MarketAbility's Marketing Briefing
Issue 6 / 2004
in this issue
  


Editoral

Marketing and CVM in Practice

What's new in Marketing
and CVM ?

MarketAbility News

MarketAbility Wisdom

MarketAbility featured Practitioners

MarketAbility Polls
 

• Marketing & Sales Academy

Still a chance to book your place on our B2B-focused marketing workshops in 2004, including

Differentiation and Pricing Strategies
November 11-12 , 2004

Value Based Marketing for Profitable Growth
November 9-11, 2004




full programme...

read more about the workshops

access registration form...

register directly online...

 


MarketAbility featured Practitioners

Eric Balinski


Eric focuses on performance improvement and achieving breakthrough business results. He has global expertise in enabling complex businesses to create highly motivated teams that deliver profitable growth and stretch goals. His specialty is in transforming an organization’s customer and enterprise performance

more...


Michael Halliday


Michael has been a visiting professor at The University of Texas at Austin and Oregon State University. His current research is in the areas of managing for value, brand positioning, strategic planning and marketing strategy based on market analysis

more...

 


• MarketAbility Corporate Video

"A short overview of MarketAbility, what we do and who we are"

Play the file

 


• MarketAbility Polls

In this issue...... ?

Visit the Poll-Section...
 

"The value-based marketing approach described in this book reflects a reality for any business manager or leader at any level in the organization..."

read more about the book...

buy the book online...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The China Syndrome -
Changing at the Speed of Light

In our previous issues this year, we have examined some aspects of the growth potential, threats and opportunities arising from the opening up of China as a producer and supplier of goods and as a market for products and services. We believe that the opportunities are legion, but that western marketers need to get a fuller and better understanding of the way Chinese consumers and purchasers think and act.

All too often I hear that "you can only sell the Chinese on price". This is a fallacy. There is concrete evidence of a significant and growing segment of the Chinese population that will demand and is willing to pay for the higher quality branded goods. There are more than just a few Mercedes vehicles on the roads of China. In the B2B environment also, there is evidence of a stronger tendency towards quality, reputation and reliability and a willingness to pay for this in the price.

Read full article...

• Marketing and CVM in Practice

It is great to see Philips finally bouncing back and finding its way again. Philips has seen the light and moved away from light bulbs to focus on lifestyle - a more customer oriented approach to the market. The re-focusing seems to be paying off, with all divisions back in profit and on a growth track.

Hats off also to Continental Airlines. MarketAbility CEO, Phil Allen, reports: "I have had the pleasure of flying Continental several times this year out of Zurich to Newark and Houston. I am very impressed with the attention to the customer and the friendliness and comfort of the service". Continental has undergone a major turnaround in the past 10 years thanks to the leadership of Gordon Bethune and his belief in focusing on the customer. Such has been the success that in July Continental became the first of the US legacy airlines to return to profitability.

Elsewhere in the airline business, could the writing be on the wall for the low-price carriers. Southwest Airlines is cutting services on several routes in USA, Easyjet is considering a frequent flyer programme, MyTravelLite, a former charter carrier, now offers gourmet meals, Air Berlin - Europe's third largest budget carrier - is offering assigned seats, free meals and free newspapers!!!

 

• What's New in Marketing and CVM

Price is one of the most neglected elements of the marketing mix, despite it being the only "P" of the 4 or 7 "P's" that actually captures value. Inadequate attention to price and inappropriate pricing strategies based on poor understanding of customer need and value are eating away at companies' bottom-lines. Just simple maths tells you that a small percentage increment in price (and, therefore, revenue) has a disproportionately BIG impact on profits. Despite this "known fact" marketers, business leaders and sellers spend far too little time on right pricing their offerings to their customers, mostly out of ignorance and lack of attention to detail. Attention to a better and more detailed understanding of customer needs and value drivers combined with a more detailed analysis and comparison of your offerings with those of your competition (to understand the real basis of differentiation) are fundamental factors most commonly neglected or overlooked by commercial management in their pricing activities and approaches.

Reinforcing differentiation and price with a powerful brand is well-known to a few good and successful marketers. Unilever, for example, despite having reduced it total number of brands from 1600 to 400 leading brands over the past four years is no less a believer in the power of branding. Nestle is a constant proof of the power of local and global branding as a basis for differentiation, value creation and value capture.

Even in B2B markets, we can now see the strength of branding in the recent experience of Dow Corning with the February 2002 launch and stunning success of their Xiameter low priced convenience model for large customers of standard products and the re-positioning and reinforcing of their Dow Corning brand as the leading source of choice and added value for the discerning purchaser of products, services and solutions related to silicone chemistry.

Now we even see the great BASF developing its corporate brand as The Chemical Company and a recent initiative by the American Chemical Council to sharpen up the image of the chemicals industry as a critical provider of value, comfort, convenience and so much more to every facet of modern day life. Not a moment too soon.

• MarketAbility News

MarketAbility has extended the reach of Customer Value Management and Value-Based Marketing workshops to cover broader industrial and B2B markets. MarketAbility is known in the chemicals and plastics industry for its popular and down-to-earth marketing and customer value management workshops.
Responding to popular demand these workshops have now been re-designed to address the needs of a broader base of industrial and B2B marketers.
THERE IS STILL TIME to book a place on the 2004 workshops semester November, or plan ahead and book a place on our 2005 workshops at The Marketing Centre in Zürich, Switzerland.
For more details please use this link or call Phil Allen
directly on +41 1 783 8777

Book your place on a workshop

 

How NOT to compete on Price

Is the title of a special workshop being run by MarketAbility and B2B International in co-operation wih ECMSA at the Lowry Centre in Manchester, United Kingdom on Wednesday October 6th, 2004. Places are strictly limited and available on a first come first served basis via the following links.

New strategies for an old industry

MarketAbility and ECMSA are co-sponsoring a 1/2-day executive briefing on Tuesday 5th October at the Lowry Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom. Keynote speakers will address an invited audience of senior chemicals and plastics indutry executives on some of the latest strategic thinking and provide a forum for debate and discussion on how to improve the quality of business for chemicals and plastics producers and suppliers.

David Jukes, CEO Univar UK and Distrupol Europe, will discuss "Effective channel strategies for the chemicals and plastics industry".
Phil Allen, CEO MarketAbility, will challenge the industry that "There is no market for chemicals - the way to future profitable growth"
other speakers to be announced will address issues such as
Competing against lower priced imports
Leveraging the strengths of European Chemicals and Plastics
To register your interest in either of the above events, please contact Claudia Hagen at MarketAbility on +41 1783 8791.

UNIQUE NEW SERVICES FOR MARKETERS AND BUSINESS LEADERS

Marketing Excellence Hotline SM
SM Marketing Hotline and Marketing Excellence Hotline are service marks of MarketAbility

What Marketing Tool to Use, How and When

You learned the marketing concept or tool, but when to use it?

You’re unsure which tool to use to tackle the challenge you have?

You know which tool to use, but are unsure how to use it?

You need help to apply a marketing idea, concept or tool?

You’d like some impartial expert advice and support to solve a marketing challenge?

You’d like to discuss a specific marketing challenge or issue with an impartial, independent expert?


Now you can…Just sign up and you will be able to call or email MarketAbility’s Marketing Excellence Hotline

Expert support in all aspects of marketing from 10 minutes to 10 days by phone, fax, email, voice-mail or face-to-face.


Marketing SWATSQUAD SM
SM Marketing SWATSQUAD is a service mark of MarketAbility


Do you need additional (temporary) Marketing Resource or Expertise?

You have a critical project, but you do not have the resources to conduct the project? You need additional resources short-term to support and complement your own resources on an important marketing project or program?

MarketAbility’s new, unique Marketing SWATSQUAD can be deployed rapidly and for any period of time needed by client to tackle a specific marketing challenge or to support and work with your marketers to address a specific marketing challenge, perhaps where you are expertise and/or resource constrained.

All MarketAbility practitioners have extensive and longstanding marketing experience and expertise and are familiar with most state-of-the art marketing concepts, tools and techniques.

They are also well versed in key marketing and customer programs such as Customer Value Management, Key Account Management, Large Account Management, Channel Management and Value-Based Pricing.

For more information on Marketing Excellence Hotline and Marketing SWATSquad, please call +41 1 783 8777 or email: info@marketability.org

Read more about our new services...

• MarketAbility Wisdom

These two items feature wisdom from MarketAbility associate expert practitioner, Terry Kendrick, who runs the consultancy Information Now and also lectures in management and marketing at University of East Anglia.

Addressing customer myopia: strategic interactive marketing planning in a volatile business environment

Abstract: This paper introduces and examines the concept of customer myopia, which is the over reliance on the existing customer base rather than studying the whole market of potential and future customers. Eight assumptions are studied which illustrate customer myopia and the argument for a strategic perspective is put. How to implement Strategic Interactive Marketing Planning (SIMP) is explained in nine stages, within two phases.

Read full article...


Meeting Key Challenges: Strategic Risk

Good risk management has been shown to have significant effects not just on corporate governance compliance, but also on reputation and on the perceived success of projects within organisations. Unfortunately, strategic risk management looks hard and uninspiring. And those involved with risk management in an organisation tend to have very unsexy job titles and are often associated with boring, repetitive tasks. For example, I was recently speaking at a professional meeting, extolling the virtues of increasing project risk management awareness and activity in strategic marketing planning. While the idea met with general interest there was some suspicion. “Have you ever tried to work with one of those detail-obsessed project risk managers?” asked one delegate.

Read full article...