Marketing Articles About Profitability Search Results
Results for: profitability
- Infomarketers: Consider the "Semi-Live" Course. The most successful information products offer a perfect combination of profitability and perceived value. Recently I realized that the crown belongs to a type of course only a few information markete...
(11/10/08 09:00 AM)
- Airline Industry Looking Good Again.
The Financial Times reports an ironic twist for an industry that was in a tailspin just a few months ago:
The biggest US airlines stand to return to profitability next year, a stunning turnround for an industry that appeared to be heading toward the biggest crisis in its history a few months ago.
…as summer ended and [...]
(11/03/08 09:00 AM)
- Retailers Reprogram Workers...Should Reprogram Customers. In an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Ann Taylor and stores like it were profiled for their use of systems like Atlas (Ann Taylor Labor Allocation System), developed by RedPrairie Corp, that track employee sales and activities and adjust their schedules to match the store's busy times, thus maximizing profitability. While I understand this is a great productivity tool, it's taking a bit of the humanity out of retailing...somewhat.
The sluggish national economy has put pressure on many retailers to pinch pennies. "The single biggest controllable cost in retail is people," says Carl Steidtmann, chief economist at Deloitte LLP. Because few retail workers belong to unions, he says, it is easier for employers to "move people around." Vendors of the systems claim they can boost productivity by 15% or more, and can help cut labor costs by 5% or more.
What I find even more interesting, and this is JUST for Ann Taylor (having a wife who's a fan of their clothes) is the heavy discounting that they've trained their customers to come to expect! Just last night, she produced a series of coupons, some for actual dollar amounts off of the merchandise and some for large percentages like 20% to 30% off any purchase over a certain figure.
I understand margins, I know that they're high in the fashion industry, and I'm sure that there's good reason for this. However, customers of Ann Taylor and other brands like them (some of those mentioned in the article, most likely) have trained their customers to shop based on price and incentives. Period. Sure, the clothes fit...but seriously - 30% off on a regular basis?
Action Item: So, what have you trained your customers to do? Expect things on sale, expect things you don't like doing? This is a great opportunity (and I'm doing this too) to look at your customer base from the perspective of lifetime value, and re-segment them based on 'those who should be with you in the future' and 'those who aren't going to be with you in the future'.
(09/11/08 09:00 AM)
- Tough Times Increase Pressure to Meet the Marketing Effectiveness Imperative. Businesses today are hunkering down. With consumers clutching their wallets more tightly, companies are scrutinizing every budget item in an effort to maintain profitability even as revenues are flat and costs rise.
And with marketing commonly viewed as a discretionary spend, it is one of the likeliest victims of the ax.
(08/26/08 09:01 AM)
- Profitability for Bazaarvoice! (our company). I'm proud to announce that our company, Bazaarvoice, has achieved profitability! See our release below. I wanted to share this with my personal blog audience because part of this achievement is practicing many principles and suggestions I’ve shared over the years here. I've even been called a Cheap Ass Marketer to help achieve this goal….but I take this as a compliment because it's really about hitting the marketing bulls-eye! At the highest level, this achievement underscores the fundamental steps to build a startup that are sometimes forgotten in heady times: Find a need or a problem in a large enough market that needs to be solved Provide product or service of value to customer to solve that problem Keep costs low without sacrificing customer experience Continue to supply value to client (customer satisfaction), at a cost less than price, and profitability will occur I like to all this “A Business! Prior to Bazaarvoice and Dell, I've been through 3 startups in the frothy late 90's in the Bay Area / Silicon Valley. While my first startup was profitable early on (largely due to Apple's help), the other two were built on what I like to call Venture Charity. Here’s how those organizations work… Build something cool that may have value to someone Search for someone willing to pay for that value Keep searching. If still not found, try creating something else until money runs out. 9 times out of 10 -- notwithstanding the rare ebay/google -- money runs out We're...
(05/01/07 09:01 PM)
