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Author: Krikor

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By Posted on Posted in Brands, Culture, Cyprus, Food, Greece, Packaging, Private Label No Comments

Private labels are gaining huge market shares mainly in Europe and soon worldwide, but the most enjoyable part of launching a private label product is the adaptation to the local culture and taste.

Food products are the most sensitive to local tastes and habits.

An international company has several options when choosing a brand strategy. Brands may be local, regional and global. And this is the Carrefour & its Feta private label case.

Carrefour is worldwide No.2 retailer behind Walmart and Feta is a traditional Greek cheese appreciated around the world and have now very different names because since 2002, Feta has been a protected designation of origin product in the European Union, which means Feta only produced in Greece can be called Feta, any type of Feta produced outside Greece, cannot be named Feta.

Carrefour who is very active on its private label range and changing its global strategy by putting more pressure on its supplier and shifting in almost all categories of its shelves and pushing PL products forward and this is becoming somehow very obvious in their leaflets (no matter the market), has adapted a local strategy in Greece and Cyprus by launching their Feta.

The Carrefour Feta has no dedicated private brand, but simply using the Carrefour logo.

The main factors affecting the decisions to adapt products to local markets can be divided into 3 categories (Source: Sasu 2005, p. 148):

Market characteristics:

  • Government regulations
  • Non-tariff barriers
  • Consumer models
  • Competition
  • Level of economic development
  • Legal

Product characteristics

  • Functions, attributes
  • Durability, quality
  • Methods of operation and use
  • Brand and packaging
  • Life cycle
  • Country of origin

Company characteristics

  • Profitability
  • The cost of adaptation
  • Organization
  • Resources
  • Policies adopted
  • Experience

The below Carrefour Feta can be found in Greece and Cyprus stores, but the company can easily export this product to its worldwide stores.

To find out more about Feta, visit FetaMania

By Posted on Posted in 2012, Europe, Football No Comments

Coca-Cola is spending big bucks (euros not dollars) during the Euro 2012 and wants everybody to get crazy during this occasion.

The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, will be the 14th European Championship for national football teams sanctioned by UEFA. The final tournament will be hosted by Poland and Ukraine between 8 June and 1 July 2012.

The joint Poland–Ukraine bid was chosen by a vote of the UEFA Executive Committee at a meeting in Cardiff on 18 April 2007. This bid defeated the other shortlisted bids from Italy and Croatia–Hungary, becoming the third successful joint bid for the European Championship, after those of Belgium–Netherlands (2000) and Austria–Switzerland (2008).

By Posted on Posted in Amazon, Retail No Comments

Rumors are already everywhere online, Amazon.com is going to have a brick and mortar store in Seattle, where their headquarter is located.

Why would the world’s largest online retailer, go for a physical store?

Maybe their revenues are having problems and it looks obvious when selling products under cost and the many acquisitions made in 2011 and they already deviated from the core business when they started offering cloud services.

No wonder Jeff Bezos is a clever business man having his own reasons to go in this direction and managed to convince his board to open a physical store, where the main products will be the Kindle line of e-readers and tablets and their respective accessories, also high-margin products will be on the shelves.

Surely the Apple store model inspired Amazon, the Apple stores are a unique boutique & shopping experience, they bring lots of awareness to the brand, even if you don’t to buy an Apple product when you enter one, you will stroll inside the store, enjoying the simplicity of the decoration, and the products as well.

Amazon already has an extensive line of accessories under their brand name and definitely the brand will be stretching more if the store model is a success.

Some others would consider the store concept a way to deviate from the tax issue Amazon is having with other states.

We will be able to judge more once the store is up ad running, and in all cases, good luck Jeff!

By Posted on Posted in Inspiration, Motivational No Comments

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village.
As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.

The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”
The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”
“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.
“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.
The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”
The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.
“I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”

The fisherman continues, “And after that?”
The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”
The fisherman asks, “And after that?”
The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”
The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

A classic Brazilian story, probably also present in other cultures.

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Innovation, Japan, Korea, Market Share, Technology No Comments

It all started during 1988 or 1989 (cannot remember exactly), when i read a book called Made in Japan by Akio Morita who became an idol for a young boy who wanted to make it big in this world. Morita was a Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony Corporation along with Masaru Ibuka.

Sony was a big name in the electronics world and was proudly making all their products in Japan and announcing it also very proudly on all their products, and i still remember one of the TVs we got at our parents home with that big sticker on the front, that you had to remove and which remained in your head that you are buying pure Japanese quality.

That also brings me down the memory lane, with my 1st Sony Walkman, which gave me exactly the same excitement people are having for the last decade every time Apple was and is still launching a new product.

So what happened to Sony? Why happened to the world leader who never managed to catch up with the rest of competition, on TVs, music players, tablets, digital cameras, game consoles and the full other line of products which most of the production moved outside Japan in order to cut cost and be competitive?

Why the new Walkman is an iPod, the TV a smart Samsung TV, the tablet a Kindle, the camera a Fuji? And why they never learned from the Betamax experience since 1975?

Sony announced net losses of 159 billion yen ($2.04 billion) for the third quarter on Thursday, while Sir Howard Stringer defended his record as CEO as he handed over the reins to Kazuo Hirai, the company blamed the floods in Thailand, unfavorable foreign exchange rates and a failed venture with Samsung for its woes.

Sony became the old heavy sick company, while Samsung is prevailing as the new global leader of electronics. An example about it, Procter & Gamble was the No.1 FMCG supplier of Carrefour stores in the UAE for many consecutive years, in 2011 Samsung got on top of the list pushing P&G to No.2

By Posted on Posted in Motivational No Comments

“Once you decide what you really want out of life and work, your mind will be your only obstacle and your only competition!

When you start to believe and trust in yourself and in your own unique passions, you will conquer your mind’s self-limiting beliefs. These limiting beliefs are the only roadblock or obstacle that can hold you back from getting all of what you really want.

Once you have made the decision to overcome your fears, conquer all of your self-doubt, and win the battle of your mind, you will accomplish everything you have ever envisioned.

Your mind will have ignited a fire in your heart to execute your plan by taking daily actions in pursuit of your goals. As you experience this, you will become an unstoppable force of power, fully capable of achieving more success and freedom than you could have ever imagined.

Once you have done this, you will literally Create Your Own Destiny!”

Patrick Snow
www.CreateYourOwnDestiny.com

By Posted on Posted in 2012, Books No Comments

I Was Blind But Now I See
We’ve been brainwashed. We need to acknowledge this. We need to recognize who has been doing the brainwashing and work towards reversing its effects. Then, building from the core, we can learn who we really are, get success, wealth, and finally happiness. This book lays out the techniques to escape the zombie recruitment machine, expanding our personal frontiers, and finding the tools to build up the wealth of happiness inside.

James Altucher has written seven books, has written articles for every paper and website in the known universe. Has run several businesses. Has ridden the roller coaster of success and failure many times, in money, love, success, career, etc. Now he shares his experiences on how to get it right, unravel the brainwashing, and ultimately succeed and be happy.
Amazon Link

One Click
Amazon’s business model is deceptively simple: Make online shopping so easy and convenient that customers won’t think twice. It can almost be summed up by the button on every page: “Buy now with one click.”

Why has Amazon been so successful? Much of it has to do with Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder, whose unique combination of character traits and business strategy have driven Amazon to the top of the online retail world.
Amazon Link

Delivering Happiness
The visionary CEO of Zappos explains how an emphasis on corporate culture can lead to unprecedented success.

Pay new employees $2000 to quit. Make customer service the entire company, not just a department. Focus on company culture as the #1 priority. Apply research from the science of happiness to running a business. Help employees grow both personally and professionally. Seek to change the world. Oh, and make money too.

Sound crazy? It’s all standard operating procedure at Zappos.com, the online retailer that’s doing over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales every year.
Amazon Link

Enchantment
Enchantment, as defined by bestselling business guru Guy Kawasaki, is not about manipulating people. It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity. It changes the skeptics and cynics into the believers and the undecided into the loyal. Enchantment can happen during a retail transaction, a high-level corporate negotiation, or a Facebook update. And when done right, it’s more powerful than traditional persuasion, influence, or marketing techniques.

Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions.
Amazon Link

The New Relationship Marketing
One of the top social media thought leaders shares her secrets to expanding your business through relationshipsPeople have always done business with people they know, like, and trust. That’s the essence of “relationship marketing.” Today, the popularity of online social networking has caused a paradigm shift in relationship marketing. This book helps businesspeople and marketers master this crucial new skill set. Relationship marketing specialist Mari Smith outlines a step-by-step plan for building a sizable, loyal network comprised of quality relationships that garner leads, publicity, sales, and more.

If you’re a businessman or businesswoman feeling the pressure to shift your approach to using social media marketing, to better understand the new soft skills required for success on the social web, and to improve your own leadership and relationship skills through emotional and social intelligence, this book is for you.
Amazon Link

The Paradox Of Choice
Whether we’re buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions–both big and small–have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented.

We assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.
Amazon Link