BrandPalace

Erik Portier : Old Brands - New Brands

As promised, Erik made his presentation available to all of us.
Click the image to download a PDF

(nb : the commercials are NOT included, but you can easily find them by searching ... Google)

End-of-course Test

As announced yesterday : here are the details on the end-of-course test, to be held on the last session in the BrandPalace Marketing program.

This is the deal :

-    Hans Cools will present a business case on “HaCo”, a fully independent and local company that is active on the market of fruit juices. Founded in 1903, Haco produces and commercialises its own products under two different brands, HaCo and CoHa. HaCo is merely used for Orange Juice and for some other mono flavour juices. CoHa on the contrary is a specialist brand for special, more exotic mono flavour juices and for mixed flavour juices.
-    The third generation owner of HaCo has seen his company’s market share eroding over the last ten years, loosing market leadership to his international competitor who is selling his products under brand A. He has asked you as independent strategy and marketing consultants to help him out with his marketing strategy for the coming years.
-    You will be HaCo’s consultants. But as such, you will neither be on your own – nor will you stand alone … What we’re asking is that you organise into 4 groups, each group being a consultancy company. The 4 groups will be competing for the assignment of the HaCo company.
-    HaCo has a number of questions for you to reflect upon. As a happy coincidence, you just finished a comprehensive, state-of-the art course cycle on the issues raised in these questions.
-    Each consultancy group will be able to make a presentation to the HaCo Board of Directors.

The rules :

-    Start your group – your consultancy firm !* – as from today. You are free to choose your partners as you like. We need 4 groups.
-    All groups prepare a recommendation on a number of strategic questions, referring to all the important areas covered by our BrandPalace speakers.
-    Questions will be given by Hans, at the end of his business case presentation.
-    You are allowed to use the syllabus.
-    Each group prepares a brief slide-presentation (so please remember to bring at least one laptop-computer per group).
-    You have 90 minutes to discuss and prepare.
-    Groups are allowed a 15-minute presentation (Q&A included) to a professional jury, acting as the Board of Haco. Your aim is to convince the board that your approach is strong enough to resolve the marketing issues at hand.
-    If your group succeeds in doing so, all members of your consultancy group will be granted a final BrandPalace Diploma. 

What if you will not be able to be present at the session of May 19th ?

-    You will have to be a ‘group’ of your own.
-    The business case and questions will be emailed to you right after the session of May 12th.
-    Your recommendation note has to be emailed to us on the 19th at the latest.
-    We will send your diploma by ordinary mail.

____

*: Why not brand your firm ? Give it a name and start making rumour around it ? After all, a well known firm has a better chance in these competitive times, isn't it ? Remember the saying : "nobody has ever been fired for hiring IBM"...

____________________________________________

A quote, reflecting on yesterday's topic :

"Market research can establish beyond the shadow of a doubt that the egg is a sad and sorry product and that it obviously will not continue to sell. Because after all, eggs won't stand up by themselves, they roll too easily, are too easily broken, require special packaging, look alike, are difficult to open, won't stack on the shelf."
Robert Pliskin

Spotlight on a (special guest) speaker : Stephen Smith - Delhaize.

BrandPalace is proud to announce that Stephen Smith will be our 'extra special guest speaker' on May 5th.
Steve is Sr. Vice President Strategy, Marketing and Communications at Delhaize Le Lion. In this position he is responsible for all branding operations of one of our country's most renowned and prestigious companies. This is all the more remarkable because Steve is American. He moved to Belgium in July of 2008 after 6 years at two Delhaize US companies. including the creation of the Sweetbay brand for Delhaize in Florida.

Stephen describes marketing as a unique mix of art & science, leadership & problem-solving, business driver & fun. As hybrid as this typology of marketing might be, his personal interests are at least as rich : he likes to be described as someone who is passionate about leadership, humor, athletics, empathy and his family.

Steve will share his personal ideas on branding and marketing after Session 5, given by Eurostar's Anne-Françoise Piette.

More on Boomer-Marketing

In yesterday's session, Saskia Schatteman stressed the growing importance of marketing to the Boomers (50+). As it happens I just dscovered an interesting blog entirely dedicated to the subject : the "Baby Boomer Marketing Blog", by the US adman Vince Vassolo.
The quote that drew my attention :

The worst and perhaps most pervasive rationale for targeting young people is the notion that if you get them young you’ll have them for life. This is the idiotic “lifetime value” argument that spawned the dearly departed “new economy.” Someone please show me one 50-year-old who drives the same car, drinks the same beverages, wears the same clothes, or eats the same food he did at 16. I mean, besides my brother-in-law.

Some facts about people over 50:
• They make up 29% of the population.
• They control 77% of financial assets.
• They control 50% of all discretionary spending.
• They watch 50% more television.
• They are the target for 10% of all advertising.

By the way, Vince is quoting here another blogger 'the Ad Contrarian'. This man, Bob Hoffman, a reputed agency CEO (now of Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco , earlier a.o. of MOJO/USA) fills his blog with refreshingly contrarian opinions on marketing and advertising.

Quote :

The consumer has become resistant to marketing, right? Bullshit. Here’s what the consumer has become resistant to: generic, undifferentiated products supported by smug, benefit-free advertising.

Both blogs are worth a read !!

Inspiration : What It Takes To Be a Top Marketer

Interesting read in Brandweek : "What it takes to be a top Marketer" - a case story about Tide.

Quotes :

‘If you do right by the consumer, you will always do right.'

'One of the things I have a lot of passion and energy for is, ‘"How do we connect with the consumer?"’

(which is tomorrow's subject !)

__________________

Saskia Schatteman is wel niet meer bij De Lijn, maar toch ... ;-)

Session 3 : Targeting ... and much more !

Next session will be about Targeting. Saskia Schatteman will deal with questions concerning how to select the right segments in the market and how to reach these moving targets with great accuracy (moving because today's consumer is changing faster than ever before).
Saskia has recently moved from De Lijn to Telenet, as the new Marketing Manager. Before that she built an extensive experience in marketing at P&G.

Our extra guest speaker is Tom Grymonprez. The motto of his speach is :
Content is King… but who is his Queen?
When you hear people talk about Studio100 as a leading entertainment company, you often hear stories on TV shows, musicals, books, films… in short CONTENT. But what is Content for Studio100? Is Content the basis for the Studio100 brand or is it just the product? What is Studio100 making and what is it selling…
Is Studio100 a good marketing case from a content-company or is it a good content-case from a marketing-company…?

Tom Grymonprez, commercial director Studio100 Benelux, will shine some lights on his experiences as a marketer at Studio100. If, in preparation to the session of April 21st, you want to learn more on Studio100s activities, please have a look at the short company film at www.studio100.tv.

Do brands matter in a recession ?