The Power of Wal-Mart (Sorry about the formatting problem. Don't know how to fix it.)
I. Introduction
A. Background and History
1. World’s largest retailer
2. Founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and incorporated in 1969
3. Statistics
4. Culture stayed the same since founding – but their size no longer fits the culture that started with Sam Walton.
5. Company Values
II. Scale of Wal-Mart
A. The Wal-Mart Effect – written by Charles Fishman
1. Always low prices
2. Same quality as more expensive retailers
B. Supplier Relationships
1. Call their suppliers “partners”
C. Bad Reputation and Criticism
1. Lawsuits regarding female discrimination and forcing employees to work off the clock
2. Bad health care plans for employees
III. Reinvention
A. Corporate Social Responsibility
1. New advertising theme “Save Money, Live Better”
a. Getting back to the roots of doing what is best for customers
b. Hired BluSkye to help measure Wal-Mart’s environmental impact of growing and producing all products
2. Going Green
a. CEO Lee Scott wants to turn Wal-Mart into the greenest company
b. Reduce energy used in stores
c. Increase efficiency of trucks
3. Using influence to push suppliers to go green too
a. Only purchasing detergent that is concentrated and in smaller bottles
b. Urging suppliers to use less waste and packing materials Eg. Getting rid of the box packaging for deodorants
IV. Conclusion
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Whats on Your Mind?
Do you ever wonder what it is about something you’ve bought that made you want to buy it? When people are making purchase decisions, they try to think rationally about the product’s attributes to make the best decision, but how do we know that they haven’t already made up their mind about what they want? The film The Persuaders, gives light into this phenomenon of how people decide what they want or why they do what they do.
This film introduces Dr. Clotaire Rapaille who has discovered a method that can reveal people’s unconscious desires and impulses. His method has grabbed the attention of many Fortune 500 companies as they believe that this can give them a competitive advantage by figuring out how to keep their customers happy. His research started when he was working with Autistic children. He had to figure out a way to decode their behavior without the use of words since they can’t communicate verbally. In this time, he learned that messages are engrained in people’s minds from the first time they have the experience related to that certain idea or thing. This is not something they remember though; this explains why people buy certain things without knowing exactly the reason that they want it. Dr. Rapaille discovered that people create mental connections for every word that leads to his method of uncovering this unconscious code. First of all in his method, he leads focus groups that try to get past reason and emotion down to the core of the human being. To get to the actual code, Dr. Rapaille has people lay down in the dark and write out anything that cross their mind which leads them to their primal urges when considering the specific word he is trying to break down. The results from this method give off the hidden reasoning behind why people think the way they do about certain ideas or words. One example that is given in the video, is that the code for SUV’s is domination, so this led to Hummer beefing up their models and tinting the windows. I also found one comment Dr. Rapaille made to be very interesting. He said that he “didn’t believe what people [said]; [he] wanted to understand what they do.” This is a very enlightening statement because I think in reality it is very true. People say one thing, but the most important thing to consider is what they do and the reasoning behind that action. The point is that people have actually no idea of why they do what they do. What Dr. Rapaille does is trying to uncover the hidden desires of people for marketers to understand what it is that their customers ultimately want whether they know what it is they want themselves.
As a marketer, this is a huge development when trying to develop products and services to satisfy our customers. My personal opinion is that Dr. Rapaille has figured out a great way to learn what is in customers’ minds that they don’t even know is there. It’s really quite incredible because by finding out what is in the customer’s subconscious, a company can really cater to what their customers want in their product or service. The best part of this method is that the customers are happy and they still don’t know that you tapped into their unconscious to give them the best product or service for them. They go on being satisfied and rationalizing to themselves why they need to purchase what they do; it’s a win-win situation for everyone!
This film introduces Dr. Clotaire Rapaille who has discovered a method that can reveal people’s unconscious desires and impulses. His method has grabbed the attention of many Fortune 500 companies as they believe that this can give them a competitive advantage by figuring out how to keep their customers happy. His research started when he was working with Autistic children. He had to figure out a way to decode their behavior without the use of words since they can’t communicate verbally. In this time, he learned that messages are engrained in people’s minds from the first time they have the experience related to that certain idea or thing. This is not something they remember though; this explains why people buy certain things without knowing exactly the reason that they want it. Dr. Rapaille discovered that people create mental connections for every word that leads to his method of uncovering this unconscious code. First of all in his method, he leads focus groups that try to get past reason and emotion down to the core of the human being. To get to the actual code, Dr. Rapaille has people lay down in the dark and write out anything that cross their mind which leads them to their primal urges when considering the specific word he is trying to break down. The results from this method give off the hidden reasoning behind why people think the way they do about certain ideas or words. One example that is given in the video, is that the code for SUV’s is domination, so this led to Hummer beefing up their models and tinting the windows. I also found one comment Dr. Rapaille made to be very interesting. He said that he “didn’t believe what people [said]; [he] wanted to understand what they do.” This is a very enlightening statement because I think in reality it is very true. People say one thing, but the most important thing to consider is what they do and the reasoning behind that action. The point is that people have actually no idea of why they do what they do. What Dr. Rapaille does is trying to uncover the hidden desires of people for marketers to understand what it is that their customers ultimately want whether they know what it is they want themselves.
As a marketer, this is a huge development when trying to develop products and services to satisfy our customers. My personal opinion is that Dr. Rapaille has figured out a great way to learn what is in customers’ minds that they don’t even know is there. It’s really quite incredible because by finding out what is in the customer’s subconscious, a company can really cater to what their customers want in their product or service. The best part of this method is that the customers are happy and they still don’t know that you tapped into their unconscious to give them the best product or service for them. They go on being satisfied and rationalizing to themselves why they need to purchase what they do; it’s a win-win situation for everyone!
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Skeptic Society or Gullible Society?
According to Michael Shermer, “science is a verb that means looking for natural explanations for all phenomenon.” In this respect, when people are considering two different options, they have to decide, “What is the more likely explanation?” As an example, he shows a picture of a crop circle with the word Skeptic written in it. He then asks what is more likely: that this is a natural phenomenon or a Skeptic reader created that picture with photoshop? I couldn’t help but laugh during this Podcast because Shermer really does a good job of bringing to light how gullible society can be. People believe only what they want to believe regardless of thinking about what can happen in reality. It got me thinking. Why do people believe such strange things?
We may never know the answer to that question, but what we do know is that as marketers, we can use this characteristic of humans to our advantage. If people are willing to believe in something such as the image of the Virgin Mary on a cheese sandwich, then they surely have the ability to believe in your product without having experience with it first hand. My personal opinion is that people do believe what they want to believe. For example, I am completely guilty of falling into the traps of infomercials on television. I always want the next hot new product or the next fitness product that is going to give me my “ideal body.” Even though, I know better, I still fall into these traps because I want to believe that buying these products will work for me. My parents always have to remind me that those infomercials are all about stretching the truth. The good news for the marketing industry is that there are many people in the market who are just like me: willing to be your product with full faith that it will meet their every expectation.
Shermer also talked about how people tend to only remember what goes right versus the failures when they are exploring something new. I can definitely see how this is human nature. It very much goes along with a customer and the idea of cognitive dissonance. Say you just bought a new car. Soon after your purchase you continue to take notice of other cars on the street and pay closer attention to car commercials when watching tv. This is because you are still trying to reassure yourself that you made the best decision. When people only take into account the “hits” versus the “misses,” they are in fact reassuring themselves that the product or service they bought is the best choice they could’ve made. Again as marketers, by knowing this information, we can use it to our advantage. Realizing that we just need to reassure our customers after their purchases can be used to our advantage. This can help get repeat business as well as maybe get happy customers to make referrals to other people about our products.
Overall, I found this podcast to be very insightful. It is truly amazing what our eyes can trick our minds into believing. I think it is hard for people to see something incredible and not realize that it is most likely due to chance versus scientific reason. From now on, I will be much more careful about what I choose to believe without having hard evidence to back it up with.
We may never know the answer to that question, but what we do know is that as marketers, we can use this characteristic of humans to our advantage. If people are willing to believe in something such as the image of the Virgin Mary on a cheese sandwich, then they surely have the ability to believe in your product without having experience with it first hand. My personal opinion is that people do believe what they want to believe. For example, I am completely guilty of falling into the traps of infomercials on television. I always want the next hot new product or the next fitness product that is going to give me my “ideal body.” Even though, I know better, I still fall into these traps because I want to believe that buying these products will work for me. My parents always have to remind me that those infomercials are all about stretching the truth. The good news for the marketing industry is that there are many people in the market who are just like me: willing to be your product with full faith that it will meet their every expectation.
Shermer also talked about how people tend to only remember what goes right versus the failures when they are exploring something new. I can definitely see how this is human nature. It very much goes along with a customer and the idea of cognitive dissonance. Say you just bought a new car. Soon after your purchase you continue to take notice of other cars on the street and pay closer attention to car commercials when watching tv. This is because you are still trying to reassure yourself that you made the best decision. When people only take into account the “hits” versus the “misses,” they are in fact reassuring themselves that the product or service they bought is the best choice they could’ve made. Again as marketers, by knowing this information, we can use it to our advantage. Realizing that we just need to reassure our customers after their purchases can be used to our advantage. This can help get repeat business as well as maybe get happy customers to make referrals to other people about our products.
Overall, I found this podcast to be very insightful. It is truly amazing what our eyes can trick our minds into believing. I think it is hard for people to see something incredible and not realize that it is most likely due to chance versus scientific reason. From now on, I will be much more careful about what I choose to believe without having hard evidence to back it up with.
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