Marketing Generics Blog
Artisanal baskets at the Souk
What the Salesperson can learn from the Souk
Friday, May 18, 2012
Our own recent foray into the Souk made us realise just how good the salesman’s selling skills actually were. How did we come to buy a plate and a basket we didn't particularly like at a price way beyond it’s real value! Maybe many of you will recognise the scenario? We had just witnessed a masterclass in selling, but without using any modern sales tools or techniques, but just plain old-fashioned, good, basic selling. I can also certify that the seller wasn't wearing a Hugo Boss suit, didn't have an Blackberry, nor Salesforce suite, nor real time pricing and inventory stock package on his laptop. Nor time management or other sales productivity tools: nor had he just come back from 2 weeks sales Bootcamp! So how did he do it? He actually used the common universal process that underpins good selling wherever it is in the world. In particular we have broken down their sales method into several key lessons and techniques:
TI's new Wolverine MCU campaign
FMCG marketing comes to semiconductors
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Whilst the debate will continue to rage over whether B2B marketing and B2C marketing are similar or totally different, I have always believed that B2B marketers, particularly in high-tech industries have much they can learn from their B2C and particularly FMCG counterparts. After all, FMCG is the toughest, most competitive and most demanding marketing environment of all, requiring the most honed of marketing best practice. I was very interested therefore to see TI’s Wolverine campaign for its new MCU.
(http://www.ti.com/ww/en/mcu/wolverine/?DCMP=wolverine&HQS=wolverine-b)
More Billy bookcases than people in Poland
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
According to a recent article in the Daily Telegraph “Ten per cent of Europeans are conceived in one of its beds. Two billion of its meatballs are consumed annually. And last year more copies of its catalogue were printed than the Bible”. They are talking about IKEA of course, which now seems to be present in every country in the world, (although I guess there are no plans for one in North Korea just yet). How are they so successful?
Example of how Audi have managed to augment their pricing for an A6
Vorsprung durch Marketing! Audi show the way in how to augment pricing
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Augmenting the product should be a core competence for every product marketer. Starbucks and Ryanair have shown the way, and an earlier blog showed how even the humble M&M sweetie is being used to build a massive augmented empire. A recent article in the Daily Telepraph showed how upselling can add turn a £40,000 Audi into one costing £78,000.
Change Management is the most difficult management task to do
Simple diagnostic to determine if the Pre-conditions for Successful Change in Organizations exist
Monday, March 05, 2012
Change is happening all around us, but in practice it’s the most difficult management task to do. This is partly because change management adds many other dimensions and complexity to the already difficult daily life of a manager: another is that most managers are simply not trained or taught how to implement change. Very often it's because the very pre-conditions for change simply don’t exist in the organisation.
As a consequence it's often assessed that 70 % of Change Management programmes or initiatives fail. ,Usually the root cause forfailire is beacuse change leaders fail to work methodically through the necessary steps or ensure that the basic pre-conditions exist before starting out. Frost & Sullivan are featuring in their latest Growth, Innovation & Leadership University newsletter a simple diagnostic developed by us which can help those who are thinking about or who are about to embark on a major Change Management initiative by determining whether the pre-conditions for change exist. You can download it from the Frost & Sullivan site here or from our Knowledge Base here.
M&M'S World in London: 4 floors dedicated to augmented product
M&M’S augmented World
Friday, February 03, 2012
I recently had the extraordinary experience of visiting M&M’S World in London. For those who haven’t heard of it or know what it is, it is 4 floors of retail shop dedicated entirely to the humble M&M’S sweet. Most of you have probably eaten an M&M’S at some stage in your lives, and they’re each pretty small – let’s be clear that we are talking here about 35,000 square feet (3252m2) of retail space being filled by the humble little chocolate sweet, so how do they do that? This is the most incredible story of augmented product! Click here for the video clip
Olivetti OliPad
Pity Poor Olivetti
Friday, January 27, 2012
Does anyone remember Olivetti? Are they still alive? Personally, I thought they were dead, but I was in Italy last week and had to really stop and think when I saw huge billboard advertising in prime space at Linate airport, because not only do they appear to be still breathing, but they are audaciously advertising a new notepad (yes an Olivetti notepad!). So what's happening with Olivetti?
Everyone is on their iPhone!
iPhone becomes pervasive in China
Friday, January 13, 2012
The market data may say that Apple iPhone sales in China slipped in Q4 and that Apple is #4 in the smartphone market, but one's eyes tell a different story, as almost everyone seems to have an iPhone, and certainly is the phone to be seen with. Its incredible the extent to which iPhone is succeeding in the Chinese market.