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You are here: Home / Archives for Business

Business

Apple tops the list of the most valuable brand with an estimated brand value of 153 Billion dollars

Last Updated on April 5, 2019 by Jan Havmoeller Leave a Comment

The value of a strong brand is indisputable and often accounts for at least 50 percent of the total market valuation

While being remembered is essential, it is becoming harder every day. A strong brand stands out in a densely crowded marketplace. Translating the brand into action has become an employee mantra.  There is substantial evidence that companies whose employees understand and embrace the  brand are more successful.  What began as corporate culture under the auspices of human resources is fast becoming branding, and the marketing department runs the show.

Click Here To See Interesting Commentary From Cristiana Pearson at Millward Brown

Making Design Matter is now evident on WolkDesign.com

Last Updated on April 8, 2019 by Jan Havmoeller Leave a Comment

Making Design Matter.

The new Michael Wolk Design Associates’ web site has been launched. Kompani Group helped Michael Wolk convert his old site into a more user friendly showcase of his work. Check out the new site at www.WolkDesign.com

Making Design Matter. That’s our philosophy at Michael Wolk Design, and just like our design itself, it works on several levels. Making implies action. Our creative process doesn’t end in thought or discussion – it ends in creation. Every idea is developed to its fullest potential here, rather than passed off to someone else. Design is what we make. Anyone can create something functional, and anyone can create something beautiful – but true design will always accomplish both. PRATT had a motto – “Be true to your work and your work be true to you.” In my experience, being true to your work means allowing design – rather than money, politics, or other outside influences – to control the energy. Design is design; everything else is everything else. And we make design matter, in the sense that it needs to be physical. It transcends fantasy and speculation; it is exciting and inspiring, while remaining firmly grounded in the reality of time constraints and budgets. Most important of all is making design matter. Design matters to me – it’s what i love to do, and it’s what i do better than anybody else. Making Design Matter is what I stand for.

Chilean business incubators in the house…

Last Updated on April 5, 2019 by Jan Havmoeller Leave a Comment

The complementary nature of non-profit business incubators and for-profit incubators became quite apparent during our meeting with 5 Chilean government sponsored business incubators.

On May 16-19, 2010 the National Business Incubator Association, NBIA, celebrated its first 25 years by organizing the International Conference on Business Incubation in Orlando, Florida.   Amongst the more than 500 business incubators from all over the globe were 5 Chilean business incubators who all decided to visit Kompani Group to explore synergies between their non-profit incubator outfits and a for-profit business and strategy incubator like Kompani Group. The explorations trip for the 5 Chilean business incubators was funded by the Chilean Development Minister, and included Mr. Eduardo Aranda M from Gerente Incubadora de Negocios in Santiago, Mr. Etienne Choupay Magna from Pontificia Universidad Catolica De Valparaiso, Mr. Diego Gonza’lez Carvallo from Austral Incuba – Universidad Austral de Chile, Mr. Enrique Roma’n Gonza’lez from Penanova Incubadora De Negocios and finally Alvaro Bustos Torrebalance of SantiagoInnova.

For more information about the NBIA and this year’s International Conference on Business Incubation please visit http://www.nbia.org/events/conf2010/index.php , this year’s conference host University of Central Florida’s business incubation program at www.incubator.ucf.edu , or visit this year’s title sponsor Florida high tech Corridor Council www.floridahightech.com

Marketing in 2010: How and why Amazon (and everybody else) plans to be your new best friend

Last Updated on March 20, 2019 by Jan Havmoeller Leave a Comment

You’re up and running, you have clients returning your calls, customers coming in the door or adding product to their shopping carts on your site, and you look around at the economic landscape and are at least momentarily relieved to be able to say “I am doing OK.”

Where do you go from here?  What more can you learn?  Although your products are ingenious and your marketing efforts stellar, hard as it may be to believe you haven’t already conceived of every Great Idea.  We all need to routinely challenge our thinking so that we continue to leap forward, we need to break out of the borders and assumptions we’ve always held about our company and our industry.  So occasionally this year, Kompani Group is going to talk about things we can learn from the most successful companies in other, completely unrelated industries.  Marketers in online retail have much, much more in common with traditional retailers than the few issues of format that set them apart.  And as for size, your revenues and budgets may have many more (or many fewer) zeros at the end than ours, but the fundamentals are identical:  getting our clearly defined message in front of customers and then delivering satisfaction.

There are brick-and-mortar retailers with broadly acknowledged reputations for superior service – been to Nordstrom or an Apple store lately?  Is there any reason why a retailer serving the online world can’t develop the same kind of reputation?

The question occurred to me this morning because I received another e-mail message from barnesandnoble.com.  “Chris,” it began, “you bought the last book written by so-and-so.  His newest novel will be released next month and we’d be happy to hold a copy for you.”  How cool is that?  (And equally important, how simple for them!) Although we know it’s just data manipulation, it FEELS incredibly personal.  “Somebody” at Barnes and Noble knows and uses my name, remembers what I’ve bought there before, and figures out what my previous purchases can tell them about my tastes and interests.  They’re my friend.

The principle is the same (though not quite as proactively executed) at many of the large, successful sites:  Netflix recommends movies to me based on what I’ve watched and rated before, and the behemoth Amazon suggests both new items that fit my profile and companion products that other customers like me have bought.

Is this difficult?  Absolutely not.  Every one of us has the same data base of customer descriptives and purchase history.  Not very many of us use it to anywhere near its optimal marketing capacity.

Let’s look for a few minutes at a retail success story that has been widely studied:  Starbucks.  In its off-line business, what does Starbucks sell?  And how in the world can they expect us to pay six or eight times as much for a cup of their coffee as we would pay down the street – and be happy about it?  Other coffee retailers have successfully moved coffee from a commodity to a differentiated product; only Starbucks has made coffee an experience.  In fact, Starbucks has made its name synonymous with the coffee experience.  They may have been in the headlines lately as they adapt to changes in the economy and in their marketplace – but isn’t that the point?  In the best of times and in the challenging times, they are the ICON – they define the coffee experience.

Is there any reason why a customer’s interaction with your offer, the process of selecting and buying whatever your product or service is, can’t be an experience?

That was a trick question, I’ll admit, because interacting with you  already is an experience.  There’s nothing you can do about that.  Every customer who buys from you (or chooses not to) is going to have an experience with you whether you like it or not.  The only question is what kind of experience are they going to find.

To explore how we can consistently make each consumer experience with us an excellent one, we’re going to look at some of the things Starbucks has done to become the clear leader in their field – such a dominant figure that there isn’t even a close second.

Before anything else, Starbucks had both a vision and a clear plan, which they’ve executed to perfection. Absolutely everything the company does is designed to give the customer a positive, perhaps uplifting, experience while purchasing a quality product.  Notice that “experience” comes before “product” in the sentence.  Because this is the goal, Starbucks is as much about people as it is about coffee – customers who respond to the experience, employees and managers who live the principles and values of the company.  These values – expressed as five principles and five “ways of being,” are published in The Green Apron Book, which every employee carries in the little front pocket of their apron.

In effect, this is Starbucks’ management marketing its concept to its own employees. None of the simple, common-sense ideas has anything to do with coffee – just as none of them has anything to do with secondary towing or cigars or Caribbean resorts (or whatever your own business may be.)  They have everything to do with how to personalize relationships, how to elevate customer interactions, how to preserve the intimacy of a small company even while working hard to become huge.

Starbucks’ store personnel are trained to remember your name and your favorite beverage (and that’s without a built-in data base.)  They understand the old Dale Carnegie saying that “a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” This not only says you remember them, it says they matter to you.  Starbucks’ customers, exactly like yours, are not looking for new best friends.  They just want a positive human-feeling connection and they want their needs to matter.

Retail is detail.  Starbucks’ Chairman Howard Schultz is fond of saying that.  The truth is that ALL business is detail, and the most successful businesses are intensely focused on the execution of details at every level.  The Starbucks’ training programs teach employees to zero in on the minute details that matter greatly to their customers; every aspect of the business that touches the coffee must reflect the highest standards possible.  The goal – which is really more a compilation of small things than it is one or two big, dramatic things – is a “felt sense” among their customers, a global emotional reaction to myriad tiny details that lurk below our conscious awareness.  The name “Starbucks” automatically triggers in us a feeling that has been created over time by the specific details of our experiences there. Researchers in brain activity have found that as much as 95% of what influences our conscious choices resides below awareness.  This is true about our interactions with anyone selling anything – some we feel happy about returning to, others we stress out about just at the sound of their name.

We have to work hard at getting the details right every time.  What percentage of unhappy customers do you think take the time to bring their complaints to management?  They just go elsewhere with a single click or with their feet.

Here’s a key thing that produces delight in customers, that keeps them feeling warm and fuzzy about you:  predictability.  Since consistency (in quality as well as in the customer experience) is a rare and valued thing, companies that master delivering it will ultimately thrive.  Even when something goes wrong (which happens), if the customer knows the problem will be addressed quickly, efficiently and with good humor – we win. Sometimes this contributes even more to a positive “felt sense” than if it had all gone perfectly in the first place.

The Experience is not the same as the Brand – and we all need to focus on building both.  Using Kompani Group as the example, here’s the critical difference:  if you are considering how you feel about Kompani Group, you are thinking about our brand.  If you are thinking about how you yourself feel as a result of your involvement with Kompani Group, then you are thinking about the Experience.  The latter begins by identifying emotions we want customers to feel as a result of their experience with us, and then working back to what the organization has to do to make that happen.  When our clients prefer the experience of working with Kompani Group, they will become committed to it. They will return to us with new projects, they will recommend us to their friends and colleagues (although probably not to their competitors.)

Finally, it’s important to note that the high visibility of Starbucks has engendered a fair share of criticism through the years.  Howard Schultz says he thinks that his “ability to act positively on any criticism is (his) most crucial leadership skill.”  Given and received in a wholesome spirit, there is much to be learned from criticism and much growth to be inspired.  But the world is full of people who have told Starbucks that they would fail, and why.  It’s still happening on some business pages today, just as there are those who wonder how you and your industry can effectively respond to a challenging economy or a changing competitive environment.  The key – for Starbucks and for smart business operators in every segment – is to choose to engage with the future, to reject the idea that the sky is falling, to believe (to know instead) that the sky is the limit.

Signed/Chris Barr

Road America has signed a 12 month strategy, technology and marketing activations contract with Kompani Group

Last Updated on April 5, 2019 by Jan Havmoeller Leave a Comment

Road America

Road America is uniquely qualified to provide outstanding service to our clients and their valued customers.  This confidence is based upon the tremendous value we place on our relationship with clients, our comprehensive, specialized and rated service provider network, our long-standing and unparalleled experience providing 24-hour roadside assistance services, and our quality approach to servicing our clients and exceeding their business needs.

Corporate Strength

Road America is a wholly owned United States subsidiary of the MAPFRE Group (MAPFRE) the largest insurance group in Spain.   MAPFRE had revenues of over US $17.4 Billion in worldwide operations in 2006.  MAPFRE operates an extensive international assistance network through a specialized subsidiary, MAPFRE Asistencia, which is the direct parent company of Road America.

MAPFRE Asistencia is a leading international insurance conglomerate providing emergency roadside assistance, insurance, reinsurance and general assistance services worldwide throughout 52 countries and over 1000 corporate clients, including Renault, Infinity, Ford, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, Toyota, Peugeot, and Volvo.  MAPFRE services 120 million beneficiaries worldwide, providing assistance on more than 2.5 million occasions and is rated A+ (superior) by the North American rating agency AM Best.

International Expertise and Experience

Our confidence is also based upon the significant experience and strength of our parent company, MAPFRE, within the assistance services industry.  In the field of emergency roadside assistance, MAPFRE has developed and operates an extensive direct provider network in 39 countries.

MAPFRE has developed proprietary software, procedures and know-how in the field of roadside assistance, and it has comprehensive experience in developing worldwide provider networks and call centers to service international roadside assistance programs for insurance companies, automobile manufacturers, financial service companies and other international corporations.

Flexibility and Responsiveness

Road America’s programs have been and are marketed successfully through a variety of marketing channels in the following industries: motorcycle OEM, automotive, associations, telecommunications (wireless and wireline), financial services, insurance, original manufacturers, motor club and utilities.  This diversity in experience has allowed Road America to perfect and enhance our service offerings and capabilities.

Road America’s strengths include the size and flexibility to customize our service offerings and the responsiveness to meet or surpass each client’s exact or unique marketing, service needs and culture.

Comprehensive Service Offerings & Capabilities

In addition to a complete array of benefits, including automotive, travel, security, and medical related services, Road America can provide a full range of support services including marketing and promotional support, fulfillment services, inbound sales and enrollment, membership tracking and renewals, and program administration.  Road America’s extensive list of services, innovative approach, and commitment to complete client satisfaction makes our service offering the most meaningful and comprehensive in the industry.

Ethical Business Practices

The nature of the MAPFRE Group demands enforcing a policy of ethical treatment of employees, clients, business partners and customers; social responsibility; respect of the legal framework; and a culture of sound business and accounting practices.  The MAPFRE Group requires the same strong ethical business practices from all of its subsidiaries within the MAPFRE Group.

Tested. Proven. Trusted®:

With more than 120 North American corporate clients and more than seven motorcycle OEM clients, Road America has proven sales and service results.

Road America’s 24-hour roadside and membership programs have been proven to:

  • Increase Brand Loyalty
  • Increase Customer Service Ratings
  • Increase Customer Referrals
  • Increase Customer Retention
  • Increase Customer Awareness
  • Increase Overall Client Profitability

Launching a Co-driver sub brand

Last Updated on March 20, 2019 by Jan Havmoeller Leave a Comment

The economic strains are causing your end-users to trade down, resulting in that the mid-tier and premium brands are losing share to low-price rivals.

You face a classic strategic conundrum:

  • Do you tackle the threat head-on by reducing prices, knowing that will destroy profits in the short term and brand equity in the long term?
  • Or do you hold the line, hope for better times to return, and in the meantime lose customers who might never come back?

Given how unpalatable both of those alternatives are, you now must make a decision of how to combat manufacturers and distributors of lower priced and inferior products, to avoid losing additional market share and eroding margins.

There are four ways to battle your competition.

  1. Launching a true fighter brand
  2. Launching an endorsed sub-brand
  3. Launching a co-driver sub-brand or
  4. Launching a driver sub-brand

Co-driver

Definition:

The parent brand and the sub-brand act as co-drivers with roughly equal influence on consumers.

Business Handshake
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Examples:

United Express (United Airlines)

The United Airlines brand provides United Express, a commuter line, with the convenience of connections to United flights and a reputation for safety. There is no cannibalization because the flights do not compete.

United Express is differentiated from its parent brand by its lower level of on-board service, its use of smaller planes, and its less formal personality.

Good News (Gillette)

Gillette Good News also illustrates a successful co-driver relationship. Gillette Good News disposable razors are a definite cut below ‘the best a man can get” that is the Gillette legacy in shaving. But disposable razors are qualitatively different from the upscale razors such as Sensor and Atra with which Gillette has long held a technological edge.

Gillette could provide a rationale for a disposable brand by being the best in the disposable category. But the Good News user’s personality – younger and more carefree than the traditionally masculine and sophisticated Gillette persona – plays a key role in distinguishing the disposable brand from the rest of the line.

Both brand names – Gillette and Good News – influence the customer’s decision to buy the product.

Kompani Group’s Approach on Data-Driven Branding

Launching an endorsed sub-brand 2/4

Last Updated on January 28, 2019 by Jan Havmoeller Leave a Comment

This is the second of 4 posts about how to combat manufactures and distributors of inferior products that are being reverse engineered and produced in China and sold at much lower prices to your existing clients. You are losing market share fast, and it is time to do something about it.

The economic strains are causing your end-users to trade down, resulting in that the mid-tier and premium brands are losing share to low-price rivals.

You face a classic strategic conundrum:

  • Do you tackle the threat head-on by reducing prices, knowing that will destroy profits in the short term and brand equity in the long term?
  • Or do you hold the line, hope for better times to return, and in the meantime lose customers who might never come back?

Given how unpalatable both of those alternatives are, you now must make a decision of how to combat manufacturers and distributors of lower priced and inferior products, to avoid losing additional market share and eroding margins.

There are four ways to battle your competition.

  1. Launching a true fighter brand
  2. Launching an endorsed sub-brand
  3. Launching a co-driver sub-brand or
  4. Launching a driver sub-brand

Option Two – Endorsed Sub-Brand

Definition:

A sub-brand is a brand with its own name that uses the name of its parent brand in some capacity to bolster equity.

In the case of downscale offerings, the role of sub-brands is to help managers differentiate new offerings from the parent brand while using the parent’s equity to influence consumers.

The idea is both to maintain the parent’s credibility and prestige regardless of how the sub-brand performs and to protect the original brand from cannibalization.

Photo by 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash

Endorser

Definition:

The parent brand acts as the endorser of the sub-brand. In this case, the sub-brand is the more dominant of the two, and drives end-users’ decisions to purchase the product as well as their perceptions of the experience of using the product.

When a company offers an endorsed sub-brand, there are three brands at work. The parent brand itself is split into two: a product brand and an organizational brand. The product brand remains as it was, a premium brand delivering a certain image and associated benefits.

The endorser strategy provides an excellent chance to minimize damage and reduce the threat of cannibalization to the parent brand. Keep in mind that all three brands need to be managed actively.

Examples:

Sabre B to C (John Deere)

  • John Deere’s foray into value lawn tractors provides a good illustration of an endorser relationship. John Deere was well known for making a lawn tractor that sold for approximately $2,000 through full-service specialty dealers.
  • Although the manufacturer was still able to command that price in the specialty market, volume retailers such as Sears and Home Depot had begun to serve a growing portion (around 30%) of that market, selling products at half John Deere’s prices.
  • So the company introduced an endorsed sub-brand for the value retailers: a low-cost tractor, Sabre from John Deere, that featured an inexpensive design and a different color and feel that John Deere’s other products

Medalist B to B (Hobart)

  • The Hobart Company, which makes an industrial-grade mixer for use in bakeries and restaurants.
  • Managers decided to create an inexpensive mixer for us in commercial and industrial kitchens to compete with offshore entries without damaging its flagship “gold standard” Hobart mixer line.
  • In 1996 the company introduced Medalist from the Hobart Company. Medalist mixers were lighter than Hobart mixers.
  • In addition, they were made with less costly materials and construction processes; and they had a color and logo distinct from those of the flagship Hobart.
  • In this example, The Hobart Company, has become an organizational brand that endorses the sub-brand, Medalist. Medalist itself is a new product brand. Thus the parent brand, Hobart, is separated from the sub-brand, Medalist, by the organizational brand, The Hobart Company.

Kompani Group’s Approach on Data-Driven Branding

Social Media ROI

Last Updated on May 31, 2018 by Jan Havmoeller Leave a Comment

In a great article about Social Media ROI, author Erik Qualman provides some concrete examples that show how powerful this medium for communication is. Consider however a brand cannot only rely on only one vehicle approach to get in the mind of its prospects, it requires a multi-pronged to be effective. An integrated effort that hits on multiple levels strengthens any one avenue. Here are some noteworthy examples that Erik uses

Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media.  Gary’s eccentric personality and offbeat oenophile knowledge have proven a natural path to success with his Wine TV Library. Vaynerchuk found first hand that $15,000 in Direct Mail = 200 new customers, $7,500 Billboard = 300 new customers, $0 Twitter = 1,800 new customers.

Dell sold $3,000,000 worth of computers on Twitter

eBay found participants in online communities spend 54% more

These are some startling and inspiring facts. If you are currently utilizing social media, what has been your measure of success?

Work in a poultry or meat procurement department for a supermarket chain?

Last Updated on April 5, 2019 by Jan Havmoeller Leave a Comment

Ever watched the movie Food Inc? When you watch it you will never again purchase poultry or meat for your customers, unless it originates from farm raised chicken, turkey or cattle.

And, when there is an opening in the seafood procurement department at your company, take the job, and consider teaming up with our friends from Portunus Group. Their CEO Palmi Palmason is one of these steadfast honest Vikings from Iceland, who will source the most nutritious and healthiest seafood from anywhere on the face of the planet and land it fresh in your seafood aisle. Enjoy. www.PortunusGroup.com

Activeserve’s new business model takes off and the new web site is now live

Last Updated on April 5, 2019 by Jan Havmoeller Leave a Comment

Their Business is Your Business

iStock_000005523049SmallActiveServe is the ideal provider of business continuity solutions for South Florida businesses employing 3 to 100 business system users. Their expertise allows them to deliver superior insight, support, and service on nearly every type of technology system including communications, IT infrastructure, application hosting, and a wide variety of other answers for your business continuity needs.

In addition to the services themselves, ActiveServe also offers the unbeatable advantage of direct contact with their experts for design, decision, and implementation. In fact, they make a point of working hand in hand with business owners and/or IT managers to develop a custom business continuity blueprint… and they always make sure that technology never complicates the business side of things, and vice versa. That understanding, coupled with their specialized approach to business continuity is enough to make ActiveServe unique in the marketplace, but they can also be proud to be the first and only provider that offers a business continuity certifications program for small businesses in South Florida.

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