It’s the balance which all brands strive to strike: that between keeping a customer’s experience in line with their wants and needs and ensuring bottom line profitability.  Understanding the difference between what the customer wants (and making them feel like they’re always right) and what the company can and should provide in the name of profitability are two very different things. It’s the difference between possibility and pragmatism with the holy grail being a practical approach for the brand which makes the customer believe that everything is possible…even when it’s not.

So when we then consider the different channels now being used to shop and the different levels of profitability different routes to market provide for the brand, even more balls are thrown into the air to juggle.

Kamil Michlewski, Senior Consultant and specialist in multichannel delivery here at The Value Engineers, has been thinking about just this issue and we’re proud to announce that his article on just this – Are you pushing your customers around? – has been published in Market Leader this month. He looks at this juggling act from 3 point of view: The Customer, The Company and The Consultancy.

Kamil considers how customers purchasing on different channels isn’t just about their shopping mindset and preferences but it’s often influenced by what is available and possible from the company they’re looking to purchase from.  For example, if something isn’t in stock a customer might be directed to a website and then have to make a telephone call…and so on, even if in store were their primary point of call.

As Kamil concludes: ‘To reap the rewards of the new interconnectedness, firms need to understand not only how many different channels their customers visit.  They should know how many channels their customers visit because they choose to and how many because they have to. With this knowledge companies can maximise the right contacts and minimise the wrong ones for the benefit of both their shareholders and consumers.’

So…are you pushing your customers around?

For more information on how we can help you think about your multichannel offering, please get in touch and we’d love to chat about it.

At first, when we thought about Facebook we thought about friends, social groups, photos, flirting even…and then brands waded in and we started to think about ‘likes’ and the idea of our ‘favourite’ brands being part of our social lives. But what’s the difference between a ‘like’ in the digital world and really liking and engaging with a brand’s digital presence?

This is a question which the cheese category has started to answer with aplomb.

That’s why we were delighted to discuss the prominence and prevalence of cheese in social media – why are so many brands investing in it and why is it successful given the seeming lack of connection between a lump of cheese and a social network? The Grocer’s December ‘Focus On – Cheese’ article discusses just this.

As ever, the key with any successful digital strategy is not to just ‘go digital’ for the sake of it but to use digital channels in a way that is relevant to your product, your audience and the relationship between the two.  And it turns out…cheese is well suited to the digital world. It’s a simple, familiar product that is easy to have fun with: people add their own touch to cheese and have a wide range of emotional memories and associations with it purely for the versatile and often omnipresent role it plays in their lives and fridges.

As I’m quoted saying:

‘At first simply having a Facebook page was enough. Now it’s about a real conversation, not just lip service.’

So…whether your brand is cheesey or not…is your digital strategy being used to maximum impact? Get in touch if we can help you think about it in a tastier, more relevant way.

It’s always interesting when you see a format or recipe twist to a category that renews its relevance and comes across as part of a broader trend.

This is exactly what we’ve seen with the sexiest of all comfort foods – rice pudding.

Giles Lury has commented on this article in The Grocer regarding the ‘cold comfort’ consumers seem to be getting in the chilled-to-heat desserts category which was previously the preseve of tins:

“It’s about taking the stodge out of comfort foods…The black-packaged indulgent Rachel’s rice puddings, for example, are perceived as more of a comforting dessert than old-fashioned cans.”

Other brands and chefs have jumped on this trend: Think Heston’s funky twists on Christmas Classics and the never-ending sway of a simple cupcake.

So…what are the cold comforts you’ll be enjoying this Christmas?

Ebay…it’s known for being the place where you can get things quickly, cheaply, fast…and it’s also known for providing sellers with an opportunity to charge amounts well in excess of the products’ original RRP due to limited supply.

So we were astounded to hear the news in the Daily Mail last week that varioust ‘touts’ are ‘cashing in’ on toys which have limited availability but are priceless to those parents desperate to please their kids come this Sunday.

Here’s a snapshot of Lou Ellerton, who heads up our TVE Kids practice, being quoted in this article – and then in this one on the Financial News website - on her opinion on such high prices for kids’ toys:

“ ‘This is a very cynical manoeuvre by touts to exploit parents at Christmas’….She said that parents should try to be ‘realistic’ and assess how long a child will actually use the toy for when considering paying over the odds for it. ”

So…just how much do you want to give your kids that Sylvanian Families set for more than double its original price?

For more information on TVE Kids and our expertise in kids marketing and strategy, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

It’s (nearly) Christmas.

So why not think about, eat more of and talk about puddings with a greater commitment than at any other time of the year? The hot desserts category is certainly counting on us doing this and with depressed sales overall is turning to posh puddings for enjoying at home to help revive and maintain sales.

Catherine Little, Consultant at The Value Engineers, has been discussing this topic in particular in The Grocer’s Focus On Desserts feature. As she says:

“Customers trading down from a restaurant meal are seeking to cushion the blow with the best available on the supermarket shelf, often opting for ultra-premium branded desserts like Gü.”

I’m certainly going to enjoy a pudding or two at home to cushion the blow from the cold of Christmas and over-spending in the sales…are you?