Category Archive For "Why Watch Me Think?"
CMO’s who make consumer closeness a reality not a slogan
This month, like almost every month the Chief Marketing Officers of the Global FMCG companies will visit their offices around the World with the familiar war cry
“We need to get out there and spend time with our consumers and shoppers”
“I want you to bring the consumer to life, so they jump off the page”
“I want you to be great story tellers”.
How to reduce your innovation failure rates
There is obviously a long list of reasons why some pretty awful products make it all the way through the innovation process and make it on to the supermarket shelves. Having conducted digital immersions in 42 Countries, these are the two causes that we see most frequently within both local and Global Organisations.
Is your Company really getting “Closer to Consumers”?
Some of the most frequently overused phrases within the Global FMCG industry include, we are “getting closer to consumers” “understanding them more deeply” and “walking in their shoes”.
How to stop launching products with terrible packaging
Every week we receive videos from consumers demonstrating their frustration with the packaging of certain fmcg products.
Given the critical role packaging plays in determining the success of new products, it seems strange that so many are launched by major companies, that won’t open, reseal, pour or store, as the user feels they should.
So how does this happen?
Are you still guilty of “Death by Powerpoint?”
Seth Godin’s post on really bad PowerPoint 7 years ago is sadly, still as relevant today as it was then.
Organisations are often self deprecating about the internal “death by PowerPoint” that exists, but these are the same jokes that were being made ten and twenty years ago.
The individuals within our clients’ organisations, who are not happy with the status quo, but who are also determined to do something about it, are shaping Watch Me Think.
Payment terms – why we’re bucking the trend
This weekend saw more headlines about payment terms given by the big fmcg companies, all of whom happen to be our clients.
Whether it be Premier Foods and their alleged ‘cash for contracts’ demands, 2 Sisters Food Group with their alleged 3% discount requirements for paying within 90 days or Heinz allegedly telling their suppliers that their payment terms have moved from 45 days to up to 97 (none of which, it’s worth noting, we’ve experienced).
The stories don’t mention the majority who pay promptly within 30 or 45 days.
Boosting the sales of your new products in 2015
Once they have been launched, one of the most effective ways brands can maximise the sales of their new products, is to conduct immersions with their biggest fans as well as their rejecters a few weeks or months after the product has been launched.
Defining “acceptable business practice” for Australian retailers?
While the retailers’ apologies often sound a little bit like an apology for getting caught, there remains insufficient debate or clarity about what is and what is not “acceptable business practice” when it comes to the grocery retailers’ dealings with suppliers.
3 techniques for more consumer led innovation
One of the most frequently stated goals our Global clients articulate to us, is to have a more consumer led and consumer connected innovation process.
Global FMCG manufacturers are increasingly adopting a centralised Innovation structure, whereby category innovation is developed in one location and then rolled out Globally. At the same time, research budgets are under pressure and travel restrictions or bans are commonplace. The opportunity to connect with consumers Globally, under these conditions, is often very limited.
Online: off kilter
The mainstream UK grocers have been tripping themselves up all year and everyone has been laying into them while they’re down.
Yet online grocery is marked out as the rare success story, but we’ve been at this for a while, so set it in its context: why haven’t those out-of-town sheds gone the same way as the bookstores? Why are people still shopping there when you consider the traffic, parking, weather, other people, limitations on what you can fit in the car, and everything else you’d rather be doing? Something must be wrong somewhere. Why don’t I do my grocery shopping online? I must be target group 1. But they’ve never asked me why I don’t.