A great brand delivers a lot, not just to lovers of the brand but also to its owner. Consider Apple’s price premiums and multiple brand extensions beyond its initial MAC computers. GE Health, through its R&D and savvy acquisitions, built a compelling brand with huge scale versus niche competitors. Service, sales and pricing advantages result. Its scale buys market protection as well, as many start-ups exit with a GE acquisition. And who, as a TOM’s Shoes employee, wouldn’t feel proud, loyal and excited to go to work? But how do we measure a great brand and compare brands’ relative strengths? What levers must those who manage brands move through their actions and investments? Deborah Macinnis of USC described three factors creating brand admiration in her webinar for Marketing Science Institute. The talk introduced Macinnis’ new book Brand Admiration: Building a Business People Love….
Apple’s winning business model keeps winning
“Apple is finally getting serious about pushing into our living rooms,” according to New York Times reporters Kate Benner and Brian X. Chen. Apple’s already in our bedroom, bathroom, subway ride, vacations and, if we’re not diligent, meals with family. Why not the living room? What else is left? Apple might not be in everyone’s living room, but it’s already in mine. It’s a box that sits next to my cable box that transforms my TV screen into something equivalent to my iPad screen, full of apps such as Public Radio podcasts, movies, TV shows, the HBO channel, etc. (Amazon and Roku are competitors.) Because Netflix streaming has very few of our favored old movies, my husband and I opted for Apple TV as our streaming solution. I will also use Apple for my music once I take the time to download my…
The Power of Purpose
Calling. This word is important for both an individual and an organization. On an individual level, a calling is the driving force – moving through many roles – that brings meaning or deeper purpose to the totality of your work. I like to think of my calling as my True North. It captures how I put my unique background and skills to work to make a positive difference for others and realize more of my potential. I recently read Jeff Goins’ The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant To Do (Nelson Books, 2015). Better than any other book I have read on the subject, Goins articulates that a calling is unearthed not decided. Furthermore, finding and acting on a calling is work any of us can pursue. But to succeed, we must step beyond the fear of…
Apple Watch newest “watching industry” entry
First, let me admit my bias. I wear a gorgeous 14k gold Swiss watch everywhere but in the water. The thought of replacing it with an Apple Watch would, for me, feel like replacing a great dinner with brightly colored and beautifully shaped nutritional tablets. Was that why Apple’s share price failed to rise following Apple Watch’s debut today? Still, the Apple Watch may find a great market if we shake off the history of “the watch,” a noun denoting a time-telling device, and avoid viewing it as a wrist smart phone. Instead, let’s think about the new entrant as a “situational mobile solution for watching” (the verb). What are some of the situations in which an Apple Watch could provide significant customer value? Exercise. I carry my iPhone when I run to track my miles, speed, elevations, etc. I would welcome a…
Business model success demands strategic leadership, societal consciousness and civil cultures
I wonder if the editors of the January-February, 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review connected the dots among their articles. As a reader I did. “The 100 Best CEOs in the World” is the cover story for an issue that also includes the article “Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills.” Too many CEOs and their C-Suite teams invest too much of their time in operational management. They fail in the role only they can perform: designing a winning portfolio of business models and the hard-to-copy company capabilities, processes, culture, and ecosystems that they leverage. Strategic leadership is all about this work. I am not saying that operational work is unimportant. Indeed, it is vital. No customer will pay your business for inefficiency or quality issues, and competitors will likely use them to seize advantage. But the leadership team’s role is to establish the measurements,…
Why Microsoft should have bought HP to save Windows
It came as no surprise to many analysts that Microsoft has had a disappointing few months, with very slow holiday sales of its Surface tablet and continuing tepid-at-best reviews of Windows 8. PCs and Windows software are in trouble – so much so that Microsoft is investing billions to prop up one of its channels to the market – Dell, and some predict a Kodak-like demise of Microsoft. It also comes as no surprise to anyone who, like me, turns on a Lenovo Think Pad (or any other PC) and resumes Microsoft Windows. Depending on how I exited my computer, I may have to wait as long as 5 minutes before it is usable. A similar delay occurs throughout the day when my computer falls asleep. Consider that my employer (IBM) has 400,000+ workers across the globe experiencing these delays every day, every…
As CMOs become immersed in technology, beware of the CIO myopic thinking trap
If you thought that the move from the Industrial Era to the Digital Era was the last major economic transition that your business would have to deal with, think again. We are in the middle of yet another transformation of comparable magnitude. The slow but steady shift of power away from companies and to customers as we moved into the Digital Era will reach its zenith in the years ahead. Today’s customers, clients, and consumers are instrumented, interconnected, intelligent, engaged, informed and empowered. They want companies they buy from to know them, interact with them on their terms, and personalize marketing offers and customer support. They even want personalized products and services. IBM (my employer) calls this the Connected Consumer Era and it will lead into a digitization of the front office comparable to the back office digitization of the past two decades….
What JC Penney didn’t understand about the role of price in business models
Wizard of Oz protagonist Dorothy captures the shock of her post-tornado world in the memorable line, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Ex-Apple retail wizard Ron Johnson, now CEO of JC Penney (JCP), must be saying “I’m not in Cupertino, California [Apple’s headquarters] anymore” as he discovers the challenges of transforming his new employer’s retail stores. The first head has already been chopped: merchandising and marketing leader Michael Francis left JCP after less than a year on the job. We’ll now see if Johnson, who created the “shabby chic” value promise at Target and the stellar shopping and learning experience at Apple, has the chops to fix a troubled company in a category with excess supply. I thought Johnson had a great idea – reinvent the department store, which had offered wonderful shopping experiences when local high-end stores dominated the…
Remember to ask, “What business are we in?”
If, as a company leader, you did not lose a heartbeat over the bankruptcy filing of Kodak, Barnes and Noble, Blockbuster and AMR Corporation (American Airline’s parent) or Google’s pending purchase of Motorola phones, you should have. When previously solid businesses run out of cash, there are lessons to be learned. In particular, never forget the vital strategic question, “What business are we in?” Too narrow an answer, like Kodak’s “film” or Blockbuster’s “video store,” positions your business to be disrupted by a better solution. Look what stand-alone digital cameras and smart phones have done to film or what Netflix’s more convenient mail-order DVD model did to Blockbuster. A change in consumer preferences also leads to disruptions as Netflix found out with the surge in on-line media streaming. Too broad an answer to the question “What business are we in?” or an out-of-touch-with-the-market…
Will Netflix’ business model crash as entertainment streams converge?
Netflix’s stock price is falling, fast. My take is that the decline has much more to do with the long-term viability of its business model than the stated cause – recent defections in subscribers owing to a change in its pricing formula and a (since averted) break-up of the company into two parts. Here’s a business model lens on Netflix’s issues. Boundaries are melting in the entertainment world as content that used to be available in only one way becomes accessible in multiple ways. We can see TV shows on the Internet, read physical books on-line, use videogame boxes to watch movies-on-demand and buy hardware solutions that transfer data streams acquired on our computers to our TV screens. Hollywood’s new UltraViolet System will give consumers free Internet or cable access to any purchased DVD. What’s the implication for Netflix of convergence to one…