Next week is the official start of Spring in Europe, although in the US you have already moved your clocks forward by an hour. Therefore, this seems to be a good time to review what market research we are running and spring-clean our toolbox in line with our new company objectives. If you would like some help in doing this then please read on for some original ideas on how to make it all easier.  In order to decide on the tools you need, it of course depends upon the maturity of your market, the size of your budget, as well as the position of your brands in their life-cycles. Last Spring,...

We are pleased to share with you another guest post from C3Centricity partner PhaseOne, our communication experts. This week Terry Villines, their SVP speaks about the challenges of taking campaigns global. Why implementing global creative is risky:  5 market factors must align. If just one of them is off, the entire initiative will likely fail! Most major, global organizations have tried it – attempted to use the same creative around the world, across markets.   Coca-Cola has tried it, so has Procter & Gamble, Unilever and even luxury brands like Rolex and Patek Phillipe. The...

Over the last few months we have heard many scandals based upon the disappointing discovery of unfounded consumer loyalty and trust. Rigged football matches, numerous athletes taking illegal drugs and more recently the horse meat scandal. Have you ever been faced with a loss of your customers’ trust in business? If so, or you believe that it could happen in the future, then this post is for you. The 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer report, published last month, concluded that there are clear signs of a leadership crisis in both business and government. In fact in many recent scandals, leaders...

The title of this week’s post might surprise you. After all, the hospitality industry should be customer centric as it relies on satisfying its guests, no? However, it has a lot it can learn from consumer packaged goods (CPG), as I shared recently with industry experts at a Faculty Day of one of the leading hospitality schools in Switzerland. If you would like to learn what I revealed, then read on. Both the hospitality and CPG industries have their customers at their heart. They both are founded on pleasing and hopefully delighting their clientele in the quality of the products and...

There have been a lot of posts in the last few weeks suggesting we take a look back over our experience in 2012 or to start planning what we would like to do in 2013. I therefore thought I would combine both perspectives by reviewing how we can work more efficiently with customer understanding and information to develop deeper insight and grow our businesses. All organisations try to understand their customers in order to satisfy their rational needs and emotional desires. The way they go about doing this however, can make a big difference in how successful they are. There are globally four...

This week’s guest post is from C3Centricity partner PhaseOne. Terry Villines, their senior vice-president shares some of the learnings from analysing the marketing communications of thousands of premium brands. Whether you work in the Luxury Industry or not, wouldn’t you like your brand to be worth more? Every product category has at least one – a brand that costs more than the competitors; a brand that, even though it costs more, is successful at building the business; a brand that has been successful at convincing their target that they have a premium offering and are worth the...

    Many of you know that you need to become more customer centric, to put the customer clearly at the heart of your business, but just don’t know where to start. This week I give you ten simple actions to accelerate your organisation along its path to improved customer centricity.    #1 Review the description of your target audience Do all your brands have a clear description of their target audience? Is it as complete as it should be? If not, then use the 4-level who, what, where and why model to complete it for each one. Include not only demographics and consumption /...

Forbes recently issued its top 100 list of the world’s most reputable companies, so I thought it was a good time to review the importance of branding and brand equity. Many corporations, including Unilever and Nestlé, are today linking their corporate names more strongly with their brands, in an effort to build consumer trust. However, unless you know what each is bringing to the overall image, this can sometimes be a risky thing to do, which is why it is essential to measure both the corporate and brand images on a regular basis.  Brands are an integral part of the customer...

I mentioned last week about an MBA course at which I spoke recently. Apart from the active participation of everyone and the fun we all had, I remember it mostly for all the great questions that were asked. One of these was about understanding whether or not you are targeting the right customer. If you yourself have ever wondered about this, then this post is for you. Besides the work I do with CPG / FMCG companies globally, I also support local small businesses with their marketing, mostly “pro bono work” when my time permits. I enjoy doing this as it allows me to put into practice what...

One of the (many) reasons Coca Cola is so successful, is because consumers Trust the brand. They trust that it will refresh them and help them to enjoy a relaxing moment, probably in the company of friends and family.  Trust in a company or brand is what makes people believe in it, makes them loyal to it and often willing to pay more for it than other, similar offers. If you don’t know whether or not consumers trust you, or how to go about increasing it, then read on.   There are no Brands without Consumers A now famous, but anonymous quote states that: “There may be...