Tis the season to make lolly - Selling and the Festive Season

Kellogg's  Norman Rockwell issue

Deck the malls with boughs of holly,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

'tis the season to make lolly,

Fa la la la la, la la la la. 

The countdown has begun – now is the time to put the measures in place that will make for a prosperous new year.  IT'S ONLY ONE MONTH UNTIL CHRISTMAS  FOLKS

Many independent retailers rely on the festive season. It can represent as much of half of their annual sales. However all of us in selling are affected by the Christmas season. There is much planning to be done whether it is planning around the factory holiday shut down, the 'quiet period' between Christmas and New Year, or organising sales meetings and trainings in the less busy time or organising and booking the Christmas Team lunch! 

 There is much we can learn from the selling skills of the retailers.

Christmas  tills ringing have an entirely different tone. The fear of things going wrong in this buying season  means it can be anything but festive for retailers.

The business of Christmas is significant because Christmas is typically a peak selling season for retailers .

Sales increase dramatically as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies to celebrate.

In the UK  the Christmas shopping season usually starts from mid November although some stores start selling Christmas cards by  September.

For most it starts around the time when high street Christmas lights are turned on.

The increased level of demand, through both on line and offline sales channels, puts pressure on retailers’ operational systems and processes. The infrastructure of a retail operation needs to be robust enough to cope with the influx of orders.

For example according to eBay, 79% of shoppers are likely to purchase from another retailer or brand when a product is back ordered or out of stock.

Mistakes and delays result in disappointed customers and missed opportunities.

A newer trend is that the shape of the holiday season has changed. 

On-line shopping and the import of  USA's Black Friday on Friday 27^th of November  this year , such sales have fixed a host of new dates in the UK’s retail calendar.

 However Aldi is to follow Asda’s lead and not acknowledge Black Friday  this year– insisting its customers get the best deals every day.

For Vodafone self control of Black Friday
 was lost to Red Thursday to get ahead !

Prepare for the Christmas selling window

Retail is detail - Preparation

·        Don’t be caught on-the-hop : From customer service to handling extra stock coming in for promotions – make sure you don’t get caught out by being under prepared

·        Fine tune your inventory/ stock: Early season discounts  can significantly erode demand during the traditional January sales. Take this into account when stocking up.

·       

Don’t let your discounting dim your sparkle out of Christmas : many consumers have become conditioned to wait for promotions before making a purchase due to the challenge of increasingly rapid retail cycle of product launches and sales. Analyse your data carefully to identify products you can afford to promote – then offer targeted reductions across your product mix to draw your discount hunters without sacrificing margins across your whole product range.

·       

Keep your delivery promise in check : Couriers are also under huge pressure over the holiday season. This can have an impact on the supply chain and on your ability to get  your goods into the hands of your customers. If you know your operations and those of your couriers will be under particular strain, you can always extend the delivery times you offer. It’s much better to set expectations a little lower and exceed them than the other way round.

·        Exploit  unparalleled on line traffic especially Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Being able to cope with the expected spike in visitors to your site is crucial for your success.

Postscript on 19th December The Daily Express front page

Photo of Daily Express front page on #panicsaturday
Who was panicking ? the retailer or the consumer

Stretch Selling the Shrovetide Season #Jif Lemon #Ferrero and all that Mardi Gras business

"Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets." Baltasar Gracian 1601-1658

No sooner have the Retail and Horeca  sectors (Hotels, Restaurants and Catering) enjoyed the lift in sales of  Valentine season, this year we move straight into the period of Shrovetide thanks to the vagaries of lunar timetables.

Squeezing  a season for every last drop helps leverage further sales.

Despite there being over six years to go until Easter some of the Supermarket shelves are loaded up with chocolate Easter eggs.

The next mini retail event is Pancake Day.

It’s day that provides a spike in sales of a design classic the plastic  Jif lemon. Fat Tuesday ( Mardi Gras) offers a boon for the batter mixes,  eggs and flour, the various toppings nowadays and for traditionalists lemon juice and sugar.

It’s a day when for once , ‘buying a lemon’ has a positive  nuance.

Creative packaging can become as much the ‘product’ as the product itself. So it is in the case of the story behind the Jif lemon.

Design classic Jif lemons

The plastic lemon container and the idea of selling lemon juice in this way was dreamy up by Stanley Wagner, a former RAF fighter pilot.

 His plastic lemon was made by a company in the telephone business, Shipton

.

 Over the course of a ten-month period from mid-1955 to early 1956 more than six million of these lemons were sold, initially under the brand name "Realemon" and then after an objection by the then Board of Trade the name was changed to "ReaLem" and marketed with the slogan "juice in a jiffy".

Reckitt and Colman approached Stanley Wagner to buy the business and after a very long negotiation a deal was concluded. A letter from Barclays Bank dated 21 June 1956 reads " Dear Mr Wagner, I have pleasure in enclosing two copies of the Draft for £......... credited to your account, which the Bank will be pleased if you will accept as a souvenir of this most successful transaction.

Conventional packaging of lemon juice had been ( and still remains) in little glass bottles.

Now part of  Unilever  the plastic Jif lemon  is still going strong. The design offer a unique differentiation.

Some might remember the TV ad classic “ Don’t forget the pancake on Jif lemon juice day”

The pancake toppings sector continues to grow. This year Nutella, the chocolate hazel nut spread, are running pancake day campaign.

 Sadly the founder of the business Ferrero died this Valentine’s day 2015. Billionaire Michele Ferrero, whose global chocolate empire made him Italy's richest man, he was aged 89.

Like Jif’s Stanley Wagner, Ferrero knew the importance of packaging a product to help differentiate it from the competition. Whether its the gold foil wrapped ‘ambassador’s choice’ of chocolates Ferrero Rocher , the individually wrapped Raffaello, the handily packaged Tic Tac mints  or Kinder Eggs, the packaging sells and differentiates the product. 

In the lead-up to Pancake Day on Tuesday, 17th February 2015 , Nutella has launched a £1.4m integrated campaign.

Carrying the strapline of ‘Pancakes love Nutella’, the activity will kick off at the start of February and will feature a standalone Pancake Day TV ad which will show families enjoying the occasion, plus nationwide out of home advertising, radio, digital, social media and breakthrough in-store display solutions

And the future ?

Maybe the Ferrero business or their creative agents might dream a plastic giant hazelnut to squeeze  or a plastic cute squirrel ( “Squirt Simon-the-squirrel on pancake day” ) containing the chocolate spread. Perhaps the offering will include an ecologically responsible 5p donation to the Red Squirrel reintroduction project on Mersea Island.

For sure ,packaging and product development will go on a pace whatever.

A  syndrome that Balthazar Gracian would have recognised back in 15^th   Century Spain.

Don't forget the Fry Light this pancake night

Sampling at Waterloo Station Morning on Pancake Day 2015

Sampling at Waterloo Station 8 pm on Pancake Day

Related Links

Where does marketing end and selling begin ?

Links  to other Marketing and Selling wisdom from Balthazar Gracian

Book review of the Art of Prudence

Key rewards of ennobled selling and networking

Marketing perception and reality

Selling and Building Trust

We all need the touch of a seller

Selling Cheap is a risky business low everyday value #Morrisons proposition predicament #Tesco #ASDA #LIDL

Well however we in Selling like to dress  it all up, the challenges of  low price selling remain the same.

Four months ago Morrisons launched their ‘I’m cheaper’ strap.  “It’s the new cheaper Morrisons” in May to promote its “biggest ever” round of price cuts, which saw it lower the cost of more than 1,200 products. 

“I’m Cheaper” campaign played a key role in communicating the price cuts. Now the supermarket is looking to reassure on base prices and communicate to customers that those price cuts are not promotional but permanent.

 Now Morrisons has changed its point-of-sale to show the low price of its products with an arrow with a pound symbol inside pointing down and the words “everyday low prices” (EDLP).

Everyday low prices is “industry-standard language” in supermarkets

 for example :-

Asda also uses an “everyday low price” message

Tesco is currently using a “Prices down and staying down” message

Sainsbury’s continues to focus on values in its marketing

Morrisons new pricing strategy is integrated with

• improving ease of shop,
• reducing clutter and
• making Morrisons’ communication really clear and consistent.

 

Ad placed in Sunday Times supplement
  50 years of Business
1964 -2014
28/09/14

The supermarket is also hoping to improve its value offering  by making promotions

 clearer and more relevant and boost brand affinity by making more use of the Morrisons yellow.

Morrison plans for local marketing to communicate  new opening hourshours, mostly in-store. 

Morrisons will also launch 'geotargeted' campaigns on mobile.

The 'EDLP’ and ‘Everyday value’ are  generic terms in retail.

 ‘Everyday Low Prices’ is pretty uncreative and  unlikely to stand out in supermarket sector. 

It is the real prices on show that will do the talking !

The extract of the quote from which the congratulatory advertisement to the Sunday Times omits the word 'balance' . The quote comes from one by John Ruskin (1819-1900).

" It is unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little.

When you pay too much you lose a little money - that is all.

When you pay too little , you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought is incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.

The law of Business balance prohibits paying a little and getting

a lot - it can't be done.

If you deal with the lowest bidder , it is as well to add

something for the risk you run and if you do that you will have enough for

something better " 

Related Links

It is seldom only about price 12 other  things to consider

Life’s a soda now. Have Brand Masters Coca-Cola got it right again?

Have Coca-Cola got it right again ?

After a 13 year reign as top brand in the world, last year Coke was superseded by Apple. Well that is how the consultancy Interbrand measured things last year.

How most of us would like to get it as wrong ( I write ironically) as Coca-Cola !

For me they are still the Brand Master when half the world has yet to make its first telephone call , although I guess the current usurper  Masters at Apple may have something to say about that.

I was reminded that even the great Coke occasionally does get it wrong when I came across a product in the Coffee shop attached to the Loyola University, Baumhart Campus, in Chicago where  I was teaching just a couple of week’s ago. One of the Coke brands that does well in the the states but bombed in the UK.

 A marketing launch story of some 10 years ago in the UK.

Dasani

or 6 weeks of Marketing Hell in early 2004

You would not think that Coke selling branded water would cause it problems.

Dasani was launched in the UK on 10 February 2004. After some unfortunate instances in the launch e.g. Early advertisements referred to Dasani as "bottled spunk" or featured the tag line "can't live without spunk". 

These slogans were used  oblivious to the fact that ‘spunk’ is slang for semen in the UK. 

This was shortly followed  by an article in  the trade magazine The Grocer  mentioned that the source of the Dasani brand water was in fact treated tap water from Sidcup, on the outskirts of London , which followed by a lampooning press who associated this with a well known successful comedy episode of Only Fools and horses saw Dell Trotter tried to promote “Peckham Spring Water” for the mains tap. Unfortunately rather than laughing with the UK public laughed at Coke.

 On 18 March 2004, UK authorities found a concentration of bromate, a suspected human carcinogen, in the product that could be considered harmful if consumed in large quantities. Coca-Cola immediately recalled half a million bottles and pulled the "Dasani" brand from the UK market

That was then –  but remember most marketing case studies are written with hindsight ( case study 20/20 vision) It is surprisingly easy to get cultural vocabulary wrong on the international marketing scene,  misconstrued press articles can be costly and then if the product has some 'teething' problems...

Corporate Resilience

But Coke are bold and good at picking  themselves up, dusting themselves off and starting all over again.   ( for fans of the 1936  movie Swing Time)

Well for you fellow Brand managers out there -maybe tracking the ups and downs of Coke’s newest drink product would make useful learning without the commercial risks they have to take.

Obligatory Blog photo selfie.
 (No bottle of Coca-Cola Life) was harmed
 in the making of this selfie

First thing I notice is the change of brand colour. GREEN but coke is red and always has been surely?

 I mean it's like saying to Ferrari drop the red, to Virgin scrap the red, to Santander give up the red, to Vodafone bin the red.

I mean you don't mess with the Brand's flagship colour! or do you ?

Well things change. sometimes imperceptibly.

 Just Google 'Coke logos' and designs and see how over the years there have been many changes.

The latest addition to the family – Coca‑Cola Life – is now in  UK shops. It's Coke’s first lower-calorie cola sweetened from natural sources.

Coca‑Cola Life is made with a blend of sugar and stevia leaf extract, and contains a third less sugar and a third fewer calories than Coca‑Cola

Coca‑Cola = 42 calories per 100ml

Coca‑Cola Life = 27 calories per 100ml

Coca‑Cola Zero = Less than 1 calorie per 100ml

Diet Coke = Less than 1 calorie per 100ml

Brand masters Coke  are  constantly innovating and creating products . 

The introduction of Coca‑Cola Life is part of their commitment to offer a variety of drinks, so there’s something to suit every “ lifestyle and occasion.”

The Coca‑Cola range now, it seems, has something for everyone: Coca‑Cola, lower-calorie Coca‑Cola Life and two no-calorie options, Coca‑Cola Zero and Diet Coke.

Following 5 years research In Argentina Coca-Cola Life was launched first in June 2013, followed by a roll out in Chile in November in the same year.

It is the first version of the soft drink to be produced with stevia and sugar as sweeteners.

 Coca-Cola Life was launched in the USA, Frontier of Mexico and Sweden, in September 2014; and is undergoing trials in the UK as of August 2014.

POP in W H Smith store

So why have Coke launched this new cola?

 They know there are consumers who are looking to reduce their calorie intake without compromising on taste and there is growing interest in new ingredients, such as stevia leaf extract, that provide sweetness from natural sources.

The launch of Coca‑Cola Life is also the latest in a series of initiatives  to promote well-being and help address obesity in the UK.

 It is just one of the ways we're providing consumers with soft drinks for every lifestyle and occasion, so that consumers can make choices to meet their individual needs.

Stevia sweetener has already been introduced into Sprite, reducing its calories by 30% compared with its previous recipe

Bottles and Cans of Coca-Cola Life in their
distinctive green packaging in a Sainsburys Store

Coke has been steadily reducing the calories of some of their other popular brands, Lilt, Oasis and Fanta, by 56%, 35% and 30% compared with their previous recipes

They have been Increasing marketing investment for their low- and no-calorie colas, Diet Coke and Coca‑Cola Zero

Broadening thier packaging range to include smaller portions with the addition of a new 250ml can

Investing  some £20m to help inspire 1 million people to get active by 2020 through physical activity programmes such as Coca‑Cola Zero ParkLives

This summer they  launched Coca‑Cola Zero ParkLives: a nationwide programme of fun, free, family activities in the heart of local communities – the parks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZXhphlJI7A

In their first year, they have teamed up with local councils in three cities: Birmingham, Newcastle and the London Borough of Newham.

This will be  expanded with the programme to work with more UK cities in 2015, with the aim of inspiring even more people to get active.

“From Tai chi to Rounders, Zumba to Table Tennis, there’s something for everyone, and the activities on offer have been informed by local research. The sessions are taken by local session leaders and, what’s more, they’re completely free to join!”

Coke believe that leading an active lifestyle is one of the most important things you can do for your health and happiness.

 Earlier this year, Coke made a pledge to get one million people active by 2020, and Coca‑Cola Zero ParkLives is a key part of this commitment.

They’ll be working with the national physical activity expert ukactive to closely measure the impact of the programme and ensure it makes a positive difference in each city.

So brand managers ,keep an eye out and learn from THE Brand masters at Coke - even if your have to do so surfing on your new Apple i-phone 6 launched in the UK today!
  

7 Ps in a pod. #Nespresso and the #VertuoLine marketing Case Study for the Essential Enablers

POP display at a Nespresso boutique Chicago

I love coffee, I love tea

I love the java jive and it loves me

Coffee and tea and the jiving and me

A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup!

- Milton Drake "Java Jive "– Ink Spots

Like a horse and carriage, there has been a long partnership between Coffee and Business. They have 'lived together' if not been actually married for a long time.

The Coffee houses of England in the eighteenth century were places to do business. The famous insurance house for example  Lloyds of London was based on a coffee house. The market began in Lloyd's Coffee House, opened by Edward Lloyd in around 1688 on Tower Street in the  City of London.

In 2014 ‘’drink in ‘customers as opposed to the ‘to go’ customers, are seen networking and doing business in a coffee shop not so differently from the predecessors of eighteenth century England.

Many coffee drinkers have wanted to bring the coffee shop experience into their home. 

Clearly the full-scale  Gaggia machine coffee shop would be impracticable in most homes but  domestic filter machines, percolators , espresso  and cappuccino machines are ever more popular in our kitchens.

I have recently returned from facilitating a corporate graduate session on Marketing with the  talented folk from the Essentra Graduate scheme in Chicago, Illinois. Essentra are the international 'essential enablers' company with operations in production of filter products, porous technologies , component and protection solutions, and Packaging and Securing Solutions.

Q:What's new at Nespresso ?
A: The 13 pt intensity,
 limited edition, Cubania
 "..a moment of pure indulgence,
a gourmet dessert with syrupy texture,
caramel and roasted notes."

One of the case studies we worked  on was Nestlé Nespresso . 

The single delivery coffee pod sector has been dominated by Nestlé in Europe and the Grads looked into the launch of a new product especially designed for Canada and the USA markets - VertuoLine .

Time Line :

 1976, an employee of Nestlé , Eric Favre, , invented, patented and introduced the Nespresso system to the business market in Switzerland with little significant success.

 1988,  Jean-Paul Gaillard — the founder inventor of «Le Club» community — the product became a market success.

  1990, the firm signed a contract with Turmix, which started to sell Nespresso machines in Switzerland. Thereafter, other contracts were signed with Krups, Magimix, Alessi, Philips, Siemens and De'Longhi.

1996 The first patent application for Nespresso's process of brewing espresso from capsules containing ground coffee was filed.

In 2000, Nespresso began distributing machines bearing the "Nespresso" brand.

VertuoLine product on a shelf at Macy's, Chicago

In February 2014, Nespresso launched a new Vertuoline system.The VertuoLine  machines and capsules sold in the United States and Canada  are designed to appeal to the demand by North Americans in these countries for larger cups of coffee.

 The system produces both 230-millilitre (8.1 imp fl oz; 7.8 US fl oz) cups of coffee and smaller 40-millilitre (1.4 imp fl oz; 1.4 US fl oz) espressos, both with the crema that characterizes espresso coffees and the original line of Nespresso coffees. 

Nespresso simultaneously introduced eight coffee blends and four espresso blends in specially-designed VertuoLine capsules.

 The VertuoLine capsules cannot be used in the original line of Nespresso machines (now called the "OriginalLine"), which continue to be sold in North America.

The VertuoLine capsules are as follows:

Coffee

Stormio (intensity: 8) Odacio (intensity: 7) Melozio (intensity: 6) Elvazio (intensity: 4)

Hazelino (intensity: 6) Vanizio (intensity: 6) Decaffeinato (intensity: 6) Half Caffeinato (intensity: 6) Espresso Diavolitto (intensity: 11)Altissio (intensity: 9) Voltesso (intensity: 4)

Decaffeinato Intenso (intensity: 7)

Notice the larger sized  hemispherical
 shaped pods on the right hand size for VertuoLine

The VertuoLine system uses two technologies not found in the OriginalLine.

1.       The system uses "centrifusion" (a term created by Nespresso, being a portmanteau of 'centrifugal force' and 'infusion'), whereby it spins the capsule around in the machine at up to 7,000 rpms to blend the ground coffee and hot water.

2.        Each capsule has a bar code embedded on the rim, and the bar code laser scanning system reads 5 different parameters: cup size (coffee or espresso), temperature, rotational speed, flow rate and time the water is in contact with the ground coffee.

The VertuoLine system is intended to expand Nespresso's product line to offer coffee closer to the American style of filtered coffee, and thus expand Nespresso's market share in North America. In the United States, Nespresso had only a 3% share of the single-serve coffee market in 2013 (compared with 72% for Green Mountain’s Keurig system), while in Canada Nespresso had 4 to 5% of the single-serve market in 2013 (compared to approximately 53% for Keurig and 40% for Tassimo). In comparison.

Through their concession in Stores and malls, Nespresson Boutiques allow a direct line engagement of Club members with Nespresso. A place to bring their used capsules for recycling and find out 'what’s new?' in Coffee.

 Nearby to the Loyola University premises the Essentra graduates and I were working ,there was such a Nespresso boutique in a nearby Shopping Mall. The boutique was within the Sur La Table store - a Mecca for kitchen gadgets and all things kitchen.

Nespresso boutique within
 a Sur la Table store in Chicago 

Visiting the boutique and...

Demonstration at the Nespresso Boutique in
Sur La Table store in Chicago

... seeing the demonstrations and tasting the coffee made the case study all the  more real.

This VertuoLine system was designed to meet the tastes of the North American consumers, brewing the highest-quality American-style large-cup coffee and authentic espresso. Nespresso’s website state. 

“ For the first time ever, coffee lovers can experience large-cup coffee with crema. Silky, generous crema is a naturally formed foam of coffee and air. Representing unprecedented quality, it seals aromas in coffee and enhances the tasting pleasure.”

With VertuoLine, Nespresso want to accelerate their growth and become a leading player in North America’s fast-growing portioned coffee market. The business potential is strong. The US portioned coffee market is estimated to be worth USD 4.9 billion with around 40% growth last year.

 It is also estimated to contribute to half of the portioned coffee segment’s growth worldwide. Coffee is also the fastest growing category in Canada’s hot drinks market.

Nespresso’s Centrifusion™  technology produces large-cup coffee and espresso with the same, high-quality in-cup result. Centrifusion™ is their word for combining centrifugal and infusion, indicating that the capsule spins inside the machine, and water is injected into the capsule and “infused” with the ground coffee inside the capsule.

This technology provides an extremely high level of precision with each extraction parameter individually controlled.

Notice on the outer rim there are the bars
 of the bar-code that the VertuoLine machine's laser reads

One key difference I noticed is the size and shape of the capsules for VertuoLine  are different. The VertuoLine capsules are a hemisphere of a larger dimension compared to the conventional pod. These are a specially patented design which includes a barcode which is read by the laser in the machine.

The Nespresso concept (machine, capsule, service) is subject to 1,700 patents which protect Nespresso's ownership of the concept until the patents expire.

Nespresso has been often compared with printer manufacturers that tried to hinder the sale of generic ink cartridges, to achieve a 'vendor lock-in effect'.

Nespresso's patents began to expire in 2012 gradually allowing competitors to offer capsules and machines compatible with the Nespresso system.

A former CEO at Nespresso has started a rival firm, Ethical Coffee Company SA (ECC), to make compatible biodegradable capsules for the Nespresso machine.

Nespresso’s success is driven by their ability to deliver the highest quality coffees, continuous innovation, exclusive personalized services and a unique brand experience.

On our course we had used the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s ( CIM-UK ) definition of marketing-

“ The management process for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs profitably”.

 Interestingly a spokesperson for Nespresso used similar language when questioned at the launch of VertuoLine :

“The privileged relationships and dialogue that we nurture with our Club Members and consumers allow us to anticipate their needs and exceed their expectations. Our unique direct-to-consumer business model, with our extensive retail network, 24/7 phone line and e-commerce platform, and our rigorous quality management from farmer to consumer are key factors in our continuous success.”

One of the Essentra grads' teams debating  the similarities
 and differences between Nespresso
and marketing of B2B  Porous product
type businesses they work in

The Essentra Grads. enjoyed studying the Nespresso story so far, using techniques such as the Marketing model , the  7 Ps , TOWS grids , Boston Consulting matrices ,Ansoff Grids and the like. They came up with some great thoughts on how things will look in the next years.

Because of Nespresso’s Bellwether notoriety in the media, the case study will be an ongoing reminder of the marketing techniques we learned and thought about in Chicago at the course

"Ah, how sweet coffee tastes — lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel."

— J.S. BACH, COFFEE CANTATA

Related links

The Marketing Model

 

Consumer Behaviour

 

Marketing Research part 1

 

Marketing Research part 2

 

  

Product 

 

Price

 

Promotion ( Marketing Communications)

 

Place

 

Marketing Management