bmeyer

[bmeyer]

How to get into heads of customers

In recent years, significant promotions have been led by individuals and, later masses and not by corporations. 

In the Fair and Lovely case, this phenomenon is easy to spot. For many years Unilever has advertised its products following the fairness trend. Still, later a few individuals had an idea that this didn’t make sense and started a movement of Dark and Beautiful. I’m confident that many Fair and Lovely users felt terrible using the product but aligned themselves with the norms - they don’t have to anymore. 

Similar big-scale movements happened all over the world. MeToo changed the messaging around what is appropriate and what is not in a Hollywood production but also in the workplace. It’s rare to find a workplace today without a sexual misconduct protocol, and it wasn’t the situation five years ago.

In Israel ״Stay Out of my Womb” movement taught people to stop obsessively asking women in their 30′s about them not wanting to have children. 

I believe that trends are like the economy; if you let corporations control the media, the trends would be aligned with the few. Once you open the press to the public, trends will align with the actual thoughts and beliefs of the people. 

[bmeyer]

If we could only predict the future

In the Hebrew Talmud, there is a saying: “Since the day that the Holy Temple was destroyed prophecy has been given to the fools!”

Although this saying is ancient, it is pretty accurate today. In the era of ML and AI, even the most sophisticated deep-learning models can improve prediction over a coin toss by a few tenths of a percent. 

The best hedge funds globally with the brightest PHDs on their teams are struggling to produce a tiny alpha over stock picks of a random monkey.

With all of this said, I don’t have a massive belief that simplified models can make a significant contribution to the prediction of how well the market will adopt a new product. It’s always worth trying, though...

I believe that out of the four offered products, this will be the only winner:

New Synthetic Surface for Thoroughbreds - This product aligns well with all 5 Roger’s factors:

1. Relative Advantage: Straightforward to see that this product protects the horses better than the competitors.

2. Compatibility: it consists of sets of beliefs about riding surface.

3. Complexity: It’s easy to understand how the product works and how to use it.

4. Trialabiylity: The product can be tried for real - not only in theory.

5. Observability: it might be hard to observe the advantage in the short run, but it should be relatively easy in the long run. 

[bmeyer]

Singapore Airlines - Experience Beyond Transportation

Flying with Singapore airlines is first and foremost an experience and only then a form of transportation.

Singapore Airlines has been that one company that always leveraged customer data to improve and make the next big step towards success. 

The company leveraged their data and costumer experience to be the first company in the world to offer digital entertainment in economy class , high speed internet and satelite communication

While many times airlines decrease the quality of economy class Singapore Airlines should continue making it the best experience possible.

One option would be adding free Wi-Fi during long distance traveling something United Airlines recently have done. Another option would be introducing traditional Singapore food in the flights as many Indian carriers do. 

[bmeyer]

Nudging for Health

In my previous workplace, the management was occupied with making people stay healthy. At first, it began with changing the menu in the cafeteria. Meatless Monday became a thing. Also, more carbs were taken away, and healthy fats and more proteins were introduced.

Unfortunately, that didn’t solve the problem, and more employees started eating outside or bringing their own food.

The next step was to introduce the “Steps” app to us. The idea of the app was to encourage people to do sports. The beta included a portal that measured the steps of all the employees and showed the leaders in a table. This measure worked better than the cafeteria updated, and some people started walking more and shared their success on social media. The only issue was that the same people were at the top on the walking list, while others were not involved so much. 

The last measure management initiated was to offer prizes to people who walk more than 10K a week. The prizes ranged from breakfast vouchers to earbuds.

This move at first appeared to be an immediate success. In weeks, more and more people appeared at the top of the Steps list. Surprisingly even people who had never done any sports or were severely obese walked more than 20K kilometers a week. Very quickly, it became clear that these people were using various techniques to win prizes. For example, people would tie the phone to their dog’s collar and let him hang out outside. Others were riding their scooter to work with the app working.

Eventually, my former employer spent many tens of thousands of dollars on breakfasts for obese people and was far from achieving the goal of a healthy company.

Overall nudging can be an instrumental technique to promote a good cause. Still, many times like any other form of subsidy, it causes people to waste money and entirely miss the point. 

[bmeyer]

Wind of Change

Fernandez and Diez are looking for the best way to reposition Modelo and Corona in the US. They are currently the second-largest imported brand, and their strategy is to be the first in every country. 

Their most significant competitor - Heineken, is looking into new marketing strategies, from being the best to being the youngest. The marketing strategy resembles somewhat the one of Modelo. Beer Fun and Sun is attracting the younger generation. It doesn’t say so explicitly, but I don’t know too many 40-year-olds parents of 3 who have time for Beer Fun and Sun. I believe that Fernandez and Diez should keep their strategy as the incumbent in this field but maybe shift gears a bit towards the “Boutique” style.

From the data, we have learned that the population with the higher willingness to pay shifted from the larger producers to boutique breweries. This is an opportunity for Modelo to add another type of beer and push it into the microbreweries market. They will ride the wave of a growing segment without battling on price with Heineken.