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Customer Manufacturing Update )
Creating Competitive Advantage Through Marketing/Sales Process

 February 2005
in this issue
  • Ingredient Branding
  • What's The Purpose of a Super Bowl Ad?
  • Accelerator Groups: A New Approach to Training
  • Lean Thinking Makes Profitable Companies
  • Closing Thoughts

    		•

    Dear Mitchell,

    Welcome to the February 2005 Customer Manufacturing Update. This month's white paper focuses on ingredient brands. How can you successfully brand something the end-customer doesn't buy, except as a part of something else?

    If you have friends or colleagues who would appreciate receiving this e-zine, feel free to forward a copy to them using the "Forward e-mail" link at the bottom of the e-zine.


    		Ingredient Branding

    Branding is all the rage in marketing today (again). While complex, it is well documented what actions a brand marketer should take to build brand value with products or services directed to the end-customer.

    However, a substantial number of products and services are never sold to the end-customer directly. Can marketers of these "ingredients" take advantage of brand marketing? This month's white paper looks at the various issues.

    		What's The Purpose of a Super Bowl Ad?

    Another Super Bowl has come and gone. Many millions of dollars were spent once again on advertising. With 84 million people watching, marketers had an opportunity to communicate with an extensive audience.

    Because of its visibility, history of advertising significance, and the nature of people desiring to express an opinion (us included), much is made of these advertisements. Countless pundits chime in with their views on the merits, or lack thereof of these 15-second extravaganzas.

    We plan to do so also, shortly. However, before we do, we thought it appropriate to step back and consider what the actual purpose of a Super Bowl ad is. It only seems fair to evaluate the ads based on their purpose.

    The most viewed, replayed and talked about ad on the Super Bowl was the wardrobe malfunction spoof from godaddy.com. There is no way anyone could really know what godaddy does as a result of that ad. In truth most people we talked to after the Super Bowl did not even know whose ad it was.

    Nevertheless, the ad has drawn significant publicity for godaddy and while it may not have resulted in any more business, it probably had an impact on their stock value. Was it worth it? We don't know because we don't know what the ad's purpose was. However, it did get "results." The question to be answered is whether those were the intended results, and if those results are valuable.

    For many people, the ads are part of the entertainment. At least one of our wives, who has no interest in football whatsoever, asked to be interupted whenever an ad played so she could watch. She soon decided this year's ads weren't particularly entertaining, so she stopped watching them.

    But, should the ads be entertainment? On the Super Bowl it is probably expected, but is that sufficient? We don't think so. With one exception. Anheuser Busch, which runs several ads on the Super Bowl that are entertaining and feature their brands prominently, took a spot to do nothing but honor U.S. troops serving in Iraq. Regardless of your political views, this was a great piece. As a public service announcement it was very well done, and we believe enhanced A-B's image.

    Our award for the best ad overall goes to careerbuilder.com for their working with monkeys ad. Very entertaining and right on their message.

    That's our opinion and we're sticking to it ... at least for now.

    		Accelerator Groups: A New Approach to Training

    The unfortunate truth is that most training doesn't work very well, unless it is tailored to your business. And even then, it may not accomplish your goals. If you, or your people, have been looking for a training program that works, we offer you the opportunity to experience Accelerator Groups.

    Accelerator Groups are "education in action" groups uniquely designed to teach you a skill you need by actually doing it.

    Aside from learning that can be applied right now, some of the benefits trainees have found inlcude:

    • You don't have to travel anywhere for the training
    • It is tailored specifically to your business because you work on a real project not a "case study"
    • It is delivered in "bite-sized" chunks so you can practice and use what you learn between each session
    • You don't have to commit a whole day (or days) to a classroom setting.

    The problem with most training programs is that they are generalized for all business types not tailored to your business (unless you can afford a tailored in-house program), and the learning really doesn't stick. With Accelerator Groups you will actually learn the skill by doing it with your business. Not a case study ... your business.

    Accelerator Groups are precisely designed so that you take action, get real-time feedback from the expert leader and your fellow learners, execute and improve. Accelerator Groups are not about learning business theory, they're about taking accelerated action to make things happen.

    We have three topic areas available today. They include:

    • PerSuasive PreSentations
    • Practical Useful Market Research
    • Sales Management for the Part-Time Sales Manager
    To read more about how Accelerator Groups work, and what is involved, as well as getting more specific information on each of these three topics, click the link below.

    		Lean Thinking Makes Profitable Companies

    As many of you know, Lean Thinking is the relentless practice of removing waste from your processes. Waste is defined as anything which does not add value for the customer.

    In the U.S. airline industry, waste is rampant and the results are unhappy customers and money-losing airlines ... with the notable exception of Southwest Airlines. For most of its time in business, one of the key tenants of Southwest's philosophy has been that airplanes on the ground are a "waste." Profit comes from airplanes in the air.

    Surprisingly, no other airline has ever adopted that philosophy. Despite the fact that Southwest makes money when most others don't, it appears to have escaped the recognition of other airline executives that this operational strategy of Southwest might be one of the keys to profit.

    Well, no longer. Delta Airlines recently announced a move to redoing their Atlanta hub operations so their airplanes spend less time on the ground, because, as their CEO noted, airplanes on the ground are not profitable. Their stated ground time goal: approximately 55 minutes.

    We commend them for finally seeing the value of lean thinking. Unfortunately their initial target time is about 3x what Southwest is currently doing. I'm sure their operations people have a belief that they can't turn a plane around in 20 minutes because ...

    Meanwhile, using lean thinking has continued to provide Southwest Airlines with on-going profits, and in the automobile industry it has taken Toyota to within an eyelash of General Motors as the #1 automobile company in the world. Get you head out of the ground, and remove costs that don't add value for your customer.

    		Closing Thoughts

    We appreciate any feedback you can provide to help us make sure these Updates give you value each month. Feel free to respond to this e-mail with any comments or suggestions for future topics or ways we can make these Customer Manufacturing Updates more valuable to you.

    Thank you for your interest, and if we can provide any additional assistance in sales, marketing, strategy, or innovation to help you increase your sales, let us know.

    Our mission is to help you improve the performance of your System to Manufacture Customers®.

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