• Write it all down. Put everything on one list. Determine which tasks are easy and which are more difficult.
• Do some easy things. Spend 15 minutes doing the easy tasks. Focus on speed: make the quick phone calls, shoot off the brief emails. Cross as many tasks off the list as you can.
• Turn to a bigger task. Turn off your phone, close all the open windows on your computer, and focus on one of the more challenging tasks. Do this for 35 minutes without distraction.
• Take a break. After 35 minutes, take a 10-minute break. Then return to step two.

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The economic strains are causing your end-users to trade down, resulting in that the mid-tier and premium brands are losing share to low-price rivals. You face a classic strategic conundrum: Do you tackle the threat head-on by reducing prices, knowing that will destroy profits in the short term and brand equity in the long term? Or do you hold the line, hope for better times to return, and in the meantime lose customers who might never come back? Given how unpalatable both of those alternatives are, you now must make a decision of how to combat manufacturers and distributors of lower priced and inferior products, to avoid losing additional market share and eroding margins.

There are four ways to battle your competition. 1) Launching a true fighter brand, 2) Launching an endorsed sub-brand, 3) Launching a co-driver sub-brand or, 4) Launching a driver sub-brand

Option Two – Endorsed Sub-Brand

Definition:

• A sub-brand is a brand with its own name that uses the name of its parent brand in some capacity to bolster equity.
• In the case of downscale offerings, the role of sub-brands is to help managers differentiate new offerings from the parent brand while using the parent’s equity to influence consumers.
• The idea is both to maintain the parent’s credibility and prestige regardless of how the sub-brand performs and to protect the original brand from cannibalization.

Endorser

• Definition: The parent brand acts as the endorser of the sub-brand. In this case, the sub-brand is the more dominant of the two, and drives end-users’ decisions to purchase the product as well as their perceptions of the experience of using the product.
• When a company offers an endorsed sub-brand, there are three brands at work. The parent brand itself is split into two: a product brand and an organizational brand. The product brand remains as it was, a premium brand delivering a certain image and associated benefits.
• The endorser strategy provides an excellent chance to minimize damage and reduce the threat of cannibalization to the parent brand. Keep in mind that all three brands need to be managed actively.

Examples:

Sabre B to C (John Deere)

• John Deere’s foray into value lawn tractors provides a good illustration of an endorser relationship. John Deere was well known for making a lawn tractor that sold for approximately $2,000 through full-service specialty dealers.
• Although the manufacturer was still able to command that price in the specialty market, volume retailers such as Sears and Home Depot had begun to serve a growing portion (around 30%) of that market, selling products at half John Deere’s prices.
• So the company introduced an endorsed sub-brand for the value retailers: a low-cost tractor, Sabre from John Deere, that featured an inexpensive design and a different color and feel that John Deere’s other products

Medalist B to B (Hobart)

• The Hobart Company, which makes an industrial-grade mixer for use in bakeries and restaurants.
• Managers decided to create an inexpensive mixer for us in commercial and industrial kitchens to compete with offshore entries without damaging its flagship “gold standard” Hobart mixer line.
• In 1996 the company introduced Medalist from the Hobart Company. Medalist mixers were lighter than Hobart mixers.
• In addition, they were made with less costly materials and construction processes; and they had a color and logo distinct from those of the flagship Hobart.
• In this example, The Hobart Company, has become an organizational brand that endorses the sub-brand, Medalist. Medalist itself is a new product brand. Thus the parent brand, Hobart, is separated from the sub-brand, Medalist, by the organizational brand, The Hobart Company.

This is the first of 4 posts about how to combat manufactures and distributors of inferior products that are being reverse engineered and produced in China and sold at much lower prices to your existing clients. You are losing market share fast, and it is time to do something about it.

The economic strains are causing your end-users to trade down, resulting in that the mid-tier and premium brands are losing share to low-price rivals. You face a classic strategic conundrum: Do you tackle the threat head-on by reducing prices, knowing that will destroy profits in the short term and brand equity in the long term? Or do you hold the line, hope for better times to return, and in the meantime lose customers who might never come back? Given how unpalatable both of those alternatives are, you now must make a decision of how to combat manufacturers and distributors of lower priced and inferior products, to avoid losing additional market share and eroding margins.

There are four ways to battle your competition. 1) Launching a true fighter brand, 2) Launching an endorse sub-brand, 3) Launching a co-driver sub-brand or, 4) Launching a driver sub-brand

1) Definition of a fighter brand

• A fighter brand is designed to combat, and ideally eliminate, low-price competitors while protecting an organization’s premium-price offerings.
• A fighter brand, however, is not easy to introduce. First creating a new brand-building awareness, establishing perceptions of identity and quality, developing distributions channels is expensive, often prohibitively so.

• Concerns about launching fighter brands
  • Will it cannibalize our premium offering?
  • Will it fail to bury the competition?
  • Will it lose money?
  • Will it miss the mark with end-users?
  • Will it consume too much management attention?

• Other strategic questions to consider before launching at fighter brand
  • Determine whether another brand is truly necessary
  • Run the numbers, including what it will cost to build and sustain a new brand
  • Listen to your clients and customers, early and often
  • Reinvest in your core business and consistently calibrate between the two brands.
  • Is the market you are entering still growing

Examples of fighter brands

Saturn – B to C (General Motors) 1982

• To combat the growing threat from fuel-efficient and affordable cars being launched into America from Japan, GM decided to launch of an “a different kind of car company” dubbed Saturn.
• Despite the fact that Saturn won accolades for being one of the strongest brands in the U.S, Saturn proved to be a financial disaster with losses in excess of 10 billion dollars. With no budgetary discipline and so much focus on differentiating Saturn from the other GM brands, completely defeated the purpose of launching the brand in the first place.

Jetstar – (Quantas) 2004

• To combat low-fare entrant Virgin Blue, Quantas decided to launch their own low-fare airline in 2003.
• Since Quantas only had one single brand, it did not want to create a new brand unless it had to.
• Exhaustive strategic sessions confirmed, however, that the Quantas brand was simply not in a position to combat Virgin Blue’s explosive growth. A fighter brand was the only option.
• Quantas’ detailed projections showed that by offering no frills, its new airline could achieve a 20% cost advantage over its rival; thus allowing it to undercut Virgin Blue’s prices while sustaining a profit.
• Quantum spent considerable time on focus groups across Australia and listening to their customers to validate the planned initiatives.
• In 2004 Jetstar was launched with 14 planes flying to 14 destinations. The speed at which Jetstar attacked took Virgin Blue by surprise and knocked it off balance.
• Jetstar took over the tourist routes that Quantas had lost money on. Because Jetstar proved profitable on those routes, it cannibalized only revenues, not profits.
• Thanks to Jetstar, Quantas was able to refocus on its more profitable business routes and increase the frequency of its flights on those legs.
• The subsequent boost in profits, along with Jetstar’s growing contribution, were reinvested in overhauls of Quantas’s business lounges and business class cabins – strengthening the Quantas brand and the distinction between it and Jetstar.
• Jetstar has stopped the growth of Virgin Blue, and Quantas is now using the brand to fight other competitors in Asia and New Zealand.

Ambra – B to professional (IBM) 1992

• To combat the growing threat from direct marketers of personal computers like Dell and Gateway and other IBM models.
• The Ambra was sourced in Asia and marketed between 1992 and 1994 by mail order in Europe and the United States.
• Due to lack of brand equity and distribution barriers the Ambra was cancelled 2 years after its birth.

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Sometimes you can find new opportunities within an arm’s length. The Fleming Hotel in Hong Kong did just that. Considering that there is a huge demographic of male single travelers whom travel for business, why not create some special rooms for them.

Think about it. You have been working hard all day, hit numerous meetings, you have an early flight out, and you want some R&R. Want to play some mini golf or snipe the head of an enemy in Call of Duty (PS3). This hotel has designed the “His Space”

With a little effort you can segment and provide a specialty service for your existing clientele. Would love to hear other stories of people or companies who have elevated their service segment for their key clientele.

Website: www.thefleming.com
Found On: www.springwise.com

SeaCapital’s focus is to invest in growth-oriented companies across the seafood value chain in partnership with exceptional management teams. SeaCapital focuses on organizations with considerable growth prospects, and works closely with management to create and execute an expansion plans that encompass organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

Their principals collectively have more than 100 years of seafood and finance industry experience including a distinguished track record of working with management teams to build companies into larger and more deeply integrated organizations. The investments will be made solely in the sustainable seafood value chain where their significant experience in operations, strategy, and corporate finance will add significant shareholder value. Since 2003, the Seacapital team has completed eleven strategic acquisitions and divestitures with an aggregate value of more than $120 million.

For the 2009 American Le Mans Series, Louis Moinet became the official timepiece for the racing team Primetime Race Group’s #11 Dodge Viper. The racing team entered its second full season in the American Le Mans Series with owner and driver Joel Feinberg and his teammate Chris Hall at the wheel. The car it the only Dodge Viper Competition Coupe in the Grand Touring (GT2) class of the competition. Visit www.primetimeracegroup.comfor additional schedule on upcoming races. Louis Moinet timepieces have been worn by distinctive figures the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon and King George IV. The company limts its production to only a thousand watches every year, ensuring its exclusivity.

Most will find Joel to be a young, athletic, handsome man with a with a passion for success which is most certainly enviable if not contagious. Some might view him as quiet, shy, possibly aloof. But once he begins to open up about his life, you quickly find a more passionate and enthusiastic entrepreneur. Joel is what some refer to as a modern day “mover and shaker.”

Coming out of high school, Joel decided to embark on a career playing golf professionally. After six years on the circuit, he hung up his clubs to give significant time and energy to various business endeavors including Capital Real Estate Group, followed by the startup of SPORTS TALK 790 AM – THE TICKET, Primetime Media Group and Primetime Race Group.

Joel took on mountain biking, becoming a nationally ranked cross-country biker. Rising to the pinnacle of the sport Joel competed in what was known as, “The toughest mountain bike race on the planet,” a three day, three hundred mile race through the mountains and rainforest of Costa Rica. Joel also played ice hockey on a men’s league based in South Florida.

Primetime Race Group is Joel’s most recent business venture, a Florida based company specializing in professional motorsports as well as sports marketing. Primetime currently campaigns a Dodge Viper in the GT2 class of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) which is the most prominent road race series in North America and an Elan DP02 in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Lites Series, a support series to the ALMS. With 10 trips to the IMSA Lites podium, 11 top 5 finishes in 2008, and 2 first and 3 other podium finishes through June of 2009 it is clear to see that Primetime is a top contender.

Joel’s passion for winning has become the foundation of his success!