We were thrilled to discover the book "The Design of Business," as it eloquently summarized the important and necessary steps to maintain a competitive advantage through innovation.

Great design is more than the extraordinary composition of creative elements; it is a process of originating and developing long term goals and solutions from insights and a carefully constructed strategy, all with measurable results.

As the market continues to shift from awareness to relationship driven marketing, design in every sense of the word is the key to differentiation.

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Retailers are significantly growing private label shelf space and share by leaving only the strongest CGP brands to pull in traffic, then trumping the CPG efforts with increasing price differentials between CPGs and private labels.

So, who wins and who loses with this scenario?

• Private label manufacturers continue to grow with little to no investment cost beyond expanding their manufacturing bases and associated costs with fulfilling new orders.
• Consumers get better prices, less selection and arguably lower quality.
• CPG companies are left with the privilege of funding a long term strategic shift that ultimately leads to overall category compression. Even if they win, their vitality in the category has to be questioned.
• Retailers get simplified shelf sets that lead to lower overall costs and better margins. But under a hyper compressed version of this model in the US, only Walmart wins. Here's why;
  

If a CPG wins a category "jump ball" because they spend more money on marketing to drive customers to a retailer's shelf, cut their margins in exchange for greater volume, and then find themselves sitting on the shelf as the only name brand next to a private label, with more "jump balls" on the horizon, over time the effort isn't worth the spend.

What's a CPG company to do when it's category is under the microscope with a major retailer?

The logical solution is to pick and choose their best retail customers and retool their models based on profits vs. share and volume.
The millions of dollars that must be spent to maintain a retail client, with the on-going chance of getting d-listed, can be better spent growing profitable businesses elsewhere.

As this trend continues, CPG companies will have more lessons under their belt and will begin to pick and choose the battles they have the highest probability of winning. In a perfect retail scenario many categories will become exclusively private label and CPG brand margins will be squashed.But if that continues as a trend over the long haul in the US, Walmart wins all the business away from other retailers, because other retailers cannot compete against their volume and purchasing power.

What other differentiators are out there that a retailer can use to survive against Walmart?

Quality, Selection, Service, Location and Technology.

Smart retailers are now considering the overall health of their shelf set and partnering with brands to solve their biggest challenges. Those that don't, and simply follow the private label, price compression model are signing themselves up for a challenge they cannot win, unless they can trump Walmart on service, location and technology.

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Moosylvania would like to congratulate Costa Farms on their award-winning booth at the 2010 Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition (TPIE). As the most extensive marketplace for tropical plants, the 2010 TPIE was the perfect environment for Costa Farms to show their true colors.
 
The challenge Moosylvania received from Costa Farms was to develop a unique and compelling display booth for the 2010 show. The final concept “The Evolution Of Time” highlighted the range of offerings Costa Farms offers their consumers. Moosylvania concepted, designed and executed the tradeshow booth which recreated some of the dramatic and interesting time periods, from prehistoric palms to futuristic Aqualok, that gave birth to the popular plants of today.

In keeping with our digital focus, Moosylvania integrated social networking via Costa Farm's Twitter account to provide live updates to educate consumers, attendees of the show and employees throughout the show.  

 Go to the Direct News Site

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Moosylvania releases the fourth XL Marketing Trends Report - Organic SEO. The report explains organic search and gives strategies for improving a website's rank in search engines.

Read more about our report in Yahoo! Finance: Click Here

Robert Bishop attended the first SEO Training class offered by Buzzhound Learning Lab on January 15.

 Click Here to Read His Feedback

Buzzhound Learning Lab opens it's doors for the first group of business owners, marketers and web professionals. STL Today interviews founder of Buzzhound and CEO of Moosylvania, Norty Cohen, to discuss the grand opening of his SEO training classes.

Read Full Article in STL Today

Register for a class at their St. Louis office at 7303 Marietta, Ave. Visit their site at www.BuzzHoundLearningLab.com for more information. 

 

Buzzhound Learning Lab trains business owners, marketers and web professionals to effectively utilize organic search engine optimization and paid search to grow business through a hands-on teaching approach in an interactive lab.

With a student teacher ratio of 5:1, classes teach the everyday business owner to increase site traffic, increase ranking in search engines and ultimately create conversion by the proper use of keywords, site submissions, link building and more. 

Classes begin January 15th at their St. Louis office at 7303 Marietta, Ave. Visit their site at www.BuzzHoundLearningLab.com to register.

Make sure to check out Buzzhound's latest Blog post: 

TOP TEN QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR WEBSITE IN 2010

 

 

 

Google's Android Platform, regardless of who manufactures it, already trumps iPhone in distribution in the US. Google will continue to push smart phone advancements. If it doesn't, it will be extinct in a few short years, here's why;

Smart phones will outnumber computers in the US in the first half of 2010. A Deloitte survey just released found - 39% of 18 to 29 year-olds planned to use smart phones for holiday shopping in the US and the number is only going to expand at an accelerated rate as a record number of smart phones are being purchased right now.

GPS and Blue tooth proximity based messaging with augmented overlays on video enhanced cameras, combined with snap tag information, real time on-line comparison shopping and instant coupons connect the web with packaging, point of purchase, store shops and even routes to the store, all in real time one-one-one communication.

Consumer consumption for all things web has been running at 3-4 years ahead of marketers' spend, simply because marketers haven't been sophisticated enough to catch up. This chasm has made marketing spend on the web value priced. Now the mobile web is coming on board at a 3G pace, and consumption is already well ahead of anything anticipated.

Significantly faster 4G is just beginning to come on and the lightening speed of 700 Mhz, the old TV spectrum, was slated for now, however, the new administration doesn't think it is appropriate to simply unleash it on the open market, because it's too advanced.

The US Federal Government auction for the 700 Mhz spectrum took place in 2008 with the top bidders being AT&T, Verizon, Craig McCaw's consortium that included Sprint and T-Mobile, Cablevision regionally, and Google.

Google asked and was granted that if any bid for spectrum came in over $4B, then the access provider for the spectrum could be switched at a moments notice on any device (open platform) for the best price. This would make carrier exclusive phones, even the iPhone, and cable set top boxes, a thing of the past.

This scenario would create an environment where app bots continuously shop for the lowest access cost for spectrum and immediately switch to the best provider, similar to roaming on a cell phone.

A scenario like this will lead to price compression in exchange for locked-in connectivity that guarantees sizable audiences for advertisers. Equipment will become a commodity that is driven by open source developers. Sitting atop this food chain?, Google and few other developers/search giants/ad networks.

That's why every marketer needs a mobile strategy right now. The $1B anticipated in mobile media spend in 2010, should be 3-4x that. Additionally, the majority of spend in the space should not be media. It should be on the development of content and interaction with customers. Very soon mobile will be the primary way consumers access and interact with the web.

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Innovation is essential for CPG companies to bring forth more value and to hold their market share at retail.

Retail private labels have been gulping up turf that won't easily be given back.

Two advantages CPG's have over retail brands are innovation and branded voice.

Retail brands tend to lag and follow on innovation and rely on existing customer traffic and store fliers for their media vs. proactive media.

These two differences are beginning to change as retailers are getting savvier in marketing their private labels. These two intrinsic values are how CPG branded products differentiate themselves for consumers and retailers vs. private labels.

So, what are CPGers waiting for?
Slashing innovation and share of voice are only going to make their best customers more and more their best competitors.

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