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Archive for the ‘USA’ Category« Previous Entries Next Entries »Don’t give your customers a product or service, give them an experience they will never forgetSunday, August 30th, 2009
In recounting a recent – and somewhat memorable – taxi journey, Matthew Harrison is reminded of how a product or service can really differentiate itself from the rest of the pack by becoming an ‘experience’. I must confess to being one of B2B International’s less tolerant air travelers. The 6 hours I spent imprisoned in a 747 on a Shanghai runway…the 7 course ‘meal’ served up by the good staff of Aeroflot (6 of the courses were salmon)…my interrogation by a wild-eyed immigration goon at Newark Airport…the dimwit who confiscated my cases at Rochester because I allowed said cases to complete two laps of the carousel without collecting….these and other events have been crow-barred into company folklore by my incessant moaning. As a result, it is a relief both to me and to anyone unfortunate enough to be my travel companion when my flight touches down, and all that remains is to catch a cab to my final destination. A couple of weeks back, my colleague and I returned from Pittsburgh to New York in good spirits. The journey had gone ahead without a hitch, our meeting had concluded successfully, and both of us looked forward to the weekend. We drank a couple of beers and took the opportunity to examine the front page of the Wall Street Journal, which was reporting on Bill Clinton’s liberation of two journalists from the clutches of Kim Jong Il. Oddly, the official photograph to mark the event (see below) featured a rather kitsch 1980s wall frieze, which had been dropped onto a Tellytubbies set and gate-crashed by the cast of Madame Tussauds.
To return to the matter in hand, my colleague and I had forgotten that the efforts of the airline industry to make the general public’s life a misery extend far beyond aircraft cabins and indeed airport walls. Whatever medicine the world’s aviators take to ensure unrivalled levels of inhospitality and indolence, it would appear that the New York taxi industry has been raiding the cabinet. The warning signs that B2B International was to experience a nadir in land travel were there from the beginning. The passenger window of the cab was jammed open and the back seat about as comfortable on the posterior as a broken Rubik’s Cube. My colleague and I had naively taken the driver’s rather blank grin upon being asked to drive to White Plains as proof of his willingness to take us there, rather than his inability to find his own backside in the bath with both hands and a personal assistant. Within 2 minutes of leaving the taxi rank, and well inside the airport perimeter, we drew despondently to a stop underneath a graffiti-speckled flyover. - “Where you go?” Our driver lurched into gear, trying but failing to convince us that he had the slightest idea of where he was going. Three laps of the airport’s inner perimeter and 25 minutes later, we finally find our way onto the open road and were heading north. Disconcertingly, the driver had been steering with one finger, most of his other 9 digits clasping a telephone, through which he received nonsensical directions from someone who also had no idea where we were or where White Plains was. Over the ensuing 2 hours we stopped and asked, we shouted at passers-by, we waved, weaved and guessed our way through the streets and back yards of Southern New York, before finally, mercifully, we arrived in White Plains city center. I dragged my weary body out of the cab and headed for home. And as I trooped through the streets I was hit, not by a Friday night drinker but by a kind of Eureka moment. I was happy! In fact I was exhilarated. I HAD ENJOYED THAT TAXI RIDE. The speed. The bumps. The danger. The nausea. The sense of the unknown. The laughs. The memories. I had experienced an adventure that evening – an adventure I am recounting to you now. An adventure I will recount to my children, and my children’s children. That useless man, that anti-navigator with whom I had shared two hours of my life had (unwittingly) met a need that few suppliers can meet. Rather than sell me a tangible product or service, this disorientated scatterbrain had given me a holistic experience that will live with me until my dying day. The savvy marketer recognizes that providing a simple product or service puts the organization on a route towards low prices and commoditization. In order to add value, and therefore raise prices and profit, it is critical to look beyond the tangible. In other words, sell a concept and provide an experience. Our taxi driver, of course, made two mistakes: firstly the basics of product and service were so intolerable that most customers would be uninterested in any ‘experience’ related to these. Secondly, he sold us a basic service (to drive us home) meaning that the thrill-packed tourism experience we endured was unexpected and therefore not paid for. So, I will not pretend that our driver’s marketing strategy was flawless. However, I thank you, Mr Clueless of LaGuardia Airport Taxis, for the memories. Your product is substandard, your service despicable, and your attentiveness to my needs non-existent. But, for a mere $90 (plus tip and tolls), you gave me an experience that was both thrilling and addictive. You, Sir, in one (and only one) respect, are an inspiration to all marketers. Food For ThoughtThursday, June 11th, 2009
It was with interest that we recently read a case study about a small, local, new business doing well in these difficult times. Based just down the road from our own office in White Plains, New York, and launched little more than a year ago, Carrillo’s Fire-Roasted Salsa is now looking to build on its initial success and become a more recognized household name. One of the key factors in the success of this brand so far has been that it meets the growing market trend for healthier products. With all-natural ingredients, low in sodium, and made with no sugar, artificial preservatives or concentrates, it is being snapped up by Greater New York’s growing army of health-conscious consumers. Another string to the brand’s bow is that it is promoted not just as a ‘dipping’ salsa for chips, but also as a useful cooking ingredient, thanks to its flavourful and thick consistency. Channels of distribution is next on the agenda, with the brand looking to increase its reach from mainly local tri-state (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut) areas to a much larger national presence. Thanks to deals struck with a number of nationwide specialist gourmet stores, the product should soon be flying off shelves in selected markets in the Northeast, northern California, Miami, Chicago, Denver and New Orleans. As a relatively new start-up with limited budgets, there has been minimal advertising of this brand, but a concentrated focus on in-store sampling, encouraging consumers to try out the new salsa. The product is also marketed and sold through the company website, where individual jars or "CarrilloCases" of any six, eight or 12 jar combination can be ordered. Already looking to change and improve its logo, Carrillo is not neglecting its branding either. All of these points serve to remind us that although all companies start small, all the different elements of the marketing mix can be used in different ways to grow a business and help it thrive, even in a tough economy. This certainly is food for thought… Global Opportunities AboundThursday, April 23rd, 2009
A recent article in BtoB Marketing – Thinking global may help U.S. marketers – argues that many emerging international markets still offer rich opportunities for domestic marketers, even in spite of the global economic downturn. China in particular, is suggested as a market still offering excellent opportunities for U.S. companies. It is useful to note that the country’s premier, Wen Jiabao, last month predicted an 8% growth in China’s GDP this year, which, while not as large as last year’s growth, is still better than that of many countries. One potential opening highlighted is for U.S. companies that put an emphasis on customer service. They may be able to take advantage of overseas opportunities, as it is suggested that companies in a number of other countries are much less tolerant of poor customer service. In China, for example, 55% of companies have switched vendors in the past year because of perceived unfulfilled customer service expectations. Sweden (46%), India (44%), Italy (44%), Finland (43%) and companies in Asian countries other than China (36%) all have a tendency to switch vendors more than their US counterparts (22%). With emerging markets such as China and India having increasing service expectations, there is the assumption that they may not be loyal to particular brands, suppliers, etc. Resultantly, they may be willing to make the potentially lucrative move from their existing domestic partners to foreign counterparts, as long as these new companies can offer them what they are looking for. To find out how we can help you to grasp the opportunities presented by China and other Asian markets, visit www.b2binternational.com/China Continued Internationalisation Behind B2B GrowthMonday, March 16th, 2009
Bucking the current environment of economic doom and gloom, leading business-to-business market research agency B2B International (with offices in the UK, US and China) recorded its twelfth consecutive year of growth between 2007 and 2008, to an annual turnover of £3.3m ($4.7m). Business Development and Finance Director Matthew Harrison puts this continued success down to a number of factors: Key to this growth has been our expansion into the huge US and Chinese markets over the past three years. This has brought us nearer both to our customers and to our research respondents, increasing our client service and product quality alike. We have also placed increasing emphasis on specific growth sectors. For example, renewable energy and environmental research now make up around 20% of our revenue and we expect growth in this area to continue. A further growth factor is the emphasis B2B International places on collecting information in ways that suit its target audiences. Telephone interviewing continues to be the most common data collection methodology employed, but the range of online techniques continues to expand, as do the regions across which online research is conducted. This year B2B conducted online surveys across Europe, North America, and 12 Asian countries; it added Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and Italian to its suite of online focus group languages; and most notably, online recruitment and in-depth interviewing was introduced in China, profiting from websites such as QQ and their increasing take-up amongst young people and professionals. So will B2B continue its impressive growth record in 2009’s increasingly challenging economic environment? Managing Director Nick Hague remains cautiously optimistic: It would be unrealistic to think that we would remain completely unaffected by this economic downturn, which is impacting upon many of our competitors and target industries. However, we remain extremely optimistic that, by continuing to listen to the needs of our clients and respondents alike, we will come through the recession and be well placed for impressive growth in the future. Less choice pleaseFriday, February 27th, 2009
Some people believe the bigger the choice the better, but Matthew Harrison is not one of them. Rather than face a baffling number of slight variations on a theme, Matt argues that less is more when it comes to offering a varied product range to meet customer needs. I remember fondly our first day of business at B2B International USA. The calls to potential customers, the unveiling of our new marketing materials, the half-hourly calls from a confused Costa Rican wondering why his Dad wouldn’t answer our fax machine… everywhere around me the seeds of new business were being sown and I could sense the optimism and determination in the air. This was a special day. Even on special days, however, I am getting seriously hungry by 11.45 and with this in mind I ventured down to the cafeteria shared by our company and others on the business park. I could see immediately that this place was determined to meet the needs of diners of every persuasion, profession, shape and size. A svelte lady in her 40s was making her way to the cashier with a Greek Salad. Her friend was staring expectantly at his rather larger salad, which was to accompany a hunk of lasagne. And a gentleman whose blue overalls stretched over his significant girth was tucking into the second of three – I repeat three – plates of fries. I salivated at the choice on offer, and made my way over to the counter with a timeless wooden tray. As I arrived at the sandwich station I started to sense that something wasn’t right. It wasn’t the environment, which was sparkling clean. It wasn’t my fellow diners, who were lined up obediently waiting for their orders to be taken. And, whilst I was slightly taken aback by Blue Overall Man, who was now smothering mustard AND ketchup on his third plate of fries, even that wasn’t enough to distract me. (I did, after all, once see a friend devour eight donuts in one sitting for a bet.) No, what was making me uneasy, I realised, was the choice. In front of me was a board listing 25 different fillings, ranging from ‘Club’ to ‘Greek’ to ‘Ham and cheese’ to (inexplicably) ‘Pinocchio’. Next to that was another board listing 8 different types of bread and wrap. I then had to contend with a list of 6 sauces and another list of 6 types of cheese. And finally, I had to decide whether I wanted my still hypothetical sandwich/wrap hot or cold, with or without salad, and – the final conundrum – with or without a pickle! I took a step back and surveyed this scene, taking time to calculate that I had 9,600 choices of sandwich! 9,600! A one in 9,600 chance that I would choose the right sandwich! I had more chance of winning the Lottery Scratchcard jackpot! In fact, my chances of success would probably have been improved if the chef had thrown me head-first and open-mouthed into a barrel of bread and sandwich fillings, and given me 5 minutes’ chewing time. It struck me as I pondered this daft lunchtime brain-teaser that the chef in this restaurant was doing exactly the opposite to what he set out to do. I am sure that he thought (and no doubt still thinks) that he was being considerate in offering his customers an almost infinite choice of lunches – a range of perfectly bespoke products, each aimed at a segment of one person, and therefore, by definition, the product range that perfectly meets customer needs. I disagree, and this is why: You see, I am a market researcher, not a sandwich expert. Lunchtime should detract from the stresses of designing questionnaires and reports, not add to them. When my clients need a questionnaire, I will certainly take their requirements into account, but it is my professional duty to guide them in their choices, rather than baffle them with an infinite list of survey questions. Similarly when I buy a sandwich I want the chef to do much of the work for me. I want him to have used his culinary expertise to decide which sauces go with which fillings and which bread. I want him to use his understanding of customer needs in order to provide me with a finite number of choices (a maximum of 20, and probably nearer 10), from which I, as a non-sandwich-expert, can make an informed decision. In failing to do this, the chef who thinks he is empowering me is in fact abdicating his professional responsibility, and disempowering me by making it impossible for me to make a meaningful choice. « Previous Entries Next Entries » |
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