Bottom of the Pyramid strategy in Europe?

Interesting news that Unilever might be looking at bottom of the pyramid strategies for Europe. Having worked in bottom of the pyramid projects in Asia (Indonesia and China) and Latin America I think this might be an interesting approach. As long as it takes into consideration two very big differences between European and these markets:

- in Asia and Latin America, bottom of the pyramid approaches target not only low income consumers but also low income and small costumers - small traditional trade. It's adaptation to a modern trade reality is not necessarily an easey step;

- In Europe, DOBs are very strong, already competing in the low income price tier. This is not true in Asian and Latin American markets, where DOBs are almost non-existent.

But, as always, markets and consumers dictate the rules - and I was expecting this move from FMCG companies for a while.

http://economia.publico.pt/Noticia/unilever-preparase-para-o-regresso-da-pobreza-a-europa-1560539

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/unilever-mulls-smaller-cheaper-europe-packs-rpt-2012-08-27

QR catalogue

One of the biggest challenges for airport stores is to expand their touch point with the consumer beyond the departure gate (yes, even thinking on arrivals as a shopping occasion is a challenge). In this very moment i have an example of how the main lisbon's airport store is trying to tackle it - a gigantic QR activated board, with free shipping all overdose the world. Will it work? Only time will tell, but it seems to me this is a good effort and example of using technology to move outside of normal business boundaries.


- enviado de dispositivo móvel.

Rule of thumb - always make it easy for customers...

... to spend their money on your products. Lift as many barriers and obstacles as possible. And never, ever create new ones - even if they look create on a mock P&L exercise. Your turnover will suffer if you don't keep things easy.

Attitude towards failure and innovation

An organization culture can have a strong impact on its innovation delivery. One dimension of this is the attitude toward failure - should we strive on an extreme competitive culture that strongly punishes any failure or should we tolerate it and try to learn from them. In this interesting article from Fast Company ( http://www.fastcompany.com/3000524/encourage-innovation-eradicate-blame ), it is defended than a company has actually more to win if it eradicates blame, as it actually promotes and then encourages bolder initiatives that can result in frequent and more different innovations. I must say I am a strong supportive of this thinking, also quoting Edison's electrical lamp process ("each mistake got me closer to the right solution"). But then... how to compound this with the most innovative company in the world, Apple, whose mentor (Steve Jobs, if you have been isolated from civilization over the past 30 years) is usually quoted as an example of severe discipline toward failures? Probably, the secret is all about eradicating blame but still not being passive about failure, taking hard stances to learn from mistakes and to prevent their recurrence.

I am a very proud Axe ex-Brand Manager

And I think it really shows off how important it is to understand the target consumer, and everyone that surrounds him. You need to be able to put yourself in your consumer shoes, to understand what they want (girls or a girl...), what they do, how they behave - and then to transpose that to your work. It was an incredible experience, to work in the brand and produce and use some great assets that actually impacted the consumers - and to feel how they felt the brand and how each interaction was a lot more than a marketing one, it was a smile, a moment of pleasure. Axe is not a brand - it is an icon. 

P.S- Thanks Bernardo, for pointing me down to the link below.

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681417/how-axe-built-a-highly-scientific-totally-irresistible-marketing-machine-built-on-lust?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fastcocreate%2Ffeed+%28Co.Create%29