Are countries brands?

Chinese people are on the edge to boycott French companies implanted in China to protest against President Sarkozy's possible non participation to the Olympic Games opening ceremony. Thus, Chinese people are not boycotting companies like Carrefour because of their actions, but because of the fact that they are French companies.
That was the same scenario in the US during the memorable diplomatic crisis, when France was opposed to the war in Iraq. Some US customers decided to boycott French products because of French International diplomacy.

I don't have the intention to judge what is going on between China & France. This blog is not about politics, & it will never be. this is interesting to see Chinese customers' reactions & perceptions of this crisis. They consider France as a brand, that would be above French companies. As they would stop to by Unilever products because they don't respect environmental laws, they stop shopping in French retails.

Therefore I want to ask a question: Are countries brand? This is a very interesting issue. I already exposed my idea that Champagne could be assimilated as a brand, and I thought it would be nice to extend this thought to countries. One of the key question is to define what a brand is.

What is a brand?
 According to buildingbrands.com: 
"A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer."  I think it is quite a generic and accurate definition. Because it is vast, you can't limit brands to companies, because customers do not think like that.

A brand is the representation of oneself, whether it is an image (picture, icon, color...), or its values (skills, policy, mission statement...) or anything else. What is important, more than being a registered trade mark or to sell thousands of sport shoes, it is the image a customer has of something.

Examples of country's brand equity
 Some countries, because of their specificities or the imaginary world linked to their name, have a certain image. Also let's not forget that some nationality are :

• Cheap Chinese products
• French fashion & style
• Japanese good quality/price ration

Also, as some companies are assimilated to their products (the Iphone of Apple, Sony's Playstation...) some countries are known for their specialties:

• Coffee of Kenya
• Caviar of Russia
• Salmon of Norway

In our mind, countries are already brands. We all have a perception, right or wrong, about what a country is about. Countries would be like humongous companies, that would have a CEO (president) elected by the employees (citizens while it is a democracy), with an organization (government), and of course a brand and some competencies.

When countries have brand equity issues
Above is the picture of a book I have always wanted to read about and that illustrates some countries know the same problems than corporate brands. This (French) book, edited in 2003, shows how the brand "Made in America" has been weakened by the US international diplomacy after the Irak war. This decision has impacted the brand America, and as a matter of fact US brands, in a bad way.

The problem
 We have seen here some examples where governmental decision could  impact a country brand. The problem is that a company has no regard and no connections with a country foreign policy... And as we can see with what is going on in China, this is not LVMH's fault if Nicolas Sarkozy might not attend the Olympic ceremony.

That is why we can consider that a country is a brand, as it represents the value, the skills & an image of a country. And a country's international politic influence somehow the equity of its exporting companies.

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Digital Rift definition

This is a key concept to understand since this digital rift has become one of the main issue of some of the biggest high tech and Internet companies. Therefore, I will try to explain what this rift is about, and why it is important.

The social rift
To understand better the concept of digital rift, we should focus on the social rift. This is a concept invented by candidate Jacques Chirac while he was accessing French presidency in 1995. The fact is that at this time a social rift was emerging in France:

• On one side, a population of rich people, benefiting of the economical growth, and of some tax relieves programs from the government.
  
• A poor population, living thanks to governmental aid programs.

As a rift would do, the social pressure reaped the middleclass apart. The middle class population was either pulled to the poor side or was able to reach a certain status. The problem of this social rift is that the bigger the rift is, the more difficult it is to reach an upper social class (what in France we call the "social elevator", the opportunity to raise your social status), or to jump on the other side of the rift.

The digital rift
This is the same thing concerning high tech. A few part of the world owns phenomenal high tech skills, equipped with cell phones, easy to find & to use Wifi access, and powerful computers. On the other hand, you have a population which do not have access to the Internet because they lack of computers. Also, this very same population don't have access to mobility.

This rift has many dimensions. Within the US, the rift isn't that big as 75% of US Americans have access to the Internet. But on a worldwide scale, this is a real problem.
This is a big issue, as high tech technologies are developing & improving at a fast pace. This growth increases the digital rift. The issue is so important that the United Nations sent a warning to the Silicon Valley about this social rift.

Toward some solutions
Some solutions however seems to breakthrough.

• Computers companies start offering low cost laptops & equipment: for less than 300 euros you can own now in France a laptop.
  
• Thanks to open source, you have operating systems for cheap. Thanks to Lynus Solutions, or softwares like Open Office, you can nowadays get access to core functions of a computer for free.
• Writting, editing document
• Calculating
• Internet browsing and email solution
• Presentation, and brochure edition
• Programs like Bill Gates' one aim to offer access to computing and Internet to third world countries.
• New wiring  technologies like the WiMax or Internet by satellite allows some part of the world to be linked to the Internet

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Hybrids sales take advantage of current Oil prices

The car industry has been hit hard by the current rise of gas prices. In 2007 car sales has decrease by 3% compared to 2006. But some companies take advantage of the crisis as always.
If Macy's and other Nordstorm have noticed a drop in their sales since the US economy slowed down its pace, companies like Ross have increase their revenue by proposing discount products.

This is the same in the car industry. Gas prices has impacted the decision making process of US drivers, and the MPG (miles per gallon) is nowadays a key factor of decision. Hybrids models' sales have rocketed +38% compared to 2006!

Here is a little table to illustrate how much you could save thanks to a hybrid

	Hybrid	Non Hybrid
MPG	34	25
$/Year	$1,544	$2,100
Savings/year	+556	-556

So what is the lesson?

• Some companies know how to find opportunities while its competitors suffer.
• In order to convert the mass to ecological products, we should focus on other aspects than "you'll help the planet". It could be better quality, saving money, or getting tax credits for example.

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Enterprise Feedback Management

I went on Friday April 11 to the Stanford's job fair where I found very interesting companies. I will talk about some of them within the next few days. Today, I wanted to focus on one of them which interested me, as a customer relationship management specialist.

Medallia is an enterprise feedback management company located in Menlo Park, California.

What is Enterprise feedback management?

Enterprise feedback management is an integrated approach to the management of all forms of feedback available to an organization. On a customer relationship point of view, acquiring new customers is becoming more and more difficult & expensive. The best way to increase its revenues is therefore to focus on your customers, and to enhance the customer experience you can provide. Over the past few years, companies have worked on offering more and more services to satisfy customers. The question is how can you improve the satisfaction.

The first step is to gather their feedback, to analyze it, and use the data to find ways to increase customers' satisfaction.

Thus, whenever the customer is in contact with the company (Internet, phone, retail visit), Medallia send afterward a survey to analyze the customer experience.

I invite you to visit Medallia's website. They expose some of the work they did for their clients.

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Write the Winning Resume

writing a resume is like editing an advertisement: You are looking for selling a product, which is yourself. So who would be a better coach than one of the best French Marketer? Henri Kaufman proposes in this video 7 bullets to edit your resume, and to outstand the competition. As you have probably notice, most of the concepts introduced here are marketing concepts, which shows well the correlation between the two activities.

Here is the 7 keys:

1. Sell yourself: As a marketer or a sales man, you need to sell yourself.
2. Work on the tagline :You need to focus on the benefit you can provide to the employer. In one line, as a commercial tagline, you need to explain why you are better and different from the other candidates.
3. Keep it light: Avoid long descriptions, keep it simple and strong, focus on the missions you undertook. The less you say, the better (this is a key concept in marketing).
   
4. Select the picture: This is more for a French resume, because I don't think you should have a picture for your US one. Anyway, spend time finding the right picture. Don't be affraid of black& white. If other candidates use color, you should consider black & white to be different.
5. Play with the Timeline : Organize your experiences through a timeline, starting with the latest one and finishing by the oldest one.
6. Use the brand power : Of course, you must name the companies you worked for. But you should go on the Internet and to ad the logo of these companies. You leverage the brand equity to sell yourself.
7. Initiate conversation. If you presented well your hobbies, it should allow you to start a conversation. Therefore, you need to find a way to present your hobby in order to stimulate the curiosity of the hiring manager. It will drive the will of the manager to speak with you.
   

For French Speakers, check the video, which will give you further information.

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Remise des trophées SCOPS 2008 de l'Innovation commerciale

Le master distribution et relation client dont je suis diplômé a lancé l'année dernière un observatoire de l'innovation commerciale en France. L'objectif est de trouver et d'étudier les pratiques les plus innovantes en terme de marketing et de vente.

A l'issu de cette année de recherches, faîtes par les élèves du master et coordonnées par Pierre Volle, directeur du master et spécialiste de la relation client, un palmarès a été établit, et une remise de trophées à été programmée. Les lauréats ont été choisis parmi une trentaine de projet différents.


Voici la liste des trophées qui seront remis:

• Services
• Concepts
• Opérations promotionnelles
• Programmes de fidélisation
• Stratégie de relation client

La remise des trophées aura lieu le 16 avril 2008 à 18h00 à Paris Dauphine, en Salle Raymond Aron (feu salle du conseil de l'OTAN). Si vous souhaitez assister à cet événement, vous pouvez trouver une invitation ici. N'oubliez pas de confirmer votre présence.

En tout cas, c'est une très bonne initiative. Il n'existe en effet que très peu d'outil de mesure et de récompense en terme d'innovation commerciale. J'y serai certainement allé si j'étais en France, je sais en tout cas que de nombreux de mes anciens amis de promo s'y rendront.

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Blog de Nathalie Doan

Une petite promotion pour un nouveau blog qui vient de se créer la semaine dernière. C'est celui de Nathalie Doan, qui s'appelle Nath et la vie. Nathalie est étudiant au master distribution et relation client de l'université Paris Dauphine, le même que celui que j'ai fait l'année dernière.

Je souhaite bonne chance à ce blog, et j'espère que Nathalie connaîtra le même succès que moi.

Il est aussi à noté que je connais Nathalie via Viadéo, le réseau social professionnel de référence en France. Elle recherche en ce moment un stage de 6 mois en Chine, dans les domaines du marketing et de la relation client.

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Need help for your US resume, cover letter and job search?

Here is a great website I found, on the Stanford website. Try it out, they have great advices.
http://cardinalcareers.stanford.edu/recruiting/default.htm

Good luck you are seeking for a job as I do!

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Commercial use of Twitter

I recently blogged about the use of Twitter for business purposes. And I saw that this practice has developped a lot. A lot of companies use Twitter to spread their promotional content to people that did not really request it.

I think this is wrong, and it is a real permissive marketing technique. The brand tries to get inside the personal sphere of friends of an individual. This is something that can't work.

However, I think we can imagine the use of Twitter some other ways for businesses. You can provide information, content, or even converse with clients thanks to this service.

Here are some uses that came through my mind quickly:

Product Information: We can imagine using Twitter to inform people that bought for example a concert ticket about the event. You could be informed if there is a problem with the transportation, if the band will be late, you could ask if you can bring some drinks, etc...

Added Value through content: We can think that customers of a brand could get some valuable information through Twitter. For example, trader.com could use it as a pipeline with inside information about stocks.

Customer Service: We can imagine a new type of customer service platform with Twitter. This would be some new forums that people would use to solve some technical problems for example. Also, if you have to repair your car, we can imagine that you will know in "almost real time" how the reparation advances.

All of these examples also imply you to have a team that will manage the content and the conversation with the users.

Do you have other ones? Feel free to leave some comments, and see how a business could potentially use Twitter.

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Delta Airline and Customer Relationship Management

I went to New York last week end to visit my girlfriend's family and to attend the Sweet Sixteen party of her cousin. I wanted to give you the feedback on my experience with my flight.
The company was Delta Airline.

Food during the flight.
I already knew that airlines companies don't include meals in the fare for inside-US trips any longer. I still find that kind of rude for two reasons:

• A San Francisco New York trip last around 6h30, which is roughly the time of a New York Paris flight. This is a long time, and therefore, it should be consider as an international flight. At least for coast to coast trips (Miami-Los Angeles, or Philadelphia-Seattle for example)
• This service has become a standard over the years. It is the same thing for the 30 minutes Pizza delivery. This would not make sens a pizza restaurant would serve you in more than 30 minutes. This is a regression of the level of service provided by airline companies.
  

Anyways, I understand gas prices impacted a lot the benefits of airlines, and paying $8 for a meal is not that bad, especially that the menu seemed very nice.
The problem that occurred, is that I wanted to have a chicken sandwich and my girlfriend a chicken salad. While the flight attendant asked for what we wanted to order, we learned that they had neither of what we wanted, they were already sold-out. I find that very rude. Especially because we were not the last row of the plane (there was probably about 20 to 30 persons behind us). The airline must be able to provide food to all the customers, not the ones from the front seat.

Customer survey
There was also, available on the passangers' screens a survey, to get customer's feedback on their trip. I thought: "Great, this is a good idea as the customer has 1 the time to complete the survey and 2 they have at the top of their mind their opinion about the flight". Then I started completing the questionnaire. But I have been kind of deceived: nothing was concerning the service. The questions were about how clean the plain was (don't get me wrong, which is also important). How clean was the seat? How clean was the table? etc. But an airline's company added value (especially these days that price competition is so high) is the service. If companies such as Air France or Singapoure Airline have succeeded so well, it is by delivering a top of the line service.

So my recommandation would be to

• To have enough stocks to provide the whole airplane with the menu.
• keep this good idea, but to use it to evaluate the service on board.

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Typologie du web 2.0

Très beau travail de Dominique Cardon, qui nous offre une typologie du web 2.0. On y voit un très joli travail de mapping, et on voit très bien la complexité du web 2.0, complexité portant spécialement sur l'analyse.

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Le capital risque connait des difficultés en france

Mauvais trimestre pour le capital risque français. Alors qu'on restait sur une très bonne année 2007, l'investissement en France semble avoir été touchée par la crise financière issue du Sub prime américain. Esperons que cela ne durera pas. En tout cas, on est loin de la capacité de financement de la Silicon Valley, dont je parlais la semaine dernière...

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Microsoft working on a new OS to replace Vista for next year

I have always been skeptical about Windows Vista since the first day I saw it, and I was probably right. Bill Gates announced his staff will be working on a new OS for next year, whereas if should not have been released before 2010 ( I would even have said later than that). The project is called Windows 7.

Windows users did not really like Windows Vista. The sales of the new operating systems did not meet expectations, and Microsoft has been forced to keep proposing Computers running with Microsoft XP until 2010. One of the main problem was that Vista required a lot of power from the processor, and therefore was pretty slow, and totally awkward compared to the main trend which is web technologies.

If Microsoft wants to succeed, they need to turn their strategy up side down. Instead of building an OS requiring a top processor, they need to keep it simple and light. I think that Bill Gates has understood the reason why Vista is not working and I wish he'll release therefore a good new OS for Windows users.

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François Séguineau et les PC portables à 300€

Comme je le disais précédemment, Ce matin j'écoutais l'émission "de quoi je me mail" sur RMC (enfin, en podcast vu que je suis en Californie, vous m'aurez compris) du 29 mars 2008, programme que j'écoute régulièrement sur les nouvelles technologies et les noueautés Internet.
L'invité est le directeur général de l'informatique de Toshiba, François Séguineau, le sujet les ordinateurs à bas prix qui commencent à fleurir chez la plupart des constructeurs.

Ce qui m'a surpris, et ce dont je voulais parlé maintenant, c'est les critiques de François Séguineau sur le PC à 300€, annonçant plus ou moins un échec de l'entreprise. Voici son argumentaire (dans l'ordre chronologique), mais aussi mes commentaires:

Le PC à 300€ est à moitié prix, mais il fait beaucoup moins qu'un PC standard: Je suis d'accord avec lui. Je pense que je ne vais pas installer adobe creative suite sur un PC à 300€. Mais même moi qui suis un féru d'informatique, je n'utilise que très peu l'ensemble des capacités de mon PC. La plupart du temps, sur mon PC personnel, je surfe sur Internet, j'édite mon blog, à la limite édite du texte, mais je suis vraiment loin d'être gourmand en terme d'applications. Je pense que le PC à 300€ répond à ces utilisations limitées, mais fondamentales.

Vous ne regardez pas un film, car l'écran est 7 pouces: Bien sûr, je vais pas invité 10 amis pour voir un DVD sur un écran de 7 pouces. Mais pour mon usage personnelle, il n'y a vraiment pas de problème. On regarde bien des films sur une PSP ou un Iphone non? C'est sûr qu'on n'a pas le même confort, mais dans le train, cela a son charme.

On ne peut pas mettre de jeux vidéos: Je pense qu'en terme de population total possédant un ordinateur, la part de personnes jouant aux jeux vidéos sur un PC est tout de même limitée. Je pense surtout que cette fonction est aussi réservée à une population de fans, qui n'est pas du tout ciblé par une telle offre.

On ne peut pas avoir tout ses fichiers sur l'ordinateur: On est à l'air de la dématérialisation. On a des boîtes mail de 7GO avec Gmail, et des services tels que Citrix (mais il y en a bien d'autres) permettant d'accéder à ses fichiers partout dans le monde pour peu qu'on ait accès à Internet. Donc le fait d'avoir peut de capacités sur l'ordinateur, ce n'est pas forcément un gros problème, hormis si vous avez décidé de stocker la collection de films de James bond en haute définition (mais bon si vous êtes capable de payer 300€ dans une collection de DVD, je pense que vous pouvez vous payez un ordinateur haut de gamme, donc vous ne faites sûrement pas partie de la cible de cette offre).

C'est un ordinateur pour lire ces emails avec un confort d'écran qui n'est pas égal à un téléphone portable:  D'une part, le fait de lire ces mails et de naviguer sur Internet est pour moi comme je l'ai dit LA fonction essentiel d'un ordinateur aujourd'hui. Concernant le confort, l'écran est peut être peu lumineux, mais le fait d'avoir un réel ordinateur avec un clavier est tout de même bien plus confortable qu'un téléphone portable. Surfer deux minutes sur un Iphone pour vérifier ses mails et trouver un restaurant c'est bien, mais quand il s'agit de rechercher de l'information sur un sujet précis pendant plus d'une demi heure et cela va devenir difficile. De même, avec des abonnements à 60€ pour de la data vs 29€ pour haut débit illimité à la maison, je pense que l'on ne parle pas de la même chose.

IL y a le vélo, la mobilette et la voiture servent à se dépalcer, mais ce n'est pas le même usage: pour aller en voyage je prends la voiture:  Il est vrai, mais si là on parle d'Internet, un réseau ou les pages font quelques octets, ou l'information est vaste sans pour autant avoir besion d'avoir des capacités exceptionnelles. Avec un ordinateur de 1998 je suis très bien capable de répondre à 80% de mes besoins journaliers, et je pense de la plupart des utilisateurs du net. Donc là encore je ne suis pas forcément d'accord. Il est sûr que si vous voulez vous préparer au prochain tournoi mondial de world of warcraft, créer la prochaine publicité pour Nike ou encore faire du montage d'un film, vous allez avoir du mal. Mais là on parle d'une population qui a besoin à l'accès à l'information et à l'Internet. Et cette population est grande. 50% des français environ. Donc pour conclure, soyons écolo, roulons en vélo.

Et vous qu'en pensez vous? Est ce que cet ordinateur à un avenir?

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L'ordinateur à moins de 300€: vers une réduction de la fracture numérique

Ce matin j'écoutais l'émission "de quoi je me mail" sur RMC (enfin, en podcast vu que je suis en Californie, vous m'aurez compris) du 29 mars 2008, programme que j'écoute régulièrement sur les nouvelles technologies et les noueautés Internet.
L'invité est le directeur général de l'informatique de Toshiba, François Séguineau, le sujet les ordinateurs à bas prix qui commencent à fleurir chez la plupart des constructeurs.

On trouve ainsi un courant d'ordinateurs à moins de 300€, auxquels on annonce un avenir prometteur. Ces machines tournent sur Linux, et permettent principalement de naviguer sur Internet. Je pense que l'arrivée de ces ordinateurs à bas prix est une réelle avancée, et permettra de combler un peu plus la fameuse fracture numérique chère à Henri Kaufman.

Qu'est ce que la fracture numérique?
 Un peu à l'instar de la fracture social, idée développée par Jacques Chirac lors des élections 1995, l'idée de fracture numérique découle d'un constat. Près de la moitié des ménages français n'avaient pas accès à Internet en 2006 (je suis désolé, mais je n'ai pas eu le temps de chercher des chiffres plus actualisés). Cela crée une fracture numérique:

• D'un côté, une population de privilégiés, qui ont accès à un Internet haut débit, accédant ainsi à la masse d'information de l'Internet, mais aussi jouissant d'offres commerciales difficilement accessible sans Internet: Billet d'avions pas cher (Expedia), DVD discount (cdiscount), accéder en temps réel au relevé de banque (BNP en ligne par exemple), ou encore les fameuses ventes privées.
  
• Et de l'autre une population qui a une information limitée, ne pouvant s'offrir d'une part un ordinateur, mais aussi ont certainement des appréhensions envers un medium qu'il connaisse mal.
  

Bien sûr, on ne peut pas comparer ces ordinateurs à 300€ avec des ordinateurs plus "standards": moins de capacité de stockage, impossibilité d'installer des logiciels trop gourmand en ressources, qualités de l'affichage vidéo bien moindre que les PC normaux.

Mais l'arrivée de ces modèles représentent une formidable opportunité pour combler cette facture, permettre d'équiper une grande partie de la population en informatique. De plus, avec des offres haut débit à 29€ par mois, cela permettra d'offrir l'accès au plus grand nombre à Internet, et donc diminuer les égalités envers l'accès à l'information et au savoir. Bien sûr, il faudra aussi ensuite éduquer cette partie de la population qui comprends très mal l'utilisation d'Internet.

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Marketing & recession

How should you market during recession? Which impact has recession on marketing? Does recession mean you should cut your marketing budget?
Here are some of the questions some CEO and marketing directors might ask themselves as the United States' economy is on the edge of the "R" word. Most of the time, during difficult period of time, marketing is the first department of the company that will experience budget cuts.

To know more about the topic, you can download the report Marketing Sherpa edited. This report presents the effect expected and the decisions companies might take during this recession. Also, it gives to marketing people great tips to defend their budgets if it is en danger. Here are the main facts:

• Customer relationship prospective: Two key points on this topic. First, sales cycles are lengthening. You will therefore have to spend more time and energy on customers in order to make them buy. That is why you should focus on the quality of your relationship, especially at this time. Secondly, you should keep investing in marketing. You need to continue communicating with your customers. If it doesn't buy today, that doesn't mean it won't buy tomorrow. Also, if customers notice you are communicating less, they will understand that you are in a bad situation, and will be more reluctant to buy your stuffs.
  

• CFOs are considering the downturn as an opportunity: Most of CFOs think they should not cut back on marketing. First, when a company cuts on marketing, it is a bad sign for partners and customers that might think something goes wrong in your company. Therefore you are more likely to lose businesses and market shares. Most likely, weak actors of the market will have the same strategy, as growing companies and strong actors will increase marketing to increase dramatically market shares.  51.3% of CFOs are thinking about not changing anything or even to invest in marketing for this year. Also, CFOs love Internet & direct marketing, because it allows to show the efficiency of the campaigns and the revenues generated through the different campaigns.
  

• Small businesses and large businesses respond differently to the recession: While large business are more likely to cut marketing budgets, small businesses are seeking for growth and are looking forward to winning market shares during the recession time. 60% of marketers at largers companies and 29% of medium sized firms are expected to cut marketing budgets, whereas 13% have cut or expected cuts of small businesses.
  

• TV and radios media are likely to suffer, Internet and direct marketing campaigns will raise: TV and radios are really not adapted to recession marketing. Marketers are more likely to use Internet & direct marketing media, cheaper and also allowing to evaluate with more ease the results of the campaigns. 30% of survey respondents said they are increasing direct marketing investments this year in response to economic conditions
  

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Main reason why the Silicon Valley is such a great land for entrepreneurs

I had this feeling since I moved here in the Silicon Valley. Historically, the San Francisco bay area is a land of entrepreneurship, with a lot of start up blooming everywhere, taking advantage of the web 2.0 development. But why is the Silicon Valley so attractive for entrepreneurs from all around the world? Of course, you have the climate, which is great. Not too hot in summer, not too cold in winter, you are also located close to the see and the mountain (with the Lake Tahoe). You also have a great stimulation and entrepreneurship atmosphere, since start up are everywhere. You are at ten minutes from Google, Ebay, Facebook, LinkedIn or Microsoft for example.

But one of the key thing, and biggest difference with France, is the funding capacities of the Silicon Valley. I saw today some stats from a report by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, about the venture capital per capita here compared to some other countries and towns in the world. The Bay Area has way more venture capital per capita than any other places in the world.


Here in the valley, finding funds to finance your start up is not a problem at all. You will always find business angels and VCs to support your project, as long of course that it has a potential.

This is something that really misses in France in my opinion to develop entrepreneurship.

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What is Mortgage Planning? Definition

I am right now working on both Jerome Sierra and Yulin Lee's websites, editing some content for them. And one of the key thing we want to bold is the mortgage planning concept. A concept that is the base of our business, which differentiate us from most of our competitors. But what is mortgage planning? This is a concept very difficult to define. Therefore, I undertook some research and the project to write a complete definition and description of it. Let me know what you think about it.

Mortgage planning aims to incorporate your mortgage, debt, and home equity into your overall financial plan. This is why mortgage planning is very important. A CFO in a company always has to deal with debts, and liabilities. Financial planners are focusing on the assets and the income, but don't really manage the other side. A mortgage planner is dealing with the biggest debt a person will ever have: his mortgage. But managing debts is important. Being able to manage debt will help your company to boost its revenues (the famous multiplying factor), and also secure its financial status.

Mortgage planning aims to use mortgage as a leverage to create wealth both on a short term and a long term period. That is the first definition that comes to my mind while speaking about mortgage planning. Mortgage can turn into a very powerful tool to build wealth. You can use the equity in your house wisely and invest it in a diversified portfolio of stocks. You know by the way that 82% of millionaires in the US have built their fortune thanks to real estate? Think about it.

Mortgage planning aims to respond to your mortgage needs throughout your life. Planning your mortgage means to evaluate throughout your life your needs in terms of mortgage. Wether you are thinking about buying your first home, refinancing, buying a second house/investment properties or retiring,  a competent mortgage planner will guide you through these different steps.

I think that it responds properly to the definition of mortgage planning, even though it is more a description than a real definition.

Here are the services a mortgage planner can offer you

• Mortgage strategy: Setting up a plan based on your financial profile in order to qualify for the mortgage program that will suit you the most.
• Equity repositionning: A mortgage planner will be able to help you reposition wisely the equity you have in your house.
• Asset optimization
• Annual mortgage revue: This is a key service. Thanks to this annual review, you will be able to determine how your finances and credit score are doing and if you need to refinance, and if you have opportunities to buy whether a bigger house, a second house or a home property.

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DreamShake: secouez vos rêves, ou quand le web 2.0 permet de réaliser vos rêves

J'ai eu le plaisir de rencontrer François-Xavier Tanguy lors de son Geek's trip à San Francisco la semaine passée en compagnie de bloggeurs français tels qu' Henri Kaufman, Philippe Jeudy ou encore Pierre Philippe Cormeraie. François-Xavier est un entrepreneur qui vient de créer récemment (il y a à peu près un mois) sa nouvelle entreprise, appellée Dreamshake. Je tenais à en parler, car je trouve l'idée exceptionnellement novatrice, mais aussi épousant parfaitement les capacités des technologies du web 2.0.
Le concept est simple: ce site Internet va vous permettre de réaliser vos rêves, et/ou aider/participer à la réalisation du rêve de quelqu'un.

Ce qui est tout à fait singulier et original pour ce site Internet, c'est qu'il utilise parfaitement l'étendue des capacités du web 2.0. Les nouvelles technologies de l'Internet permettent de mettre les gens en réseaux. Vous pouvez échanger avec votre communauté, mais aussi savoir ce qu'elle fait, où et quand.
Cette idée repose sur le même principe, et permet d'activer ce réseau pour réaliser vos rêves. Qui n'a pas de rêve? Souvent, on se laisse emporter à rêver, et puis, réaliste (ou bien pessimiste?), on se dit que cette idée est irréalisable car il me manque X, Y ou Z. Pourtant, la première cause d'échec est souvent de ne pas avoir parler autour de soi de cette idée, obstruant ainsi tout conseils et aides potentiels.

Parler
Pour reprendre un concept qui est cher à Loic Lemeur, dans ce monde de l'Internet de la communication en général, il est important pour entreprendre (et la j'utilise le mot dans son sens le plus large, celui de passer à l'action), il est important de communiquer le plus possible auprès du plus grand nombre. Ce qui va permettre l'aboutissement du projet est la faculté d'une personne à utiliser son réseau (ou communauté) pour réaliser celui-ci. Ainsi, Loic utilise son précieux réseau pour trouver des idées, trouver des employés, financer son projet etc...

C'est la même démarche pour François-Xavier. Il considère que tout le monde est capable d'aider à un moment ou à un autre une autre personne pour réaliser son projet. Et Dreamshake a été crée avec cet objectif d'aider les "rêveurs" à formuler leurs rêves, exprimer leurs besoins pour y arriver, et de l'autre permettre à tout un chacun de contribuer à la réalisation de ce rêve.

Le rêve pas forcément inaccessible
Attention, le rêve n'est pas forcément quelque chose d'inaccessible. Je ne parle pas ici de voler, ou bien de se transformer en homme dauphine (même si il est rare que je rêve de ce genre de chose). Souvent les rêves exprimés sur ce site sont souvent bien plus réalisable que ce que le rêveur le croit. Par exemple, parler le chinois peut être chose aisée si vous rencontrez un chinois disposé à vous aider, c'est chose possible. Et ce site Internet montre bien que souvent, il suffit d'un rien pour faire avancer ses idées et envies.

Le medium Internet permet ainsi dans ce sens de réaliser ses rêves, de transformer un fantasme en réalité, grâce à sa communauté. Je trouve le concept très fort et très dans l'air du temps.

L'idée me paraît excellente, tout autant que la réalisation (je vous invite à visiter le site Dreamshake). Je vous invite à visiter ce site, surtout qu'il expose très bien les différents rêves de ses utilisateurs.

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Le manque de représentativité de la publicité française

Prenez une seconde pour voir ces publicités qui passent fréquemment aux Etats-Unis. Y-a-t-il quelque chose d'inhabituel?






Le fait est que dans cette publicité les acteurs principaux sont de couleurs. J'aurai pu en mettre plus, mais je me suis concentré sur certaines des plus grosses entreprises américaines dans des secteurs différents (assurance, hi fi, restauration)
Et je dois bien avouer qu'en France, il est rare de voir des personnes de couleurs dans les publicités. J'irai même plus loin, en disant que je n'ai pas réellement de souvenir d'une en particulier. Pourtant la France est un pays pluri ethnique. Selon une étude menée conjointement par le groupe Aegis Média France et l’institut de sondage CSA, 62 % des résidents noirs estiment que la publicité ne représente pas la réalité sociétale française et 43 % des personnes résidant en France que « la publicité n’est pas à l’image de la société ».

Et pour être tout à fait hônnete, je suis plutôt d'accord avec eux. Je n'ai malheureusement jamais réussi à trouver de statistiques là dessus, mais je suis sûr qu'au minimum 1/4 de la population (soit environ 15 millions de personnes en France) ne sont pas "caucasians" comme on dit en français.

Qu'en pensez vous? Est-ce normal? Je pense que le fait d'incorporer des personnes de couleurs dans les publicités seraient une très bonne chose, surtout que ces consommateurs ont un certains pouvoir d'achat.
De plus, je suis aussi étonner ici aux Etats Unis du nombre de produit cosmétique adaptés aux populations noires et hispaniques, qui ont des peaux et des cheveux avec des charactéristiques bien éloignées de celle d'une femme blanche par exemple.

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Certaines pistes pour améliorer l'économie française

J'étais en train d'écouter un podcast de l'université de Stanford proposé par Carl J. Schramm, concernant l'impact de l'entreprenariat sur l'économie des USA, et je voulais partager avec vous. Et il est vrai que c'est quelque chose qui est plus qu'intéressant à voir. Je vis ici dans la Silicon Valley depuis bientôt un an, et j'ai pu m'apercevoir de la réalité de ces propos. Vous pouvez trouver ce podcast sur Itunes, dans la section Itunes U, puis Stanford.

L'entreprenariat comme moteur de l'économie américaine
 Bien sûr, lorsqu'on pense aux Etats-Unis, aussi bien dans le domaine de l'Internet que dans les autres secteurs d'activité, on pense aux entreprises internationales gigantesques tels que Google, Coca Cola ou Microsoft qui domine leurs secteurs d'activité. Mais la réalité est que l'économie américaine est poussée vers le haut par les entrepreneurs. Carl Schramm parle de capitalisme entreprenarial, où l'économie est basé principalement sur l'entreprenariat.

La facilité de trouver des fonds
 Carl Schramm explique que la capacité d'une entreprise à trouver des fonds aux Etats Unis est aux moins deux fois plus facile que n'importe quel autre pays. C'est aussi le secret de l'entreprenariat américain.

L'entreprenariat comme source d'emplois
 Parce que l'économie américaine est portée par ces entrepreneurs, le marché de l'emploi est aussi très fort dans ce domaine. Ainsi, plus de la moitié des emplois crée l'année dernière ont été crée dans des entreprises de moins de 5 ans.

L'immigration comme source de développement
 C'est bien l'un des enjeux de l'immigration. Un quart des entreprises créent dans la Silicon Valley ont été crée par des entrepreneurs n'étant pas nés aux Etats-Unis.
Il est donc important d'avoir une immigration de qualité, immigration qui fait la force des Etats-Unis. Ce pays a été basé depuis sa création sur sa faculté à attirer des personnes de différents univers pour faire prospérer le pays.

Et une petite blague pour finir
 Je la trouve très bonne dans ce podcast. Le professeur parle des problèmes économiques de la France, et dit que Georges Bush a dit: "if French economy is in trouble right now, it is because there is no word in French to say entrepreneur ("si la France a des difficultés avec leur économie, c'est parce qu'ils n'ont pas de mot pour entrepreneur").

Donc l'entreprenariat est à la base du succès américain. Alors pourquoi pas en France! Nous avons des idées, des compétences, et un pays très attractif en terme de qualité de vie.

Qu'en pensez vous? Pensez vous que l'entreprenariat peut aider l'économie française? Que faudrait il faire pour aider l'entreprenariat français?

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Is Champagne a brand? Does Champagne equal sparkling wine? (2)

My Friend Steve Leung had a very interesting point about my story on the Champagne brand, and I wanted to share it with you.
Steve's idea
"Do you think Champagne is to sparkling wine like Xerox was to copies, or Kleenex to tissues?"

My opinion
"I think Steve this is a little bit more complicated. In a way yes: Champagne has been the first producer of sparkling wine, and establish a strong notoriety. I admit that some customers says I want a cup of champagne as they would say I have an Ipod if they own a Zune.

But Xerox and Kleenex are corporate brands, and that is why the concept of Champagne as a brand is quite different. You can have bad sparkling wine from Champagne. However, because of its origin, you are more likely to find a good wine there than in other part of the world. Because Champagne is not a corporate brand, it is hard to protect.

Also the other problem is a customer can say I would like to have some Wall Mart Kleenex or a color Xerox, that is fine. The brand is so strong that for the customer every photocopier is a Xerox. But the problem is using the label "Champagne" on a wine not produced in Champagne. This would be the same if Microsoft would use the Apple logo to to sell its Zunes (which is not likely to happen though)."

Therefore I would say yes on a customer mind prospective, as they identify sparkling wine with Champagne. But it is different as Champagne is not a true corporate brand, which is the reason why it is en danger.

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Is Google turning into a media content company?

This is the question raised by this article of Clickz. At the Search Engine Strategies New York panel discussion, couple of speakers of the Mountain View company talked about developping more and more destination pages. Google is developing indeed an offer of media content that is getting bigger and bigger. It started with google news, google videos, and more recently google finance.

The main concern for other media companies is about the search engine ranking impartiality: Does Google five the favor to its own content? Some people are wondering:
"Battelle also wondered whether Google gives preferential treatment to its own content, such as Google Finance over Yahoo Finance, a popular finance Web site. "It's interesting, if you put in 'stocks,' Google Finance comes up first... It used to be that Yahoo was first," he said.
I think that Google, which is struggling with its stock value, is seeking for new source of revenues. Shareholders are getting angry as Google's stock is dropping, mainly because of an over rated pricing based on expected revenue growth."

Google strongly states their result is based on relevance. I think it is right, as Google's core strength is to have the most relevant searches on the market. Changing this fact will affect Google's market share for sure. However, if Google struggle with its share price, temptation might change the status.

Is is a good technique? Google owns a monopolistic-kind of position on the search engine market, and therefore its customers (companies using google Adwords to communicate) can't really do much about it. Also they have a technological competitive advantage that insure them of keeping their leading position on at least for a long time (don't ask me how long, Internet market is so fast it is hard to tell). Let's not forget that Yahoo! has tried this technique of differentiation of developing high quality content, which did not help it much to face Google. Google is not in the situation of Yahoo at this time which was a challenger loosing its influence.

Google is experimenting new products and services to keep its fast pace growth, but it should not forget its core trade and key factor of success: searching. The strength of Google has been able to focus on his business model, and should prevent it as much as possible.

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Panorama du marketing mobile français en 2008

Le journal du Net nous propose un panorama du marketing mobile en 2008. Avec plus de 55 millions d'utilisateurs de mobiles selon l'Arcep à la fin de 2007 (soit environ un appareil par français avec un taux de pénétration supérieur à 87%), le marketing mobile peut potentiellement toucher l'ensemble de la population.

Cependant, les volumes restent faibles bien que la publicité sur mobile soit considérée comme un marché porteur.Le marketing mobile devient de plus en plus attractif et développe son potentiel grâce à un développement technologique facilitant son utilisation:

• lancement d'offres d'accès et de surf illimité à l'Internet mobile
• Des terminaux mobiles multimédia adaptés aux usages de l'Internet
• Un inventaire de plus en plus étoffé de l'offre de sites Internet mobiles
•  La mise en place de premiers outils de mesure d'audience

Ce dossier s'intéresse principalement aux acteurs du marché, qui sont très nombreux.
Malheureusement, ce dossier ne se pose pas la question de fond sur l'utilisation du téléphone mobile, support à risque puisqu'intime.

Pourquoi le marketing mobile n'a-t-il pas encore vraiment décollé?
A mon avis, le marketing sur mobile ne c'est pas développé comme attendu car on n'a toujours pas réussi à résoudre les problèmes d'intrusion dans la vie privée que peuvent générer la publicité sur portable. Alors qu'on a pratiquement tué les pratiques de cold calling considérée comme obsolète, il ne faudrait pas tuer le bébé dans l'oeuf. Il faut donc créer des campagnes de communication ultra ciblée, et créatrice de valeur pour le client.
D'où le recours à la relation client, avec des bases de données précises permettant de segmenté au maximum le discours et l'offre, mais aussi de développé des offres de qualité, porteuse de valeur pour le client mais aussi valorisante (exclusivité de l'information ou de l'offre, expérience d'achat de meilleure qualité). Le marketing mobile n'a pas encore succombé au spamming grâce notamment au très bon travail de la Cnil, mais il faut plus que d'éviter le spamming, avoir recours à des stratégies de marketing mobile qualitative pour développer son utilisation, comme l'initiative d'Yves Rocher dont j'avais parlé ici.

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Israeli secret agents have a blog

More and more people are interested by creating a blog to express their thoughts. I learned today that some Israeli secret agents were writting a blog. Israel is known to own one of the best spy services in the world, with famous organizations as Mossad (I don't know if you have seen the movie Munich, but it is a very good one on the topic).

In this blog, 4 agents are speaking freely about their job, their revenues, their schedule (it seems they don't have over time hours...), and so on. Nothing very exciting, nor about great hotels that you could see in James Bond's movies. These agents are not commandos nor have a Jean Claude Van Damme's profile: they are high tech specialists.

One of the goal of the blog is to attract new potential talents, especially in the High Tech field, to join the secret services. Indeed, it seems that national secret services all around the world have problem to  find new prospects to hire.


Therefore, this is a new case where blogging and web 2.0 technologies in general are used to provide information to potential  prospects.

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Le système de covoiturage dans la Silicon Valley: le carpool

Je voulais parler aujourd'hui du système de carpool aux Etats-Unis. C'est un système très efficace, et très pratique, puisqu'il permet de:

• Diminuer les émissions de gaz
• Diminuer la consommation d'essence
• Aller plus vite lors des heures de pointe.
  

Aux Etats-Unis ont été mises en places des lignes spéciales sur les routes et autoroutes appellées "carpool lanes". Ces lignes, placées soient à l'extrême gauche de la route sur autoroute ou à l'extrême droite sur les routes en ville, sont réservées aux voitures ayant au minimum deux passagers à bord. Il existe ainsi comme je le disais trois grands avantage:

• Ecologiquement, on diminue le trafic et donc on pollue moins.
• On diminue la consommation d'essence, puisqu'on partage les frais d'essence. De plus les péages, notamment pour les ponts, sont gratuits pour les voitures contenant plus de trois personnes
• On peut aller plus vite puisqu'on évite les bouchons aux heures de pointes.

Le système
Tout le monde ne connait pas forcément d'autres personnes pour pouvoir faire du covoiturage. Il existe ainsi un système gratuit qui propose des arrêts, comme des arrêts de bus, présent un peu partout à San Francisco. Il faut ensuite s'inscrire pour un horaire, et des voitures passant à cet horraire peuvent vous prendre. Ce qui est assez incroyable, c'est qu'il n'y a pas vraiment de rotation: si vous êtes conducteur, vous pouvez rester conducteur. De même que si vous n'avez pas de voiture, vous n'avez pas besoin de faire le conducteur. Et le système marche parfaitement, puisque les deux parties trouvent leurs comptes:

• Le piéton a un moyen de locomotion
• Le conducteur prend la voie la plus rapide et ne paie pas le péage.

Le système marche très bien, et le covoiturage est l'un des meilleurs moyen de locomotion "public" dans la région de San Francisco.

Est-ce réalisable en France?
C'est une bonne question. Il y a deux spécificités françaises qui peuvent poser problème à la mise en place d'un tel système: En France la plupart des routes sont des 2*2 voies, et il est difficile ainsi d'avoir une voie réservée au covoiturage. Cependant, on peut penser que sur de grands axes la formule pourrait tout à fait être appliquée.

Cependant, je pense que dans une ville comme Paris, il serait intéressant par exemple de pouvoir utiliser les couloirs de bus pour les voitures transportant 4 passagers.

Que pensez vous de l'idée? Est-ce applicable en France? Seriez vous intéressé pour faire du covoiturage?

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Is Champagne a brand? Does Champagne equal sparkling wine.

This is a very interesting question. It was actually the topic of a conversation I had with a friend of mine during a dinner. I was saying that I had problems to find in a US retailer some Champagne coming from our lovely region of Champagne.
Indeed, in France we have what we called "appelation d'origine controlee". If a product is labelled Champagne in France, that means that it has been produced and harvested in the Champagne region.

Champagne = Sparkling wine
The fact is that for most of American who don't know about this region and the history of sparkling wine, a Champagne is a sparkling wine. So for my friend there is no problem to call a Californian sparkling wine Champagne.

But however while we talk about wine or any kind of other traditional products, the region where it has been produced influence a lot both the quality and the features of a product.

Why a Champagne wine is different from another sparkling wine?
Because the Champagne region, as any other region, has some ground specificities, a climate, a know how and tradition that gives a specific quality to the wine, that you won't be able to find in California.

Because of all these features, that differentiate Champagne from any other sort of sparkling wine, the certification can be considered as a sort of brand. Maybe not an homogeneous brand of course, because the quality of wine vary a lot depending on the producer, which does not use the same technique to produce. But still a brand with an image linked to the region it has been produced in.

Champagne does not always mean better quality
This is the same concept for a Bordeaux, or a Bourgogne. I don't say that a Bordeaux is better than a Californian wine (even though my chauvinism force me to say it ;), because that would not be true.
California, Chile or South Africa produce great wines, that are highly competitive and have great qualities. Some of them beat French wines to be objective.

But Bordeaux will still be a reference as one of the best area to produce wine. Bordeaux (or Champagne) has as I have said a climate and geological conditions that can't be find anywhere. This is the same for its experienced wineries. All of that gives to Bordeaux specificities that is acknowledged by experts. Somehow you can even speak about a brand, as it has some characteristic, geographic and qualitative, that differentiate it from other products.

For example, that would shock me to see in a retail a bottle of soda written Coca Cola on it, if it is not produced by Coca Cola. That is not because it is the same ingredient that it is the same thing. Thus, American companies are fooling American customers playing on their lack of knowledge on the product. And this is bad. Bad for the French producers, but bad for a customer that will never have the chance to understand and learn about wine. I actually found this blog entry about the same topic: "Consumers clearly demand and deserve truthful wine labels which correctly identify location no matter what country they come from. Without addressing this issue, Wine Accords will fall substantially short of protecting consumer interests."

That is why I think that a Champagne should be called Champagne only if produced in the region of Champagne, France.

What do you think about it? Are you agree with me? Do you think Champagne = sparkling wine?

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Lead generation technique: Quizzle case studies

The challenge: generating qualified leads
Everybody knows that it is hard to get qualified leads for your business. By qualified, I mean leads that you have a high percentage of chances to convert them into customers. When you set up a marketing campaign aiming to generate new leads, you get different kind of problems: you can have a lot of leads but not qualified, or you can simply have a small amount of leads.

I will talk specifically today of the first problem listed: how to get qualified leads? How do I know that the lead is qualified?

How do I know that the lead is qualified?
This is where a customer relationship strategy is important. A customer analysis will allow you to identify specific criteria to qualify your primary target, and also to recognize the data that will allow you to qualify the prospect. You know that your lead is qualified if it has different criteria that characterize your core target. Also, if we follow the precept of permission marketing, if a lead is eager to give you his contact information to get in contact with you for a specific service, then this lead is interested by your product and aiming to go further in his decision making process.

The Quizzle case study
I found out about Quizzle today, and it is in my opinion a great example on how to get qualified leads, willing to do business with you. I actually learned about through Twitter!

The offer
Quizzle is a company held by Quicken Loans specialized in mortgages. In order to get leads, they created an online software which will allow visitors to have an overall view of their mortgage situation. Indeed, the software gives for free:

• A credit score and report
• A free home value report
• A personalized mortgage recommendations
• A custom budget

After having analyzed these different features, Quizzle establish a score that will show you where you are at: Do you have a mortgage that fit your need? How is your credit history? And so on.

What is great about the concept is that on Quizzle gets not only contact information, but a complete overview of the visitor profile. These data can be used afterward to set up specific offers to the client.
The visitor has a great added value, as he can get in less than 10 minutes a complete check up of its mortgage situation.

So the morale of this example is: if you want qualified leads, you need to offer them an added value in exchange of their personal information. The client won't accept to give you personal data if they don't have an offer to get in exchange. Also, if the customer is not pleased with the counterpart he won't want to go further with you.

And that is what customer relationship management is about: managing clients' data to propose an adapted relationship to grow business.

What do you think about it? I invite you to try out their system, it is very well done. Good job.

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Mobile et stratégie relationelle: le cas Yves Rocher

Je viens de recevoir via une newsletter électronique un article sur Yves Rocher qui vient d'ajouter le mobile à sa stratégie relationnelle.

Yves Rocher, via l'intermédiaire d'Ocito, vient de concevoir des campagnes utilisant les technologies mobiles (SMS, MMS et Internet mobile).

La marque de cosmétique a notamment utilisé le marketing mobile pour le lancement de Luminelle Axe Tendance, une gamme de produit à destination des 16-25 ans, avec comme objectif de créer du trafic en magasin.

"En amont, Ocito et Yves Rocher ont donc mis en place un plan fichier adapté à chaque technologie. Par exemple, les MMS n'ont été envoyés qu'à des clientes dont les téléphones mobiles étaient compatibles MMS. En tout, quatre vagues distinctes ont été opérées : 60 000 SMS avec un bon de réduction valable en magasin, 30 000 MMS multislides présentant le produit et le code promotionnel, 30 000 liens cliquables avec un rebond vers un site internet mobile et, enfin, un module d'envoi depuis le Web permettant de déclencher de la viralité."

Ce qui est intéressant à savoir, c'est que les taux de re tours des campagnes SMS et MMS avaient un taux d'efficacité sont comparables, mais le taux de retour des clients ayant visite le site web mobile est deux fois supérieur à la campagne SMS.

"La viralité via le Web est également importante puisque 20% des amies qui ont reçu le bon plan ont ensuite acheté en magasin. Ce taux a même atteint 70% pour le site internet mobile. Enfin, le taux de désinscription a été inférieur à 2%. Des résultats encourageants pour Yves Rocher qui devrait pérenniser l'utilisation du mobile dans ses campagnes de prospection et de fidélisation."

Voici un cas qui montre bien l'attractivité des campagnes marketing mobiles. De plus, les campagnes sont tout à fait rentable.
Sur un point de vue relation client, l'utilisation du téléphone mobile est intéressante mais doit être assujetti à modération. Le téléphone mobile est un produit très personnel pour le consommateur, un produit qu'il porte sur lui tout les jours, et qui le garde en contact avec sa communauté.Il faut donc éviter au maximum le spamming, pratique qui serait désastreuse pour le marketing mobile. Plus qu'avec tout autre support, les campagnes sur téléphones portables doivent être élaborées avec la permission du client.

Il est donc important de développer des opérations marketing mobiles respectant l'intimité du consommateur.

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Nicolas Princen becomes the cyber spy of Nicolas Sarkozy

HEC alumni Nicolas Princen has been hired by French presidency as Internet monitor.

The French blogospher already nicknamed Nicolas Princen the "cyber spy", as he is responsible of the Internet surveillence of what is being said about Nicolas Sarkozy on the web. A lot of these bloggers disapprove this move as they feel threatened by censor.

Indeed, Nicolas Sarkozy is a specialist of the blunders since he became French president. One of the main one was when he insulted a person who did not want to shake his hand "sale con" (sod off) during French agriculture show couple of weeks ago. The video of this event has been seen more than 2 million times on youtube. Because of these kind of bad publicity on the Internet l'Elysee decided to control more intensively the web.

I think that in our image society it is important for a French president to control its image. I think that it shows that Internet has become one of the main media nowadays, and Nicolas Sarkozy understood it. This media is going way faster than anyone else, and it requires specific attention to master it. An information can be sent on the web couple of seconds after it happened, via laptops or cell phones. Therefore he wants to make sure his communication on the web is properly managed.

Once again, I am not approving or promoting any kind of political ideas. However, I think that this news is important as it shows how the Internet has evolved this past few years to become one of the main media to survey for personalities and of course politicians.

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Il n'y a pas qu'en France où on a des problèmes de pouvoir d'achat

Il y a quelques semaines le sujet numéro 1 des media français était la baisse du pouvoir d'achat, notamment en ce qui concerne les produits de premières nécessité. Mais ici aussi, aux Etats-Unis, les denrées alimentaires sont à la hausse. Le San José Mercury News, le "parisien de la Silicon Valley" (cette analogie n'engage que moi ;)) dénonce lui aussi ces hausses: +24% pour la farine, le lait et les oeufs., +15% pour le pain et 12% pour le raison en un an.
Le prix de la nourriture grimpe bien plus rapidement que l'inflation, aussi les ménages de la Silicon Valley commencent à se préoccuper de cette hausse.

Ainsi, en plus des problèmes de quotas qui sont les mêmes qu'en Europe, les Etats-Unis sont attaqués par la faiblesse du dollar et la hausse du prix de l'essence (plus importante qu'en France puisque l'euro fort amorti l'augmentation du prix du pétrole).

Le pouvoir d'achat devient donc un sujet de préoccupation pour l'Amérique qui voit son économie attaquée de toute part, comme je l'expliquais dans l'article précédent.

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"La crise la plus grave depuis la seconde guerre mondiale"

C'est avec ces mots que l'ex président de la Fed Alan Greenspan s'est expliqué sur la crise lundi dans un éditorial publié par le Financial Times.
Travaillant en ce moment dans l'industrie du prêt immobilier aux Etats Unis, j'ai la même impression. La crise du sub prime est bien plus profonde que l'on a voulu nous faire croise. Quand on voit certaines propriétés dans certains états avoir perdu en quelques mois la moitié de leur valeur, l'incroyable volume de maison à vendre aux enchères, mais aussi les nombreuses banques et investisseurs ayant fermé boutiques, on peut s'apercevoir de l'ampleur des dégâts.

Couplé à cela, la chutte du dollar, la monté des cours du pétrôle, et une économie américaine à la peine (le meilleur exemple est l'industrie de l'automobile, secteur phare il y a quelques années et à la peine face à la concurrence asiatique) font de cette crise une crise profonde qui va affaiblir considérablement les Etats Unis, au moins pour l'année 2008.

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Why it is important to speak many languages

That is something that is very important to me, and also my girlfriend Susie, who as a language major graduate speaks 4 languages (English, Spanish, French and italian). A lot of people are speaking English as the international business language. That is a good thing, this is indeed the main language used for International business. But there are many advantages to speak other languages.
But speaking another language is in my opinion a great asset people should not underestimate. And here is why.

Of course, this is well seen by foreign people if you try to speak in their own languages, as it is a sign of respect and of adaptation (how many times I have seen American People expecting people to converse with them in English on vacations?). For a salesperson who is visiting clients in another country he will probably able to create stronger relationship if he knows the language.
But more importantly, speaking other languages allow you to understand better a culture and access other valuable source of information.

American news are very useful, don't get me wrong, but my ability to read French news site lefigaro, or the Spanish Elpais, or even sometimes (even though I don't read it on a frequent basis) Die Welt in German, it gives you the ability to know about different aspect of an issue.

Mastering different languages is not all, what is important is your ability to leverage it to know more, to access to information that your competitors won't know. That is why every day I read blogs and news website in English, French and Spanish, to see what matters to the three communities, but also to forge my opinion about the issue. For example, as I am French, I might have a better understanding on what happened with the Societe General than an American, who will have less information and probably presented in a different manner.

A lot of ideas and things are happening in the world, and being able to speak different language and have access to information sources from all over the world is a great advantage to pick up new ideas.

What do you think about it? Do you have examples how knowing different languages helped you out?

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Webdesign and efficiency: The great example of craigslist

"L'habit ne fait pas le moine". This is a well-known French quote that means you should not judge people by their appearances, especially when they look nice.
This quote applies perfectly to the Internet domain. When someone wants to develop a website, he always wants it to be eye catching, very nice, with a lot of visual effects. Their mindset is: "if I  have a website to represent myself on the Internet, it should be as fancy as possible, to impress visitors". They think that a website is a media that allows to create multimedia marketing pieces, and therefore they should use the latest technologies to dress up their sites. But to be honest, that would be a mistake.

The main fact is that the overall look of your website is really not what matters to a website. The main asset your website should have is simplicity. This is exactly what Steve Leung was talking about yesterday at his work shop.

There is two main reasons I see why you should do so:

1 Sear Engine Optimization
Google likes ugly. I say that because Google does not really like images nor Flash media. This is something everybody wants: Flash presentation, because they look nice and allows you to stand out. But first they are slow to download, secondly, sometimes depending on the version of your web browser they don't show up, and lastly Google has problems to read through them.

In order to get the best search engine rankings, you need to allow Google to go through the text of your page, and thus, you need text more than fancy flash media.

2 Readers love simplicity
It is important to set up your pages in order to let your visitors navigate easilly. Don't overwhelm them with presentations that don't bring added value. The visitor is here to find information, and he will stay if the information is easy to access. Therefore you need to have very clear information. Also, talking about information, don't try to overcrowd your website, thinking that it should become an encyclopedia. This is not the purpose. Because the more information you have the hardest it is going to be if you need to up date it. And as was saying Steve, "a website is up dated when it is out dated". I am pretty agree on this, especially while speaking about informational content.

The example of craigslist
The best example is for me craigslist. Craigslist is probably the ugliest website, but it works, and it works good. Little did I know about craigslist when I came here in California, but the website is the reference for personal advertisement in the United States. And why does it work? Because it is simple! It is fast to download, the information is presented clearly, and navigation is easy. Moreoever, it doesn't even have a logo! Which is an aberration for a marketer. But it works perfectly, and is a powerful search engine optimization tool.

Therefore, my main advice if you want to edit a new website or up date your website: keep it simple, very simple.

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A great example of how blogging can help small businesses

I attended today a seminar organized by real estate agents Steve Leung and Alex Wang, here in our office at Mountain View, California. The particularity of these two agents is that they use their blogs as one of their key ways to generate leads. Especially Steve Leung is a very successful blogger who can count on a strong audience to promote his work.

Indeed, here are some stats that Steve shared with us about his blog which he started back in 2006:

• Between 150-300 readers a day
• 233 RSS feed subscribers
• About 1.5 leads a day in average
• Ranked n1 for real estate silicon valley blog
  

Therefore, they wanted to set up a workshop talking about blogging and search engine optimization for small businesses, in order to share their experiences.
I have already attended a workshop on search engine optimization organized this time by WSI that I talked about in my blog here. But this one was mainly focus on a website point of view. This time, Steve exposed the different strengths of a blog versus a website to build a strong audience and to generate leads out of it.

As an experienced blogger now I know quite a few about search engine optimization techniques about  blogging, but I learned so much about Steve that it was really worthwile. In particular, Steve gave us some examples of search engine fraud, how they work, and why these techniques could become really bad as you might be kicked out of Google.

Why is blogging particularly well adapted to small business?
According to a study established by Nielsen in 2006, 70% of consumers use search engines to find local services. Also 54% of them referred the business to their friend. That means that search engines are the new yellow pages, and if you have a great ranking, that will help you a lot to attract new customers. Blogging is the cheapest and most efficient way to optimize your search engine ranking, and for many structural reasons (each post is a new page with its own title, category, among others).
I also like the idea that a website is updated when it is outdated, because it is very true. A blog is never outdated as you constantly have new information in it. Also you still store the old information to use it as a leverage for the search engines. Therefore, it is easier to keep an updated blog than an updated website, and that is also the main reason why people should have a blog more than a "business card website", which can be cool too but will never generate leads.

He also shows some very good techniques on how to analyze your search engine results, and how to improve it. I will share some of them with you in some next topics.

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Business plans: définitivement obsolètes?

Est-ce que les business plans ont encore leur utilité à l'heure d'aujourd'hui? C'est la question que beaucoup de personnes ce posent sur l'Internet depuis déjà pas mal de temps. Je vois beaucoup de personnes. Aujourd'hui, je suis tombé sur cet article, écrit par Alain Thériault sur son  blog. Au lieu d'établir un business plan rigide, obsolète dans un univers économique aujourd'hui changeant rapidement, où l'adaptation est plus importante que la plannification, Alain Thériault lance l'idée d'un plan d'opportunité, plus réaliste.

Luc Hardy, président de Sagax, société spécialisée dans le capital risque, m'avait aussi expliqué qu'il avait recours désormais à des présentations Power Point plus qu'à de réel business plan pour présenter de nouvelles entreprises aux VCs.


Cependant est-ce qu'un jeune entrepreneur doit se passer d'un plan d'affaires? Cela me parait tout de même risqué. Il ne faut pas oublier que de l'autre côté, il y a un investisseur qui doit prendre toute les mesures possibles pour minimiser le risque associé à l'investissement. Cela veut dire qu'il doit avoir le maximum d'informations dont il a besoin afin d'accorder les fonds à la société en création.

A mon avis, le business plan n'est peut être pas il est vrai forcément le meilleur outil. Mais n'oubliez tout de même pas d'en avoir un sous la main, en fonction de l'investisseur que vous avez en face de vous.

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L'opticien discount Hans Anders s'implante en France

Cette information provenant du site de LSA me rappelle de bon souvenir de l'année dernière. J'avais en effet travaillé sur un dossier concernant le hard discount dans l'optique. Hans Anders est une chaîne de distribution néerlandaise spécialisé dans les montures à bas prix. Ils se sont rapidement développé dans le nord de la France depuis un an. L'un de leurs atouts: proposé la consultation sur place, alors que bien souvent dans certaines régions françaises on peut attendre plusieurs mois avant de pouvoir effectuer cette visite obligatoire pour obtenir des lunettes.

Hans Anders est une réelle enseigne de hard discount puisqu'elle propose une gamme de 1000 montures à 35 euros la monture. Est-ce que le hard discount va s'installer durablement dans le domaine de l'optique en France?  Qu'en pensez vous?

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Nokia Morph: Nano Technologies future of cell phones?

Little did I know about the Nokia Morph project before my friend Mehdi Zenasni talked to me about it. That's normal actually: Mehdi Zenasni is a French expert about cell phones, working for French challenger SFR.
Anyway, Nokia Morph is a new project developed hand in hand by the University of Cambridge in the UK and Nokia in order to create a new cell phone which would probably revolutionize our lifes.

Morph is a nano technologies based phone. Thanks to these technologies, it will have specific capacities that you can watch in the video upper in the article. It could then expend itself to become a keyboard, or shrink to use as a cell phone. You can even wear it like a watch around your wrist.

When will it be available? I have no ideas, but I can say that it looks for sure as what the next generation of cell phone will look like.

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A blog to understand vendor relationship management better

I have just got back of a wonderful week of vacation I spent in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I found this very interesting blog.
It is called ProjectVRM blog, and is a research and development project of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

What is VRM?
That is a new trend which appeared along the development of web 2.0 technologies. The main idea is that instead of having brands trying to get in contact with us whereas we don't need them, the customer will broadcast on the Internet its need, and companies will be allowed to make propositions to the client.

For example, I travel not that often by plane. However, I need a plane ticket to go to New York for next month. I can post an ad on my blog saying I need a plane ticket, expecting some companies to make me a good offer. With this concept, I avoid the company to send me any kind of newsletter or not solicited commercial message that could be disruptive.

This blog has very good thoughts about this concept that is emerging right now. I especially like the article about the VRM and DRM, and also this good quote …deciding to expose any data to a potential vendor is a customer choice, not a marketers right.

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New technologies to enhance loyal customer shopping experience

On Feb 2008 French Marketing Direct Magazine wrote an article titled: "Grocery retailing: Towards high tech loyalty".
First the article overviews the different techniques used by retailers to get their customers loyalty (coupons, cash back, gifts...). What is interesting in this part is that customers are primarily asking for money back as a reward. That makes sense as their first priority is to find the best deals.

But later in the article, the different experts solicited to establish this report are focusing on the future of loyalty programs.
I particularly appreciate the point of view of Christophe Lucas, manager at K Agency 360: "Loyalty programs cover both the beginning and the end of the relationship, but the customer relationship on site has not been considered enough". The client is contacted prior to come in the store, with promotions and coupons, and then after the visit to tell him to come back. But what about while shopping?

There is no distinction between a loyal and an average shopper. However, one of the best way to differentiate yourself on such a competitive market, where you have very few product differentiation either, is to provide to your client a top of the line customer experience. That is the reason why I think it will become crucial for retailers to focus on this issue, because it will probably turn into a key success factor shortly.

And this is where new technologies can help the retailers develop a specific customer experience for its loyal clientèle. Therefore technologies like the electronic cart, which allow the customers to receive specific offers during its shopping, can provide a real benefit to customers.
I think it is interesting indeed to think about how to enhance and differentiate the shopping experience of a loyal customer and an average one.

What do you think about it? How do you think it is possible to interact better with loyal customers?

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Internet strategies for small businesses and search engine optimization

I attended yesterday a seminar held by Sanjay Singh from WSI. The seminar was discussing about Internet and small businesses, and more specifically on search engine.

Indeed, we talked in detail on how search engine works, what components they are seeking for their rankings. We also saw how to buy key words on search engine, especially on a small business prospective. Thus, you have to be smart and get away from overcrowded words that you won't be able to afford nor get any interesting leads.

That was very interesting to have Sanjay sharing his expertise with us, and giving us operational techniques to enhance search engine ranking for small businesses. Especially because the seminar was held in a small crowd, with people from small businesses of different industries: real estate, industrial, dotcoms...

For example, even though I know a lot about websites, I did not know that you could and should have meta descriptions for all your pages. Also, he show some concrete examples on how small businesses such as real estate agents, car retailer or semi conductor producers have been able to use the Internet to find new leads and prospects.

He gave me a lot of good ideas to implement on our agents' websites.

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