Amazon - end of the free lunches?

Today’s news that Amazon has scrapped free delivery for orders of less than £10 will come of no surprise to regular users. Indeed many will have progressed  to Prime level, where for £49 per annum, all orders have free delivery. Prime members don’t only contribute a £49 fee, they’re also Amazon’s most loyal, high-spending customers, with some analysts claiming subscribers spend $1,224 every year compared to the casual user’s $505.

Today’s free-delivery restriction will no doubt cause many of the regular, non-Prime users to sign up for the free-delivery service..

That leaves current small-time users and new users.

• New users will ‘never’ know that free delivery existed, and may be attracted by the Amazon convenience, anyway
• Current small time users may be a casualty of the new restrictions, but they should expect a couple of retrieval/trade-up moves from Mr Bezos...

Finally, Amazon takes a step towards meeting City needs for profitability in line with sales.

A win-win-win for all…without missing a beat…
Competitors beware… 

Coca-Cola fine-tunes demand-supply, by outlet...

Coca-Cola GB is revamping how it gathers data from retailers to pinpoint which areas of the country hold the greatest potential for marketing and selling its brands to shoppers.

The customer insight initiative will see the business create a network of outlets over the next three years that either currently sell or have the potential sell its brands. The platform, developed in partnership with customer insight agency Serendipity2 Marketing Group, garners sales and volume data which Coke will combine with its own before mapping it against external consumer, workplace, competitor and retail geo-demographics.

In effect, Coca-Cola is making each shop a major customer…and treating them appropriately.

Think about it!

Substituting ‘major customer’ for ‘outlet’ in the above description of their customer insight initiative produces a strategy that hopefully describes the level of tailor-making many suppliers can just about afford to give their major customers, as follows:

The customer insight initiative will see the business create a network of major customers over the next three years that either currently sell or have the potential sell its brands. The platform, developed in partnership with customer insight agency Serendipity2 Marketing Group, garners sales and volume data which Coke will combine with its own before mapping it against external consumer, workplace, competitor and retail geo-demographics

Scale obviously helps, but if successful, the Coca-Cola initiative will not only set new standards in optimising store-based assortment, but will also produce reductions in ‘over-lap’ wastage and buffering. In addition, any current sales losses arising from low availability will be minimised.

However, the real issue for all other suppliers will be the extent to which Coke are raising the game in major customer management, and the risk one runs in not anticipating the move…

Meeting 'me-tailing' expectations, always....

Success for retailers has always depended upon understanding the individual customer, offering them personalised products and interactions – now known as 'me-tailing' – merely an electronic step-up from a corner-shop’s stocking of products that shoppers ‘kept asking for’……

The difference is that today’s consumer is always connected - allowing them to research products and purchase them anywhere, a challenge now faced by those retailers that have not fully embraced connected retail technology, linking consumers, devices and data for smarter shopping experiences, from the high street to online, in-store to mobile applications.

Seldom voiced by consumers-in-a-hurry, there is now a need for retailers to improve service delivery through linking consumer data and research to purchase phases, deliver a personalised experience by tailoring products to consumers' personal requirements to support sales, and thereby enhance the brand experience by creating meaningful experiences that move the consumer from transacting to conversing with brands.

A job too important to be left to retailers?
Ultimately, it is only the brand owner that wants to ensure that the brand meets the consumer's need - retailers retail categories, and are simply concerned that the consumer has no cause for complaint with individual brands or own label products, and returns to the store - whilst the brand owner loses money if the consumer fails to make a repeat-purchase...

The technology is creating new levels of expectation and brand owners therefore need to find ways of entering and optimising the retail marketing mix in order to ensure that there is more than adequate fulfillment of consumer needs and post-consumption satisfaction in order to guarantee repeat purchases by a consumer that has no need to go elsewhere.

In other words, me-tailing is simply a facilitation of the need-brand-need process, by connected savvy consumers that have the ability to measure each aspect of the 4P mix, and its record in  meeting and even exceeding expectation, as they converse with brands, and if necessary about brands, to reflect the degree of personal expectation-match…in all ways… 

Sainsbury's expand hospital pharmacy network - NHS missing a trick?

News that the UK’s No. 2 retailer plans to open four new outpatient hospital pharmacies each year, helping it to meet its ambitious target of doubling its pharmacy revenues over the next three years, indicates that the principle of applying state-of-art retailing expertise to the management hospital pharmacies works sufficiently well to encourage roll-out of the process...

Sainsbury’s opened its first outpatient pharmacy, at James Cook University Hospital, in February 2012 and this was followed by the outpatient pharmacies at Guy’s and St Thomas’ in December.

Mike Coupe, Sainsbury’s Group Commercial Director, said: "As we grow our network of outpatient pharmacies the feedback we receive from patients and the NHS trusts we work with has been overwhelmingly positive. The experience we have gained from these, combined with that of running over 270 in-store pharmacies, gives us confidence that by expanding our network of outpatient pharmacies we will be able to offer a greater level of service to the NHS and wider community."

The NHS missing a trick?
Whilst the Sainsbury's initiative is a major step forward of great benefit to all stakeholders, are the NHS missing a trick by not tapping into one of Sainsbury's key areas of expertise – procurement?

Why not second a few of Sainsbury's best buyers to help manage the procurement process on behalf of the NHS?

Whilst public sector contracts might be more complicated and difficult to terminate, surely Sainsbury's could bring considerable clarity and focus to the process of selection, and negotiation.

With an emphasis on output rather than input, an instinct for patient need-satisfaction but especially the incorporation of realistic KPIs and a drive for effectiveness, a grocer’s input might make a real difference…

Pepsi-Cadbury - a must-check combination?

News that activist investor Nelson Peltz says he wants soft drinks giant PepsiCo to buy Cadbury owner Mondelez and spin off its own underperforming beverage unit should be a  cause of some fundamental ‘what-ifs’ by the key stakeholders, fast.

In case you feel this idea is legless, during an interview on CNBC, Mr Peltz said he had talked about the proposal he called "Plan A" with PepsiCo chief executive Indra Nooyi - See more on NamNews.  

Mondelez International shares rose 64 cents, or 2.1pc, to $30.50 on Wednesday and added another 8 cents in after-hours trading. PepsiCo shares rose $1.22, or 1.5pc, to finish at $85.24.

Mr Peltz is known for building stakes in companies then forcing change. In 2008, for example, he led a group of investors in pressuring Cadbury Schweppes to split its candy and its weaker beverage business, which later became Dr Pepper Snapple Group. He was also an active investor in Kraft Foods before its split from Mondelez.

What now?
Apart from the inevitable year of uncertainty as the competition authorities explore the implications, retailers and the supplier-players revert to the short term and generally miss some obvious strategic opportunities, the proposals will open up the competitive landscape for the opposition. However, pro-active NAMs will remember that, even if the full deal does not go ahead, the management of each company may be forced to make some disposals to appease the activist shareholders…

A final check?
Having conducted your what-ifs by the book, why not try an old lateral thinking trick as a final step in your analysis: assume it has already happened, look back and try to identify the possible pathways that lead to this conclusion.

This may not only reveal some additional options - possibly including Mr Peltz’s ultimate motivations - but may also yield some hitherto unanticipated career-plan clarification….

Love for sale? - Paying for social popularity...

Need to boost pageviews? Mat Honan on Wired describes the low-cost ways in which you can increase your social media impact.

You could rent a botnet for $2 an hour and point many thousands of visitors to your story. But counting pageviews is old-school—”engagement” is where it’s at today. So try Fiverr, a service that lets you pay people $5 for all sorts of tasks. For instance pay someone to get 6,000 people to spend at least 30 seconds viewing your story. To juice social media pay  $5 for 2,000 shares on Facebook. Finally, pay $5 for 500 people to tweet your story and another $5 for 500 retweets of your tweet

Morality apart, the relative ease with which traffic can be manipulated means that advertisers may be forced back to more effective measures of social media impact, like product sales, conversion-rate, average transaction value, and ROI…

Despite the constant turmoil in unprecedented times, nothing really changes, we are all simply buying and selling, seeking an adequate reward for risk.

The rest is detail…

Apple Pitches Ad-Skipping for New TV Service – A must-have for fast-forward NAMs?

According to a report by Jessica Lessin a former WSJ reporter and editor, Apple have apparently told media executives it wants to offer a “premium” version of the service that would allow users to skip ads and would compensate television networks for the lost revenue, according to people briefed on the conversations. This would allow users to watch ad-free live and on-demand television over an Apple set-top box or TV.

Whilst many viewers have traditionally 'fast-forwarded' TV recordings to eliminate advertising, the combination of Apple branding and smooth interfacing represents a step-change...making it easy to understand TV networks' reluctance....

However, given the realities of increased media fragmentation and the growth in multichannel delivery of content, perhaps it is time to take this final step towards the meeting of consumer need, testing viewer willingness to pay a premium for ad-free content.

It then remains for advertisers to make their messages so compelling and linked with the total consumption experience that viewers are prepared to accept the trade-off between interruption and break-free viewing...by choice.

In fact, there may even be a niche made up of NAMs that are so focused on their own and competitor advertising that they would pay a premium for back-to-back TV advertising...

Charity shops - a dime a dozen in Orpington High Street?

                                                                                                                    map: Daily Mail 15/07/2013
1  Oxfam                         5  Hospices of Hope           9   British Heart Foundation
2  Save the Children         6  Harris HospisCare          10 Cancer Research UK
3  PDSA (Pet Charity)     7  The Children's Trust        11 Marie Curie Cancer Care
4  Age UK                       8  Cancer Research UK     12 Scope (Disability charity)

A question of charity overkill, or a better-than-nothing solution for the high street?

Nestlé Launches ‘ONE SQUARE METRE’ Coffee Shop Concept

Contract caterers, workplaces, universities, cafés, pubs, bars and restaurants are targets of a ‘one square metre coffee shop’ concept called Nescafé Milano Lounge that has just been launched.

It is a touch screen self-serve coffee machine that can deliver up to 400 customised drink varieties, access to nutritional content, aimed at consumer interaction, but outlets can optimise sales through personalised onscreen promotions and videos tailored to their specific business requirements. Its wireless facility also allows access to sales data and management of stock control.

A potential driver of food service performance? 
Apart from building and optimising traffic its square metre footprint should be an encouragement for food service establishments to focus upon a key retail metric, sales and profit per sq. m. {In fact, if food service suppliers encouraged their customers to adopt 'supermarket' metrics, it would help all stakeholders to assess value of goods, services and assets more effectively. Other potential supermarket metrics here}.

In other words, units located in the UK achieving annual sales of £10.8k and net profits of £646 (£1,000/sq. ft. and net profits of £60/sq. ft.) will outperform Tesco…… 

Optimising the NAM's business lunch?

In the era of the free 3-hour ‘business lunch’, in effect a high-powered 'non-business' meeting that appeared to have no fixed agenda, a new NAM tended to be thrown in unprepared, with no training on the basics…

Some precautionary pointers may help

In one of my first business lunches, my Dutch MD rescued me from the confusion of the French menu by suggesting I might like Tournedos Rossini, which  until that moment I had taken to be part of the restaurant’s musical accompaniment… The resulting combination of rare filet mignon with warm foie gras on a bed of wet toast proved very satisfactory and apart from raising the bar on expenses, from that moment I have found an assured request for ‘Tornado Rossini’ was always a safe bet when confronted with a ‘foreign language’ menu.

Unfortunately, I have been less successful with my choice of a standard starter in Pate Maison, finding it tasted different in every restaurant…

For these reasons, I found it useful to conduct a dry run on a new venue in preparation for really important lunches. It obviously raises the cost, but pays off in terms of ability to focus on the hidden agenda in real time…

Following the menu-choice lead of the main guest can aid the bonding, but can also have its pitfalls…
I still blush in recollection of an introductory meal with a newly promoted buyer where I pre-warned the team to follow his lead regardless..

This appeared to work well with his choice of starters, a generous portion of fresh Dublin Bay prawns, dutifully followed by the rest of us. However, when he proceeded to eat them complete with shells, I sensed some loss of my personal franchise as the team crunched their way through their portions…  Looking back, I now realise that he was one of the best leg-pullers I have ever met… beware the hidden agenda

When it comes to wine, it pays to keep it simple and stick with what you know. To this day, nothing beats the embarrassment I experienced having sent back a bottle of ‘corked’ Hirondelle, without realising it was one of the first plastic-capped wines in the UK…

Excessive alcohol consumption can also have its downside in terms stage-management of the occasion. A long-standing MD pal with a hard-earned reputation for being able to hold his drink tended to give himself away by leaning forward towards the end of a lunch and whispering ‘ I would like to give you some infidential confirmation..’ This was always a signal for his NAM to announce some emergency ‘at office’ that only his MD could handle…

In other words, high quality and moderation, with a silent-mobile primed to divert when all else fails…

All other egg-sucking precautions can probably be handled very adequately by well-intentioned grandchildren….

Stinking fish and small coffees - the language of bribery around the world

Well-travelled NAMs may well be aware of some of the euphemisms for bribes but a new BBC report should help to clarify the grey area of bribery and corruption. Phrases including "beans for the kids" in Kinshasa, "a glass of wine" in Paris, and "a small coffee" in most places are all signals that the buyer is ‘almost there’ except for….

However, unless your buyer is particularly outspoken and direct, then building up familiarity with bribery shorthand may help in establishing whether a NAM and buyer are in Bribery Act territory…

Bribery defined
When in doubt, it is important to go back to basics and establish a clear personal position on bribery. Bribery is quite clearly an overt inducement to the buyer to over-ride the logic of a buying decision where a supplier’s competitor is patently offering a better deal on a like-with-like basis. In other words, the supplier’s offering is equal with that of the competitor except for the additional £10k on the price to fund the bribe.

This point, the first of many, was brought out at the case against the UK potato buyer on 30th April 2012 in court by the prosecution: "A peculiar feature of the corruption was that it was self-funding. [The supplier was] not paying for it, [the retailer was] paying for the corruption of their own buyer and this was achieved by overcharging [the retailer]".

For further guidance on the distinction between gifts and bribery see KamBlog: buyer-seller corruption 

Action for NAMs
The answer for NAMs is always to attempt to revert to the base deal and check that it satisfies objective buying criteria (the buyer’s job needs), like-with-like, before focusing on the buyer’s emotional needs. In practice some of this process occurs simultaneously, but it remains vital that the supplier’s basic offering is defensible and transparent, always, and with 20/20 hindsight…..its the nature of the job, folks.

Meanwhile, if the buyer offers you ‘a small cup of coffee’ at the end of what you thought was a done-deal, best stick to the usual mug of tea, without sweetener, unless he insists, of course…

Debenhams’ Risk review (latest Annual Report 2012, P39-45)

(Download a copy of the Annual Report here)
A virtual primer on risk management, their latest Annual Report devotes six pages to defining and spelling out Debenhams’ position on risk, in terms of chance-of-occurrence and impact-on-the-business. Any NAMs wanting to optimise their trading partnerships with the retailer will need to demonstrate how their policies and process are compatible and complementary in terms of the supplier-type risks covered in the Debenhams’ report, or risk being ignored….

Know your own risk-profile
In practice, this means that the supplier needs to be clear in terms of relative risk profiles of the two organisations, knowing whether as a supplier in their category they are risk-seeking, risk-neutral or risk-averse, and pretty clear on how Debenhams views itself on the same measures, in that same category.

Incidentally, the category-specific criterion is important, given the difference between fashion-clothing and, say Health & Beauty business models. 

Risk-match with the customer
In terms of being complementary, a supplier can either have the same appetite for risk (i.e. both are risk-neutral, or be more adventurous [risk-seeking] based on knowledge of the category, where the retailer is more conservative [risk-neutral] in the same category.

Either way, framing your presentations as ways of helping the retailer to manage their perceived risks has to be a way of differentiating your offering from competitors that make a pitch in the traditional manner…

Debenhams’ Risk priorities and mitigation
See the risks identified by Debenhams on p42 to 45 that could impact/involve suppliers:

Risks:
- Consistent fall in customer spending
- Competitive pressures in existing markets
- Factors influencing the sustainability of the supply chain
- Inability to predict or fulfil customer demands or preferences
- Disruptions or other adverse events affecting relationships with or the performance of major suppliers
- Ineffective brand awareness and marketing programmes

Debenhams are clearly building risk-management into their culture at all levels. They are listing both the risk and the mitigating action in each case. Ignoring the risk-content of the Annual Report could prove to be a major ‘miss-trick’ for NAMs…, whereas seeing an opportunity to jointly manage relative risk with Debenhams, has to be a no-brainer for pro-active NAMs…