Frost Bites

Is Social Media
measuring up?

Be critical. Be smart. Measure it
like other marketing campaigns

15 May’12

The death of traditional marketing methods at the expense of social media is greatly exaggerated according to Marketing Week’s Mark Ritson. He feels its effect is fuelled with exaggeration, inaccuracy and hyperbole.

Read more: Is Social Media measuring up?

Catalogs & flyers

casualties waiting

to happen

Failure to reach decision makers
questions relevance and value

14 May’12

Catalogs and flyers fail to reach the user-choosers who make 60%+ of purchasing decisions. The majority of users want to buy online. Manufacturers challenge resellers to invest your marketing funds in emarketing, driving users to open webstores at market prices…

Read more: Catalogs: casualties waiting to happen

If you knew it,
you would do it!

Integrated marketing’s

personalised focus beats

‘spray and pray’ mailing

12 May’12

Most OP dealers are using the same old industrial catalogue and mailing methods of 30 years ago. Most user-choosers have moved online and expect personalised messages. Build a CRM user database, create an open webstore and start personalised emarketing…NOW!

Read more: Personalised integrated marketing

Hopeless Prospects

Can multitasking Meg fix

dysfunctional tech giant?

10 May’12 (Complete)

Léo Apotheker's disastrous tenure as HP's CEO destroyed the powerful progress made under Mark Hurd, its profitability and market capitalization. Where is new CEO Meg Whitman’s reinvention strategy?

Read more: HP's Hopeless Prospects

Stale retail
set to fail?

Downsized and fewer stores
as shoppers shift to webstores

9 May’12

Bigbox retailers in home improvement, books, consumer electronics and office products are facing the biggest challenges of their lives. Most with the exception of Staples, have failed with their multichannel strategies, so far…

Read more: Stale retail set to fail?

‘Why’ marketing
matters  m o s t !

Forget what and how you do

things. Forget history and hype.

Clarify your productivity purpose

7 May’12 (Complete)

What is the ultimate purpose of your brand strategy? Most sales people tell customers what they do i.e. product; then how they make it. Few explain the all important ‘why’ they provide services and the user benefits…

Read more: 'Why' marketing matters most!

Hunters are

sales harmers

The ‘farmer’ customer

intimacy strategy is tops

7 May’12 (Complete)

We’ve been involved in many discussions over the years about the pro’s and con’s of the ‘hunter/farmer’ sales strategies, usually employed by larger organizations. What are the benefits to the customer?

Read more: Hunters are sales harmers

Pseudo local or
Genuinely LOCAL?

Still focused on buyers? Have you
connected with user-choosers?

5 May’12 (Complete)

Over recent months we’ve been increasingly aware of dealers shouting ‘LOCAL service’ as a market advantage. It’s not! Unless its low-cost and a genuinely personalised service to user-choosers…

Read more: Pseudo local or Genuinely local service?

Animal Amazon!
Freezing reaction...

Why are OP dealers playing

dead v massmarketer’s attack?

30 Apr’12 (Updated)

Proficiency Post’s clear goal is to champion best practice to help independent resellers compete successfully against the bigboxes. We are amazed at the complacency and 'rabbit-in-the-headlights' response by the independents towards its #1 threat…

Read more: Animal Amazon's freezing response...

The officeless
future beckons…

Goodbye high-rise cubicles. Hello
open collaborative workspaces

21 Apr’12

As companies seek to gain productivity and accommodate an increasingly mobile work force, some employees have had to say goodbye to their personal work areas.

Read more: The officeless future beckons...

The retreat
from retail

Best Buy’s bungles highlight
OP market’s woeful webstores

21 Apr’12

A perfect storm of attacks from entrepreneurial etailers, mighty mass-marketers threaten to blow away paper and ink based office retailers…

Read more: The retreat from retail

Xerox at
crossroads

Managing the shift from
manufacturing to services

16 Apr’12

Xerox Corp. built its empire by putting little black marks on white sheets of paper. Now its future depends on its managed services battle against HP and independent resellers...

Read more: Xerox at crossroads

Axe Amazon’s
tax exemption!

The case for adding sales
tax based on state averages

16 Apr’12

The Amazon sales tax-free advantage of approximately 8% across the US has been a bone of contention for many years without resolution. We discuss a possible solution…

Read more: Axe Amazon's tax exemption

Retail review

Beyond the

s t a p l e r ?

Should Staples refocus
retail on its SMB roots?

15 Apr’12 (Updated)
“In my opinion, Staples is undervalued about 30%”, wrote Motley Fool stock analyst Jane Genova last week. Jane makes her case for pruning stationery ranges and we add our comments…

Read more: Retail Review. Beyond the stapler?

Go beyond the buyer

Pseudo-local,
or hyperlocal?

Most dealers still focused on
the diminishing power of the
buyer and not reaching Lucy

by Tom Shapiro

13 Apr’12

It's a no brainer. Local OPS resellers that want to maximize sales should implement hyperlocal digital emarketing. Most still ‘snail-mail’ the buyers…

Read more: Are you pseudo local or hyperlocal?

Dealer Alert

MPS: Reality
c h e c k e d !

The 6 unfulfilled promises that
OPS resellers need to address

13 Apr’12

In a recent article titled, “Managed Print – What of the Promises?” by Industry Analysts, Lou Slawetsky asserts that the promise of managed print services (MPS) has “never materialized”. We explore why…

Read more: Dealer Alert - MPS: Reality checked!

Must-do brand
management...

What does your brand stand
for, in less than 10 words?

10 Apr’12 (Updated)

Mark Ritson of Marketing Week published an article last week entitled ‘The 3 rules of brand management’. It was a timely reminder for marketers in manufacturers and resellers, about the real power of brand marketing…

Read more: Must-do brand management

Time to abandon

aggregation and

generate growth

Marketing excellence beats
protectionist purchasing power

5 Apr’12 (Completed 1800ET; 2300BST))

Buying groups have lost significant market share in line with the decline of the stationery market. Their focus on buying power has become increasingly irrelevant in a world where progressive resellers have switched to marketing productivity services…

Read more: Dealer Group Agenda: Time to abandon aggregation and generate growth

Heralding in the new

Post Boast,
Post product,
Productivity era

Ditch the pitch! It’s about sharing
success stories not empty tell-sells

5 Apr’12 (Complete)

One of the great results of the 2011 Year of the Protester was the use of social media and Twitter to share ideas and experiences rapidly around the world. This has been a reality check for politics and business. It presents the best opportunity for independent resellers to succeed in today’s marketplace…

Read more: The New Post Boast, post product, productivity era

Market’s about 
attitude…not age

‘Under 35’s’ are no more SoLoMo

savvy than ‘over 35’s’; and, have

less discretionary spend power

4 Apr’12 (Complete and Updated)

OPI will be publishing 'Boiling the Frog' a guide to young office workers in association with market research firm Martin Wilde Associates (MWA). This is a welcome development and we look forward to reviewing its conclusions…

Read more: OPI: Boiling the Frog study - preview