http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_42_40/ai_n16788777/
In this article it discusses how Pizza Hut is working toward expanding their Pizza Hut/Wingstreet to 1000 units by next year. Currently they have over 800 locations where they have an extended menu due to the Wingstreet addition, which has inturn risen sales significantly. This shows to be a very good business venture due to the fact that there is a rising trend in hot wings and food with extra spice and flavor and at the same time, any expansion of a menu to that extent should aid in sales due to more options being available to the costumers. Units that have the Wingstreet branch also often have more seating, bars and other marketing options. Many other pizza companies have had wing options in the past, however, unlike Pizza Hut/Wingstreet, they have had a lot less options to go along with just the basic traditional buffalo wings. It seems that the expansion of the Wingstreet brand is in the best interest to the Pizza Hut company.
Over the next year, Kraft foods is planning on acquiring Cadbury. The change will happen and is projected to increase the name brand of Cadbury and is meant to raise Kraft stocks over the next few years. The acquisition has many investors worried, because the amount of money being spent on the acquisition is projected to take a few years before investors see any type of payoff. Kraft foods also recently sold their frozen pizza branch to have the funds to acquire Cadbury, which was a major deal.
This acquisition is so significant, due to nature of the two companies. kraft is one of the top food producers in the entire world, and Cadbury is a major name, especially in Western Europe. Kraft has plans to improve organic production by 5% in the long term, and will own about 15% of the worlds confectionary market. Kraft shows promise in improving name brand quality and has great strategy to promote strong name brands, with the help from Cadbury, over the next few years.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/16/kraft-earnings-profit-markets-equities-cadbury-update.html
Kellogg’s prides itself on quality cereal and other food products. The quality exemplified by Kellogg’s is due to the ability to specialize its team in producing food products, not logistical tasks. For this reason, Kellogg’s recruits other businesses to handle these responsibilities; activity essential to supply chain management and a successful product or service. Stock, transportation and marketing of Kellogg’s products allows the different links of their supply chain to act cohesively. Kellogg’s employs TDG, a storage company, to handle stocking and pallet responsibilities of their product. Kellogg’s also holds a relationship with Kimberly Clark, an industrial supply manufacturer, with whom Kellogg’s shares transportation methods. Lastly, Kellogg’s relationship with Tesco, a food retailer, exemplifies Kellogg’s specialty marketing through creation of an advertising unit for use in retail stores. By Kellogg’s dividing product responsibility, it allows the company to save time and money while increasing competitiveness in product and maintaining brand integrity. Kellogg’s reduced costs by: not having to employ more workers to complete said tasks, decreasing the number of empty transportation vehicles and not having to expand production space for storage purposes. Without Kellogg’s business relationships, they may not be able to hold high standards to their products because they would need to concentrate on other aspects of business than food product creation alone. The information provided can be found on the Times 100 website.
Kellogg’s prides itself on quality cereal and other food products. The quality exemplified by Kellogg’s is due to the ability to specialize its team in producing food products, not logistical tasks. For this reason, Kellogg’s recruits other businesses to handle these responsibilities; activity essential to supply chain management and a successful product or service.
Stock, transportation and marketing of Kellogg’s products allows the different links of their supply chain to act cohesively. Kellogg’s employs TDG, a storage company, to handle stocking and pallet responsibilities of their product. Kellogg’s also holds a relationship with Kimberly Clark, an industrial supply manufacturer, with whom Kellogg’s shares transportation methods. Lastly, Kellogg’s relationship with Tesco, a food retailer, exemplifies Kellogg’s specialty marketing through creation of an advertising unit for use in retail stores.
By Kellogg’s dividing product responsibility, it allows the company to save time and money while increasing competitiveness in product and maintaining brand integrity. Kellogg’s reduced costs by: not having to employ more workers to complete said tasks, decreasing the number of empty transportation vehicles and not having to expand production space for storage purposes. Without Kellogg’s business relationships, they may not be able to hold high standards to their products because they would need to concentrate on other aspects of business than food product creation alone.
The information provided can be found on the Times 100 website.
The organic food market is taking a hit from the impact of the recession. Sales dipped 17% according to the Organic Market Report of 2010. Many people have chosen to cut out organic products as a way to save. However, according to a UK supplier, Devonbased Riverford Organic, organic sales are still doing well primarily in the Southwest United States. This company has established itself as a company that values the flavor of the foods as well as ensuring that the products are organic. By having customers give feedback through an annual customer survey, the company is aware that the brand loyalty is found within the great flavor of the foods. This differentiation has kept sales up through the loyalty of the customers. Another strength in having a customer survey helps the company stay aware of what the customers value in a product. As a result, the Devonbased Riverford is in the position to better fulfill these needs. Although the company has high hopes for the future, they believe that organic products may become a thing of the past as government regulations tighten on local produce.
Its so secret that in the past year, McDonalds has beefed up their menu. Certified Angus Beer burgers have invaded the iconic McDonalds menu, and customers seem to love them. The third-pound lineup includes: the deluxe, mushroom & swiss, and the savory bacon and cheese. The burgers are made with USDA-inspected Angus beef and are intended to be more "gourmet" than the average McDonald’s offering. For instance they come on "bakery-style" rolls in order to appeal to those who would normally opt for a different burger chain over the golden arches.
With $3.99 a pop, McDonald’s is able to sustain a more competitive advantage against restaurants with a higher quality alternative to fast food. Not only does this relationship work for McDonald’s, the Angus Beef brand is further instating themselves as the affinity in beef. Boasting that less than 8% of all beef makes the cut, Angus Beef is continuing to find their product in American’s hands, or for that matter American’s stomachs with this business-to business relationship with McDonald’s.
http://www1.mcdonalds.com/angus/
http://stateofthebrand.com/?p=94
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This is a nice article about how Cargill starts with problems faced by customers, in this case the high salt content of Campbell’s Soup, and finds a solution. Salt is slowly taking center stage for significant regulation by the FDA. The medical and nutrition communities are fairly united in their concern about the overly high levels of sodium and potassium in processed foods. At issue for the food manufacturer are changes in recipes, effects on brands and consumer loyalty, increases in costs of materials, and reduction in shelf life. At one level the "SaltWise" story is a classic business relationship story of a supplier solving a strategic problem for a buyer. At an equally powerful level this is a great story about a firm with a long history in commodities who turns a low valued undifferentiated good into a high value/high margin industrial ingredient.
For the students of ACE 430. We talked about the seminal article by Dr. Theodore Levitt where he introduces the concept of “table stakes.” It is the industrial marketer’s task to bundle information, service, and innovation around the product to create value for the customer. The “Saltwise” story is a wonderful example of Cargill investing in R&D and supply chain relationships with food manufacturers (Campbell’s) to simultaneously solve a strategic problem for the customer while creating a differentiated market for themselves. The interesting question is when looking at the “Value Creation Half-Pipe,” what value does Cargill provide to Campbell’s? Certainly reduces the regulatory, brand, and potential legal risks from selling high salt products. Maybe also reduces the risks associated with market share losses to other competing low salt products. On the uplift side, is Campbell’s able to achieve higher margins? Certainly the cost of salt as an ingredient rises, but can Campbell’s margin up with their healthier product?
Lynne D. Johnson, Senior VP of Social Media for the Advertising Research Foundation, says it best: Social media is about relationships.
In an interview with the Social Times, Ms. Johnson was asked about social media and branding. She responded:
"It's not just about putting up a Twitter or Facebook page; it's more about engaging in relationships. Brands have to be interested in the narrative.
If you have no story about your brand, then people will make up the story for you. It's not a fad at all; it's an evolution.
Now the consumer is being thought of as the collaborator. Traditional marketing used to have these closed surveys and got feedback from people in private rooms. Now it's all open. It's not a fad."
Ms. Johnson also recited a statistic she read recently: 20% of all tweets are about brands.
Social media might not be the marketing or relationship building tool you're used to, but the fact of the matter is that you and your brand will be left in the dust if you don't tell the story yourself.
Source: SocialTimes, November 2009.
(Bonus points to all of you for reading this, because you're reading a blog!)
I’ve been trolling the Internet for articles on relationship management and have been finding hundreds of them, all free, and most worth the price. While there are many many insights provided, they were usually on very high level. I could find few essays where the conclusions merited being included on this site.
When I broadened my search a bit, I came across an article that would appeal to business-to-business sellers and buyers. It’s by Erin Anderson and Sandy D. Jap, it’s called The Dark Side of Close Relationships. It appeared in the Spring, 2005, issue of the Sloan Management Review. I believe our readers should get their hands on it for a number of reasons, not least of which is that Anderson and Jap’s research included studying over 1200 business-to-business alliances.
Anderson and Jap argue that “Relationships that seem to be doing well are often the most vulnerable to the forces of destruction that are commonly building beneath the surface of the relationship. In other words, close relationships that seem the most stable can also be the most vulnerable to decline and destruction. We refer to this phenomenon as the dark side of close relationships.” (hard not to think of Star Wars)
One of he ways this dark side manifests itself is when both firms “are confident and optimistic about their collaboration….Since no trouble can be seen on the horizon, there is no apparent reason to change course, strategy or tactics.” The problem here is the assumption that things are going well can deaden the sensitivity of one or both parties to the relationship, and they may act opportunistically. Anderson and Jap use a great example of an auto painter who had a long relationship with the brand automaker and starting using two coats instead of the required three.
This agrees with our findings that firms in a relationship tend to assume that when no noise comes from the partner, the relationship is doing very well. I remember being hired by the CEO of a huge transportation company who said to me, “I cannot believe that things are going as well with our large customers as my account managers say it is.” His insights were solid—the account managers were burying problems they thought they would be blamed for. By bringing new sensitivity to the key relationships, the company was able to forestall serious problems and even, in one case, the customer seeking another transportation company.
Anderson and Jap feel that the dark side of relationships occurs when firms focus on three mechanisms: The creation of immediate benefits [which can lessen the effects of long-term value]; the development of strong interpersonal relationships [which, if there are few of these can result in an account manager taking customers with his/her when they leave]; and unique processes and adaptations, where the firms invest in the relationship [these investments may not be reciprocated.]
How to keep the dark side from appearing in relationships? “Prevention,” Anderson and Jap say, “is the best medicine. Bolstering relationships--through regular evaluation, backup plans (having a back-up account manager, for example] and crisis management--helps create efficient. motivated and productive relationships….”
I do disagree with one conclusion that the authors suggest. They say that to keep a relationship fresh, one should change the people close to the relationship every two years or so. Assuming that he/she is effective, most accounts would scream bloody murder if their account manager should be replaced every two years.
The article is around ten pages, it is not written in over-academic prose and it supplies many examples which I cannot include, or this piece might have been as long as the Sloan essay. It’s worth your time. Check it out. JSperry
Joe Sperry posted a great blog entry on small talk.
He wrote about Southwest Airlines and how they hire new customer service representatives based on their conversation skills and personalities.
Representatives from the customer service team meet with the potential new hire and they see if the potential hire fits in with the team. It's brilliant.
Southwest has had some great ideas lately-- one that sticks out the most to me is their new approach to in-flight announcements.
They noticed that most people ignore the in-flight announcements and have created a way to grab attention and revamp their brand.
Here's a great example from CBS News. I would definitely pay attention to the in-flight announcement if this guy was rapping it!