Burger King and Starbucks Coffee go win win
USA TODAY writes about Burger King adding Starbucks Coffee to all its U.S. restaurants (read here).
This is a classical double branding issue (Intel inside – Starbucks inside) that sends a message to fast food consumers. The message is: “when you chose Burger King over McDonald’s, you can expect to have a double experience that includes Starbucks Coffee…
Naturally, Burger King can expect more new customers who will actually chose to have their breakfast at Burger King as they prefer Starbucks Coffee as their morning drink.
I talk with most of the beauty salons that I meet about adding nail services to their business in order to achieve a similar double branding effect. Or vice verse, if you have a hair salon and or a nail salon, adding skincare services will bring you more sales.
If you already have both skincare as well as nail services, than I suggest adding special body treatments done by special body experts (brands) or, Yoga services (if you have the pace).
Adding more services to your business will increase the traffic of new customers to your business; hence you can expect to optimize the sales per metre, per hour of your business.
Burger King will soon start to have increased coffee sales (Starbucks Coffee). This will be a total new income channel that didn’t exist in it current situation. The interesting (but obvious issue) will be that Burger King will also start to have additional sales of their fast food menu as the NEW CUSTOMERS that will visit them for the Starbucks Coffee will decide to also purchase their fast food.
The same will happen to your business if you decide to add additional services, the new customers who will come for their nails or special body treatments will eventually also become your customers for skincare.
When you offer a nail technician or a body therapist n to work in your space (in your business) you don’t only offer them space for rent but you offer them your entire cliental database as their potential customers. On the other hand, they offer you that the NEW customers that will visit them for their special services will eventually buy your skincare services. Therefore, double branding is in most cases a win win situation that shouldn’t be overlooked.
You can also play “Starbucks Coffee” and join other businesses as the additional service that those business will offer to their existing customers.
It might well be the case that you aren’t a Brand (yet) and the nail technicians or body therapist that you plan to add isn’t a Brand too, but, the effects of double branding will be felt in any case.
You may check your area and there might be a Body Treatment specialist or even a school that is already a Brand. So, by adding this Brand to your business services menu can have the required effect of double branding.
Point Of Skin already includes a sort of a double effect-double branding element of including a doctor brand as an integral part of the business. However, naturally, adding the other essential services such as nails and special body treatments can increase the sales by driving additional customers to your door…
PS- to my opinion, the bigger winner of the Burger King – Starbucks Coffee collaboration will be Burger King. As Starbucks Coffee is supporting a certain image, I believe that IN THE LONG RUN they will loose as a result of incompatible image of Burger King – Starbucks Coffee. Therefore, you need to choose partners that maintain at least the same quality level and image as you do.
Published by: admin on February 24th, 2010 | Filed under Uncategorized
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ARE YOU A LOMO LOCO
If someone would suggest that you start producing and or selling analog film cameras, you may think that he/she lost it…especially in the digital world that we live in.
But, “doing the never” and “swimming against the mainstream” proves itself again and again as a successful strategy. Especially once that you: “go extreme” and “go the whole way” to the edges instead of staying in the safe but boring centre.
Manufacturing healthy Bionome skincare (strictly) as Dr.Baumann does, isn’t the norm but rather the highest edge of manufacturing healthy and most effective skincare.
Selling healthy Bionome skincare (strictly) as Pont Of Skin does, isn’t the norm but a result of a commitment to put customer education and customer health in the centre of the strategy.
In both cases, it is done in an extreme way without any shortcuts or compromises.
The deal is simple – you loose the customers that don’t care about what you do (about a 66% of the potential customers) and you gain the exclusivity (a monopoly) on the rest of the customers (34% of the potential customers).
You are going to be a winner – most of the beauty salons/SPA stay in the safe and boring centre. This means that they share 66% of the potential customers who don’t really care about the kind of skincare that they use. Many beauty salons/SPA sharing a specific market share, means: that there is a very relative and very small proportional part /of the 66% market share) left to each of those beauty salons/SPA. Whereas, a small amount of beauty salon/SPA sharing 34% of the market size leaves a much bigger market share for each of those beauty salons/SPA that decided to be different and strictly stay (and sell) with healthy skincare as their business strategy.
It doesn’t matter in what business you are, it matters however that you expertise in what you do and that you constantly differentiate yourself from the other. It is essential that you define your target customer and stay focused on delivering exactly what those specific target customers are interested in.
Those mentioned business principles guided the creation of Lomography.
So, what actually is Lomography? Read here .
Lomography is based on understanding customer needs. In this case, the need to have fun, to be different, to unleash creativity, to communicate, to surprise yourself and others (with your photos) as well as to send a message (also to yourself) about who you are and what you appreciate. Lomography allows simple people to become artists!
Lomography goes to the end, to the edge of it’s business category by redefining the meaning of photography and redefining the meaning of the word “beautiful”. Any other business (that would take the safe approach) that would start an analog film base camera factory would fail.
Lomography is about being brave and knowing what you will loose (the digital photographers) and being complete with what you are going to gain (The non digital photographers).
Lomography braveness paid big time as more and more people join the trend and have fun with this “new thing” see the Lomography world wide community (over 50000 members on facebook groups only).
The market follows the BRAVE LEADERS – Even Fuji film jumped into this NEW TREND and produced a Lomo camera (see here). I will not be surprised to see the other BRANDS starting to produce LOMO cameras as the LOMO trend grows.
Here is the hammer – by being brave and doing the never you create interest and awake curiosity. It means that you are going to gain some of the customers that belong to the 66% that weren’t your original target customers but suddenly also some of them will decide to become your customers just because you are different (interesting) compared to the other boring classical beauty salon/SPA.
Talking about it- as a digital photography freak, even I consider buying a LOMO just because it is fun and makes me curious to see the outcome of those funny pictures (I wouldn’t consider buying a “regular” predicted film camera!!!)
Be brave and be different. Stick strictly to selling BIONOME healthy skincare. Consider seriously to become a Point Of Skin beauty salon/SPA. Don’t be afraid of what you may loose but start to be happy and celebrate what you are going to gain.
1 youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd-fufbjeo0&feature=related
2 youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4Hu-YN2qU&feature=related
3 youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN6OttpMss4&feature=related
4 youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwt9I5THXLA&feature=related
5 youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFcdtHItiBU&feature=related
6 youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWyZD0AWyx8&feature=related
7 youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjV2qCmiBwQ&feature=related
Published by: admin on February 23rd, 2010 | Filed under Uncategorized
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A NEW BUSINESS IDEA EVERY 5 SECONDS
Many businesses “get stuck” and run out of NEW business ideas. This is a normal situation as you “are stuck” in the situation and you see things through your personal perspective and your personal filters.
You tend to “kill” many NEW business ideas even before completing to think about them as you AUTOMATICALLY FILTER those NEW BUSINESS IDEAS through your personal “financial filter” (It is impossible, it is expensive, too complicated….not now/maybe later etc…).
However, the truth is that there are endless NEW BUSINESS IDEAS that you can start implementing!
In order to break this vicious circle of having no ideas…I suggest doing the following:
Read the book “the idea generator”.
Make a team meeting with your staff and ask them to contribute their own business ideas. Your staff sees your business from a totally different perspective and therefore, their ideas might be useful for you.
Ask your family and friends to contribute their own business ideas, ask them “what they would do if they owned your business”. Your family and fiends who work in other business categories see your business from a totally different perspective and therefore, their ideas that are based on their experience with other business categories might be extremely useful for you.
During my recent trip to Finland, I tried one of the “idea generator” principles. I asked Ansu (the owner of Point Of Skin Savolinna) to gather her staff for a 3 minute staff meeting.
It took a minute to hand out to the staff an A4 paper and a pen and explain the task. It took an additional 2 minutes to complete the task (all together a 3 minute staff meeting).
The task was: “You have exactly 120 seconds to write down your ideas about: how to get new customers”.
The outcome was- 25 NEW BUSINESS IDEAS. It took about 5 seconds to generate a NEW BUSINESS IDEA.
Keep up the pressure – it is essential to keep up the time pressure and stop at 120 seconds. This is extremely essential as, as the longer you take the more filters occur that don’t allow you to generate new ideas. The race against time is the race against the appearance of the filters that stop you from thinking freely.
If you practice this method, you have to start to decrease the time (the 120 seconds) as your filters get used to this time session of 120 seconds and start to appear earlier than usual.
Different questions – more ideas: each time change the questions and start the 120 seconds race. i.e.
- How can I improve my customer service?
- How can I shorten my delivery time?
- How can I improve the sales per customer (customer share) etc…
You will be amazed at how many new business ideas will flow from your staff, family and friends (within 120 seconds or less).
This is also a great “inside out marketing” exercise. Your staff will feel connected (justifiably) as well as much more responsible for the success of the NEW BUSINESS IDEAS that they have contributed to.
PS – you can even involve your best customers in the 120 seconds race for NEW BUSINESS IDEAS
Published by: admin on February 22nd, 2010 | Filed under Uncategorized
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BRAND IT OR LEAVE IT
It doesn’t matter how good you are, how great your winning strategy is if no one knows about you (Or about your winning strategy). You need to build your Brand awareness.
It doesn’t matter if you are on facebook, twitter or any other social media platform if you don’t actively build your BRAND AWARENESS.
Being on the social media networks and just posting advertisement, promotions and “irresistible offers” doesn’t make you stand out as so many others do the same. You first need to build your Brand awareness. You need to post quality content.
I am working on the BRAND AWARENESS with the 3 beauty salons that I have adopted.
ANSU from Point Of Skin Savolinna answers “live” The 10 Questions that customers should ask but don’t… This is what I call “quality content”. ANSU is busy building strong brand awareness.
Some people think/say that “mouth to mouth” is the best advertisement. If this is the case, giving your customers the link to your “quality content videos” will make it easier for them to forward this link to their friends and colleges and spread the word/link about you.
I strongly suggest that you do the same. Shoot your quality content videos that answer the open questions that customers forget to ask AND POST THEM on YouTube and the other important social media platforms. See the questions below and see ANSUS VIDEO at the end of this Post.
The 10 Questions that customers should ask but don’t…
These are the most important questions that a consumer can ask prior to purchasing skincare. Questions that should change the way he/she purchases products forever!
1) What is the difference between Bionome products and so called “natural” products?
As mentioned previously natural products are not necessarily beneficial for the skin and in some cases may even cause allergies. This is often the case as “natural” products are not necessarily skin compatible. Bionome products on the other hand are products that contain only ingredients that are completely skin compatible or are skin Identical. They are always environmentally friendly (no paper packaging is used) and animal friendly (no animal ingredients are used). Bionome products are always free of:
Fragrance
Colorants
Mineral oils
Animal derivatives
Chemical sunscreens
Chemical preservatives
Unnecessary paper packaging
Abiding to the above principles guarantees the user of Bionome products absolutely healthy and safe skincare for her/him and the whole family. What could be more important!
To what risks am I, my family and friends exposed if:
2) I use skincare that contains chemical preservatives?
3) I use skincare that contains chemical sunscreens?
4) I use skincare that contains fragrance?
5) I use skincare that contains chemical colorants?
6) I use skincare that contains mineral oils when I can use products that contain healthy vegetable oils?
7) Why should I never pay for skincare wrapped in paper packaging?
8) How can I ensure (test/check) if my skincare is safe, effective and worth buying? What instruments can I use to check this important issue? SkinKa, Skin analysis, ICi Dictionary and Questionaire
9) Why Should I avoid purchasing ingredients over a counter and insist on having an analysis done by an authorised Skinologist prior to buying my skincare?
10) Why is Dr. Baumann the best skincare and SkinIdent the ultimate beneficial skincare?
Published by: admin on February 21st, 2010 | Filed under Uncategorized
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CRAZY ABOUT MARY – FLIP YOUR SALES
Mary Tange is the owner of Apricot Beauty salon from Munich Germany. Mary is also the first Point Of Skin beauty salon in Germany.(Starting this month).
I met Mary Tange at the Skincare millionaire seminar in April 2007. Since then, Mary did significant changes in her business.
One of the many changes was that Mary changed the focus of her business from treatment to retail. The following charts demonstrate the results:
Chart A – Tabulator A shows the general growth in sales between: 2008 to 2009. As you can see, Mary grew by about 8%. This growth was achieved during the economic crisis of 2008-2009!!!
Chart B– Tabulator B shows the general growth in RETAIL sales between: 2008 to 2009. As you can see, Mary grew by about 19,2%. Also this growth was achieved during the economic crisis of 2008-2009!!!
See the sales charts here Download 2008 2009 SALES
The interesting point (in case you didn’t notice) – at the beginning of 2008 (about 8 months after the millionaire seminar) Mary was already retailing 78% of her entire sales (including treatments). If you follow Mary’s progress, you will see that by the end of 2009, Mary was retailing nearly 90% of her entire sales (including treatments).
When you look at the classical sales of most beauty salons/SPA, you will find out that the RETAIL SALES are about 20% of the entire sales while the treatments take about 80% of the entire sales.
Summary – most beauty salons/SPA around the world suffer from lack of RETAIL SALES. This means that customers who visit beauty salons/SPAS come for the treatments and purchase the skincare products at the shops. This is of course a great pity seeing that the beauty salon/SPAS loose most of the customer’s budget for homecare products (skincare products) and leave this RETAIL budget to be spent at their competitors, meaning, at the cosmetic shops.
THE CORE PROBLEMS in this case (of loosing retail sales) are the following:
1. The customers don’t understand the difference between the products that you retail to the ones that are sold in the cosmetic shops.
2. The customer thinks/believes that there is no difference between the products that you sell to the ones that are sold in the shops.
3. The customers aren’t offered a “good deal” or “irresistible offers” as the cosmetic shops do.
4. The customers don’t position you (in their mind) as an expert in prescribing professional skincare but positions you as an expert in doing treatments.
5. The customers don’t trust that you offer them the best value for their money.
6. You don’t know how to close the sale – you lack the knowledge of sales skills.
7. Customers who visit the shops in order to buy “other products” that you don’t retail (at the moment) and are exposed to “temptations” to buy skincare while they are already in the shops…
Here is what Mary did:
1. The customers don’t understand the difference between the products that you retail to the ones that are sold in the cosmetic shops. Mary retails exclusively the Dr.Baumann skincare ranges and focuses on the unbeatable SkinIdent line. Customers can not find similar products in the shops. Mary concentrates in explaining the difference between the Dr.Baumann skincare lines to the ones that are retailed in the cosmetic shops.
2. The customer thinks/believes that there is no difference between the products that you sell to the ones that are sold in the shops. Mary concentrates in explaining the difference between the Dr.Baumann skincare lines to the ones that are retailed in the cosmetic shops. By doing so, the customers change their “old understanding” and adopt the “new understanding” that there is a clear difference between what Mary retails to what is sold in the cosmetic shops.
3. The customers aren’t offered a “good deal” or “irresistible offers” as the cosmetic shops do. Mary constantly offers “irresistible offers”. Mary uses the special offers that Dr.Baumann offers each month and passes those special offers to her customers. Mary doesn’t “buy cheap” from Dr.Baumann and sells them for a full price. In other words, Mary passes the promotions directly to her customers.
4. The customers don’t position you (in their mind) as an expert in prescribing professional skincare but positions you as an expert in doing treatments. Mary uses the Dr.Baumann cosmetic MANAGER software that “prescribes skincare according to skin problems” in addition to her long experience as a cosmetician.
5. The customers don’t trust that you offer them the best value for their money. Mary offers the Dr.Baumann 100% satisfaction guarantee. This means, that customers are informed that they can claim their money back in case that they don’t see visible results within 3-5 weeks. This builds extra trust!!!
6. You don’t know how to close the sale – you lack the knowledge of sales skills. Mary visited all the Dr.Baumann trainings and especially the sales training led by Dr.Henrich.
7. Customers who visit the shops in order to buy “other products” that you don’t retail (at the moment) and are exposed to “temptations” to buy skincare while they are already in the shops… Mary stocks about 11000 EURO of Dr.Baumann products. This means that Mary retails the entire Dr.Bauman product ranges (over 400 items). This allows Mary to offer skincare solutions from top to toe. Mary doesn’t just sell face care, but, Mary sells everything that a customer needs. This enables Mary to have more “customers share” additional to more “market share”. In simple words, having sufficient retail products makes the customers spend more money at Mary instead of spending it in the shops (her competition).
Also you can “flip your sales” and increase your retail sales by 300%-400% if you do what Mary does!
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- Differentiate your business from the competition by retailing Dr.Baumann skincare.
- Learn the sales skills
- Read and do exactly what Mary does.
Meet Mary Tange
Published by: admin on February 20th, 2010 | Filed under Uncategorized
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CHECK MATE 52 TIMES IN A ROW
I have discussed with the 2 Point Of Skin beauty salons from Finland (which I have adopted) about the annual activity/event calendar of Point Of Skin Finland. I mentioned that we will build a set of 52 communication packs that…
More: continued here
Published by: admin on February 18th, 2010 | Filed under Uncategorized
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MINUS 10 IS YOUR SALES OPPORTUNITY
Just returned from freezing Finland, the outdoor temperature was about minus 10 Celsius! (Last visit in December it was minus 24)
I read on the plane that sales of cosmetic cream in Finland rose dramatically as consumers insist on spending time outdoors.
So, also the weather is a “sales opportunity” that you shouldn’t miss out on.
I suggest that you quickly put together a newsletter (and send it out to your customers) underlining the potential skin damage that such cold weather can cause.
Finland is facing the biggest freeze in the last 20 years (and more) and the same situation is relevant to the rest of Europe and other countries around the globe.
We will post our own newsletter in this regard tomorrow.
Keeping customers informed in regard to “potential damage” and the ways to protect themselves is a part of every business. It isn’t just a sales opportunity but what customers expect you to do for them (as an expert).
Your newsletter should contain the description of the problem and the ways (products and treatments) you suggest may be implemented in order to prevent the damage from occurring.
Weather is a sales opportunity!!!!!!!!!
You can find additional information (see the links bellow) in regard to the Risk factors and cold exposure injury…
http://health.yahoo.com/emergency-overview/cold-temperature-exposure/healthwise–colde.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2689_131/ai_92691035/
http://www.skinhelp.co.uk/LookingAfterSkinDuringColdWeather.html
http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/safety/hypocold.shtml
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/cold_humans.htm
Published by: admin on February 17th, 2010 | Filed under Uncategorized
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Use McDonald’s wisdom as your competitive advantage
McDonald’s dominated the Fast, cheap and tasty food market until their business declined. The reason to McDonald’s business decline was that fast, cheap and tasty became obvious (a standard expectation) and they sort of lost their competitive advantage. So, In…
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Published by: admin on February 9th, 2010 | Filed under Uncategorized
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THE GIFT OF GIVING
This is my reply to a comment that comes from Hungary and is related to the MY “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” PRESENTS Post. Therefore, I suggest that you first read this “MY “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” PRESENTS Post before reading my reply (bellow). Here…
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Published by: admin on February 9th, 2010 | Filed under Uncategorized
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A WHOLE WAY OF BEING or nothing!!!
Alev and Mehment (from Istanbul) run their business “bmeal-the whole way of being” in a very unique way (strategy), they don’t accept everyone as a customer!!! bmeal is a RAW VEGAN business that offers both ready made RAW VEGAN foods,…
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Published by: admin on February 8th, 2010 | Filed under Uncategorized
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