Mens Et Opera - Reloaded

  Paul Greenberg is an inspiring and committed individual. He is stimulating the retail industry in Australia is such a strong direction, it would deserve him a trophy. For example, rounding up a crew of fifty people from various industries and backgrounds on a bus tour was a great achievement. I was part of the crew in Melborune and I literally enjoyed the opportunity to see how StarTrack , Gabby Leibovich and Mike Wilson are running their businesses. I must admit that I was moved by seeing how ideas - often simple ones - translated into reality become source of prosperity, self-fulfillment, and common good. This brings me at once to the very point I'd like to make. I am persuaded that each person is involved in a life-task of human flourishing to realize in community with others. I have drawn this idea from Aristotle and the Christian tradition, more specifically from St. Thomas Aquinas. Regardless, I firmly believe that every man has a sense of calling that...

Have you researched into PIM? Have your team members got their head around it? Are they proudly saying that they now know it? Bullshit. Just to further rock your and theirs convictions, here are three bullets to knock you out: PIM is business transformation enabled by technology. PIM will force you to think about WHY you are in your business in the first place. PIM is not a technology project that the business has to swallow. That's right - PIM will engage your teams to work collaboratively, smoothly, with no inefficiencies, and no excuse for mediocre results. Under-performers will be ousted. Bitter pill, I know. Managers will fight hard not to reduce staff, even if there are obvious inefficiencies. But they will lose. Piece of advice: set out to change your mindset and for those who have yet to recognise the potential of PIM for driving your business. You need patience, bravery, and fortitude. Good luck (and I mean it). Picture Source: http://eaonpritchard.blogs...

The FCB quadrant emerged from the US agency Foote, Cone and Belding (FCB) in the 1970s. It was meant to support direct advertising’s creative strategy as it clarifies how consumers approach the buying process for different products. The diagram below visualizes the two levels of consumer involvement, namely, the extent of thinking (rational and functional considerations) versus feeling (emotions) in the consumer’s decision-making. What’s all this to do with PIM? Marketers and Sales responsible to launch product campaigns, equipped with the FCB model, will generally tap into analyses of consumer–product relationships and develop appropriate promotional strategies. Ideally, they have PIM processes and tools in place to source the relevant product information, enrich it, and publish it to targeted consumer’s touch points. The enrichment phase is crucial here. A (proper) PIM would offer capabilities to enhance and/or add further relevant information to products to make them commercia...

Interesting article in Forbes titled " Retail in Crisis: "These are the changes brick-and-mortar stores must take ". It is a guest post by Brian K. Walker, VP at Hybris. I knew this article was fun to read. I really like it and I think Brian hammers home many points. The one I love is his bashing of the omnichannel concept (he wouldn't say that he was engaged in a bashing exercise though :-).  I recently blogged on a related topic: It's the customer, stupid! . Two excerpts that resonate greatly. The problem is that the term “omnichannel” still contains the word “channel.” For many retailers this means trying to slide by with in-store pick-up of online orders, or taking returns in-store of orders customers placed via the Web. However, the business case extends well beyond these tactical initiatives to satisfy basic customer needs—increasing the lifetime value of customers, delivering faster inventory turns in-store and creating higher margins through red...

Confronted with and discomforted by the enormous knowledge gap in the current Australia retail industry, my missionary spirit is urged to share a few angelical insights and resources to those who are battling against the business of living with the marketing materials from vendors, analysts, and consultants J There you are: PIM is a business capability to ensure that organizations collaboratively author, enrich, and distribute accurate, consistent, and validated product information across all the distribution points.   This is the best I can do with less than 25 words ;-) but it isn't marketing-friendly, is it? It does give you a lot to think about though (if you are an inquiring spirit). More assistance comes from the pieces linked below. Why Product Information Management Top 10 reasons to use Product MDM The easiest ROI for Product MDM Who Needs Product Master Data Management? ProductInformation Management: Definition, Purpose, and Offering There’s a l...

An IBM study found that 90% of customers want better personalisation, and are willing to spend 20 minutes to set up their information to help retailers give them a better experience. However, the same study discovered that less than a third of retailers are able to make the most of this. Interestingly, a recent survey conducted by Capgemini reveals a thorny truth that many Australian retailers won’t like to hear. Few excerpts: Relationship building (Relational aspects) is the most under-utilised dimension. The potential for generating customer intimacy and brand loyalty is currently unexploited by Australian retailers and has created a Relational Gap. The true power of relational digital commerce lies in combining established web personalisation techniques with advanced big data analytics to create effective, scalable solutions. Since it is impossible to scale a business model that relies on one-to-one human contact, digital mass personalisation aims to both individua...