is sometimes overlooked as a “mobile display medium” despite the fact that it’s been around longer than most other forms of mobile advertising.
These audio ads are heard by consumers while on hold at call centers, while calling free directory services, content services, etc. One example is present a competitive offer to a consumer who looks up something in the directory. The consumer asks for Joe’s Pizza, but is offered a chance to get a coupon from Jack’s Pizza. IVR systems (Interactive Voice Response) are often used to create interactive ads for the brand. This allows for calls to action such as “Press 1 for more info,” “Say yes or press 1 to get a text message sent to your phone,” etc.

Clover: The 2.0 Loyalty Reward Programs

New loyalty reward programs have sprung up thanks to the Internet and smartphones. Hence, the old loyalty card usage seems to go in limbo.

I have recently discussed a lot about new ways to get customer relationship management programs going. For example, Cardstar allows you to get all your loyalty reward cards into one Iphone app. Also, a website like Checkpoint reward visits instead of purchases, which is also a new way to approach CRM.

I believe that one of the main goal of a customer relationship management program must be to ease the use of the rewards one customer gained. Indeed, at some point, if it is difficult to access your voucher, you may be reluctant to use the program.

Here are some of the traditonnal bargains, among others:

• Need to be proactive : The customer need to send its tickets or on pack coupons to get a reward. It needs to register online with a long questionnaire.
• Need to reach a certain amount to release its reward: You may need to reach 10€ of reward to use them, or you need to have a large amount of points to access an interesting gift. If the reward seems inaccessible, you won’t fight for it would you?
• Need to have on you your card: Isn't there any other way to recognize you as a loyal customer?

Clovr
The idea is simple: Once you click on an ad banner, Clovr will reward you by placing vouchers into your credit card. Once you will purchase something, your voucher will be automatically released.
Clovr Media delivers Loyalty 2.0 to the financial services and digital media ecosystems by bridging the gap between credit/debit card loyalty and interactive advertising in a way that is seamless and simple for consumers. Clovr Media has built the first platform that converts banner, text, video, or mobile ads into Card Linked Offers (CLOs) – delivering pinpoint targeting and accountability for online and mobile advertising. When clicked, CLOs link product discounts directly to a consumer’s credit/debit card – no point of sale integration, no mail-in rebates or paper coupons, and the discounts appear directly on the consumer’s bank statement. CLOs are an evolutionary leap forward for Financial Institutions encouraging loyalty and increasing rewards point redemption. Clovr Media’s Gateway gives advertisers the direct link between digital ad spend and consumer purchases with 100% attribution. For the consumer, CLOs are a frictionless way to take advantage of great savings while strengthening the connection with the brands they love. Clovr Media is the bridge between advertisers, brands, consumers and Financial Institutions – Welcome to Loyalty 2.0.

Waltham, Mass.-based Clovr bills its new card-linked platform as part of its “Loyalty 2.0” campaign, which can now directly link digital ad spending to consumer purchases with 100 percent attribution. The new platform will be the first of its kind to convert banner, text-link, video or mobile ads into Card Linked Offers (CLOs) automatically.
A bank’s customer would like this because when clicked, CLOs link product discounts directly to a their credit/debit card with no point of sale hoopla, no mail-in rebates and no paper coupons. Discounts just appear directly on a consumer’s bank statement.
Clovr said consumers will then feel more connected to their financial institution and put those banks “top of the wallet,” because they are being offered first crack at ads that have learned their preferences and buying habits—and won’t have to do anything to achieve those discounts except click specific ads.

You should check out this video:


Once again, we see thanks to this new system a new kind of loyalty reward programs, which is not simply based on purchase. With social media and customers taking power over companies, it becomes more and more important to create a real relationship, based on mutual knowledge.

Hence, you may know your customers thanks to your data base and data mining efforts, but your customer should also be rewarded while they are seeking for information about your brands. Information is easy to find, and if a customer wants it, it may either go to your competitor’s website or yours.

I really like the concept. What about you?

Starbucks To Provide Content To Secure Customer’s Loyalty

Starbucks has always been a trailblazer in social media adoption. They have set up a wifi network in their stores for the longest times, have a strong Facebook community and makes a great use of Twitter. Starbucks have built its strength on customer experience, by delievering high quality products, but also by creating a whole atmosphere in its shops.

Now Starbucks is launching a new offer. While logging in the Wifi hot spot, Starbucks customers will land on a Starbuck’s page providing free content, from newspaper websites to e-books.

Here is the detail of what will be available:

• Landing page: Foursquare check in; Starbucks card balance and rewards (if you’re logged in to the network); local weather conditions from The Weather Channel; and a “social media dashboard” with connections to Facebook, Twitter, My Starbucks Idea and You Tube. The Foursquare feature is smart, because as the social website is becoming more and more important, it will give a high exposure to the brand.
  



• News: New York Times Reader 2.0, WSJ.com, USA TODAY eEdition, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, and infographics from GOOD.
  



• Entertainment: iTunes music and videos, including a digital version of the free Starbucks/iTunes Pick of the Week card program; the aforementioned Bookish Reading Club; short eBooks on business management, leadership and travel from New Word City; Nick Jr. Boost early learning games for kids; and SnagFilms documentary film festivals.
  



• Wellness: Articles, recipes and videos from Rodale, publisher of Men’s Health, Runner’s World, and Prevention; and a “Map my Ride, Map by Run” app that helps customers find routes (often beginning or ending at a Starbucks) in their local communities.
  



• Business & Careers: Content from LinkedIn, including a career-focused blog and videos on job seeking tips; Yahoo Finance.
  



• My Neighborhood: Foursquare check in; DonorsChoose.org for making donations to local K-12 public and charter school projects; community news from AOL Patch; neighborhood restaurant reviews from Zagat; Flickr photos from the local area.
  



• Starbucks: Information on new drinks, events, and offers from Stabucks; nutrition data; way to check Starbucks Card balances.
  



• Asked about future content, Brotman said he envisions a Lifestyle category with shopping, cooking, sports and games. He also talked about community features — such as a "community corkboard" for local events and announcements; individual store blogs; and ways for customers to interact with each other in a Starbucks store.

The product is a mix between social media, with Foursquare, LinkedIn, and so on, and some content which is paid by the brand. The goal is to enhance customer experience on site. It is actually the same kind of idea than proposing free wi fi in Mc Donald’s restaurant in order to convince people to come in, but going a step further. No commercials is planned to be added to the service (which would actually become a revenue stream).

But I really like the idea, because:

• It is directly linked with the brand strategy



• It improves the customer experience



• It provides a strong competitive advantage

Once again, Starbucks is smart about how to use the Internet to provide a premium service to its customer. What do you think about it?

Will Facebook Pages Kill Brand Websites?

As a fan of swimming, the other day I was looking for Michael Phelps’ website to get some news.And as I was googling it, I realized that michaelphelps.com was his Facebook page. Indeed, the use of Facebook pages has sprung up the past few months. Some success stories are already established.

Owning a Facebook page rather than an actual websites allows to be more interactive and to converse better with fans this is obvious. But I wanted to relate my Google Search to another article I read: Are Facebook Pages Killing Websites? What is sure is that some companies are already generating a large audience on their Facebook pages. As a matter of fact, I attended last month a conference where the speaker said that within the top 10 Facebook Fan pages, the vast majority of them were brands' ones. Facebook users hence are interested into brands in social media.

For example, Kraft Foods' Oreo is the number 3 brand page on Facebook, with a fan base of over 10.1 million growing at a rate of 71,000 new fans each a day. Meanwhile, their branded website, NabiscoWorld.com, has seen U.S. traffic drop in the last year from 1.2 million in July, 2009, to just 321,000 in July this year.

New research by digital consultancy Beyond, found that almost a quarter (23%) of consumers would prefer to receive information from brands via Facebook, rather than a brand's website (21%) or company blog (3%).

I believe that Facebook being a third party but more important an open space where users are free to interact as they like with Fan pages makes it more valuable, and this is the reason why they'd rather go on Facebook than on the company's page.

Another article of Adage gives a little bit more information on this fact: Clearly much of the audience migration from brand sites to Facebook pages is by marketer design. Increasingly tags on TV and print ads that used to direct people to brand websites now direct them to Facebook fan pages, noted Daniel Cummings, business development director for DBM/Scan, a firm that tracks relationship marketing programs for packaged goods, quick-serve restaurants, pharmaceutical marketers and retailers.

Hence, we may conclude that some companies are much interested in this promising medium, which allows them to converse with their audience, and hence boost their customer relationship management.

But now the question clearly asked is this one: Could your Facebook page replace your website? It is a tough question, because Facebook's growth is clearly not over, and it seems that its importance will still grow. Also, some companies have already started to use Facebook with online shops into it, showing Facebook's potential for e-commerce.

So far, it would be difficult to be extremist about the issue. I don't think that websites will disappear for Facebook. Websites still have a great interest in term of branding and providing high quality information. It is also normal that a new Internet medium would "cannibalize" a part of your website's traffic. I believe the border between websites and Facebook pages will shrink, and websites will evolve to add more social features with Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare items, but yet brand websites still have an interest.

What do you think about it?

Branding: Mutualising Brands May Boost Your E-commerce Business

A lot of global companies own several brands which they use to segment either different market or customers. A great example is General Motors, which does not really exist as a customer brand but which developped several brands in order to respond to specific customer segments. This technique has another advantage: it sometimes provide the thought to customers they have choice between several brands whereas it is the same company behind this "competition".

But branding has evolved a lot as customers know more and more about business. Hence, even though not a lot of people may know that Procter & Gamble owns Axe, Ariel and Head & Shoulders, the tough market competition has pushed companies to seek for chemistry and competition advantage by unifying brands in some marketing campaigns.

Also, some companies like Carrefour in France, has decided to change the names of its different store chains from Champion, Shoppi, or Huit à huit into Carrefour Market, Carrefour Proxi and Carrefour Contact, in order to gain brand power.

I have read this story about Gap's merchant website, which I found very interesting. Indeed, Gap owns several other clothing retail brands like Old Navy or Banana Republic, each of them addressing to a specific clientele. But Gap has been able to make the best of its online activities by mutualising the different brands on the same e-commerce platform.

Whereas Gap's overall sales decreased by 10%, its online activities had a great boost thanks to this strategy with a growth of +33%, +5% for gap.com and +10% for oldnavy.com.

Prior to the change, only 25% of Gap.com's downstream traffic went to company's other brands (OldNavy.com, BananaRepublic.com and Piperlime.com). That percentage increased to 55% by the end of Aug. 2008.

The same analysis also showed that Gap.com's referral traffic from OldNavy.com, its sister brand was only 12% with little or no traffic from the other brands prior to its redesign. The same traffic from OldNavy.com jumped to 26%. Piperlime.com and BananaRepublic.com also became major sources of referral traffic for Gap.com. In the meantime, Google.com as a Gap.com referral traffic source was down from 10.1% to 8.6% while its downstream traffic to Google.com was also down from 6% to 3%. Gap.com's reliance on Google decreased reduced substantially. This means customers no longer use a "vehicle" to get to the Gap's online store. In short, Gap's smart design not only increased its sales, it also eased the burden on marketing staff's acquisition and retention efforts because its number of visitors and the time those visitors spend have substantially increased since then.

What is also very interesting in this story is that it has also been copied by the online newspaper industry, and this similar tactic paid off too.

Wall Street Journal Digital Network is taking a similar approach. Before AllthingsD.com, one of the network's vertical sites, synchronized its site header with WSJ.com in August 2008, only 5% of its downstream traffic went to WSJ.com. A Before-after analysis showed that right after the site header synchronization, there was a dramatic increase in its downstream traffic to WSJ.com -- 35%. The interpretation of this success is that AllthingsD.com visitors are tempted to click on the WSJ.com.com tab on the top of its site -- just for the sake of wanting to see what's going on at WSJ.com. More often than not, the convenience factors and the "a-ha" moments that delight users are the reasons behind a successful site.

It seems that brand optimization is a key issue for global companies at the moment. I believe this detailed story could nourish your thoughts if you are managing a global brand. What do you think about it.