SFR Launches New Concept Store To Improve Shopping Experience #Retail

SFR is one of the leading mobile phone network in France. Over the past few years the business model of SFR has evolved a lot based on two facts:

• The market became mature, and after a long phase of equipment, SFR is in a market where it needs to fight for its market share.
• The arrival of a low cost company Free which hurt its profitability and forced to modify its operation costs modell.

Hence, SFR is trying to modify its retail network in order to adapt to those changes. They recently launched a new concept store, aimed to enhance customer and shopper experience, based on new technologies.

Some of the remarkable ideas:

• A lot of screens showing out the options and the usages of the cell phone.
• When the customers hold 2 cell phones at a time, the screen show you the comparaison of both modells.
• A new after sales service which allows to respond to two customers at a time, which limits the waiting time.
• A lot of effort was made on the merchandizing to show clearly the different categories (after sales, cell phones, home equipment...)

SFD Concept Imagine / Vidéo Instit. from dansmagalaxy on Vimeo.

How To Leverage The Potential Of Web to Store?

I'd like to thank PPC, a famous French blogger and friend, that tweeted a grat article (in French) on how to leverage the potential of Web to Store.

Indeed, a lot of retail professional complains on the new hype of "show rooming", the fact that customers tend to visit stores to see and touch products, get information by the sales person, and then compare prices at home to finish up buying at home, most of the time on a competitor's website.

The show rooming trend is hitting hard some retailers working on the cultural goods, like Virgin in France, Barnes & Noble in the US, and also the high tech retailers, like Best Buy, or Darty in France.

Nevertheless, there are also ways to leverage the Internet in order to create foot traffic in stores. This is what the article calls "the Web to Store".

There are 4 ways to use the web to store approach:

1. Couponning: Propose to customers to print online coupons to use in stores.
2. Store locator: Allow customers to prepare their visits on line by giving them extensive information on how to get to your point of sales.
3. Click & Collect: The shopper shops on line, but get its product at the point of sales. The advantage for both the customers and the retailer is that you save expenses on the delivery trip. The retailer may also trigger additional sales thanks to the visit.
4. The shopping preparation: Sometimes the web is better to get information, and to finish up the work in store. I believe that works a lot for purchases with a long decision making process, that will need the advocacy of a sales representative.

Despite the fact I believe web to store may help one store to raise its sales and in overal, grow the whole business (both online and in store), I believe that in overal, the rise of Internet will destruct in the end the performances of traditional stores. But in the end, companies that will be able to set a strong position online with a great quality network of stores have a great advantage upon competition. 

What do you think about it?

Ron Johnson Takes Over As CEO At JC Penney: Expecting Great Customer Experience

Former chief of Apple's retailing activities Ron Johnson will soon become the new CEO of JC Penney. Ron Johnson's reputation has been built on the amazing job he has accomplished at Apple as he invented a new generation of stores which stood out by its innovations, including especially the genius bar, where customers could found technical help.

JC Penney has been multiplying innovations, and is already looking for new ways to improve its stores attractivity and foot traffic.

Now I believe that Ron Johnson's task will be tough. Of course, its experience at Apple's show well its ability to think through customer experience, and to be able to innovate. But I wonder (I have no information on that point) how profitable those stores are, and how do they contribute in overall to Apple's revenues. To me, Apple's store main goal is more to present its products as a show room, even more than to actually become one of the main retail channel of the brand.

Here is one of the section of the very interesting ar

ticle I read:

"That strategy has translated into packed stores. Apple said it attracted 71.1 million visitors to its stores in its latest quarter, more than the 60 million who flocked to Walt Disney Co.'s four biggest theme parks for the entire year, according to Themed Entertainment Association."

In this paragraph, you can see that they are comparing the number of people visiting a resort park with the number of people visiting a store. The term "visitor" shows well that the goal of those Apple stores may not be in the end to sell at the first place.

Indeed, JC Penney is a pure retailer, which needs to optimize its square meters. Now, this prerogative is not in contradiction with the search for better customer relationship and better customer experience. But Johnson will be working mainly with low tech and low innocation products (clohtings), while at Apple it was only top of the line highly innovative products.

Somehow, it is a good thing for JC Penney, which will be able to benefits its creative and new mindset, in order to reinvent their concepts.

What do you think about it?

Myshopanion = Social Shopping

Social shopping is one of the hottest trend in the Internet world right now. It may be one of the most important one also to follow in 2011. As I would define it, social shopping encompasses all activities which will lead one shopper to use social media in his process to purchase a product or a service.

It can include several different features, among which:

• Checking in Foursquare or Gowalla to let his/her friends know what he/she is doing, or to access some vouchers.
• Visiting/asking questions/commenting on a blog/forum.
• Asking friends on Twitter or Facebook about the products.
• Simply reading comments and reviews either on Facebook, brand websites, ecommerce websites, blogs...

It appears that opinions of others online is very important in the decision making process. And hence, new social media are taking a very important part into this process.

Now, social media are migrating on mobile devices, and I found an interesting articloe about Myshopanion. It is a mobile application which aims to help shoppers to interact with peers. You may scan one product with your application to access several sources of information, such as comments of others.

I believe it is a good idea to launch such an app, in order to help the customers right before they purchase something, to make sure they are making the good choice.

In term of customer relationship management, it is a good thing those kinds of apps exist. Indeed, most of the new shopping tools emphasizes discounts and price comparaison, but when one company wants to show off its customer experience and customer service, what else than cusotmer reviews can be efficient? Indeed, I still believe that customers don't make their decision simply by comparing prices. They are also looking for a specific customer experience and customer service which they need and they feel they deserve.

Myshopanion is hence bringing social shopping onto mobile devices.

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?

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?

From Premium To Discount : Esso France Case Study

A lot of brands aspire some day to become a premium brand. Owning a premium brand offer a high esteem, but very few are the companies which are aiming to go the opposite way.

I had a very interesting talk with a guy of an Esso gas station. Indeed, I was wondering if I could access to the customer loyalty reward program, which they used to have for years. It was some kind of virtual money, coupons with “points” on it, which was providing you access to some gifts.

The guy told me the abandoned the concept while ago, and that actually they were turning their whole park of gas station into automatic ones.

I know the Esso Express concept for quite a while. The idea is to get rid of the store which was held by employees, to propose some automatic vendors machines. Of course, the goal is obvious: cutting down salary expenses.

The gas station market has become very competitive over the past few years. French leading company Total has become a tycoon, and there is not a lot of room for competition. Actually, the only competition that emerged was retailers, which started first to set some gas stations on the parking of their stores, and then secondly, to buy other gas stations on highways.

This is actually funny, because discounters like Carrefour or Leclerc now proposes the best service to employees, as they propose a vast choice of grocery products in their gas stations.

Now there is something easy for a premium brand to become low cost: you have developed an extensive range of service, so you are at the better spot to know which ones are not vital.

In terms of customer relationship management, going low cost might be difficult. Indeed, what makes you different from your competition? Most of the time it is the customer relationship you have with your customers. Great service ultimately leads to loyalty. And by taking some of this service away might hurt your ability to keep your customers.

Now sometimes, excellence in customer relationship management is not based on how many service you could provide, but how great you may be in delivering. This is the reason why in a recent study French hard discount retailers had greater satisfaction grades than hypermarket, which are constantly developing new service to improve customer experience.

Of course, let’s face it, this strategy of Esso has been driven by their inability to compete with Total, which became much bigger those past years. Therefore, I don’t think it is possible to target market shares gain with this technique.

So has this strategy emerged due to the impossibility to become leader? Or has it been planned to increase profit and merging on a mature market? This is a very good question, but unfortunately, I can’t respond to it. But it is interesting to see what strategical turn Esso decided to make.

Packaging Vehicles Added Value: The L'Or Espresso Case Study

I wanted to share with you some thoughts about a discussion I had with a friend of mine about the new l'Or Espresso capsules that have been released to compete with Nespresso's on the Nespresso coffee machine. Indeed, for a decade, Nespresso owned a pattern that gave them exclusivity on the productions of capsule for their self designed espresso machine.

Now the pattern deadline is over, and therefore some competitors have started to release some new caps. I have been very interesting about this story, because it is very interesting how nespresso, which had a 100% control over its business model (also due to the fact it was the only one to actually distribute its caps) will see the arrival of new competitors, and also to face a new distribution channel (traditionnal retailing) which the brand has always refused to consider.

A friend of mine own one of those machines, and as a coffee lover, I have been very interesting about the topic. We have been looking for several weeks for those caps, as in all the store we visited we could not find those new caps.

We finally did. I believed for quite a while that the quality of Nespresso coffee came from its high pressure which delivers all the flavors from espressos. But actually, as we could see with those new capsules, they have nothing in common with Nespresso's one.

Hence, the capsules are packed in a plastic cover, as the plastic capsule is already pre opened to allow the coffee to spilt. As you might imagine, there is hence a true difference between they experience you could get with the real nespresso caps, and those ones.

This story shows out once more the importance of packaging. Indeed, as a matter of fact, the first step of customer experience is bad due to the lack of quality of the packaging. Also, the price difference between the two products does not explain the difference in packaging quality.

Once again, first customer experience is the second moment of truth. It is therefore very important to think as a customer which would open for the first time the product, in order to keep this moment magical.

My Air France A380 Flight To New York: Premium Customer Experience

I have traveled a lot by plane to the US in my young career, as I have worked several times in the US. I got used to those long flights, and I got accustomed to it. But this, time, I had the opportunity to travel with the brand new A380 aircraft from Air France.

I knew the aircraft was great, but to be honest with you I did not expect anything special from this flight. Now there are a lot of very small details that made this flight pleasant and memorable:

• You can actually see with a video placed at the end of the aircraft the take off and the landing. This is very exciting and new to me.
• You have a large choice of multimedia activities: You don't have couple of movies but about twenty to pick from. You may start whenever you like the movie or stop it.
• About the Air France airline, the crew was very nice. The food was great, and we weren't charge neither for pillows, sheets, nor headphones (which is pretty rare nowadays).

From my prospective, I have never really cared about the airline before. I did not see really much difference. But the last time I traveled to the US, I traveled with Air India, and that has just been the worst experience ever. Poor service, the aircraft was obsolete, and it was just horrible. It was by far the cheapest, but to be honest with you, I'd rather pay twice as much not to deal with that.

Now I believe that Air France and this flight is a great customer relationship management case study. Air France might be expensive, but they provided superior customer experience, by providing all those little services that makes the difference. By trying to cut costs too much, you make customer experience bad, and the facial value of what you pay is very low.

Those little snacks, those little attentions might actually not cost you that much, especially while you consider the added cost you charge, but it has a high facial value, and this is the reason why it is worth doing it.

Cuts costs = lowering facial value, instead of higher pricing + extra services = high facial value, which leads to customer satisfaction, and ultimately customer loyalty.

I recommend you if you have the opportunity to fly with this Airbus A 380 of Air France, trust me, it is worth it.

Deezer crée Soundeezer

Deezer, la société française offrant d'écouter en ligne les titres de sa bibliothéque numérique vient de lancer un nouveau service, Soundeezer.

La technologie de Deezer permet,outre d'accéder à vos titres préférés via un moteur de recherche, de créer des playlists adaptés à vos goûts musicaux.

Ainsi Sébastien Naji, directeur général adjoint de Deezer vient d'annoncer dans le magazine de la grande distribution LSA la création d'un nouveau service, qui ambitionne de compter pour 15% du chiffre d'affaires de la société d'ici un an.

Soundeezer permettra aux enseignes et marques qui le souhaitent de créer leurs prorpes playlists pour leurs point de vente. Outre le fait que ces playlists soient adaptés à la clientèle et au positionnement de la marque, il permettra aussi d'insérer les messages spécifiques tels que des jingles ou des publicités.
D'un point de vue stratégie relation client, le marketing sensoriel, et encore plus sonore, permette d'améliorer sensiblement l'expérience shopper, mais aussi de renforcer l'image de l'entreprise auprès des consommateurs. Je n'ai pour l'instant d'informations sur les tarifs proposer, mais le gait que Deezer est déjà Mc Donald's et ses 1 161 restaurants comme premier client n'est qu'un gage de réussite.
J'aime beaucoup cette information pour 2 raisons:

• Il est très intéressant de voir une start up française réussir aussi bien. Surtout que dans le domaine du téléchargement musical, beaucoup d'autres sociétés se sont frottées aux majors sans grand succès. Le concept est très bon et je suis sûr qu'il serait exportable facilement, si ce n'est pas déjà le cas.
• J'aime beaucoup la manière dont Deezer diversifier son modèle économique. En effet, Deezer joue sur son expertise, la musique on demand, afin de conquérir de nouveau marché. Ainsi ils ont une vrai légitimité, et transmette leurs savoirs faires à d'autres secteurs d'activité.

Je souhaite à Deezer bonne chance dans cette nouvelle aventure.

Mon impression du salon MD Expo

Je me suis rendu vendredi à 2 événements qui me tenait à coeur:

• Le salon du marketing at retail, salon de la publicité sur le point de vente, et en général, de l'expérience shopper. C'était la première fois que j'en entendais parler, et la première fois que je m'y rendais. Ainsi, en tant que chef de publicité d'une chaîne de hard discount, il était intéressant de voir ce qui était disponible sur le marché en matière d'idées, mais aussi de budgets. Mes attentes étaient donc très hautes.
• Le salon MD Expo, dédié au marketing direct, et donc de toutes les innovations en termes de communication sur Internet. Cela fait depuis 2006 que j'y vais (presque) tous les ans. Etant passioné par ces sujets, et maîtrisant la plupart de ces composants, j'y allais plus d'un air distrait, pour voir des choses nouvelles.

Et pour être vraiment honnête, j'ai été déçu par MD Expo. En effet, on parle énormément de mobile, de réseaux sociaux, mais là, j'ai retrouvé les mêmes acteurs, avec les mêmes solutions, et un discours qui devient paradoxal, reprenant une sémantique "2.0" mais en proposant du MD traditionnel.

Il est en effet difficile de passer d'un support rôdé, ayant prouvé son efficacité, à un média à peine installé, où tout reste à découvrir. Mais je pense qu'il existe en France, des sociétés innovantes, avec de très bonnes idées, qui auraient dû être présente, pour ainsi marquer cette transition. Le marketing direct est différent des réseaux sociaux, car l'interaction ne se fait pas sur des périodes déterminées, mais d'une manière continue, avec un vrai dialogue.

Le MD n'est pas mort

Maintenant, je ne veux pas non plus qu'on se méprenne: je ne considère pas le marketing direct traditionnel comme obsolète. Bien au contraire, je pense que le marketing direct, notamment le mailing, garde des atouts importants. Il permet d'avoir un discours personnalisé, souvent innovant, et un message personnalisé. Mais les réseaux sociaux, et les médias mobiles, sont en train de prendre le pas, et il est important de marcher dans le sens de l'histoire.

J'ai notamment été déçu de ne pas voir des acteurs qui avaient l'habitude de venir, notamment CRMmetrix, ou bien soft computing à cet événement.

Marketing at retail: Une vrai réussite

De l'autre côté, le salon marketing at retail fut une réelle surprise, et une très belle réussite. Au contraire du MD Expo, énormément d'entreprises innovantes, dans le domaine de la technologie tel que les écrans tactiles, les hologrammes, la 3D ou le téléphone mobile, ainsi que des prestataires traditionnelles, proposant des mises en avant sur linéaire. Le point de vente, après avoir souffert de l'arrivée de l'Internet, puis de la crise, risque de prendre une nouvelle importance stratégique. En effet, le point de vente est le premier média social entre la marque et le consommateur. Car c'est le seul endroit où le consommateur peut toucher les produits, les voirs, et discuter avec de "vrais personnes", et non derrière un support tel le téléphone, l'ordinateur, le téléphone ...

La différence entre le marketing at retail et le MD Expo reste pour moi la capacité à s'adapter à l'innovation. Je retournerai bien sûr à ces 2 événements l'année prochaine.

Kraft Iphone App Case Study

I have checked the Kraft Iphone app for quite a while. I believe it is very nicely done. I have found this interview of Ed Kaczmarek, Director of Inovation and Consumer Experiences at Kraft Foods. He gives us some insight about the application.

Kraft Foods launched the iFood Assistant in late November 2008 and released the upgraded iFood Assistant 2.0 a year later. The $0.99 app offers access to more than 7,000 recipes, cooking tips, a shopping list builder and how-to videos commingled with ads for Kraft brands. Ed Kaczmarek, director of innovation, consumer experience, discusses the branding goals of the iFood Assistant and insights into consumers’ app usage.

eMarketer: What is the goal of the app?

Ed Kaczmarek: Ultimately, our goal is to engage the consumer in a meaningful and relevant way. We want to make their life easier and to get closer to them during the point of purchase.

eMarketer: How does the app work?

Mr. Kaczmarek: The iFood Assistant provides a Recipe of the Day idea for seven days, as well as Dinner Tonight suggestions. It allows users to search our database of over 7,000 tested recipes, all with photos. We have a What’s on Hand search where they can type in up to three items they have and the app will offer recipe suggestions for those three items.
There’s a full-functioning shopping list that’s been refined a bit so that users can now check off items as they shop.

eMarketer: How do you promote the app to consumers?

Mr. Kaczmarek: We promote it across all of our Kraft channels, so it’s promoted on KraftFoods.com, KraftCanada.com. We have a recipe by e-mail that goes out on a weekly basis so we have periodic promotion there.
“We’ve concentrated on the mobile ad network and it’s very beneficial.”
We’ve concentrated on the mobile ad network and it’s very beneficial because we’re able to track actual conversion. We’ve added code into the app for the different ad networks. These have been efficient media buys that have driven a good amount of downloads for us.

eMarketer: How does the app interact with the online channel?

Mr. Kaczmarek: Users can sign in to iFood Assistant and their recipe box and shopping list will also be saved online. So if they’re at the computer, they can go to KraftFoods.com and access that recipe or shopping list. At any point, they can e-mail a recipe or shopping list to themselves or a friend.

eMarketer: What are the social hooks that are built into the iFood Assistant? For example, can users upload their own recipes?

Mr. Kaczmarek: We have that capability on the Website, but we have not yet activated it on the iFood platform. The social media hook right now is being able to send the different items to themselves or someone else. They can e-mail any recipe or their entire shopping list. We activated push notification where they can choose any day of the week and a time to be reminded of the Recipe of the Day or Dinner Tonight, even if the app is off. We also added a promotions and announcements section where we can notify users if something special is happening.

eMarketer: Since the iFood Assistant’s launch, how many downloads have you had?
“Six months after people download the app, we are experiencing over 60% of continued user engagement, which we feel is phenomenal.”

Mr. Kaczmarek: We do not share our download information, but what we’ve noticed is that six months after people download the app, we are experiencing over 60% of continued user engagement, which we feel is phenomenal. If you look at any of the stats out there, it’s more like 5% continued engagement two months after download.

eMarketer: Can you share any insights about consumer interactions with the app that were surprising or unusual?

Mr. Kaczmarek: We have 25% men using the platform, which was surprising to us. Also, over 90% of the people signing in to the iFood Assistant are new to the Kraft Foods environment so it has really been a great acquisition vehicle for us. Another observation is that when people share recipes, they definitely e-mail them more than they send them via text message.

eMarketer: How does the app promote the Kraft brand overall?
“The most important thing is we’re providing utility above branding.”

Mr. Kaczmarek:It’s a halo of innovation and helps position Kraft as contemporary. It really has connected us to the consumer closer to the point of purchase in a relevant way. The most important thing is we’re providing utility above branding. It enables all of our brands to connect with consumers because they are being included as a recipe ingredient. We also have advertising within different places in the app.

Here are some remarkable points of this interview, which you should think about while creating an Iphone App:

• Iphone apps are meant to improve customer experience. As we have seen with Kraft: 60% of people who downloaded the application was still using it afterward.
• The mobile advertising network could give you a real boost to promote the application. Indeed, the easiest way to download and use the application is by using a mobile webpage to download and set the application right away.
• Iphone applications are a tool for coach branding. Coach branding is an important element because it sets the brand as an expert of its product, and allows the brand to enter the every day life of customers. This is the main reason why I believe the Iphone application is the best customer relationship management tool so far.
  
  You would like to discuss about mobile application topics? Please leave a comment to start the conversation.

Time To Market Mobile Advertising

The mobile revolution is on the way. It has been a while experts have pictured a bright future for mobile advertising, but different aspects made it difficult to rocket:

• Mobile formats are very different, upon the operating system the device use (Blackberry, Windows Pocket, Symbian, Android, among others)
• The size and type of the screen
• The way to see the information (application, website, mobile site, and so on).
• The navigation system: keyboard, ball like Blackberry, tactile technology...
• The numerous number of actors willing to benefit from the new market, between agencies, advertisers, mobile network companies and so on.

But this year, it seems it will be good. The New York Times believes that the growth of Apple and Google, with its power to create applications and innovation in the market, will give a boost to a minor industry.

Now one of the reason it remains difficult to advertise on cell phones is the disruption risk. Cell phones are a very personnal device, and each advertising program could reach a threshold fast.

Also, I believe that the application ideas, enhancing customer experience and customer relationship management (CRM) potential is a great way to use it. Now, of course, editorial content like online news site and blogs could be leverage, by providing advertising at a specific format.

We can expect a lot of innovation within next months on this market. And I really believe it will be a great year for mobile advertising.

Auchan Launches An Iphone App

French retailer Auchan, one of the largest grocery retailer in the world, has just launched a new Iphone app, allowing customers to dictate on its Iphone their grocery shopping list. The application recognize about 260 products already preset in the system.

Auchan has been for the longest time an innovator on the hypermarket business. They have been the first ones to launche a drive thru concept where you shop your groceries on line and then pick it up at the store direct in your trunk. They also have been the first one to opt for a self scanning system, where customers get a scanner at the entrance of the store and scan products while shopping.

Auchan has clearly understand the importance of mobile devide in the customer relationship management process, providing an improved customer experience.

PLV et technologie: Lego innove

La publicité sur le lieu de vente ou PLV a le vent en poupe ces dernières années. Elles sont ainsi parmi les meilleurs outils marketing et de communication dans la distribution, maximisant la visibilité de la marque durant le first moment of truth, mais aussi peuvent améliorer l'expérience client. Ainsi, autant je considère que le packaging peut avoir un réel impact sur la gestion de la relation client, la PLV peut s'avérer un outil très puissant. Surtout lorsque l'innovation et la technologie lui offrent une nouvelle dimension.

C'est le cas de cette nouvelle campagne réalisée par Légo.

Cette PLV est basée sur la technologie de la réalité augmentée. Cette technologie permet d'associer grâce à une caméra vidéo une image bien réel, et un élément virtuel associé. Dans cette vidéo, la réalité augmentée permet de voir le jeu tel qu'il est lorsque monté.

La PLV a pour ambition de déclencher l’acte d’achat, et il y a peu de doute que celle-ci fasse exception, il y a même tout à parier pour que ce dispositif, mis au point par Metaio, soit particulièrement efficace.

Il y a fort à parier que le monde de la PLV soit profondément bouleversé par ce type de technologies, auxquels ils conviendra d’ajouter le RFID, le Bluetooth, et de nombreuses autres pour avoir une idée de ce qui va s’abbatre sur le secteur dans les années à venir.

Je pense effectivement qu'on en ait encore au début, et que ces technologies nous réservent bien des surprises.

500 Mobile Phone Numbers In India: Toward The Mobile Internet Revolution

The Times Of India announced recently that India has reached 500 mobile phone numbers, which makes it the 2nd largest group of phone users after China.

India has 13 to 14 operators providing wireless connectivity — mostly mobile — in its 22 service areas. Of these, 8-9 companies are operational and another 5-6 are obligated to launch service to meet rollout obligations. Many of the new entrants who had bagged spectrum in January 2008 have been unable to get off the ground nearly two years after receiving licences. Hence, the market is still pretty open.

Despite the fact 3G network is probably miscellaneous, this is still a great opportunity for mobile Internet to grow. I have assisted to a presentation of Gartner expert in mobile technologies Thomas Husson which considers that India might skip the traditional wired Internet directly to wireless network. Hence, as these new emerging countries are skipping decades of technology steps, by adapting to occidental standards, developing a wireless network to have access to the Internet would probably be cheaper than a wired one.

Wimax, 3G and 4G networks, would hence be easy to set up to provide access to a country like India, especially because the main population hub are spread out over a very large country. This will of course have an impact on the Internet ecosystem development. Indeed, as we are seeing in the Western side of the world Iphones, mobile laptops among other technologies. India could become a development market where mobile applications and e business website could grow fast.

This is very interesting as India is also a technology friendly country as they have developed a high know how with in terms of development and engineering. The market might still be too low to develop a strong ebusiness presence, but I believe that within the next few years, we will see some great innovations in term of e commerce's customer experience, and new mobile applications.

New Service To Find Stores Information: Yelp

I didn't know much about Yelp before today. Yelp is a web 2.0 website which provides reviews and information about stores and restaurants. The website is nice and will help you find the best places to visit and hang around.

Now Yelp has launched recently a new Iphone app. And I believe that this new mobile application gives another feel and enhance the customer experience. Indeed, the main advantage is that it combines both the Yelp's website information and the GPS capabilities of the smartphone. Hence, the application can gives you reviews of retails around you in real time. You should check out what Robert Scoble thinks about it.

Mobile phones application and the first moment of truth

Speaking about the first moment of truth concept, which considers that customers make their purchase decision within a short period of time, owning information and/or coupons for a store located at couple of meters from them will probably be a turn on. When the customers have already triggered their decision making process by going out in a mall, and they hesitate which retail to choose from, they have a tool that will help them during this crucial moment.

Mobile phones reviews applications to provide improved data

"The combination of local reviews and mobile is significant because Yelp now allows consumers to post reviews as they are eating, drinking or visiting a business. Think about the review of a restaurant that had bad service. Likely, the consumer will be emotionally charged about the poor service. Before the iPhone app, the consumer would write the review after the restaurant visit, when he or she had cooled off a bit. Now the new app will allow the angry consumer to enter a particularly distasteful, and emotionally charged review directly from the restaurant’s table. "

Indeed, thanks to this new mobile phone app, the user is able to give his feedback right away during his experience and right after, which avoids second thoughts and then, can clearly gives a picture of his experience while shopping or consuming. This is very interesting, because thanks to it, I believe that customer reviews would be clearly different than the one that are written in front of a computer several months sometimes after what the customer has experienced.

Mobile phones for enhanced customer experience and customer relationship

That confirms my opinion that mobile apps is one of the biggest challenge for customer relationship management experts. Mobile phones decuplate the potential of customer experience.

Zappos Aiming To More Personalization

Zappos.com, one of the hottest internet retailer, which masters the web 2.0 technology, has recently hired choicestream to empower their website with more personalization features. The goal is to enhance customer experience and ultimately raise the average sales per customer.

What is funny, is that Zappos has been recently bought buy Amazon, which is the leading retailers in terms of personal recommendations. As the merge hasn't been finalized, Zappos staff declared they were still operating individually and hence, could decide what they wanted on an operational stand point. But still, in terms of convergence, it doesn't really make sense, as Amazon is clearly the leader in the industry on this aspect. It is funny to compare with what Carrefour did not so long ago, establishing a contract with Publicis for its communication, forcing all its business units to switch for Publicis.

Anyways, what really matters is to see that Zappos is still pursuing customer service greatness, and as the company matures, it is getting equiped with the finest technologies to provide great customer relationship.

Statistics Is Not Everything

CRM strategies get a lot of attentions of CEOs due to its capabilities to measure campaigns efficiency. Thanks to new customer relationship management tools, you are able to get clear pictures of the efficiency of your marketing programs, and what your customers' value is.

But this system is biased as multi channel distribution has become common nowadays. Business has become more and more complex. Now online retailers are opening stores like Dell, and also brick and mortar companies like Wall Mart are setting up online stores. Moreover, brands are also getting more and more online as Apple or Nike do with their concept stores.

Also, social communities have enable customers to speak about brands and their customer experience, which is valuable information that still need to be explore.

I have read not so long ago that customer to customer (CtoC) business is also growing, and we are going from an ownership society, where people owns things they use, to a user society, where the use primes to the ownership, and where renting and borrowing becomes more attractive than buying. 60% of French Internet users have at least bought or sold something online to another person.

Hence, it multiplies the number of information sources, which makes it complex to get clear stats about customers.

The utopia of knowing everything about your customer has probably gone away. Macy's has declared that it generated $50 billion thanks to its Online activities, either it is shopping online or getting traffic out of their websites, but was not able to explain exactly how they have figured it out.

Statistics is not everything

I wanted to correlate this fact with an article I found about basketball. Basketball is a sport about stats, where you can have a clear picture of the individual performance thanks to the number of points, rebounds, assists, blocks, or shot percentage a player had. There is also an indicator, called the PER (Player Efficiency Rating), that mixes all this factor to rank the best players in the game. Here is a table showing up the performance of the bests.

N#NomPER1Lebron James31.762Dwyane Wade30.463Chris Paul30.044Dwight Howard25.445Tim Duncan24.516Kobe Bryant24.467Brandon Roy24.348Tony Parker23.479Dirk Nowitzki23.2010Al Jefferson23.16

If you know a little about the NBA, you must know that Kobe Bryant is considered as one of the best player to have ever played, and one of the best right now. According to this table, Kobe would not even be in the top 3, but only the 6th player. Actually Kobe in his whole career would have never reached the score of 28, and never been part of the top 3, even when he's been named the MVP of the league last year.

The conclusion is that statistic is not the whole picture. Kobe Bryant's greatness go beyond his stats, but his capability to be a leader in the money time. Statistics can't measure the number of games he won by making the last shot, by cheering up his teammates, or by defending hard.

That is actually the reason why the Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy doesn't reward the best player of the league, but the most valuable, the one that contributes the most to the team's success.

Customer relationship management should not be seen as a way to measure efficiency or to get accurate stats about its clients. It should be seen as a whole idea and will of a company to get superior customer service. A lot of companies doesn't own a loyalty reward program but provides superior customer service which leads to high revenues.

Hence, customer relationship management must be considered not only on an information system point of view, but also in terms of customer experience, which is the ultimate goal of such a strategy.

First Moment Of Truth: In-store Marketing Beats Traditionnal Advertising

This post is linked to the one I have already written about the First Moment Of Truth. This topic is very important to me as I am working the retail industry. A new US study shows that "nearly a third (32 percent) third of the 999 shoppers polled online in March said in-store marketing is very effective. Only 27 percent said the same about ads living outside of the store."

The survey, which is part three of the "Gone in 2.3 Seconds: Capturing Shoppers with Effective In-Store Triggers Series," found that the shopping experience is crucial for marketers. Sixty-nine percent of those polled called the in-store experience a “make or break” scenario. While 65 percent of shoppers are making lists, brand decisions are still being made at the store according to 60 percent of respondents. End-aisle displays are the most engaging according to 70 percent of those polled followed by merchandising displays (62 percent) and department signage (58 percent). Ceiling banners and overhead mobiles have the least impact. Shelf strips (55 percent) and shelf blades (50 percent) have become more important especially among the Gen X and Gen Y crowds who feel the more information the better, per the report. Overall, women and Gen Y were most influenced by in-store marketing efforts. "Understanding high potential shopper strike zones has become increasingly critical given the intensified battle for consumer loyalty and share of mind in-store," said D’Anna Hawthorne, strategy director at Miller Zell, a retail consultancy. The report was conducted by the National Research Network on Miller Zell's behalf.

In-retail marketing is mostly underrated, but in the grocery retail industry it is one of the most powerful tool you could use. Of course, out of the store advertising is very important to generate leads and traffic in store, but growth of revenues comes from in store customers' decision making process. And new technologies could have a great impact in helping customers to make their decision.