Polish your mind by network...

最近看书或是阅读网页文字，记录le下面一些语句。

1) Fear is good, fear is a powerful motivator.

2) Sustainable thinking is a matter of many small steps.
3) The future is now, it is just not evenly distributed.
4) Treat others as you would like to be treated.
5) If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thought, feel my feeling, and speak my words.

金错刀在博客中对摩托罗拉CEO詹德的下台做了分析，非常认同他的三点分析：见詹德的下台之谜

当看到“从企业文化变革的角度看，詹德对摩托罗拉的“破坏性”不够强”，我忽然理解了公司的很多动作。相较内部文化，企业无论在战略，还是技术/市场上的灵活性都可以做强做好，唯独企业文化是一座异常坚实的堡垒，难以攻破。

有很多人说CEO距离我们非常遥远（尤其是对于那些在跨国企业工作的人们来说），但只要细心我们还是能从公司每一项大的政策其计划，调整和执行看出CEO所指方向，尤其是在当下这一信息互享的爆炸时代。

在一个繁冗的大机构，人们会说那里卧虎藏龙，但是企业的滞后增长有时却不是因为缺少有才华的人，缺乏的是卓有成效的变革。如果企业间的变革能够通过整合其他公司来实现，或是在整合其他大公司的同时实现变革，这除了能验证所担风险带来的价值，更是在验证CEO的魄力。

无论是企业变革还是企业间的整合都迫使个人要多几分居安思危的意识，增强个人核心竞争力－无论是软实力还是真功夫。CEO也变的离大家并不遥远......

 

我现在已经很少买书，更多的是在电脑前看一些评论。但最近忽然觉得可以利用一些时间：把一本值得阅读的书刊或杂志放在包里，出差候机的时候拿出来翻阅，乘巴士或者火车的时候也可以一边读书一边消耗苦等的时间。以前那些百无聊赖的时刻用读书来安顿感觉更舒服。

10月末通过卓越网购买了金错刀的新书《鱼向反方向游》。书中内容分6个专辑，分别是“反方向游才能与众不同”，“10倍速的力量：互联网”，“开动你的右脑”，“亮剑精神”，“个人危机攻关”，“快就是慢”。作者通过一些案例旨在讲述如何打造个人品牌2.0。通俗一点说，本书讲述了在Web 2.0时代，我们个人为什么要转变思维模式，应该如何转变思维模式。

虽然作者已经在他的博客中发表过书中大多案例，但是《鱼向反方向游》还是很值得闲暇时候拿出来翻阅。本书好在：作者将一些精英，明星，或是名人的才智做了汇总和分析，而精英，明星，或是名人所总结出来的心经也集结在书中。专栏作家/评论家将所涉猎的信息，人和事加以精炼，呈现给读者的也算是精华部分。

Dr. Howard是非常典型的犹太人。他精力充沛，勤奋，坚持，即使在学术领域，也会保持犹太人一贯的商业思维。这么多年，他著述之多足以证明此人的勤奋。他不遗余力的推销自己的一些理论和方法，从不忌讳也不放弃从细小之处影响和瓦解周遭。他傲慢并轻视那些懒散的说辞家，他偏爱一些勤奋，充满希望的年轻人。很难想象，在一年365天的任何时候发电邮给他，在5分钟之内您总是能收到回复。这样的“奇异”令人匪夷所思。

然而，如同大多犹太人，他做事的目的性和功利心强，因而在他所涉及的领域，一些学院派者或许会与之有所分歧。他不是完全意义上的学术家，研究者或商业思维者，他更多像是一位融学术与商业思维于一体的前行者entrepreneur。

至今，HRM著书16本，发表论文300多篇，是多种期刊杂志的编委，并在世界各地演讲。以下是他的几本比较有影响力的著作，合适快消品行业的市场工作者，研发人员阅读学习。

Zespri奇异果已经在中国大陆开始了不遗余力的品牌推广：06下半年以来，在沪上一些报纸以及流行的女士杂志上可以频见佳沛的宣传，在卖场，部分消费者也会因价格突出而关注到佳沛。

早在读书时候，我曾经在搜索其它信息时了解到新西兰的奇异果种植状况，知道佳沛在台湾地区已经是一个知名品牌。03年时候，对于中国大陆市场，佳沛应该还没有开始征途。如今，由台湾人带领的大陆市场启航者绝不可能放手这样巨大的市场。Zespri目前定位应该还是一些省会级城市的高端消费者，只是产品价格在水果之中可谓“昂贵”，要赢得大家的“荷包”着实还是难题...（跟踪一段时间kankan... ）

产品星级：☆☆☆☆   推广力度：☆☆☆☆

1) Zespri奇异果在感官上质量确实优于国产猕猴桃，因为国产猕猴头在货架上的状态总是不能达到“软硬适中”，另外产品安全方面国产水果总是被低估。
2) 品牌推广中举牌“营养＋健康”，能够打动人心。
3) 明星助阵代言Fresh Produce相对少见，提升Zespri品牌时尚感觉。(Zespri明星助阵的活动做是做了，但是“广播”范围太小，曝光程度不够。)
4) 最难评估的是消费在价格和产品质量上的trade-off：以优质营养为卖点，外加“晶莹代言”，让人心动的可能性很大，但最好看到产品在价格上作出优惠。
5) 销售渠道：卖场＋网路？

6) 一个新鲜的品牌做到吸引部分眼球不难，困难的是怎样巩固它在消费者“心智”中的分量。

                                      

                                                             高圆圆和袁泉...两人都有些晶莹剔透的感觉
                     
相关链接：Zespri 中国 http://www.zespri.com.cn ；猕猴桃摇身变高档奇异果――新西兰黄金奇异果公关策略；小莘菲New Zealand Zespri Kiwifruit 广告 

Category Appraisal是70年代于美国建立并发展起来的市场研究手段。它主要通过对同一品类的产品特性进行定量描述分析，然后就这一系列的产品做消费者喜好评估。将定量描述分析的数据与消费者喜好评分做数据关联，可以了解

1）哪些特性能够显著影响消费者对产品的总体偏好? Which product attributes drive liking?

2）是否存在不同的消费人群，他们分别爱好不同特性的产品？如何界定这些不同的消费者群组（消费者细分）？哪些特定的产品属性赢得了这一部分人的偏爱？Are there different consumer segments that like different grouping of products?

Category Appraisal 的概念简单易懂，应用起来也不会让人感觉到需要庞大的统计知识做背景。一个好的应用工具或者试验方法，应该“以简单易懂为本”。

By Marsha Lindsay

Published: June 04, 2007

 

The evolution of our mature marketplace, along with the technology that allows consumers to be in control, has created a seismic shift from one-size-fits-all mass markets to millions of markets of self interest. All mature markets inevitably evolve into this kind of economy, driven by ever-narrower markets of desire and ever-narrower facets of individual self-identities.

Tech help
Of course, narrower targeting is not a new concept. But today, technology encourages and enables it. Marketers are empowered by more-detailed consumer data, able to micro-target messages, interactively engage consumers with a whole new level of intimacy and frequency, and customize to consumer specs with small-batch manufacturing and new distribution options.

This evolution has brought about a revolution in the economic model we're all working in regardless of the category in which we compete. As Best Buy, Intuit, Sundance Cinema, Method and others are proving, the really stunning nature of this new economy is how nonmass markets now rival or exceed mass markets in their economic potential.

How do Booz Allen, The Economist, academics and even the popular press now refer to this permanent economic shift in brand strategy? They call it niche marketing. "Niche" is derived from the Latin word for "nest." The inference of marketing as something that helps individuals feel snug and in harmony with their self concept is the antithesis of the old economy's marketing to the lowest common denominator.

Today, niche also means something different from marketing segmentation. While segmentation looks for similarities among a diverse group, niching looks for differences within a similar group. It then finds opportunities to customize products and services to the narrow interests of each niche. In this way, nichemanship is a complement to segmentation. In fact, you could call it optimized segmentation.

The smallest nest
The brands that will survive and thrive in the new economy will be those that give up illusions of massiveness and figure out how to excel at attracting and keeping loyal as narrowly focused a niche as is economically feasible.

It's not just that technology enables and requires it. It's because consumers who have experienced ever-greater levels of having their self-interests met by a niche provider never again settle for anything less. (You know mass marketing has heard its death knell when even a senior Wal-Mart official admits that "no customer today will stand to be treated as part of a mass market anymore.")

That's why, no matter what category you're in, the future of marketing is niche marketing. It cannot be stereotyped as irrelevant.

In fact, those who ignore niche marketing will experience loss of share, margin and profitability; their value propositions simply will be less relevant than those of competitors. For those slow to adopt niche marketing, the future also is bleak. Attempts to recoup share will be difficult because competitors will have preemptively established closer customer relationships.

Turtles finish last
It's pure survival of the fittest -- but with technology such as DVRs and the world "live" web it will feel like economic Darwinism at the speed of light. The only marketers that survive and thrive will be those that quickly embrace the principles of this new economy's nichecraft.

Of course, an impressive list of brands in every category of business already get that "niching" is the competitive strategy of the day. These include PepsiCo, Kohler, Hallmark, Crocs, Annie's Homegrown, Red Bull, American Girl, Clorox, University Islamic Bank, Shouldice Hospital, Fair Indigo, Unilever's Axe, Target, Crate & Barrel and Hewlett-Packard.

All these companies -- from legacy brands to start-ups -- have the same business objectives: improved share, margins and profits; faster growth; and the ever-higher returns demanded by investors. That they are turning to niche marketing to deliver on these objectives should tell you one very important thing: They believe that the mature marketplace and resulting new economic model require new means of achieving the universal goals of all business.

While the classic definition of niche marketing -- the targeting of a more narrowly defined customer group seeking a distinctive mix of benefits -- still rings true, it no longer implies what it did five or ten years ago: A small, low-volume, erratic market opportunity that is transactional, likely unsustainable and unscalable -- a course taken by less sophisticated businesses.

In contrast, the new meaning of niche marketing is quite positive. The Economist argues that the very definition of a flourishing economy today is one rich with niches.

Glut of niches
There are many reasons for this esteem, the first of which is that a niche's size no longer has the same limitations of magnitude as in the past. In fact, today niches come in many sizes. Yes, some are small, like those described in Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail." But many can be quite large, like the million-customer "mega niche" described in a recent Wired magazine feature. Especially heartening is that many niche brands already represent hundreds of millions in annual sales. Some niches target a narrow interest that becomes the next big trend, disrupting a whole category. Target, Starbucks and Apple, when they started, were all believed to target a narrow passion of seemingly limited potential.

So rather than equating niche with "small," think "narrow." As in narrowly targeting a group whose self interest/self concept is so clear that a marketer can offer something ultrarelevant and vastly different from alternatives. Then the scarcity principle allows the marketer to charge a premium, reaping higher margins.

Offerings that resonate with the target for which there are few alternatives create a loyal customer base with all the benefits: more predictable revenue streams, lifetime value and word-of-mouth advocacy on your behalf. This, along with consumer-generated content and online communities, create marketing efficiencies that further drive growth and profitability.

In all these ways, the value of niche marketing today is so different from the old stereotype of a marginal business opportunity. Some of its best practices have changed as well.

Smaller targets, larger focus
Ten years ago, the medium was still the message. Eight years ago, we could still think of the 4P's -- product, pricing, place, promotion -- as essentially independent strategies. Five years ago, everyone started to buzz about customer-relationship marketing. About two years ago, we got really excited about digital-marketing tactics and started to apply them without any real strategic purpose. All this has changed.

So what's really new about the new niche marketing? It's realizing that while our targets have to narrow, our definition of marketing communications has to broaden. Today, everything communicates what a brand stands for, all the time.

It's like the old saying: If you are on the wrong train to begin with, every stop along the way is the wrong stop.

So how do you get on the right train? Ask the niche for directions.  

Sensory Science（感官科学）已经从早期传统的Sensory Evaluation, Sensory Analysis发展为一门应用层面非常广泛的交叉学科。它涉及食品科学与技术，心理/生理学，统计学，生物学，消费者科学，材料科学（Textile/Fabrics），市场研究，以及其它一些相关领域。

 

食品饮料制造企业，化妆品制造商，造酒厂，食品配料制造厂需要应用感官科学/Sensory支持质量控制，新产品开发，试验设计，统计分析以及消费者调研。而Sensory专业人员需要不断关注感官科学的新发展与应用，包括

1) 女性人数(71%)显著大于男性(29%)，学历以硕士水平(53%)居多，其次为博士（26％）

2）工作的领域和范畴包括University,Business, Research, Product Testing, Consumer Research /Insight,Research Guidance, Descriptive  Analysis,Narrative/Ethnol/Observation, Other.

3) 工作职能隶属于Sensory （58％），Product Development（20％），Marketing research （8%），Marketing（4％）...
4）这些接受调查的Sensory人员69％的人是在北美，18％在欧洲，8％在亚洲

5）56％的人在食品饮料行业工作，10％的人从事咨询工作，7％的人在教育行业工作，4％在制药行业，2％在汽车制造行业，另外是一些化妆品，造纸等行业...

1）大多从业人员使用定量描述检验（Quantitative Descriptive Test）,情感测试（Affective）以及区别检验（ Discrimination Testing）方法

2）基于这三类方法被使用的比列和数量，大家情况相当

3）较少应用定性和观察方法，较少考虑人类身体因素以外的其它（心理，情感等）因素

Sensory对新产品开发的影响 / Impact of Sensory on Development of Better Products 

有93%的Sensory专业人员完全或基本同意说“感官科学能够帮助公司开发更能满足消费者需求和满足消费者期望的新产品。Sensory已经成为她们所属企业的一个关键领域。”然而，她们认为仅有71％的同事和71％的管理层认同这一观点。

 

仅有40％的Sensory专业人员非常满意自己对公司在做项目决策时的影响力，仅有40％的人认为Sensory在影响新产品开发过程中的某些决策时并不困难。

 

Sensory专业人员强调说：“基于生意的发展，了解消费者和不断的创新也是Sensory领域发展的需求。”

 

1) Academic Perspective / 学院派  

    Focused on data analysis and implications, knowledge and being an expert

 2) Guidance Perspective / 重要指导地位

     Focused on vision, guidance, and creativity through sensory

3) Business Builder Perspective/ 领导者  

    Focused on translating and delivering financial value through sensory  

看到Paulk Christ这篇日志，忽然想起Howard之前的PPT:"What The Marketing Research Executive Looks For..." 一些战斗在商业前线，对职场政治现已呈俯视姿态的年长者提出一席建议，对正在奉献青春的年青人来说着实宝贵！

This is an active time in the job market as new college graduates seek to enter the work force and experienced workers see more marketing opportunities opening at other employers thanks to a fairly robust economy in the U.S. and other countries.  For those looking for work I thought I’d post some advice that I recently gave to a former graduate student of mine who is looking to expand his career by seeking a higher level position at a different firm.

I ran into this person at an alumni function and he mentioned that as part of the job hunting process several companies were asking him to provide a written statement explaining why he wants to work for their company.  In most cases this statement was being requested before the company began the interviewing process, so it must be assumed it is being used as part of applicant screening.

Here is the advice I gave to him.  For anyone facing the same situation keep in mind that potential employers are probably not looking for a statement that is highly detailed and may even request that you limit your response to one or two paragraphs.  So keep it short and to the point.

Focus on what you will bring to the position and how your knowledge, skills and experiences (KS&E) will benefit the organization.  Limit your discussion to KS&E that are relevant to a particular position, company or industry.  For instance, if your experience has been in sales but you are now applying for a marketing management position then discuss the elements of your sales experience that are most relevant to the marketing position such as: ability to formulate strategy,  presentation skills, development of promotional materials given to sales clients, budgeting responsibilities, etc. 

Suggest some things that show what interests you have in the position and the company.  For instance, offer a short story of how you first became aware of the company and why it attracted your attention.  The key is to convince the person reading your statement that you are not just job hunting for the sake of getting a job but that this company stirs your interest with something they do that really appeals to you.  Make sure whatever you identify as appealing matches with the KS&E mentioned in #1.

Include a statement that indicates that you know the market by showing evidence that you actively researched the company, its products and its competitors.  Again, you have limited space so get right to the point such as: “As one of the top three companies in a market projected to double in size in the next two years I view this position as an outstanding opportunity.“ Don’t say anything negative about the company like “I don’t feel the products have been properly marketed.” Be more positive such as: “I believe the company has a good product and my efforts will be directed at strengthening the product’s position in the market.“  The rationale for this is that no one likes to be blatantly told they (i.e., the company) are doing things wrong and that you are just the right person who can fix the problems.  So offering a more tactful statement that straddles between “there some good things going on here” and “things can be improved” is a wiser approach.

For all items listed above make sure to couch these in terms of how you will be a good “fit” within the company rather than suggesting that you will help “shake things up.”  While some companies may be looking for someone who brings something different to the company they also want people who can work with others.

Remember the objective of providing this information is to get to the next stage of the job selection process.  Offering specific ideas of how you will do things if hired (e.g., suggestions for introducing a product in a new market) is probably better left to the next stage.  For now focus on presenting yourself as someone who possess the potential for filling the employer’s need in a way that will make them curious to learn more.