What's Up With Microsoft At Retail?

The latest on retail is happening in New York this week at the National Retail Federation Annual Conference and EXPO (NRF) where Microsoft will discuss details of its retail strategy. The strategy centers on the transformation of one-off applications, devices and databases into an end-to-end retail solution.

The retail market is clearly changing and the objective of this strategy is to help retailers respond to market changes with greater efficiency as they provide customers with a seamless and personalized shopping experiences. The integration of Microsoft's intelligent systems will provide retailers with a way to maximize the data so that it can be translated into strategic insight and business decisions.

For more information, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2012/jan12/01-16NRFEmbedded.mspx

India's New Supermarkets Break With Tradition

Humans, regardless of culture, feel very comfortable with the their traditions. It's what we call the comfort zone of familiarity. This reaction holds true with the new western supermarkets that are becoming a part of the Indian retail landscape in 2012. These are retail chains that will have a dramatic effect on the $300 billion-a-year retail trade.

For India's 700 million villagers, the supply chain will change and new ties will be forged between cities and villages. Farmers will be encouraged to grow quality crops at higher yields and the new supply chains will help them retain higher profits. With increased profits, farmers will finally be able to invest in new technology.

Change is difficult and stressful because it can force people and industries to change. For India, the decision to move forward rather than leave things as they is positive. Without these changes, the farmers and retailers would continue to cope with India's 40 percent produce perishable rate, low margins, and low yields.

This difficult road has the potential to bring tremendous positive changes to an industry that is still operating the way many farmers have operated 500 years ago.

We wish them well.

What Are Your Business New Year's Resolutions?

Things seem to be picking up ever so slowly. So what, if anything, are you doing to push that ball forward for your brand?

A few suggestions: Maximize Your Website Potential

Your corporate site may be a thing of beauty, but if you, or your web designer, take the approach that the site is only meant to inform people about a product or service, then your company site is doomed to fail.

Does your site motivate the greatest number of visitors to contact you with their questions and reach information? Bottom line is that potential prospects have to be very motivated to respond, and if they don't respond, the visit won't convert into a sale.

An example of this response trigger is an article that I wrote a number of years ago entitled "Public Relations Doesn't Just HAPPEN." Frankly, the article was written out of frustration in an attempt to educate business owners. 

I received a phone call one morning from a woman who wanted to schedule an appointment. She said, "I read your article and it makes more sense that anything I've ever read. It's wonderful, and I need to see you today. I'm downstairs by your office. May I come up?"

I thanked her and told her I could not see her until the next day...still not knowing which of my many articles she had read. Her panic started to build over the phone until I told her I could see her at 10:00 AM the next morning. 

The woman arrived early the next day, and spent exactly 25 minutes in my office. You could see that she was ready to sign. Her parting comment was "Send me a contract immediately for a website redesign. Then, we'll deal with PR."

The article spoke to her needs, goals and frustrations. With websites, one of the questions is what motivates them to buy, or at least bookmark the site. Most people look at dozens of options. Unless your site is a household name such as eBay.com, or google.com, your prospects won't remember your site's URL ten seconds after they leave for another site. For more info on sites, loading time, type contrast, etc., please visit Creston's Website Tips.

To cite Warren Buffett as an example of positive action, while others go into the panic mode in bad times, Warren Buffett goes into the shopping mode.  

Marketing Never Stops. If you stop your marketing, you are wasting the brand equity you have built so far.

His views on marketing use this same kind of thinking. While others are into a cut and run mode, the smart money looks for marketing opportunities. Right now consumers are spending more time than ever before evaluating their daily product purchases and their long term brand loyalties. 

Now is not the time to cut and run on your marketing budget. Wishing doesn't make it happen. Now is the time to seek out opportunities.

Best Holiday Wishes for Health, Joy, Peace and Harmony!