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

A few tools to help you manage your Twitter communication

Twitter gives you access to a large, informal group of potential shoppers and consumers. But it is not an easy media to manage - so, let me present you some tools:

- Commn.it - to manage your community

- inboxQ - what is going on around in Twitter

- Tweriod & Buffer - to understand the best time to tweet

- Brandfluencers - identifies the users who have referred the most visits to a blog via twitter


Read the original article in - http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/twitter-tools-to-enhance-your-marketing/

One of my number one ads

Many times I am asked what is my most preferred ad. I always answer the same - I don't have only one. But this is a very exclusive club - there are no more than three in it. Today, as the London Olympics are about to start, let me share one of them with you.

Celebrate Humanity was a campaign for the Sydney Olympics of 2000 (if I am not mistaken), that featured incredible quality ads (let me also highlight the one named "Courage", about Derek Redmond Barcelona performance in 1992, one of the most incredible and inspirational of all times). I especially like this one, "Giants". It is incredibly engaging - it draws your attention from the beginning, that voice shuts down any other sound around it and the music just increases your engagement with the ad. Branding is all there - from the second you see the female gymnast running, you know these are the Olympics. And the message is so strong, and inspirational, represented by Olympic heroes everyone knows - Strug, Muhammed Ali, Segey Bubka, Greg Louganis, Jesse Owens.

But, maybe the best way to describe how good I think this is to say that, 12 years after I have seen it for the first time, it still plays in my head! And that, whenever I watch this ad, I am drawn to the Olympics - and they gain relevance to me!