Four Ways To Boost Cross-Sell Results

Cross Selling
Cross selling is the technique in order to sell to one customer some products that would complement the purchase of another product. For instance, once you buy a laptop, a cross sell process would help the customer to buy a mouse and a suitcase. Cross selling is one of the key component of retailers' arsenal to generate more sales, and improve its turnover.

I found this article writen by David King, CEO of Fulcrum, where he expose four ways to boost cross-sell results. Here they are.

1. In-Market Timing
Many retailers who have developed an ability to anticipate when customers are interested in buying have done so by building a standalone model, and then face the logistical challenges of working with multiple models to account for both choice and timing in any customer’s purchase decision. Your analytics department or vendor needs to have the capability to take both of these dimensions into consideration in one integrated modeling framework.

How could your cross-selling results improve if you were able to not only anticipate what each customer or segment is interested in, but when their interest will be highest? And to eliminate individual customers or segments from further solicitations of the same or similar offer when they are no longer interested? And do both while also taking into account your competitions’ plans?

2. Repeat-Purchaser Focus
Every retailer has a percentage of single-transaction customers, but few retailers design and implement specific strategies to increase their number of repeat customers. Aside from the data management issue of identifying a first-time customer (not an insignificant issue in itself for many retailers), the other challenge is deciding what exactly to offer these customers to encourage a second purchase. Even with the limited data that you will have on file for these customers, an analysis can identify at either the individual or segment level the specific second-purchase decisions with the highest potential acceptance.

3. Cross-Channel Offer Affinity
Every retailer knows the importance of delivering consistent messaging across customer channels, and many are in the process of making significant strides in this area. Yet, despite widespread consensus that cross-channel integration is critical, many retailers struggle to find and deploy practical strategies to infuse more cross-channel intelligence into their marketing programs. In many cases, the concept of “offer affinity” affords retailers an immediate opportunity to provide meaningful communications to customers across channels.

“Offer affinity” is based on a marketing analysis that finds a pattern of one type of purchase naturally following another. To use a home improvement example, a purchase of deck lumber would have an intuitive follow-up sale of deck stain, but an analysis of transaction data could point to other “missed purchase categories” such as joist brackets, and flashing.

Finding these “potential pairings” is something that in-store merchandising display departments have studied and reacted to for years, but now that kind of intelligence can inform both offline and online customer communications.

4. Marketing Agility
A decade after the launch of marketing automation systems to execute and measure direct marketing strategies, many retailers remain locked into campaign-centric views of their marketing programs. The demands of today’s marketplace require that retailers be able to respond to smaller and smaller segments of customers with increasingly targeted and timely offers.

Your database marketing platform needs to provide a cross-channel marketing management solution that provides a high degree of customization at either the individual customer or segment level. Such a platform will allow you to transform the way you think about marketing, breaking out of the traditional campaign-centric view to truly deliver customer-centric marketing.

Tropicana's New Packaging

I invite you to read this great article about how Tropicana has designed its new packaging. Let's not forget that packaging is among of the most powerful marketing tools nowadays. As the Moment of truth concept emerged thanks to Procter and Gamble, we have noticed how important it was to own an attractive packaging because customers make their decision on which product to buy about 5 seconds before handling the product.

Therefore, as TV advertising is becoming less and less profitable, packaging represents a wonderful way to get customers' awareness, and improve sales.

Also, as I have recently exposed in this blog, packaging can be used for customer relationship management purposes. Therefore, this is the perfect time to work on packaging for marketers!

Food Brands Adapt Marketing To Economic Downturn

We are definitely experiencing a great economic crisis, where all industries are impacted. As consumption is getting lower, food brands such as Tropicana or Kellogg's need to adapt their marketing in order to keep their competitiveness.

Actually, this crisis might not be so bad for these companies. Indeed, "to save money, consumers are eating more meals at home and fewer meals at restaurants. Though marketers typically cut back during economic downturns, big purveyors of packaged foods are trying to raise the profiles of their brands.' Also, according to this article, automatic vendors' figures are decreasing as people are trying to limit their consumption of snacks on their workplace.

Therefore, instead of trying to be more aggressive with promotions and discount, food brands are focusing on providing better quality meals, in order to convince customers to buy these products instead of going to restaurants, which would be more expensive for them.

Also, on a more general basis, economical downturns represent great opportunities for some companies to earn market shares as competitors which would not have a safe financial situation or don't have developed a great technological advantage might struggle.

Global Brands Must Think Local

The arrival of powerful media like TV and radio turned some brands between the 50s and the 70s global. Indeed, it was possible for a company to spread the world with its product thanks to these new media that could cover nations, and later on, the world. Based on these media, some companies like McDonald's or Marlboro have been able to become global brands.

The myth of Global Brands
There is indeed a myth of the global brand, which has such a powerful personality that it can spread the world and go beyond cultural differences. Thus, it is true that people in Europe, America or Asia all go to McDonald's, use L'Oreal products or like to wear Diesel's jeans.
Also, some of the main brand features of these brands are spread thanks to their country of origin. Levi's vehicle the american dream, and Emporio Armani the Italian style.

But actually, in order to be able to settle down in a country, there is still some adaptation to be done, in order to suit the local culture and social background.

Glocal
This is the concept of "Glocal": a global brand which owns very unique features, but also can adapt to local cultures and way to do business. McDonald's is a great example: they have about the same best sales products all over the world, but adapt their communication and some of their products to the local market. That is the reason why McDonald's develop some fish burgers in Israel, and non beef burgers in India (since the cow is a sacred animal there).

The temptation is great to have a global brand that you would manage from the mothercountry and would simply broadcast all over the world. The cost efficiency of such marketing program is great, but actually, there is a high risk to fail, as you are not fitting customer's expectations nor needs.

Some counterexamples
However, some of these international campaigns work, as Apple that market the same way all the different market, but some other didn't which can explain why Burger King did not success in France.
"Unilever, for instance, sells the same deodorant around the world under a variety of names: Degree in North America, Sure in Britain and Rexona in much of the rest of the world. A few years ago, sales of Guinness beer surged in Africa on the back of a campaign far removed from the beer's Irish roots; it featured action movie-style ads, with a Jamaican-born actor as the hero."

It is still very important for a brand not to neglect cultural differences, that might actually become more important in the future, as this article exposes. People are still very involved with their local life even though new technologies enable them to interact with the whole world. Therefore, adapting global brands' strategy seems to be more than ever important.

What Are Cell Phones Made For?

The answer seems obvious: to call! But this fact seems not that obvious for most cell phone companies. Indeed, technology is getting more and more portable, and therefore there is a large effort by handsets producers to promote other uses for cell phones. Also, phone companies are marketing a lot their 3Gs plans, and other services using these new technologies as new ways to generate growth.

Indeed, According to a new report by The NPD Group, 45 percent of U.S. mobile phone users prefer to use their mobile phones to make calls, and not for other available multimedia features. Only 20 percent of mobile phone users prefer to use their phones as an all-in-one multimedia device for music, videos, Web surfing, and other activities beyond making phone calls.
Moreover, let's not forget that smartphones, which are the most advanced kind of cell phones in terms of other apps (email, Internet, PDA, and multimedia) only counts for 13% of the cell phone market.

Actually, I believe that this fact is one of the main reason why mobile marketing (or m-marketing) is struggling right now. Potential is huge, the technology is constantly improving, but it doesn't seem that customer's interest is there yet.

New operating systems like Apple's or Google Android are great because they provide an easy interface to benefit from these new technologies. But I believe there is still a great effort of education ahead of us, in order to help customers understand how to use these new technologies and get the best out of them.

Referral Marketing: le bouche à oreille et l'exemple du crédit du Nord

Alors que je me balladais dans ma rue, je passe devant le Crédit du Nord. Dans la vitrine, une publicité m'attire l'attention: « 2 clients sur 3 sont venus chez nous par le bouche-à-oreille ». La société met ainsi en avant cette stratégie de dévelopement commercial en avant, car elle est aussi une preuve de qualité de service. Si les clients du Crédit du Nord parlent de leur banque, et convainquent leurs amis de venir chez eux, cela veut dire qu'ils ont été satisfait du service.

Cette idée du bouche à oreille est depuis longtemps à la mode, notamment via le web et le fameux buzz marketing. Ainsi, grâce à la formidable capacité de l'Internet à diffuser de l'information entreliée, elle permet de faire du bouche à oreille de façon exceptionnelle.

Mais cette publicité m'a surtout rappellé une technique marketing qui est utilisé fréquemment aux Etats-Unis, et qui repose sur ce principe, le referral marketing.

Referral Marketing
Le referral marketing regroupe toutes les techniques et pratiques permettant de trouver des prospects via les recommandations de ces propres clients. Le constat est simple, il est très difficile de trouver des clients. Cela coûte cher (frais de publicité, temps passé à démarcher) et en plus souvent cela détériore la prestation: tout le temps et les efforts qu'une personne passe à trouver de nouveaux clients l'empêche de se concentrer sur sa relation client.

Le but du jeu est de garder des contacts réguliers avec ses clients, afin de les fidéliser, de les convaincre de la qualité de la prestation, et en même temps de prospecter de nouveaux clients.

Ainsi, le referral marketing vise à optimiser son effort de prospection, et le potentiel de sa clientèle afin de trouver de nouvelles opportunités de business. De nombreux coachs existent aux Etats-Unis, notamment Brian Buffini, le pape des agents immobilliers aux US, qui permettent de comprendre mieux cette technique.

En tout cas, je trouve que cette communication est innovante, et qu'elle met réellement en valeur la qualité de service que la banque offre aux consommateurs.

The Phone House: publicité frauduleuse

Je voulais attirer votre attention au sujet d'une offre frauduleuse que vous pourrez trouver dans vos magazines ou centre commerciaux. En effet, The Phone House, l'enseigne spécialisé dans la distribution de téléphone mobile, propose une offre à "-50% sur tous les mobiles". Bien sûr, il existe une petite astérique, mettant en garde les consommateurs sur les termes de l'offre.
"Du 07/01/09 au 02/02/09, -50% de remise immédiate en caisse dans la limite de 50€ pour tout achat d'un mobile, sauf Iphone avec abonnement à un forfait 2h et plus. Voir conditions en magasin."

-50% dans la limite de 50€?????? Alors que bon nombre d'appareil coûte beaucoup plus que 100€!! Sur 49 modèles proposés sur le site Internet de The Phone House, 14 coûtent plus que 100€, donc ne bénéficie pas de 50% de réduction, soit environ 1 appareil sur 3...

Par exemple, pour un Blackberry Blold (le téléphone qui m'intéresserait), qui est à partir de 199€, the Phone House le propose à 149 euros, soit une remise de 25% au lieu des 50% affichés.

Je pense qu'il existe sincèrement une publicité abusive, et j'espère que la DGCCRF qui se charge de ce type de fraude, en aura prix connaissance, surtout que cette annonce est une offre nationale, proposé aussi bien sur le site Internet, que dans tous les magasins, mais aussi en publicité sur le Metro du mercredi 14 janvier. Déjà qu'on pouvait se plaindre des agissements des opérateurs souvent limite, si les distributeurs si mettent...

Gregoire's Success Story: How A Great Web 2.0 Example

My French audience probably know about Gregoire's success story, but I believe it is not that known on the other side of the ocean. I wanted to tell about it on this blog as it is a great example on how the Internet and the web 2.0 could change the way companies need to think their business model.


Mymajorcompany
Gregoire is a new French artist.
He registered on a website called MymajorCompany. This is a kind of web 2.0 major company, where users can produce artists by giving them money to finance their album.
Users can finance anything from $5 to 1600$, and once the artist collect $70000, he has enough money to produce his album.
Thus, Gregoire decided to post his music and songs on the website in order to get some audience and find some people that would finance his first album.

Indeed, it worked: He found 347 producers (who you can see in the video clip of the song below), and has been able to use Internet to get exposure. Whereas no one has never heard of him before, Gregoire's song "toi plus moi" is now on most of French radios.

It is now a huge success in France, and he sold more than 200 000 albums so far. This is a great example on the power of web 2.0. This story will probably inspire some new artists or new ideas. Indeed, the power of scale of the Internet has helped big time the artist to both get financing and to get exposure.

What do you think about this story?

What Do You Think About This Blog?

I am dedicating this page to my audience. Indeed, I have started blogging in 2005, and this blog has changed a lot since the first time I posted. Therefore, I would like to get some fresh ideas and the opinion of my audience in order to improve this blog.

My purpose is not to limit my topics, but to have a feedback, wether you have visited this blog once, or you are a regular visitor.

I would like to know:

• Why did you come for the first time on this blog? From where did you come?
• What did you like or dislike about my topics, or my posts?
• What do you expect while you connect to this blog?

I wish this page will help me define better what my audience like, and therefore, give you the best content possible.

Thank you all for making this blog's success, and to follow me on the web.

Sponsored Opinion: When Blog Comments Are Paid

Would you imagine that people could earn money by posting a blog comment about a product? Let's imagine Nike gives you 20$ whenever you say you love the new Air Force 1 on a related blog article? This is actually one of the issue this article of Business Week is raising.

Famous Blogger Chris Brogan has been approached by Kmart to write an article about cool articles he could find in the retailer's store for $500. This is a new way to see Internet advertising.

But also this issue raise some free speech concerns. Blogging has thrived on free speech and the fact it is not related to any big companies nor any money concerns. But with time, blogs have become one of the key information medium. Some of them have great audience, and can make a living out of this activity. Also, some advertisers have expressed great interest in it, and have looked for ways to use this tool to get exposure.

Hence, sponsored blog posts have appeared, and a lot of companies provide free products, premium information to bloggers. This Business Week article is going further: it is not about sponsored posts, but sponsored comments.

"Sponsored Opinion: "Writer's Feet Ache. Need Zappos!"

Scoble hinted at a second problem with paid posts: They may elevate topics to positions of authority that don't reflect their true relevance. That was the likely reason Google blacklisted PayPerPost.com authors back in 2007; all those paid Web writeups were gumming up the search giant's ability to filter real results for consumers hunting at google.com.

The new paid posts continue to push topics to Web relevance, often by creating vast Web "link structures." A recent Izea promotion for Sears, the one that Scoble turned down, created three levels of Web links—a $500 paid initial post talking about a Sears shopping spree; a prize of $2,500 to attract additional bloggers to rewrite the original post; and a competition among those bloggers to attract the most comments from other readers. One influential post times 300 potential reposts times 20 potential comments each equals 6,000 potential Web reviews all pointing at Sears.

Not bad for a $3,000 ad budget. You try influencing Web opinions for 50¢ each.

We ran all this by Dirk Singer, head of the London PR agency Cow, who has been critical of paid posts in both the U.S. and Europe. Singer says marketers should question the value of any paid online writing or link schemes. "Sponsored links… [give] the advertiser the illusion of having word of mouth endorsement, but it's not as simple as that," he says.

Sponsored Opinion: "Let's Spell-Check This Column in Microsoft Word!"

At the end of our conversation, Brogan asked us whether his remarks about paid posts had changed our mind. "There is an ethical line between buying ad position and buying an opinion," we responded. "But honestly we don't know where that line is."

To help determine where it lies, let's expand this commercial experiment—to sponsored opinions in all human communications, online and offline. Tell your boss in the next board meeting that it's time to benchmark your customer service against Kmart. Tell your wife you love her dress but she should have shopped at Sears.

Sponsoring real-world opinions will unlock the real potential for advertisers to influence consumers. Consumers, in turn, earn badly needed cash. Heck, this revolutionary advertising model could lift the world out of recession, simply by monetizing chatting.

There are many technical details to work out: who tracks placing the ads; how do we monitor the "consumer chatting" inventory; what about conflicts of interest that leave you tossing out opposing brands in the same sentence? But surely Google scientists can work out these details within a week.

So let's sell, people! Embed paid promotions into the fabric of life. Tell your kids to behave if they want an iPhone! Then ask Steve Jobs to send you an Apple (AAPL) gift card! We can call it Sponsored Paid Opinions in Human Meetings, or SPOHM—not to be confused with spam."

Indeed, commenting is a key part of a blog. The most exposed blogs receive thousands of comments a day, and it is part of the blogging concept to leave comments opened. So why companies would not leverage it to sponsor some comments and to get new ways to advertise? Actually, a lot of advertisers are still struggling to use web 2.0 to get advertising spaces, so this is an innovative way advertisers should think of for their web 2.0 media plans.

Web 2.0 dilema
Also, web 2.0 is powerful for brands as long as the communities are free to express themselves as they want about these brands. If tomorrow brands faken the conversation, will web 2.0 still be interesting? Will community members be so active? I think there is a high risk if this kind of sponsored "web 2.0 activities" wether it is commenting, or blogging is actually spreads out.

What do you think about it? As a emarketer, or as a web 2.0 users? Would you be interested in such a marketing campaign? I think the question is worth to be discussed, but should be handled with care.

VOD Service On The WII Scares TV Channels

Nintendo is about to launch a video on Demand service on its Wii. A new VOD platform will born allowing Wii's users to access some different movies and video contents, which will be free or not, depending on if the user is willing to have commercials or not.

Some TV channels are still wondering about the potential of such a bid. Indeed, Nintendo, which sold 35 million Wiis around the world, has been able to collect important information via the Wii vote system, where users can vote for their preferences in term of entertainement. Also, through such a system, Nintendo would be able to provide to advertisers a great way to target customers thanks to their preferences. Also, 40% of Wiis are connected to the Internet, which enable the video on demand access.

Therefore video games hardwares are a great threat for traditional TV channels, because they have more skills to target customers. Also, we can see that video games companies have made great effort in order to diversify their business models, via advertisement, in video games, but also now with new media services.

Il y en a marre des soldes!

Aujourd'hui, mercredi 7 janvier 2009 marque le début de la traditionnelle période des soldes. Celles-ci permettent aux distributeurs d'écouler leur stock d'invendu afin de préparer les nouvelles collection, et bien sûr aux consommateurs de réaliser de superbes affaires, les produits étant souvent beaucoup plus bas que d'habitude.

Mais voilà, les soldes sont une pratique strictement encadrée par l'état. En effet, on ne peut pas solder quand on veut, et il existe ainsi deux périodes de soldes à l'année. L'une des principales raisons des soldes et de ce contrôle strict de leur période est que la période des soldes est la seule période où un distributeur peut se permettre de vendre des produits à un prix plus bas que celui d'achat (due à la dépréciation de la valeur du produit entre la date d'achat et la date de vente).

Cette protection a été établie afin de pouvoir éviter toutes reventes à perte de la part de la grande distribution, qui risquerait de faire couler le petit commerce, qui ne serait pas capable de survivre à ce type de dumping.

Mais moi je pose cette question: est-il toujours normal d'avoir ce type de règle de nos jours? En effet, bien sûr le petit commerce est toujours concurrencé de façon très forte par la grande distribution, mais on assiste depuis plusieurs années à un regain de ce commerce de proximité, grâce à plusieurs facteurs, notamment sociologiques. Aujourd'hui, alors que le pouvoir d'achat est le sujet principal de préocupation des français (celui-ci étant étroitement lié avec la crise), cette pratique de limitation dans la durée des soldes ne permet pas d'améliorer ce pouvoir d'achat.

En effet, alors que le distributeur pourrait proposer des soldes tout au long de l'année, afin de pouvoir écoulé ces stocks et donc avoir une gestion plus saine de son activité, il pourrait faire baisser globalement le prix de vente de l'ensemble des produits et doperait la concurrence.

Aux Etats Unis, on peut voir des produits soldés tout au long de l'année, permettant ainsi de faciliter le pouvoir de consommation, puisque les familles n'ont pas besoin de se serrer la ceinture pendant des mois afin d'attendre la miraculeuse période de soldes. D'ailleurs, ce pouvoir des soldes génératrice d'activité en magasin pèse tellement sur les magasins que certains se retrouvent en difficulté lors des saisons de soldes basse (notamment comme ce qui c'est passé il y a deux trois ans).

Je pense donc qu'il serait temps de déréglementer les soldes, afin d'offrir plus de liberté aux distributeurs, mais aussi baisser les prix de vente en général sur les produits assujetit à ces périodes de soldes.

Et vous, qu'en pensez vous? Etes vous pour ou contre? Pensez vous que cette déréglementation peut affecter effectivement les prix à la consommation?

Brands Still Fears Social Media

This is difficult for international brand to embrace social media, as it goes against their will to control all the aspect of their communication. Indeed, companies have spent billions of dollars to vehicle a powerful image, and hence, to secure the way customers perceive the brand’s tune and positioning. But social media have allowed customers and people to speak about what they actually think about the brand. While before customers could chat about their feeling about brands with their relatives, they can now spread the word of mouth worldwide.

Nevertheless, brands and companies were forced to use these social media since they are getting more and more important, as mass media audience is plummeting and social media are rocketing.

This study of emarketer shows how companies are using social media and their goal.

Now I have already discussed on this blog about the issues company have with social media. And I understand them. But I have seen the past year a lot of effort from different actors of different industries developing some community managing activities, which are promising. Now I think that most of companies are not entering yet into a relationship with social media users, keeping a up to bottom strategy in terms of communication, instead of actually interacting as the media allows them to.

But it is a matter of time companies will have staff and teams able to work on it.

Portrait de Christophe Ducamp

Philippe Jeudy vient de faire un très beau portrait de son ami et camarade Geek Christophe Ducamp. Je vous invite à regarder la vidéo qui suit qui a été tourné par Henri Kaufman lors du fameux Geek Trip 2008 à San Francisco.

C'est d'ailleurs à cette occasion que j'ai rencontré Philippe et Christophe, deux personnalités attachantes, deux réels experts de la Toile et du web. Ils sont très accessibles, et aiment partager leur savoir.

Aujourd'hui, Christophe est un évangéliste pour la France de deux projets innovants et intéressants pour le web: les micro formats et l'Open ID.

Je parlerai certainement dans peu de temps de ces deux sujets, mais je vous invite à visionner cette vidéo, où l'expert, Christophe Ducamp parle de ses projets.

The web in 2008

January is the best time in the year to have an overview of what happened the previous year. Here is a good video summarizing what the greatest thing on the web were in 2008.

Here are the two main things that marked the 2008 year:

• Apple: Apple had a tremendous year, whatever people could say. They launched with success their new Iphone, which allowed them to become n2 on the smartphones market. They also innovated with their Itunes platform, focusing on selling more video contents (movies and TV shows), but also thanks to their new Iphone, cell phones apps and games. The McBook Air has already been a great success in the laptop market.
  
  
• The Instant web: The Instant web has been one of the main trend in 2008, and should remain one in 2009. Thanks to all the new web 2.0 services and the Internet more and more accessible on the go thanks to cell phones, the information is becoming faster and faster, and you can access to instant information wherever you are. The instant web, it is Twitter, Friendfeed, and also Facebook which new interface focus on the freshest information accessible from your community. The Instant web is on, and will probably shadow the "web 2.0" that most of the new start ups don't like the term anymore.
  

What about you? What did you think that was remarkable in 2008?

Ventes de systèmes d'exploitation: vers la fin de la vente liée?

La vente liée est une pratique commerciale qui oblige un consommateur à l'achat d'un produit ou un service dans le cadre de l'achat d'un autre produit ou service. Ainsi, cette pratique est très répendue dans le domaine de la vente d'ordinateurs, puisque 90% des ordinateurs vendus en France se font avec le système d'exploitation Microsoft installé sur l'ordinateur (Windows XP, ou maintenant Windows Vista.

Cette technique commerciale a permis à Microsoft de dominer le marché des systèmes d'exloitation pendant de nombreuses années, et de devenir la référence, en établissant des partenariats avec les constructeurs de PC pour équiper ceux-ci de Windows.

Hors cette pratique est pointée du doigt par les politiques. Ainsi, en forçant le consommateur a se procurer Windows Vista lors de l'achat d'un ordinateur (car il n'a pas forcément le choix de l'acheter équiper par exemple de Linux), cela ne favorise pas la mise en concurrence. Ainsi, il existe peu de distributeur, qu'ils soient on line ou offline, distribuant des ordinateurs hors OS Windows, comme par exemple les logiciels Open Source, qui sont pourtant très performant. D'ailleurs je me souviens que j'avais demandé à la Fnac s'ils vendaient des ordinateurs neufs équipés de Linux, et le vendeur m'avait dit que non, et que si j'installais Linux sur la machine, l'ordinateur ne serait plus couvert par la garantie.

Dans le cadre de la loi sur la modernisation de l'économie numérique, le législateur a décidé de remédier à ce problème et ainsi limiter l' usage de cette pratique.

"Concrètement, deux actions sont ainsi rédigées dans ce sens : - « Action n°64 : Promouvoir un affichage séparé des prix des logiciels et systèmes d’exploitation pré-installés. - Action n°65 : Permettre la vente découplée de l’ordinateur et de son logiciel d’exploitation. Réunir un groupe de travail rassemblant les acteurs de la distribution, les associations de consommateurs, les fabricants et fournisseurs de logiciels pour mettre en place un test dès le premier trimestre 2009. »Concrètement, deux actions sont ainsi rédigées dans ce sens : - « Action n°64 : Promouvoir un affichage séparé des prix des logiciels et systèmes d’exploitation pré-installés. - Action n°65 : Permettre la vente découplée de l’ordinateur et de son logiciel d’exploitation. Réunir un groupe de travail rassemblant les acteurs de la distribution, les associations de consommateurs, les fabricants et fournisseurs de logiciels pour mettre en place un test dès le premier trimestre 2009. »"

Concrètement, est-ce que cela va changer énormément de chose dans les prochaines années sur le marché des ordinateurs? Pas forcément. Il reste tout de même difficile pour un novice d'installer un système d'exploitation sur un ordinateur, d'autant plus que celui-ci a été habitué à des produits vendus clé en main, prêt à être utilisé dès son achat. Ainsi, on compléxifie l'utilisation de machines qui font tout pour être simple. Cependant, il est sûr que cette loi va dans le bon sens, et offre une grande opportunité pour les systèmes équipés de Linux de faire une percée sur le marché.

Online travelers Choose Suppliers' Websites

This is an interesting stat. Fully 61% of online travel sales are now made directly at supplier sites, compared with 39% for online travel agencies (OTAs) in 2008. This balance is projected to hold steady through 2010.

"Online travelers have learned to book their reservations on travel suppliers’ Websites to avoid intermediaries’ service fees and collect loyalty points. Suppliers save money from direct bookings and thus encourage this behavior with aggressive, lowest-price guarantees."

Frequent leasure travelers and business roaders are seeking for financial benefits from supplier's, which explains their choice.

Indeed, customer relationship programs have incentived clients to remain loyal. If this stat doesn't give the whole picture, since infrequent leasure travelers would rather log on an online agency website, but that proves an efficient loyalty program could contribute to increase competitiveness, and therefore profitability.

Principe des enchères inversées

Je voulais revenir sur le principe des enchères inversées alors que j'ai déjà abordé ce sujet cette semaine. En effet, les enchères inversées ont révolutionné le métier de distributeur ces dernières années.

Les enchères inversées et la négociation
En effet, l'un des métiers fondamental d'un distributeur, avec bien sûr la gestion de la logistique, est d'acheter les produits les moins cher possible au plus grand nombre, afin de dégager de la marge. C'est pour cela que la négociation représente une part importante du métier de la distribution. Dans ce cadre, le système d'enchères inversées à faciliter grandement le travail.

Les enchères
Vous savez ce qu'est une enchère? Un produit, d'une certaine valeur, est mis en vente et disponible à un nombre d'acheteur potentiel déterminé. Ensuite, pendant un laps de temps donné, les acheteurs doivent renchérir sur le produit afin de pouvoir l'obtenir. Ceci résulte à une augmentation progressive du prix de cession de l'objet, puisqu'à chaque fois qu'un acheteur potentiel marque son intention d'achat, le prix de vente augmente.

Les enchères inversées, comme son nom l'indique, c'est exactement le contraire. Un acheteur potentiel va contacter des fournisseurs, afin de leur confier un cahier des charges comprenant les caractéristiques du produit qu'il désire acheter. Ensuite, à une date et pendant une durée donnée, les différents fournisseurs vont baisser leur prix afin de s'aligner sur la meilleure offre.

Ainsi, les enchères inversées est un très bon moyen de mettre en concurrence des fournisseurs afin de leur faire baisser les prix.

Cependant, ces enchères peuvent avoir un effet pervers. Aussi, deux des règles fondamentales des enchères sont:

1. Pratiquer les enchères inversées sur des produits de base, peu évolués. Plus un produit sera évolué, en terme de conception, plus la qualité de cette conception sera importante. Il faut ainsi pratiquer ce type de procédé sur des produits peu technologiques.
2. Ne pas baser uniquement son choix sur le résultat de l'enchère inversée. En effet, à la suite de cette pratique, l'acheteur aura une liste des offres, de la plus intéressante à la moins intéressante. Il ne choisira pas forcément l'offre la moins chère, car il devra vérifier de la capacité du fournisseur à tenir ce prix tout en gardant un produit remplissant les conditions du cahier des charges.

Ce principe est pratiqué maintenant par la plupart des distributeurs, et à prouvé son efficacité.

Je prépare une prochaine intervention sur le sujet des enchères inversées dans le cadre du Vendor Relationship Management qui ne devrait tarder.

Happy New Year 2009

I wish to all my audience a happy new year. I hope 2009 will mark the end of the financial crisis, and will bring up some great technological innovations.

2008 has been a very important year for myself as I have moved back to France, and could see the audience of this blog growing constantly throughout the year. I hope I will stick to this trend, and weave more and more contacts thanks to this amazing tool.

Once more, I wish you the best for next year.

Apple Becomes Number 2 On Smartphones Market

Apple has succesfully entered the smartphone market. Even though it has never been in the mobile phone market, thanks to its tactile interface and couple of innovate features, it became in no time one of the leader in this market. British Institute Canalys has recently published a study on the world smartphone market during the third quarter.

39,9 million smartphones has been sold last year in the world during this period. US market has nearly doubled whereas the Japanese market has decrease by 18%. The EMEA zone keeps a good growing pace with 21% of growth thanks to the Eastern Europe countries. Smartphones counts for 13% of the cell phone market, which is a 11% growth for this quarter.

If Nokia remains the leader with 15.5 million cell phones and 38% of marketshares, it is letting other companies like apple and RIM (Blackberry) narrowing down the gap (Nokia used to own 51% of the market last year). Actually, what is even more impressive is that Apple is now the second largest smartphone producers, with 17% of marketshares, thanks to its aggressive sales strategy for the Iphone. Blackberry owns 15% of the market.

Symbian's supremacy on the operating system market is plumetting, as it was representing more than 60% of the market last year and counts now for 46.6%. Of course, the success of the Iphone OS has hit hard Symbian, but we can also see that Lynux OS are doing great with 5% of the market at the moment. Probably Android will also change a lot the market for next year.

Fujitsu Siemens refuse de participer aux enchères inversées

Habib Bouchrara, directeur général de Fujitsu Siemens France, vient de décider que son entreprise ne participera plus désormais aux sessions d'enchères inversées lancées par les grands comptes.

En effet, le DG considère que cette technique a entraîné un dumping effréné, qui obligeait l'entreprise à vendre à perte. Il est donc préférable de sortir de ce système.

Est-ce la fin des enchères inversées? Je pense que le système possède plus que des avantages pour les centrales d'achat. De même, pour les fournisseurs, le procédé représente un canal de distribution efficace pour amortir l'outil de production, sachant que la plupart du temps que cette pratique est destinée à acheté de gros volume. Néanmoins, il existe, il est sûr une certaine perversité dans le système, ou dans le feu de l'action il est difficile de garder en tête les objectifs de marge alors que la compétition continue à renchérir. De plus, bien souvent, ce service se focalisant principalement sur le prix d'achat, il en résulte une baisse de la qualité du produit, vu que le fournisseur doit avoir des prix réduits pour rester compétitif.

Ce qui est intéressant, c'est que j'avais dans mes cartons depuis quelques semaines un article concernant les enchères inversés, et aussi dans quelle mesure cette technique pouvait être utilisé dans le cadre du Vendor Relationship Management.

Affaire à suivre...

Sears Launches Its M-commerce site

Sears has recently launched its M-commerce site, in order to enhance its customer experience and thus its customers' satisfaction.

"In our continued effort to innovate and serve our customers as they adopt new technologies, Sears2go makes it easier than ever to cut out holiday shopping hassles and shop from the convenience of your mobile phone, says Ravi Acharya, director of e-commerce. More and more customers are using their mobile phones to shop online and Sears2go is completely geared for mobile devices with an emphasis on speed, usability and security."

"In our continued effort to innovate and serve our customers as they adopt new technologies, Sears2go makes it easier than ever to cut out holiday shopping hassles and shop from the convenience of your mobile phone, says Ravi Acharya, director of e-commerce. More and more customers are using their mobile phones to shop online and Sears2go is completely geared for mobile devices with an emphasis on speed, usability and security."

This is a concerte examle of a traditional retailer using new technologies, especially mobile technologies, to enhance its customer experience, and get a competitive advantage which will ensure its customer loyalty. In term of customer relationship management, m-commerce has a great potential, and some great companies start using it.

BtoB Marketing Will Resist The Crisis In 2009

Even though Forrester forecasted a dark future for BtoB marketing, B2B marketers seems to have a pretty positive mindset, as they are looking forward in majority to launch new ad campaigns in 2009.


In fact, BtoB marketing is also affected by the crisis, and whereas BtoB marketing departments are cutting their budget for next year (One-quarter of respondents said they planned to reduce their marketing budgets in 2009), they are expressing a larger and larger interest in Internet advertising, in order to control better their spendings.

Here is an overview of the budget evolution for 2009.



I believe this is good news for the Internet advertising industry. Internet and ebusiness companies will be impacted by the crisis no matter what, as the whole advertising market will plumet, but as Internet advertising enable a better control of spendings and return on investments, the crisis era will be a perfect time to win marketshares on other traditionnal media.

I believe BtoB marketing also will be important for companies next year as the crisis will still be unfolding, because a lot of underdogs and small competitors will suffer, and 2009 might be the perfect timing to earn marketshares once more, and stand out of the competition

Lack Of Human Dimension in Ebusiness

Shopping As A Key Social Activity
This is a fact, a lot of people, whether you agree or disagree, consider grocery shopping or shopping in general as a hobby. They like going to the mall on their spare time. Actually, we can consider that shopping is one of the key social activity a person has to do. Shopping malls and Marts are the places where you could meet the most people.

A lot of people considered that ebusiness will probably kill the mortar retails, because they would not be able to be as competitive in terms of service, quickness and, mainly, prices. Looking a little bit backward, we can see that Ebusiness has defenitely became a key part of retailing, but it hasn't really much affected traditional retails profitablity.

The Human Dimension In Retailing
One of the main strength retails will always have, and the main reason why they will always exist, is because of the human dimension. The human contact with a salesperson, cashier, or even with other customers is something valuable. Of course, the web 2.0 brought some kind of answers to this problem. You can create, share with, and animate a community. But this will never replace human contact. Therefore we can see now a lot of online companies starting opening some retails to complete their online services, especially in terms of after sale services.

Ebusiness must focus on customer relationsip
Ebusiness has though some great strengths and tools to build up a good customer relationship. You have some extensive access to customer data, which enables you to analyse shoper behavior, the bid, and your convertion rates. You also have some multemedia interfaces, some complete product descriptions, user reviews and so on. Therefore, I believe that one of the main focus in order to establish some sustainable success for an online retailer is to develop some kind of interaction with visitors, shoppers, and customers.

However, I also believe that traditional retails still have a bright future ahead of them, as long as they'll be able to keep their technology and information systems up to date, and keep a link with some Internet applications that will reinforce customer's experience.

Retail Marketing
Also, due to these facts, and in order to keep a high customer satisfaction rate, retailers must push their marketing effort, in order to insure a strong customer experience. This customer experience, based on the human dimension, is the base of the business, and retailers can not any longer focus only on their supply chain and product display, but think about what kind of service they can provide to customers in order to please them and make them come back.

Buzz Marketing: Ikea To Make Cars In Kit

Do you know about Ikea? Ikea is one of the world leading retailer in furnitures and home supplies. Actually, I am asking this question because there are very few Ikeas in the US, even though there is one in Palo Alto, California, and one nearby New York that I have visited and that experience much success.

Ikea has based its success on its ability to lower furniture prices. Indeed, they sell their products in kit, with a very well explained notice. Therefore, the customer don't need to pay for the manutention, as they will do it by themselves.

French master of marketing and customer relationship genious Henri Kaufman discovered a new buzz marketing campaign designed by Ikea.

Ikea is selling cars in kit.

I think this is a very good idea, because it vehicles the principle of Ikea: Get your product in kit, and do it yourself, in order to lower the cost. Ikea has always been very ingenious with its communication for a retailer. What do you think about it? Would you buy your car in kit like this one?

Bonus:

This Ikea commercial you could see in France, which I have already talked about in my blog.

Excellente campagne de buzz marketing pour Nespresso

Nespresso a réussi à imposer sa marque en utilisant le personnage principal de ses publicités, le fameux acteur américain Georges Clooney, dans des situations décalés. Aujourd'hui, Nespresso a relancé une campagne de publicité télévisée avec un nouveau spot, mais aussi une petite innovation: le spot vous propose en fin de message de vous rendre sur le site Internet www.nespresso-whatelse.com afin de découvrir 3 films inédits de la série, et de voter pour celui qui vous plaît le plus. Celui qui aura reçu le plus de suffrage deviendra ainsi le prochain message publicitaire.

Je trouve cette campagne de buzz marketing très bien faîte.

• Elle permet de promouvoir le site Internet et ainsi la communication multi canal
• D'un point de vue relation client, le client collabore à la création de l'entreprise, en participant activement au choix de la prochaine publicité. Cela permet d'affirmer la notion d'appartenance à la marque.
  
• C'est une campagne d'acquisition. Elle permet de croître la taille du fichier de prospect, puisqu' afin de voter, le visiteur du site est invité à laissé son nom et son adresse email, ainsi qu'à envoyer le lien à ses contacts.
• Il existe de plus un réel intérêt pour le visiteur de participer, puisqu'il va découvrir des publicités souvent créatives avant les autres.
  

Bref, cette campagne est très bien faîte. J'y ai participé, et je pense qu'elle apportera ses fruits. J'aimerai bien savoir l'agence qui a réalisé cette campagne.

US Automaker embraces The Web For Advertising

US car manufacturers are experiencing much difficulties during this financial crisis, as they are facing bankruptcy. However, business has still to be done, and car companies seem to have much interest in the Internet medium to promote their vehicles.

Here is a good article on how Automakers give social Web sites a test-drive.

Actually, they are trying out all kinds of web commercials: videos, SEO, adwords, social platforms... What is also worth of interest, is the social communities interest.

Here is a very interesting abstract of this article.

"Social networking efforts by Dodge and Chrysler brands are in their “infancy,” Sullivan said. But as the sites attract older and more mainstream users, he said, “We are starting to build that out.”

Mark LaNeve, General Motors' vice president of North American marketing, said social networks extend word-of-mouth advertising to cyberspace.

“The most powerful thing in our business is the advocacy of one customer to the next,” LaNeve said. “These sites get that done digitally.”

This year, Chevrolet and MySpace developed a promotion that focused on conservation and alternative-fuel vehicles. A “tree widget” allowed MySpace users to plant virtual seeds on the site that grew into trees. As part of the promotion, Chevrolet and MySpace also agreed to plant as many as 225,000 real trees.

The program generated more than 8 million downloads and “millions of positive comments,” GM spokeswoman Kelly Cusinato said.

Toyota Motor Sales' youth-oriented Scion brand has appeared on social marketing sites for five years, said Adrian Si, Scion's interactive marketing manager.

In October, Scion launched a promotion on Kongregate, a social network for video-game developers and players. Users can modify a basic video game Scion has posted on the site. Visitors will vote for their favorite version.

Scion uses social networks primarily to “provide entertainment value” to users rather than generate traffic for its own Web site, Si says.

“We're not touting our cars,” he said. “We do things to get exposure to our brand and positive awareness of it.”

Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co.'s group vice president of marketing and communications, says companies such as his have not “really leveraged the opportunity” provided by social networking sites.

“It will be one of the most fundamental parts of our digital strategy going forward,” he said.

The marketing challenge, Farley said, is to provide content that will engage, rather than distract or annoy, users of networking sites.

“People come there for a very specific reason,” he said. “They don't want to be interrupted.”

But auto ads on social networks inevitably face user resistance, said Jon Schulz, a senior vice president at Specific Media, an online ad network in Irvine.

“Compared to other forms of advertising, social media do not drive the online behavior that leads to vehicle purchases,” said Schulz, who directed digital and direct marketing for Ford Motor before he left the company in May.

“You get a lot of eyeballs” at social networks, Schulz said. “But advertising is generally not well-received. The communities were launched without advertising. (Users) don't view it as a transactional space. It is a social space.”"

Video Games Market Attracts More And More Adults

The video games market is expanding at a very fast pace. Actually, this is the hypest entertaining market nowadays. What is great about video games is that it is very hard to counterfake, which limits the possibilities of illegal copies.

Emarketer published some good charts about how adults now love video games.

We can see that video games customers are a very heterogeneous population, with all type of social classes and ages. Actually, I believe that we can give a lot of credits to Nintendo for having expand the video games interest to the older and newer generation.

Maybe this is a good sign that with the lower interest for television and the segmentation of the media consumption, video games might rise as the next mass media! Who knows? Thus it confirms the reason why a lot of advertisers are willing to get some advertising spots in the most prestigious video games.

Here is an example from one of the master of marketing, Barrack Obama, that proved during the campaign his excellence in using new media to get exposure.




In matters of fact, this chart shows well that while households are looking after their spending budgets, video games seem to be less likely to experience budget cuts than other categories. If people are not going out anymore due to the recession, video games might gain marketshares upon other entertainment possibilities.

New Rules Of Marketing During The Crisis

The crisis we are experiencing is impacted most of businesses. In fact, one of the first budget companies are cutting while experiencing a downturn is commonly marketing. Therefore, marketers are in a very unstable situation, where they are asked to do more with less.
McKinsey's explain on its website some of The downturn’s new rules for marketers.

"In previous downturns, many marketers doubled down on large, historically profitable customers, geographies, and market segments. Today, this approach may prove ineffective because the world’s economic woes are affecting customers and markets in unexpected and extremely specific ways. Marketers should therefore toss out those historical expectations and focus on the emerging pockets of customer profitability."

Actually, new technologies and segmentations possibilities make it easier to target these niche markets, which are actually more profitable now than broadcasting a commercial message to the mass market. I believe that anyways marketers will have tough times for the next few months, as market potentials will decrease and they'll probably have budget cuts.

What do you think? How does the crisis has changed the way you market, or your company consider its marketing effort?

Free Business Models Are Dead

Do you know about Marc Simoncini, CEO of Meetic? He is one of the main person in the European web. He is the owner of Meetic, French leader of the dating websites market. He was one of the speaker of LeWeb 08, the famous Web conference in Paris that happened on December 9th and 10th. One of his main bullat was about business models based on "free".

Free As The Only Business Model Of The Web
This is actually the perfect timing to think about this issue. Indeed, the web 2.0 is starting to be affected by the crisis, and as it is still unfolding, start ups are experiencing much trouble in their expansion. As it is more and more difficult to get financing, VCs are seeking for financial stability and paying close attention to the ability of the new company to generate benefits as fast as possible.

For the longest time, the main examples of the Internet were companies developping an active community, where users could log in and use the service for free, and then set up an advertising platform for companies willing to sell products to this community. Thus, most of the companies weren't much interested in their business plan, and the way to monetize their idea first, as the concept was "if your service gets great exposure and a large audience, you'll find out anyways some way to benefit".

Meetic: a fee based business model
Meetic is probably one of the best success story of the European web. Meetic is the leader of its market, which it locked so well that world leader Match.com has never been able to compete with this service. Whereas most of other websties are free, you need to pay a fee in order to use the service.

Now, CEO Simoncini, is pretty happy of its choice, as it is experiencing great success. He also believes that for this troubled days, business models based on fees and subscriptions are more likely to be developped and to get profitable in the end than others.

I also believe that having a service you could make your users pay for is a more secure way to develop your business. If users are valuing the service, they'll accept to pay to get it. What do you think about it? Here is a video in French of Marc Simoncini.

L'évolution de la grande distribution (4): le retour en grâce du supermarché

• Après L'évolution de la grande distribution (1): les grands magasins
• Après L'évolution de la grande distribution (2): L'exemple de Monoprix
• Après L'évolution de la grande distributon (3): les hypermarchés
  
• Voici un nouvel épisode de la série sur l'évolution de la grande distribution
  

L'une des principales évolutions du monde de la grande distribution dans les prochaines années se fera par le développement du commerce de proximité. En effet, certains facteurs sont en train de favoriser les supermarchés et petit format de distribution alimentaire.

• Le prix de l'essence: en effet, je sais que celui-ci a baissé ces derniers temps. Mais ne soyons pas dupe, à moyen terme, le prix de l'énergie va augmenter, avec une demande mondiale croissante due au développement économique de pays tels que l'Inde et la Chine avec des populations se comptant en milliard.
• La saturation des axes de transports: Les axes de transports occidentaux dans les grandes agglomérations ont été construits il y a des dizaines d'années, et aujourd'hui n'est plus capable d'absorber les flux de plus en plus massif de véhicules. C'est pour cela que les temps de trajet augmente et qu'il y a de plus en plus de difficulté de circulation.
• Le manque de temps: les consommateurs ont de moins en moins de temps, et considère les courses comme une corvée la plupart du temps. Le but du jeu est donc de gagner du temps. Il est rare désormais que les consommateurs désirent faire de la route et se perdre dans des hypermarchés.

C'est pour cela que l'on assiste à un regain de l'intérêt des français pour les supermarchés. Ceux-ci sont placés proche des consommateurs, et par leurs tailles modestes, permettent un gain de temps lors des courses.

L'avenir des hypermarchés
Il reste cependant un espoir pour les hypermarchés. En effet, ceux-ci conservent leurs grandes tailles, et possèdent la possibilité de se transformer, afin de proposer plus de choix, plus de théatralisation, et une meilleure qualité de service. C'est ainsi la démarche qui a été adopté par Auchan Vélizy, l'un des plus grands hypermarchés d'Europe. Celui-ci a décidé de rénnover totalement son magasin, afin de développer un concept d'hypermarché totalement nouveau, afin de contrer la progression des petits et moyens formats.

Auchan Vélizy a développé son nouveau concept autour de trois grands axes:

• Reposer sur les points forts de l'hypermarché: un centre commercial attractif, le choix, les capacités de parking
• Amener les services des commerçants locaux en hypermarché, en développant les métiers de bouche tels que la boucherie ou la charcuterie
• Innover en terme de services, avec notamment un stand fruit et légume proposant des smoothies fait sur place, ainsi que des légumes bio de qualité. Ces nouveaux services et concepts ne peuvent être développer qu'en hypermarché, car ce sont les seuls types de formats permettant d'absorber les coûts de main d'oeuvre assorti à ceux-ci.

Cependant, on peut tout de même penser que les supermarchés, ainsi que de nouveaux concepts de distribution vont arriver, et limiter le rayonnement des hypermarchés sur le marché de la grande distribution en France.

Brozengo lance son application mobile

Connaissez vous Brozengo? C'est un moteur de recherche de commerce local. Ainsi, si vous habitez dans une région spécifique, le site le détecte, et vous proposera les bons plans des commerces affiliés au site.

Brozengo, c'est aussi une start up française en devenir, puisque celle-ci est présente au salon LeWeb 2008, le plus grand salon dédié à l'Internet en Europe, et probablement dans le top trois des événements mondiaux sur le sujet. De plus, elle a été lauréate de la 5ème édition du SFR Speed Starting Up.

L'Internet au service du local
J'aime particulièrement cette idée, car à l'heure où l'on parle énormément des monstres Google, Facebook ou Amazon, écrasant le monde de leur poids, l'Internet permet aussi de développer le commerce de proximité. De plus, l'utilisation du web se fait de plus en plus pour trouver de l'information locale.
D'ailleurs Google a sorti un service de Google Adword sur des zones géographiques spécifiques afin de développer la publicité pour le commerce de proximité sur sa plateforme. Aussi, beaucoup de TPE et PME tirent leur épingle du jeu en travaillant leur site Internet, leur référencement, ainsi que leur visibillité en général sur le web pour accroitre leur clientèle.
Ainsi Brozengo s'inscrit dans cette logique, puisqu'il permet de trouver des bonnes affaires dans la zone géographique de l'internaute. Ce site offre un réel service à l'utilisateur, qui peut trouver des offres intéressantes qu'il ne trouvera nul part ailleurs, et offrir un accès à la promotion via Internet à des commerces locaux.

Brozengo sur mobile
Aujourd'hui, Brozengo va plus loin et améliore son service en proposant une application mobile. Cette application mobile prend tout son sens, puisque ce service permet d'avoir des informations locales.

"Pour accéder au service mobile de BROZENGO, rien de plus simple :
- Saisir http://mobile.brozengo.com dans le navigateur de son mobile
- ou Taper BROZENGO dans Gallery
- ou Envoyer un SMS avec BROZENGO au 30 130 (coût d’un SMS non surtaxé)"

Le site prend ainsi une nouvelle dimension, et améliore son service client, puisqu'il se rapproche de son utilisation de tous les jours. Reste maintenant au site à développer de plus en plus de partenariat avec des commerces locaux, ce qui développera forcément le nombre d'utilisateur du site.

Je pense d'ailleurs que brozengo utilise ainsi parfaitement le potentiel du téléphone mobile en terme de services client. Pour en savoir plus sur le développement de Brozengo, vous pouvez visiter le blog de Jean Michel Maurer, son dynamique entrepreneur.

Leclerc: le visionnaire de la grande distribution

J'ai déjà parlé cette semaine de Leclerc sur ce blog, concernant leur campagne marketing actuelle portant sur la publicité comparative. Aujourd'hui, je souhaiterai allé plus loin, afin de rendre un genre d'hommage à Michel Edouard Leclerc, le président de l'enseigne. D'ailleurs je vous invite à visiter son blog, qui est souvent très riche en information.

Je ne suis pas forcément fan de Leclerc. Pour être honête, je ne vais jamais chez eux, et peut certainement compter sur les doigts de la main le nombre de fois où je suis rentré dans un de leur magasin. Je ne suis pas non plus contre l'enseigne, car je n'en ai pas vraiment proche de chez moi ou de mes lieux de plaisances.

Cependant, j'apprécie la créativité, la force d'innovation de cette enseigne, ainsi que de son dirigeant. Je considère ainsi Michel Edouard Leclerc comme étant le pionner des tendances dans la grande distribution, et un entrepreneur visionnaire. Ainsi, la plupart de ses partis pris, de ses innovations, ont ensuite été embrassé par la concurrence. Ainsi, à force de lancer de nouvelles tendances, et à toujours être en avance sur le marché, Leclerc a su tirer son épingle du jeu et assuré son succès sur le territoire national. En effet, un article du magazine Challenges explique "le système leclerc", ou bien comment l'enseigne a toujours réussi à innover et bouleverser le paysage de la grande distribution. Voici une liste des principales innovations qui ont été lancé par Leclerc et qui ont révolutionné le monde de la grande distribution.

• Le ticket Leclerc: 1987, Le ticket Leclerc est la première initiative d'une enseigne de grande distribution afin de fidéliser ses clients. Ainsi, chaque client de Leclerc reçoit des promotions et des remises en fonction du montant de ces achats. Aujourd'hui la concurrence possède aussi des systèmes de fidélisations.
  
  
• La parapharmacie: "En 1987, l'ordre des pharmaciens et le laboratoire américain Searle font condamner Leclerc pour la vente d'Aspartame dans ses magasins. Un an plus tard, l'enseigne obtient gain de cause devant la justice et ouvre sa première parapharmacie. Résultat : il en compte 113 aujourd'hui."
  
  
• Les stations services: Aujourd'hui les stations services représentent l'une des principales sources de revenus des hypermarchés. Leclerc a été le premier a se lancé sur ce marcé, alors monopolisé par les grandes enseignes d pétrolières de type Esso, BP ou encore Total. Il l'a d'ailleurs fait en tout illégalité. Résultat, quelques années plus tard, l'état autorise les distributeurs à vendre de l'essence. Cette entrée sur le marché a été si important que l'un des leaders du marché, Elf, n'a pas réussi à y survivre.
  
  
• Les sacs de caisse: Leclerc a été le premier, environ dix ans avant la concurrence, à ne plus donner de sacs de caisse à ses consommateurs pour des raisons de préservation de l'environement. A l'époque, et moi le premier, j'ai été le premier surpris de ce geste. Néanmoins, qu'on soit pour ou contre cette mesure, elle est a présent adopté par la grande majorité des enseignes de distribution, et l'état lui même vient d'instaurer une taxe sur le sac en plastique afin de préserver l'environement.
  
  
• La publicité comparative: La publicité comparative est légale en France depuis quelques années, après une longue période d'interdiction. Cependant, personne n'a réellement été capable d'utiliser ce nouvel outil de communication, ayant peur de tomber dans le domaine de la publicité mensongère, du à un environement légal très restrictif. Leclecrc vient de lancer une publicité où il compare les prix de produits de grande consommation à ceux trouvés chez ses concurrents. Il est encore tôt pour dire si ce type de communication va devenir une tendance de fond, néanmoins je suis convaincu que l'on verra dans un futur proche se développer ce type de message commercial.

Leclerc se lance dans la publicité comparative

Pendant de longues années la publicité comparative a été interdite en France. La principale raison de cette interdiction était de contrôler le message des publicitaires, afin de ne pas duper le consommateur, en faisant des comparaisons hasardeuses. Ainsi, aux Etats-Unis, où la publicité comparative est permise depuis des années, des marques tels que Coca Cola et Pepsi n'hésitent pas à ce tirer la bourre, avec des spots amusants, ne reposant certainement pas sur les qualités des produits, mais plutôt sur le fait de se moquer du concurrent.

Cependant, la régulation a changé il y a quelques années en France. En effet, sous l'impulsion de l'Union Européenne, la publicité comparative est maintenant permises, afin d'appliquer une directive européenne. Cette publicité comparative reste néanmoins beaucoup plus contrôler qu'aux Etats-Unis, et la comparaison doit reposer sur des critères objectifs, qui sont la plupart du temps le prix ou bien les composants du produit de façon mesurable et vérifiable.

En tout cas, la publicité comparative en France, malgré le fait qu'elle soit permise depuis déjà plusieurs années, n'a jamais réellement été utilisé en France: face à une réglementation très contraignantes et les risques de condamnation pour publicité mensongère, aucune marque n'a réellement réussi à jouer ce crénau, qui pourtant en période de faible pouvoir d'achat pourrait permettre de gagner des parts de marché.

Cependant, il y a quelques semaines de cela, les consommateurs français peuvent visionner cette publicité sur leurs écrans de télévision:


Leclerc est ainsi, à ma connaissance, le premier distributeur a utilisé ce procédé de communication basé sur le prix le moins cher, alors que la plupart des distributeurs revendiquent leur prix bas en tant que principal axe de communication.

Ce qui est aussi très intéressant, c'est que pour la première fois une entreprise site les concurrents directs auquel il se compare. Vous vous souvenez souvent des comparaisons entre Ariel et la Lessive C, où on cachait systèmatiquement les produits auquels ont se réferrait. Leclerc s'implique et affirme qu'il est réellement moins cher, et donc il gagne en crédibilité sur ce bié.

Bien sûr, Leclerc n'est pas forcément moins cher que les marques qu'il épingle. Il a forcément choisi les produits où il connait ses forces, et aussi les hypermarchés les plus cher sur ce type de produit et sur des zones géographiques de CSP+. Il n'empêche, Leclerc ouvre les hostilités, et cette campagne est un bel exemple de l'intérêt d'une telle méthode de communication. Il suffit de voir les relais que font la presse de cette publicité, rien qu'en cherchant sur Google news...

Leclerc a toujours été visionnaire et pionner des nouvelles tendances de la grande distribution. J'écrirai d'ailleurs bientôt un article à ce sujet, inspiré de l'article de Challenges sur le "Système Leclerc" d'il y a quelques jours.

En tout cas, je pense que Leclerc encore une fois prouve qu'il est capable d'innover dans l'univers de la grande distribution, et je pense que le succès de cette campagne poussera d'autres enseignes, mais certainement aussi d'autres entreprises à tenter le pari de la publicité comparative.

Recherche bloggers pour film publicitaire

Dimanche prochain 7 décembre, l'agence H va tourner un film.
Annonceur : la Presse Quotidienne Régionale
Objectif : Annoncer la commercialisation d’une nouvelle offre commerciale de vente d’espace publicitaire.
Lieu du tournage : Clichy
Temps de tournage : 3 heures
Objet : un film interactif ... sonore (drôle !)
Médiatisation: plusieurs supports professionnels genre Stratégies

Nous avons besoin de 3 blogeurs(ses) qui seront figurant(e)s et qui relaieront le film sur leur blog. Si vous êtes intéressés par ce bon moment à passer ensemble, écrivez-moi : hipipip@gmail.com

Annonce a retrouver sur le blog d'Henri Kaufman

Google In the TV Advertising Market?

Google is leading the advertising market in the Internet thanks to its technology that enables great targeting capabilities for companies. The Mountain View company is still expanding its business on the web, but is also seeking for new markets in order to establish itself as a leading company on other supports. That is one of the main reasons why they decided to launch the Android project, in order to enter the cell phone market, which is probably the soon to come most exciting market for the next few years.

But Google is still looking forward to get into the TV advertising market. Lately Google signed a partnership with Bloomberg Financial in order to sell inventory.

Let's not forget that Google already has some experience in selling commercials on a video support: They own Youtube and Google Video, which counts for 44% of the online video market.

Thus, Google is working on a TV ad platform technology, which will probably based on the Internet's one, that will provide more targeted and efficient campaigns to users.

Actually, there is a real convergence between TV and Internet, as TV companies broadcast their programs on the web, in order to respond to the online video websites threat.

This project might even get more attractive within the next few months as the crisis is still unfolding and marketing chief officers are seeking for more profitable and less risky ways to communicate. TV ad consumption by companies is expected to slow down for the next few months as marketing budgets are melting...

I actually believe that this new effort to enter the TV market is a great way for Google to expand its market by leveraging its know how and expertise. Also I think we can expect Google to be interested into buying a TV ad platform in order to do so, as they did for Youtube to enter the online video market, or with blogger to get into the blogging business.

To know more about Google TV's development, visit the emarketer article.

How I Would Really Innovate If I Were EA Sports

Do you know EA Sports?It has for many years run the successful FIFA, NBA Live and Madden's franchises. This can be considered as the leading company in the sport simulation industry.

But there is always the same problems with NBA Live's games, that I am of course a fan of: there is not much new things from a version to another. Indeed, except new rookies that got into the league, couple of new fun games which you get bothers in couple of minutes, and of course a few better graphism, nothing new. That is I believe one of the problem of Electronic Arts? How could I be sure to get my customers to renew their game version, instead of them renewing it every 2 or 3 years?

No real innovations
There is something also I don't like about this game: Players' and teams' stats. Indeed, the game is edited prior to the season's start. Therefore, stats of players and how good they are is determined by the previous year's results. But most of the time, what was true during the previous season is not true the next one. Players are getting better, or have injury problems, and so on. It is supposed to be more realistic, but actually, by only releasing one new version per year, the game is getting up to date very quickly as the NBA is full of trades, new players coming from Europe or D League, and unexpected talent.

My idea
Therefore the idea would be to get some accurate stats and team rosters by providing a subscription service. This service will help people to get accurate team rosters:

• The video game would download the up to date rosters, including injured players, new signed and injured ones.
• It will adjust players' ability to their monthly performance. It will take into consideration their teams results, but also their scoring, rebounding stats and so on.
  
• It will create new players that were not in the league at the beginning of the year

This new feature would help players to keep an up to date stats. That would actually be a real innovation, will improve consumers' experiences, and also take the best out of a technology that is at this time already available.

What do you think about it? I believe anyway this will be implemented within the next few years, as it is getting more and more common to get new features through video games' hardwares that are now connected on the web.