Consumer Power 2.0: Crowdbuying

"The latest twist in private equity is the organized purchasing power of what Trendwatching calls crowd clout: consumers using their collective power to get what they desire, either as flash mobs (see the Chinese phenomenon of tuangou: people interested in buying a certain product congregate online and then storm into a physical store at a coordinated time to negotiate a bulk discount) or through an online fundraising effort such as MyFootballClub, which aims to buy a professional league soccer/football club in the UK."

Read the story here

Marketers must embrace shift of power to the consumer

There were three engaging presentations about the Future of Online Marketing at the Commission Junction University event for advertisers and publishers in London this week. (read the full story here)

Nigel Sheldon, director of digital at Starcom Digital, stressed the importance of “getting under the skin” of what people are doing online and understanding "increasingly complex decision journeys”.

Vinny Lingham , of Clicks2Customers, told advertisers to be under no illusions that that “the consumer owns your brand”.

Mark Creighton, MD of i-level, said that marketers need to make sure that they are not just making empty promises. They run the risk of being exposed at a time when user-generated content is becoming more prevalent and visible on the internet.
He added: “Marketers will have to respond to the fact that consumers have far more control ... The confidence that consumers have achieved means that they will talk about it and share it if you make promises but don’t deliver."

Flash Mob's

Consumer Power in a Flash › › › Brand Marketing

By Martin Lindstrom March 27, 2007
On the January 2, 2007, something unusual happened in the small German city of Braunschweig. Nine hundred thirty-one of its 245,500 inhabitants arranged a raid on the local McDonald's restaurant. It wasn't the type of raid that ends in violence. It was the type of raid known a flashmob. Coordinated via cell phones, the flashmob is a gathering of people for a specific purpose. In this case, it was to storm a McDonald's and order some 2,211 burgers all at once -- to go!
Naturally, the incident made headlines in the local press. News of this event may not have gone any further, if it weren't for YouTube.
A young guy, nicknamed churchill225, was the first to capture the flashmob raid on video and upload it to the file-sharing site. Soon, thousands of people began downloading the video and sharing rumors about making another surprise mass visit to another McDonald's. As I write, 10 more German McDonald's restaurants are on the hot list. The phenomenon has become a game between McDonald's and its customers.
It's a game because both sides love the sport. Never before has McDonald's secured this much positive attention in the press. And never before have sales skyrocketed like this. McDonald's didn't have to do a thing. I interviewed the CEO of McDonald's Germany about the flashmob phenomenon in my video blog.

We DON'T Do Traditional Advertising

Trevor writes:

The Chipotle founder gets it in Buzz is Better than Ads :

According to Steven Ellis, the Chipotle founder and CEO, "Advertising is not believable." When he opened his first store in Denver he had no money for advertising so he decided to let his burritos do the talking and started giving them away free. They recently opened a location in midtown Manhattan and gave away 6,000 burritos. People stood in line for two hours. It cost $35,000 (about the cost of an ad in The New York Times) and they got 6,000 promoters plus a mention in BusinessWeek out of it. Not bad.

Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790 - www.innercircleforum.com
trevor@innercircleforum.com

simplify, Simplify, SIMPLIFY ..1 ..2 ..3

Trevor writes:

From this post - MAD 7. It Only Takes 'HALF-A-DOZEN' Things! (extract below) - I am reminded that it is all to easy to fall into the trap of adding unnecessary complexity to ideas, projects, strategies, et al, that should be as simple as ...1 ..2 ..3

Too many people look to make the simple things in life too complex to understand.

Yes, most often it takes only a few things... 1, 2, or 3 things... just a 'half-a-dozen' things to ensure success in most projects.

I am resolving to simplify every idea, project, strategy I have into a 'simple as ..1 ..2 ..3' graphic presentation.

Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790 - www.innercircleforum.com
trevor@innercircleforum.com

Who's in the driving seat of YOUR Retail Success?

History tells us that the smart business person knows how to get to their customer base, attract them and keep them coming back for more.

But history is history! Since it's formalisation a mere 12 (yes, twelve) years ago the Internet has dramatically changed the way customers / consumers go about purchasing goods. Access to this medium has enabled individual consumers to search faster, reach wider, be more informed, less susceptible to clever sales pitches. So what is a consumer? Wiki has it as follows - A consumer.

What is really interesting here is this :

"Typically when businesspeople and economists talk of consumers they are talking about person as consumer, an aggregated commodity item with little individuality other than that expressed in the buy/not-buy decision. However there is a trend in marketing to individualize the concept. Instead of generating broad demographic profile and psychographic profiles of market segments, marketers are engaging in personalized marketing, permission marketing, and mass customization.[1]"

Look at how the role reversal take place from the second sentence! But it goes much further than this.

Take a look at what Doc Searls had to say about "The Intention Economy" and how about Mass Class!?

The Challenge Of Attracting RETAIL Consumer Traffic

Trevor writes:

What's the biggest problem facing retailers? Attracting consumers to their stores!

How is this discussued on the web? Here are some insights:

Why do some malls fail while others survive and even thrive? Are there lessons that we can learn from the raving successes of malls like Parco Bugis Junction, Ngee Ann City and the evergreen Plaza Singapura?

First, you need to advertise and promote your mall aggressively. Sounds pretty obvious? Well, it isn't just about sales all year round, but special tie-ups, loyalty programmes, festive deals, lucky draws, mall-wide promotions and other specials to attract the finicky consumer dollar. In the dog-eat-dog world of retailing, its all about generating the greatest top-of-mind-recall and mindshare as shopping tend to be a rather impromptu, spur-of-the-moment decision.

Second, you need to have a certain theme that can be easily identified with. What is your mall's unique selling proposition? Convenience? Hip and funky stores (Eg Heeren)? Family friendliness (Eg Ngee Ann City and Raffles City)? Music and private schools (Plaza Singapura)?

Third, you need to collaborate with your tenants on mutually beneficial activities. Develop joint promotions and activities that boost customer traffic and earnings. Parco Bugis Junction does this exceedingly well, and have a performance-based element in their monthly rentals. This incentivises both landlord and tenant to work hard in attracting customers.

Fourth, you need to frequently organise mall events. Theme them according to the festive seasons - Christmas, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, National Day, School Holidays etc. You will be surprised at how effective meet and greet sessions with Mickey Mouse or Pokemon are in attracting the masses!

2. a. Destination or Pass-by Business
b. Becoming A Destination Business
c. Destination Business Principles Slides - Jon Schallert
d. "The 8 Marketing Secrets of Every Destination Business" PDF slides
e. Excellent Business Questionnaire
f. How To Make Your Business Into A Magnet For New Customers By Making It Into A Destination

3. What's Up Downtown? - Interesting newsletter layout PDF

4. Let's define the word "pull"

5. Building Retail Traffic with Direct Mail

Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790 - http://www.innercircleforum.com/
trevor@innercircleforum.com