Surely, batting .300 for a tenured baseball career would earn you a place on the ballot.  And batting .300 in the business world might be a great number if you are looking at close rate on prospects.  But to have any chance on getting in for innovation, you better look to football.   Quarterback completion percentage would seem logical.  But guess what, Jim Kelly’s lifetime completion percentage of 60.1% would probably find you out of business. Chad Pennington tops the completion rate list at  66%, which is probably still ‘out of business’ for new product introduction success.

How about place kickers.  Unfortunately, and much to my surprise, no player that only played as a place kicker has ever been elected to the football HOF.   Does not seem logical to me given that championships are won and lost on these foots.  There are 3 players that also played other positions that are in the HOF.  I am hopeful a couple of true place kickers will find their way into the HOF.   So, what is best in class for place kickers.  Well, there are only 34 kickers in NFL history with an 80% or better field goal %.   Two of the all time greats, Morten Andersen and  Sebastian Janikowski come in at 79.69% and 79.62% respectively.    At least I think you keep the doors open at this level – 4 out of 5 new products make it through the uprights.

So maybe you are not making the HOF but is your hit rate on new products or services good enough to have a solid career as a business?  And what are you doing to to improve your rate of success?  We are firm believers that you need to incorporate the voice of your customer to help improve your success rate.

Drop us a note, we would to hear how you have improved your new product success rate.

But there is a gaping hole that is hardly ever measured or addressed.  How do your employees treat others that they interact with in the business word.  Could be other business professionals or service industry workers while on travel.  Without naming names, several former colleagues joke about a General Manager that just loved to yell at cab drivers and pretty much anyone that worked in a hotel.   In his case, his position made it hard to call him on the carpet. Looking back, letting it go was a mistake.  And don’t forget about rude interaction and the sloppy way that some interact with other professional that are prospecting, etc.

End of day, anyone you interact with could be a customer and the way you treat them could cost your company business.  Just something to think about.

We would love to hear any stories you have to share.

Apparently the folks at Britannica are very comfortable with the transition, and are fully vested in their digital future.  I’m not sure when Britannica started their digital initiatives, but Wikipedia certainly has carved out a strong position as the most popular reference destination.

So what does it mean?  Companies need to ask themselves the question: where is our current business model in its life-cycle?  What will replace our current product/model?  When do we need to pull the trigger?  These are certainly heady questions not answered by one source, or at any one time.  But those companies who are listening to their consumers everyday, versus every now and then, certainly will have a grasp of what working, what is frustrating, and what consumers are talking about in general.  This may very well be the foundation for your new product or business model.

OK, my oldest daughter is a Junior now and my wife just came off duty of being the cookie mom for the recent drive.  Now, I am a big fan of the cookies themselves.  A couple of Somoas, a few Thin Mints and a Peanut Butter Pattie, not a bad meal.  So the cookies are just fine and the Girls Scouts are celebrating 100 years of service this year.  And guess what, they still run the cookie drive like 100 year ago.  Set up at a location, pencil and paper order form and hope and pray that people are in a good mood when they walk by.

Can we move the Girl Scout Cookie drive into the 21st century.   This is the main fund raiser for each troop.   The national organization could do a better job to help give back to the troops.  I hate to say it, but the Girl Scouts use some practices that make Apple look good.  Who else can get child labor to work for free to fill up their coffers.  Yes, valuable lessons are learned, but like college football, it all comes down to money.  So, here are my thoughts on improving the Girl Scout Cookie Drive:

1. Let cookies be ordered year round.  I am sure me and many others could binge year round.
2. Keep track (electronically) of who ordered last year.  Your best customer is one who is already with you.  Send them an electronic reminder and order form.
3. Use some technology – how about micro sites for each troop with an e-commerce engine to order.  What relative could resist a little welcome video from the troop.
4. Definitely need an app – not just to find but to order…HTML5 and native too please.
5. Ship direct from the manufacturer to the cookie buyer – this would stop me from filling luggage with cookies on return trips home.
6. Survey, measure and adjust- you may find out that after 8 weeks in the same grocery store that sentiment for the Girl Scouts has gone from positive to negative.
7. Hey, on a $4 sale, can you give a little more than a 10% commission to the troop.  Oh, yeah, there is a quota too.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is a video worth?  I would hazard to guess, a lot.

Increasingly, brands are using video to tell their story.  A 2011 report by Social Media Examiner indicated 77% of marketers planned on increasing usage of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area of investment.   There are also many low cost and free avenues to market the video through social media.  

 Getting it Right

So the consumer demand is high and channels to reach consumers are efficient, but what about the quality of the content?  How do brands know if they are getting it right?  They may be asking themselves several questions before they launch their video:

• Will the spot appeal to my audience?
• Will the spot be memorable?
• Is the spot a good brand fit?
• Will the consumers be motivated to act (seek to learn more about the product, or even make a purchase)?

All of these are good questions, and there are several other areas of exploration that can be used depending on the goals of the video.  Traditional research methods would most likely fall short for marketers in terms of speed, cost, and  amount of their time needed to work with the research partner to gain the insight.

This is one of many types on insight needs that is ideal for an online advisory community.  Having a pre-screened group of consumers ready to engage within a ‘multi media ready’ online community makes this type of initiative very straightforward and efficient to execute.  We recently helped a client evaluate a dozen video concepts, all in a week.  We’ve also helped clients with their direct response campaigns.

Video offers a big opportunity for brands.  But the channel is only one aspect.  It is even more critical that the content delivers the desired response from target consumers.

Which got me thinking.  How many people make business resolutions?  And as we approach the end of January 2012, how are they tracking in the New Year?

My guess is that more business objectives are jettisoned early.  Before the New Year starts, you reflect upon the ups and downs and plan some strategies of change.   However, as the waves of everyday tasks starts hitting, change slips away.

I can tell you one area that business needs help in  is consumer insight.  I am not sure how many resolutions are made to improve this area.   Much overlooked but highly important.  Getting closer to the customer in our very dynamic world can only provide benefits in the longer term.   Advertising and research have always been spends that are hard to evaluate on the back side.   The spending scales are heavily tilted to the the former with insight/research getting the last allocation and the first cut.   However,  not incorporating Voice of Customer (VOC) into your business has devastating long term impact.

Do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes evaluating how you incorporate VOC into your business.  Look at your advertising to research spend ratio.  Do you wish you had more consumer input on initiatives to help guide internal stakeholders? Lets face it, the world of traditional research providers has not kept up with the pace of change.

Hold onto at least one business resolution this year- challenge your current practices and educate yourself on the evolving technologies. For VOC, you may just find that new methodologies can save you money and increase your insight and innovation.

I’m sure many of you in marketing have found yourself in similar situation.  Perhaps in these leaner times, with a few less people involved.  This kind of situation is common and can occur at several stages of a product or program’s development.  The question is how do you break the logjam of opinions? The stakes are often high, and time is precious.

There are several options. Go with the wishes of the senior member of the team.  But perhaps they are the least informed on the issue, or they may be the least engaged.  Another option is to  compromise and take elements from all options.  Of course this could result in a solution that lacks unity and direction.  Another option is to fight to the bitter end based on your opinion.  All of these alternatives  have their limitations.  Finally, someone might suggest getting some feedback from consumers.  Unfortunately, in many instances, there might not be the time or the budget might not allow for a traditional research project.

This is where an online advisory community, sometimes referred to as a market research community, can help.  An insight community can help in two powerful ways:

• Bring the voice of the consumer to the table - regardless of rank, almost all manager are willing to listen to the voice of the consumer.  While consumer feedback is not the only consideration, I have found it to be invaluable in making more informed decisions and getting stakeholders on board.
• Avoid the decision logjam all together – gaining consumer feedback much earlier in the process accelerates decision making and gives the organization the  resolve to keep moving forward.  Decisions are not pushed to the end of the project.

An online advisory community has the benefit on being an on-going and virtually unlimited source for consumer feedback.  Once in place companies can tap into this resource for almost any type of decision.  If your organization could benefit from immediate and on-going consumer feedback you should definitely consider an online advisory community.  While most activities run on a weekly cycle, we’ve helped clients get answers, like the above example, in as little as 24 hours.

The study suggests that women actually have a higher purchase intent than men for products like tablets, laptops, and smartphones. The study also shows that in 2010, women bought more consumer electronic products than men, averaging 4.7 products versus 4.2 for men.

Would you have guessed that women purchase more technology products than men? It becomes very easy to operate on a false set of assumptions.  Regulary gaining feedback from consumers can reduce the chance of surprises and keep an organization pointed in the right direction.  Also, new findings about who buys your products and why can open up great new opportunties for your brand.

What do you think?

Some of the benefits that can be derived from in-home research or testing include the following:

• Test pre-production products with real consumers
• Early feedback on important new product launches
• Help predict consumer acceptance of new products
• Evaluate products relative to the competition
• Evaluate the value of specific product features
• Part of continual improvement in quality
• Catalyst for new product ideas
• Develop or fine-tune marketing, positioning,  and packaging
• Understand how consumers use and talk about the product

The regular use of ‘in-home testing’ will deliver powerful insight that will strengthen companies’ products and brands in the marketplace.