DAEMON QUEST - José Luis Lomas

There is no Strategy without Marketing, nor is there Marketing without Strategy

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 10:59:44 +0200

Strategy has something to do with numbers, but it’s a mistake to think that it’s only numbers”. The professor at the prestigious INSEAD, W. Chan Kim, co-author along with Renée Mauborgne of one of the biggest best-sellers in business of recent times, “Blue Ocean Strategy”, knows what Strategy is, and he also knows what Marketing is, because he believes that one is closely related to the other.

PRICING STRATEGIES

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:08:04 +0200

How to set prices profitably, get ahead of the competition, and generate value for customers.

How to determine a price? How much should you charge for a product or a service? In the correct and incorrect response to these critical questions are found numerous success stories and business failures. Traditionally, the most common method of setting a price has been the proverbial “costs + profit”. In fact, this method, logically, continues to be at the base of the majority of models for any company. However, limiting oneself to thinking that the proper price is simply that which takes into account the impact of costs on the product or service offered, to which is added the appropriate profit, is as naive as it is unreal.

There is an enormous difference between setting prices and deploying a true Pricing Strategy. In the former, the focus is only tactical, almost always “short-term”, and basically reactive. However, a good Pricing Strategy is entirely the opposite: it strives for pro-activity and leadership in terms of prices. It’s about controlling markets, competition, and customers, and not being controlled by these three elements.

When companies set a price based simply on the “costs + profit” formula, they usually commit a very common mistake: the prices they set are too low in expanding markets, and too high in maturing or declining markets.

In order to find a proper Pricing Strategy, it is essential to keep three key aspects in mind, which will affect its success or failure: obviously costs are one aspect, but there is also the competition and the customers. This recipe is no secret. Almost all companies use it, but not always correctly. The majority usually ask themselves “how much is the market willing to pay for this product or service?”, instead of asking themselves “what value does the market perceive for this product or service?” Value is an absolutely key term in the design of a proper Pricing Strategy. Only the focus on value can transform the mere setting of prices into a Profitable Pricing Strategy, but we will not benefit at all from knowing what value it is that differentiates us and justifies our prices, if we are not capable of properly communicating it our customers. A correct Pricing Strategy is based, then, on the three aforementioned axes: costs, competition and customers, as well as on the company’s ability to reach the market with its value message; that is, “the reason for its prices”.

10 Winning Strategies for a New Customer Marketing

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 19:30:06 +0200

Abstract:

The third edition of the Marketing Strategy Forum (MSF), organized by DAEMON QUEST, welcomed the most innovative Marketing ideas. Here we present the summary, in Ten Steps, of the “Recipes for Success for a New Customer Marketing”, from some of the best experts inside and outside of Spain, who were present at the MSF.

1. Going from tactical Marketing to Strategic Marketing.
2. Getting it right with the formula of Positioning + Segmentation + Targeting.
3. Designing Differentiation Strategies that distinguish us on the market.
4. Opting for a “Customer Driven Marketing” focused 100% on the customer.
5. Forgetting the ROI in favor of the “Return On Customer” (ROC).
6. Focusing on Value Strategies: Valued customer + Value proposition + Value Network.
7. Attending to new “multi-customers” that demand “key in hand” solutions.
8. Optimizing sales channels, fitting them to the correct segments.
9. Intelligent and profitable loyalization of appropriate customers.
10. Abandoning short-term strategies and valuing “Customer Equity”.

Last March 7th and 8th, in Madrid and Barcelona respectively, more than 1,000 Presidents, General Directors, Marketing Directors, and Sales Directors once again made the Marketing Strategy Forum (MSF), organized by DAEMON QUEST and HSM, the leading conference on innovation and Marketing in Spain. With national and foreign experts on hand, the forum inspired extraordinary ideas and tendencies aimed at transforming the old product marketing into a New Customer Marketing. We wanted to analyze and summarize them in ten steps aimed at reaching one common goal: designing winning Market Strategies.

Imaginarium: loyalizing intelligently

Sat, 26 Mar 2005 16:14:13 +0100

New, intelligent, and effective loyalization strategies do not only arise outside of our country. The specialty toy store chain, Imaginarium, has been able to, in its brief history, win over an extremely loyal clientele, which includes children and, above all, their parents. Using its affinity card, “Familycard Imaginarium”, and with the creation of a “Club Imaginarium”, which already has close to 400,000 members, the company has been able to establish a relational marketing model based on actions designed “with the customer” and not, unilaterally, “at the customer”. In “Club Imaginarium”, parents have advantages to their purchases, promotions, search for the most appropriate toy, discounts for large families… Moreover, they receive advice on the most appropriate toys, and privileged treatment in the store, with special touches and gifts. The chain has even organized two days per year in which the establishment is only open to club members, where they receive advice from specialized personnel and the scoop on all new products.

Harley-Davidson: a business culture transformed into a way of life

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 16:33:32 +0100

No driver is more proud of their vehicle and more devoted to a brand than the owner of a Harley-Davidson... Having a “Harley” means much more than driving a motorcycle... It means belonging to a select group of people with similar characteristics and affinities, but, above all, with a common denominator: their devotion to the same brand. How did Harley-Davidson achieve the miracle of having the most loyal and devoted customers in the world?

Though it’s hard to believe, the company went through a traumatic economic situation in the 1980’s, but it has been able to overcome the situation in recent years and return the brand to all its glory, simultaneously getting all Harley drivers to purchase, on top of the bike, its famous jackets, sports shoes or cowboy boots…