Put your customer first. Period!

I’ve never been a big consumer of sweet carbonated drinks. We didn’t keep any at our house, because it’s not that healthy. But something happened last year that changed all that. PEPSI THROWBACK! Not only is it healthier for the planet because it isn’t made with high fructose corn syrup, the fact that it’s made with real sugar makes it taste better.

Pepsi Throwback was initially available as a limited time offer product, so whenever we could find some we would stock up like we were trying to fill a bomb shelter. Well, pretty soon it was discontinued and we were left without our beloved PT.

What’s crazy is that for me to switch to and then seek out Pepsi is a BIG DEAL. My whole life I have only ever purchased Coca-Cola. And then Pepsi discontinues it! Why would the company mess with a strategy that got me to switch/commit to their product? Isn’t that the holy grail?

Recently, I saw an online series called Jack and Suzy Welch’s “It’s Everybody’s Business.” It’s a series of business webisodes that brings together Jack Welch (former CEO of GE) and his business-book author wife with top executives of companies to solve a certain business issue the company is struggling with. In one episode, the Welch’s met with Pepsi, to discuss how to rejuvenate growth in a declining category (soda). The company explained that Pepsi Throwback was a huge success compared to other product launches, but was discontinued. When Jack asked, very plainly, “If it was such a success, why isn’t it a part of the regular product line?” he got a series of excuses around supply chain and money. His reaction to this “forest for the trees” thinking was, “Figure out how to make it happen. It’s clearly what your consumers want!”

In the world of shopper sciences and retail design, we enjoy many in-depth discussions about strategic adjacencies, cross promotion opportunities, complimentarity studies and the like. We spend our time pouring through data and observing how shoppers are pairing items together in store. Our aim, of course, is to simplify the shopper’s experience–and drive sales, obviously!

Today, I saw the mother of all product pairings in one fixture. That’s right, Dove chocolates has paired up with Gallo wines to produce the ultimate in-store one-stop shop. I am salivating just looking at the picture! For those of you who have never experienced the glory of a good wine and chocolate pairing, you are in for a treat.

This program is a fantastic example of two brands coming together to compliment the other’s product portfolio. Knowing that today’s busy shopper is looking for solutions in-store, a program of this nature helps her quickly and easily supplement dinner (or after-dinner) plans.

Several years ago, the concept of ‘ideating’ was given much notoriety by a television commercial that showed a group of people lying on the floor doing what appeared to be a whole lot of absolutely nothing.

“We’re ideating,” I remember the young lady in the commercial saying to someone who apparently stumbled upon the session. After that, the use of the word “ideating” was met with muffled snickering and if you used it in a meeting you ran the risk of being subjected to many unsavory references to that commercial. For good reason. It resonated with folks who had actually been in ideation sessions where little was accomplished. A common thing, perhaps, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

As I write this, I am fresh off a very successful “ideation” meeting where new thoughts were flying. People were allowing themselves the freedom to act and think differently than they had in the past. The devil’s advocate–who has a nasty habit of throwing monkey wrenches into so many good ideas before they germinate–was nowhere to be seen.

Ideas, good ideas, were flowing and it made for a session that was terrifically fruitful. It was so energizing!

Amazing things are happening in China. I recently traveled to Shanghai to witness the 2010 World Expo first hand. It was nothing less than astonishing. I managed to see pavilions from North Korea (an altogether unique experience as it was their first appearance on the world stage), Iran, Belgium, the United Kingdom and India just to name a few.

Disney World for adults
The best way to describe the World Expo is that it’s a temporary and ambitious way to put the world on display, country by country. Imagine a place that takes in on average 344,000 people per day, every day, for six months. When I arrived on my second day around noon, the count had clocked 460,000 attendees. Queue lines were outrageous, lasting up to five or sixhours for the bigger pavilions. Some parts of the park were so crowded that I had to literally fight my way through masses of people. Sticky humidity and sweltering heat made for a very exhausting experience. However, when I passed the grey wall shrouding the UK pavilion and the iconic Seed Cathedral, all of those negative elements faded away.

Project Dandelion
Having seen a lot of great design around the world, the UK’s Seed Cathedral has to be one of the most incredible pieces of architecture I have ever seen. The concept is elegant and awe-inspiring.

Ok, I have spent the last five years convinced that the marketing hype was just that—hype. Mostly from reading countless advertisements for LED lighting products that play on unsuspecting readers with questionable claims, such as Long life! Excellent color! High efficiency! Brighter!

Well, what were previously exaggerated claims are now coming to be real. LED lighting products are here to stay. And the bubbling pot is about to explode. After years of refinements, and new industry regulation, the products are consistently better performers than the previous generation.

The US Department of Energy has developed a labeling program (I think it is voluntary) that provides a means of consistency for describing LED performance. It addresses Light Output, Watts, Efficacy, Color Rendering Index and Correlated Color Temperature. Or Brightness, Energy, Efficiency, Color Accuracy and Light Color.

There has been a tidal wave of automotive advertising flooding the airwaves the past few months with claims and promises of improved product quality, safety, style, gas mileage. Media spending is way up, with every manufacturer trying to entice customers back into the showrooms.

But to what end?
Consumers hate car shopping and they don’t want to go back into the dealership. Big surprise—the shopping experience there is still one of the most frustrating, untrustworthy, and manipulative games you can be subjected to.

Add to that the fact that the recession has also caused most dealers to suspend investment in their facilities, and you understand why the thought of venturing into a dealership is bleak. Promising better on TV only to deliver the same old retail experience only fuels consumer frustration and mistrust.

Instead, consumers do everything they can to stay out of the dealership, with online research and shopping being the preferred norm. Now even purchasing online has gained popularity.

Successful brands like Apple, Whole Foods, IKEA, even Walmart, understand how to leverage the power of shopper insights to deliver game changing customer experiences that build brand excitement, loyalty and bottom line results.

Auto companies must do more to improve the customer experience in showrooms! And there couldn’t be a better time. With the recent upheaval in the industry, the marketplace is ripe for someone with the courage to innovate and completely reinvent the paradigm. Success will come to those who differentiate.

The upcoming flood of hybrid and electric car provides an excellent opportunity for change.

Once. Twice. Yes, starting very soon, Apple will have done it for a third time: changed the way we buy and listen to music. Apple acquired digital music startup Lala in December and shut the site down in May, leading tech pundits to speculate on the coming of “an iTunes in the cloud,” once the streaming music service is incorporated into Apple’s business model.

Although Apple won’t comment on its plans, as a loyal Lala.com user and Apple fan, I’m fully expecting to enjoy a cloud-based iTunes experience in the near future, and I think it’s great that Apple continues to advance their retail strategy and break paradigms of the industry by sourcing great ideas, making them profitable and bringing them to a larger audience.

There wasn’t an Evolutionary War for a reason. In the pre-dawn of U.S. history, the new settlers wanted more than to just evolve the British rule, it had to be overthrown. A new start, a clean slate. Imagine the pressure that those founding fathers must have felt when deciding that enough was enough, let’s try something new. Today, many brands find themselves in the same place. The status quo isn’t working. It’s time to differentiate. But I wonder if the ideas of “revolution” and “evolution” aren’t being confused.