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Brand Keys, a NY based firm that measures customer loyalty has just published its most recent findings. This mornings Boston Herald has a quick article on some of the key points and notes that Dunkin Donuts had the #1 spot for coffee drinker loyalty, followed by McDonalds, Starbucks and Krispy Kreme. The Starbucks hits keep coming!
When you review the findings, the interesting nugget is that the perception of value received is critical to customer loyalty. No surprise there, but what is surprising is the note that customers no longer perceive it is their personal responsibility to find value, but the brand's responsibility to provide it. However, as the post notes, value and price are not linked:
The brands that won are the beneficiaries of consumers’ new expectations regarding brand value. The most significant shift is a neutralizing of the impact of price. And, believe it or not, this can actually turn out to be good news for brands. While economic news hasn’t been good, these shifts provide opportunities for brands that pay attention to what the consumer really expects and offer meaningful differentiation, will tip the value scales in their direction, because value matters more than ever. More than just price.
What this means for business is that we all must continue to identify the Customer's Value Expectation (CVE) and find unique ways to meet and exceed it. We've developed a great exercise for identifying the CVE and combining it with Blue Ocean Strategy methodology to find those differentiators. If you want to discuss how we can help you with identifying your CVE, let us know, we'll be happy to help.
About a week ago I decided to dig further into Twitter, so I set up an account and started posting my tweets. You can find me at www.twitter.com/mistervann. My impressions after the first week? Why am I doing this? I've posted a total of 8 times and have shared the mundane such as: 1) that I was having breakfast with the girls; 2) that I am really beginning to like the Black Ghosts; and 3) that I was going to Panera for a bagel because I had a craving for it. I also tweeted about my disatisfaction with XM Radio's customer service. Sadly, I was not contacted by XM so it appears they are not following posts about themselves on Twitter. Perhaps that explains the lousy customer service!
I enjoy coming across some of Guy Kawasaki's thoughts that he posts. Of course, if he really thinks its important, he probably posts it on his blog which I do read everytime he writes. Other than that, I just don't see the point of this. Apparently, I'm not the only one not feeling the whole Twitter thing. The Daily Beast has a post on how Twitter has "jumped the shark" this past week. Venture Beat had a post last week about how Twitter receives half the press coverage of Facebook, but has only a fraction of the traffic. VB indicates all the press might be generated by journalists who are using Twitter to pump their own writing. Perhaps with the hope that if they talk about it enough, people will do it and validate their foresight.
I'll probably continuing on Twitter for a little bit longer, but my initial reaction to this is that Twitter will go the way of friendship bracelets, the pet rock, parachute pants and AOL. What are your thoughts about Twitter's value and long-term usage?
Is your small business having a hard time securing credit in this market? Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software want's to know. Tim, a frequent contributor to the has been blogging for quite some time on this issue and has set up a survey. Fill out the survey and let Tim know what you are experiencing.If you have any stories about how you are managing through the credit crunch or the recession/depression, let us know, we would love to profile your story in an upcoming White Paper.
It is a commonly held belief that the best time to start a business is when economic conditions are at their worst. If you can survive in a recession/depression, the thinking goes, then it should be real easy to thrive when times are good. BNET has a quick post with links on the topic from Business Week, USA Today and Industry Standard. I’m inclined to believe that this is the best time to start a business and am actively looking at opportunities myself. Down times allow you to be creative and generally allow you to think a little unconventionally about an opportunity or how you bring your product/service to market.
With that being said, there are just some ideas and business oppotunities that get developed that are just bad, regardless of the economic climate. In recent days, I’ve come across two that leave me scratching my head about the decision making process that some companies go through when launching a new initiative.
The first was Starbucks recent decision to launch a value breakfast meals. On the surface, it makes sense in these times of near empty wallets to provide the illusion of value. Unfortunately, Starbucks has failed on delivering a value proposition with this move because its: 1) unoriginal; and 2) unappealing. How appealing does a tall (re: small) latte and a reduced fat piece of coffee cake or a tall coffee and a "breakfast sandwich" for $3.95 sound to you? They missed a golden chance to roll out a new product line of either healthy foods or really decadent baked goods - hello doughnut & coffee! Secondly, there is no messaging attached to the roll out so this looks like another half baked attempt to respond to negative perception of Starbucks and value. Instead of attacking the issue head on, this move reinforces the perception that Starbucks is overpriced. A plea to Starbucks management - look at how McDonald's reinvented themselves before you do anymore damage to your brand.
The other head scratching business idea that surfaced recently was Microsoft's decision to open retail stores. Details on the specifics of the stores are not available yet, but Microsoft did hire a 25 year Wal-Mart veteran to lead this initiative. Talk about playing right into the Apple television commercial stereotypes! Its hard to tear apart the concept without knowing the specifics, but with the exception of Apple, when has a manufacturer been truly successful with a direct retail model? Secondly, from a perception standpoint, we are talking about Microsoft products and a Wal-Mart retail mind a the helm - does anything about that combination say "positive customer experience"?
I'm sure I'll be touching on these two concepts later on as more information becomes available and they roll out. In the meantime, if you know of any bad business ideas that have recently surfaced, let me know.
As I type this, I am multi-tasking. I have six different tabs open on my browser, a Word document and a spreadsheet. I also have a list of 16 phone calls I need to make, and 47 email messages I need to respond to, as well as 34 that I am awaiting a response on - responses that are holding up other decisions. As I type, I am mentally attempting to prioritize the multitude of tasks I need to get done; each new one I think of takes on a new level of importance, yet at the moment each fall behind the task of posting to a blog that everyone or perhaps nobody is reading. Consequently, I am here doing this, but I really feel like I should be doing something else.
I noticed recently that I live in a perpetual state of motion from the time I awake somewhere between 4:30 and 5:00 am until I go to bed and sometimes while I sleep as Abby or Grace may wake up and need to be comforted, or I've worked myself into such a frenzy about something, that its easier to just get up and turn on my laptop and begin working. Emails from me at 2 am are almost as common as those that arrive at 2 pm. Even a Sunday, which is no longer a day dedicated to work is constant motion. Its time reading to Abby, feeding Grace or doing household chores. Life in constant motion is essentially living life at varying levels of anxiety; those moments when I am not in motion are strangely unsettling, as if the time/space continuum has been slightly altered.
For quite some time, I thought I was the only one living like this, but it appears that there is an entire generation of us who seem to be elsewhere and anywhere but where we are at the moment. That all changed the other day while I was stranded on a plane attempting to get home. Then, I read not one, but two articles on a new book - Elsewhere USA: How we got from the Company Man, Family Dinners and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, Blackberry Moms and Economic Anxiety. Here is the book description from Amazon:
Over the past three decades, our daily lives have changed slowly but dramatically. Boundaries between leisure and work, public space and private space, and home and office have blurred and become permeable. How many of us now work from home, our wireless economy allowing and encouraging us to work 24/7? How many of us talk to our children while scrolling through e-mails on our BlackBerrys? How many of us feel overextended, as we are challenged to play multiple roles–worker, boss, parent, spouse, friend, and client–all in the same instant?
I haven't read the book so I can't comment on it, but I did answer "yes" to all the questions just posed. So, I have ordered it and put it on my priority list; I will hopefully begin it this week while I'm on the plane this coming week. I'l post further thoughts on this after I read it, but in the meantime, here is the article in BusinessWeek and Newsweek. After you've read the articles or the book, let me know your thoughts and how your dealing with life in constant motion.
Tech Crunch has a great little post about an Angry Ex-Employee of Sky Grid a start up that hasn't yet launched. Apparently, a disgruntled ex-employee used Twitter to bash the Company and her ex-boss. Its not surprising that an ex-employee would say negative things abut a company where their departure was less than amicable. However, what makes this an interesting story is that she took to Twitter to express her displeasure and that it was picked up by Tech Crunch which has well over a million subscribers. The good news is that a 1,000,000 + people now know about obscure start-up Sky Grid; the bad news is that they know there are problems at the Company. I'm sure this is not the message that Sky Grid want's to be sending to the public, to its customers, investors, employees and prospective employees.
The bottom line for business is that regardless of how small and unknown your company is, its only a tweet or a Facebook post away from being recognized in a way you may or may not want it to be. Likewise, this may have a negative impact on the employee as well - would you want to hire her to work for you? Everyday, business owners and employees are going to be challenged with these types of situations which means you need to be prepared.
To date, I haven't seen a response from Sky Grid. So, the question I'll pose for our readership is this: if this happened to your company, how would you respond?
According to those in the know, today is the dawn of a new day. We awake with a new President, one who inspires and appears to have the chops to effectively lead. Regardless of where your politics stand, he ran perhaps the most masterful political campaign in history, a nearly flawless transition plan (whoops on Bill Richardson) and appears to have the stature and respect to return the US to its rightful place as the beacon of hop. Forget Joe DiMaggio, our nation/world turns its lonely eyes to Barack Obama!In acknowledging the return of hope, today's post will be dedicated to only positive business items. To begin, I would like to extend a big thanks to the Darby O'Brien Agency and the Log Cabin for hosting their Rally for Western Mass last night. It was a great turnout and provided the positive energy that we need for these challenging times.According to yesterday's Wall St. Journal, its a good time to be in the liquidating business. That means there are great buy opportunities for those willing to spend a little cash. The Goodwill Blog has a post on management lessons we can learn from the new President; apparently, Hope is more than just a small town in Arkansas! Lastly, Mavericks at Work author Bill Taylor has a great post on summoning your animal spirit. The bottom line of the post for me is times like this are great for opportunists. Now is the time to start a business and take risks because down times are when people create ventures that make a difference and make real money. Go get em tiger!
