Your Office Productivity
Services future is NOW!

BREAKTHROUGH’s
brilliant champions

Record ratings for cast endorsing

'Everywhere Commerce'

4 May’11 (Refreshed and Complete)

“Absolutely scintillating… stellar… brilliant... superb... inspirational… excellent… best ever attended” were just some of the quotes from delegates at the 6th Annual BREAKTHROUGH Marketing Conference at Kempton Park (UK) yesterday. Here is the full report (FREE) on the record equalling 84% approval rated event….

OPS resellers Michael Brown, CEO of HiTouch Business Services, HQ'd in New Jersey (US), Adam Noble of Irongate in Derby and Rachel Trueblood, VP brand and advertising for Staples gave terrific presentations for the new drivers of office productivity services.

Alan Ball, Spicers UK MD and Alex Tatham, sales and marketing chief for Westcoast gave powerful performances promising tremendous low-cost service support for reselllers in the years ahead.

Marketing and software service providers included: Ron Books/Trevor Gruenewald from industry #1 software house ECi; Damian Hanson from social and mobile marketing company One-iota; and Dennis Kramer of MPS software specialists PrintFleet.

Champions 'Sting' intro music by Chipmunk featuring Chris Brown

The 2011 sting was a melodic rap highlighting the champions in business including legends: Richard Branson of Virgin and Apple icon Steve Jobs.

In the OPS market it featured global #1 reseller Ron Sargent of Staples; Leo Meehan from US #1 independent reseller WBMason; Simon Moate from UK business services leader office2office; leading UK independents Mark Heath of Bluefish and Adam Noble of Irongate Group. Finally, Howard and Michael Brown from US business services pioneer HiTouch Business Services.

Peter Frost, CEO, Proficiency Group:

Market Review 2010; Megatrends 2011: Your OPS future is NOW

Frost introduced the theme of the conference ‘Your officer productivity services future is NOW’, then updated delegates on the US/UK market review for 2010 and Q1’11. The positive growth continued to be driven by the tech and furniture refresh in business and the strong FM supplies market.

Frost ran through the latest Proficiency Index Megatrends research and highlighted the following points:

• OP bigbox sales have declined $9Bn in 3 years or 17%
• Massmarketers e.g. Tesco, Costco and Amazon have taken a 10% market share
• User choosers now make 70% decisions v 30% buyers (from 60:40)
• Women in business make 84% of office buying decisions
• 75% of women want to buy online (only 50% can)
• Only 10% dealers can currently match the Amazon/Staples webstore experience
• Amazon and Staples were overwhelmingly preferred choices
• Only 30% of women in business could name local office supplier
• 55% of women in business ‘browse and buy’ online after 8pm
• Customer service experience: mass-marketers match local dealers
• Average spend per person increased to £800
• 30% of online spending in Q4’10 was made by smartphone
• Mobile workers off radar of buyers and work within personal budgets…less price conscious.
• Twitter promotions a key driving force to webstores
• Groupon coupons a growing influence on local marketing
• Sustainability/CSR commitments increasing e.g. Staples SOUL and Commercial towards a ‘leaner, cleaner, greener’ world.

Frost continuously supported his claim that the market should move beyond office products, beyond the buyer to reach the ultimate user chooser via the CFO to provide productivity services that ‘cut cost and cut carbon emissions’ for business clients

Michael Brown, CEO,  HiTouch Business Services.
The business services future from the US #1 independent provider

Michael ran through the history and background leading to the launch of HiTouch in May 2010. Origins dated back to Summit (NY) in the 70’s; to Allied in the 90’s to the sale to Office Depot in 2006.

Howard Brown, Michael’s father was the sales and marketing driving force that pioneered the introduction of FM services, coffee services, recycling, ad specialties and managed print services in the office market. Michael has been the operations chief driving the implementation of these productivity services.

HiTouch now comprises Rentacrate moving services, ShredX shredding services and MyOfficeProducts, acquired in November 2010 providing a strong foundation for growth towards $200m in 2011.

HiTouch represents the symbol of the new ‘OPS’ model. It continues to be the innovator, the pioneer, a driving force in new productivity services. It now has 200 sales people including specialists e.g. interiors, MPS. All have been trained and coached in single source presentation using iPads

Alan Ball, MD, Spicers UK
Value added services

from the UK’s #1 OP wholesaler

Alan ran through the recent transformations in sales, marketing and operations that have sharpened Spicers’ service and support to independent dealers.

In the 16 months since he joined the company, Alan has been preoccupied with turning around the loss-making UK division, cutting costs and adding much needed marketing services for dealers to compete effectively with a deeper and broader single source offering e.g. workplace and safety solutions, managed print services and attractive user focused promotions. All of this against a background of ‘for sale’ notices advertised by its packaging parent DavidSSmith.

Dealers found Alan’s comprehensive address solid and reassuring given the uncertainties of economic recovery and rumours surrounding the company. He gave details of increased people investment in contract sales, etailer development, MPS programmes, promotional campaigns and dealer management.

Adam Noble, MD, Irongate Group
The journey from OP dealer to leading UK business services provider

Adam has managed the successful evolution of a local Derby dealership to a Midlands region powerhouse full business services provider over a 20 years period. Sales have reached £16m ($26m) with 94 people.

Always looking to improve and add value Adam has turned Irongate into a full service design and print management company. An early adopter of single source supply management systems, Irongate now provides a full interiors furnishing service plus FM services.

The Irongate story presented by Adam was an inspiration in how to convert a basic office supplies company into a regional business services force by adopting new marketing ideas and tools. Adam has added Sales-I CRM and orchestrated marketing tools to drive attractive personalised emarketing campaigns managed by Debbie Hunt…see marketing manager profile below.

Dennis Kramer, Director, PrintFleet
Managed print Services (MPS) best practice insights

Dennis gave a master class in how OP dealers should convert successfully from a transactional toner cartridge supply model to a managed print service (MPS) contract model of ‘cost/page’.

First he highlighted the huge ‘hard and soft’ cost savings available to clients e.g. £14000 annually on a typical 100 printer fleet. Then he took delegates on the recommended first 60 days phased application journey. Dennis emphasised the use/recruitment of a print management specialist, clear compensation plans, targeting and monthly monitoring of KPi’s using the Printfleet optimiser software.

Finally, Dennis stressed the mindset change from ‘product price’ to a more secure ‘client cost saving contract’ approach. “If you are not motivated by growth opportunities, be motivated by the fear of losing your valuable, bur precariously held, transactional cartridge business”.

Dennis concluded with an apt quote from Mark Twain: “Explore. Dream. Discover. You will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the things you did do.”

Alex Tatham, sales and marketing director, Westcoast. The winning strategy from the UK’s #1 technology wholesaler

Alex made a dramatic stage entrance asking delegates to stand up and test their powers of flexibility. The lesson ‘you can always improve on previous achievements’. Alex gave an outstanding presentation of rapid and successful rise of Westcoast from a small regional to UK/Ireland’s leading independent technology wholesaler. In 2011, the Reading based dynamo is expected to reach £1Bn+ ($1.6Bn+) in sales.

Alex charted the progress via organic growth and acquisition (Orion, XMA and Clarity) and its laser like focus on leading technology brands e.g. HP, Apple, Microsoft, Toshiba and Samsung.

Alex drove home powerfully, Westcoast’s relentless focus on “ripping cost out of distribution” and detailed his 3% gross margin, 2% cost to serve, 1% operating margin model compared with the industry average of 7.2%: 5.7%: 1.5% sales. “Our job is to reduce costs, dealers role is to add value for their customers”.

Westcoast were the 9^th largest IT distributor in Europe and active members of the Global Technology Distribution Council. GTDC has 22 members including 16 in Europe with $30Bn in sales. The organisation facilitated benchmarking and trends monitoring.

The common market view was that the UK government would squeeze education budgets. “Not true!” stated Alex, highlighting the huge opportunities for value added resellers to win new and replacement technology and supplies business. Of course, this depended on dealers demonstrating local and flexible capability.

Alex commented on the sick condition of UK retail market at present, giving examples of Dixon’s demise, Argos anguish and Staples stalling. He reaffirmed the growing strength of expanding supermarkets in non-food categories e.g. home office tech supplies at Tesco, Amazon, Sainsbury’s and Costco.

Alex proffered advice to traditional OP wholesalers with low transaction value and high operating costs. “They need to boost delivery values and lower distribution costs…and I believe they will”. Moreover, he believed that unless dealer groups add value for members they were redundant.

Alex concluded a highly entertaining session with predictions that retail will continue to struggle; office products depended on employment rise; IT distribution will thrive on its incumbent productivity improvement values; and webstore based businesses will overtake catalogue based businesses.

Alex concluded his tour de force by leaving delegates hungry for more, rather than being interrupted for lunch.

Rachel Tueblood, VP branding and advertising, Staples.

The Staples direct marketing and Easy brand strategy

Rachel stepped up to the plate brilliantly, after scheduled speaker Pete Howard had been diverted. Rachel is responsible for the development of the Staples brand, its design and marketing globally.

Rachel traced the history of the Staples brand from cheap superstore products through ‘making buying easy’ through to its new positioning as ‘Staples brings easy to your office’.

The beauty of Rachel’s message was in its simplicity and a perfect demonstration of why the Staples brand has become a household brand. Wal-mart stands for low-prices; Lexus for luxury; Disney for fun; and Staples for easy. Staples brand has become synonymous for emotional values associated with confidence, reliability and easy buying.

The Staples brand had evolved from US superstore to an international force with the goal of making it synonymous with ‘most trusted advisor’ status. Staples had achieved great success in recent years by adding specialist services e.g. EasyTech and Copy & Print within its new smaller store formats.

Rachel announced that the Staples brand would now be promoted as ‘one global image’; an international brand with a more consistent ‘softer’ image treatment, which we feel is far more appealing to women with its ‘opaque - blueprint’ design.

Ron Books CEO (pic left)

and Trevor Gruenewald, COO of ECi Solutions;
Your emarketing future from OP’s #1 software provider

Ron and Trevor staged an engaging double act with the former focusing on strategy and the latter on the key tactics. Ron restated ECi’s goal to maximise the success of its clients and the drive to provide integrated solutions involving supplier communications; ecommerce; value added services e.g. Acsellerate CRM, FM Audit MPS software and mobile marketing web-optimisation software.

Trevor described the above developments in detail and how the new tools would be used to good effect at dealer level. Trevor urged dealers to participate in personalised emarketing campaigns: a 70% driver of web traffic, and consider its Facebook strategy where 37% of local resellers rate it as an effective tool.

Trevor illustrated the old simple method of trading from order through to delivery largely via phone through to the more complex multi-channel methods including retail, phone, ecom links, webstore and now smartphone.

Ron concluded with a challenge: “your customers are changing, ECi has acquired the tools and will continue to develop and integrate them into a single source software solution. Is your business adapting?

Damian Hanson, CEO, One-iota
Social and Mobile marketing – optimizing your webstore

The last guest presenter, Damian enlightened delegates with a specialist view of the latest social media and mobile marketing trends.

He highlighted all the buzzword processes about ‘engagement, community, conversations to conversions and maximising ROI (return on investment).

Damian gave a deep insight into Facebook Commerce: 600m users globally including 30m in UK; an average visit time of 53 minutes daily with a third of users accessing via mobile. Of the top 100 UK retailers 65% have a FB presence, but only 4% with an integrating shopping facility. The most prominent example is ASOS, who we featured recently in a PP article. There have been very few transactions until recently.

The attractions of FCommerce were obvious: 30m users seeking instant gratification…”turning likes into buys” asserted Damian. Leading F-Commerce players likely to accelerate include Best Buy in the OPS space.

Finally, Damian emphasized the power of mobile marketing not only in accessing Facebook but, in everyday browse and buy experiences. There are 5Bn mobile users (compared with 1Bn with TV’s, 1Bn with laptops, IBn with telephones.

Only 20% of top 100 UK retailers have their stores optimised for mobiles, yet 28% of users have purchased online, 33% comparison shopped, and 50% viewed products via mobile. Another 70% of users have searched for local stores via mobile; and 40% have reached for their mobiles automatically after watching a TV commercial.

“Welcome to the world of E-Commerce = Everywhere Commerce concluded a highly informative presentation.

BREAKTHROUGH Marketing Awards

Etailer of the Year – UK Office Direct: Mike Griffin (pic left)

Nominations for 2011 Award were DG Office Supplies in Manchester (2010 winner); Euroffice of London; Everything Office of Lowestoft; Paperstone of London and UK Office Direct of Swindon.

In a close battle UKOD edged out Paperstone, both of whom were complimented on their user friendly webstore shopping experiences. Congratulations to Mike Griffin and his closely-knit team who have remarkable progress with its own developed webstore.

Dealer Marketing Manager of the Year –

Debbie Hunt, Irongate Group

Nominations included Gwyneth Hume of Langstane in Aberdeen; Debbie Hunt of Irongate in Derby; and Karen Abel of Penketh’s in Liverpool.

Congratulations go to Debbie Hunt for her exemplary promotional work not only for Irongate, but for the personalised quarterly news and promotional magazine that she produces for the Challenge Group.

Manufacturer Marketer of the Year – 3M: Gareth Farrell/Jo Monk (pic right)

Nominations included Durable for its computer cleaning campaigns; Logitech for its highly creative campaigns in launching its continuous stream of new products e.g. lap-desks, remotes and solar wireless accessories; 3M who have another terrific year for innovative products and double digit sales growth; and Plantronics whose minimalistic and well designed wireless headsets have been a revelation for users.

Dealer Marketer of the Year – Commercial Group: Arthur Hindmarch and Simone Mann (pic below)

Nominations for the 2011 Award were Bluefish of Northampton, the 2010 winner; Commercial of Cheltenham; Danwood of Lincoln; Irongate of Derby; and Langstane of Aberdeen.

Commercial were declared the winner based on its consistent commitment to green marketing, managed services adoption and contract wins driving double-digit sales growth to £30m in 2010/11. Congratulations to MD Arthur Hindmarch and his sister sales director Simone Mann, who have achieved sustained progress since 2006.

The N O W Economy – The future is NOW!
Recommended Action Plan - Peter Frost

Peter summarised a terrific day of champion presentations in managed and web services. He strongly recommending that dealers transform themselves into OPS providers focused on going beyond the buyer via the CFO/FD to the reach the ultimate user chooser…Lucy (the Lovely User Chooser who says Yes to productivity tools.

“We are living in an on-demand, always-on economy where mobile users want to access and get office tools when they have spare moments and accept delivery in a couple of days. With 90% of independents not allowing free access to webstores, let alone a mobile optimized version, the challenges are obvious. This is why Amazon, business women’s favourite destination is eating our lunch.

Frost urged independent dealers to take advantage of users preference to source locally by upgrading its CRM systems, genuinely personalising its emarketing campaigns featuring single product 342 or BOGOF offers driving users to open, minimum click webstores.

Frost urged dealers to learn from the HiTouch/Irongate value added services case studies; the support services of Spicers, PrintFleet, Westcoast and ECi; and the branding lessons from Staples in preparing their action plans.

Finally, he urged dealers to adopt their natural advantages of proximity: personalisation; productivity of low-cost, low-carbon, local services to create a high level of engagement…nah entanglement!

“Get ready for Everywhere Commerce…deliver productivity in a personalised and eco-friendly way!” Frost concluded.

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The BREAKTHROUGH’11 Marketing Conference was kindly sponsored

by Europe’s #1 wholesaler Spicers and DataCopy M-Real’s leading paper brand.

Thanks were extended to 3M (goody bags); Frixion pens by Pilot Pen Company; Europa Pocket Wallets from Tollit & Harvey; badges from Durable and notebooks by Pukka Pad Company.

The conference was organised by Proficiency Group and The OfficeSpa