MarketAbility
featured Practitioners
Carol-Ann
Morgan
Carol-Ann is our marketer born out of textiles research and the
healthcare industry. Her primary focus to day is in social marketing,
market research and she has a specific pedigree in focus groups.
more...
Dr. J. Nicholas de Bonis
Our Atlanta-based marketing professor and not the only Atlanta-based
marketer who does not work for Coca-Cola! Nick is the author of
several marketing books, including "Value-Based Marketing
for Bottom Line Success"
with Eric Balinski and
MarketAbility
CEO, Phil Allen.
more...
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• MarketAbility Corporate
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• Price
is Key to Profit, People are Key to Price
Prices
and pricing are subjects attracting a lot of attention right now.
There are pressures along every value chain, driven by higher oil
and gas prices and the knock-on effects in other product and service
prices.
So, in this issue of our marketing briefing, we are turning the
spotlight on pricing, profitability and margin management and the
link to marketing excellence and customer value management.
As always, some seem to be more capable and better positioned to
pass on those prices than others, and that is often a reflection
of how well a company understands the value it delivers to its customers
and how well it can leverage that value in its pricing negotiations.
China featured several times in our newsletter last year. It remains
a hot topic and price is not the only way to do business in China.
You can read two reports on the recent ECMSA conference “Pros,
Cons and Experiences of the China Investment Boom” held in
Brussels in March.
The UK's most successful retailer, Tesco, features in CVM in Practice,
as we think many retail and B2B marketers can learn from their approach.
Value chain analysis as a way to better planning and better pricing
is the topic of a white paper also in CVM in practice.
Always one to innovate, poacher turned gamekeeper Ian Telford, Global
Purchasing Director at Dow Chemical has introduced an interesting
new slant by "selling Dow as a customer to their potential
suppliers." See what's new in Marketing and CVM below.
We also feature some new thinking on the age old saga of marketing
vs sales and on a relatively new item on the marketer's agenda corporate
governance, also in what's new in Marketing and CVM below.
Details of some interesting events, including the How NOT to compete
on price workshop are listed below in MarketAbility News.
Finally there is some wisdom about customer value creation as the
key to market success.
To
read more about pricing click here |
•
Marketing and CVM in Practice
Opportunities
and Experiences in China: It's not all about price
If you were unable to make it to Brussels for the ECMSA/Cefic/CWD
joint event, unfortunately you missed a great opportunity to learn
from several people with hands-on experience of developing markets
in the World's most populated economy. “Pros, Cons and Experiences
of the China Investment Boom” provided a significant industry
audience with genuine insight into the issues facing European
chemical suppliers when engaging with the Chinese market. Told
by those with hands on experience of working in China, there was
sound advice on the options and key components of a successful
strategy, balanced against the every day obstacles encountered
in developing participation. Speakers also offered perspectives
on the myths around the Chinese experience, most notably about
the competitive threat presented by Chinese manufacturing and
the future prognosis for market growth and profitability.
click
here to read the full review in English
click here to read the full review in German
Tesco: Leading the Way to Profitable Retailing
Opinions were divided in the UK the other week, when
retailing giant and UK market leader, Tesco, announced bumper
profits of UKL 2.0 billion on sales revenues of UKL 37.1 billion
- a handsome margin for a retailer.
MarketAbility has been an admirer and observer of Tesco for several
years now, watching the company transform itself from a low-end
also-ran to the market and quality leader in the space of less
than 10 years.
How have they done it? Fundamentally, Tesco have applied the principles
of customer value management to their business. They go out of
their way to understand what customers need and value and are
willing to pay for. For example they offer customers CHOICE in
most categories of product. Sure, they have their low price leaders,
but they also offer a range of qualities and choice. Each offering
differentiated from the other and each with a different price
tag.
To
read more about the Tesco approach to CVM click here
Value Chain
Analysis, Market Planning and Right Pricing
One of the bases of good pricing and margin management
is better planning. Dow Chairman, William Stavropoulos at the
recent IPC meeting hit the mark: "Clearly ours is a cyclical
industry and it is likely to remain so, but that does not mean
that we should undervalue our products. We build too many new
plants based on optimistic forecasts when the fact is that we
are not very good at forecasting."
At MarketAbility, we believe that the key to better forecasting
is a better understanding of customers and markets and quantifying
of customer values and value drivers. One of the best tools for
achieving improvements in customer and market understanding is
Value Chain Analysis.
Click
here to read more about Value Chain Analysis, Planning and Pricing
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| •
What's New in Marketing and CVM
Selling to
the Sellers
Always one to innovate, poacher turned gamekeeper Ian Telford, Global
Purchasing Director at Dow Chemical has introduced an interesting
new slant by "selling Dow as a customer to their potential
suppliers." His new document "Top 10 reasons why you should
be selling to Dow" is attached. I am sure this is the start
of something we will see more of.
Great idea, Ian, and keep your nose in front of the pack!
Click
here to read more
Sales AND Marketing or Sales VS Marketing
A new and unique study conducted earlier this year by Beth Rogers,
a Senior Lecturer at Portsmouth Business School and Research Director
of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management concludes that
the sales function and marketing function in a company are more
likely to be in conflict than harmony due to their interests clashing.
Opinions on workable solutions are clustered around three subjects:
- that the Chief
Executive Officer should expect and lead integration
- that there should
be a chief officer reporting to the CEO with responsibility for
sales and marketing
- that
sales and marketing need to learn about and appreciate each other’s
responsibilities via joint training and meetings."
MarketAbility finds
these conclusions to be in line with our own experiences and we
concur with the view that companies should move towards a stronger
alignment of marketing and sales, especially by eliminating the
conflict of goals and measures.
Click
here to reader a fuller summary
For more information, please contact Beth Rogers directly at
Beth.Rogers@port.ac.uk
Impact of Marketing
and Sales on Corporate Governance
The topic of corporate governance has become a hot issue, since
the demise of several major US corporations took Wall Street and
corporate America by surprise. Most often we hear about it in connection
with the company returns and accounting practices. But what is the
connection with marketing and sales? How does marketing and sales
impact corporate governance? In another section of this newsletter
I quoted Dow Chairman Bill Stavropoulos, saying that the chemicals
industry is a notoriously bad planner. And perhaps in this statement
lies the clue to the main connection between marketing sales and
corporate governance. Significant strategic and investment decisions
are based on revenue and profit forecasts from marketing and sales.
How accurate are they? What assures the quality, accuracy and credibility
of marketing and sales forecasts?
MarketAbility Associate, Terry Kendrick, has researched this topic
and will deliver a paper on it at a June 23rd conference in London.
In his speech, Terry, Director of the Centre of Marketing and Risk
at the University of East Anglia, will outline the importance of
managing risk in sales and marketing as part of good corporate governance.
Click here for a link
to the conference website
www.goodcorporategovernance.co.uk |
•
MarketAbility News
Strategic
Marketing and Customer Value Workshops
In 2005 MarketAbility continues to offer its Customer Value Management
and Value-Based Marketing workshops, aimed at marketers and sellers
in industrial and B2B markets. THERE IS STILL TIME to book a place
on the 2005 workshops which will run in two further semesters
during June and November at The Marketing Centre in Zürich,
Switzerland.
For
more details please use this link
or call Phil
Allen directly on +41 44 783 87 77
Book
your place on a workshop
Last chance
in 2005 to attend: How NOT to Compete on Price
The third venue for this highly popular and well-attended series
of Management Briefings and Workshops finds us in Copenhagen on
May 23-24th (what better time than Spring to be in that part of
the world - all down to good planning).
MarketAbility in co-operation with ECMSA (European Chemicals Marketing
& Strategy Association) are pleased to announce a final session
on the pricing topic for 2005. Previous events in Manchester (Oct
2004) and at MarketAbility headquarters in Wädenswil, Switzerland
have been very well attended and highly praised for their topicality
and practicality
There are still a few place available for Copenhagen
Click
here to read the review of Wädenswil
Click
here to read the chemie.de news item on Wädenswil
Click
here for details of the Copenhagen programme
Phil Allen runs Euroforum Speciality Chemicals Workshop
On Thursday 28th April in Wiesbaden, Germany, Phil Allen (CEO,
MarketAbility) will run a one-day workshop at the Euroforum Speciality
Chemicals Conference, tackling one of his favourite topics:
Customer Value Creation
Click
here to read the full conference programme brochure (German)
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MarketAbility Wisdom
Customer
Focus is the Key to Success in the Market
There is much talk in many industries about commoditisation and
about the need for innovation – what are the key elements
of success?
This challenge
to many companies, especially in B2B and B2B2C markets, was addressed
recently in a letter from MarketAbility CEO, Phil Allen, to John
Baker, editor of European Chemicals News, who saw fit to publish
the letter in its entirety. Although
Phil was responding specifically to a series of articles that had
appeared in ECN, the points he makes in this letter apply equally
to many and most other industry and market sectors. His
unique Market Success Model, referenced in the letter, merits studious
consideration by any strategic, commercial of business leader.
Click
here to read the full article |
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